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Untitled Article
ter , or else a very important personage . The hatches are sealed tfi € * fioineiit a snip arrives , and passengers are not allowed so * ite £ h as a caTpet bag to hold a few things . Nothing but a small butidfe , about the size of a batter pudding-, is permitted . And thten the Custom-house , I never shall forget it ! pearly a month elapsed before we could get all cleared . I had some dozen of p icture frames : they were contraband : various articles of house-L 6 ld furniture , &c . contraband also , we were told ! We were
obliged to petition for a special permission to get them passed ; arid this we were fortunate enough eventually to obtain without expense , though many other passengers had everything seized , or enormous duties to pay . Had it not been for a fellow-passenger ,
b&tn in Russia , but of English parents , of whom I made a friend , we might have gone back to England , to be sure , but otherwise \ ve must have stuck fast ! It may be said , " But you ought to have known all this before ? " Very true ; perhaps I more than suspected it : but what is the use of that , if your wife will not listeft to you ?
I Uever was struck with any place so much as Petersburg , not even Mexico . I am here speaking with an eye to matterof-fact , substantial form and substance ; for certainly the latter induces loftier and more romantic associations with the glories of elder time . St Petersburg is most regularly built ; the streets in general are about as wide as Portland place ; and the emperor ' s pahice i $ one of the most imposing edifices I ever beheld . Upi ^ ajndfc of five hundred people are said to reside in it . The style of ' tlie buildings resembles in many respects those of Calcutta . They are of a white or paie lemon colour , and when the sun falls npiyh them so as to give a strong light and shade , they present
an Appearance of solid breadth and aerial beauty , such as I never before witnessed ; nor do I think this rare combination exists any wfcfcre else to an equally beautiful and extensive degree . The ctrtirches are particularly lovely , especially at sunrise and sunset . Alt religions are tolerated ; and every body seems to live as he lilfes . This may appear rather paradoxical , the government being strictly despotic . But the authorities can very well " afford thfe external semblance of such liberty of conduct , since there is a Gfectet police which knows all things , and it is therefore danto
g ^ rons express any political opinions , r . very one is obliged to \ inSre a passport to enable him to reside in the country ; even the natives of the city , as I was informed the other day * This , of ^ ctiutnCj brings an immense revenue to the government . NotWtxg ia published in the papers without express authority . It rtfay'bie s $ d , speaking generally , that all news is carefully excluded frttfl th # newspapers . You are thus kept in ignorance of what i& * gtiktg ; forward in the world . I have only seen oi ^ e foreign pimW imjpe my arrival ( two months since ) butit > vijl nevertheless
Untitled Article
500 Notes of a Trip to St JPeter ^ bnrg .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1836, page 500, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2660/page/40/
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