except on horseback, on a journey, or in war. In its place is substituted a switch, or cane, with an ivory head: this every Cossack bears in his hand, as an appendage of his dress; being at all times prepared to mount his horse at a moment's notice. Their cap or helmet is the most beautiful part of the costume; because it is be coming to every set of features. There is no nation in the world more neat with regard to dress; and, whether young or old, it seems to become them all. A quiet life seems quite unsuited to their disposition. They loiter about, having no employment to interest them; and, passionately fond of war, seem distressed by the indolence of peace. • We soon perceived that the Cossacks were characterized by great liveliness and animation; little disposed to industrious occupation, but fond of amusement, and violent when their passions are rouzed. In their dances, drinking-songs, and discussions, they betray great vehemence.' In The Cossacks of the Don, according to the account the best instructed give of their own people, are a mixture of various nations, principally of Circassians, Malo-Russians, and Russians, but also of Tartars, Poles, Greeks, Turks, Calmucks, and Armenians. the town of Tcherchaskoy alone, and in the same street, may be seen all these different people at once, each in the habit peculiar to his nation. Thus, from a small settlement of rovers, augmented principally by intercourse with the neighbouring Circassians, has since accumulated, like a vast avalange, the immense horde of the Cossacks. Before the middle of the tenth century, they had already reached the frontier of Poland, and begun an intercourse with the people of that country: this was often attended with an augmenta tion of their horde by the settlement of Polish emigrants among them. So general have been the migrations of the Cossacks, that their tribes are now found from the banks of the Dnieper to the remotest confines of Siberia. According to their different emigrations and settlements, they are at present distinguished by the various names of Malo-Russian Cossacks, Don Cossacks, Cossacks of the Black Sea, of the Volga, of Grebenskoy, of Orenbourg, of the Ural Alps, and of Siberia; where they have received yet other appellations, and extend even to the mountains of China, and the Eastern Ocean. It is necessary to confine our attention to the principal hive, whence, with little exception, all those swarms proceeded. Nothing has contributed more to augment the colony of Don Cossacks, than the freedom they enjoy. Surrounded by systems of slavery, they offer the singular spectacle of an increasing republic; like a nucleus, putting forth its roots and ramifications to all parts of an immense despotic empire, which considers it a wise policy to promote their increase, and to guarantee their privileges. As they detest the Russians, a day may arrive, when, conscious of their own importance, they will make their masters more fully sensible of their power. A sage regulation in their military constitution, from a very early period, induced them to grant all the privileges they enjoy to such of their prisoners of war as chose to settle among them. Thus, from the success attending their incursions, their numbers have rapidly 12 increased. increased. In the year 1579, they made their appearance, for the first time, in the Russian armies. In 1734, their earliest colonies were established upon the Volga: but by much the most powerful detachment from the original hive, is established upon the shores of the Caspian, at the mouth of the Ural river; it left the Don in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and has since been augmented by subsequent emigrations from the parent stock.' There is no nation (not even excepting my own) more cleanly in apparel than the Cossacks. The dress of the women is singular. It differs from all the costumes of Russia; and its magnificence is displayed in the ornaments of a cap, somewhat resembling the mitre of a Greek bishop. The common dress of men in Tcherchaskoy is a blue jacket, with a waistcoat and trowsers of white dimity; the latter so white and spotless, that they seem always new. We never saw a Cossack in a dirty suit of clothes. Their hands, moreover, are always clean, their hair free from vermin, their teeth white, and their skin has a healthy and cleanly appearance. Polished in their manners, instructed in their minds, hospitable, generous, disinterested, humane and tender to the poor, good husbands, good fathers, good wives, good mothers, virtuous daughters, valiant and dutiful sons; such are the natives of Tcherchaskoy. In conversation the Cossack is a gentleman; for he is well-informed, free from prejudice, open, sin cere, and honourable.' To this magnificent encomium of Dr. Clarke, we deem it prudent to subjoin the more explicit description and more sober commendation of Mr. Heber: "The Cossack territory, which is almost entirely pasture land, is divided into stanitzas, or cantons. To each of these, a certain portion of land and fishery is allotted by Government, and an annual allowance of corn from Voronetz, and northwards, according to the returned number of Cossacks. They are free from all taxes; even from those of salt and distilleries. "The Cossack, in consequence of his allowance, may be called on to serve for any term, not exceeding three years, in any part of the world, mounted, armed, and clothed, at his own expence, and making good any deficiencies which may occur. Food, pay, and camp équipage, are furnished by Government. Those who have served three years are not liable, or at least not usually called upon, to serve abroad, except on particular emergencies. "The Procurator declared (that) the whole number of Cossacks, liable to be called on for one or other of these services, amounted to 200,000. He acknowledged, that as they would allow no examination into their numbers, he spoke only from conjecture, and from the different allowances of corn, &c. occasionally made. The whole number of male population he reckoned at half a million. The situation of a Cossack is considered as comfortable; and their obligations to service are deemed well repaid by their privileges and their freedom. FREE AS A COSSACK' is a proverb we often heard in Russia. "The manners of the people struck us, from their superiority to the Russians, in honesty and dignity. "Both "Both men and women are handsome, and taller than the Muscovites. This name they hold in great contempt, as we had several opportunities of observing. "Education among the Cossacks is not so low as is generally thought, and it improves daily. All the children of officers are sent to the academy of Tcherkask, and learn French, German, &c. It was holiday-time when we were there; but their progress was well spoken of." [To be concluded in our next Number.] ART. XI. Eighteen Hundred and Eleven. A Poem. By Anna Lætitia Barbauld. 