the experience now gained, and with those resources which experience alone could have suggested, the second half can be successfully accomplished without interruption, and at less expense than has been incurred for the first part.

The average cost of the Thames Tunnel does not exceed £6. 3s. 9d. per cubic yard of the ground removed, including the structure, which contains 960 rods of brickwork. The average cost of the drift-way is £16. 10s. per cubic yard, with no more than 7 rods of brick-work.

PETER THE GREAT*.

owing to the settlement of the new ground, augmented | enterprise, it may be confidently anticipated, that with too by the weight of the water, the frames were found separated at the head, the chain that united them having given way. Nothing can convey so just an idea of the impetuosity of the irruption, as the state in which the invert of the arch was found. There, the brick-work was reduced by nearly one-half of its thickness, as if it had been battered with cannon-balls of small caliber; at the thickest part of the foundation a hole was open as if made by the fall of a 14-inch shell. Some heavy pieces of casting belonging to the shield had disappeared; but they were found afterwards driven into the ground as if forced by a powerful ram. In consequence of the continued depression of the new-made ground, moving too in an oblique direction, several further ruptures took place in the frames, with reports as loud as cannon-shots. The men were not, however, dismayed even at the sensible moven.ent of the ground: although the frames were separated by more than two feet at the head, the arches experienced no derangement whatever. The work was resumed and extended 50 feet beyond the first irruption; and, notwithstanding the disadvantages under which this additional portion was effected with a shield so very much weakened, and so much out of order, no part of the structure has been more substantially constituted than these 50 feet, which brought the whole to the middle of the low water.

THE life of Peter the Great of Russia is one of the finest subjects that could engage the pen of a philosophical historian. It would be the history not only of one of the most remarkable men that ever appeared; but of that most interesting of all the processes which are carried on upon the theatre of human affairs, the passage of a great people over the boundary that separates barbarism from civilization. In this instance the change in question was effected in a manner of which there is no other example. It is the only instance of national civilization upon the forcing system. It would, therefore, be in the very highest degree curious and important to examine both the mode and the results of the peculiar treatment which was here adopted. What In the early part of January, 1828, in consequence, in has the amount of its success really been? Civilization a great measure, of the interruption which had taken has, we know, been introduced into Russia; but to what place during the preceding week's holidays, the ground extent has the new spirit penetrated into the national had become looser than before. On the 12th, in par- character, and diffused itself throughout society? While ticular, the greatest precautions became necessary against Petersburgh has put on the appearance of a European a manifest danger. The men were ordered out in time, capital, how far have the shades of the old barbarisms except four whom Mr. Brunel, jun. selected to remain been softened throughout the rest of the empire? Above with him. Every exertion was made to oppose the mass all, has what we may call the artificial process given that of earth, but the ground, swelling and rolling in, as we stability and consistency to its results, which would proare told of the progress of lava, became irresistible in bably have followed a slower and more natural rate of its progress. One of the men, having executed his part, growth? Is no necessary part of the work of consolimade his escape. Suddenly, as Mr. Brunel was direct-dation likely to have been omitted, or imperfectly pering the others how to save themselves the ground burst formed, in the midst of such extraordinary precipitation? in like a volcanic irruption, with a tremendous crash; Will civilization in Russia exhibit that steady progress all the lights were blown out at once. Through this and development which, up to a certain point at least, total darkness Mr. Brunel reached the shaft, but the water it has uniformly exhibited in other countries in which it was at the top before him. The men collected at the has been less hurried through its commencing period? top had seen the waves close upon the scene before Mr. These inquiries would involve both a comprehensive and Brunel emerged from it. The three men were not so searching examination of the existing condition of the fortunate; three others were likewise lost, but these Russian empire, and an investigation into some of the must have been the victims of their own imprudence most important and pervading principles on which and curiosity, as they had not been detained in the work. depend the existence and the movements of human This second irruption, though still more sudden and society. more formidable than the first, was overcome by the It is to be observed, that in some respects what we same means. No less than 4000 tons of soil, chiefly clay may call the line of march of Russian civilization was in bags, were required to fill the chasm and effect a sub-forced upon it by circumstances altogether independent stantial covering. On re-entering the Tunnel, the struc-of its great actual conductor. The lateness of the hour ture was found perfectly sound; and the shield was a at which the nation awoke from barbarism, and the powerful barrier against which the bags were collected state at which surrounding countries had already arrived, and retained by these rods with which they were armed. must have necessarily prevented it from running exactly In this state of things, the pecuniary resources of the the usual course. The nations that received the light of company being too low to proceed with the work, the civilization in comparatively early times have been comdirectors found themselves reduced to the necessity of monly left, in a great degree, to work out their further discontinuing it. The ends of the arches were accord-improvement by themselves, and without having any ingly closed until means could be obtained to resume the undertaking. Many more plans were received by the directors at this juncture, but all were equally unavailable.

