Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session of the Thirty-ninth Congress

[No. 121]

Mr. Clay to Mr. Seward

Legation of the United States. St. Petersburg, Russia, October 8, 1866.

Sir: I refrained from giving a detailed account of the visit of Assistant Secretary G. V. Fox, and his reception by the court and people of Russia, with the understanding that he would give me a copy of his journal for the State Department. As this reception was one of the most remarkable in history, and I desire to have that journal on record in the archives of the State Department, I have asked him to send you a copy, which I request you to mark A, B, and make it a part of this despatch.

I am, dear sir, your obedient servant,

C. M. CLAY.

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

Mr. Fox to Mr. Seward

U. S. Steamer Augusta, Keil, Prussia , September 30, 1866.

Sir: I have the honor to furnish you, herewith, a copy of my journal submitted to the Secretary of the Navy, giving a narrative of my doings in Russia.

With great respect, your obedient servant,

G. V. FOX, Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, Washington, D. C.

Mr. Fox to Mr. Welles

No. 9.]

United States Steamer Augusta, Keil, Prussia, September 30, 1866.

Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith a journal of my doings since the date of official despatch, numbered 7, which was forwarded from Paris the 3d of July.

Mr. Bigelow, our minister at Paris, presented me to Prince Napoleon. At this interview the Prince said to me in presence of Mr. Bigelow, “Do not be too friendly with Russia” I answered, “Russia and America have no rival interests; Russia has always been to America, and we reciprocate the feeling” He said, “You can stand alone; you want friends.” I answered, “When it was doubtful whether we should ever stand again at a time when the most powerful nations menaced us, Russia felt and expressed her sympathy for us, and America never will forget it.” After a few moments’ silence he said, “Russia is for herself alone;” and the subject changed.

On the 9th I left Paris for Geneva to meet relatives. On the 13th I visited Chamouny. the foot of Mont Blanc; on the 15th to Lausanne; and on the 16th to Berne, to call on out minister, and on the same evening arrived at Basle. On the 17th to Strasbourg; on the to Mannheim; and on the 19th remained over night at Bingen. The 20th I descended the Rhine by steamer to Cologne.

I had appointed Stettin as the stopping place of the Augusta and Miantonomoh, after leaving England, and at that place I designed joining the monitor, and proceeding directly to Cronstadt; but at Cologne I learned that the cholera was very bad at Stettin. After communicating by telegraph with our consul there, Mr. Lundell, who corroborated the cholera reports, I telegraphed to our minister, Mr. Yeaman, at Copenhagen, to stop the ships at that port, as they passed through the sound. My telegram was in time, and on the 22d I left Cologne and reached Copenhagen on the 24th, prepared to sail direct for Cronstadt the next day, but hearing alarming accounts of the cholera, I determined to await accurate information from our minister, Mr. Clay, to whom I telegraphed.

On the 26th I visited the navy yard. The 27th, Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, and myself were presented to the King by the United States minister; in the afternoon the King and royal family visited the Miantonomoh. The 28th, the Russian minister and friends visited the monitor. July 29th, our minister, Mr. Yeaman, Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, Mr. Edward H. Green, J. F. Loubat, and myself, dined with the King and royal family at Bernesdorf.

31st, having received accounts from Mr. Clay that the cholera was abating at St. Petersburg, and the Russian consul having informed me that there was no cholera at Helsingfors, I decided to go to that port and await more accurate information. I telegraphed to Mr. Clay, offering to proceed alone to St. Petersburg, but he answered to “come with the ships, if it took all summer.” At 2.30 p. m. of this day both ships went to sea. August 3d, at 3.20 p. m., anchored in the harbor of Helsingfors. The governor, admiral, and general in command, with their suites, called upon me on board the monitor, and welcomed, me by orders of the Emperor, in Russian waters.

August 4th, attended a lunch given by the officials to the Americans, which was followed by a ball in the evening. Further courtesies were planned, but learning that the cholera had ceased at Cronstadt, I determined to proceed with all despatch. August 5th, at 8 a. m., got under way and went to sea. Met a Russian squadron outside of the harbor sent to escort us to Cronstadt. The following vessels comprised the squadron, viz:

Sebastopol—broadside iron-clad flag-ship Rear Admiral Likhatcheff, Captain Brummer; Chrabzy—junior flag-ship, Rear-Admiral Bontakoff, Captain Rehbinder; Wladimir—Captain Hondriauvoy; Netronnemenia—broadside iron-clad, Captain Silvanoff; Jachont—Captain Hosnakoff; Peroun—monitor, Captain Karp off; Strelitz—monitor, Captain Popoff; Lava—monitor, Captain Wogax; Edinorog—monitor, Captain Kladt; Smerch—Cole’s turret ship, Captain Kormiloff; Donitri Donskoy—Captain Aukondinoff.

August 6th, at 10 a. m., anchored at Cronstadt. We were welcomed with salutes, cheers from people on the quays and forts, and in she steam yachts with music on board, and visits from the principal officials of the government, and the mayor and corporation of Cronstadt, the former of whom made an appropriate address. Rear-Admiral S. Léssovsky came on board and informed me that by command of the Emperor the officers and crew were to be considered the guests of the government, and that he was detailed to take charge of us, supported by the following officers, viz: Rear-Admiral Gorkovenko, Captain Hedorofsky, Lieutenant Commander Holtorskoi, Lieutenant Rickatcheff, Lieutenant Loenbeck, Lieutenant Lehman, Lieutenant Kupfer, Ensign Paltoff.

At 1 p. m. I went to St. Petersburg and paid my respects to our minister, Mr. Clay, and furnished him with a written report of my arrival, and copies of all documents addressed to me by the State and Navy Departments; also a copy of the resolution of Congress, and the speech proposed when presenting the resolution. August 6th, took possession of apartments assigned us at the Hotel de France.

August 7th, made the necessary official calls with the United States minister. At 10 a. m., proceeded to Peterhof, by appointment, to present to the Emperor the resolution of Congress. At the station in Peterhof we were received by the officials of the court, and Mr. Clay and myself were placed in a four-horse state coach and driven to the Palace. At 2 the following persons were presented to the Emperor by Mr. Clay, Prince Gortchakoff, vice chancellor and minister of foreign affairs, being present: Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, Mr. Green, Mr. Loubat, Mr. John Van Buren, of New York, and myself.

Immediately after the presentation I read the enclosed address, marked A, to the Emperor, and then handed the copy of the resolution of Congress which had been intrusted to me by my government. The Emperor handed the resolution to Prince Gortchakoff, and replied in French, which was immediately afterwards translated into English by Prince Gortchakoff, and is enclosed herewith, marked B.

The American minister and officers were in uniform, and Mr. Green, Loubat, Yan Buren, and myself, in black full dress. After the presentation carriages were placed at our disposal, and we called upon Kommissaroff, the peasant who saved the life of the Emperor, and then visited the grounds and Mon Plaisir, where a dinner was prepared and partaken of by the officers.

August 9th, received the Emperor on board the Augusta at 11 a. m. He visited both vessels with a distinguished suite, and was received with the honors designated for such an occasion. The Emperor invited Mr. Clay Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, Mr. Van Buren, and myself, to accompany him to visit the Russian fleet and witness target firing from one of the forts. Visited a Russian monitor, the iron-clad battery Netronnemenia, and thence to Fort Paul.

Before reaching the fort, lunched with the Emperor on board his yacht, when he said to me, “I drink to the prosperity of your country, and that the fraternal feelings which now exist may continue forever.” Remained at Fort Paul two hours, witnessing very excellent target firing. As the Emperor departed for Peterhof he hoisted the square imperial flag and was saluted by all the forts and ships of war.

At five p. m., by invitation of the officers of the Russian fleet, we dined at the Naval Club room, Cronstadt. There were about four hundred guests present, and all the officers of our squadron that could be spared, Mr. Clay, our minister, and his secretary of legation, Mr. Curtin. The people of Cronstadt, in large numbers, received us as we landed; and at the club rooms we were welcomed by the principal officials and the national airs of America.

At one end of the hall were the portraits of Washington, Lincoln, and Johnson; and the flags of the two countries were appropriately arranged. The banquet was honored by the presence of Kommisaroff, the peasant.

August 10.—Visited the Russian ships in the harbor to return calls. At five p. m. we dined with the mayor and corporation in the town hall, one hundred and fifty guests being present. This entertainment was by the municipality, who are elected by the people, as in the United States, and who are entirely distinct from the government officials. The town hall was surrounded by a crowd, who filled up the street, and expressed their welcome by cheers whenever an American was seen at the Windows.

August 11.—Left for St. Petersburg officially. All the officers of the squadron were invited, and twenty-five were allowed by Captain Murray to accept, to be relieved by others alternately. Upon landing at St. Petersburg a very large crowd of people welcomed us by cheers and salutes. Visited, first, the church of St. Isaac, and ascended to the dome; thence we took possession of our rooms at the Hotel de France, where we found everything placed at our disposal, free of expense—carriages to visit at pleasure, steam yachts to return to the ships, and steam-tugs to wait upon the vessels at Cronstadt.

At two p. m. the American minister entertained us at a dejeûner, at which the principal officials of the government and foreign diplomats were present. At 7.30 p. m. attended an evening festival given in our honor by the River Yacht Club of St. Petersburg, upon the Little Neva and one of the islands. It consisted of a row in boats before dark, then a reception in the yacht building, salutes, christening of a boat called the “Fox” by Miss Van Buren, illuminations, fireworks, serenade in gondolas, dancing, supper, and a brilliant escort upon leaving.

August 12, Sunday.—Attended the Episcopal Church service at the English chapel.

August 13.—Went to Zarsko Selo to visit the palace and the famous armory, all of which was freely shown to us by General Gogoll, the governor, who entertained us during the day. In the evening, went to Pawlofsk to an entertainment given at the house and gardens of the railroad station—music, illuminations, fountain of water illuminated by different-colored lights, and supper. Twelve thousand people assembled to see us.

August 14.—At ten a. m. visited the admiralty and the imperial public library; p. m., to the Winter Palace, Hermitage, Museum of Agricultural Management; and in the evening, I to Zarsko Selo to accept private hospitalities.

August 15.—At ten a. m. visited the Alexander Nervsky convent and cathedral; thence to the foundry of steel guns, near which we lunched with the originator (under the minister of marine) of the manufacture of Krupp steel in Russia. The minister of marine, Admiral Crabbe, met us at the works, and, after explaining everything to us and casting a steel gun in our presence, called upon the men to give three cheers for the Americans.

Returned to St. Petersburg by boat, and visited the Merchant’s Exchange and the museum of the scientific academy. At five p. m. we dined with the merchants of St. Petersburg, at their club room on the Nevsky, Prospect street. Received the announcement that I was elected an honorary member of the club. At 10.45 the minister, Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, Green, Loubat, and myself went to Krasnoe Selo, to be present at the sham fight of the troops on the morrow, to which we were invited by the Emperor.

August 16.—Witnessed the operations of the troops and the charges of cavalry, the Emperor being present. Dined en famille with the officers.

August 17 —At nine a. m. a deputation consisting of the mayor and a committee of the corporation of St. Petersburg called upon me to announce that, by election and permission of the Emperor, I was become an honorary citizen of St. Petersburg. I accepted the honor. Visited the navy-yards, the sailors’ house of correction, Museum of Mining Institute, cathedral of the fortress, where the imperial family of Russia are buried, and the little boat, from which beginning Peter the Great conceived a navy for Russia. At 5.30 we dined at the Nobleman’s Club, at Strogonoff villa. The dinner ended with a ball and brilliant illuminations. Elected an honorary member of the club.

August 18.—Went to Cronstadt to receive the diplomatic corps and the ladies of the court, who were prevented from Peterhof by bad weather. The diplomatic corps were received with the usual honors.

August 19.—At ten a. m., by rail to Peterhof, to be presented to the Empress, our minister, Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, Green, Loubat, myself, and eight officers.

The presentation took place at thirty minutes past noon; thence our minister, Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, Mr. Green, Loubat, and myself proceeded to the palace of the Grand Duke Nicholas, and were presented to the grand duchess. Immediately afterwards we proceeded to the palace of the Grand Duchess Mary, and were presented to her and the Princess Eugenie. Lunched at the palace with the grand duchess and the Princess Eugenie.

At six p. m. dined with the Club of Mutual Assistance on one of the islands of the Neva. Elected an honorary member of the club. The dinner was accompanied by brilliant illuminations. At ten p. m., went to Krasnoe Selo to be prepared for the review of the morrow, to which Mr. Clay, Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, Mr. Green, Loubat, and myself were invited by the Emperor.

August 20.—Review took place from one to three p. m., in presence of the imperial family. Lunched at the table of the Emperor. As six, dined with Mr. Winans at his house in St. Petersburg. At nine p. m. took supper with Mr. Gromoff, at his beautiful residence in the suburbs of St. Petersburg—music, illumination of ground, water-works, fireworks, vocal music, and dancing.

August 21.—At 8.30, to Peterhof by invitation of the Emperor, to visit with him the forts in the process of construction in the harbor and the ships about to depart upon foreign service, At 10 proceeded to Cronstadt; witnessed a monitor sham fight; visited three men-of-war and two of the principal iron-clad fortifications. Returned to St. Petersburg in the evening.

August 22.—At three p. m. left by boat for Peterhof to dine at the palace with the Emperor and Empress. Mr. Clay, Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, Mr. Loubat, myself, and eight officers attended the dinner at five p. m. Near the close the Emperor rose and, in the French language, drank to the prosperity of the United States, the health of the deputation, and the continuation of friendly relations between the two countries. After dinner the palace carriages were placed at our disposal, in which we visited the neighboring palaces and grounds.

At 9.30 p. m. attended a ball at Peterhof, presided over by the Grand Duchess Mary, in aid of a noble charitable purpose. One thousand roubles was subscribed and handed to the grand duchess by Captain Murray. The Emperor was present at the ball. We slept at the palace this night.

August 23.—At seven a. m. returned to St. Petersburg. At 2.30 p. m. left by special cars attached to the train for Moscow, Mr. Clay, our minister, Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, Mr. Curtin, secretary of legation, Mr. Loubat, myself, and about twenty officers.

At six p. m., at Chudova station, seventy five miles from St. Petersburg, received a deputation from Great Novgorod, forty-five miles distant, consisting of the governor, the president of the board of self-government for the whole district, and the mayor. They welcomed me with a brief address and presented me with views of Novgorod, and the bronze medal struck in commemoration of the monument erected at Novgorod in 1862, the one thousandth anniversary of the existence of the Russian Empire. A deputation of peasants presented me with the “bread and salt,” an Eastern custon of welcome.

August 24.—At 10 a. m. arrived at Moscow. The governor, Prince Dolgoroûki, the mayor, Prince Stsherbatoff, and other officials received us at the station, surrounded by a large crowd. The mayor welcomed us, and announced to me that it was proposed that I should be elected an honorary citizen of Moscow. Took carriages provided for us and went to the hotel of Mr. Kokozeff as his guests. Here we received many official visits; afterwards made official calls, and then visited the Kremlin, the Bazaar, and the church building to commemorate the destruction of the French army in Russia in 1812. At 7 p. m. dined with Prince Dalgaroûki, the governor-general of the province; one hundred present. A very great crowd of people outside cheering us during dinner. At 11 p. m. all our party proceeded with the governor to the Zoological Gardens, where we could with difficulty enter on account of the crowd. Music on the stage, with dancing, illumination of the foliage by different colored lights, a display of fireworks upon the shores of the lake, and a supper at midnight.

August 25.—Visited Novo Devichi convent, Calico Print Works, and a review of the troops. Again presented with bread and salt by the peasants. At 7 p. m. dined with the city government; three hundred present. Portraits of Mr. Clay, Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, and myself were hung up in the room, while the usual portraits of Washington, Lincoln, and Johnson graced the head of the room.

August 26.—Attended Episcopal service a. m. At 3.30 p. m. we went into the country to the residence of Prince Galitzin to dine with him. The mayor, elected by the people and formerly a serf of the prince, in a very appropriate speech welcomed me, and presented me with the bread and salt on a silver service. After visiting the grounds, constantly cheered by the people, we dined with the prince at 7 p. m. After dinner I presented an American flag to the mayor.

August 27.—Attended the Greek service in the church of the Assumption. Visited the asylum for foundlings and orphans, the Romanoff house, the church of St. Basil, and the Zoological Gardens, where an address of welcome was presented. At dusk visited the Hawk park to witness the various entertainments provided for the populace. It was estimated that 60,000 people had gathered in the park, chiedy to greet us by an enthusiastic reception.

August 28.—To the sacred and historical monastery of Troitsa, forty miles from Moscow. Called upon the aged Metropolitan of Moscow, who, as a minister of peace, welcomed us upon our peaceful mission. By his direction we were received with the ringing the great bells, and shown all objects of interest. Returned to Moscow at 5 p. m., and in the evening all attended the ballet by invitation of the governor.

August 29.—At 10.30 left Moscow for Nijny Novgorod, two hundred and seventy-three miles distant. The governor, Prince Dolgoroûki, the mayor, Prince Stsherbatoff, and the committee of the city government attended us at the station. This committee proceeded to St. Petersburg to invite us to Moscow on behalf of the city government. They accompanied us in the cars to Moscow, and while there, together with the mayor, personally contributed to our comfort and our wishes in every possible manner. Rear-Admiral Léssovsky and most of his suite accompanied us, but also as guests. After leaving Moscow we were the guests of the merchants of the great fair of Nijny Novgorod, and a committee from them took us in special cars. At various stations crowds of people collected to welcome us as their true friends. Arrived at Nija Novgorod at midnight, when a large crowd collected about the station, which was illuminated and provided with a band of music, which played “Hail Columbia” There was much enthusiasm, and it required a squad of Cossacks to open the way for us to proceed to our quarters. The American flag was displayed very conspicuously about the city, probably for the first time, among the 200,000 traders collected together at this fair. Mr. Clay and some of the officers returned to St. Petersburg from Moscow.

August 30.—At 10 a. m. were presented to the Heritier and the Grand Duke Vladimir, who were at Nijny for a few days. Afterwards made the necessary official calls and visited the fair. At 6 p. m. dined with the merchants by invitation of the committee; one hundred and fifty merchants and officials present. After dinner, dancing and music by a company of gypsies.

August 31.—Visited the fair, the tomb of Minin, and and at five dined en famille with the committee. Received a deputation of peasant women, dressed in their national costumes, who had been to present themselves to the grand dukes. They gave me specimens of their handwork in iron and copper.

September 1.—At 10 a. m. visited the principal machine shop and foundry of the place, and at 11 embarked in a special steamer, with the committee and several of the leading merchants, and steamed slowly up the Volga. Lunch on board; gypsy dancing and music. At 1 p. m. were transferred to a steamer chartered especially for our use, and we took leave of the committee of merchants and came again under the charge of Rear-Admiral Léssovsky. Half of our officers returned with Commander Beaumont to St. Petersburg via Moscow.

September 2.—At 10.30 a. m. arrived at Kostroma, one hundred and ninety-one miles up the river Volga from Nija Novgorod. This city I desired to visit on my return to St. Petersburg, because the Russian people would be pleased if we did. The Romanoff family, now on the throne, came from this neighborhood; the peasant Susannah, who saved the life of the first Romanoff, and Kommissarow, who saved the life of the present Emperor.

The governor received us on the wharf—though our coming before afternoon was unexpected—and soon afterwards the mayor and marshal of nobility welcomed us. Went on shore to make official calls. At the governor’s received a deputation of peasants, with a present of “cake and salt.” Visited the monument to the first Romanoff and his peasant savior; the monastery where he was sheltered, and the large machine shop and foundry lately put into operation. The people gathered everywhere to greet us with cheers. P. m. lunched on board of our steamer, having the governor and one or two officials with us. The people collected en masse on the sloping bank of the river, and continually cheered the Americans and the United States. At six went on shore to dine with the governor, the mayor, and the marshal of nobility. As I ascended the bank, in company with the governor, a peasant took off his long overcoat, the usual outer-covering of that class, and threw it down in my path. 1 turned aside and stepped over it, when so many were instantly thrown down by the populace that I stopped, hesitating to accept a compliment given only to the Emperor. The governor motioned to me to proceed, and we all walked to our carriages, up the high bank of the river, upon the clothing which the people of the country threw down in our path. It was with some difficulty that our carriages made their way through the mass of people.

Upon entering the building where the dinner was prepared the beautiful daughter of the governer, surrounded by young girls, all dressed in white and ornamented with the United States colors, welcomed us in a few sentences of English, and then presented to every one a bouquet of flowers, tied with ribbons of red, white and blue. From dinner to a ball at the club-room, thence to a hemp-yarn factory, and to the residence of the owner. The city was very generally illuminated, and, though midnight, groups of people lingered, cheering us.