4to. 2s. 6d. Johnson and Co. Y long prescriptive right, poets are prophets as well as satirists, and, while they lash the vices and follies of the present generation, can take a glance at futurity and announce things which will be hereafter." On the strength of this high prerogative, Mrs. Barbauld soars away from the existing state of the world to ages and to empires yet unborn; and the first thought which occurred to us, after our perusal of her poem, was that, instead of purporting to be descriptive of the year Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, it should have been made to refer to a subsequent period. We should not say, perhaps, that it ought to have been intitled Two Thousand Eight Hundred and Eleven; because, considering the instability of human affairs, many of the changes which the poetess predicts may take place before that distant epoch: but she might have left us to hope on to the conclusion of the nineteenth century, at least. When we advert to the condition of our island at the commencement of the Christian era, and to the contemptuous terms applied to it by classic authors, and when we recollect that the Roman empire, once so powerful and domineering, now exists only in the page of history, and that the governments of the world have their rise, maturity, and decline,--we cannot suppose that the splen dor of Great Britain among the nations of the earth will be perpetual. It is probable that Empire will travel westward; that in future times the New World will be the grand theatre of human genius and exertion; that London may even resemble Babylon, Thebes, Persepolis, Athens, or Carthage; and that the antiquarian traveller will frequent the ruins of St. Paul's, Somerset-House, the Bank, &c., in order to describe the vestages of our former greatness, and to ascertain the style of our architecture. We say that in the long revolution of ages this melancholy picture may be realized, and that so far the visions of this elegant author are not idle chimeras of the brain; yet we wish to persuade ourselves that we have still a long career of of glory to run, and that the prophetic warnings of such writers as Mrs. Barbauld, by operating on our good sense, may even defer the period of their completion. In reviewing a small poem, we cannot launch into political considerations: but it is the opinion of this lady that we have deserved the ruin which, as the Cassandra of the state, she denounces : " But, Britain, know, Thou who hast shared the guilt must share the woe. Not satisfied with uttering this gloomy prediction, she repeats it in the course of a few lines: Yes, thou must droop; thy Midas dream is o'er; And deal the gifts of Heaven with equal hands.' However, like a true patriot, Mrs. B. glows with a strong af fection for her native land, and knows how to appreciate the value of the many blessings which distinguish it. Her muse is peculiarly animated and pathetic on this occasion; and some solace is afforded by the reflection that the full harvest of our mental year' will enrich Nations beyond the Apalachian hills,' and that we shall be the Greece and Rome of the Columbian world. So beautifully has Mrs. Barbauld expanded this thought,, that we should be unjust to our readers if we withheld the passage: Yet, O my country, name beloved, revered, By every tie that binds the soul endeared, Whose image to my infant senses came Mixt with Religion's light and Freedom's holy flame! If prayers may not avert, if 'tis thy fate To rank amongst the names that once were great, Not like the dim cold Crescent shalt thou fade, Thy debt to Science and the Muse unpaid; Thy hand has planted and thy spirit fills: Mrs. B. is here forced to employ an Alexandrine to unbosom her full soul. Rev. Soon Soon as their gradual progress shall impart The finer sense of morals and of art, Thy stores of knowledge the new states shall know, "Old father Thames" shall be the Poets' theme, In Thomson's glass the ingenuous youth shall learn Nor of the Bards that swept the British lyre Thy storied groups in scenic pomp shall rise; Their high soul'd strains and Shakespear's noble rage Some youthful Basil from thy moral lay With stricter hand his fond desires shall sway; Imlay and Filson, in their "American Topography," speak of a person who remembered the ground on which he saw the great and flourishing city of Philadelphia, when it was a wild, covered with brambles and morasses. Mrs. B. inverts the picture with respect to the British Metropolis, and points to a future period when the spot on which London stands shall revert to its original wildness, and trans-atlantic travellers will 6 By scattered hamlets trace its ancient bound And, choaked no more with fleets, fair Thames survey but these events cannot occur within the life of any existing individual. A long, long time must elapse before the parish of St. Martin's will again be in the fields. Imagination pictures to the poet's eye some "sad historian of the pensive plain," who, in pointing out curious objects to inquirers, will do justice to names dear to Patriotism, Science, and Valour: Need we add, since Mrs. B. has not explained her allusion, that this compliment is paid to the dramas of Joanna Baillie?-Rev. • Perhaps |