Besides a theatre, there is a library containing more than 120,000 volumes, 10,000 in the Russian language.

The Marble Palace, so called, is built of red granite, and is the residence of the Grand Duke Constantine.

The Taurida Palace, now in a neglected state, is famous for its ballroom, 320 feet long by 70 feet wide, and lighted up with 20,000 wax candles.

Among other numerous palaces may be mentioned the Michaelhof, erected by the Emperor Paul with extraordinary rapidity, there being 5,000 men employed daily, and in order to dry the walls more quickly large iron plates were made hot and fastened to them. Yet after the Emperor's death it was abandoned as quite uninhabitable after a cost of eighteen millions of roubles, or three millions sterling.

The room in which the Emperor died is sealed and walled up, and the palace is now converted into a school of engineers.

The Imperial Library is one of the most extensive in Europe, containing 400,000 volumes and 15,000 manuscripts.

St. Petersburg has only about thirty churches, the four principal the Kazan, St. Isaac, the Smolnoi and St. Peter and St. Paul.

The first of these, Kazan, is a copy, though on a small scale, of St. Peter's at Rome, with its colonnade, and adorned with colossal statues. In the interior are fifty-six marble columns, each 52 feet in height, hewn out of a single block of marble.

The walls and flooring of the same are all beautifully polished.

That part which answers to our chancel, in all Greek churches is looked upon as the Holy of Holies, shut off from the rest of the building by a screen, called the Iconostat. This is set apart for the priests: laymen may enter, but no woman, not even the Empress, can go into this mysterious enclosure.

In this church, all its beams and posts are of massive silver, the three doors and arches being 20 feet in height above the altar.

We could not learn, says Murray, how many hundredweight of silver were employed, but doubtless many thousands of dozens of French and German spoons, and hundreds of soup tureens and tea pots must have been melted down by the Cossacks in 1813 and 1814 as offerings to the Holy Mother of Kazan, this Madonna being held by them in peculiar veneration.

The members of the Greek religion pray standing,—the interior of the church is always devoid of pew, bench, or chair; but in every church there is a place set apart for the Emperor to stand in, which is raised above the floor, and usually covered with a canopy.

An exception has been made in favour of the Dowager Empress on account of ill-health.

This standing during a service, continuing two hours, must prove very fatiguing, but is a sure preventive of sleeping.

Behind and in front the ceremonies are performed by numerous priests, fine looking men, with long flowing beards, in robes of most costly materials; the genuflexions are numerous and very low, incense is much used, and there are some good pictures, but no statuary and no organ or other instrumental music; but the chanting is peculiar and very striking.

Whilst in catholic countries the churchgoers are mostly women; in Russia we find both sexes engaged in such duties.

On entering the church a wax candle is purchased, and sinking on one knee, bowing his head to the pavement and crossing his breast respectively with the thumb and the two forefingers of his right hand, the worshipper proceeds to the shrine itself, he lights his candle at the holy lamp, and sets it up in one of the numerous sockets in a large silver stand; then, falling low on his bended knee, kisses the pavement before the altar. This we witnessed on another visit, carried out to a most extravagant extent. A young man, almost the only worshipper present, bowed down from a standing position more than sixty times, bumping his head with such force upon the marble floor as to be heard distinctly a considerable distance—a case of insanity, you will suppose, or likely soon to become so.

Flame is considered the best spiritual representation; no interment, baptism, or any sacred ceremony is thought of without lamp or taper, greatly exceeding what takes place in the Catholic church.

Even the Exchange is not without its Saint and lamp continually burning.

On the Sunday we went to the grand church dedicated to St. Isaac, commenced in 1817 and only opened a fortnight before our arrival.

This church, with almost the grandeur of St. Peter's at Rome, though not so favourably situated, excels in beauty both the interior and exterior of the Madeleine in Paris.

In the foundation of this wonderful structure were driven 10,762 piles, the work of ten engines for a whole year; on these were placed two layers of blocks of granite, carefully worked and never again to be seen, being 15 feet below the surface of the street. They serve as a base to the walls of the cathedral, of which the more important are granite, to the level of the pavement, the remainder being constructed with compact masonry, bed upon bed, costing £200,000.

The portico on each of the four fronts consists of twelve Corinthian columns, each 7 feet diameter, and 57 feet long, in one block.

The dome is surrounded by 24 columns, each 42 feet in height, and is constructed of metal, viz., 52 tons of copper, 321 tons of brass, 524 tons wrought iron, 1,068 tons of cast iron, and 247 lbs. of ducat gold.

Three of the doors are 30 feet high and 12 feet wide, four others 17 feet high and 8 wide.

The interior is the form of a great cross, with the dome in the centre, the altar screen 150 feet long and 70 feet high, of white marble, encrusted with porphyry, jasper and other precious stones, and enriched with eight Corinthian columns of malachite and two lapis lazuli 42 feet high, and the doors into the chancel of silver, containing scriptural expressions 35 feet high and 14 wide, the whole costing 52 millions of roubles, or say in round numbers, 8½ millions sterling.

The day we attended proved a fête day, and of course was very much crowded by all ranks, from the richest noble to the humblest serf, in one general mass.

There were upwards of 20 priests officiating in their gorgeous robes, performing various ceremonies amidst frequent processions, and occasionally reading from one of their sacred books in so loud and distinct a tone as to be heard through the immense cathedral, and at other times chanting in deep bass tones, varied by the assistance of young choristers, with the sweetest voices, producing the most delightful harmony.

During the service, which lasted 2½ hours, the cathedral was illuminated by seven chandeliers, containing each 130 candles, and other smaller ones, all of silver; in addition to these were many votive candles purchased by various worshippers and deposited in sockets of a silver frame work placed near the altar, amounting altogether to not fewer than 1,500 lights.

St. Petersburg can boast of several large monuments, the Ramanzof erected to the field-marshal of that name, and Suwaroff, one of their most distinguished heroes; also the column of Alexander, a single shaft of red granite, upwards of 80 feet in height. The base and pedestal is composed of one enormous block, above 25 feet square, and to secure the base there were no fewer than six successive rows of piles, the shaft of the column alone weighing nearly 400 tons.

On the pedestal is the following short and well-chosen inscription:

"To Alexander the Great; Grateful Russia."

But the most wonderful of all is the well-known equestrian statue of Peter the Great, representing the Emperor riding up a rock and subduing a serpent.

The huge block of granite which forms the pedestal, and