that we had received in visiting Sweden, and little prepared for the grievous disappointment we afterwards experienced. Every thing tended to excite in us a curiosity to become acquainted with the Russians-the great figure they were beginning to make in the political world, and the memory of the illustrious names connected with the history of the country. There is something imposing in the mere name of such a mighty empire. Extending from the Caspian to the Icy Sea, and from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, it presents, under one Sovereign, a greater extent of territory than all the empires of antiquity. It is therefore with an aching heart, but with more of regret than indignation, that the writer of these pages purposes to make known to the English Reader, what his fate will be, if hereafter, pursuing the same route, he should venture to traverse the Russian domi but sailed in and out among the islands, and passed a number of very narrow straits. They describe the appearance of the islands in summer as "sometimes exhibiting a prospect of bare rocks; sometimes, rocks covered with firs; and sometimes, but not often, cultivated lands, with farms upon them." The villages and little towns are "built of small wooden houses, many of them projecting into the water." Upon the rocks near one village they counted nineteen windmills, all going. The whole had a very picturesque effect, and the scenery was charming. The rocks were nowhere very high. The woods were generally of fir-trees, but sometimes mixed with alders, birch, &c. The entrance of the river Äeura, in sailing up to Abo, possessed striking beauties, as the rocks were higher; and nothing could be more agreeable than the voyage they had made. CHAP. VIII. VIII. CHAP. nions, and especially Russian Finland, in his way to Petersburg. Every effort of a powerful people has hitherto been made to suppress the truth with regard to Russia. Large sums of money have been constantly paid, both in England and upon the continent of Europe, to buy up the public journals; and to engage writers who should answer all the views of the Russian Cabinet, by studiously concealing the truth with regard to that country, and by propagating false accounts of its inhabitants. It is not therefore to be subject of wonder that we fell so easily into the snare which was spread before us. As we did not expect to meet with refinement, we had no right to complain of the barbarism of the Russians; but the rude and simple manners of unenlightened nations, however barbarous they may be, are sometimes joined to benevolence, if not to honesty: yet the very word honesty, if it exist in the Russian language, is unintelligible to Russians: they know not the virtue to which it applies. If any trace of it lie concealed throughout the wide extent of the Scythian dominion, it is, perhaps, buried in the breasts of those victims of tyranny who have been condemned, for their love of truth, to a life of labour in the mines of Siberia: or it may exist in some dungeon of the empire, the access to whose VIII. walls is carefully guarded by Despotism, that CHAP. unnatural monster, who can only thrive where virtue is oppressed. At this time, Sweden had not lost her valuable possessions in Ostero-Bothnia; but the designs of Russia were well known to all the best-informed men of the country. From their account, therefore, of the people we were about to visit, founded on the bitter experience of the Finlanders with regard to Russia, we had some prescient view of the gathering storm that was about to burst upon the land: but we entertained a hope, that the Cabinets of Europe, much better aware of what was going on, would never allow the predatory designs of the Russians to be carried on unmolested. A great national animosity had always subsisted between Sweden and Russia; and we hoped that to this might be attributed something of the dark picture given to us of the latter. Sweden, boasting of her former victories, saw with fear and distrust the rising prosperity of her mighty adversary, and the indifference with which more distant nations regarded the encroachments the Russians were everywhere making upon the territories of their neighbours. Russia, with an appetite for dominion, that grows by what it feeds upon, witnesses every year, as it passes, some new district annexed to her empire. She CHAP. was now viewing with longing eyes the rich fields of Finland, which intercepted the progress of her boundaries towards the Gulf of Bothnia: and Sweden and Norway will next become a prey to her devouring ambition and avarice; as will the whole of Persia, India, and Turkey ;-when it will be too late for other Powers to interfere, and to curb the ferocious system of oppression; which in due season they might have restrained! Journey from Åbo to Helsingfors-Description of Helsingfors-Fortress of Sweaborg-Tomb of Count Ernsverd-Strength, size, and importance of SweaborgRoute from Helsingfors to Borgo and Louisa-Approach to the Russian frontier-Boundaries of the Swedish and Russian Dominions-Contrast between the Natives of the two countries-Mode of recruiting the Russian Army-Iniquitous conduct of a Russian Inspector of the Customs-Difficulties that impede the Traveller-Arrival at Frederickshamm-Appearance of that placeRegulation relating to Posting in Russia-Description of the Post-houses in Russian Finland-Intense cold of the |