HASZARD’S GAZETTE, AUGUST 18.

RUSSIAN FLEET A1‘ CBONSTADT.

The Allied fleet now extends from the London Shoals to the Tolboukin Light, thence far along the nortbermsbore to the town of Crop- gtgdt, and still the cry is “ they come "—_-ship of the line and block ship, screw frigate gnd paddle, gun-boat and mortar-vessel; and‘ now is the time that something might be at- tempted. Not that we are likely to go in and attack the forts, whatever might have been done last year. The difiieulties are now very great, if not insurmountable. A range of shmarine piling runs in one unbroken.line from Lisi Ness to a point where the town is out ofran c. From this same Lisi Ness to Man-of-War arbour a large portion of the Russian fleet lies moored. It consists of several line-of-battle ships, fri- gates, and oorvettes; these are backed by a number of gun-boats, and. singular to any, twenty of them are propelled by steam-power. It is said the locomotives were taken oil‘ the railway for this purpose; but the factory at Cronstadt is fast making many more.

On the northern shore the most elaborate earth-works, new green with the vegetation of spring. protect it rem any light attack in that direction; these have been constructed since last spring. In the regular channel above Ris- bank their best ships are lying ready for sea, with their ensigns and jacks blended with the flags of Cronstadt and Risbank. These of course, are so placed as to command the chan- ne On a fine day, the view is not a bad panorama. On either side of on stretches the

ark yellow water from the eve, the shores now verdant with spring and the stately pine, and dotted with many beautiful villas as far as the eye can reach. In the distance, the mag- nificent dome of St. Isaac's, and the gilded spires of the churches ofSt. Pctcrsburgb, may be seen clear against the faint blue sky. wit the white sails of the Russian men-of-war bouts gliding across them at intervals. Altogether the scene is a singular one. Here is an im- mense force, with the naval resources of three nations, in close proximity ; and still so equally has the game been played, that neither side has scarcely iired a shot.

But the forts are the most magnificent objects in the picture. There they stand. the very per- sonification of solidity, with guns frowning tier above tier ; and so well are they kept in repair, that they look from this distance as if fresh from the builders’ hands. This ncatness in far- tilication appears to be quite a rage with them. Everytliing is arranged to catch the eye. But nature has done a great deal for the Russians both at Cronstadt and Sebastopol, and they linve taken every advantage of what she has given them as a foundation for works ofde- fence. '-

THE RUSSIA N PEASANTRY.

Colossal as the power of Russia may be con- sidered, its has within its ample bosom all the elements of weakness. It has no 1'01‘ ympuli and therefore is deficient in the most cli:i.racte- ristic feature in national greatness.

This will be apparent, when it is taken into consideration that, with few exceptions, the peasants of Russia. are slaves. 1‘licy form two classcs—pcas:ints of the crown ; and peas- ants helonging to individuals. The Emperor .\'ichol:is has done much to lessen the evils of the former, and to render their manumission, as well as that ofthe latter class, more practi- cable. Yet the condition ofbotli is still degra- ding iind deplorable.

It is calculated that about a sixth pnrtof the peasantry belong to the crown. Peasants be-

onging to individuals. are their property, as much as the cattle on their estate. The rent paid-by the crown peasants is fixed; that paid by the private peasants is regulated by their means of getting inoney—-or, in other words, is is a tax on their industry. There is no law to restrain the demands of the master-their time and labor are absolutely at his command. Some of the nobility send their slaves to St. Peters- burg or Moscow, to be instructed in various trades; and then either employ them on their own estates, hire them out, sell them permis- sion to exercise their trade, or dispose of them at an advanced price. Some of the Russian nobles have seventy thousand or one hundred thousand peasants--and from this fact, as may well be supposed, their wealth is immense, in whatever manner the labor of these slaves is employed. Women and children, as well as men, must labor for their iuaster, for such pay as his caprice or means may dispose or enable him to give. Tithes are besides demanded out of whatever may remain in their hands. As soon as a child reaches the age of ten, its labor is required : and when he reaches fifteen, each male is obliged by law to labor three days in a week for his master. If the proprietor chooses to employ him on other days, he may—ns for example in a manufnotory; in this case, how- ever, he finds him in l'ood and clothing. in go- neral, the master, instead of exactingtlie labor of a slave for the stated portion of the week, a recs to receive rent; iind he is bound to fur- nish him with ii house and a certain portion of land. 'l‘ho aged and iufirrm are provided with food, raiinent, and lodging at his egpense.