September 3, at 1.30 a. m., departed up the river. At 1 p. m. stopped a little above Ribinski to visit a rope-walk and ship yard. Dined with the proprietor. At 6 left, still ascending the Volga river. At 8 p. m. stopped at Keemera to wood. A deputation headed by the mayor came on board to welcome us, and extended an invitation to go on shore to see the church and take tea. Accepted. No officials of the government were present, the authorities being elected under the system of self-government authorized by the present Emperor. As we returned to the steamer the populace escorted us with lights in their hands, and illuminated the path by placing two parallel lines of lights upon the ground, reaching to the wharf, and cheering us all the time with great enthusiasm. September 5, at 7.30, stopped at Kortcheva to wood; welcomed by the mayor, chief of police, and principal personages of the town, and the people.

The chief of police is an official detailed by the governor general of the province, but all other officials were elected and held office From the people.

We were invited to drink a cup of tea. Our welcome was very enthusiastic, and the mayor announced to me that I was proposed as an honorary citizen of the town. At 9 steamed up river. At our next stopping place for wood the peasants brought on board fresh caught fish and presented them to us. At 5.30 readied Tver, where the railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow crosses the Volga, a point distant five hundred and twenty-nine miles from Nijny Novgorod.

The marshal of the nobility and the president of the council of self-government, the governor, and the mayor received us at the landing, drove us to the principal points of attraction in the city, and then to dinner at the railroad station, where the people met and cheered us. At 7 p. m. took the Moscow train for St. Petersburg.

September 6, at 9 a. m., arrived at St. Petersburg. This day and the 7th accepting private hospitalities. September 8, at 10 o’clock a. m., Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, Mr. Loubat, and myself went to Strelna and were presented to the Grand Duchess Constantine, and breakfasted with her. The Grand Duchess and the ladies of the household wore the colors of the United States. At 5 p. m. dined at the English Club in St. Petersburg, Prince Gortchakoff presiding. Two hundred and fifty persons present.

September 9, a. m. to the Episcopal service in the English chapel. At 1 p. m. met Prince Gortchakoff by appointment at the Foreign Office. After complimentary allusions to myself, he handed to me, in the name of the Emperor, a gold snuff-box ornamented with six large diamonds and twenty-six of smaller size, surrounding a miniature of the Emperor; also, a large diamond ring, which he remarked might be given to Mrs. Murray, and one of the same kind for Commander Beaumont. I received these, and handed both rings to Captain Murray. Books of various kinds were presented to every officer in the squadron in the name of the Emperor.

At 7 dined with Mr. Jookoff; fifty present. His grounds were illuminated in a brilliant manner. September 10, at 10 o’clock a. m., to Zarsko Selo, to take leave of the Emperor and Empress. Captain Murray, Comnander Beaumont, Loubat, and myself were received at noon. The Emperor said that he wished me to convey to the President how deeply be felt at the mission which had been sens. He saw in the resolution of Congress the friendship of two great nations, and it was his desire to perpetuate it. He hoped I would testify to the American people the feelings of friendship which I had found among the Russians, and that I would carry away personally a good remembrance of Russia.

At 5.30 dined with Prince Gortchakoff in St. Petersburg; forty present. September 11, by invitation, our minister, Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, and several officers attended the commemorative services at the church of Alexander Nevsky. The Emperor, imperial family, and court, foreign ambassadors, and principal officials of the government present. At 8 p. m. visited the Alexander Institute for the education of young ladies. Received by the “lady directresses” and principal officers of the institution, which is now divided into two schools. The young lacies sang “Hail Columbia “in English, and danced Russian national dances. It was announced that the day and hour of our departure the school would be assembled, and prayers offered to God for our safety at sea.

September 12, at 10 a. m., Captain Murray, Commander Beaumont, and myself were presented to the Prince of Oldenburg at his palace in the city. At 11 visited the topographical bureau of the war department; thence to the palace of the Grand Duchess Mary. Received news from Kostroma that I was unanimously proposed as honorary citizen of that city.

September 13, at 11 a. m., visited the practice ground of the army and navy for guns, examined the targets, the rifled steel guns and models, and witnessed a little firing from the eight-inch breech-loading rifle. We were invited by the Grand Duchess Catharine to dinner, but the consecration of the Emperor’s chapel postponed it. In the afternoon to Cronstadt to attend a ball given by Admiral Merosilsky, governor of Cronstadt. September 14, preparing for our departure. September 15, (Saturday) at noon lunched with the minister of marine, Admiral Crabbe, on board his yacht Ruric. Received a deputation of peasants, who had come a long distance to thank the people of the United States for their friendship and sympathy. General Greigg, aide-de camp of the Emperor, presented me with the gold medal struck to commemorate the edict of emancipation. At 4.30 p. m. went on board the United States steamer Augusta, and with the Miantonomoh steamed out of the harbor, accompanied by the minister in his yacht, the steam frigate Swetlana, Captain Drosdier, and the sloop Chrabzy, Captain Rehbinder. Personal salutes were given to myself and national salutes and great cheering to our flag. At 7 the minister of marine left us in his yacht, after a display of fireworks, and directing the two men-of-war to see us safely out of the Gulf of Finland. September 16, standing down the Gulf of Finland, convoyed by the Russian ships.

September 17.—Having entered fully into the Baltic, each Russian ship fired a national salute of twenty-one guns, and a personal salute of seventeen guns, and left us after cheering ship.

I found on board the Augusta a note from Admiral Novossilsky and a picture of our Saviour, presented, as the admiral wrote, by a peasant named Michael Masieff, who, out of the savings of his labor, had bought this sacred picture, and desired to have it, sent to me as an expression of his feelings toward the nation that had sympathized with his Emperor.

On the 14th of August, and again on the 28th, an entertainment was given on shore at Cronstadt to all the crew that could be spared from duty. At all the institutions and public places which we visited the principal officials received us in full dress, and presents were made generally to most of our party, such as books, maps, photographs, and medals. Rear Admiral Léssovsky and the officers associated with him were unremitting in their attentions, and faithfully observed the instructions of the Emperor to see that we received a Russian welcome. But the striking feature of our visit was the spontaneous reception everywhere accorded to us by the people themselves. From the most remote parts of the empire telegrams were sent welcoming us, and expressing the most grateful feelings towards the people of the United States.

The first toast at entertainments was to the President of the United States, Mr. Johnson, and his picture, with Washington’s and Lincoln’s, usually graced every assembly.

The speeches were friendly, appropriate, and full of feeling. The flag of the United States has been shown and honored for a thousand miles in the interior of Russia, and our national airs have become familiar to her people.

The Emperor reviewed his troops, alternating the music of the two empires as the cloud of Cossacks swept past in a charge.

If nations require friends, and must lean towards each other like individuals, here are eighty millions of people, one race, one language, and a unit in their feelings of friendship for the United States.

The present Emperor has conferred upon them emancipation, liberty of the press, abolishment of the knout, local self-government, and trial by jury. Under these wise measures the empire begins to feel that conscious strength which springs from national unity resting upon the diffusion of light and power to all classes.

The unprecedented distinction conferred upon a foreigner, in electing him an honorary citizen by permission of the Emperor, of St. Petersburg, Cronstadt, Moscow, Kortcheva, and Kostroma; the unanimous welcome given to us by all classes, and the unusual reception extended to the officers and crew, by making the former without preference guests of the government, are due chiefly to the friendly action of Congress in passing the resolution of sympathy, and to the government in sending an official to Russia in a squadron of armed ships to deliver it.

With great respect, your obedient servant,

G. V. FOX, Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy.

A.

Address read to the Emperor of Russia upon presenting a copy of the resolution of Congress.

Sire: The resolution which I have the honor of presenting to your imperial Majesty is the voice of a people whose millions of lips speak from a single heart.

The many ties which have long bound together the great empire of the east, and the great republic of the west, have been multiplied and strengthened by the unwavering fidelity of the imperial government to our own, throughout its recent period of convulsion.

The words of sympathy and friendship then addressed to the government at Washington, by command of your imperial Majesty, are fixed in the eternal remembrance of a grateful country. As one of the wide family of nations, we yield our willing homage to that act of humanity which is especially referred to in the resolution of Congress. The peaceful edict of an enlightened sovereign has consummated a triumph over an inherited barbarism, which our western republic has only reached through long years of bloodshed.

It is therefore with profound emotion that I offer to your imperial Majesty, to the emancipated subjects, and to all the people of this vast realm, our heartfelt congratulations upon the providential escape from danger, which led to this spontaneous expression of regret for the attempt, and thankfulness for its merciful arrest and failure.

The story of the peril from which a kind Providence has delivered your imperial Majesty brings with it the remembrance of the mighty sorrow which so lately filled every loyal heart in our own land at the sudden loss of our chief, our guide, our father.

We thank God that a grief like this was spared to our friends and allies—the Russian people.

May the Father of all nations and all rulers protect, prolong, and bless the life which he has so signally preserved, for the service of the people to which it belongs, for the good of mankind, and for the glory of His holy name.

G. V. FOX, Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

B.

The Emperor’s Remarks.

“The Emperor is happy to see that the relations of sympathy existing between Russia and the United States are appreciated in America.”

His Majesty added, that he was convinced that the national fraternity would be perpetual, and that for his part he should contribute to it all his efforts.

The Emperor expressed, how greatly he was sensible of the proofs of affection which he had received on the part of Congress, and of the American nation. His Majesty particularly thanked those who had come so great a distance to bear these proofs to him. He assured them of their warm welcome to the soil of Russia, and closed, in remarking, that he should never forget the recollection of the cordial reception his squadron found in the United States.

[Translated by S. N. Buynitzky, for the Department of State.—Copyright secured by the translator.]

RUSSIAN ACCOUNT OF HON. G. V. FOX’S OFFICIAL MISSION TO RUSSIA, IN 1866.

The Cronstadt Herald, a Russian semi-weekly navy gazette, in thirty numbers, from the 20th of June to the 14th of September, 1866, inclusive, contains the narrative of all the events which took place during that period of time, in relation to the visit of the American embassy to Russia. These flying notes, written under the immediate impression of events, do not require any arrangement or commentary to present an interesting account of the whole affair. Moreover, the interest of these reports is greatly enhanced by the fact of their having been repeated by all the organs of the Russian press, and eagerly read throughout the vast empire; a fact to which the translator, who was at that time travelling in his country, most emphatically testifies.

[From the Cronstadt Herald, June 20, 1866.—June 8, of the Old Style.]

However interesting the questions arising from the Austro-Prussian conflict, we leave their discussion to the political part of our gazette, and will pass to our domestic maritime news, which, no less than the war rumors, occupy the minds of our seamen. Of course, our readers will guess that we are going to speak of the rumors concerning the expected arrival at Cronstadt of American vessels; rumors which spread with extraordinary rapidity among our navy officers, many of whom preserve a lively recollection of the more than common hospitality with which our squadrons were received in New York, Boston, and San Francisco. Our seamen entertain such lively feelings of gratitude and sympathy toward the American nation, that the gratifying intelligence of our transatlantic friends coming to visit us, spreading with uncommon rapidity, has engrossed the attention of the whole community of our eminently maritime city. Americans, and the expected meeting with them, are the topics of conversation in every circle.

Our city expects the arrival of Mr. G. V. Fox, Assistant Secretary of the United States Navy Department, who is appointed to present to the Emperor, our sovereign, the resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives of the American Congress, expressing feelings of sympathy and respect to his Majesty’s most august person, upon the occasion of his preservation from the danger which had threatened his life. Mr. Fox, the well-known advocate and partisan of monitors, leaves for Europe on board the monitor Miantonomoh, escorted by the side-wheel steamer Augusta.

A correspondent of the United Service Gazette, speaking of the Miantonomoh, expresses himself as follows :

“It is one of the best American monitors. She possesses two turrets, armed with four 15-inch guns, throwing shot weighing each 480 pounds, with loads of 35, 50, and 65 pounds of powder. The length of the Miantonomoh is 280 feet, and her breadth 55. This monitor is provided with an engine of 800 nominal powers, and according to the statement of her officers, sails with a speed of 10 knots. Each gun upon the Miantonomoh weighs about 21 tons, (that is, about 1,260 Russian poods,) and requires to be managed by 10 hands. The whole crew of the monitor consists of 25 officers and 121 sailors. The side-wheel steamship Augusta is armed with five ordinary Dahlgren cannon.”

The precise time of Mr. Fox’s sailing rom America is not yet positively known. It is very probable that, in Europe, some of the ships of Admiral Goldsborough’s squadron will join him. As soon as we get any reliable information about the numerical strength of the squadron escorting Mr. Fox, and about the time of its coming, we will communicate it without delay to our readers.

In any case, the visit of the Americans excites a lively interest in our public, and even now, discussions are already going on as to what would be an appropriate reception to our transatlantic friends, who extended such truly warm-hearted hospitality to our squadrons in 1863.

June 22.—To the information about the coming of American vessels, communicated by us in the last number of the Cronstadt Herald, we have only to add that, independently of the vessels escorting Mr. Fox, we shall very likely have the visit of the American screw sloop-of-war Ticonderoga, which is soon to arrive at Cronstadt. In relation to Mr. Fox’s mission we have learned the following interesting details, the authenticity of which we guarantee:

Upon learning the news of the horrible attempt of the 4th of April, the President of the United States of. North America commissioned the representative of the federal government at the imperial court in St. Petersburg to express to his Majesty the Emperor, our sovereign, the sincere congratulations of the American nation and the indignant feeling aroused in America by the horrible crime of the villain who had attempted the life of his Majesty. General Clay, United States minister, fulfilled the President’s commission soon after the event.

In addition to this action of the President, the Congress of the American republic gave expression to the feelings of profound esteem and sympathy of the American people towards the person of his Majesty the Emperor Alexander and the Russian nation.

Upon a motion of Mr. Stevens, from Pennsylvania, one of the most influential members of Congress, the American Senate and House of Representatives unanimously voted a joint resolution, worded as follows:

“JOINT RESOLUTION relative to the attempted assassination of the Emperor of Russia.

“Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress of the United States of America has learned with deep regret of the attempt made upon the life of the Emperor of Russia by an enemy of emancipation. The Congress sends greeting to his Imperial Majesty, and to the Russian nation, and congratulates the twenty millions of serfs upon the providential escape from danger of the sovereign to whose head and heart they owe the blessings of their freedom.

“Sec. 2. And be it further resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to the Emperor of Russia.

“Approved May 16, 1866.”

Never before was such a resolution voted in Congress. Never before did the representatives of the American people send addresses to any foreign monarch. Conscious of the great importance of this unexampled demonstration, the President of the United States desired to impart to this mission the most solemn forms.

Mr. Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Department, is appointed to carry to St. Petersburg the text of the resolution of Congress. The monitor Miantonomoh was put at the disposal of this eminent statesman, and he will soon arrive at Cronstadt.

From what is above stated our readers will realize the great importance of Mr. Fox’s present mission, and we are confident that, independently of the reception awaiting him at the imperial court, the Russian people, acquainted with the purpose of his visit, will everywhere come forth with enthusiasm to meet the representative of the glorious American nation—the bearer of its congratulations and words of friendship.

As to us, inhabitants of Cronstadt—seamen above all—our hearts are yet filled with the recollections of the hospitality and the truly friendly reception enjoyed by our comrades when making part of the squadrons of Admirals Léssovsky and Pop off, who visited New York, Boston, and San Francisco. We learn that the programme for the reception at Cronstadt of the American seamen is already in course of preparation.

June 27.—Latest news of the American vessels leaving for Europe.—In the last number of the English Army and Navy Gazette, under date of June 16, appeared a very interesting correspondence about the monitor Miantonomoh, whose coming is so much spoken of in our city. According to the statement of the Army and Navy Gazette this correspondence, which we adduce further, deserves full belief. On our part we hope that this documenti will not be without interest to our readers. The correspondent of the English military gazette writes:

[Follows a Russian translation of said correspondence.—Note of the translator.]

From this correspondence—written, as it seems, by a gentleman of noted authority in the United States navy, possibly by Mr. Fox himself—it is not difficult to conceive what is this monitor, whose coming is here expected. At present we have only to add that the side-wheel steamship Augusta, a transformed Savannah mail ship, is to sail together with the monitor.

Mr. Fox himself sails on board the monitor. The English captain, Bythesea, was admitted as passenger. The Army and Navy Gazette believes that both vessels left America on the 6th of June.

June 29.—The most interesting of the foreign news is the intelligence (from private sources) of the safe arrival at Queenstown, Ireland, of the American monitor Miantonomoh. Mr. Fox achieved an uncommonly quick passage to Europe. On the 17th or 18th of June he was already in Ireland, having crossed the ocean in little more than ten days. We hope soon to be able to communicate more circumstantial intelligence concerning the American vessels; at present we have only to announce that the monitor Miantonomoh and Mr. Fox will arrive at Cronstadt on the 7th or 8th of July.

July 1.—The United Service Gazette received a communication, dated June 23, stating that the American monitor Miantonomoh arrived at Queenstown, and is in a few days expected in Jersey. Together with the monitor arrived two steamships—the Augusta and the Ashuelot. The monitor crossed the ocean with extraordinary speed, coming only by a few hours later than the well-known steamer City of Boston, which left America at the same time.

Cronstadt, July 6.

July 5.—To-day took place the first session of the committee, called together and presided over by S. S. Léssovsky, rear-admiral of his imperial Majesty’s suite, for the purpose of organizing a reception to Mr. Fox and the seamen of the American squadron. Our readers know that Admiral Léssovsky has visited America twice. The second time, in 1863, he was there as commander of the Russian squadron, composed of the screw frigates Alexander Nevsky, Peresviet, and Oslabia; screw sloops-of-war Vitiaz and Variag; and the steam-clipper Almaz; which squadron was cruizing at that time in the American waters. It seems to us that it would be superfluous to reprint in the pages of our paper the accounts of those unwonted ovations, and the friendly reception which were experienced in New York and Boston by our seamen of Admiral Léssovsky’s squadron, and in San Francisco by those of the squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral Popoff, (H. I. M. S.) During 1863, and at the beginning of 1864, the Cronstadt Herald was full of correspondence giving accounts of excursions and festivals which were organized in honor of the Russians. We will not repeat all this—in the first place, because the recollections of that reception are yet vivid in the memory of our seamen; and in the second, because all those articles were eagerly transcribed by all the Russian new spapers, and throughout our vast country everybody knew how hospitably, how kindly America had received our seamen, and with what sympathy the American people pronounced the name (sacred to us) of the monarch-liberator. The name of Emperor Alexander II was cited in America, together with the highly reverenced names of the greatest benefactors to mankind. Of late, this respect and this sympathy to the name of our adored monarch expressed themselves in the resolution of Congress, with which we have had already occasion to acquaint our readers. Under like circumstances, it may be easily conceived to what degree our seafaring population of Cronstadt is interested in the preparations for the becoming and worthy reception of the American representative and of the seamen who are coming with him. For the purpose of organizing such reception, Rear-Admiral (H. I. M. S.) Léssovsky, who is commissioned by the government to meet our trans-oceanic friends, established a special committee, composed of officers belonging to the various branches of our navy service, navy and artillery officers, engineers, officers of the steersmen’s corps, and navy surgeons. The first session was devoted to the collection and sorting of materials for the programme of the forthcoming reception. To express now any positive opinion about the programme itself would be premature. We certainly believe that it will undergo many changes, as it is most likely that our Russian society, as well in St. Petersburg as in Moscow, will ask to participate in the reception of our trans-oceanic friends, and this participation shall have to accord with the dispositions of the committee organized by Admiral Léssovsky.

The day on which the American squadron will come cannot yet be precisely stated, as we have as yet no information about the arrival at Copenhagen of the monitor Miantonomoh, with the two escorting steamers. In any case, the public expects this intelligence with great impatience; but we hope that this matter will soon clear up, and we shall be able to speak with more precision of the coming reception.

July 8.—Our transatlantic friends, whose visit we expect with such impatience, were yet, eight days ago, upon the Thames, attracting the attention and exciting the admiration and the envy of the English seamen. Notwithstanding the events of the German-Italian war, monopolizing the general interest, the English newspapers are filled with articles about the monitor Miantonomoh, that extraordinary on-clad monster, worked out by the experiences of the late American war. The proximity of the visit of our American friends and the gratifying consciousness of our being the only European people who know how to make profit of what was bought in America at such a terrible cost—(we actually possess ten vessels, which, although inferior in rank, can, nevertheless, be put by the side of the Miantonomoh)—these are the reasons why we think that our readers will derive some pleasure from the perusal of everything written in England about our friends.

