study are taught. Freedom has also asserted its claims, and the serfs have been made free by the clemency of the present emperor, opening the way to a wider education under the promptings of the new condition in which they are placed. We present on next page a representation of the uniform of the Marine Cadets, the School of Naval Architecture and the Pilots' School. The corps of Marine Cadets was established by the Empress Elizabeth, in 1752; the others by Peter the Great. The great mind of Peter was deeply interested in all matters relating to the marine service. He himself became a shipbuilder, in order to be practically acquainted with ships and commerce, and these schools, that he founded in his wisdom, have done and are doing much to render Russian marine architecture celebrated the world over, and her pilot system perfect. We have had opportunities th our own waters to admire the elegance of their ships, which, if not surpassing our own, were in advance of those of any European nation.The Military schools are composed of twenty-three corps of Cadets, one school of Horse Guards, two schools of Instruction, one school of Pages. These schools are under the protectorate of the hereditary Grand Duke. Under this head are classed several of the corps which we represent in our illustrations. Of these the corps of Imperial Pages, on page 109, is a picture exceedingly attractive. The ones represented are models of personal grace, and reveal a dignity well suited to exalted rank.

In the engraving, representing pupils of the Topographic Institute and Corps of Miners, we have a different character of manhood given-that of the wild, reckless, funny, mercurial, indolent class, who are ripe for a lark when occasion offers, and, ready for fun, can indulge in it at the expense of a sleeping comrade, as well as though it were a stranger nose he were tickling. It is a spirited picture, the fan of which will be instantly seen by those Ikes of the household who, themselves, are constantly prone to funny expedients. In this school a very important part of military instruction is afforded, and to it is doubtless owing much of the ability displayed at Sebas

CZAR ALEXANDER.

topol, which enabled the Russians to hold the Allied Powers so long at bay by the fortresses of the Malakoff and Redan. Russia in that contest taught the world the benefit of earthworks, which alone can successfully stand before breaching artillery.

The school of Noble Cadets of the Guard is an institution for the education of those sons of the nobility whose tastes lead them to prefer a military life, who are herein taught all the branches of study that will fit them to be officers of the army, or, as is intended, fit them to be members of the Imperial Guard. Our engraving on page 111 presents a view of the uniforms and camp equipments of the first and second corps, a spirited and active scene of soldier life.

Our sixth engraving, on page 112, gives us an idea of the practice of an arm of the service called the Forest Corps, the province of which is to battle among trees. This arm of service would have been of priceless worth in the Wilderness, though our "Boys in blue" knew by instinct, the benefit of a tree as a shelter. There is nothing, however, like

science to secure success, and it would have been of advantage to them undoubtedly. The sharpshooters might, we should think, be troublesome to those exposing themselves as in our engraving, but the experience of war

Pupils of the Michaeloff Engineer and Artillery Schools are represented on page 113. This is a most effective arm of the Russian service, as was proven in the Crimean war, to which we have alluded already, where the

CORPS OF MARINE CADETS.-SCHOOL OF NAVAL ARCHITECTURE.-PILOTS' SCHOOL.

would induce caution.

The exercises of this corps, as may be seen from the engraving, are practical, and forest discipline gives their practice the show of the severest discipline. This school was established in 1822.

allied armies of England, France and Turkey hemmed the Russians in, with fleets of great power in the bay of Sebastopol, but were repulsed and held in check about two years by the earth-works and their artillery

defences. Though at last defeated, it was equivalent to a victory for Russia, reflecting credit on her military schools which had done all this and much more for scientific warfare. Among the scientific civil schools, which are very numerous, and all of which have a military aspect-the scholars uniformed and having to submit to discipline as severe as the military under teachers appointed by the government-the Institute of Arts, the Gymnasium and the School of Commerce are prominent. The latter two were established by the Empress Catherine II., the former by the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. We give on page 114 a representation of the uniforms worn by the respective schools; and on page 115, Students of the Imperial University and Schools of Law and Surgery. It would be strange and most uncivil for us to put our scholars in such garbs, but under an absolute and military government like that of Russia, it is necessary. We question the progression of science under military martinetism, but it is no affair of ours. Among all the schools of Russia there is none upon which more stress is laid than the School of Agriculture, founded by the late Emperor Nicholas, who did much for the intellectual improvement of Russia. This school, though termed agricultural, has departments devoted to mechanical trades, in which some

