The localities in the previous estimate are quite correct; and we, therefore, did not think it would be right to suppress it.

PERCH, a long measure, 16 feet in length. —(See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.) PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS. These, as the name implies, are publications which appear at fixed periods or stated intervals, and consequently include newspapers, monthly and other magazines, quarterly reviews, and journals, and all such books as appear at monthly or other intervals. But the term "periodical publications is usually understood in a more confined sense, or as comprising only magazines and such political, literary, and scientific journals as appear at regular intervals, without including newspapers or works published in parts.

Even when thus restricted, this is a very extensive and important department of literature. No doubt a vast deal of trash gets into print by the agency of magazines that might not otherwise see the light; but most part of these publications contain at the same time some superior articles; and a few are ably conducted and embrace a wide range of topics. Since the establishment of the Edinburgh Review in 1802, the quarterly journals, especially those that embrace politics and literature, have risen to great eminence, and have had a powerful influence over the public mind. At present, however, and for some time past, the influence of this class of journals has been declining. An ably conducted daily paper is, at this moment, by far the most powerful engine the press can bring into the field.

In a mercantile point of view periodical literature is of more importance than most persons would probably be at first disposed to admit. We have inquired with some care into the subject, and we are inclined to think that the following estimate of its extent and value in 1843 may be relied on with pretty considerable confidence.

Monthly Magazines. These in the U. Kingdom amount, including all descriptions, to about 200: and taking their average price at 1s. 2d., and their average sale at 1,500 copies, their produce will be 17,500l. a month, and 210,000l. a year.

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Quarterly Journals. There are 27 of these; and taking the average price of each at 58., and their average sale at 2,000 copies, they will produce 13,500l. a quarter, and 54,000l. a year. Hence, supposing these estimates to be nearly accurate, the annual produce of the sale of periodical publications (exclusive of what they yield by advertisements) will amount to about 264,000l.

PERMIT, a licence or instrument, granted by the officers of excise, certifying that the excise duties on certain goods have been paid, and permitting their removal from some specified place to another.

The acts relative to permits were consolidated by the stat. 2 Will. 4. c. 16. The commissioners of excise provide moulds or frames for making the paper used in the printing of permits, which have the water mark" Excise Office" visible in its substance; and the counterfeiting of such frames or paper, or the having the latter in one's possession without being able satisfactorily to account for it, are felonies punishable by transportation. Permits are not delivered except on the receipt of "request notes," specifying the places from and to which the goods are to be conveyed. A penalty of 5001. is to be imposed on all persons counterfeiting request notes," or fraudulently procuring or misapplying permits, and all goods, for the removal of which permits are necessary, if they be removed without them, are to be forfeited, and the various parties engaged in their removal are to be each amerced in a penalty of 2001. It is needless to dwell on the extreme inconvenience that would result from such regulations were permits in extensive use But such is not the case, and they are now wholly dispensed with, except in the case of a very few articles.

PERRY, a fermented liquor made from pears, in the same manner as cider from apples. The pears best fitted for producing this liquor are exceedingly harsh and tart; but it is itself pleasant and wholesome. (See CIDER.)

PETERSBURG, the modern metropolis of the Russian empire, situated at the confluence of the river Neva with the eastern extremity of the Gulph of Finland, in lat. 59° 56′ 23′′ N., lon. 30° 18′ E. Population, 480,000.

This flourishing emporium was founded by Peter the Great, whose name it bears, in 1703. In the same year, the first merchant ship that ever appeared on the Neva arrived from Holland: and the Czar, to mark his sense of the value of such visitors, treated the captain and crew with the greatest hospitality, and loaded them with presents. In 1714, 16 ships arrived at Petersburg; in 1730, the number had increased to 180; and so rapid has been the progress of commerce and civilisation in Russia since that period, that, at present, from 1,200 to 1,500 ships annually enter and clear out from Petersburg!

It is much to be regretted, that, although favourable to commerce, the situation of Petersburg is, in other respects, far from good. The ground on which it stands is low and swampy; it has, on different occasions, sustained great injury from inundations; and the country round is, generally speaking, a morass and forest, so that almost

every thing required for the subsistence of the inhabitants must be brought from a distance. No one less bold and daring than Peter the Great would have thought of selecting such a situation for the metropolis of his empire; and none possessed of less

References to Plan, A, Cronslot; B, Meg-of-war haven; C, Tolboken light-house, 88 feet high, furnished with a fixed light. Soundings in fathoms. It appears, from the above plan, that the depth of water between Cronstadt and Petersburg does not, in some places, exceed 6 or 7 feet; but it is increased about a foot by continued westerly, and is diminished about as much by continued easterly, winds. Cronstadt is, therefore, as already observed, in reality, the port of Petersburg; and has, indeed, no separate Custom-house or jurisdiction. The transfer of goods between the two places by means of lighters has of late years been materially facilitated by the employment of steam tugs.

power and resolution could have succeeded in overcoming the all but insuperable ob stacles which the nature of the country opposed to the completion of his gigantic schemes.