The master has the power of correcting

his slaves by blows or imprisonment; but

the law—in such a country easily evaded- forbids the exercise of any great cruelty. No slave can quit his village, or-if he be a domestic slave,—his master’s family, without a passport. Imprisonment, with hard labor, is the punishment of runaway slaves. A master may send his slave into the public workhouse, or into the army,- in the latter case, he sends one man less the next levy. No slave can be legal- ly sold, except to a noble—but this law is frequently evaded. A slave may obtain his liberty by manumission, by purschase, or by serving in the army or navy.

It is, however coiisolatory to reflect that, injurious as the state of the Peasantry may be to the higher feelings of our nature, it is not aggravated by poverty. Their houses —-formed of whole trees,—nre in tolerable repair, and well adapted to their habits. They sometimes, but not often, consist of two stories; the lower forms a store -room--» in the upper one they dwell. A kind of ladder on the outside serves as a staircnsen There is generally but one room in the ba- bitable part. Their furniture seldom com- prises more than a ivooden table and bench- es fastened to the sides of the room, wood- en platters, bowls, and spoons, and perhaps a large earthen pan to cook. Their diet is substantial, consisting of black rye-bread, eggs, salt fish, mushrooms, and bacon. They have also a favorite dish—hoth-potch of salt or fresh meat, greats, and rye-flour, seasoned with onions and garlic. Of this food they obtain plenty at a cheap rate. Their clothing however is dear. To clothe a Russian peasant or soldier costs nearly three times as much as in America; but their clothing is strong, and being made loose and wide, lasts longer. It is rare to see a Russian in rags, and their style of dress becomes them very well. As to their personal appcarunce,they may be described, as a large, coarse, linrdy rnce—posscssed ofgrent bodily strcngih—rarely below the middle statui-e—strong-linibcd--lean, but well built. Their mouths and eyes are smnll—tlicir lips thin -—thcir teeth even and \vhitc—-tlieir hair brown, rcddisli or flaxcn —-tlieii‘ beards strong and bushy. The coiiiplcxioii of the female peasantry is brii-

ncttc. Seine of them, as among otlir.-i° classes are cxtrciiicly linndsoine. Both sexes are rcinurknbly superstitious. llciu

deprived of education beyond that requisite sharpening oftlicir instincts to render them more valuable as a property, they cling to old traditions with extraordinary tenacity- bclicve in ghosts, goblins, and every variety of supernatural phenomena.

Probably the most singular superstition in the world prevails in Moscow. The people of that city and for hundreds of miles around it, almost adore the Great Bell which lies at the foot of lvan’s Tower.

On festival days—-which in the. Greek calendar are remarkably niiiirerous--tliey resort to the Great Bell as they would to a sanctuary.

The origin ofthis superstilioii is involved in obscurity: but as no people, however deeply they may be sunk in ignorance, are so insensible as to be altogether indifferent to the attractions of political and social liberty, the custom may probably be traced to ii tradition connected with the bell, which has been preserved among the Russian peasantry for several generations.

This tradition, it appears, refers back to a period when the Russians enjoyed a con- dition npproacliiiig to that of pastoral sim- plicity. The alarm bell in ii tower before the Kremlin, was brought from Novogorod, when that city was conquered in 1477. There it had been used as a signal for the people ofthat Republic to assemble, in the event of foreign danger or intestine tumult; and they regarded its removal to Moscow as the sure prelude to their departing liber- ty. Thenceforward the love of bells be- came quite a passion among the peasantry of Russia; and several of the Emperors, without paying much re ard to the political sentiment involved in t e matter, gratified their taste by the most liberal expenditure in this means to supply a substitute for the dearer strains ofliberty.

Tnr. PARIS ExHlBl'l'l0N.—Ol'lNl0N or Esousn Junons.-—Attention is called by the English jurors new in Paris, to the ex- traordinary beauty and interest of the col- lection in the Paris Exhibition as a whole,

new that it has attained its full proportions.

Disappointed with the half failure of the opening, too many ofour countrymen have leaped the conclusion, that there is little to see in the Champs Elysees--a very false inference, and one which the jurors feel bound to oppose. They declare boldly in favour of “the superiority of the objects

call the earnest attention of our artists, inanufacturers, and workmen, to this fact.l

e_can ourselves testify to the general truth of the asscrtion—though we might have to qualify it in some few particulars.! —London ./lllmusum.