Disastrous as the two irruptions of the river had been, the fact of 600 feet of tunnel having been substantially effected through ground wherein experienced miners had not been able to construct a drain, has served to demonstrate that the plan by which so capacious an excavation has been secured, is quite efficient for the object, and that the structure is proof against those disasters which had been considered insurmountable.

In conclusion, it may be urged, that if an untried machine has effected nearly one-half of the contemplated

other people either to imitate or to be controlled by. This was pre-eminently the case with the Greeks; and hence mainly the originality of that wonderful people in all things, and the singularly regular and perfect development of its successive forms, which civilization exhibited among them. The same thing has also happened, to a very considerable extent, in the case of some of the great natious of modern Europe. Not only in their social and political organization, but even in their literature, it has been their lot, notwithstanding some ruins that remained of the ancient world, to build principally upon an original foundation, and even to * A Memoir of the Life of Peter the Great: in the Family Library, 1 vol.

have carried the superstructure to no mean height in of all men of taste at that time. The grounds are dea fashion of their own, before the revival of letters came scribed, in the life of the Lord Keeper Guildford, as "most to let in upon them a new and stronger reflection from boscaresque, being, as it were, an exemplary of his (Evethe models of antiquity. But Russia has been in train-lyn's) book of forest trees." Admiral Benbow had given ing from the first; her new being has been wholly im- observes in his Diary-"I have the mortification of great dissatisfaction to the proprietor as a tenant, for he pressed upon her from without; as for her old habits, seeing, every day, much of my labour and expense there the only tendency of all her efforts is to throw them impairing from want of a more polite tenant." It appears, off; whatever she possesses which she is likely to re- however, that the princely occupier was not a more "polite tain is borrowed and imported; it is French, Eng- tenant" than the rough sailor had been, for Mr. Evelyn's ish, German, not properly Russian. This, as we servant thus writes to him,-" There is a house full of nave said, must have been the case, even had Peter people right nasty. The Tzar lies next your library, and the Great never existed. Under the management of ines in the parlour next your study. He dines at ten some less bold and energetic spirit, the energies of the day; very often in the King's yard, or by water, dressed in o'clock and six at night; is very seldom at home a whole country might have been more gently aroused, and the several dresses. The King is expected there this day; the old national character not quite so rapidly overwhelmed best parlour is pretty clean for him to be entertained in. under the rush of foreign innovations; but in no cir- The King pays for all he has." But this was not all: Mr. cumstances, probably, which brought the empire into Evelyn had a favourite holly hedge, through which, it is active communication with the rest of Europe, could its said, the Tzar, by way of exercise, used to be in the habit barbarism, or semi-barbarism, have made a successful every morning, of trundling a wheel-barrow. Mr. Evelyn stand against the cultivation with which it would have probably alludes to this in the following passage of his Sylva, wherein he asks, "Is there, under the heavens, a come into competition, and had to contend. So that we more glorious and refreshing object, of the kind, than an may say it was the inevitable destiny of Russian civiliza- impregnable hedge, of about four hundred feet in length, nine tion to turn out imitative and artificial, to a degree never feet high, and five in diameter, which I can still show in my perhaps exemplified in the case of any other people. ruined garden at Saye's Court (thanks to the Tzar of Muscovy), at any time of the year, glittering with its armed and variegated leaves; the taller standards, at orderly distances, blushing with their natural coral?”