Very likely the English and the French, actuated by mistaken notions of national pride, will profit neither by this invention of Ericsson nor by any improvements due to the experiences of the American war. We have been more reasonable than our neighbors—powerful on sea; and now the Miantonomoh will meet in the waters of the Gulf of Finland with a squadron of fellow-monitors built in Russia, and of Russian iron. Her formidable 15-inchguns—the envy of those gentlemen of the Woolwich arsenal—will find in our artillery stores of Cronstadt their own brothers, cast at Petrosavodsk, under the direction of our artillery-men. It is a pleasant and cheerful task to receive the dear visitors under such circumstances. On this occasion the Russian seamen will have to thank their American friends, not only for the New York and Boston ovations, but also for all the good derived by our navy from the glorious examples—the brilliant naval battles fought by American heroes, Farragut, Porter, Rodgers, and many others. The recollections of the battle of Mobile, the attack on Charleston, the taking of Fort Fisher, the old sea-salamander, surveying from the top-mast the position of the formidable confederate ram-ship Tennessee—all this will rise in our imagination when we first behold the low-sitting body and the two threatening towers of our transatlantic guest.

July 11.—The general interest in the reception to be made to our transatlantic friends is growing more intense with every day. The president of the committee which is to organize the reception of Mr. Fox and officers of the American squadrom—Rear-Admiral (H. I. M. S.) Léssovsky, the American consul at Cronstadt, and A. H. Wilkins—are already beset with questions about the probable time of the coming of the American vessels. Steamship companies are going to establish special lines for the accommodation of the public, curious to visit Cronstadt and the American monitor. We learn that many clubs and associations are intending to send forth deputations to compliment Mr. Fox and the American seamen. The citizens of Cronstadt and the River Yachting Club of St. Petersburg have already appointed their deputies, to join with the president of the committee on the reception of the American seamen, for preliminary consultations about festivals to be given by the city of Cronstadt and the Yachting Club of St. Petersburg in honor of the American guests. On the part of the city of Cronstadt, F. S. Stepanoff, head of the corporation of merchants,^* has already presented himself as delegate to Admiral S. S. Léssovsky. The programme of the reception is not yet composed, but materials are collected.

Immediately after the arrival of Mr. Fox, the steam-propelling yacht Neva, assigned for the personal service of our acting minister (secretary) of the navy department, will be put at Mr. Fox’s disposal. This yacht will convey the Assistant Secretary of the United States Navy Department to his interview with our vice chancellor, Prince A. M. Gortschakoff. Another steam-propelling yacht and a steamboat will be assigned for the personal service of the commanders and officers of the American vessels. After this interview will begin the survey of the capital and its environs.

We have been told that the first visit of welcome to our transatlantic friends will be paid by the assistant commander of the port, of his Imperial Majesty’s suite, Rear-Admiral S. S. Léssovsky. The general rule, upon occasions of foreign men-of-war coming to the port of Cronstadt, requires that they should be met by an officer detailed by the commander of the port; but in the present instance an exception will be made, in view of the particular mission of Mr. Fox, and the compliments of welcome will be conveyed by the assistant commander, a rear-admiral of his Imperial Majesty suite.

Generally our city of Cronstadt, and particularly our maritime circles, present a scene of unwonted animation on account of the anticipated visit. Feelings of sympathy and friendship to the glorious American nation are displayed everywhere, and already our public gardens resound with the strains of “Hail Columbia” and the lively measures of “Yankee Doodle.” From all this we must conclude that our friends will be received with a hearty hospitality; and our only apprehension is as to our not being able to describe the feelings of our seamen and inhabitants of Cronstadt towards the dear guests who come from afar to bring us words of sympathy and friendship from the American people.

July 13.—Notices of Cronstadt life.—Yesterday, July 12, the corporation of merchants assembled in the City Hall, under the presidency of the gorodskoy golova, (mayor of the city,) F. S. Stepanoff. A part of this session was devoted to the election of directors for the intended festival in honor of our transatlantic friends. The gentlemen elected are P. W. Baykoff, P. A. Vassilieff, M. N. Sinebrukhoff, P. E. Shakhoff, and M. T. Tshaoussoff.^†

July 15.—Of our transatlantic friends, we know only from the last number of the Moniteur de la Flotte, (July 5,) that the American monitor safely arrived at Cherbourg on the 30th of June. We have as yet no information about the day of her leaving Cherbourg for Copenhagen.

July 18.—With every day bringing us nearer to our transatlantic friends’ arrival, the general interest in the event is growing more intense. But it appears that occasions of delay are multiplying in the same proportion. The Moniteur de la Flotte of July 10th, received to-day, explains the probable reason of this seemingly incomprehensible fact.

From our former communications, our readers know that Mr. Fox, with the monitor Miantonomoh, and the steamship Augusta arrived at Cherbourg on the 30th of June. Immediately after, he went to Paris, and on the 6th of July returned to Cherbourg, in company with Marquis Chasseloup-Laubas, (French minister of the navy,) Mr. Depuy de Dome, (the celebrated French naval engineer,) and General Fréhaut, (director of the artillery department in the French ministry of the navy.) These gentlemen, together with the authorities of the port of Cherbourg, visited the American monitor, surveying in all its details this remarkable vessel.

On the same day, at 5 p. m., the Miantonomoh weighed anchor and steered for the Thames.

About three days previous to the departure of the monitor, the American squadron of Admiral Goldsborough appeared in view of Cherbourg. This squadron was on its way from the Mediterranean sea to join the Miantonomoh and her satellite, and intended to enter the port, but could not be admitted on account of some irregularities in sanitary passports, and, leaving the anchorage, sailed for Copenhagen. The French Navy Gazette says that on its way back from the Baltic Admiral Goldsborough’s squadron will visit Cherbourg. We perceive from other sources that the squadron of Admiral Goldsborough was delayed at Toulon, on account of the screw frigate Colbrado requiring serious repairs, and had left this port for Lisbon on the 30th of June. The Colorado remained fifty-three days in the dockyard of Toulon, having entered it on the 7th of May.

After what we have said above, it may be easily guessed that the monitor Miantonomoh waited in England and in France for the coming of Admiral Goldsborough’s squadron, including the frigate Colorado. It is most likely that this squadron will visit Cronstadt, together with Captain Fox and the Miantonomoh.

July 20.—While Europe expects the solution of the grave problems affecting the fates of Germany and Italy, witnessing the terrible contest which divides middle Europe in two hostile camps, our quiet corner of the gulf of Finland enjoys undisturbed peace, witnessing the customary naval performances characteristic of our sailing season. Our squadrons ride the sea exercising in shooting and manœuvring; and if there is to us an object of exciting interest, it belongs to the category of eminently peaceful affairs, and has nothing to do with the political fever actually disturbing Europe. If we are excited, it is owing to the anticipation of our approaching meeting with our transatlantic friends, whose coming we expect with great impatience. We have had many occasions to say under what obligations our navy stands towards the American people, and how much it owes to the glorious examples furnished by the late war. In view of this fact our readers will easily understand the eager impatience of our seamen to see the Miantonomoh, that perfected type of our monitors, which compose at present the most valuable part of our iron-clad fleet. However, we are not alone to take interest in the celebrated American monitor making her appearance in Europe. Our powerful maritime neighbors are not less curious, and most pressingly retain this remarkable transatlantic guest. In the last number of the Cronstadt Herald we have communicated to our readers that Mr. Fox, on leaving Cherbourg, steered for the Thames. We know, from reliable sources, that this visit to the neighborhood of London will not be long, and was called forth by the most pressing invitations of some very influential parties in England. In the Thames the Miantonomoh will be honored by the visit of his Highness the Prince of Wales. After this, about the 3d of July, she will sail to the Baltic sea, visiting Stettin, where she will take in a fresh supply of coal, and thence will steer directly for Cronstadt. To-day Admiral S. S. Léssovsky received a letter from Mr. Fox, from which we derived the above intelligence. Consequently about the 22d of the month we may expect to see our transatlantic friends. Together with the Miantonomoh is coming to Cronstadt the side-wheel steamship Augusta, commanded by Captain A. Murray. The Miantonomoh is under the command of Commander Beaumont. Mr. Fox, Assistant Secretary of the United States Navy Department, is of course the chief of the detachment formed by the two vessels.

Our surmises concerning Admiral Goldsborough’s squadron and the frigate Colorado are not as yet confirmed by any positive intelligence. If we are to believe the Moniteur de la Flotte, this squadron is ordered to Copenhagen.

The London Times relates that Mr. Fox had not originally intended to visit the Thames on his return from Cherbourg, but was, during his stay in London, so earnestly requested to give to the inhabitants of that metropolis an opportunity to see the Miantonomoh, that the assistant secretary of the United States navy could not resist the entreaties of his London friends. The Times directs the particular attention of its readers to this friendly proceeding on the part of Mr. Fox.

July 22.—We learn from the English Army and Navy Gazette, (under date of July 14,) that the monitor Miantonomoh arrived at Sheerness in the afternoon of Saturday, July 7, having effected the passage from Cherbourg in twenty-four hours. On Sunday the Miantonomoh went over to the Nore, and anchored. On Monday, the chief commander at the Nore, Vice-Admiral Sir R. Walker, with numerous suite, visited the American monitor. The public was admitted the same day; the visitors, who came in large numbers, cannot find terms strong enough to characterize the kind attentions and perfect urbanity of the American seamen. Tuesday noon the Miantonomoh, under steam, entered the port, and anchored alongside of the enormous iron-clad Lord Warren, building after he system of Reed. On this occasion the English gazette does not fail to draw a comparison between the American and the English iron-clad vessels, admiring, of course, the enormous balk and the beauty of the Lord Warren, and forgetting that the two small turrets of the Miantonomoh might well prove more powerful than the apparently formidable broadsides of the English iron-clad frigate. We conclude by the statement, which we find in the same paper, that the Miantonomoh, after some two weeks stay at the Nore, will leave for Woolwich, and thence for Copenhagen and Cronstadt.

French papers contain also much talk about the Miantonomoh, and their appreciations, as well as those in the English periodicals, do not display particular sympathy for the evident success achieved by American ship-building. Of all French opinions, that of the Presse is the most remarkable. We will leave out details, descriptive of the Miantonomoh, as those details are not distinguished by accuracy, and cannot be new to our readers, who have seen our numbers 67 and 72. Let us then point out to the attention of our readers the most piquant passages of la Presse’s curious article.

According to the opinion of the correspondent de la Presse, the Miantonomoh may be used exclusively in coast-defence, and can, by no means, expect to be successful in an attack from a distance upon the enemy’s coast, or in a regular naval battle with iron-clad line-ships, such as the Magenta, the Solferino, the Couronne, the Heroine, and so forth. American officers (continues the Presse) affirm that, with the Miantonomoh, they would ask only three-quarters of an hour’s time to destroy the Magenta, but we answer to this, that our Magenta, considering her speed and her enormous strength, will, with one stroke of her ram, pierce, run down, and annihilate such a tortoise as the Miantonomoh, and will pass over it, notwithstanding the thickness of its shell. Further, the French correspondent says that the Miantomoh is a vessel bearing some resemblance to the French Toreau, but the Toreau is by far superior to the American monitor. According to the Presse, the Miantonomoh hardly sails 8½ knots, whereas the French iron-clads, the Magenta, the Solferino, the Couronne, and the Heroine, when making part, in 1863, of Admiral Penaud’s. squadron, showed a speed of 12 and 14 knots.

To the artillery of the Miantonomoh, the French paper renders full justice, speaking of it with due reverence, perfectly justified by the solid and respectable appearance of shots weighing 450 to 480 pounds. The Presse concludes by delivering itself of the following statements: The Miantonomoh was built at Brooklyn, at a cost of eight millions of dollars. The vessel bears the name of a lake situated in Connecticut, and will be (the Presse positively asserts) sold to Russia for $4,000,000. Of course, we have not to confirm this strange rumor, circulating in Cherbourg, and will limit our own conclusion to saying, that the general character of the above cited French article bears the stamp of partiality, boasting, and exaggeration, displaying, on the part of the Cherbourg correspondent to the Presse, strange feelings of envy and malevolence.

July 25.—By our last news, received by mail, we learn that the monitor Miantonomoh, together with the escorting steamship, left England July 16. By a telegram from Copenhagen, communicated to us yesterday, we are informed of the safe arrival at that city of the monitor Miantonomoh and steamship Augusta, at 7 p. m., Saturday, July 21. Another telegram, received yesterday, (23d July,) from Copenhagen, announces that the American squadron will remain at Copenhagen but a few days; Mr. Fox comes by the land route from Cologne, probably on Tuesday; as soon as the squadron will have left for Cronstadt, it will be notified by telegraph.

We give these communications as they were received, abstaining from any comment; but we reckon that the American monitor cannot possibly arrive at Cronstadt before the end of next week.

July 27.—We have, for the present, nothing new to communicate to our readers concerning the American monitor staying now at Copenhagen. A telegram to announce the Miantonomoh’s departure from Copenhagen is expected here every minute. Before the reception of that despatch it is difficult to calculate, even approximatively, the date of the monitor’s coming to our port. However, already dispositions are made concerning the first meeting of our transatlantic friends, and pilots who will have to guide them to the harbor are appointed, and stand in readiness.

July 29.—We learn from a reliable correspondence, dated Copenhagen, July 12-24, that Fox was to leave the capital of Denmark on Wednesday, 13-25, intending to steer straight to Cronstadt, and to make the passage in five days. But it appears that rumors about the cholera, probably much exaggerated abroad, have occasioned a modification of this plan, and that the monitor Miantonomoh and the steamship Augusta will, on their way, visit Carlserona and Stockholm, there to await more favorable reports of the epidemic in Russia.

Cronstadt, August 3.

July 21, (August 2.)—To-day a telegram was received at Cronstadt, stating that Mr. Fox left Copenhagen on board the Miantonomoh, Tuesday, July 19–31, for Helsingfors, where he intends; to wait for news about the decrease of the cholera.

Cronstadt, August 5.

July 23, (August 4.)—This morning a despatch from Helsingfors informs us that Mr. Fox, with the monitor Miantonomoh and the escorting steamship Augusta, safely arrived there yesterday, July 22, (August 3,) at 3 p. m. Our iron-clad squadron, under the flag of Rear-Admiral Likhatsheff, of his imperial Majesty’s squadron, sailed this morning from Transund for Helsingfors, to meet our transatlantic friends. This squadron, as our readers know, is complete, numbering the iron-clad frigate Sebastopol; the iron-clad floating battery Netronne Menia; the double turreted iron-clad gun boat Smertsh; the monitors Peroon, Edinorog, Lava, and Streletz; the screw frigate Dmiery Donskoy; the steam propelling side-wheel frigates Khrabry and Vladimir; the steam clipper Yakhont, and the side-wheel steamship Ylmen. This squadron will reach Helsingfors, probably, on Sunday morning. Our officers will, of course, inform Mr. Fox of the true state of things concerning the epidemic, which is rapidly decreasing, and so dispel the apprehensions awakened by exaggerated foreign accounts. We may therefore hope that our American guests will soon appear at Cronstadt in company with our own squadron.

ARRIVAL OF THE AMERICAN SQUADRON IN THE ROADSTEAD OF CRONSTADT.^*

August 8.—On Monday, July 25, (August 6,) early in the morning, the telegraph of Krasna-Gorka announced that a squadron of men-of-war appeared on the horizon. These were the American monitor Miantonomoh and steamship Augusta, escorted by the iron-clad squadron, under command of Rear-Admiral Likhatsheff. About nine a. m. the approaching ships might be seen with the spy-glass from merchants’ wall, and at ten they were near the great Cronstadt roadstead. The vessels were advancing in a line of three columns. The American steamship Augusta, followed by the monitor Miantonomoh, formed the middle column, the flank columns being composed of the vessels of our iron-clad squadron—the frigate Sebastopol, the floating battery Netronne Menia, the double turreted gunboat Smertsh; the monitors Lava, Streletz, Edinorog, and Peroon; the screw frigate Dmitry Donskoy, the screw clipper Yakhont, and the steam propelling frigates Khrabry and Vladimir. The American steamship and monitor were in advance of the columns formed by our vessels. As the Augusta came near to the ports of the great roadstead the Russian imperial flag run up her top-gallant mast, and she began to fire the national salute of twenty-one guns. This was responded to by the same number of guns from the battery of merchants’ wall, and the hoisting of the American flag to the flagstaff of the inner guardship. Then followed the customary salute to the admiral’s flag by nine guns fired from merchants’ wall, to which the ironclad frigate Sebastopol responded by seven guns. Meanwhile, the American steamship was approaching at a reduced speed towards the little roadstead. A multitude of ship’s boats of the imperial navy, and yachts of the River Yachting Club of St. Petersburg, tacking under sail in every direction, came forth to meet the American friends. Early in the morning special bulletins, issued from the office of the Cronstadt Herald, informed our public that the Americans were expected at 10 a. m., and that a steamship of Oranienbaum, provided by the city, would, at half-past nine, start with passengers to meet the American squadron. At ten the steamship Luna, having on board a considerable number of passengers and a band of musicians, appeared in the little roadstead. As the Luna came near to the American steamship Augusta the band on board the Luna began to play the American national hymn, and the public on her deck, as well as the immense crowd, assembled on the pier of the commercial harbor, welcomed the guests by loud and prolonged “oora,” (cheers.) The officers and the crew of the Augusta answered by cheers and waving of their hats. The Luna, after having welcomed the Augusta, continued to advance to meet the Miantonomoh, which was approaching towards the little roadstead, and the hymn and the cheers were repeated once more. The piers of the commercial and the inner harbors were crowded to the utmost, and all present heartily welcomed the arriving transatlantic friends; there was no end to the cheers from the piers and from the American vessels. It was a sight of truly imposing effect. The American monitor, slowly gliding past the beholders, presented an original and martial picture. At three-quarters past ten the American steamship and monitor were coming near to the anchorage which they had to occupy in the little roadstead. At this very moment Rear-Admiral S. S. Léssovsky of his imperial Majesty’s squadron, set out in a cutter, from the commercial harbor, on his visit of welcome to the envoy of Congress, Mr. Fox. In another cutter, bearing the Russian merchant flag, were conveyed to the American vessels the mayor of the city and the deputies of the city council, bearing to the visitors compliments and offers of service on the part of the city. After them went officers detailed by all the vessels arrived on that day, and all the ships lying in port, to compliment the Americans upon their safe arrival.

After the visit of Admiral Léssovsky, Assistant Secretary Fox and the commanders of the Miantonomoh and the Augusta were conveyed, in company with S. S. Léssovsky, by our admiral’s cutter, towed by the steamer Koldoontshik, to the haven, and alighting on Petrovsky quay, proceeded to the town upon their visit to the chief commander of the port, his Majesty’s aide-de-camp general, Admiral T. M. Novossilsky. On their return from that visit, the envoy of Congress and Admiral Léssovsky left the Miantonomoh for the Neva, steam-propelling yacht of our Acting Secretary of the Navy Department, and sailed to St. Petersburg. The departure of our admirals, Léssovsky and Lichatsheff, was saluted by the Augusta with nine guns for each. These salutes were returned by the same number of guns fired from the admiral-ship, the frigate Sebastopol. The moment the American envoy set foot on board the Neva, she ran up the American colors, which were immediately saluted by thirteen guns from the Augusta, where the American flag was displayed on the top-gallant mast.^*

On the following day, July 26, (August 7,) at 9 a. m., the chief astronomer of the naval observatory of Cronstadt, L. E. Huebner, visited the steamship Augusta and the monitor Miantonomoh and presented to the American commanders documents written in English, and containing information in reference to his specialty. At ten the chief commander of the port, aide-de camp general, Admiral T. M. Novossilsky, accompanied by the chief of the staff, Rear-Admiral T. N. Tikhmenieff, Captain of the First Rank Bajenoff, and the aide-de-camp of the staff, came on board the American vessels, to repay the visits received by him from the American commanders the day before. While his high excellency was staying on board the Augusta, she displayed the Russian colors and fired a salute of seventeen guns. This was immediately responded to by the same number of guns fired from the screw sloop-of-war Griden, who displayed at the same time the American colors. After visiting the Augusta, the admiral repaired on board the monitor Miantonomoh and surveyed her in every particular. In his high excellency’s presence the working of every apparatus was experimentally exhibited; the revolutions of the turrets, the play of the 15-inch guns, and the action of the ventilators, supplying with air the state-rooms and all the habitable parts of this almost submarine vessel.

The monitor Miantonomoh presents a magnified type of our own monitors, and is very like them as to the principle and the system of construction. In any case, the Miantonomoh, by crossing the ocean, has established the sea-faring ability of the monitors, and, therefore, deserves to be carefully studied by professional men.

At eleven the admiral left the monitor. The cutter conveying the admiral to the haven met on its way with two cutters. These were carrying the deputations of the naval assembly of Cronstadt and of the imperial navy library. The two deputations offered to Captains Murray and Beaumont, and to all the officers of the American squadron, personal cards of membership to the assembly and the library.

At noon the steam-propelling yacht Neva, bearing on her fore-top-gallant mast the flag of the river yachting club of St. Petersburg, arrived in the eastern roadstead. At the same time a numerous fleet of diminutive yachts of the club made their appearance, all under sail. Therefore, our roadsteads and harbors presented a picture of extraordinary animation, crowded as they already were with the ships of our squadron and a multitude of merchantmen, filling at present our port, as if for this very occasion. The Neva despatched to the American vessels a deputation bearing compliments upon the safe arrival of our transoceanic friends.

