general preparation for war. A single fact is sufficient to show the practical character of the instruction in the naval schools-the senior class of cadets annually take in pieces and rebuild a large model of an American frigate. The instruction in these schools embraces the higher mathematics, and their application to military and naval architecture, and navigation, drawing in all its departments, both the theory and practice of the construction of fortresses and ships, with modern languages, history, and general literature.

The children of soldiers, and especially the orphan children, are particularly cared for by the government, placed in schools, and educated for the army. At St. Petersburgh there is the Miner's School. It occupies a magnificent building, in which more than three hundred pupils are constantly studying under competent professors, with every facility for obtaining an education having great breadth and thoroughness. In this institution the pupil spends eight years, and then, with as perfect a training as science can impart, he is sent to superintend the government mines in the Ural; and this school and the number of its pupils is enough to indicate the importance of that portion of the resources of Russia.

Attached to this important school is an immense and very complete collection of whatever can illustrate the sciences of geology and mineralogy, but particularly that of Russia. These several museums, rich, it is said, beyond comparison with any similar collections elsewhere, contain minerals, geological specimens, and fossils, from the most interesting localities, not only in Russia but from other parts of the world, and here also are collected models of machinery, and implements, and even models of mines themselves. The completeness of the education which the government bestows upon its servants, and the enlightened character of its policy, may be seen in the expenses incurred and the pains which have been taken to prepare those who are to have the care of the public mines and the imperial mint.

In addition to what has been already described, artificial mines of various kinds have been constructed by the actual excavation of subterranean galleries, such as are found in the real mine, and a fac simile of a mine in the Ural is produced, with the real earth, rocks, and imbedded ores and minerals, precisely as they are found in the distant mountains. Here the Geological student beholds the iron, the copper, the coal, the precious stones, and the gold, in their natural position, and precisely as he will meet them in his future operations in the actual mines. Certainly no more admirable device could be found for preparing the students of this school for the duties of real life. Is there any government in the world which has undertaken the developement of its mineral resources on so magnificent a scale, and in a manner so thoroughly scientific and at the same time so practical?

The Academy of Fine Arts is a building four hundred feet long and seventy feet high, in which is not only a magnificent picture gallery, but a school of Art, in which three hundred pupils are supported and educated. A school of the Arts is also maintained by the government, in which two hundred students, the sons of tradesmen, receive not only a general education, but also special instruction in the mechanical arts, and who are sent for the general improvement of the country by directing its various branches of labor. There is a Normal School of importance; the University, with five hundred students and fifty-eight professors; a Medical College, with five hundred pupils; a Female Institute, in which four hundred young ladies are gratui tously educated; and there are also theological, commercial, and other schools of various character.

Among these the Agricultural School deserves particular mention. A farm of seven hundred acres has been laid out, under the direction of the government, and on the premises, an agricultural school has been established, where both the theory and the practice of agriculture are taught to two hundred young peasants. An extensive museum is attached to this farm containing whatever relates to the occupation

of a farmer, including all descriptions of agricultural implements, even to the latest improvements known in America. Here also the finest breeds of cattle are collected, and model cottages are introduced, with the design of improving the architecture of the Russian farmers, which resembles very much the log-cabins of our own "backwoods." Each province is allowed to send annually a certain number to this school, and each year fifty graduates are distributed through the country, bearing abroad the skill and science which they have obtained in a four-years' course.

The pupils are also taught here the various trades which may be either useful to a farmer remote from markets, or which can be followed as a business by the pupils. Blacksmiths' and carpenters' work, cooperage, the construction of agricultural implements, tailoring, shoemaking, and cabinet making, are included in the course of instruction, and connected with the school is a foundry, a brick-yard, a pottery, a tan-yard, and a wind-mill.

As by the testimony of candid travelers this establishment is well conducted, its influence must be extensively felt in the development of the agricultural resources of the country. Great care is taken in this school for farmers to show how the principles of agricultural science shall be applied to particular localities, so that the education of the pupils becomes eminently practical and available. At the conclusion of the course each graduate is presented with a farm and one thousand roubles to stock it, and the government encourages them to become, by theory and practice, the teachers of the neighborhood in which they are located.

Baron Haxthausen, whose notes on Russia are among the most reliable sources of information, made a close examination of one of these farms, and describes it as in a good state of cultivation, and as having exercised a marked influence upon the adjoining country. He found the farm house "comfortable and scrupulously clean"-there were books indoors and flowers without, and all the furniture of the house, as well as the farming tools and machinery, had been made by those who occupied the farms.

A second government school of this description, on a very extensive scale, is now in a flourishing condition at Lipezk, in south Russia, and, in addition to this, a horticultural school has also been established by the emperor, and placed in charge of some German teachers. Separate from these schools for special purposes, is a school system for the empire, yet in its youth, but which promises great results for the future, and is indeed already exerting a transforming power upon the character of the nation.

The whole of Russia is divided into university districts, with a district university in each with subordinate schools attached, and at the head of them all is the National Univerity at Moscow. All the schools of each district are under the charge of the district university. It is a completely organized national system, which when fully carried out, will make the means of education universal in Russia. The following statements, condensed by the London Quarterly from the "Notes" of Baron Haxthausen, will be found interesting, as affording accurate information concerning the schools, and some of the institutions of Moscow, and throwing light upon the spirit and aims of the government:

"Few capitals can boast so many educational institutions as now exist at Moscow under the crown patronage. Beginning with the University, the Baron speaks of the upper professors as fully acquainted with all that has been written in other countries on their respective subjects, nor is he less pleased with the state of the numerous schools subordinate to this University. Other schools are, those of commerce (partly supported by the Merchants of Moscow), of drawing, for soldiers' orphans, and for cadets; but the greatest of all seems to be the Imperial House of Education, founded by Catharine II. It has at least twenty-six thousand children belonging to it, either within its walls or put out to nurse in the country-all of them orphans of officers, or foundlings. Of the children in the house, the boys are brought up to be schoolmasters or to be sent to the University;

the girls to be governesses-learning German, French, drawing, dancing, history, geometry, and music, besides sewing, knitting, etc. Places are found for them, by-andbye, but not in either of the capitals, which are thought unsafe for "unprotected females." They are watched for six years, and if marriage comes in their way proper inquiries are made about the swain. Attached to the institution is a school of Arts, the pupils of which are thoroughly trained in the practice of some one of the different trades that figure on the list, and which are in number seventeen."

Among the educational institutions of Russia, the public libraries of St. Petersburgh should not be omitted. The Imperial Library is one of the largest in the world. It contains four hundred thousand volumes, and fifteen thousand manuscripts. It is open daily for the use of the public. It is a curious fact that some of the most valuable of the state documents of France are now found in the Russian Imperial Library. During the French revolution, these treasures of the French government were seized by the populace and sold to the highest bidder, who proved to be a Russian, and by whom they were forwarded to St. Petersburgh. There has been gathered here-partly by purchase, partly by presents, and also by the spoils of war-one of the very best collections of oriental works to be found in the world. The library of the Academy of Science contains one hundred thousand volumes, and that of the IIermitage has one hundred and twenty thousand.

The present condition of Russian literature, and the activity of the public mind, may be shown from the fact that in the ten years next preceding 1843, seven millions of volumes of Russian books were printed, and nearly five millions of volumes of foreign works were imported. In a single year of this period, eight hundred and eighty works were printed and published within the Russian empire, and only seventy of these were translations from foreign tongues. The whole subject of education is committed to one of the