Without adverting, however, to such speculations as these, the biographer of Peter the Great has still ample materials out of which to form a most interesting narrative. The story is, in many respects, quite a romance, and is full of incidents of the most uncommon character. Where else, for example, may we read of a mighty emperor voluntarily becoming a working carpenter, or of a peasant girl, taken captive in the sack of the village in which she lived, rising to be in a few years after the consort of her imperial conqueror, and eventually the successor to his throne? Nor was the history of some of the other persons connected with the fortunes of Peter much less wonderful; witness that of his famous prime

minister, Prince Menzikoff, for instance, who was
originally a pastry-cook's boy, and used to sell pies
from a hand-basket in the streets of Moscow. The
present work, therefore, although its limited compass
has necessarily precluded the author from entering
into many
of the important inquiries which his subject
suggests, is, we need hardly say, full of interest.
This, indeed, is no great praise; for it would be im-
possible for even the most unpractised pen to review
the incidents of Peter's life without commanding the
attention of his readers. But we are bound to add that
the volume before us, with no pretension, contains the
result of a great deal of research-and that, notwith-
standing its small size, it is by far the most complete
memoir of the Russian emperor which has been presented
to the English public. The points of most general
interest are selected with a very happy skill; and the
hold which the narrative takes from the first of the
reader's curiosity, is maintained without any diminution
to the close. There are also scattered up and down the
work several notices, drawn from manuscript and other
sources, which had not before appeared in print.

Peter the Great, as most of our readers are aware, spent several months in London and its neighbourhood. We extract a few passages, descriptive of his manner of living at Deptford :

Alas! for the glory of the glittering hollies, trimmed innovator, has demolished them all, and Evelyn's favourite hedges, and long avenues of Saye's Court; Time, that great haunts and enchanting grounds have been transformed into cabbage gardens; that portion of the Victualling-yard where oxen and hogs are slaughtered and salted for the use of the navy, now occupies the place of the shady walks and the trimmed hedges, which the good old Evelyn so much delighted in; and on the site of the ancient mansion now stands the common parish workhouse of Deptford Strond. here, ever worked as a shipwright; it would seem he was We have little evidence that the Tzar, during his residence employed rather in acquiring information on matters connected with naval architecture, from that intelligent commissioner of the navy and surveyor, Sir Anthony Deane, who, after the Marquess of Carmarthen, was his most intimate English acquaintance. His fondness for sailing and managing boats, however, was as eager here as in Holland; and these gentlemen were almost daily with him on the Thames, sometimes in a sailing yacht, and at others rowing in boats,-an exercise in which both the Tzar and received directions from the Admiralty to hire two vessels, the Marquess are said to have excelled. The Navy Board to be at the command of the Tzar, whenever he should think proper to sail on the Thames, to improve himself in seamanship. In addition to these, the King made him a present of the Royal transport, with orders to have such alterations and accommodations made in her, as his Tzarish Majesty might desire, and also to change her masts, rigging, sails, &c., in any such way as he might think proper for to get into a small decked boat belonging to the Dock-yard, improving her sailing qualities. But his great delight was and taking only Menzikoff, and three or four others of his suite, to work the vessel with them, he being the helmsman; by this practice he said he should be able to teach them how to command ships when they got home. Having finished their day's work, they used to resort to a public-house in Great Tower Street, close to Tower Hill, to smoke their pipes and drink beer and brandy. The landlord had the Tzar of Muscovy's head painted and put up for his sign, which continued till the year 1808, when a person of the name of Waxel took a fancy to the old sign, and offered the then occupier of the house to paint him a new one for it. A copy was accordingly made from the original, which maintains its station to the present day, as the sign of the

