y slow degrees. When an estate is sold, all the
serfs become free, and in this way a considerable number have been
liberated. No serfs can now be sold: a person may inherit an estate and
the serfs on it. [See Note 1.] Many of the great nobles would willingly
get rid of their serfs if they could. On one of their estates, perhaps,
they are overcrowded, on another they have not a sufficient number to
till the ground or to work their mines; yet they have no power to remove
the serfs of one estate to another, while they must find means for their
support on the spot where they were born. If the peasants were free,
they could literally have more power over them, because they could then
turn them off their estates, and compel them to seek for employment
where it is to be found. Nicholas, by several of his enactments, has
enabled his son to rule with less difficulty than would otherwise have
been the case. By the ruin of some of the principal nobles he has saved
him from the worst enemies of his ancestors, who so frequently proved
their destroyers; and by the creation of a wealthy middle class, every
day improving in education and numbers, he has formed a strong body who
find that it is their interest to support him. When it is no longer
their interest so to do, the whole fabric of Russian government will
crumble to the dust."

The first excursion our friends made the next morning was to the Donskoy
Convent. It stands on a flat near the Moscowa, and is surrounded with
high brick walls, flanked by lofty towers, all of bright red-brick. It
has entirely the character of an ancient fortress, erected to withstand
the rapid incursions of an enemy's cavalry, though unfit to hold out
against a regular attack. The church, standing in the centre of a wide,
open space, is a lofty pile, with the usual gilt dome; but the
residences of the monks are low, unpretending buildings, on one floor.

A young monk, in a long dark robe, a broad-brimmed, low-crowned hat, and
dishevelled locks hanging over his shoulders, came forth, and politely
offered to guide the travellers about the convent. Cousin Giles had
engaged a young Englishman to act as their interpreter, and he very much
increased the interest of the scenes they visited, and their means of
acquiring information.

The monk led them into the interior of the church, which consisted of a
vaulted chamber divided into two parts by a large wooden screen. The
carpenters and gilders an