At 1 p. m. the commanders of the American vessels, in company with the United States vice-consul, A. H. Wilkins, called at the commander’s of the fortress, Rear-Admiral A. V. Shtschulepnikoff, and other local authorities.

About 2 p. m. some thirty American officers were taken from their respective vessels on aboard the steamer Ishora. Near the haven these gentlemen, escorted by a lieutenant of the imperial navy, passed on board the steam barge Koldoontshik, and were landed on the estrade of the inner haven; thence they walked along the Hospodsky street to the building of the naval assembly and library. Here they were received by the members of the committee on reception.

When they visited the library elegantly bound catalogues were presented to each officer. Here they could see the reverently preserved charts, delivered in 1863 to Admiral S. S. Léssovsky by the city of New York and the State of Rhode Island, and presented by him to the museum of the library.

At half past two the strains of the American national hymn resounded in the magnificent shall of our naval assembly, and the whole company sat down to table. This lunch had no official character and was distinguished by a tone of friendly companionship which our guests had the good taste to establish at their first acquaintance with the gentlemen, who had undertaken the pleasant task of tendering to them a hearty hospitality, and of being their guides throughout our capital and its evirons.

At 5 p. m. a dinner was given by the chief commander of the port to the commanders of the American vessels, with the participation of some higher members of the administration of Cronstadt.

To-morrow our guests visit Peterhof. The envoy of the States, Mr. Fox, his secretaries, and captains, Murray and Beaumont, will have the honor to present themselves to his imperial Majesty the Emperor, our sovereign.

The officers of the American squadron, after a drive in the splendid park of Peterhof, will be conveyed to the Yelaguinn island, where there will be a display of fireworks in the evening, to-morrow being the birthday of her Majesty the empress.

On Thursday morning his imperial Majesty is expected to visit Cronstadt. The same day, at five in the evening, a great dinner is appointed to take place in the hall of the naval assembly. This dinner will be given in the name of the Russian navy, in honor of Mr. Fox and the American seamen.

Friday, July 29, (August 10,) a dinner given by the citizens of Cronstadt is to take place in the City Hall August 10.

Cronstadt, July 28, (August 9.)

We are so very confident of our readers being interested in every particular relating to our American friends, that we readily postpone our other current articles to give place to the accounts of our visitors’ doings. In our last correspondence we informed our readers that Mr. Fox, his secretaries, and Captains Murray and Beaumont, were to present themselves to his Majesty the Emperor at Peterhof, on her Majesty the Empress’s birthday, July 27, (August 8.) On this occasion the Assistant Secretary of the United States Navy Department had the honor to present to his Majesty the joint resolution of Congress, the contents of which are already known to our readers. The account of the audience given by his Majesty to Mr. Fox was immediately communicated by the cable to New York, so that the first telegram sent over from Russia to America was called forth by the address in which the glorious American nation expressed its profound esteem and sympathy to the person of our reverenced monarch. After the audience Mr. Fox, General Clay, the United States minister resident at the imperial court, their secretaries, and Captains Murray and Beaumont were invited to the ministerial table in Peterhof.^* In that city they spent the remaining part of this day—undoubtedly as memorable to Russians as to Americans.

The officers of the American squadron also spent that day at Peterhof. At 11½ a. m. they were taken on board the steamer Onega by the president of the committee on reception, Rear-Admiral (H. I. M. S.) Léssovsky, in company with some members of the committee. At half past twelve the Onega reached the pier of Peterhof, near which the imperial linest (leeneyki) stood waiting for our transocean c friends and the Russian officers accompanying them. In these carriages our guests took a drive along the cool, shaded avenues of the lower park, where the eye meets at every step with luxuriant verdure and sparkling fountains, outvying, perhaps, in numbers and beauty the celebrated waters of Versailles.

The American seamen, however cold and indifferent in appearance, surveyed all these wonders of art and nature with profound feelings of enthusiasm and admiration. The carriages, after a few minutes’ halt near the lake of Marly, continued to move amid new scenery toward his Majesty’s own villa. This palace, built in the elegant and coquettish style of the reign of Louis XV, and inwardly ornamented with graceful objects of art, and with excellent copies of the incomparable Watteau and Boucher, was shown to our dear visitors.

After a drive through the English park, our guests visited the islands of Olga and of the Czarinn, upon the small lakes, then the great imperial palace of Peterhof, and returned, at half past three, to Monplaisir^‡ in the lower park, where a dinner was ready for the whole company. After dinner, more visiting. The bathing establishment, the fountains of the old park, the imperial stables, and various other sights were shown to the guests. After this, the leeneyki (carriages) of the court drove near to the pavilion before Monplaisir, where a band of musicians was to play, and where a numerous and extremely elegant attendance had assembled, attracted by the general curiosity of seeing the guests, the objects of such friendly hospitality, in the gardens of the Russian Czar. The musical entertainment was introduced by the American national hymn, and the popular song of Yankee Doodle.

Our account of this visit to Peterhof cannot be possibly completed without our mentioning two episodes which marked the day. In the lower park, near the imperial bathing establishment, the American seamen met, by chance, with General Todtleben. Upon learning the general’s name, they expressed their desire to be introduced to him. To this the general gladly assented; and these heroes of Charleston, Mobile, New Orleans, &c., shook hands with him, giving signs of peculiar esteem. After this they asked leave to give three cheers in honor of the celebrated engineer v ho defended Sebastopol, and their voices mingled in a friendly harmony with the unceasing music of the fountains of Peterhof. The second episode alluded to happened on the island of the Czarinn. Here was shown to the Americans an oak grown out of an acorn brought from the tomb of Washington. With what deep, almost religious feeling the visitors looked upon the young tree. Each of them took a leaf from it, and these leaves will, no doubt, cross the ocean and testify in America to the profound reverence paid in Russia to the memory of the great founder of the Union, the first champion of American independence.

The party spent the remaining part of the day on Yelaginn island, where there was a splendid display of fireworks in honor of the highly solemn birthday of her Majesty. The night had already set in when the steamer Onega entered the little Nevka and stopped by the side of the yacht belonging to the acting minister of the navy. The banks were covered with thousands of beholders. Bonfires were lighted everywhere. The river was literally blocked with myriads of oared boats bearing lanterns and illumination-lamps. Bands of musicians were placed on many points, and everywhere the Onega was greeted with loud hurrahs and the American national hymn. Our guests were invited by the acting minister of the navy, (secretary of the navy department,) Aide-de-camp General N. K. Krabbe, to come on board the steamer Neva to witness the fireworks. The welcome of the people, the expression of profound sympathy on the part of the masses, brought to the manly features of the gallant American seamen evidences of deep emotion. They answered to the loud cheers of the crowds by our Russian “oora,” and seemed highly pleased with the reception.^†

The display of fireworks ceased at 11, after which our guests repaired to the Hotel de France, where apartments were prepared for them. To-day, early in the morning, the American seamen returned to Cronstadt on hoard the Onega, and, while we are writing these lines the air resounds with the cheerful salutes fired in honor of his Majesty the Emperor, who visits to-day the monitor Miantonomoh and the steamship Augusta. Another of our correspondents will give an account of to-day’s events.

Yesterday, August 9, it pleased the Emperor our sovereign to visit the roadsteads of Cronstadt. At 10 a. m. the steam-propelling yacht Alexandria, under his Majesty’s pendant, left the pier of Peterhof and reached, at 10½ a. m., the little roadstead of Cronstadt. When the Alexandria came in sight of the eastern roadstead a salute of twenty-one guns was fired by the steamship Augusta, hearing on her top-gallantmast the pendant of the highest in rank of American commanders present. Upon a signal from the Alexandria, the screw sloop of war Griden, lying near the American steamship, responded to the salute by firing the same number of guns and displaying the American colors.

His Majesty, accompanied by their Imperial Highnesses the Crown Prince Cæsarevitch Alexander Alexandrovitch, the Grand Dukes Vladimir Alexandrovitch and Nicholas Nicholævitch, senior, and a numerous suite, was pleased to visit the Miantonomoh, and to survey her in every detail. Then the Emperor went, in a cutter, to the steamship Augusta. As his Majesty left the monitor, her 15-inch steel guns fired a salute of twenty-one guns, which was answered by the same number of guns from the sloop of war Griden. According to the statement of the American officers, this was the first instance of a salute fired by the 15-inch guns since they were known in America, and it was done as a mark of particular respect and gratitude to the Emperor of Russia.

Yesterday, at 5 p. m., a grand dinner was given by the members of the Naval Assembly of Cronstadt to the envoy of the United States and the commanders and officers of the American vessels. The hall of the assembly was gorgeously docorated with flags, flowers, and exotic trees. The most prominent and tasteful part of the decoration was a shield covering entirely one of the walls, and bearing upon a ground of red cloth the portraits of Washington, Lincoln, and Johnson, encircled in wreaths of flowers and surrounded with lofty exotic trees. The portrait of the Emperor our sovereign occupied the opposite wall decorated with imperial standards and garlands of verdure. Besides, every part of the half was adorned with Russian and American flags, flowers, and exotic trees. The state staircase was no less brilliantly ornamented with lamps, sconces, and flowers. Opposite to the entrance, amid groups of trees, stood, facing each other, the busts of the Emperors Peter I and Alexander II, supported by decorated pedestals. In the hall, two bands of musicians were playing alternately; the band of Liadov, from Petersburg, and that of our port-service. The dinner was furnished by the celebrated Petersburg restaurant of Dusseaux.

We regret to be prevented, by want of time, from communicating the many remarkable speeches which were delivered on this occasion, and all the particulars of this interesting festival, organized by the Russian seamen in honor of our transatlantic friends. We will try to give a more circumstantial narrative at the next opportunity.

August 12.—The presence of the American squadron in our port, the friendly, nay, the enthusiastic reception by the inhabitants of Cronstadt of our dear transoceanic friends, and the marks of most glowing, hearty sympathy mutually exchanged at every meeting between the Russians and the citizens of the great American republic, who come with their glorious vessels to pay us a friendly visit, have removed to the background every other interest. It can be positively said that there is not a single man in Cronstadt, whatever his station or age, from the highest dignitary to the humblest laborer, from the stately patriarch to the hardly speaking child, who does not feel interested, make inquiries, and talk about our present dear visitors, who were so long expected. Besides those friendly feelings which were always mutually entertained between Russians and Americans, and were so fully displayed upon the occasion of our squadron’s visiting the ports of the United States, there are other causes for our present enthusiasm: the object of the visit, and the heroic character of the experience achieved by our transatlantic friends in their crossing the ocean with a vessel which was, until now, held good but for coasting purposes. This exploit must be considered as one of real fearlessness and daring, and may well afford thought to those who cherished the opinion that a fleet built after the new American system could be used only to defend one’s own coast against foreign attacks. The Americans have succeeded in proving what other emergencies might be met with such a fleet.

In the last number of the Cronstadt Herald we gave a slight sketch of the great dinner which was given in honor of our American guests. This dinner was gorgeous to the fullest extent of the word’s meaning, and perfectly answering to the idea of an entertainment offered on the part of the Russian navy to those who represent to us the American navy and the people of the great republic. Our former correspondence has spoken, at length, of the style in which was decorated the magnificent hall of the Naval Assembly of Cronstadt, where the dinner tables were spread, and we could not add anything to that part of our description. Long before the appointed hour the hall was filled with visitors, every one hurrying to get a place in the great hall to witness the coming solemnity, and to hear the accompanying speeches. The principal entrance was surrounded by a numerous public, composed of most various elements, all anxious to get a glance of the American seamen. Before the entrance a band of musicians was playing. In the hall, each of the two choirs was occupied; one by the band of Liadov, and the other by our own band of the portservice. The musicians were driven to the very bottom of the choirs by the ladies, who gathered in large numbers, curious to see the general coup-d’œil.

The tables were dressed in a splendid style; each seat was provided with a bill of fare upon a card artistically adorned with vignettes executed by one of our best artists, and we think that a detailed description of these engravings will not be without interest to those of our readers who were not present at that memorable festival. The cards are of thick Bristol paper; in its upper part the engraving represents the roadstead of Cronstadt with one of its forts, and the Miantonomoh sailing past the fort; in the largest link of chain surrounding the vignette stands 1866; on each side of is are drawn bays, formed by a winding cable; in the upper corner of the right-hand bay stands 1492, the year of the discovery of America; beneath this date the glorious names of Columbus, Washington, Fulton, and Lincoln; in the corner of the left-hand bay 862, the year of the foundation of the Russian empire; beneath it the glorious names of Vladimir, Dinitry, Donskoy, Peter the Great, and Alexander II; at the foot of the vignette is the inscription (in English) “Miantonomoh’s arrival at Cronstadt;” under the rope bays, containing the celebrated names of the Russian and American history, a Russian and an American seaman are represented standing upon the yards, and holding each a hat in one hand, as if greeting each other, and in the other hand having each a pair of interwoven Russian and American national flags. The staffs of these flags seem to support the vignette figuring the roadstead of Cronstadt. Upon banderoles, running along the ridges on both sides of the card, are engraved the most glorious names in the naval history of both countries, Gangout, Tshesma, Reval, Navarin, Sinop, Sebastopol, Mobile, Charleston, Fort Fisher, New Orleans, &c.

Precisely at 5 p. m. the distinguished guests who arrived at Cronstadt by the steamers Onega, Neva, Ishora, and Koldoontshik, began to drive up to the perron of the assembly building. Some of the persons invited could not come for various reasons. The following distinguished guests honored the festival with their presence: Mr. Fox, Assistant Secretary of the United States Navy Department; General Clay, United States minister resident; the secretaries of the two envoys, Messrs. Curtin, E. H. Green and J, F Loubat, Captains A. Murray and J. C. Beaumont; and the officers of the Miantonomah and the Augusta. Among the number of Russians who honored the feast with their presence were Prince P. P, Gagarinn, president of the committee of ministers; Count Shoovaloff, chief commander of the corps of gendarmes; Aide-de-Camp General Todtleken; the minister (secretary) of the public lands; the minister of instruction; the minister of finance; and the state comptroller. Prince Gortschakoff could not come on account of illness. The city of Cronstadt was represented at this dinner by the head of the city, Mayor F. S. Stepanoff; the members of the dooma, (board of aldermen,) V. M. Koodriavtzeff and V. D. Nikitinn; the honorary citizen^* P. V. Baykoff; and the merchants, A. T. Blinoff, P. A. Vassilieff, A. V. Moorasheff, T. T. Ossetroff, and M. T. Tshawsoff. We do not mention the many persons of note belonging to the navy, as they were rather the masters than the guests of the festival.

The coming of the American guests was announced to the visitors assembled in the hall by the loud “oora” of the immense crowd wish which the street leading to the building of the Naval Assembly was literally overflowed. At the same time the band, which was placed before the principal entrance, began to play the American national march. At the outer door of the assembly the American officers were received by those of our navy officers, with whom they had already become acquainted at a lunch on the third day after their arrival in our roadstead. The guests and the hosts went arm in arm into the private diningroom of the club, where tables stood ready, covered with a variety of tempting good “zakooska,”^† and amply provided with drinks of both Russian and American nationalities.^‡ Having refreshed themselves by this preliminary zakooska, the guests repaired to the state hall, where they sat down to dinner, and Russians and Americans mingled in friendly conversation, distinguished by mutual complimentary addresses. It is to be regretted that (no stenographer being in attendance) the speeches delivered upon this memorable occasion were not reported. Not trusting to memory, we cannot undertake to quote the words used by the persons who spoke in the course of the dinner, fearing to spoil their meaning, and will limit our account by saying that every sentence spoken, as well on the part of the Americans as on that of the Russians, was marked by the same feelings of profound esteem and disinterested sympathy which are mutually entertained by the two great nations—Russia and the United States of North America.

Sire: The resolution which I have the honor of presenting to your imperial Majesty is the voice of a people whose millions of lips speak from a single heart.

The many ties which have long bound together the great empire of the east and the great republic of the west have been multiplied and strengthened by the unwavering fidelity of the imperial government to our own throughout its recent period of convulsion.

The words of sympathy and friendship then addressed to the government at Washington, by command of your imperial Majesty, are fixed in the eternal remembrance of a grateful country.

As one of the wide family of nations we yield our willing homage to that noble act of humanity which is especially referred to in the resolution of Congress. The powerful edict of an enlightened sovereign has consummated a triumph over an inherited barbarism which our western republic has only reached through long years of bloodshed.

It is therefore with profound emotion that I offer to your imperial Majesty, to the emancipated subjects, to all the people of this vast realm, our heartfelt congratulations upon the providential escape from danger which led to this spontaneous expression of regret for the attempt, and thankfulness for its merciful arrest and failure.

The story of the peril from which a kind Providence has delivered your imperial Majesty brings with it the remembrance of the mighty sorrow which so lately filled every loyal heart in our own land at the sudden loss of our Chief, our Guide, our Father.

We thank God that a grief like this was spared to our friends and allies, the Russian people.

May the Father of all nations and all rulers protect, prolong, and bless the life which He has so signally preserved for the service of the people to which it belongs for the good of mankind and the glory of His holy name.

G. V. FOX, Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

August 15.—To-day we continue the chronicle of our American guest’s sojourn at Cronstadt on the day following the splendid and truly cordial banquet given in the Naval Assembly with the participation of over five hundred persons in honor of the American officers. These gentlemen were invited in the morning to visit, in company with our navy officers, all the remarkable sights of the city and of the port of Cronstadt. Our officers who gathered on the pier of the Petrovsky harbor there, to be joined by their American friends for the proposed excursion, had occasion to meet with Mr. Fox and to accompany him to the cutter which was to convey the American envoy and his secretaries to the roadstead upon their visits to the commanders of our men-of-war lying in port.

It was originally proposed to show to the officers of the American squadron the new docks, the steamboat engine building establishment, the arsenal, the new admiralty, and the naval observatory; but it so happened the Americans were delayed on board their ships, and arrived at the pier much after the appointed time. Instead of 10. a. m., as intended, they landed at 12.30 p. m., and therefore had not sufficient time to see much of what was to be shown.

From the pier of the Petrovsky harbor they went, in company with their Russian friends, to the arsenal. Here they were received by the superintendent of the artillery of Cronstadt, Colonel Pestitsh, who readily offered himself to point out to the attention of the visitors all the objects worth seeing. Particular attention was bestowed by our American friends upon the great number of war trophies, especially flags taken from the stern of the enemy’s ships which were captured in many glorious naval battles won by our navy at the end of the last and the beginning of the present centuries. The American officers shook hands with their Russian fellow-seamen, saying that they greeted in them the representatives of a navy which has to boast of a history so rich in glorious records. No less interested were the visitors by the admirably well executed models of Russian men-of-war which occupy a special chamber of the arsenal. These models were examined in every particular and with the greatest attention. The American gentlemen also very much admired a plan of Cronstadt and of its environs and forts, executed in relief with a truly artistic finish.

Having visited the arsenal, the party went to the summer residence of the naval club, where a lunch was kept ready. Here the party was increased by the gentlemen of two deputations, just arrived from Petersburg to invite our American friends to banquets organized in their honor—one by the assembly of the nobility, and another by the commercial association of mutual support. After lunch the excursionists repaired to the steamboat engine building establishment. They were received by Colonel Sokoloff, the superintendent, who guided them through all the parts of this remarkable engine manufactory. Many of the party being engineers, every apparatus was examined in all its details. The representatives of a country where the engineering art is developed to its highest point acknowledged that an establishment like the one they had just surveyed would be an object of particular notice, even in America.

Having examined this establishment, which took no less than an hour and a half of their time, the visitors passed to the new docks in a steam-barge which was put at their service by Colonel Sokoloff. Time wanting, the new docks, so remarkable by the gigantic dimensions of the works in progress, were but summarily surveyed. The visitors had to return to the steamboat engine building establishment on their way to the naval observatory, where they arrived at 4 p. m. As the appointed time of the dinner to be given to them by the city of Cronstadt on that day was at 5 p. m., they had but an hour to devote to the proposed survey of the observatory and to their repose, which was necessary after their rather long excursion. When, after leaving the new docks, the party was embarking upon the steam barge, which lay waiting for them, a crowd of workmen, who abandoned their work, prompted by an eager desire to see the American friends, swarmed upon the landing-place and greeted them by loud and numerous “ooras.”

At five o’clock of the afternoon, the American officers were conveyed in carriages supplied by the city to the building of the City Hall, where the banquet organized in their honor was to take place. Before the state perron a military band of musicians were already playing. The part of Hospodsky street along the building of the city offices was literally overflowed with thousands of lookers-on. As the distinguished guests were driving near to the perron, the band began to play the American national march and the crowd met them by loud and prolonged “ooras.”

