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    be thought extraordinary that , in a country so near England , people have scarcely heard of the revolutions in France , the pefifing of our Reform Bill , &c . In short , nothing is published # f any political importance until quite stale , so that it comes in- the

    form of history , and consequently produces no excitement * I have forgotten to mention , as a caution to those who may be travelling- to Russia , that all letters , papers , and books , are carefully examined on entering the country . I confess I felt rather awkward when one of the officers turned over the leaves of a

    volume in which was bound up the work of " Boulanges sur le Despotism Oriental ; " equally so as he inspected another contain * ing Wordsworth ' s noble sonnets , not knowing how they would be " taken ; " and yet more so when he took up the * # * * wherein , somewhere or other , the autocrat is denounced to the infernal realms , with " lofts of piled thunder" upon his imperial head ! They , however , returned me everything very nonourably , with the exception of one little French work ,

    which had been thrust into my great coat pocket by that " excellent young man , G , " to amuse me on the voyage , but of which I had not found leisure to read a single chapter— " Les Aventures de Faublas "—which they seized as " not proper *" Who could have conceived anything so ridiculous ! Ana yet , for aught I know—so much are our good names at the mercy of the most trivial circumstances—the said seizure may have caused me to be chronicled in the private police register as an immoral

    character . I had half a mind to write to G , insisting upon his forwarding me a certificate of innocence in the matter . We procured tolerably good lodgings in a central situation ; ail the rooms on a first floor ; for which we paid 60 / . per annum * Living , as the saying is , we found uncommonl y cheap in Pefcersr burg ; everything- being in the greatest abundance . The finest beef and mutton was only twopence per pound , and sometime * rather less ; a goose , one shilling and sixpence ; excellent salmon at threepence per pound ; fowls , game , vegetables , dried meat * .

    fruits , &c . all proportionately cheap : in fact , you may live there like a lord for the same sum that only makes you " respectable " in England . Spirits and wines are also reasonable ; tea comes over-land from China , and is uncommonly good ; no retail tricks p layed with it . The only expensive thing , as a necessary article , is clothing ; and this is direful .

    I experienced one especial difficulty * and one equal annoyance , during my stny in Petersburg . The first was the want of a Know * ledge of the language , which is the most break-jaw one I ev ^ JT heard . It would require a long time to learn ; yet to those wJUo purpose residing there a few years it is almost indispen * abfo » as the tradespeople , servants , and lower classes , whose nwg ^ ftnoft you may require , know no other , as may be expected . The nobi-

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    Notes of a Trip to St Petersburg . 501

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1836, page 501, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2660/page/41/