Cronstadt, situated on a small island about 20 miles W. of Petersburg, may, in some measure, be considered as the port of the latter. Almost all vessels bound for Petersburg touch here; and those drawing above 8 feet water load and unload at Cronstadt; the goods being conveyed from and to the city in lighters, the charges of which vary according to the demand at the time. The merchants' harbour at Cronstadt is fitted to contain about 600 ships; but it is exposed to the westerly winds. Cronstadt is strongly fortified, and is the principal station of the Russian fleet. Vessels bound for Petersburg must pass by the narrow channel to the south of the island, commanded by the fortifications of Cronstadt on the one side, and of Cronslot on the other. The woodcut on the opposite page, taken from the official survey published by the Russian government, gives a better idea of the situation of Petersburg, Cronstadt, &c. than could be derived from any description.

Trade, &c. Petersburg has the most extensive foreign trade of any city in the north of Europe. This arises from its being the only great maritime outlet on the Gulph of Finland, and from its vast and various communications with the interior of the country. Few countries have such an extent of internal navigation as Russia. By means partly of rivers, and partly of canals, Petersburg is connected with the Caspian Sea. Goods are conveyed from the latter to the capital, through a distance of 1,434 miles, without once landing them! The iron and furs of Siberia, and the teas of China, are received at Petersburg in the same way; but owing to the great distance of those countries, and the short period of the year during which the rivers and canals are navigable, they take 3 years in their transit. Immense quantities of goods are also conveyed during winter upon the ice, in sledges, to the different ports, and to the nearest pristans, or places in the interior where barks are built for river or canal navigation. They are put on board in anticipation of the period of sailing, that the barks may be ready to take advantage of the high water, by floating down with the current as soon as the snow and ice begin to melt. The cargoes carried up the river into the interior during summer are principally conveyed to their ultimate destinations by the sledge roads during winter. The conveyance by the latter is generally the most expeditious; and it, as well as the internal conveyance by water, is performed at a very moderate expense.

The barks that come from the interior are mostly of a very rude construction, flatbottomed, and seldom drawing more than 20 or 30 inches water. When they arrive at their destination, they are sold or broken up for fire-wood. Those that leave the ports for the interior are of a superior description, and are comparatively few in number; the commodities imported, being at an average, of much greater value relatively to their bulk and weight than those that are exported.

Principal Articles of Export and Import.—The principal articles of export are tallow, hemp and flax; grain, particularly wheat; linseed, timber; iron and copper; hides, potashes, bristles, hempseed oil, furs, leather; fox, hare, and squirrel skins; canvass and coarse linen, cordage, caviare, wax, isinglass, quills, tar, &c. Tallow, both for candles and soap, is more largely exported from this than from any other port in the Baltic or elsewhere, and is an article of great commercial importance. - (See TALLOW.) The hemp is of good quality, though inferior to that of Riga: it is assorted, according to its quality, into clean, or firsts; outshot, or seconds; and half-clean, or thirds. The first sort should be quite clean, and free from spills; the second is less so; and the third, or half-clean, contains still greater portion of spills, and is, besides, of mixed qualities and colours. Russian flax is much esteemed for the length of its fibre; it is naturally brownish, but becomes very white after the first bleaching. Three qualities are distinguished; viz. 12 head, 9 head, and 6 head,—(See HEMP, and FLAX.) Iron is of very good quality, and is preferable to that from the other Russian ports: there are two kinds, old and new sable; the former is the best. The grain trade between this country and Petersburg has latterly become of very considerable im portance; and Russia will, probably, continue to be one of the principal sources of our foreign supplies. It will be seen from the subjoined accounts that we drew from her in 1839 no fewer than 371,693 quarters wheat, and 316,823 ditto oats, and that the imports in 1840 and 1841 were also very large. A very considerable proportion of this supply was, however, derived from Odessa, Taganrog, Archangel, and other ports, exclusive of Petersburg. The Russian wheat, so called to distinguish it from the azemaia, or soft wheat, and the kubanka, or hard wheat, is the lowest description of wheat shipped from Petersburg. It is very small-grained, and dingy coloured; being, though sound, unfit for the manufacture of fine bread. The azemaia is of a larger, though still not a large grain, and better colour, and has of late been extensively imported into England. The kubanka, or hard wheat, is a large semitransparent grain. Its hardness has nothing of the flinty character of the Spanish