The state staircase as well as the perron were tastefully and richly decorated with trees and flowers, and covered with splendid carpets. The apartments, elegantly adorned with flowers, displayed everywhere Russian and American flags. The arms of Russia and of America, surrounded with live verdure and draped with national colors, attracted the eye at every step. In the state hall, decorated with great taste, were placed portraits of the Emperor, our sovereign, of Washington, Lincoln, Johnson, and Komissaroff-Kostromskoy.^*

The tables were spread in a truly magnificent style. Each guest had his place marked in advance; the distribution of the seats being so calculated as to place near every American gentleman some one of the Russians who could speak English. The managers and masters of the banquet met their guests at the entrance doors with most friendly compliments of welcome. The presence of Joseph Ivanovitsh Komissaroff-Kostromskoy excited the liveliest interest of the American gentlemen. They expressed their particular regard for him who had achieved the never-to-be-forgotten exploit of preserving the life of the Czar, liberator of millions of men; the Czar whose reign brought to Russia a brilliant epoch of beneficent reforms, which have already promoted the welfare of our country and promise a still more brilliant future.

Among the visitors were, in the first place, our transatlantic guests, the envoy of the United States, Mr. Fox, and his two secretaries; United States minister resident at the imperial court of St. Petersburg, General Clay; the secretary of the American legation, Mr. Curtin; the commanders of the American vessels, Messrs. Murray and Beaumont; and all the officers of the squadron who were free from service on that day. Among the number of Russian gentlemen who were present we will mention Q. T. Komissaroff-Kostromskoy; P. T. Lilienfeld, president of the rural administrative council of Peterhof; M. A. Atriganieff, marshal of the nobility of the district of Peterhof and the local dignitaries of Cronstadt; the military general-governor, aide-de-camp general, Admiral T. M. Novossilsky, of his imperial Majesty’s suite; Rear-Admirals S. S. Léssovsky and A. A. Popoff; the chief of the governor’s staff, the commanders of the forts, and many other representatives of the different branches of the army and navy service.

At half-past five of the afternoon the guests went, to the sound of music, into the diningrooms. In one of the rooms a zakooska [see note] stood ready. Each American gentleman went arm-in-arm with one of the managers and hosts of the festival. On this occasion, as at the dinner of the naval assembly, given the day before, every seat was provided with a card bill of fare and a programme of the pieces to be executed, during the dinner, by the band of Liadov. There was also the band of our port service, to play alternately with the former. The bill of fare cards were likewise adorned with appropriate vignettes, illustrative of the alliance and cordial friendship uniting the two great nations—Russia and the United States of North America. In the upper part of the card, on each side, national flags, stripes and stars—American; and three stripes—Russian. Between the flags, in a wreath of oak leaves, two hands joined in a friendly clasp—emblem of the everlasting friendship and love between the Russians and the Americans, whom no misunderstanding had ever divided, and who, in the hour of heavy national trial on the other side of the ocean, joined in a fraternal embrace. Under the flags, along the ridges of the card, broadsides of men-of-war, with ranges of cannon peering out of the hatchways; and in the lowest part of the card Mercury, the protector of commerce, and Neptune, the ruler of the seas. The fare was exquisite, this branch having been intrusted to the well-known art of Dusseaux.

When the tumblers were filled with champagne the mayor of the city of Cronstadt, Philipp Stepanovitsh Stepanoff, proclaimed a toast for the health of the Emperor, our sovereign. Therewith, Philipp Stepanovitsh said:

“To-day is a feast with us. With us are the dear guests who came across the ocean to congratulate us upon the happy preservation of our Czar-liberator’s precious life, and I invite them to join with us in a toast for the health and long life of the Emperor, our sovereign.” Oora!^†

This toast was received with loud, enthusiastic, and prolonged “ooras,” mingling with the solemn strains of the Russian national hymn. The next toast, proposed by the mayor, was for the health of Mr. Johnson, President of the United States of North America. It was received with equally enthusiastic cheers. When the “ooras” subsided, Mr. Fox said:

“Gentlemen: Though we may differ in race, in language, in religion, and in our national aspirations, yet in the affectionate emotions of our hearts we meet upon common ground; let us, therefore, drink the health of her Imperial Majesty the Empress of Russia.”

When the loud and prolonged “ooras” which drowned Mr. Fox’s last words had subsided, Mr. Baykoff proposed a toast for the health of the Crown-Prince Cæsarevitsh, and of the reigning house. [Loud and animated “ooras.”] Then the mayor offered a toast for the representative of the American nation, Mr. Fox. This was received with unanimous sympathy. Thereupon Mr. Nikitinn, having been allowed to speak in the name of the citizens of Cronstadt, said:

“Let us improve this moment’s opportunity to lay before the right honorable Mr. Fox, representative of a great and glorious nation, our tribute of most sincere and warm gratitude for those testimonials of sympathy and friendship which, upon the event of the 4th of April, assumed the solemn form of a resolution of the United States Congress. Such sympathy is dear to us Russians. The citizens of America, in the persons of their representatives here present, join in our country’s universal joy at the preservation of our adored monarch’s life, and therefore, gentlemen, I offer a toast for the true authors of the present feast, the citizens of the great American republic.” [Prolonged “ooras.”]

Mr. Baykoff proposed a toast for the health of General Clay, United States minister plenipotentiary at our court. [Unanimous “ooras.”] In response to this, General Clay said:

“As I am the representative of a great republic—the United States of America—I am, of course, a republican, and a more thorough republican could hardly be found either on this or on the other side of the ocean; but, after living for some time in a country which has a monarchical form of government, I was convinced that monarchy can be the best form of government, when at the head of it stands the best and the most virtuous of all men upon earth. This also before long will become the opinion of my honorable friend, Mr. Fox, when he shall have lived some time in Russia. I consider it, therefore, as my duty to propose a toast for everything Russian—for the Russian government, for the Russian navy, for the Russian army, and for the whole Russian commonwealth.” [Prolonged “ooras” and applause.]

The mayor of Cronstadt proposed a toast for the health of the commanders, Messrs. Murray and Beaumont, and officers of the American squadron. The toast was met by loud and prolonged “ooras.”

Then followed toasts for the chief commander of the port of Cronstadt, and the city mayor, the first toast being proposed by Mr. Stepanoff, and the second by Aide-de-camp General T. M. Novossilsky. [Prolonged “oora.”]

Mr. Nikitinn proposed a toast for the health of J. T. Komissaroff-Kostromskoy, whose, name is dear to every Russian.

Americans and Russians strike glasses with Ossip (Joseph) Ivanovitsh, and press his hand with deep feeling; repeated “ooras” in the hall and outside in the street.

After this, Mr. Nikitinn spoke as follows:

“In the number of reforms which distinguish the present reign, our new rural institutions occupy a prominent place, as they summon our society to reasonable self-action; therefore I propose a toast for the welfare of the rural work in Russia, and I add to it the names of the honorable represenatives of the rural communities of Peterhof, now between us, P. T. Lilienfeld and M. A. Atriganieff. [Loud and prolonged “ooras.”]

Answering to this toast, P. T. Lilienfeld, in a long and very able speech, delineated the importance of Cronstadt as a military and commercial port; Cronstadt, girt with forts of granite, and surrounded with invulnerable monitors, being the bulwark of the empire. He concluded his speech by expressing a vow, that nothing would impede the progress of those grand and beneficent reforms which open a new era to Russia, the era of impartial and independent justice, the era of social and national development.

This speech was received with most enthusiastic “ooras.”

Mr. Moorasheff proclaimed a toast for the everlasting friendship between Russia and the United States. [Loud “ooras.”]

Mr. Curtin, secretary of the American legation, delivered in the Russian tongue the following speech:

“After Peter the Great had hewn a window looking upon Europe,^* he founded Cronstadt and created in it a military fleet, that it might stand upon the watch before this window. The Baltic fleet has religiously fulfilled this duty bequeathed to it by the great reformer of Russia. For more than a century Cronstadt and its navy jealously kept this sacred post, and not one of the many foes who have made war against Russia has ever succeeded in blocking up this window hewn by the powerful hands of Peter I, and I am perfectly convinced that in future, also, no one shall block it up. I therefore beg leave, gentlemen, to proclaim a toast for the city and fortress of Cronstadt, for all the Russian seamen generally, and for all the present inhabitants of Cronstadt.” [Loud, uninterrupted “ooras,” and general applause.]

The mayor proposed a toast for Stephen Stepanovitsh Lésovsky, and those of our seamen who visited, in 1863, the ports of the United States; which met with sincere and warm sympathy on the part of all present.

Then followed toasts for the development of commerce between Russia and the United States; for Baron Stoeckl, our envoy resident at Washington, for the people, the army, and the navy of the United States, for Russian public men, and, in conclusion, for the American and Russian ladies. It is to be regretted that the limits of our paper prevent us from giving all the details of this festival, organized by our city in honor of our dear visitors, with genial broad Russian hospitality.

Thus ended the dinner, but not the festival. Leaving the state-hall, guests and hosts went to the reception-rooms, and there enjoyed a friendly and animated talk, in which Russian and English sounds mingled together. When coffee and tea were over, a large table was placed in the room adjoining the hall, and in the centre of the table a silver bowl in which the “djonka”^* was publicly prepared and lighted. Its friendly glimmering blue flames attracted to the table quite a number of guests; in this circle many more speeches were pronounced by Americans and Russians. It is not in our power to relate them here, which we regret, as they were not less interesting nor less eloquent than those delivered during the dinner; be it enough to say that they all were inspired by the same feeling of friendship which joins the hearts of both great nations.

After dinner many ladies, whose husbands or brothers were in the hall, stepped in for awhile to have a glimpse of the banqueting party. They were introduced to the American guests, whom they complimented upon their safe arrival at Cronstadt, expressing to them the gratitude of the Russian women towards the American nation for its sympathy, testified upon the occasion of universal joy to Russia—the preservation of our sovereign’s life. When the ladies made their appearance in the apartments, one of the American officers offered a toast in honor of Russian ladies, and delivered on the occasion a short speech, wherein he highly praised the loveliness and the beauty of our fellow-countrywomen.

To this one of the Russian officers answered by a speech, wherein he equally extolled the beauty and loveliness of the American ladies, on whose part the Russians experienced such friendly reception in their visit to America.

We cannot conclude our account without mentioning an episode which took place with the participation of the public standing outside the City Hall, and filling the Gospodsky street. When Mr. Fox and J. J. Komissaroff-Kostromskoy appeared together at a window, and were seen by the crowds, a truly solemn moment ensued. Thousands of voices gave at once so mighty an “oora” that it resounded in the most remote parts of the city.

About ten o’clock at night the guests began to leave. J. J. Komissaroff-Kostromskoy had great trouble to reach his carriage, on account of the dense crowd rushing to meet him with loud unceasing “ooras.”

To-day, in the city garden of Cronstadt, a banquet took place, which was offered to the crews of the Miantonomoh and the Augusta. We postpone its description to our next correspondence.

SOJOURN OF THE AMERICAN SQUADRON AT HELSINGFORS.

As soon as the monitor Miantonomoh and the steamship Augusta entered the roadstead of Helsingfors (August 3) the director of the government institution of steersmen, Vice-Admiral Nordman, the governor of the city, of his Majesty’s suite, Major General Vallen, and the commander of the port of Sveaborg, Captain of the First Rank Roodakoff, went immediately on board the monitor to compliment the United States Assistant Secretary of the Navy Department, Mr. Fox, upon his safe arrival, and to testify as to the general feeling of joy with which the city of Helsingfors receives the first appearance in its waters of the United States government flag. On this occasion the steamship Augusta fired a salute in honor of Vice-Admiral Nordman.

In the morning of the following day Mr. Fox, in company with Captains Murray and Beaumont, made official calls in the city. At noon a lunch was offered to the gentlemen of the American squadron. This banquet was organized in the establishment of the Mineral Springs, by the civil governor of the city, who had sent invitations to the military commanders of the place, the members of the government institutions of Finland, and the city dignitaries. About one hundred and fifty persons were present, among whom three English officers of the royal artillery, who happened to be staying, at that time, in Helsingfors. The hall was adorned with Russian and American flags, with flowers and trees and such other decorations as could be procured upon so short a notice.

Towards the end of the lunch Mr. Vallen, he governor, delivered, in the French tongue, a speech, in which he expressed to the envoy of the great American nation’s Congress how much Finland was gratified and honored by the happy chance of being the first to bid him welcome in the limits of the Russian empire. To this Mr. Fox answered by expressing his thanks for the hospitality of the city of Helsingfors, and by saying that the aim of the American squadron’s visit to Russia was two-fold—to convey congratulations to his Majesty the Emperor upon his providential escape, and greetings to the Russian people in recognition of the friendly disposition which Russia had always, and particularly during the last American war, exhibited towards the United States. Then, pointing out to the place where the Russian and the American flags stood bound crosswise together, Mr. Fox added that Russia and the United States are as closely bound together by mutual friendship as those two flags. In conclusion, Mr. Fox proposed toasts for the Emperor, the Empress, and the imperial family. After this, the governor, Private Counsellor Baron Shernwall Vallen, proclaimed a toast for the President of the United States. Then Vice-Admiral Nordman proposed a toast for Captains Murray and Beaumont and all the American officers present. Mr. Nordman seized this opportunity to thank them and their fellow-countrymen on the other side of the ocean for the friendly and truly kind reception which our navy officers met with in New York, Boston, and San Francisco. Mr. Nordman concluded by offering a new toast for the welfare of the American navy and the health of all the gallant seamen, who distinguished themselves during the late war. This toast was answered by Captain Murray. Then followed the toasts offered for the English officers, by Baron Vallen; for the American ladies, and particularly for Mrs. Virginia Fox, by Mr. Nordman, &c., &c.

The celebrated artist Ole Buhl, who was among the guests, surprised most delightfully the company by asking for his violin, upon which he executed a brilliant improvisation upon the melodies of the Russian national hymn and the Yankee Doodle, mingled in a series of interwoven variations. The performance elicited most enthusiastic applause on the part of the enraptured audience. Having finished playing, the artist addressed the audience in a facetious speech, wherein he charged the Americans with ingratitude for their having neglected to pay a visit to the Norwegians, that people having visited America long before Columbus.

It would take much time to relate all the details of this festival. We will only make this remark, that the mutual feelings of guests and hosts were of the most cordial character, and although many of them could not understand each other’s language, their countenances testified to a perfect harmony.

About 4 p. m. the American gentlemen, after a call at Mr. Frenkel’s, United States consul, went to the photographic establishment of Miss Shevitsh, where they were photographed in a common group with many gentlemen of our city.

In the evening a ball was given in the same hall of the Mineral Springs. Mr. Fox honored it with his presence. The dances were most animated. The guests seemed to enjoy very much the entertainment, and to admire our Finlandish beauties. During the cotillon a figure was organized in which the ladies took some nosegays out of a basket and presented them to their transatlantic dancers. The ball and the supper following it lasted until long after midnight.

In the morning of the next day—that is, August 5—at 7½ a. m., the two American vessels weighed anchor and sailed for Cronstadt, where, of course, a more brilliant reception than in our modest Finland is awaiting the visitors.

[From our correspondent.]

St. Petersburg, August 17.

August 12.—In undertaking the pleasant task of describing our American visitors’ excursions to our northern Palmyra and her environs I hope that my letters will be favorably received by the readers of the Cronstadt Herald, as I know that they take the most lively interest in everything relating to those who crossed the ocean to convey expressions of sympathy and friendship to the Russian people and testimonials of profound esteem to the person of the Emperor Alexander II. This sympathy and this esteem on the part of the great American republic appear at every step. In the solemn address of the United States envoy, and in the most intimate private conversation of the American seamen, one note invariably vibrates—that of sympathy and friendship towards the Russian people and of admiration for the man who liberated twenty millions of men from time-established bondage, and that without bloodshed and civil war, almost unavoidable in such cases.

If such are the feelings of our American friends, the Russian people, on its part, in the hospitality tendered to them, exhibits so warm and friendly a disposition that it fully answers to the mutual relations between the two great countries and to the high meaning of our visitors’ present mission.

The day of the 12th of August was appointed for Mr. Fox’s proposed visit to St. Petersburg, together with his secretaries, Captains A. Murray and Beaumont, and the officers of the American squadron. At ten o’clock of the morning, Mr. Fox, with Admiral S. S. Léssovsky, Messrs. Loubat and Green, Mr. Rykatsheff, aide-de-camp of the chief commander’s staff, and other Russian officers who were appointed to accompany the American seamen in their visit to our northern capital, repaired to the steam-propelling yacht Onega, which was put at the disposal of the honorable envoy of the United States. Ten minutes later the yacht left the pier and sailed into the eastern roadstead to the American monitor. Here the party on board the Onega was joined by Captains A. Murray and T. C. Beaumont and those of the American officers who were to go to Petersburg. At half-past ten the steam-propelling yacht steered straight upon the cathedral of St. Isaac. On the foremast of the Onega waved the glorious flag of the republic—white stars in a blue field.

Although the day was cloudy, and even some drops of rain were beginning to fall, we continually met on our passage with steamers having on board crowds of passengers and bands of musicians. All the meeting steamboats had American flags, and each of them greeted the Onega with the strains of “Hail Columbia,” mingled with loud “ooras” and accompanied by frantic wavings of hats and handkerchiefs.

During the passage, by order of the president of the committee on reception, some English guide-books of Russia and Poland were presented to our transoceanic guests. The day before, all the officers of the American squadron had received copies of “A Manual of Russian Conversation,” composed by Mr. Pauker, one of our navy officers.

About noon, the Onega stopped at the pier of the English quay, where innumerable crowds of people were standing in expectation. Loud “ooras” greeted the envoy of Congress as he stepped upon the shore of the Russian capital. The open carriage in which Mr. Fox was seated, having by his side Rear-Admiral S. S. Léssovsky, could hardly move in the midst of the popular masses, hurrying to meet him who was sent by the American people to greet the Russian Czar, and to convey to him their congratulations upon his preservation from the peril which had threatened his life. Our people felt that this was not a mere diplomatical courtesy, but a proof of true and real friendship on the part of the great American nation towards Russia, and a manifestation of the American people’s profound esteem for the person of our Emperor.

The gentlemen, American and Russian, belonging to the party, followed the carriage of the envoy in other open carriages: Captain A. Murray, with M. S. Fedorovsky, aide-de-camp to his Majesty and commander of the screw frigate Alexander-Nevsky; Captain J. P. Beaumont, with Lieutenant-Captain Koltovsky; Mr. J. F. Loubat, Mr. Fox’s secretary, and Mr. Pritchet, first officer of the Augusta, with Mr. Rykatsheff, aide-de-camp to the staff of the chief commander of the port of Cronstadt, and Lieutenant Koopfer; Mr. E. H. Green, with lieutenant Pavloff, &c. A long line of carriages followed each other.

On leaving the quay, the whole procession drove straight towards the cathedral of St. Isaac. Here Mr. Fox and suite were received by the chief architect Mr. Poufot, who guided them to all parts of the building. Our guests looked with admiration upon this splendid cathedral, whose magnificence fully answers to the dignity of the dominant church in the great orthodox empire. They admired the richness and the finish of every detail; they ascended to the cupola and were delighted with the sight from above; the truly majestic cupola, with its tasteful and gorgeous ornaments, seemed to impress the visitors with a very favorable opinion of our architectural art. A descript on of the cathedral, was, on the spot, presented to the envoy of the United States.

After visiting the cathedral the party went to a lunch at General Clay’s, United States minister plenipotentiary.

The evening was spent in the River Yachsing Club of St. Petersburg. The festival of the Yachting Club deserves, both by its design and execution, a particular description. Its excellent programme was faithfully executed, with one addition: Immediately upon the guest’s arrival at the summer residence of the club, its commodore, V. G Poznansky, invited Mr. Fox to lay the foundation of a small boat, which the members of the Yachting Club proposed to build personally in their own dock-yard. Miss M. Van Buren, of New York, graciously consented to perform the ceremony of giving a name to the new-born vessel. She broke the neck of a wine-bottle upon the frame of the boat and proclaimed the little craft’s name to be “G. V. Fox.” There was no other deviation from the programme, and the festival went off most successfully in all respects.

At 7½ p. m. the rowing squadron of the River Yachting Club, under the commodore’s flag, went to meet the members of the American deputation near the steamboat landing place of Kamennoy island. The distinguished guests passed into cutters, which were waiting for them at the pier; the boats of the club made a salute with their oars, and a military band began to play national American melodies. The cutters occupied by the distinguished guests, and the commodore taking the lead the whole squadron floated down the middle Nevka, stopping from time to time to acknowledge the manifestations of the public standing at different points along the banks. The squadron passed under the bridges, Yelaginn-Kammennoatrovsky and Yelaginn-Krestovsky. When it was in sight of the club building, the American flag was hoisted to the club’s flag-staff, and the yachts, displaying the American colors, fired a salute of twenty-one guns. The military band played, “Hail Columbia.” When the honorable guests ascended the landing estrade of the club, the same national hymn was played by a band of ball-music, placed upon the shore. About 9 o’clock of the evening took place the ceremony of the tattoo, and the flags were lowered. At 10 o’clock began the ball. Dances followed each other as set forth in the programme. After the first quadrille, the members of the embassy were invited to tea, which was served upon a terrace specially constructed for that occasion; and, about the same time, the shore and the vessels lying in the river were illuminated.

