Our author, whofe views are patriotic, and who retains an enthufiaftic attachment to the memory of his late sovereign, has formed the most agreeable picture that he could compofe from the materials before him. The great objects of admiration he prefents in the fore-ground, and fhades off with skill the rough and unhewn maffes which might have diffigured his picture. The variety of objects which fuch a field opened to him, he has grouped in the most judicious manner; and, without wounding the prejudices of the Ruffian, his defcription is fufficient to fatisfy the curiofity of the Englishman. On the order preferved through the whole, we can scarcely beftow too much praise: in the investigation of every subject no pains have been fpared; and the performance may be recommended as a model to statistic writers.

The general heads are four; the origin of the nations under the Ruffian fway; their natural, their civil, and their moral ftate. In the firft part, great difcrimination is difplayed in claffing the various nations of this empire, tracing them to their fources, marking their characteristic differences, and pointing out the changes which at different times have taken place in their relation to each other.

As a fpecimen of M. Storck's ftyle and manner, we shall felect his account of one horde not fo diftinguished by its numbers or its ftrength, as by the nature of its conftitution. This horde feparated itself from its former neighbours, and took up its abode chiefly near the falls of the Dnieper.

The conftitution of this little military tribe was one of the most remarkable in the world. War was the end of the focial union formed by its members, their first profesfion, and their favourite employment. Agriculture and the breeding of cattle they neglected; hunting and fishing they regarded only as amufements. To live unmarried was a maxim of their conftitution; but, to fatisfy the demands of nature, they frequently carried off the wives of their neighbours, whom, however, they were obliged to keep at a diftance from Setscha, their principal refidence. To maintain their population, they not only ftole children whereever they could find them, but received criminals and vagabonds from all quarters. Almost every European language was fpoken amongst them. Their conftitution was entirely democratical; cach Cofack enjoyed equal rights. Their ataman, or chief, was annually elected. Every citizen of their republic had equal pretenfions to the highest office. They had no written laws; but they had cuftoms of equal value, by which crimes were punished with great

firmnefs and impartiality. A Cofack who murdered his fellow-citizen was buried alive with him: a thief was obliged to ftand in the pillory for three days; and, nɔt infrequently, an offender of this defcription was flogged to death. The greater part of the tribe belonged to the Greek church; but no regard was paid to differences of faith. The moral character of the people correfponded with their mode of life and their conftitution: they had all the virtues and all the vices of a free people living by war and plunder. They were brave and ferocious, hofpitable and rapacious, active and temperate in their expeditions, indolent and gluttonous at home. The number of warriors among them fometimes amounted to forty thousand.

The fovereignty over these Cofacks (if the relation of fuch a tribe at one time to the Poles, at another to the Tartars, to the Turks, and to the Ruffians, may be called by that term) was frequently changing. Peter the Great deftroyed Setscha, when they took part in the infurrection of the hetman Mazeppa: they collected themfelves, however, under the protection of the khan of the Crimea, and, in 1737, were again received as vafials of Ruffia. A council was appointed to fuperintend their affairs; but it had little or no influence on their interior conftitution. Their only obligation to the empire was to appear upon call in the field, in which cafe they were to receive the ufual allowance of the Cofacks. In the war between the Ruffians and Turks, ending in 1774, they not only betrayed their perfidy on various occafions, but manifefted their intentions of regaining their full independence. When the re-conquered countries on the Dnieper, called New Servia, and fince making part of New Ruffia, were to be colonifed, they declared this diftri&t their property, took away the rights of the new comers, and, partly by fraud, partly by force, reduced to fubjection fifty thoufand Ruffians. This infurrection, their unmarried and predatory mode of life, their total neglect of agriculture in a fruitful country, and their continual oppofition to all attempts for bringing them into a better ftate, at length determined the empress, in 1775, to annihilate this little Spartan government. A body of Ruffian troops furrounded and difarmed them. It was permitted to them, by a manifefto, either to choose, as ufeful fubjects, a civilifed mode of life, or to retire into another country. A part of their number remained, and accepted civil employments; others joined the Turks and the Tartars, or wandered in folitude on the Ruffian confines. The country which they had poffeffed was placed under the government of New Ruffia, and now belongs to the province of Jekacerinoflaw.'

The conftant ufe of the bath is an important feature in the Ruffian character; and our author's remarks on that practice deferve attention.

The baths, that honourable relique of antiquity, are now principally used in the east, where they are fubfervient to health and luxury, or are perpetuated by religion. In Europe, within a few centuries, they have been almost loft, though in fome refpects even here they were connected with religion. Ruffia and Hungary are at prefent the only countries in the world where bathing is practifed after the manner of the ancients. In Ruffia the bath is fo material a part of domeftic life, that it is used at all ages and in all circumftances, by little children, by women after childbirth, in all difeafes, before and after a journey, after hard work, &c. By the common people the bath is deemed fo neceffary, that, in the beft ftate of health, they use it very frequently. Perfons in moderate circumftances, and the rich, ufually build in their houses vapour-baths on the common plan, though among these claffes they are declining in ufe, as foreign manners prevail.

