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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA, 687
reported to have fhed tears upon the news of victories gained by her troops, from the
reflection that they were not obtained without great bloodfhed. But although no
criminal was executed in public, yet the itate prifons were filled with wretched fuf-
ferers, many of whom, unheard of and unknown, perifhed in damp and unwholefome
dungeons: the ftate inquifition, or fecret committee, appointed to judge perfons ful-
pected of high treafon, had con{tant occupation during her reign; many upon the
flighteft furmifes were tortured in fecret; many underwent the knoot, and expired
under the infliction. But the tranfaction which reflects the higheft difgrace on her
reign, was the public punifhment of two ladies of fafhion, countefles Beftuchef and
Lapookin: each received fifty ftrokes of the knoot in the open fquare of Peterfburgh ;
their tongues were cut out, and they were banifhed into Siberia. One of thefe ladies,
Madame Lapookin, efteemed the handfomeft woman in Ruffia, was accufed of hold-
ing fecret correfpondence with the I’rench ambaffador ; but her real crime was having
commented too freely on the Emprefs’s amours. Even the mere relation of fuch an
affecting fcene, as that of a woman of great beauty and high rank publicly. fcourged
by the common executioner, mutt excite the {trongeft emotions of horror, and forbid
us to venerate the memory of a princefs, who, with fuch little regard to her own fex,
could iffue thofe barbarous commands. But let us lament the inconfiftency of
human nature; and in confidering the character of Elizabeth, let us not deny that her
heart, perhaps naturally benevolent, was occafionally corrupted by power, and fteeled
with fufpicion ; that although mercy might predominate whenever it did not interfere
with her paflions and prejudices, yet fhe by no means deferves the appellation of hu-
mane, the moft noble * attribute of a fovereign, when it interpofes to temper the
feverity of juftice. Elizabeth died in 1761, in the twenty-firft year of her reign, and
in the fifty-third of her age: fhe expired in December, the fame month in which fhe
was born, and in which fhe acceded to the throne.
In the fortrefs is a fmall arfenal, which among other military ftores, contains fome
cannon, ca{t in the middle of the fixteenth century, under the reign of Ivan Vafli-
lievitch II, I had occafion to mention in a former chapter, that the art of cafting can-
non was introduced into Ruffia under Ivan Vaffilievitch I. by Ariftotle of Bologna.
Ivan II. did not fail to imitate the example of his grandfather in procuring, by means
of foreign artifts, the beft artillery ; and to this judicious policy both monarchs were
chiefly indebted for their fucceffes in war, and for the conqueft of feveral provinces,
which they annexed to their hereditary dominions.
In a feparate building of the fortrefs is the mint. The gold and filver are fent from
the mines of Siberia, and the metals are refined in this laboratory. We furveyed the
whole procefs from the firft melting of the ore to the coining. Among the filver we
obferved a large quantity of Dutch dollars, which were melting to be recoined in
roubles. Peter I. wanting filver for the new coinage, iffued a decree, that all the
cuftoms fhould be paid in Dutch dollars: at prefent half the duties are ftill difcharged
in that money by all foreign merchants, excepting the Englifh, who are exempted by
treaty. But as the gold and filver obtained from the mines of Siberia, with the ad-
dition of the dollars, are by no means fufficient for the circulation, a confiderable
quantity of both metals is annually imported. The coinage, in its prefent debafed
* I was informed from undoubted authority, that it was impoffible to obtain Elizabeth’s confent for
the execution of a felon who had even committed the molt horrid {pecies of premeditated murder, and
that the mafter of the police ufed fecretly to order the executioner to knoot to death thofe delinquents
who were found guilty of the moft atrocious crimes. It is a pity fhe did not referve her humanity,
which in this inftance was cruelty to her people, for more refpeétable objes. a
ate,
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