this relation I remarked that the Venetian climate was more pleasant than
the Russian, for at Venice fine days were the rule, while at St.
Petersburg they were the exception, though the year is younger there than
anywhere else.

"Yes," she said, "in your country it is eleven days older."

"Would it not be worthy of your majesty to put Russia on an equality with
the rest of the world in this respect, by adopting the Gregorian
calendar? All the Protestants have done so, and England, who adopted it
fourteen years ago, has already gained several millions. All Europe is
astonished that the old style should be suffered to exist in a country
where the sovereign is the head of the Church, and whose capital contains
an academy of science. It is thought that Peter the Great, who made the
year begin in January, would have also abolished the old style if he had
not been afraid of offending England, which then kept trade and commerce
alive throughout your vast empire." "You know," she replied, with a sly
smile, "that Peter the Great was not exactly a learned man."

"He was more than a man of learning, the immortal Peter was a genius of
the first order. Instinct supplied the place of science with him; his
judgment was always in the right. His vast genius, his firm resolve,
prevented him from making mistakes, and helped him to destroy all those
abuses which threatened to oppose his great designs."

Her majesty seemed to have heard me with great interest, and was about to
reply when she noticed two ladies whom she summoned to her presence. To
me she said,--

"I shall be delighted to reply to you at another time," and then turned