seen such a portent as a vessel of a hundred and sixty tons burden. They fled in terror; and, when they were pursued and overtaken, prostrated themselves before the chief of the strangers, and kissed his feet. He succeeded in opening a friendly communication with them, and from that time there had been a regular commercial intercourse between our country and the subjects of the Czar.

3. The commercial intercourse between England and Russia made some diplomatic intercourse necessary. The diplomatic intercourse, however, was only occasional. Three or four times in a century extraordinary embassies" were sent from Whitehall* to the Kremlin, † and from the Kremlin to Whitehall. The English embassies had historians, whose narratives may still be read with interest. Those historians described vividly, and sometimes bitterly, the savage ignorance and the squalid poverty of the barbarous country in which they had sojourned'. In that country, they said, there was neither literature nor science, neither school nor college. could barely read and write. arithmetic of the Dark Ages. ury the computations were strung on wires.

The best educated men The arithmetic was the Even in the imperial treasmade by the help of balls

4. Round the person of the sovereign there was a blaze of gold and jewels; but even in his most splendid palaces were to be found the filth and misery of an Irish cabin. So late as the year 1663 the gentlemen of the retinue of the Earl of Carlisle were, in the city of Moscow, thrust into a single bed-room, and were told that, if they did not remain together, they would be in danger of being devoured by rats.

* WHITEHÂLL' was a celebrated palace in London, for a long time the principal residence of English sovereigns.

THE KREM'LIN is the central part and most elevated site of the city of Moscow (formerly the capital of Russia), of which it formed the original nucleus. It is separated from the rest of the city by a high wall, and contains the most important public edifices.

5. Our ancestors, therefore, were not a little surprised to learn that a young barbarian, who had, at seventeen years of age, become the autocrat of the immense region stretching from the confines of Sweden to those of China, and whose education had been inferior to that of an English farmer or shopman, had planned gigantic improvements, had learned enough of some languages of Western Europe to enable him to communicate with civilized men, had begun to surround himself with able adventurers from various parts of the world, had sent many of his young subjects to study languages, arts, and sciences in foreign cities, and, finally, had determined to travel as a private man, and to discover, by personal observation, the secret of the immense prosperity and power enjoyed by some communities whose whole territory was far less than the hundredth part of his dominions.

6. His empire was of all empires the least capable of being made a great naval power. On the ocean he had only a single port — Archangel; and the whole shipping of Archangel was foreign. There did not exist a Russian vessel larger than a fishing-boat. Yet, from some cause, which cannot now be traced, he had a taste for maritime pursuits which amounted to a passion, indeed almost to a monomania. His imagination was full of sails, yard-arms, and rudders. That large mind, equal to the highest duties of the general and the statesman, contracted itself to the most minute details of naval architecture and naval discipline. The chief ambition of the great conqueror and legislator was to be a good boatswain and a good ship's carpenter.

7. He repaired to Amsterdam, took a lodging in the dockyard, assumed the garb of a pilot, put down his name on the list of workmen, wielded with his own hand the calking-iron and the mallet, fixed the pumps, and twisted the ropes. Ambassadors, who came to pay their respects.

to him, were forced, much against their will, to clamber up the rigging of a man-of-war, and found him enthroned on the cross-trees.

8. Such was the prince whom the populace of London now crowded to behold. His stately form, his intellectual forehead, his piercing black eyes, his Tartar nose and mouth, his gracious smile, his frown, black with all the stormy rage and hate of a barbarian tyrant, and, above all, a strange nervous convulsion which sometimes transformed his countenance, during a few moments, into an object on which it was impossible to look without terror, the immense quantities of meat which he devoured, the pints of brandy' which he swallowed, the fool who jabbered at his feet, the monkey which grinned at the back of his chair, were, during some weeks, popular topics of conversation.

9. He, meanwhile, shunned the public gaze with a haughty shyness which inflamed curiosity. He went to a play; but, as soon as he perceived that pit, boxes, and galleries were staring, not at the stage, but at him, he retired to a back bench, where he was screened from observation by his attendants. He was desirous to see a sitting of the House of Lords; but, as he was determined not to be seen, he was forced to climb up to the leads, and to peep through a small window.