Baths have been in immemorial ufe among the Ruffians. Neftor, in the eleventh century, defcribes tnem exactly as they are at prefent. With the ancients the baths were open buildings, immediately under the care of the ftate. From neceffity and cleanlinefs they derived their origin: architecture afterwards adorned them with its elegance; and, laftly, luxury and voluptuoufnefs fo changed heir original defign, that they became offenfive to the morality of philofophers. Alexander was aftonifhed at the magnificence of the baths in Perfia. At Rome, under the Cæfars, were above 870 fuch buildings, which were masterpieces of fplendour and tafte, till it was their fate to be deftroyed by the Goths, or to be converted into churches by the bishops, Hungary is now the only country in which the baths retain the ancient Roman magnificence: in Ruffia they ftill exhibit that fimplicity, which their purpose and defignation feem to require.

Here the common baths are in mean wooden houses, near a stream. In the bath-room is a large arched ftove, and, when it is heated, the ftones become red: in it is fixed a caldron. Round the room are three rows of benches, one above the other: there is little light in the apartment, as there are only a few openings to let out the vapour. The neceffary cold water is conveyed through the room in open pipes. Some baths have an adjoining room for dreffing and undreffing; but in general this is done in an open court, furnifhed with benches.

The great majority of baths are as we have here defcribed them. Where wood is fearce, they fometimes confift of miferable mud-huts, buried in the ground by the fide of a river. In the houfes of the rich, and the palaces of the great, their conftruction is nearly the fame; but they are much more magnificent.

The heat in the bathing-room is generally from 32 to 40 degrees on Reaumur's fcale; and it is greatly increafed every five minutes by the water thrown on the red-hot ftones before-mentioned. Sometimes, on the highest bench, it is as high as 44 degrees. The bathers place themselves entirely naked on one of the benches, and perfpire, more or lefs, according to the degree of heat in the atmosphere in which they are. With a view of opening their pores, they are rubbed, or gently whipped with birchen twigs. After a time they remove from their bench and wash themfelves; and, in general, a whole pail of water is at laft poured upon their heads. Many people, on quitting the bathing-room, throw themfelves into the next ftream, or roll themselves, when the thermometer is at 10 or 12 degrees, in the fnow.

The Ruffian baths are not Roman tepidaria or caldaria of a moderate heat, but violent perfpiration baths-fuch as throw a perfon, not accustomed to them, into an actual though foft and almoft voluptuous fwoon. They are, indeed, vapour-baths; and, in this refpect, they differ from the baths of antiquity, and from thofe of the modern eastern nations in this is their real preference, which makes them beneficial in many cafes, where heated water would be either useless or pernicious. They are alfo baths of health, which cleanlinefs requires to affift perfpiration, and to make the skin smooth; not baths of mere pleasure, like those of the Greeks and Romans. Here the inventions of effeminacy and luxury have no place. Of ointments after bathing (which in Rome were fo eagerly defired, that the emperors beftowed oil on the people) the Ruffian knows nothing. Inftead of oiling himself, he hardens his body against the inclemency of the climate, and prepares for every change of weather, by a fudden transition from heat to cold; a tranfition which, from idle prejudice alone, is thought unnatural and dangerous.

It cannot be doubted that the Ruffians, though their climate, food, and mode of life, may have fome effect, are indebted to thefe baths for the great age to which they live, for their found ftate of health, the flightness of their fufceptibility of difcafe, and the happiness of their natural exiftence. The great Bacon, and other penetrating obfervers of men and nature, lament, not without reafon, that these

baths are out of ufe among modern European nations, and pray for their return to every town and village. Indeed, when we reflect how early, and with what happy confequences, the ancient phyficians introduced this practice recommended by Nature herfelf, and remember that Rome had no phyficians but baths for five hundred years, and that at prefent fome nations heal their difeafes by baths, we must confider the difufe of them as the epoch of a great revolu tion, which the natural state of the human race has undergone in our part of the world.

Infenfible perfpiration, the most important of all fecre tions, muft fucceed incomparably better in a body kept continually smooth by bathing. A multitude of impurities, the feeds of tedious and dangerous diforders, are early removed, before they can poison the blood and the juices. The baths are of particular fervice in cutaneous diseases, and confequently in the fmall pox; and if this dreadful malady is lefs dangerous in Ruffia than in other countries, no other reafon can probably be affigned than the ufe of the vapour bath.'

Under a government fo defpotic as that of Ruffia, our fportfmen will be furprised to hear that the game-laws are not fo ftrict as thofe of England, and that even the flavifh peafant is permitted to do what would be confidered as a great offence in an English farmer.

Through the whole extent of the empire, game is, in a great measure, open: it belongs, indeed, to the proprietor of the land; but almoft every landlord gives his peafants the permiffion of fporting. Even in Livland (Livonia), where the landholders are Germans, and game begins to be fcarce, no one is offended, if a sportsman goes over feveral eftates with his friends, fervants, and dogs, without requefting permiffion from the proprietors. Some landlords, indeed, will not allow their peafants to fhoot; but this prohibition produces the contrary effect, and the injury done fecretly is fo much the greater.'

Of our author's remarks on agriculture, we can only give the conclufion. The great obftacle to a flourishing Itate of cultivation is the flavery of the peafants; and the change of their condition muft, in fo extenfive an empire, require exertions which can hardly be expected under a defpotic fway.

We have (he fays) taken notice of the most common defects and obftructions, which check agriculture in Ruffia. We have ventured alfo to propofe fome means of fupplying the defects, and removing or weakening the obftructions.