I am certain that the dishonourable actions to which many of these _employés_ are addicted, and which I myself have witnessed, would scarcely be credited in England, where officers and gentlemen are synonymous terms. One day we saw an officer boldly pocket some money belonging to his neighbour, at cards. Another slipped some concert tickets up his sleeve, that were the property of my friend. We both saw him do it, but neither of us could accuse him to his face. Many a time things were missing that could have been missing in no other way. One day a young officer called while the family were at dinner. The footman very carelessly had requested him to enter one of the drawing-rooms whilst he went and informed his master. He came back in a minute or two, and begged him to wait a little, but the officer politely said that he did not wish to derange the dinner-party, and, as he had to call elsewhere, he would shortly return. He then went away. No sooner had he done so than the servant discovered that his lady’s watch had disappeared. The police were not informed of it, out of respect to his uncle, who was of rank. Bribery is everywhere practised. There are some honourable men among the _employés_ undoubtedly, but they are generally so wretchedly poor, that really the temptation must be almost irresistible. Their pay from the government is so small that they can scarcely supply themselves with shoes and gloves out of it; so the money must be obtained somehow to enable them to make a genteel appearance. A few have perhaps private property, but the major part have only their appointment. From all that is told concerning them, the Russo-Germans seem to be the most rapacious of any people in the country: they are the most cringing when in an inferior station, and the most tyrannical and merciless when in power. “Immense numbers of our officers are Germans,” said a nobleman to me. “They enter the service, and, as they have their fortune to make, they will submit to all sorts of insults, cringe and curry favour with their superiors, and do anything to get on. Now, _a Russian_ will not do that; he will throw up his commission and leave the service upon a very slight provocation.” My experience did not enable me to agree with him. “Every man has his price,” is said to have been one of Sir Robert Walpole’s axioms; had he lived in Russia, he would have nearly hit the truth, and, he might have added, “every woman” too.