two hundred and fifty lads are instructed. These are the sons of peasants chosen from the imperial grounds, the preference being on account of merit and good conduct. The agricultural instruction is divided into two periods. The first lasts four years, two of which are employed in lower, and two in higher branches. In the lower class, pupils study reading and writing, the first four rules of arithmetic, carpentering and the principles of religion. In the middle class, they are taught the Russian grammar, penmanship, religion, accounts and the elements of agriculture. In the highest class, the Gospel is explained to them, as well as the Mass, and

they are taught the agricultural theory, with its application, and mechanics in the application of motive forces to the construction of water-mills. The mission of those who graduate at this school is to serve as examples to other peasants, as well by their good conduct as by their thorough knowledge of the arts and trades which appertain to agriculture or domestic use, etc., carpenters, blacksmiths, tailors, shoemakers, tanners, etc.

A plan for a national system of instruction was laid down in a ukase of the Emperor Alexander, issued, in 1802; which, though it has undergone various modifications, contains

CORPS OF IMPERIAL PAGES.

the outline of the system that is still followed. The empire is divided, in respect to education, into a certain number of districts, each of which has or is intended to have, a university, with a certain number of lyceums (t which the young men intended to fill civil offices are mostly instructed), gymnasiums, high schools, and elementary schools, varying according to its extent and population. According to the ukase of 1802, a grammar school should be established in every district, and the elementary school in every parish, or at least in every two parishes, according to the population. But these regulations have not generally been complied with; and when it is considered

that the advantages of education are but little appreciated by the peasantry, and that it is frequently discouraged by the nobility, to whom it occasions some expense, it will not appear surprising that such should be the case. In despite, however, of every obstacle, education has made and is making a very considerable progress. The conquests by Russia, of which we have several times had occasion to speak, have uniformly resulted in securing a better system of education for the conquered party, and a livelier commercial importance, and since the abolition of serfdom, many of the obstructions that before

geometry, to be worked out by certain fixed mathematical rules, or like a work of mechanism, where the lathe and the burnisher are to give it activity and grace. The crooks in the child's temper are to be planed out straight, and all its intellectual idiosyncracies to be twisted and turned to meet the theory of the teacher, as a gunstock or a last is made by conformity to a model. There is, with them, no feeling out the fibre and following it to the source of character, and their training is the discipline of the rod. The Russians are right in having their teachers' school, and though we have few school statistics beyond the ex

istence of the schools to which we have alluded, we have no doubt of the benefit of this.-The literature of Russia has taken a new start within a few years, and the demand for books is increasing among the people. Numerous literary and scientific journals are printed, and the newspaper holds its place in popular estimation as a source of intelligence. Not so common as in the United States, in consequence of former restrictions, but now free, measurably, the newspaper press is doing its part in the work of progress.-Though we have spoken of the educational features of Russia, the country is eminently military; and yet its standing army is very small, consid

territory and population.

There is a school in St. Petersburg for the training of schoolmasters, which suggests an idea that could be manipulated here with much benefit. We do not believe that the knout forms any portion of the discipline of this school, for schoolmasters, no more than doctors, are willing to take their own medicines. A schoolmaster direct from college, without the training to fit him for the position he is to occupy, goes into a school a theorist, and is too likely to remain one to the end of the chapter. One of his theories is that a child's mind is like a problem in

manning of forts and post duties, is almost diminutive, but in case of war it has a force to draw upon, and military resources that are inexhaustible, which render it the most formidable power in the world. In this and many other respects it resembles our own country, and perhaps may afford a reason for the strange attraction that draws the two nations together. Unlike in their institutions, but in character, that makes nations as well as men, the same.

Russia was our true friend in the hour of our national trouble, and it is pleasant to see the bond strengthening every day that holds

us in congenial relationship. The reciprocal civilities that have been interchanged have been in delightful proof of the harmonious feeling subsisting, and, too far apart to be rivals, the assurance is felt of a perpetual

FIRST AND SECOND CORPS OF CADETS, SCHOOL OF NOBLE CADETS OF THE GUARD.

friendship. Another proof is the recent cession of Russian America to our flag. All of which gives assurance that Russia and America in alliance can, if called upon, exert a commanding influence upon the world.

writer gives us a vivid view of the dilapidation of one princely homestead in the south of Russia, that has suffered from the abandonment of its proprietor, which doubtless may be cited as a representative case: