men preparing for the sacred profession. Dr. P. says:--

"It is much to be regretted that those young men have so
little time and opportunity, after finishing their academical
course, for making further progress in studies suited to
their profession. The cares of a family (for marriage must
indispensably precede ordination in the Russian church), their
labours among their flocks, the scanty support which most of
them receive, together with their isolated situation in country
villages, where few traces of education and civilized life have
yet entered, render this almost impracticable."

The _Jesuits_ were finally expelled from the empire in 1820. At that
time their number amounted to 674.

"On their reaching the frontiers of the empire, the emperor
Alexander ordered them to be supplied with from thirty to forty
ducats each, to bear their expenses to some other place of
residence. But though this mighty force of papal agency was
removed from the Russian territories by one stroke of the
autocratic pen, yet the influence which they had acquired was
not so easily to be annihilated; and there is no doubt, that in
the succeeding intrigues which were played off so successfully
against the Russian Bible Society, their powerful friends in
the capital took a part." p. 62.

_Drunkenness._ On this painful topic, the author has given most
melancholy information:--

"Instead of restraining the use of brandy, the government, even
of the present day, affords every facility to the people to
obtain it, in order to enhance the gain derived from this
iniquitous source; which _amounts to nearly one-fourth of the
whole revenue of the empire_."

From his calculation, it appears that there is "the enormous quantity of
eighty-one millions of gallons of brandy alone drunk every year by the
peasantry of this empire." pp. 75-77.

_Baptism._ Dr. P. says:--

"The cathedral church at Odessa is a noble building, in the
Grecian style, with domes and crosses. One day I entered it,
when the protopope, or dean, was baptizing an infant. The day
was excessively cold, there being upwards of ten degrees of
frost, and the water in the font almost freezing. After the
ceremony was over, I expressed to the priest my surprise that
they did not use tepid water, seeing the infant had to be three
ti