10. William judiciously humored the whims of his illustrious guest, and stole to Norfolk Street, so quietly that nobody in the neighborhood recognized his majesty in the thin gentleman who got out of the modest-looking coach at the Czar's lodgings. The Czar returned the visit with the same precautions, and was admitted into Kensington House by a back door. It was afterwards known that he took no notice of the fine pictures with which the palace was adorned. But over the chimney of the royal sittingroom was a plate which, by an ingenious machinery, indicated the direction of the wind, and with this plate he was in raptures.

11. He soon became weary of his residence. He found that he was too far from the objects of his curiosity, and too near to the crowds to which he was himself an object of curiosity. He accordingly removed to Deptford, and was there lodged in the house of John Evelyn, a house which had long been a favorite resort of men of letters, men of taste, and men of science. Here Peter gave himself up to his favorite pursuits. He navigated a yacht 10 every day, up and down the river. His apartment was crowded with models of three-deckers and two-deckers, frigates, sloops, and fire-ships".

12. But Evelyn does not seem to have formed a favorable opinion of his august" tenant. It was, indeed, not in the character of tenant that the Czar was likely to gain the good word of civilized men. With all the high qualities which were peculiar to himself, he had all the filthy habits which were then common among his countrymen. To the end of his life, while disciplining armies, founding schools, framing codes, organizing tribunals, building cities in deserts, joining distant seas by artificial rivers, he lived in his palace like a hog in a sty. Evelyn's house was left in such a state that the Treasury quieted his complaints with a considerable sum of money.

13. Towards the close of March the Czar visited Portsmouth, saw a sham sea-fight at Spithead, watched every movement of the contending fleets with intense interest, and expressed in warm terms his gratitude to the hospitable government which had provided so delightful a spectacle for his amusement and instruction. After passing more than three months in England, he departed in high good humor.

1 EP'ỌCн (ĕp'ok, or ĕ'pŭk). A point 2 MAR'I-TIME. Relating to the sea; of time made remarkable by some marine. event, and from which dates are sometimes computed.

3 POR-TENT'. An omen of ill.

4 DIP-LO-MATIC. Relating to the art

of conducting negotiations, &c., between nations. EM'BAS-SY.

9 MŎN-O-MA'NI-A. Insanity upon one particular subject.

One or more persons 10 YACHT (yot). A small pleasure

sent from one government to another on business of state.

• SQUAL'ID (skwŏl'jd). Filthy.

7 SŌ'JOURNED. Dwelt for a time.

vessel.

11 FİRE'-SHIPS. Ships filled with combustibles, to set fire to an enemy's vessels.

8 RĚT'I-NUE (-nu). Train of attend-12 AU-GUST'. Impressing awe; grand; ants; a suite.

majestic.

LXXXIII. THE BUNKER HILL MONUMENT.

WEBSTER.

[Daniel Webster, an eminent patriot, lawyer, and statesman, was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire, January 18, 1782, and died October 24, 1852. For the last thirty years of his life he was in the public service as a Representative in Congress, or Senator, or Secretary of State. He was a man of great intellectual powers, and of striking and commanding personal appearance. The following extract is taken from an oration delivered at the celebration of the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument in 1843.]

1. THE Bunker Hill Monument is finished! Here it stands! Fortunate in the natural eminence on which it is placed, higher, infinitely higher, in its objects and purpose, it rises over the land, and over the sea; and, visible at their homes to three hundred thousand citizens of Massachusetts, it stands, a memorial' of the past, and a monitor to the present and all succeeding generations.

2. I have spoken of the loftiness of its purpose. If it had been without any other design than the creation of a work of art, the granite of which it is composed would have slept in its native bed. It has a purpose; and that purpose gives it character. That purpose enrobes it with dignity and moral grandeur. That well-known purpose it is which causes us to look up to it with a feeling of awe.

3. It is itself the orator of this occasion. It is not from my lips, it is not from any human lips, that that strain of eloquence is this day to flow, most competent to move and excite the vast multitudes around. The potent speaker

3