Notwithstanding the brilliant education that the young ladies receive by the aid of so many first-rate professors, and the care and trouble taken in their surveillance, it is still a question whether it is wise to have so many young people together; at least, it does not agree with the ideas usually entertained in England. There is another great defect in this plan; the pupils have so very little leisure that they can take neither exercise nor recreation; the only unoccupied time they have is one hour after dinner, which they spend in walking up and down the immense corridors which run the whole length of the building. The even tenor of their existence is varied by balls among themselves on the anniversary of an imperial birthday, that of the coronation, the saint’s day of the Institute, &c. On these occasions the invitations are restricted to female relatives of the young ladies. They have also a long recess during the summer; but they often used to tell me in confidence “that they would rather the masters came, for it made a little variety.” A sortie or breaking up takes place once in three years, when the whole of the upper class leave the school, and then the lower take their place and become the first. A public examination takes place on these occasions, at which most of the imperial family are present; prizes are awarded, the highest of which is le chiffre or the Empress’s initials in diamonds, and the others consist in gold and silver medals. The young lady who gains the first prize becomes immortalized by having her name inscribed in golden letters on an oval board, painted dark blue, which is suspended in the ball-room, which the others have the pleasure of reading every day, and which serves to incite them to obtain a like distinction. She is also honoured by a kiss from the Empress. At the sortie the friends and relations attend, when some excellent performances on the piano, beautiful singing by the pupils, and the examination of their drawings and embroidery, form a part of this interesting ceremony. In addition to the studies and accomplishments before mentioned, there is a week at certain intervals in which the young ladies are taught to embroider, and attend in the kitchen to learn the culinary art. I have taken the Catherine Institute as an example, as it is the first in the empire, but the others are conducted nearly on the same plan. The Smolnoy Institute contains a greater number of pupils, because several classes of society are received: there are eight hundred in the two divisions. In the Patriotic there are three hundred and fifty, in the Elizabeth three hundred, in the Foundling six hundred. There are similar establishments in Moscow. Everything is found for the use of the pupils by the crown: their dresses, linen, shoes, even their pocket-handkerchiefs. The surveillantes, or dames de classe, are “de service” every alternate day, the other is entirely at their own disposal.