These repeated acquisitions of valuable, and, I should say, necessary collections by a scientific body, which does not allow itself to depend on the will of a minister of finance, or the uncertain vote of a legislative assembly for the requisite supply of money to complete the purchase, are as many testimonials of the excellent and economical manner in which the funds of the society are managed by its worthy president and council of administration. The Egyptian collection I had an opportunity of examining with great attention. It consists of about 1000 articles, among which are three statues, thirty bas-reliefs, (some of great merit,) four mummies, two of which are contained in thin cases, richly painted and varnished, and the two others are mummies of children, twelve large alabaster vases, and several hundred small idols, utensils, and ornaments in terra-cotta, and glazed hearths, inferior however to those in the Museum of Berlin. There are also a few papyri. The two rooms occupied by these different objects have been decorated and painted in such a manner as to represent the interior of some of the Egyptian hypogæi.

The Imperial Academy of Sciences held a general meeting on the 29th of December 1826, old style, in commemoration of the first secular anniversary of its foundation. On that occasion, the Emperor and the two Empresses, with the rest of the Imperial Family, attended at the solicitation of Monsieur Ouvaroff and several of the members forming a deputation, and who were introduced for that purpose by the great Chamberlain, Count Litta, into the Imperial presence. All the ministers, the diplomatic corps, the principal military and civil authorities, and a great number of persons of the first distinction attached to the Court, besides the several members of the dignified clergy were also present. The president, Ouvaroff, delivered an oration in the Russian language, in which he gave a rapid sketch of the

foundation and progress of the Academy, as well as of the favours conferred on it by succeeding Sovereigns during the first hundred years of its existence. This speech was followed by the reading of a memoir in the French language, by the perpetual secretary, containing an account of the labours of the Academy, and of the numerous and important services which it had rendered to every branch of science in the course of the first century of its existence. A gold medal, struck purposely to commemorate the secular festival, was presented to their Majesties and the members of the Imperial family; and it was remarked that the Empress-mother, who is so keenly alive to whatever interests the intellectual welfare of her people, seemed strongly to feel the solemnity of the occasion, probably from the recollection that just fifty years before, she had assisted at an analogous ceremony which had taken place to celebrate the semi-secular or fiftieth anniversary of the Academy. A few days after this general meeting, the Academy sent a deputation to that august Princess, bearing another golden medal, which was presented to her, and which was intended to perpetuate in a more special manner, at one and the same time, the recollection of the centennium, and the beneficent disposition of the Empress-mother. This medal, which was executed by Count Theodore Tolstoy, a modeller and amateur medallist of great merit, represented on the one side her portrait, and on the obverse two crowns, one of roses, the other of oak leaves, with the years in the centre of them. The Russian inscription on the medal signifies Pour le bonheur de tous.

1726

1820

The secretary next read the programmes of the different prizes proposed by the Academy for the ensuing year, including two for historical subjects, founded by the President, and an anonymous person; and next the list of honorary and corresponding members recently elected, at

the head of the former of which was the name of Nicholas the First.

After the meeting broke up, the Imperial guests, and the company in general, partook of the refreshments laid out with great taste and profusion in one of the saloons of the Academy, and in the evening the several buildings of that society were illuminated. This homage to science, more splendid than has ever been paid to it in any other country, among a people whose scientific knowledge dates only a hundred years back, is creditable to the Academy of St. Petersburgh, and highly honourable to the Sovereign of the country.

The secular gold medal was also engraved by Count Theodore Tolstoy, after the design of Professor Kölher, a numismatic writer of great celebrity, whom I have had occasion to mention before. It does great credit to the arts of the country, and may, without partiality, be said to be one of the finest medals of modern times. Since my return I had repeated opportunities of submitting one of them in bronze to two or three eminent artists in this country, who agreed with me in the above opinion. On one side it bears a very striking effigy of the Emperor, with the legend Nicolas I., Emperor and Autocrate of all the Russias; and on the obverse, the figure of Minerva, surrounded by her various attributes, is represented sitting, and with her right hand extended, holding a laurel crown over a double bust of the Emperors Peter and Alexander, with the legend: "To the Founder and Preservers," with an inscription of "Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburgh, 29th December, 1826." Both legends, as well as the inscription, are in the Russian language. On this same occasion, the Academy received from Prince Sergius Soltikoff, a document of considerable importance in reference to the modern History of Russia, being the instructions drawn up at the

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.