cteristic. But, great guns! what music they must make when they
all get started in one grand simultaneous chorus! five or six hundred
babies, of both sexes, from one to two or three years old, in one
department; as many girls from three to five in another; boys of the
same age in another; older boys and older girls innumerable in
another! What a luxury it must be to hear them all together! In
general, however, they do not make as much noise as might be supposed.
I only heard about forty or fifty small choruses while there; but,
trifling as that was, it enabled me to form an idea of the style of
music that might be made when five or six thousand gave their whole
mind to it. I am personally acquainted with one small baby not over a
couple of years old, who, when excited of nights, can very nearly
raise the roof off the house, and am certain that five hundred of the
same kind would burst the whole city of Moscow sky-high if ever they
got at it together. These Russian foundlings, however, are generally
heavy-faced, lymphatic babies, and fall naturally into the machine
existence which becomes their fate; otherwise it would seem a hard
life for the poor nurses, who are not always gifted with the patient
endurance of mothers. I was told that the children only cried
periodically, say at intervals of every four hours, but hardly credit
that statement. Being for the most part soggy little animals, they
spend a goodly portion of their time in sleep, and doubtless, when not
sleeping, are much given to eating and drinking.

During the summer months several thousand of these children are sent
out in the country to nurse, after which they are returned in due
order. As soon as they become old enough, they are taught reading and
writing, and the most intelligent are selected to become teachers. The
boys usually receive a military education, and a certain proportion of
them furnish recruits for the imperial army.

CHAPTER XVI.

DESPOTISM _versus_ SERFDOM.

The reader has probably discovered by this time that I have no great
affection for the political institutions of Europe, and am pretty
strong in my prejudices against despotic governments of all sorts. The
fact is, I believe our own, with all its faults, is the best system of
government ever devised by man.

The Emperor Alexander II. is admitted on all hands to be a most
estimable and enlightened sovereign. He possesses, in a greater
degree, perhaps, than any of his prede