hard wheat, which it most resembles. When first brought to London, the millers objected to it, on account of the difficulty experienced in grinding it; but it is now much esteemed. All the Russian wheats are well calculated for keeping, either in granary, or when made into bread: but the kubanka has this quality in a peculiar degree; and is in great demand for mixing with other wheats that are old, stale, or out of condition. A shipment of 100 chetwerts of wheat in Petersburg is found, when delivered here, to yield about 72 Imperial quarters. The principal imports are sugar, especially from the Havannah (the importation of refined sugar was prohibited in 1822); coffee, but not in large quantities; madder, indigo, cochineal, and dye woods; cotton stuffs and yarns, the latter being by far the principal article sent from this country to Russia; woollens, oils, spices, salt, wine, lead, tin, coal, fine linen, from Holland and Silesia, &c.

It

Rapid as has been the increase of Russian commerce, its progress has been materially retarded by restrictions on importation. Considering the immense variety of valuable natural productions with which Russia abounds, the thinness of the population, and the slavery and ignorance of the great bulk of the people, nothing can be more childish than the attempt to render them, by dint of Custom-house regulations, rivals of the English and Germans in manufacturing industry! However, it must be confessed, that in enacting prohibitions and restrictions, they are only following a line of policy which more advanced countries have shown but little disposition to abandon. should also be observed that, except in a few great towns, a middle class is all but unknown in Russia. And the population being consumers of coarse and heavy rather than of fine and finished goods, restrictions on importation are less injurious than might at first be supposed. Whether, in fact, importation be free or restricted, the great bulk of the Russian people will, for a lengthened period, be consumers of home made articles. Indeed the frontiers of the empire are far too extensive, and the functionaries too corrupt, to enable high duties on foreign produce to be levied to any great extent, or prohibitions of its importation to be made effectual, provided there were any considerable internal demand for it.

But, on the whole, the policy of Russia, in so far at least as respects commercial matters, has become more liberal of late years. Many articles are at present admitted for consumption that were formerly wholly excluded; and though the duties on various articles have been increased, there are others, and those too of considerable importance, on which they have been reduced. The Russian government wisely admits machinery of all sorts, including ships with their tackle, steamers, &c., duty free; and most articles necessary to the successful prosecution of art and science are treated in the same way. We, therefore, are not without hopes that her government may also at no very distant period see the advantage of materially reducing the duties on the superior descriptions of manufactured goods. It is true that, having by far the largest share of the foreign trade of Russia, this country will gain most by any modifications that may be made in her tariff. The Russian government is well aware of this, and may naturally enough suspect that we are more attentive to our own than to Russian interests when we recommend the repeal of restrictions; and certainly this suspicion will not be weakened by the very objectionable manner in which matters relating to Russia are too often discussed in this country. No one acquainted with our history during the last dozen years, can fail to know that a party amongst us have exerted themselves to the utmost to embroil the two countries; and have even gone so far, in furtherance of their object, as to establish journals apparently for the sole purpose of abusing and misrepresenting the government and people of Russia. This conduct is at once foolish and flagitious. We are not going to undertake the defence of Russia, but we have yet to learn what she has done to injure us; and her conquests, how objectionable soever in some respects, have, in most instances, materially promoted the interests of commerce and civilisation. The Russian government has, however, acted wisely as well as magnanimously in despising the abuse alluded to. Instead of being enemies or estranged from each other, there are no two nations between whom so intimate a friendship should prevail as Russia and England. They have no really conflicting interests; she cannot injure us, nor we her. The products of the one country are admirably suited for the markets of the other; and a farther modification of protecting duties in Russia, accompanied, as it should be, by the adjustment of our regulations as to corn and timber on sound principles, would add largely to the intercourse between the two countries, and establish it on solid foundations.

Inspection of Goods. — At Petersburg, Riga, and other Baltic ports, when goods are brought from the interior to be shipped, they are inspected and classified according to their qualities, by officers (brackers) appointed by government for that purpose, and sworn to the faithful performance of their duty. All sorts of timber, linen and canvass, flax and hemp, linseed and hempseed, ashes, wax, &c. are subject to such inspection. They are generally divided into three qualities: Krohn (crown), or superior; Brack, or

:

middling and Bracks- Brack, or inferior. This classification is said to be, in most cases, made with considerable fairness. A factor or commission agent in Russia, instructed to buy, on account of his correspondent in England or Holland, a specified quantity of any description of produce subject to the official visit, is not liable to any action in the event of the article being found upon delivery to be of inferior quality, provided he produce a certificate to show that it had been officially inspected, or bracked. But a factor is at liberty, should any article delivered to him be manifestly defective, to name 1 or 2 other brackers to decide whether the article be merchantable or not.

