t of some other country, executed under foreign supervision.
This, perhaps, more than any thing else, may be said to afford the
most striking evidence of the enlarged and progressive character of
his mind. Yet the very same practice has been followed to a greater or
less extent by all his successors, and still, with the exception of a
railroad built by Americans, a telegraph system, a few French
fashions, and a movement professing to have for its object the
emancipation of the serfs, the country, beyond the limits of the
sea-port districts and those parts bordering on the States of Germany,
has advanced but little toward civilization since the reign of Peter.

With such a vast extent of territory, and such a variety of climates
as it must necessarily embrace, it may seem rather a broad assertion
to say that climate can be any obstacle to Russian civilization; but
let us glance for a moment at the general character of the country.
Between the sixtieth and seventy-eighth degrees of north latitude,
embracing a considerable portion of European and Asiatic Russia, the
winters are exceedingly long and severe, the summers so short that but
little dependence can be placed upon crops. The greater part of this
region consists of lakes, swamps, forests of pine, and extensive and
barren plains. The mines of Siberia may be regarded as the most
valuable feature in this desolate region. The production of flax and
hemp in the province of Petersburg, and the lumber products of the
forests which are accessible to the capital, give some importance to
such portions as border on the southern and European limit of this
great belt; but its general features are opposed to agricultural
progress. Whatever of civilization can exist within it must be of
forced growth, and be maintained under the most adverse circumstances.
South of this, between the fifty-fifth and sixtieth degrees of
latitude, comes a still wider and more extensive region, comprising
St. Petersburg, Riga, Moscow, Smolensk, and a portion of Irkutsk and
Nijni Novgorod. Here the summers are longer and the winters not quite
so severe; but a large portion of the country consists of forests,
sterile plains, and extensive marshes, and much of it is entirely
unfit for cultivation. The European portions are well settled, and
corn, flax, and hemp are produced wherever the land is available, and
large bands of cattle roam over many parts of the country. In its
general aspect, however, consi