Rs:-.i.iniusi.c Bu.i.oos ASCENSION. — Taiiss l-Iusunnn sun Firrv Mince Tita- vsi.i.so is Foun Houns.—\Vm. D Bun- ml-Slle. ufAdrinn city, Michigan, ascended, on Friday afternoon, in a balloon, from that place, at I0} in the morning, and descended, in Clarion county,Pcnnsylvania, ‘.3; in the afternoon, making the computed distance ofthree hundred and filly miles in the extraordinary short time offour hours. This is his second trip, and an experimen- tal one with a balloon of unusually large size. _It is thirty feet in diameter, contains over six hundred yards ofsilk, and is capa- ble of holding nineteen thousand cubic feet ofgas. After his ascent to the dis- tance of three miles and a half, the taro- naut struck the eastern current of air, which, he says, is continually blowing in the one direction. It carried him south of the Lakes, through Central Ohio. His iii- tcntion was not to descend until dark, as he was above the rain clouds in the clear upper sky, but the excessive cold to which he was exposed brought on the accustomed drowsy sensation, which prevented him from properly managing his balloon. He was in that sleepy state when his “craft.” anchored in a tree in Red Bank, liavintr descended in consequence of the evapora- tion of gus.——'l‘lie cold was so severe, that his feet were completely frozen.

\ViiA’r IT cosrs T0 Benininu A Cl'l‘Y.—- That war‘ is an expensive occupation the British (iovci-nincnt and people are begin- ning to understand by means of augment- ed taxes. and the opening of the fire of the allies siiggcsls n cnlciilzilioii as to the costs of the iron biills which have been tliroivii

Timi. or Aoiiicui.-riiiui. liirizunuu u 1-“. Firlscu Exiiiin'riou.—Hersce Greeley, Esq., Editor of the N. Y. Tribune attended I irizilof Plow! and Mnwers on the 7m July last at Gain-

nen the "Imperial" College of A ricultiue, some twenty-five miles west of Paris. e says- “ Ayzrent number of l’lows were taken from the Exhibition and tried here, and that of the Mrssrs.

exhibited over those of 185|;” gnd may. Howard, Bedford, England. was renounced the ‘ most effective

I understood Mr. aines Howard, one of the makers, to state ihat, as carefully tested by the dynainomeier, on clover sod, being drawn by two smartly walking horses, it turned a fur- row leii inches wide and six and a half deep, with :i medinm draft of only I82 pounds, or a little more than half its own weight. There are a good many men who could draw this plow at the gait, and almost any two men coul easily do it. There was no plow entered from our country, (we have none in the Palace,) but one from Canada was tried and did good work. Most of the plows entered from the continent proved beneath a con- iemp, as was to be expected. Some of them re- quired over quadruple the power to propel thcil that was exacted by the winner, and one from Austria, that was confidently bragged on before the trial, actually twisted around, broke oil‘, and gave up the ghost, in light clover soil free from root or stone. and wiih but a single span of horses before it!

We all went out in the afternoon to a large clover-field, where a quiet cluster of the farmer: of the vicimige had assembled to witness the ope- raiioii of Mr. McCormick’s Mower—one of the very few (I regret to say) Yankee farming imple- ments on exhibition. There wfls no coinpeiitios at this time, but the machine worked admirably, cutting very smoothly, closely and clearly, I swath five feet wide as fast as lhe span of horaeo drawing it could walk, and evidently making very moderate demands on ilieir muscles‘ The ground was quite uneven, and at one place the grass was vigorously stamped down by the spectators, in or- der to lest the machine under the most adverse circiiinsiaiiccs. In this way seine stalks were made to escape culling, but the machine was no- ivi.~‘e checked nor impeded. The most satisfacto- ry feature of the performance was the entire ab- stinence of lilr. McCormick's agent, after ilie first round, leaving the machine to be operated entirely

5 by French laborers who never saw it before that

day. 'l'liei'e was a very general and hearty ma- nifestation of delight from the assembled farmers, and trust that not this only but other American machines also will be tested again and put in competition iviih ihose of Europe, under the eye ofa criiical comniiuee. If the Exliibitiiin is to be anyiliiu,r_- better than a novel show, here is (in faci) ils proper element.

