support of the child.

Parents paying L4 or L5 have the right to see that their child is
brought up in the house and not sent out to nurse.

If a boy, and left by his parent without any deposit, he is brought up
for the army as a common soldier, but if 250 roubles or L40 sterling be
left with him, he will become an officer. All who show ability become
engineers or are sent to the University.

The girls, according to their taste and ability, are instructed in
painting or music, and if intended for governesses are taught German or
French. The majority of girls, after receiving a common and useful
education, are employed in manual labour, and all, without distinction
of age or sex, can return to the hospital should they fall into distress
in after life.

The annual expenses of the establishment amount, it is said, to nearly a
million sterling.

The policy, and certainly the moral consequences of keeping up such an
institution are more than doubtful.

There are two theatres, one very large, containing a suite of immense
rooms, used for masked balls and similar entertainments, but is only
open during the winter season; the other is chiefly carried on by French
performers, and was well filled on the evening we attended.

The great Riding School is one of the wonders of Moscow, being 560 feet
long and 158 feet broad and 42 feet in height; supposed to be the
largest room in the world unsupported by pillars or props of any kind.

This vast enclosure gives ample room for two regiments of cavalry to go
through all their manoeuvres unobstructed by stormy weather, being
heated by upwards of twenty stoves.

The Bazaar is also an immense pile of building, three storeys high,
comprising 5,228 shops, connected by an endless number of passages and
steps. In these courts and galleries there is a continual fair
throughout the year, attended by traders from every part of Europe,
Siberia, China, and Tartary, numbering upwards of 1,000 merchants, all
eager and very importunate to do business.

In the same neighbourhood are many streets of shops, arranged in masses,
perhaps thirty shops for paper, another range for spices, a third for
ornamental articles, and a fourth for pictures and saints.

Of this last article, and the numerous vessels, lamps, candlesticks,
crosses, and amulets used in the celebration of the Mass, there is a
vast demand in the holy city, there being scarcely a house or any room
without a favourite saint.