During the first interval between the dances, a choir of singers performed (upon the landing estrade) a set of Russian national songs. Second division of dances. After the quadrille, a serenade on the water. Last division of dances—Mazoorka. A lunch in a pavilion erected for the distinguished guests. Military band of musicians and choir of Russian singers, performing alternately. The toasts proposed were for the health of the President and the welfare of the people of the United States of America—“Hail Columbia;” for the health of his Majesty the Emperor—“God save the Czar;” this last toast was proposed by honorable G. V. Fox. Upon a signal from Shpakovsky’s apparatus, the neighboring scenery was illuminated. The departing guests were accompanied by the members of the club until beyond the next bridge, where the leave-taking ceremony took place, with display of national flags and by the sounds of American national hymns and songs. The surrounding scenery was illuminated with Bengal lights.

This beautful and completely successful festival was organized under the directions of Messrs. N. Wilkins, J. Mertz, and C. Shirmer.

At a banquet given to Mr. Fox and suite, at St. Petersburg, the following poem, written especially for this occasion by Oliver Wendell Holmes, of Boston, Mass., translated into Russian by Mr. Maikoff, of St. Petersburg, and read there and at the great banquet at Moscow, attended with great applause and cheers for the author:

POEM.

Though watery deserts hold apart

The worlds of east and west,

Still beats the self-same human heart

In each proud nation’s breast.

Our floating turret tempts the main,

And dares the howling blast,

To clasp more close the golden chain.

That long has bound them fast.

In vain the gales of ocean sweep,

In vain the billows roar,

That chafe the wild and stormy steep

Of storied Elsinore!

She comes! she comes! her banner dips

In Neva’s flashing tide,

With greeting on her cannon’s lips,

The storm-god’s iron bride.

Peace garlands with the olive bough

Her thunder-bearing tower,

And plants before her cleaving prow

The sea-foam’s milk-white flower.

No prairie heaped their garnered store

To fill her sunless hold;

Nor rich Nevada’s gleaming ore

Its hidden caves enfold.

But lightly as the sea-bird swings

She floats the depth above,

A breath of flame to lend her wings,

Her freight a people’s love.

When darkness hid the stormy skies

In war’s long winter night,

One ray still cheered our straining eyes,

The far-off northern light.

And now the friendly rays return,

From lights that glow afar,

Those clustered lamps of Heaven that burn

Around the western star.

A nation’s love in tears and smiles

We bear across the sea,

Oh, Neva of the hundred isles,

We moor our hearts in thee!

[From our correspondent.]

St. Petersburg, August 16.

On Monday, August 13, Messrs. Fox, Murray, Beaumont, and the attending officers, visited Czarskoyé-Selo.

At 10 a. m., after an early breakfast, the party repaired to the railroad depot of Czarskoyé-Selo, where the directors of the railway company came to receive us and to put at our service a special train. We started at 10½ , and arrived ten minutes before 11, having, in twenty minutes, left behind us the cemetery of Volkov, the invalids’ hospital of Tshesme, and the village of Poolkovo. The superintendent of the imperial estate of Czarskoyé-Selo, Aide-de-camp General G. T. Gogol, came himself to receive the guests in the imperial rooms of the railroad station. There was also (H. I. M. S.) Rear-Admiral A. S. Gorkovenko, who offered himself to be the cicerone of our party. We went in open carriages and lines [see note, p. 437] to the imperial palace, where Madam M. V. Gogol, with her three daughters and son, and Madam Mookhortoff, with her sister and husband, joined our party. The palace was visited in every detail. When standing upon the Grecian terrace, which commands a view upon the splendid lake, we enjoyed a sight truly imposing: this being the day of the consecration of water,^* we had the good chance of witnessing the ceremony. The religious procession and the solemn chanting of our rite produced upon the foreigners a deep impression. As the procession was moving past them, they respectfully took off their hats, and, in a whisper, asked for explanations of the meaning of in ages, banners, and of the other symbols of the procession. Most of the ladies in the party spoke English well, and readily explained to the visitors the meaning of what was going on before their eyes.

After this the party enjoyed a drive in the park; the weather was most favorable; the carriages moved smoothly and rapidly along the beautiful drives; everybody seemed to be in high spirits, and the most friendly and animated conversation was going on in every group.

The first halting place was the admiralty and the boat-building yard. Here we found a numerous public, attracted by the desire of seeing the envoy of the United States and the officers of the United States navy. The collection of rowing-boats of every description was highly praised by the American seamen. They said that they had nowhere seen a collection so rich and so welldistributed, which, coming from such competent judges, is certainly a high compliment. The dock-yards of the miniature admiralty were also visited in every particular. Then we entered a pavilion, where Mr. Svertshkoff, the celebrated hyppic painter, has established his temporary atelier. We were admitted to look upon the new work of the artist: “A review of troops on the Devitshy field of Moscow, by the Czar Alexis Michaelovitsh.” The artist exhibited also two or three of his inimitable troykas, (three abreast,) which seemed to invite the American gentlemen to visit Russia in the sleighing season.

On leaving Mr. Svertshkoff’s atelier, the party visited the farm, where a milk collation was offered to us. After this a visit to the a senal of curious and costly arms—a collection unique of its kind. We went through all the rooms, surveying carefully everything; but one visit could never be sufficient for a due appreciation of all the riches of this museum. It is reported to have cost nineteen millions of silver roubles.

Towards 5 o’clock of the afternoon the party went to dinner at General Gogol’s. The dinner-table was spread in the orange-house adjoining the general’s dwelling. During the repast many speeches were pronounced, but none of an official or political character. The tone prevailing at this reception was rather that of a family reunion. The toasts for the health of Mrs. Fox and of Mrs. Murray, were received by the guests with marks of deep emotion. The English speeches were, as soon as pronounced, translated into the Russian tongue by Rear-Admirals S. S. Léssovsky and A. S. Gorkovenko. The speeches of Messrs. A. Murray and J. C. Beaumont, in answer to the toasts to their ladies, were translated by their nearest neighbor at the table, Miss E. G. Gogol, daughter of the master of the house; and the young lady carried it off with so much ease and such an elegance of diction and gesture, that the audience could not refrain from testifying its delight by enthusiastic applause.

The after-dinner coffee and tea were served in the garden, that the gentlemen might enjoy their cigars without being deprived of the ladies’ presence. Here the lady of the house showed to her guests a family relic, the view of which produced a deep impression upon the Americans, who know so well how to appreciate the happiness of family life and to love dearly their domestic hearth—those corner-stones of every true civilization and of every healthy social building. The relic to which Mary Vassilievna (Madam Gogol) conducted the visitors was a young tree grown up from a branch of myrtle taken out of her own wedding nosegay. At this simple memento the eyes of many of the guests were moistened, as their thoughts reverted to the dear beings whom they had left far behind on the other side of the ocean.

At eight o’clock of the evening a special train conveyed all the company to the Vauxhall of Pavlovsky, where a festival was organized in honor of our transatlantic friends. The garden of the Vauxhall was unusually crowded on that night; the number of persons present was estimated to have reached 12,000. It was almost impossible to move in the circle before the pavilion; nevertheless, the members of the American embassy went through the crowd—round the whole circle, to gratify the desire of the public to see them, and to have a view of the magnificent illumination. The building of the Vauxhall was drowned in a sea of gaslight. Opposite to it an arch was erected, radiant with transparents, devised and painted by Mr. Charlemagne, of the Imperial Academy of Arts. Close to the arch a fountain was playing under alternating rays of variously colored lanterns When Mr. Fox, who walked arm-in-arm with S. S. Léssovsky, came near to the orchestra the strains of the American national hymn resounded, and all the audience stood up as a man, all taking off their hats. There was something really imposing in this manifestation of the most refined and elegant public of the Russian capital.^* At the end of the hymn a thunder of applause and “ooras” ensued. On demand of the audience the hymn was repeated, and again with the most enthusiastic applause. Then a new gallop was performed, “The Miantonomoh,” composed for that occasion by the talented chief of the orchestra, Mr. Furstenau, who had the honor to present publicly to the States envoy a copy of his work.

After the concert the American guests were invited into the hall to a supper, served in a splendid style. When the goblets were filled with champagne the outstanding public called upon Mr. Fox for a speech. He readily went to the open window, goblet in hand, and addressed to the public a few beautiful words, expressive of the sympathy between America and Russia, concluding by a toast for the health of his Majesty the Emperor. Messrs. Murray and Beaumont also were requested to come to the window, and complied with the public | wish. The general delight and enthusiasm were unbounded. The whole scene was something completely new in our country.

At 12 of the night our party entered the cars of the train for Petersburg. The windows of the car in which Mr. Fox was seated were besieged from the outside by a number of ladies, who asked to shake hands with him and to obtain a flower of the bouquet which was offered to him after the supper. At last the signal whistle put an end to the leave-taking, and the train started, followed by loud “ooras” from the galleries of the Vauxhall.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BANQUUT OFFERED TO THE CREWS OF THE AMERICAN SQUADRON.

August 22.

On Tuesday, August 14, a banquet was given by the port of Cronstadt to the crews of the American vessels, the Miantonomoh and the Augusta.

A canvas shed was erected for that occasion in one of the principal promenades of our public garden, near to the place occupied by a pavilion shaped like the stern of a vessel. The shed, supported upon light pillars and trees bordering the promenade, was tastefully decorated with verdure and flags. At the foremost end of the tent waved the national flags, American and Russian, their staffs crossing one another; the opposite end of the tent, coming close to the stern-shaped pavilion, was ornamented with a large shield, bearing the arms of the United States of America with the well-known motto, E pluribus unum. Tables and benches extended throughout the entire length of the tent, which was 125 feet. The general effect of this improvised portico was very picturesque. At noon, which was the appointed time for the dinner, a hundred and eighty American seamen marched to the sounds of “Hail Columbia” into the tent and sat down to table. Thirty of the Russian sailors, who visited America with our squadrons in 1863, placed themselves between their American friends at various points, so calculated as to enable them to look to the comfort of each guest. The fare consisted of soup, ham, vegetables, roast beef and plum pudding, and a sufficient quantity of beer and hydromel. Two bands of musicians were alternately playing during the repast, which lasted until nearly five o’clock in the afternoon. When coffee and cigars were presented, one of our sailors made a speech in English. As much as we can remember, his words were nearly these: “Our friends: During our stay in American regions you treated us as true friends; I do not know whether we shall be able sufficiently to requite you; but in any case, take this simple repast as a mark of our most sincere and everlasting friendship.” To this one of the American sailors answered by assurances of sympathy and friendship, and, in conclusion, said: “Now, friends, let us drink to the health of your adored father the Czar, who, nearly at the same time when the negroes were freed in our country, gave liberty to Russian bondmen—the peasants.” A loud “oora” resounded through all the promenades of the garden, filled to the utmost by crowds of people.

On leaving the table our friends scattered through the park to enjoy a promenade, enlivened by groups of singers of the garrison of Cronstadt, and favored by unusually fine weather. Until late in the night “ooras” and cheers resounded in all corners of the public garden. This day was a true feast, and will be long remembered by the inhabitants of Cronstadt.

[From our correspondent.]

St. Petersburg, August 24.

August 22.—To-morrow we are to leave for Moscow, together with Mr. Fox and. other gentlemen of the American expedition. Our party will consist of twenty Americans and twelve Russians. Having no time to give you a detailed account of our movements during the last week, I will communicate to you but a summary programme of what took place those days. Thursday, August 16, Messrs. Fox, Murray, and Beaumont were invited to Krassnoé-Selo, to assist at the last manœuvres of troops of the imperial guard. The remaining officers of the American squadron surveyed the city, and in the evening took a drive upon our beautiful islands. Friday, in the morning, Mr. Fox, in company with other gentlemen of the expedition and Russian attending officers, visited the new admiralty, the marine penitentiary, and the dock yard of the island Galernoy; after breakfast, visits to the museum of the mining institution and to the cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, in the fortress. We dined in the Assembly of the Nobility, whose summer residence is located in the villa of Countess Strogonoff. This dinner was organized in honor of the American guests, and proved one of the most brilliant festivals offered to them. In the morning of the same day a deputation from the city of St. Petersburg called upon Mr. Fox and presented to him the title of honorary citizen of the capital. Saturday, August 18, Mr. Fox and the American officers were present on board their vessels to receive the visits of the diplomatic corps.

Sunday, 19th, Messrs. Fox, Loubat, Green, Murray, and Beaumont had the honor to present themselves to her Majesty the Empress. This presentation took place at Peterhof, in the great palace. Monday, 20th, in the morning. Messrs. Fox, Murray, Beaumont, and some of the American navy officers, were invited by his Majesty the Emperor to witness a military parade at Krassnoé-Selo. A deputation of the city of Moscow called on Mr. Fox, to invite him and the gentlemen of the expedition to vi sit the old capital of the empire. Dinner at Mr. Winans’s; the evening at Mr. Gromov’s, in his splendid summer residence, where a brilliant reception was prepared for our American friends. Yesterday, 21st, these gentlemen were invited to accompany his imperial Majesty in his visit to the forts and roadsteads of Cronstadt. To-day, dinner at court, in Peterhof.

To-morrow the whole party leaves for Moscow, there to enjoy the hospitality which is offered by this city to our American guests. From Moscow we intend to visit Nishny-Novgorod, and perhaps Kostroma, the native city of our reigning dynasty, and the birth-place of Soossanin,^* and J. T. Komissaroff-Kostromskoy.

[Correspondence of the Cronstadt Herald.]

St. Petersburg.

Even in our days, when sea-faring expeditions are completely divested of the appalling uncertainties with which it was the lot of Columbus and Vasco de Gama to contend; even in our days, when many enigmas which puzzled the navigators of former times are perfectly explained, and many terrors dispelled; even now, such a fact as a passage across the ocean, on board a monitor, deserves, in all justice, to fill an honorable page in the annals of cotemporary navigation. This exploit was achieved with the monitor Miantonomoh, by the skilful and intrepid American seamen who are our present guests. Whatever might have been said by the detractors of the monitors now falls to the ground. The strongest skepticism cannot resist so powerful an argument as the Miantonomoh’s presence at Cronstadt. There she lies, unharmed and strong, the admired guest of our roadstead! The Miantonomoh’s appearance in our waters achieved another victory, for which our seamen cannot but be grateful; it vanquished the inveterate indifference of the Russian public for the interests of navigation. Indeed, the number of visitors from Petersburg to the monitor is increasing with every day. Two steamers, plying daily between Petersburg and Cronstadt, are hardly sufficient for the crowds of passengers hurrying to see the transatlantic wonder, the last work of the art of ship-building.

MR. FOX’S DEPARTURE FOR MOSCOW.

August 26.—On the 23d day of August, Mr. Fox, with part of his suite, and in company with Admirals Léssovsky and Gorkovenko, left for Moscow, where a cordial and brilliant reception is preparing. There Mr. Fox will remain five days; of this number, one day for the proposed visit to the “Lavra” (first-class monastery) of the Trinity, and St. Sergius (Troitzko-Sergievskaya.) From Moscow, Mr Fox proposes to visit, for two days, the fair of Nishny-Novgorod, thence the historical monastery of Ipatius, in Kostroma, and, taking the steamboat up the Volga to Tver, to return from this last city to Petersburg.—[The Golos. ^†

August 29.—Yesterday, a dinner was given to those of the American sailors who were prevented, by their service on board, from part cipating in the first banquet. The affair went off exactly after the same style as that of the former occasion, with one additional particular, which we hasten to notice. A group formed of American seamen, in the centre of which were placed the American consul and the mayor of Cronstadt, was photographed; and we hear that the picture is an admirable success.

[From our correspondent.]

Moscow, August 24.

Thursday, 23d, at 2½ p. m., the American embassy and its satellites repaired to the depot of the Nicholayevsky railroad, at St. Petersburg, where the delegates of the city of Moscow, Messrs. Kokoreff and Bibikoff, joined the party. Two splendidly decorated wagons (cars,) hearing both of Russian and American flags, were added to the train, and we took possession thereof, to be most comfortably, and without the slightest fatigue, transported to the old capital. On our way, between Petersburg and the station of Luban, at every small station where the train had to stop, crowds of villagers went forth to greet the envoy of the American people. At Luban, we partook of a splendid repast, prepared by the care of the delegates of Moscow. It was really a pity that we were summoned by the signal bell, in the very moment when the spirit of conviviality had alighted upon us, and some friendly speeches were just broached. After re-entering the cars, our party resumed the thread of conversation, and we enjoyed the travel capitally. We had in our company two literary gentlemen, the correspondents of the New York Herald and Tribune. These gentlemen took out, from time to time, their pocket-books, and by means of a few stenographic signs marked down whole sentences, which will, most probably, travel across the ocean and tell to the people of the New World how Russia receives the representatives of her distant, but dear friends.

When approaching the station of Tshoodovo we saw large crowds of people gathered all around the depot. In the foremost ranks stood the members of a deputation sent forth by all classes of the rural and municipal population of the province of Novgorod—nobles, merchants, burghers, and peasants. At the head of the deputation were the civil governor of the province, Mr. Lerche, and the president of the provincial assembly, Mr. Katshaloff. They advanced towards the car occupied by Mr. Fox, and, presenting to him the customary bread and salt,^*complimented him in most warm and cordial terms. Mr. Katshaloff, after explaining in a few words the meaning of the new institution of provincial states, concluded by expressions of sympathy with the people of the United States on the part of the province of Novgorod. An old peasant, of venerable appearance, with a long, snow-white beard, stepped forward and, addressing Admiral Léssovsky, said: “Tell them, father,^† that we will ever pray to God for them, because they feel so deeply for us and our Czar.” Our American friends were profoundly touched by this ingenuous tribute of sympathy.

After the speeches came champagne; and a toast being offered to Mr. Fox, the envoy of the United States answered by a toast—“To the ancient Great Novgorod, the oldest of cities of the Russian land.”^‡ The deputies of Novgorod presented to Mr. Fox an address, signed by the governor, actual state counsellor Lerche, the president of the provincial assembly, Katshaloff, the members of the provincial doprava, (board of administration,) and the callifs of rural communes (Selsky Starshina.) The address is worded as follows:

“To the representative of the American people, Mr. Fox: The undersigned, representatives of all the states (classes) of the province of Novgorod, profiting by the occasion of your passage, consider it to be their sacred duty to express, through your ministry, most profound gratitude for those feelings, to testify which you have crossed the ocean. Fellow-feeling in the preservation of the precious life of our Czar-liberator touches us to our soul’s depth, and is the strongest proof of the American people’s friendly feeling towards the Russian. These feelings towards Russia were already expressed before, in the cordial reception in America of our fleet; for this also Russia is profoundly grateful. In this coming near of two great nations the undersigned see innumerable mutual advantages.” [Follow signatures.] “August 11/23 , 1866, Parish of Tshoodovo, Province of Novgorod.”

Mr. Fox invited Messrs. Lerche and Katshaloff, and some other gentlemen of the deputation, to accompany our party to the following station. As the train was starting all the Americans went out upon the platform and responded by a unanimous “oora” to the greetings of the assembled people. On the banks of the Volkhoo the gentlemen of the Novgorodian deputation left the car. The gentlemen of the American mission accompanied them to the platform. Here again glasses were filled with champagne, and Mr. Kokereff, the deputy of Moscow, for their manifestation in order of those whom he considered as the guests of Moscow. At Tver, where we arrived at five a.m., notwithstanding the early hour, a deputation came forth to greet the envoy of the American people.

At 10.30 a. m., August 24, we were welcomed to Moscow by the mayor of the city, Prince Stsherbatoff, who accompanied our party from the railroad depot to Mr. Kokoreff’s hotel, situated opposite to the Kremlin.

[From our correspondent.]

Moscow, August 31.

August 27.—I concluded my last letter with our arrival at Moscow. Our arrival and our entrance into the city were like a triumphal procession. At the depot and on the way to Kokoreff’s hotel, the people came forth by thousands to meet the American mission, and greeted it with “ooras,” and hats flying in the air, and countenances lighted up by exultation. These masses of people, animated by the same feeling of sympathy and friendship, presented a sight truly affecting. It is clear that our people understand and appreciate the meaning of the American mission. Such ovations as these, with which it meets everywhere in Russia, cannot he prepared; manifestations of this kind are possible only when the masses are really inspired with one common thought and moved with one common feeling. As I mentioned in my former correspondence, Mr. Fox was received at the depot by the mayor of the city, Prince A. A. Stsherbatoff, and the members of the dooma, [city council.) A band of musicians, placed in the gallery of the depot, played the American national hymns. Open carriages, with elegantly harnessed teams, stood ready for our party. The coachmen wore upon their hats cockades of American colors. The officers of the reception ceremony had also American colors in the button-holes of their dress coats. Mr. Kokoreff’s hotel was likewise decorated with a profusion of American flags; we found there comfortable and even luxurious lodgings. Our American friends seemed highly pleased with all their experiences of the day. They understood, in their turn, that they were in the very heart of Russia, and that this heart’s beating was most friendly to them.