Native and Foreign Merchants, &c. Every Russian carrying on trade must be a burgher, and have his name registered in the burghers' book; he thus acquires an unlimited freedom of trade. All whose names are in the burghers' books, are either townsmen who have property within the city, or members of a guild.

There are three

guilds. Those belonging to the first must possess from 10,000 to 50,000 roubles: these may follow foreign trade, are not liable to corporal punishment, and may drive about the city in a carriage drawn by 2 horses. Those belonging to the second guild declare themselves possessed of from 5,000 to 10,000 roubles; they are confined to inland trade, A capital of from 1,000 to 5,000 roubles entitles its owner to admission into the third guild, which comprises shopkeepers and petty dealers. The rates paid by the members of these guilds amount to 1 per cent. upon their declared capital, the "statement of which is left to the conscience of every individual." Burghers are not obliged to serve in the army, but may provide a substitute, or pay a fine. The guests, or foreign merchants, who enrol themselves in the city register on account of their commercial affairs, enjoy privileges nearly similar to those enjoyed by the members of the first guild.

None but native Russians are allowed to engage in the internal trade of the country; and hence a foreigner, who imports goods into Russia, must sell them to Russians only, and at the port where they arrive. A few foreigners, indeed, settled in Russia, and having connections with the natives, do carry on a trade with the interior; but it is contrary to law, and the goods are liable to be seized.

The merchants engaged in foreign trade are mostly foreigners, of whom the English are the principal. The peculiar privileges formerly enjoyed by the latter are now nearly obsolete; and their rights, in common with those of other foreigners, are merely those of guests. The English factory is, at present, little more than a society formed of some of the principal English merchants, several of whom, however, do not belong to it: its power extends to little else than the management of certain funds under its control.

Purchase and Sale of Commodities, &c. - Owing to the scarcity of capital in Russia, goods the produce of the country are frequently paid for in advance; and foreign goods are most commonly sold upon credit. From the month of November till the shipping season in May, the Russians who trade in flax, hemp, tallow, bristles, iron, &c. either come themselves to Petersburg, or employ agents to sell their goods to foreigners, to be delivered, according to agreement, in May, June, July, or August. The payments are made according to the circumstances of the sellers and buyers; sometimes the buyer pays the whole amount, in the winter months, for the goods which are to be delivered in the summer or autumn; and sometimes he pays a part on concluding the contract, and the remainder on delivery of the goods. The manufacturers and dealers in linen usually come to Petersburg in March, and sell their goods for ready money.

Foreign goods were formerly almost entirely sold at a twelvemonth's credit, and some at a still longer term; but of late years several articles, as coffee and sugar, are sold for ready money; still, however, the great bulk of foreign goods for the supply of the interior is sold on credit. Most part of the Russians who buy goods on credit of foreigners, for the use of the interior, have no other connection or trade with Petersburg, than merely coming there once or twice a year to make purchases: which having accomplished, they set off with the goods, and the foreigner neither sees nor hears of them again till the bill becomes due. It is obvious, from this statement, that experience and sagacity are nowhere more requisite in a merchant than here. He has nothing, in fact, but his own knowledge of the native dealers to depend upon : and it is highly creditable to the Russians, that foreigners do not hesitate to trust them with immense sums on such a guaranty. A foreign merchant, carrying on business in Russia, must also be acquainted with the customary forms and obligations of contracts; the mode of making payments; the many formalities that encumber, and sometimes turn aside, the course of justice; the spirit, still more than the letter, of the tariff and the Custom-house regulations; the privileges claimed by the Crown, and the different orders; with a variety of other particulars, which attentive able men may learn on the spot, and nowhere else.

"Another circumstance connected the British trade is too curious to be passed in silence. Every mercantile house in Petersburg employs certain men, called in the language of the country artelschicks, who are the counting-house men, and employed by every merchant to collect payment on bills, and to receive money, as well as, in many instances, to pay it in very considerable sums. This is an important part of their trust. There being no bankers in Russia, every mercantile house keeps its own cash; and as the payments between merchants, and for bills of exchange, are made entirely of bank notes of no higher value than 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 roubles most of them in so tattered a state as to require several hours to count over a sum of 2,0001. or 3,000.-this business is performed by artelschicks; and very few instances have occurred of loss by their inattention, either in miscounting the notes, in taking false notes, or, where they are much torn, in receiving parts of different bank notes.

"These artelschicks are also employed to superintend the loading and unloading the different cargoes; they receive the most valuable into the warehouse, where they are left solely under their care; and in these warehouses not merely merchandise, but often large quantities of dollars, are deposited. These Russians are mostly natives of Archangel and the adjacent governments, of the lowest class; are often slaves, generally of the Crown: and the only security of the merchant arises in some degree from the natural reluc