One month's residence having satisfied Peter as to what was to be seen in London, and having expressed a strong desire to be near some of the King's dock-yards, it was arranged that a suitable residence should be found near one of the river establishments; and the house of the cele-Tzar of Muscovy,' looking like a true Tartar. brated Mr. Evelyn, close to Deptford Dock-yard, being about to become vacant, by the removal of Admiral Benbow, who was then its tenant, it was immediately taken for the residence of the Tzar and his suite; and a doorway was broken through the boundary wall of the dock-yard, to afford a direct communication between it and the dwelling. house. This place had then the name of Saye's Court; it was the delight of Evelyn, and the wonder and admiration

His attention was forcibly attracted to the magnificent building of Greenwich Hospital, which, until he had visited it, and seen the old pensioners, he had some difficulty in believing to be anything but a royal palace. King Wil liam having one day asked him how he liked his hospital for decayed seamen, the Tzar answered, "It I were the adviser of your Majesty, I should counsel you to remove your court to Greenwich, and convert St. James's into a hospital,'

The concluding character of Peter is a fair specimen | generally compiled their memoirs from polluted sources, the of the author's style and mode of thought:

The character of Peter the Great was a strange compound of contradictions. Owing to the circumstances in which he was placed, and the determination to execute the plan he had conceived of remodelling the customs and institutions of his country, he had to maintain a constant struggle between his good and evil genius. Nothing was too great, nothing too little, for his comprehensive mind. The noblest undertakings were mixed with the most farcical amusements; the most laudable institutions, for the benefit and improvement of his subjects, were followed by shaving their beards and docking their skirts; -kind-hearted, benevolent, and humane, he set no value on human life. Owing to these, and many other incongruities, his character has necessarily been represented in various points of view and in various colours by his biographers. Of him, however, it can scarcely be said, that

"The evil which men do lives after them,

reverse of the aphorism may be applied to Peter. His
judges, and of whom he was at once the scourge and the
memory among his countrymen, who ought to be the best
benefactor, is held in the highest veneration, and is conse
crated in their history and their public monuments to ever-
lasting fame. The magnificent equestrian statue, erected by
Catharine II; the waxen figure of Peter in the museum of
the Academy founded by himself; the dress, the sword, and
the hat, which he wore at the battle of Pultowa, the last
pierced through with a ball; the horse that he rode in that
battle; the trousers, worsted stockings, shoes, and cap,
which he wore at Zaardam, all in the same apartment; his
two favourite dogs, his turning-lathe and tools, with speci.
mens of his workmanship; the iron bar which he forged
with his own hand at Olonitz; the Little Grandsire, so
and the wooden hut in which he lived while superintending
carefully preserved as the first germ of the Russian navy;
the first foundation of Petersburg;-these and a thousand
other tangible memorials, all preserved with the utmost
care, speak in most intelligible language the opinion which

The good is oft interred with their bones."
With the exception of a few foreign writers, who have the Russians hold of the Father of his Country.

[New Buildings at Lambeth Palace.]

In a recent number we gave an account of the old |
Palace of Lambeth; and promised some details of the
new buildings. The above view will give an idea of the
style of architecture. These new buildings stand in the
gardens, east of the old Palace. The principal edifice
is a beautiful and imposing structure. The ornamental
portions are particularly rich, and have been chiefly copied
from Westminster and St. Alban's Abbeys. Dimensions:
-width of entrance, or south front, 160 feet;-towers of
entrance front, 84 feet height;-north or garden front,
190 feet wide;-east front, 100 feet wide. The whole
is built of Bath-stone, and cost from the commencement
to the present time upwards of £55,000.

The principal rooms are of fine proportions and are richly embellished. The library is perhaps the finest thing in the whole building. The valuable collection of

books and MSS. at Lambeth demanded a suitable apartment for their reception.

The Office of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is at 59, Lincoln's-Inn Fields.

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