The gentlemen of the mission, accompanied by Prince Stsherbatoff, proceeded upon official calls. The first was, of course, at the military general governor’s, Aide-de-camp General Prince V. A. Dolgorooky. Then the party visited the palace of the Kremlin,^* its churches, the granovity chamber, and the court of patriarchs. On their return to the hotel, each of the American gentlemen found in his room the card of Prince V. A. Dolgorooky, who, as becomes a true aristocrat and a man of the world, returned their visits by calling on the same morning, and in person, at the hotel, and seat his card to their respective rooms. At 7 p. m. we went to dinner at the general governor’s. At the entrance door of the gubernatorial palace we were met by the sounds of “Hail Columbia” from a band upon the perron. Hundreds of powdered servants, emblazoned in red liveries, silk stockings, and glazed shoes, stood in state upon the steps of the staircase and along the walls of the richly decorated anterooms. The dinner tables were laid out in a style fully answering to the idea of princely magnificence. The band of Sax poured from the choirs its enchanting strains. The halls were resplendent with mirrors and myriads of lights. Brilliant uniforms and black dress coats filled the gorgeous reception rooms. At 7½ o’clock the company sat down to table. I will not repeat the speeches, which are already reported in full in the pages of the Moscow News, and will only say that the allocution of Prince Dolgorooky, glowing with feeling, was received with particular satisfaction. Admiral Léssovsky, Mr. Curtin, secretary of the American legation, and Lieutenant Leman, acted as dragomen. After dinner, yellow tea and coffee were served. I heard from competent judges that such coffee was tasted by them only at the Pacha’s of Damascus. The place adjoining the gubernatorial palace was covered with people. After dinner Mr. Fox was conducted by Prince Dolgorooky to the balcony. Their appearance was greeted with enthusiastic “ooras.” One of the American gentlemen dropped by chance his handkerchief, which fell down from the balcony; it was in a moment torn to pieces, every one striving to get a piece of it as a memorial of the mission’s visit to Moscow. The remaining part of the day was spent in the zoological gardens. The governor general himself accompanied Mr. Fox in this evening promenade. The weather was delightful, and the display of fireworks went of most successfully. Our party returned home after midnight.

This was the way in which our old hospitable city of Moscow received the envoy of the States and the American naval officers. Moscow’s reception can, in all justice, be put by the side of the receptions tendered to Admiral Léssovsky and his squadron in New York and Boston.

On the following day the guests of Moscow surveyed the many remarkable sights of the city. We borrow from the Moscow News an account of this excursion:

“At eleven o’clock in the morning the deputies of the city of Moscow called at Kokoreff’s hotel to invite the Americans for a new excursion in the city, and a further study of the ancient capital’s remarkable monuments. A part of the proposed excursion having to be accomplished out of town, the equipages were dressed in country style, the carriages being all open and the teams some three and some four abreast; the harness adorned with shining brass-plates and hawk’s bells. The Americans seemed to like very much this style of harnessing, which was to them a complete novelty. The first halt was effected on the Lobny square. Here the party alighted and went on foot to look upon our “gostinoy dvor,” (guests’ yard.)^* They walked along the Neshovaya (cutlery) line, and turning to the right at the shoe store of Yegeroff went into the inner yard; thence, by the passage-row, to the street Illyinka and back, along the silver-ware row] to the street Nikolsky, near the church of the Holy Virgin of Kazan, where they re-entered the carriages and drove through the gate of Tver to the agricultural academy of Petrovsky Razoomovsky.

“At noon the train reached the academy. Here the visitors were received by the directort N. T. Sheleznoff, all the professors, and a number of students. They visited the classes, the church the laboratory, the farm, and finally went out into the vast and beautiful gardens, where, in a pavilion decorated with flags of both nations, a lunch stood ready. Having refreshed themselves, the gentlemen of the excursion party went through the park of Petrovsky, and past the palace, to Khodinsky field; there, along the front line of the camp, by order of Aide-de-camp General Hildenstubbe, chief commander of the military district of Moscow, the troops stood, without arms, in broken ranks. The general himself joined in a few minutes, and called forward the singers, who began at once to sing, in a chorus, the Russian soldiers’ songs. The Americans seemed to be highly pleased with the attentions of our military authorities, and, after listening for some time to the singing of our soldiers, re-entered the carriages and went along the front line to the end of the camp, where the students of the military academy of Alexander are encamped. After an exchange of compliments with the young officers and cadets of the academy, the American gentlemen returned to town by the Presninsky city gate. On their way home the gentlemen of the party entered into the Devitshy (Virgin’s) nunnery. The prioress herself came forth to receive the representatives of a country where the idea of union With the Greek orthodox church has met with so much sympathy. The visitors assisted at the evening service in the convent’s church, and after a visit of thanks to the amiable prioress, continued their excursion.

“When the train reached the hotel it was greeted by loud cheers from crowds of people, who had gathered round the hotel waiting for the return of the Americans. During the excursion the train was everywhere cheered by popular masses pouring forth into the streets on the passage of our American friends.”

[From our correspondent.]

Nishny-Novgorod, September 7.

August 31.—I will begin my present correspondence by resuming the thread of my narrative of our last day’s sojourn at Moscow.

On Monday, August 27, the States envoy assisted at the morning service, which was celebrated by the Vicar of Moscow, his Eminency the Archbishop Leonidas, in the Oospensky cathedral church of the Kremlin. The remaining part of the morning was spent in visits to the House of Foundlings, the chambers of the Boyars Romanoff, the church of Basylus, the Sanctimonius, (vassily blashenny) and the zoological gardens.

The vast establishments of the House of Foundlings, together with the orphan institution of Nicholas, impressed the Americans most favorably. In fact this truly charitable institution, existing in our country for more than a century, and the first of its kind in Europe, could not fail to win the sympathy of citizens of the United States, a country where philanthropy and charity are considered the first of public virtues.

In the zoological gardens, to which we were introduced by members of the Society of Acclimatization, Mr. Fox and Mr. Clay, complying with the request of these gentlemen, planted each a young tree in memory of their visit to the gardens.

The dinner on that day was a private, I would say, a family one, and was enjoyed in the beautiful reading-room of Kokoreff’s hotel. The repast went off most gaily. Many good things were said, but nothing of a political or official character. Prince Stsherbatoff, the city mayor, presided, and the members of the city council assisted him in his duties of Amphytrion. Guests and hosts were in high spirits, and many merry peals of laughter, mingled with applause, and American cheers and tigers, followed the friendly speeches and the jokes, which sparkled like champagne.

At six p. m. the company broke up, as it was time to prepare for the proposed promenade in Sokolniki. The weather was delightful, and the road to Sokolniki presented that evening a most animated picture; thousands of carriages and innumerable crowds of pedestrians were slowly moving towards the favorite popular promenade. When the train reached the wood there was more room, as the people on foot scattered on both sides of the road, and we drove with a greater speed along the ranges of beautiful villas, the summer residences of wealthy Moscovites. We finished our drive at the garden of Mr. Brown, in which a festival was organized in honor of the American seamen. After looking for some time upon the performances of the gymnasts, and listening to the music—which, of course, began with the American hymn—the members of the mission went on foot, amid thick crowds of people, to the pavilion of the rotunda, where tea was prepared. All the way to the rotunda was profusely illuminated with colored lamps. The enthusiasm of the popular masses beggars every description. In this part of the wood about 40,000 men were present, and this immense mass gathered round the pavilion occupied by the Americans, and there was no end to loud “ooras” and general jubilation. At the entrance of the pavilion Mr. Fox and Mr. Clay were received by Prince Dolgorooky and suite. After tea the whole party went by the same road back to Brown’s garden to hear more music and to witness the splendid fireworks. Towards midnight the festival was concluded by the American popular hymn.

On the following day, which was Tuesday, August 28th, both envoys, the members of the mission, and the accompanying Russian officers went in a special train by railway to the Troitzko-Sergievsky monastery; there they took the carriages which were prepared for them, and drove to the hermitage of Bethsemane, the summer residence of his High Eminency Philaretes, the Metropolitan of Moscow. They piously entered into the narrow and simply furnished cell, occupied by the venerable old man who graces the metropolitan chair of Moscow. The manner in which the archpastor welcomed the distinguished visitors was exceedingly cordial and even affectionate. He spoke to the American envoys in a tone full of sincere and profound sympathy, and many good words were said. Among others we remember the following: “I know that yours is a religious country, notwithstanding the complete liberty of creed. It is to be wished that all Christian nations should mutually entertain such friendly feelings towards each other as now exist between America and Russia.”

Notwithstanding his very old age, the metropolitan was pleased to accompany the visitors to the small and simple church of the hermitage, and to explain to them the meaning of images and different ornaments in carved wood, with no gilding or bronze about them. After visiting further the catacombs of the hermitage the party returned to the borough of the Troitzko-Sergievsky Lavra. When leaving the hermitage we observed with great satisfaction that the Americans conceived a high esteem for the celebrated Patriarch who had so graciously received them. After a lunch in the hotel of the borough the party visited, in detail, the monastery and its historical relics, We surveyed the churches, the chapels, the vestries, the refectories, and the religious academy, with its library, and everywhere our American guests met with the most friendly reception, which fully proves that sympathy to their country, penetrating through the time-honored walls of our principal monastery, conquered the hearts of monks, as it has conquered the hearts of all our people. At the entrance of the monastery the envoys were received by the prior, his Eminency the Archimandrite Anthony, and the rector of the religious academy, first priest Gorsky. When our party was taking leave of the prior he blessed all the Russians of the party with miniature images of St. Sergius of Radonesh. At 3½ p. m. a special train took us back to Moscow.

On that day, like the day before, the dinner was not official, and was distinguished by the same absence of etiquette and the same lively tone of conversation. Our guests felt themselves quite at home in Moscow, and many times expressed their gratitude to the representatives of the hospitable ancient capital.

The night was spent at the great theatre. The bill of play was composed of one act of the ballet, the Peri; one act of Glinka’s opera, the Life for the Czar; and one act of the ballet, the Pharaoh’s Daughter. The two envoys and Rear-Admiral Léssovsky were invited to the general governor’s box. The other members of the mission and the Russian officers occupied the director’s box and five boxes of the first rank on the left side. The house was full, and the magnificent mise en scène, of our ballet, together with the brilliant appearance of the hall, could not fail to be admired by our American friends. On the following day our party left Moscow for Nishny-Novgorod. The governor general, the mayor of the city, and the delegates of the city council accompanied the American mission to the railroad depot. We entered, to the sounds of music, into the cars, which were decorated with American flags Friendly greetings and farewells were exchanged on both sides, and the beloved guests of Moscow left the hospitable walls of the ancient capital.

The day before, immediately after we came back from our excursion to Troitzko-Sergievsky, a deputation, composed of members of the fair committee of Nishny-Novgorod—merchants A. M. Goobin, A. G. Korniloff, and V. V. Khotoff—called upon Mr. Fox, offering to him and his attendants the hospitality of the city, and putting themselves at his command for the time of his sojourn at Nishny-Novgorod. This offer was graciously accepted, and the American mission was now on its way to the celebrated market, where the products of Europe and Asia meet every summer in an immense fair. We had our dinner at the railroad station of Yladimir—a splendid repast offered by the city. At Kovrov, Mr. Gladitzin, the mayor, came to the station to compliment the American envoy on the part of that old Russian city. Toward midnight our train reached the railroad depot of Nishny. The building of the depot was filled with people, who came to meet the expected guests; the band of the horse-guards was playing, and the whole scene bore a radiant, festive aspect. The president of the fair committee, Actual State Counsellor A. P. Shiphoff advanced to the car to meet Mr. Fox. The travellers were conducted by the members of the fair committee to the carriages, standing ready, on the other side of the builling, and left the depot amid loud “ooras” from the assembled people. The party was most comfortably located in the house of Mr. Shooravleff, on the bank of Okha river, above the bridge. When our train was passing upon the bridge we enjoyed a beautiful sight The wide river, covered with thousands of vessels; the high banks, shining with thousands of lights, and the lofty mountain, with Minin’s tower at the summit, lighted with bengal fire—all this presented a truly enchanting picture.

On the day following our arrival Mr. Fox, Captains Murray and Beaumont, Rear-Admirals Léssovsky and Gorkovenko, and Aide-de-camp to the Emperor Lieutenant Fedorovsky had the honor to present themselves before their Imperial Highnesses the Crown Prince Cæsarevitsh Alexander Alexandrovitsh and the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovitsh. After the audience at the grand duke’s, the members of the mission made calls at the governor’s, Lieutenant General Odintzoff, and the temporary (for the duration of the fair) general governor’s, Aide-de-camp General Ogareff. Then followed a surveying excursion through the fair. The party visited the fur store of Sorokoomovsky, the shoe store of Koroloff, the silver-ware store of Korniloff, the immense stores of iron of Petookhoff, merchant of Yaroslav, and many other storehouses of the iron row. After a lunch in the hotel of Nikita Egoroff, a lunch where the sterlet, that gastronomical king of fishes, played the principal part, we surveyed the tea stores, and the Chinese bazaar.

In the evening our party was invited to a grand dinner given in the great hall of the fair house.

[From our correspondent.]

On Board the Despatch, upon Volga River, September 9.

September 4.—Our steamer is ascending the Volga at great speed, and we are already in view of Kalazin. It is really a pleasant, a very pleasant, affair to travel in the suite of an embassy which enjoys such an immense popularity, and meets everywhere with the most friendly reception and receives that broad hospitality for which our country is so justly renowned. The Russian sky itself, as if it were desirous to contribute to the hospitality tendered by Russia to her American guests, presents us, for nearly a month, with days so fine that Italy herself could not boast of any finer. Our way is strewn with flowers and lighted with smiles. But let us resume the thread of our narrative. In our last correspondence we mentioned that a dinner was given in honor of the American mission at the fair house The bill of fare was eminently Russian—pies, with fish and viasiga, (dried spinal nerves of sevruga fish;) Sterletts; porklings stuffed with buckwheat gruel, and the celebrated kasha of Goorieff^*—these were the groundwork of the repast. I will not here report the many speeches pronounced on that occasion, as they are already published by the Moscow News. In Nishny-Novgorod, this Russian centre of European and Asiatic commerce, where all the nationalities composing the population of our vast country appear mingled together, the Americans had opportunity to see how general is the attachment of the Russian subjects to their monarch, and how profound and sincere the gratitude of our people toward the Amerlean, for the part taken by it in our public joy. Those feelings had their particular eloquence here, on the borders of Europe and Asia. They seemed to say that all Russia lives with the same heart, and that this common life imparts to her the immense strength of which our friends have good reason to stand in awe.

After dinner, when the tables were removed, choirs of gypsies and of Russian singers were introduced into the hall; and they gave an entertainment in a truly Russian style. The singing and the dances of the gypses seemed very much to please our American friends, and they never tired of listening to these somewhat wild, but exceedingly original melodies, which have about them a peculiar charm. At midnight the party broke up, and some of the guests, on their way to the hotel, directed their carriages to drive through Koonavino, that popular nightly resort of the broadest revelling, characteristic of the mixed temporary population which gathers from all corners of Russia to Nishny-Novgorod for its celebrated fairs.

The morning of Friday, August 31, was spent partly in visits to the historical monuments of the city, and partly in shopping for different trifles, to be taken with us in remembrance of our sojourn in Nishny-Novgorod. This afforded us opportunities to make a nearer acquaintance with the peculiarities of this interesting fair. We dined at Soboleff’s hotel, this dinner being exactly of the same description as our family parties in Kokoreff’s hotel, at Moscow. This evening we had a farewell drive through the streets of Nishny, amid crowds of people, giving marks of most enthusiastic feelings towards our transatlantic friends.

On Saturday morning, after a visit to the engine manufactory of merchant T. S. Koltshin, our party, together with a number of citizens of Nishny who wished to take leave of us before our final departure, were invited on board the steamer Saropooletz, belonging to Mr. Koltshin; and while that gentleman’s home-constructed yacht was conveying us to the steamship The Despatch, the hospitality of Nishny-Novgorod accompanied us to the last in the form of a gorgeous lunch, served on board the Saropooletz. A band of music and a choir of gypsies enlivened this our last repast amid our hospitable friends of Nishny-Novgorod. At last the Saropooletz reached the Despatch, at a distance of twenty verstes (about fourteen miles) from the city; and after most friendly farewells, the departing gentlemen passed on board the steamship of the company, Samolot, leaving their remaining friends on the Saropooletz. The Despatch and the Saropooletz displayed the American colors, and separated amid loud cheers and waving of hats, to take opposite directions.

Our travel up the Volga went off most pleasantly, and we arrived on the following day, in the morning, at Kostroma, one of the principal aims of the American mission’ strip.

[From our correspondent.]

SOJOURN OF THE AMERICAN MISSION AT KOSTROMA.

September 14.

From the very day of our departure from Petersburg, during all the time of our excursion, the desire to arrive at Kostroma, the birthplace of Soosanin and Komissaroff-Kostromskay, and the cradle of our prosperously reigning House of Romanoff, had constantly occupied the minds of the Americans. The object of their most eager curiosity was at last reached, at 11 o’clock a. m., on the second day of September. The weather was beautiful. The Despatch, at full speed, cutting the clear stream of our queen of rivers, our mother Volga,^* was rapidly advancing towards the long wished for city. We could see, when yet at a considerable distance, from behind a steep bill standing at a bend of the left bank, called the meadow bank, the cupolas of the Oospensky cathedral and other churches of Kostroma. The appearance of the city from the river side is highly picturesque, and elicited from our American friends expressions of the highest delight. As a general rule, our cities along the Volga river appear much to their advantage when seen at a distance from the water. They seem to be much larger than they really are. The Russian is fond of space, and has every means of gratifying this taste. Our cities are, therefore, scattered over an immense area, which fact, joined to the profusion of churches, gives them a grand and imposing appearance from a distance. At 11 a. m. our steamer landed. The pier was decorated with flags and covered with carpets. Upon the estrade stood the governor himself, Lieutenant General N. A. Goodzevitsh, in full uniform. There was no crowd, as usual, at our arrival. We were not expected until towards 2 o’clock in the afternoon; but the extraordinary rapidity with which we ascended the Volga disappointed the calculations of the hospitable inhabitants of Kostroma, and the reception of the envoy did not go off quite as successfully as they expected. I was told that towards 2 p. m. there was to have been a procession of young ladies, to meet, with flowers, the long-expected guests who had undertaken so long a journey to pay a visit to the city of Kostroma, that cradle of the Russian monarchical system. Notwithstanding our untimely arrival, the news flew as lightning through the city, and the quay began to fill with numbers of the curious. Everybody hurried to the landing place with a countenance lighted up by joy. The general appearance of the popular masses was very like that which our people assume upon occasions and feasts most near to their hearts. If the way of Mr. Fox was not strewn with flowers, as was originally intended, by the inhabitants of Kostroma, the honorable envoy was no doubt sufficiently indemnified for all the trouble he had taken to travel so far by the expression of ingenuous happiness shining in the countenance of the people who came to meet him. The governor came on board the Despatch to welcome the distinguished visitors; after which, Mr. Fox, Rear-Admiral Léssovsky, and all the gentlemen of the travelling party went on shore, and, seating themselves in the elegant carriages supplied by the city, proceeded immediately to make calls at the governor’s, the marshal’s of the nobility of the province, N. P. Kartzeff, and the mayor’s, A. A. Akatoff. After this excursion in the city, the party returned on board the Despatch, where a lunch stood ready, and the above-named dignitaries of Kostroma, who came to repay the visits they had just received, were invited to partake of our travellers’ fare. The lunch was served under a tent on the deck of the Despatch. Innumerable crowds of people covered the landing place, decorated with a profusion of flags. Further up, the panorama of the city, with her beautiful quays and lofty cupolas of churches; the river, cut in all directions by a multitude of rowing boats, carrying groups of men and ladies; and above the whole picture, the lofty hills of the bank opposite to the city, and the infinite perspective of fields, villages, and woods. This truly Russian landscape was, indeed, appreciated by our transatlantic friends. During the lunch, loud “ooras” and expressions of satisfaction and joy resounded in every direction upon the river and on shore. Some barges lying near to our steamer were crowded with people. A man standing upon one of these barges attracted Mr. Fox’s attention by his loud shoutings and the peculiar distinctness with which he pronounced the envoy’s title and name. The man, who proved to be a painter of images, Ivan (John) Ratshkoff, was summoned before Mr. Fox, who was pleased to bestow upon him the favor of giving to him his photographic card, upon which Mr. Fox traced his own name and the date of that day. Ratshkoff was moved to tears by this gracious proceeding. He went on shore, and reappeared after a while, carrying in his hands an image of Nicholas, the doer of miracles. This picture, executed by himself, Ratshkoff presented to the honorable envoy, who requested him to make also an inscription, which was executed by Ratshkoff in the Russian tongue, and immediately translated into English by one of our party. After lunch our party, in company with the marshal of the nobility of the province, drove out to visit the beautiful square of Soossanin, with the monument of that heroic Russian peasant who deliberately offered up his own life to save that of his Czar; thence to the monastery of Spatios, where we surveyed the church, the vestiary, and the rooms in which the first Czar of the House of Romanoff had lived for some years. In these rooms the Americans were requested to inscribe their names upon a special page of the visitors’ book, kept at the library of this celebrated and much visited Russian monastery. Then we surveyed the historical Oospensky cathedral church, built in 1239 to consecrate the event of the miraculous appearance of the Holy Virgin’s image, called the Fedorovskaya. At 6 p, m. the party went to the House of the Assembly of the Nobility, where a dinner was given in honor of the American mission by the city of Kostroma. This festival deserves a particular description.

