desire of the Empress Catherine for the education of the late Emperor Alexander and the Grand Duke Constantine. The document is signed by that Princess, and is now preserved in the Archives of the Academy.

From the press of this Institution, several interesting works have from time to time made their appearance, principally in the Russian language. Besides attending to the publication of its own Memoirs, which have now reached a seventy-second volume, (the tenth of a new series,) the Academy is appointed by Government to superintend the editing and publishing of a Russian Gazette, which is looked upon as an official paper.

The interest which the formation of an Egyptian Museum in St. Petersburgh appeared to me to have excited among many persons of distinction and scientific men in that capital, induced me to offer to the President of the Imperial Academy, to deliver a public lecture on the art of embalming among the ancient Egyptians, and to exhibit that unique specimen of an Egyptian Mummy which has been a few years in my possession, and which I had thought proper to send (for that purpose) by sea to St. Petersburgh, where it had safely arrived before me. In this manner I thought I might best convey to that scientific body the expression of my feelings at having been named one of its members on the proposition of the President. The offer was accepted most readily, and the Salle des conferences in the principal building of the Academy having been selected for the purpose, the day was fixed, and a regular announcement was inserted in the Court Gazette, inviting all those who were attached to science, or who felt interested in Egyptian antiquities, to attend the meeting. The removal of the bridge, owing to the unsettled state of the river, for some days prevented the execution of our project; at length, on the 4th of December, 1827, having made

every necessary preparation, with the assistance of Monsieur Savenko, a very promising young Russian surgeon, whom I had had the pleasure of knowing a few years before, in London-I had the honour of delivering a lecture, in the French language, on the subject already mentioned, to a very large assembly of highly distinguished individuals and Academicians, now my colleagues, and from whom I felt convinced I should experience every degree of indulgence. A foreigner, but lately arrived in the country, who was about to address in a language not his own, a meeting of nearly 300 persons, distinguished for rank and reputation, among whom were the President of the Academy himself, Count Stanislaus Potocky, Count Stroganoff, Count Laval, Monsieur Speransky, Monsieur Boulgacoff, Baron Schöling, the English and several foreign ministers and noblemen, the President of the Medico-Chirurgical Academy, and a number of Professors, was not likely to proceed to his task with a very light heart. However, the mummy was produced, the process of embalming was explained and illustrated, and several other collateral and curious points were touched upon. The many objects referable to the subject under consideration, which I had collected together on the tables, and among which were some from the Museum of the Academy itself, received, each in its turn, a proper degree of attention; and tant bien que mal, I persevered in going through my allotted duty, striving all the time to make the audience feel some part of that degree of enthusiasm which a man, who has pursued a favourite subject for some years, is ever found to experience. The President was pleased, a day or two afterwards, to present me with one of the secular medals of the Academy, as a memento of this gratifying circumstance of my life.

CHAPTER VIII.

PICTURE OF ST. PETERSBURGH.

Continuation of the Imperial and other Buildings and Institutions connected with Science and the Fine Arts. - Prevailing taste for the Arts. A self-taught Painter. Titian and Mr. Sieger.Private Collections of Pictures. Count Stroganoff's Gallery. The President d'Olenine. - ACADEMY OF ARTS. The building. The Museum. - Public Exhibition by Native Artists.- Russian Sculptors and Painters. Professor Vorobieff and his Picture of St. Petersburgh, and of Sunset on the Dead Sea. - Orlowsky. — Liberality of Government respecting the Education of Young Artists.THE TRIUMPHAL ARCH of 1812. Society for encouraging Russian Lithography. — Roumiantzow's MUSEUM OF CURIOSITIES. -The HOTEL DES MINES. The building - The Establishment compared with others of a similar kind in Europe. — Minerals. — Mines of Siberia. Large Specimens of Native Gold. - Instruction in practical Mining. Domestic Arrangement for the Students. Produce of the Gold and Platina Mines in the Oural Mountains. Origin of the wealth of the Demidoff Family.The Miner's Hammer. - Style of living of the present Privy Counsellor Demidoff.-His death.-SOCIETE ECONOMIQUE LIBRE of St. Petersburgh.-School for Agriculture, Rural Economy, and the Useful Arts, founded by Countess Sophia Stroganoff.-Cabinet of Arts and Antiquities of Mons. Svinnin. -THE BOTANIC GARDEN.

THERE is scarcely a house of any consequence in St. Petersburgh in which one does not find some valuable pictures as part of its decorative furniture. It is a fashion among the great of every capital to embellish their resi dences with paintings; but in St. Petersburgh that practice

appeared to me to extend even farther. It is curious to remark that many of the paintings so applied have been purchased in the English market, where foreign traders have often brought valuable pictures from the Continent, without finding a compensating price for them from the inhabitants. In the mansion of Count Michel Woronzow, some really valuable pictures, selected with great taste in this country and abroad, enliven and give importance to the fine suite of apartments on the principal story. Count Michel, with a decided taste for the Fine Arts, and an anxiety to see them cultivated in his native country, has contributed to the encouragement of Russian artists. I saw at his house the performances of a self-taught painter, originally a peasant on one of the Count's estates, consisting of portraits, which but for a striking singularity in the manner of distributing the light over the figure, would be considered as very creditable performances for an artist who had enjoyed the advantage of a regular education. The singularity to which I allude, consists in throwing the light fully and directly in front of the picture, and not from either side or from behind, with the addition of a very dark ground, so as to give to the head the appearance of a marble bust in relief, placed within a gold frame. I have never had occasion to see such an effect produced in a portrait before; nor can I say that it is to be admired. However, this is not the only instance of original talent in the department of painting in Russia, nor the best, and it is creditable to the Government, as well as to the superior classes, that they afford encouragement to all such gifted individuals. Among the valuable paintings in the house of Count Woronzow, I noticed a Caracci from the gallery of Mr. Watson Taylor, and an undoubted Titian, remarkable for the circumstances connected with its purchase and present condition. The Count happening, one day, to be on his way to a sale of pic

tures in London, accompanied by M. Sieger, noticed outside of another auction room, the advertisement of other paintings for sale, stated to have been the property of a Mr. Harrison. "O!" says Mr. Sieger, "if these be Harrison's pictures there must be a Titian amongst them of great merit, which your Excellency had better look after;" and up-stairs they walked, when the intelligent artist marched straight up to the picture in question-recognized it immediately, although dirty and in a very indifferent condition,—and urged the Count to purchase it at the sale. This was effected in about an hour for little more than 200 guineas, there being at the time very few other purchasers in the room, besides picture-dealers. The painting has proved to be a great prize; and has since been transferred from the panel to canvass, with great success, by a Russian artist, who is allowed by the Emperor to have an attelier in the Hermitage for similar operations, which he has been carrying on for some time in the happiest and most skilful manBut these are not the only remarkable circumstances belonging to the painting in question, for in the course of the process of transferring it from the panel to the canvass, a discovery was made of another painting of the same subject, though treated in a different manner, which had been cancelled or painted over, and of which Count Woronzow took care to have a drawing made, now in his possession. This is, I believe, one of the few examples of a pentimento on so large a scale having been detected in a picture of a celebrated master.

ner.

I might descant also on some of the fine paintings which I had occasion to observe in the houses of Count Laval, Count Poushkine, M. Balk Polleff, and many others, who do not pretend to have galleries or specific collections, but who yet afford as many examples of the prevailing taste among persons of distinction to adorn their residences with