Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

Notwithstanding the taste of the Russians for straight lines, many think with me that it would have been better to have placed the fair by the side of the old city on the crest of the mountain, the summit of which might have been rendered accessible by gentle, terraced slopes. At the foot of the hill, on the borders of the Oka, the objects too heavy and bulky to be carried up, might have still remained, by the side of their vessels, while the livelier, retail fair would have been held on a spacious platform at the o·ate of the lofty city. Imagine a hill crowded with the representatives of all the Asiatic and European nations. Sueh a peopled mountain would have produced a grand effect: the marsh, where the travelling population now swarms, produces very little.

The modern engineers, so skilful in all lands, would then have had whereon to exereise their talents ; the poets, the painters, the admirers of noble sites and picturesque effects^ the sight-seers, who are become quite a nation in this century, in which the abuses of activity produce fanatics in idleness, — all these men, useful through the money which they expend, would have enjoyed a magnificent promenade, far more attractive than that afforded them in a bazaar where no point of view can be gained, and where the air breathed is mephitie; while it merits consideration, that sueh a result would have been obtained at much less expenditure of money than it has cost the emperor to establish his aquatic fair.

The Russian peasants are the principal commercial

agents in this prodigious market. Nevertheless, the

law forbids the serf to ask, or the freemen to grant

him, a credit of more than_ƒ¾e roubles. And yet they

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