A peculiar custom is observed in Russia that I never noticed elsewhere. You are expected always to take off your overcoat on entering the house to make a call, of business or pleasure. Even when you call at the bank, to draw or deposit your money, a liveried servant in the hall conducts you to an anteroom, where you lay aside your overcoat and hat, and then enter the business-room as if you were to be presented to the lady of the mansion. My bankers here are Wynken & Co., at the end of the iron bridge over the Neva, and, upon entering, I was shown to a seat, and my letter of credit taken by a clerk to one of the firm, who immediately came out from his office, and after a few complimentary inquiries, asked me what he could do for me, and in a few minutes the business was done. A despot is the Emperor of Russia. We have come to associate only a bad meaning with the word _despot_. It had not such a sense as we liberty worshippers give it. Now it means a tyrant, a hard master, one who has unlimited power and uses it to oppress. _Despotes_ is the Greek word for master in the New Testament, and sometimes the _Lord_ himself is spoken of and addressed under this name. The apostle Paul says: “Let as many servants as are under the yoke, count their own _despots_ worthy of all honor.” And again: “they that have believing _despots_;” and again, he commands servants to be obedient unto their own _despots_. So Peter tells them to be subject to their own _despots_. And good old Simeon cries; “_Despotes_, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.” And Peter speaks of those who deny the _despotes_ that bought them; and in Rev. vi. 10, we read: “Plow long, O _despotes_, holy and true,” &c. These quotations show us the good sense in which the word was once used; and now, when we speak of a despotic government, we do not understand that it is necessarily an oppressive government, but one in which the power is concentrated in the hands of one man, who can use it at his pleasure, unrestrained by constitution or legislature.