The magnificent and newly furnished House of the Assembly of the Nobility was decorated with flags and shields, upon which were painted various emblems, expressive of the friendship which unites the great nations. The staircase and the halls were ornamented with a profusion of flowers and costly tropical trees. A military band of musicians welcomed the guests at the entrance door. An immense crowd of about 20,000 people surrounded the house. The gentlemen managers met the guests at the perron, and conducted them to the state-rooms, where a numerous company was already present. All classes of society were represented at this dinner, including the peasants. At 6½ p. m. the company sat down to table. The general aspect of the banquet was beautiful. The lofty hall, with its white marble walls, had a truly festive appearance. The galleries of the second story, running round the walls, were filled with ladies. At the bottom of the hall, in a rotunda, an admirably executed portrait of his Majesty the Emperor was placed amid flowers. The wall opposite to the rotunda supported three shields, with the initials of Washington, Lincoln, and Johnson. Two tables, laid out in most gorgeous style, stood parallel to each other. In the choir, above the rotunda, a band of musicians was playing. It was really a matter of wonder, to those well acquainted with the scarcity of our provincial resources as to objects of luxury, how such a dinner could be furnished on so short a notice, and at a distance of 350 verstes from Moscow and 850 from Petersburg. When the champagne was presented, N. P. Kartzeff, the marshal of the nobility, rose to his feet and said:

“Gentlemen: The presence among us of the right honorable Mr. Fox, envoy of the powerful North American nation, is not only a brilliant mark of sympathy on the part of the American people, participating in our joy at the providential preservation of a life so precious to us, but also a pledge for the continuation of the friendly alliance between America and Russia; an alliance arising from similarities in some high traits of national character. Gentlemen, Russia and America, by different ways, but at the same time, arrived at equal results; both countries insured to all their citizens, without exception, the right of free labor protected by law. In our country, the beneficent reform which gave liberty to twenty millions of men, was carried into execution by the nobility, which is constantly standing in support of all the great reforms accomplished by our beloved sovereign in so short a time, without the slightest social disturbance, and amid universal sympathy and love. We all feel sincerely grateful to the right honorable Mr. Fox, representative of the great North American nation, for his own and his travelling companions’ visit to our province, the birthplace of the reigning dynasty and of two preservers of Czars. I have the honor to express our compliments of welcome to the right honorable Mr. Fox, and I propose a toast to the health of the President of the United States, and to the welfare of the great North American nation.”

In answer to this speech, which was received with applause and prolonged “ooras,” Mr. Fox said:

‘‘Here the first of the Romanoffs received the announcement of his election to the throne of Russia. Here, at the same time, was bestowed the blessing of a tearful, pious, mother. Let us drink to the long life of that Romanoff, in whose heart, by the goodness of God, a mother’s blessing is producing those rich fruits—the elevation of his people. To the Emperor of all the Russias.”

Enthusiastic applause and “ooras” greeted Mr. Fox’s toast, and it was followed by the hymn of “God save the Czar,” listened to in religious silence.

Then Mr. Pritchard, of the American navy, proposed a toast to her Majesty the Empress; and Lieutenant General Goodzevitsh one to his Imperial Highness the Crown Prince Cæsarevitsh and the whole imperial family. Both toasts were received with unanimous “ooras,” and accompanied by the Russian national hymn.

Mr. Prokhoroff, president of the district ooprava (board of administration) of Kostroma, having asked and obtained leave to speak, said:^*

“Hail to you, dear guests, good friends, bold fellows, wondrously clever, gallant knights of the free American land! Such is the popular acclamation by which our straightforward Russian people greets and welcomes you. It is not for nothing that our people does so; not for nothing, indeed. You came across the sea—the ocean—to renew throughout Russia the joy, the jubilation, occasioned by the preservation of the precious life of our beloved monarch, of our glory, our hope for the most happy future to our land. We know how to appreciate your wish to become acquainted with everything which lies nearest to our hearts. We are glad to know that you saw our native soil, our father the Czar; the monuments of our glory; of our devotion to the Czars. We are glad to have seen that you visited the modest hermitage of St. Ipatius, whence the ancestor of our present Emperor Alexander II was called out by the people to embrace the Russian crown; glad that you looked upon the monument of Ivan Soossanin, who offered up his life for our Czar’s ancestor. Now I appeal to your own sense of justice, would it be natural in us not to feel friendly towards you, when our joys are the same? You have broken the chains of slavery at the sacrifice of your blood and fortunes. In our country there was no slavery proper, but there was a state of dependence which equally burdened the land-holders and the land-owners. This state of things was removed by the supreme will of our monarch; and at the same time, in the name of truth, were removed the chains which lay upon Russian thought and speech. You rejoice at the abolition of slavery; we rejoice at the disappearance of servitude to estates, and greet, in the name of truth, the liberty of thought and speech. Our joy is common. But where joy is common there sorrow must be also common; and from this last may the Lord preserve us in future. Let us wish that there be no sorrow, either in America or in Russia; but if the Divine Providence visits one of them with sorrow—well, we will equally share it!

“Envoys of a free people, we beg you to transmit our hearty greetings to your Congress, which has sent you upon so noble and disinterested an errand; and to your powerful country our sincere wishes of peace, of success in knowledge and labor, supported upon true strength—the respect of law. Brothers, let us fasten our good wishes by a joint toast: To the welfare of America with her free institutions, and to the welfare of Russia with her beloved monarch!”

This beautiful and so originally expressed toast went to the hearts of all present. When the thunder of applause which followed it had subsided, Mr. Kartzeff proposed that a telegram should be sent to Washington containing this: “Kostroma, the cradle of the house of Romanoff, at a reception of welcome to Mr. Fox, expresses her wishes of happiness to the American people!”

This motion, together with the toast to the Assistant Secretary of the United States Navy Department, proposed by the president of the provincial ooprava, were unanimously received with loud, prolonged “ooras.”

Mr. Fox answered as follows: “Kostroma surrounds us with welcome. Outside of these walls we hear the plaintive songs of Russia; within, the national airs mingle their martial strains; before us, our flags intertwine in fiaternal embrace; in the galleries above us, alas! too far removed, the angels of Russia bless our meeting with their presence. Pilgrims from the New World, we came hither desirous to connect the name of our country with your glorious history; to plant upon this sacred soil the seeds of that sympathy which I am commissioned to express by the people of America, and we pray that the seed thus sown may bear a perennial harvest of brotherly love forever. I drink to the governor, the marshal of the nobility, the mayor and people of Kostroma.” [A thunder of applause and “ooras.”]

Then Mr. Curtin, secretary to the American legation, delivered, in the Russian tongue, the following speech:

“Ladies and gentlemen:^* There are grounds so hallowed by glorious and sacred traditions that our hearts, at the sight of them, are irrepressibly moved. Upon such a place we are now standing.

In a time of trouble and trials, when Russia stood an orphan without Czar, and her foes were preparing to destroy and ruin her, Kostroma had a youthful boyarin (nobleman) who possessed merits enough to be elected Czar by the unanimous will of the Russian people. When the newly elected Czar’s life stood in danger, Kostroma had a peasant who gladly offered up his life for the Russian Czar and the Russian land. When, at last, two centuries later, a criminal hand was raised upon the descendant of Michael Theodorovitsh, the Divine Providence, protecting Russia, did not allow the crime to be consummated; and, by the hand of a peasant of Kostroma, again preserved Russia from calamity. This is the meaning of Kostroma. She once gave and twice preserved to Russia a Czar. This is why she is honored by Russia. This is why we Americans come from our remote country to greet Kostroma, and to congratulate you, her inhabitants, upon the preservation of the Czar, your fellow-countryman, and upon the brilliant heroism of your fellow-countrymen, the peasants Soossanin and Kommissaroff-Kostromskoy. This is why I beg leave to proclaim a toast to thee, Kostroma the beautiful.”

After this eloquent toast to Kostroma the beautiful, one of her citizens offered a toast to Rear-Admiral S. S. Léssovsky, the worthy representative of Russians in America, who, in 1863, fastened the first links of friendship between Russia and the great American people.

S. S. Léssovsky answered this toast by proposing one to those who so well assisted him in his mission, the officers of his squadron—some of them being present—and, generally, to all Russian seamen.

Many other speeches followed, of which the most marked was that of peasant A. Finikoff, a relative of Kommissaroff-Kostromskoy and member of the rural ooprava of the province. Mr. Finikoff said:

“Right Honorable Mr. Fox: Allow me, a representative of the peasants freed by our good Czar from servitude to estates, to say to you welcome! Here you see the likeness (pointing to the portrait of Kommissaroff-Kostromskey) of one of us, who saved our sovereign’s life; and to this occasion we are indebted for your dear presence among us. Please receive, in my person, the expression of sincere gratitude on the part of all peasants for your friendship and your love towards our country and our Czar, the liberator; and allow me to propose a toast to the mutual friendship of Americans and Russians.”

At nine o’clock, after a last toast to the Russian and American ladies, the guests rose from the table. The day concluded in a family ball, which took place in a richly decorated and illuminated pavillion of the public gardens. There our transatlantic friends became acquainted with Kostroma ladies, and took a lively share in the dances. After the ball the American guests returned on board the Despatch, having to sail from Kostroma early in the morning of the following day.

[Untitled]

Speech delivered by the Vice Chancellor, Prince A. M. Gortshakoff, at the dinner given in honor of the American mission, in the English Assembly of St. Petersburg , on the 8th of September, 1866.

Gentlemen: Our transatlantic friends are already acquainted with those feelings which their presence among us and the cause of their mission to Russia awaken in our country. These feelings were already expressed to them from all degrees of our society, beginning with those spheres where a cultivated mind makes use of every possible ornament to express its thought, and finishing with those where, under an immediate impulse of the heart, a simple and unadorned language is spoken. These feelings were spoken out and expressed as if by one common voice of the masses, and it would be impossible for me to add anything to what has been already said and done. The unwonted fact, the unique example in history, of the Congress giving expression of feelings of profound esteem and sympathy towards our sovereign; the selection of the officer commissioned to convey hither the message of Congress; the personal qualities of this envoy, who knew how to resolve the difficult problem of preserving the dignity of his official standing, together with the cordial warmth of genial feeling; the daring spirit of enterprise and the skill of those who conducted the expedition, and, by crossing the ocean, resolved a problem which until now was a question unanswered by the cotemporary art of navigation; at last, the presence among us of the representative of the nation which, for many years and under all circumstances, showed to us a constant readiness to continue the friendly intercourse between the two peoples—gentlemen, all this together composes something complete, undisturbed by any dissonance.

I rejoice at all these gentlemen’s presence among us, because I am assured that Russia can but profit by a nearer acquaintance with her. [Applause and cries of “bravo.”] Distance smooths the lines of a far horizon, but prevents us from studying the details of a landscape. I rejoice that foreigners—practical people—free from preconceived opinions, have an occasion to see us near, to study us such as we really are; that they have an occasion to appreciate according to his merits, as well our sovereign, the best glory of our country, as our people, its power.

It is generally said that good reigns leave many blank pages in history. This saying is not altogether true; and if there is a reign the history of which is adorned upon each of its pages with daily records of most important, most grand reforms in the country’s interior organization, a reign engrossed by wise cares for the present time and mindful of lofty plans for the future, such a reign is the one in which actually centre the unlimited devotion and love of our whole country; because every one of us is fully convinced that every minute of our high leader’s life is, with infinite self-forgetfulness, wholly consecrated to the welfare and happiness of our country. [Cries of “bravo!” and prolonged applause.]

Of all great acts accomplished I will point only to the most important—the emancipation from dependence upon land estates. At this occasion I beg leave of our friends, the Americans, to express myself with full and complete sincerity. An error slipped into the address of Congress—where enemies of emancipation are mentioned; an error, however, which explains itself by distance and time. The madman alluded to does not belong to any nationality. [Voices from the audience: “Bravo! it is true!”] He was not connected with the country by any personal interest, and represents but a blind hazard of birth. Gentlemen, in Russia there is not a single enemy to emancipation, and those who are indebted to it for their freedom did not meet it with more joy than those to whom this measure was a duty connected with considerable sacrifices. The Emperor, our sovereign, was the first who conceived this truth, and he testified to it before his nobles, the owners of the land. And I am sure, gentlemen, that in this hall, where so much intellectual strength and so many interests are present, not a single voice will be raised to contradict this, my statement.

I need not dwell upon expressions of sympathy between the two countries. This sympathy is too clearly obvious to every mind. It is one of the most interesting facts of our time which gives birth between two nations—I will venture to say between two continents—to germs of mutual good will and friendship, which shall bear fruits, create traditions and tend to strengthen relations founded upon the true spirit of Christian progress. This tendency does not originate in geographical proximity. Between us lie the unfathomable abysses of oceans. Neither is it founded upon the strength of acts written on parchment; nor do I find the slightest trace of such acts in the archives of the ministry intrusted to me. It is purely instinctive, and I will, therefore, venture to call this tendency a doing of Providence. [Prolonged applause and cries of “bravo!”]

I rejoice at the mutual friendship of two great nations. I believe in its duration, [Bravo bravo!] and I will, in my political station, devote my cares to whatever may impart more strength to it, I say cares, not efforts, because no efforts are needed where all reposes upon natural and mutual attachment. [It is true! it is true!]

Another reason which urges me to speak out in every man’s hearing my view of the existing connexion, is the fact of its being perfectly free from the slightest danger or threat to anybody whomsoever. It exists by itself alone, without any interested views or any reservation. It has pleased the Almighty God to place both countries in such conditions that each may be satisfied with concentrating its efforts in the development of its grand interior public life.

Upon their territory the United States of America are invulnerable, and this invulnerability lies not only with their natural frontiers being marked by the oceans and inaccessible to any European conflict, but also with the prevailing spirit of their people and the individual character of their citizens. America can be threatened only by evils of her own creation. We covered with crape the sorrowful pages of her latest history. We looked with sorrow upon the contest between the brothers of the north and the brothers of the south, but we always believed in the final triumph of the cause of the Union, and now we hope to see the success of the noble efforts of the actual President, whose system, imbued with firmness and moderation, has constantly met with our approval and sympathy.

And in this respect, gentlemen, I will allow myself to point out a certain analogy between the two nations. Russia, by her geographical position, may be involved in European collisions; the chances of war may prove unfavorable to us. But, nevertheless, I think that Russia is equally invulnerable, and that this invulnerability will clearly appear whenever the feelings of national dignity and national p ride shall be seriously touched; because, in such cases, as in all our historical trials, the real strength of Russia will come to God’s light. This strength does not exclusively lie in the immense extent of our territory and the enormous number of our population; it has also a purer and higher source, the close and indestructible union between the sovereign and the country, which, in cases above mentioned, hastens to lay into his hands all its forces. intellectual and material, as it directs at present toward him all its feelings of unbounded love and devotion. [For some moments the orator is interrupted by prolonged applause. On all sides are heard exclamations of bravo! bravo! it is true!]

I thank you, gentlemen, for your indulgence to the words uttered by me. I have only to regret not to be able to express more eloquently the feelings by which we are all animated at the present moment. [Prolonged applause and cries of bravo! bravo!]

I cannot conclude without filling a blank which would be remarked by our American friends. It would be really a blank if I did not consecrate a few words to the memory of President Lincoln, the great citizen, who offered up his life for the fulfilment of his duty.

After this, I beg leave to come back to a toast already proposed and accepted, and to propose once more a toast to the welfare of the United States; to the success of the great work of pacification, undertaken by the actual President; to Mr. Fox, who received a mission which could not be put into more worthy hands; to Captains Murray and Beaumont, to whose daring spirit of enterprise we are indebted for the safe passage of the mission sent to our country; and also, collectively, to all those who contributed to the success of this passage. At last, I would be ungrateful if I did not mention in this toast the representative of the United States who remains with us, who was constantly giving us proofs of his good dispositions towards Russia.

When our friends shall return home, I wish that they might carry with them and preserve feelings like those which they have bequeathed to us. Let them tell to their fellow-countrymen that there is a great people who will never forget the expressions of sympathy towards their sovereign; a people who will never forget that there was in the history of the two great nations a moment when Russians and Americans lived with the same life, when our distant friends shared equally our apprehension and our joy.

1. In Russia, the presidents of most of the deliberative bodies, composed of elective members, are designated by the title of golova—the head; for instance, gorodskoy golova—city mayor.—The translator.
2. Of the two initials preceding a Russian name, the first refers to the person’s own Christian name and the second to the father’s.—The translator.
3. This narrative was published on the 25th of July, (6th of August,) in a supplementary sheet, distributed by the Cronstadt Herald to its city subscribers, and repriated in its number of August 8.—Note of the translator.
4. To this account is prefixed a roll of the officers in the American squadron. —Note of the translator.
5. Ministerial table is a technical term of the Russian court language, meaning such imperial dinners to which only the dignitaries of the two first classes are invited.—Note of the translator.
6. Another imperial palace.—Note of the translator
7. Uncovered carriages of a peculiar style, imitating he hunting equipages of the epoch of Louis XIV. In Russia this style of carriages is at present in use only at the imperial court.—Note of the translator.
8. A title granted by the Crown for public servicers to subjects not belonging to the Russian nobility.—Note of the translator.
9. After-bit: from being eaten after drinking a glass of whiskey.—Note of the translator.
10. A glass of whiskey and some bits of salted or smoked eatables are generally considered in Russia as good preparatives for dinner.—Note of the translator.
11. The gentleman who on the 4th of April, 1866, diverted the assassin’s arm from the person of Emperor Alexander II.—Translator’s note.
12. Every speech was translated, as soon as it was delivered. By Rear-Admiral Léssovsky; the Russian speeches into English and the English into Russian.—Corrrespondent’s note.
13. Mr. Curtin, who, during his two years’ stay in Russia, has become perfectly familiar with Russian literature, begins his speech with a felicitous allusion to a well-known verse of Pooshkin, the greatest and most popular of Russian poets.—Translator’s note.
14. A favorite beverage with Russian army and navy officers—a kind of punch, of run, sugar, fruits, &c., which, after having been left to burn for some time, is finally extinguished by pouring into it champagne.—Translator’s note.
15. A religious ceremony prescribed by the Greek church twice a year.—Translator’s note.
16. Pavlovsky, distant only half an hour by railway, is the favorite summer promenade of the wealthiest inhabitants of Petersbury.—Translator’s note.
17. Who saved the life of the first Czar of the House of Romanoff.—Translator’s note.
18. The Voice, a St. Petersbury daily paper, at present the most widely circulated paper in Russia.—Translator’s note.
19. Emblems of hospitality with the Russian people, as well as with other nations of Slavonian origin.—Translator’s note.
20. The usual terms of address with the Russian people are, father, mother, brother or little brother, sister, uncle, and aunt—like the “uncle” of the American colored people.—Translator’s note.
21. Textual terms, by which the city of Novgorod was designated in the days of her republican splendor.—Translator’s note.
22. Kremlin (Kreml) is a name common to all central parts, generally surrounded by walls, of Russian cities of ancient origin.—Translator’s note.
23. In most Russian commercial cities there are special buildings called “gostinoy dvor,” consisting in rows of store-rooms, forming, generally, a rectangular yard.—Translator’s note.
24. A kind of gruel, prepared of fine wheat-grits with sugar and preserves, invented by a late Russian minister of finance.—Translator’s note.
25. Popular designation of Yolga river.—Translator’s note.
26. Mr. Prokhoroff, in this speech, imitated, very successfully, the tone and manner of the ancient Russian popular poetry.—Translator’s note.
27. Here Mr. Curtin turned himself to the galleries, which were filled with ladies.—Correspondent’s note.