A NEW WAY 'ro Rust: Bf-I.\NS.—A gentleman in Seneca Fillli, N. Y., last s;-riiig. planted some Lima l-cans. Not l)ein,r_v provided wiili poles be supplied their place by planting in each hill sun-

into Scbnstopol by the five hundred cannon which have hurled them in wlint Gorlsch:i- kofl' called ‘an infernal fire.” The ac- counts by the Asin represent that each of these guns fired one hundred and twenty rounds a day, which gives a total forthc five liumlrcd of sixty thousand rounds. This fire has been continued for thirteen days, making an aggregate of seven liuii- dred and eighty thousand missiles rained upon the city.

The weight of shot fired from the guns of the allies varies probably from nineteen to one hundred and forty pounds, and of the shells from fifteen to one hundred and ten poiinds—nnd forty-live pouncs would pro- bably be a low estimate for an average. This would give a daily delivery of iron to the Russians amounting to two million seven hundred thousand pounds, and a total for the thirteen days of I/iirly-/ire million one hundred Ihousaml pounds—the prime cost of which, in the rough, at the average price ofpig iron in England for the last year, was not lcssthan three hundred and thirteen thousniid three hundred and eighty dollars. —This is of course, without any regard to the enormous cost of transportation to the Crimea.

lfthe cannon balls fired from the allied lines during the thirteen days were rolled into rail bars, weighing sixty pounds to the yard, the bars would extend three hundred and thirty-two miles: or if laid as a rail- road, would suflice as a single trackrond from New York to Albany, with all the necessary turn-outs.

The charge of powder for each gun would probably average about six pounds, which would show an expenditure for the thirteen days of four rnilliona six hundred and eighty tliousnnd pounds of powder. Such powder is worth here eighteen cents ii pound, but in England would not probably, cost more than fifteen cents, at which price the powder cost seven hundred and two thousand dollai-s.—.flmerican Paper.

flowers, trimming: them up so that ihry served the pprpose of poles. For a time all went on well, iill, at length. the sunflower growing so much faster than ilie beans. ilie latter were abso- lutely drawn up by the roots.

VOLCANIC Mun l’i-tiisuiiii:xos.—Oi|ihe l9ih uli., as ihe steamer 'l'i.~;/iomm'n_.;u was wcnding her way up the Ohio river, the officers and passengers on board of her beheld a rein:irk;ib|e upheaving of waters in the centre of the siresni. When about seventy-five miles below [.s0lliS\lllL‘, they behold a dense body of mud :ind water, some thirty or furl feet in diameter, thrown up. somewhat after ilie manner of a fountain, to a height of fifteen feet. It rose and sunk several times.

Tasras DI!-‘I-‘Ell.--In a lecture on what he had seen abroad, Wendell Philips ohaerves:—-

" In Italy you will see a man breaking up his land with two cows, and the root of a tree for a plow, while he is dressed in skins with the hair 0n. In Rome, Vienna and Dresden, ifyou hire a man to saw wood, he does not bring a horse slang. He never had one, nor his fatlzerbefore ' e puts one end on ihe ground, and the other on his breast, and taking the wood in his hand, rubs it against the saw. It is a solemn faci that in Florence, a city filled with the Iri- umph of art, there is not a single auger, and ifa carpenter would bore a hole he does it with a red hot poker. This resultslht from the want of ir.-4 dustry, but of sagacity of thought. The peoplc are by no means idle. They loillearly and late, men, women, and children, with an industry that shaines labor saving Yankees. Thus he makes labor, and the poor must live. In Rome charcoal

=2‘ ?

string of twenty mules bringing little sacks of it upon their back, when one male could bring all of it in a cart. But the charcoal render never had a cart, and so he keeps his males and feeds thein. This is from no want of industry, but there is no competition.

A Vic'riin or Cosi-‘ii)i;i\'c.i:.—A fellow on the racecourse was staggering about wiih more liquor than he could carry. ,‘ llsllol what's the manor now?” said a chap whom ihe inebriaied individual had just run aizainst. " Why—hic—why, in; fact is, a lot of my friends have been betting liquor on the race to-day, and they have got me

Why is a psrfuincr the wisest of men?-

Because he never licks scents.

to hold the stakes."

is principlly used for fuel, and you will see a'