Though he was treated with great courtesy by this functionary, who shook hands with him, and offered a sort of half apology for acting as he did; from that time the services at Col. Paschkoff's house were stopped; but Mr. Müller was allowed to continue his other labours without hindrance. There is, however, so little real religious liberty in Russia, that the spread of the Gospel is lamentably prevented by the absence of it. During our visit to St. Petersburg, the cold was occasionally very severe, and more intense than we ever found it in Canada, or in the United States. On March 13th we visited the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, which contains the tombs of the Russian Emperors, and passed the spot where Alexander II. was murdered by the Nihilists. A visit in a sledge also, to a little settlement of Laplanders encamped on the Neva upon the ice, gave some idea of the habits of these poor people. A party of Lapps (clothed in skins and furs, with the warm side turned inwards and looking as if _sewn up_ in their thick garments) were standing near a tent. They wear no under linen (we were told), and never wash themselves nor change their clothes, except when they fall off from dirt and constant use. The interior of a Laplander's hut too, upon the ice, presented a miserable, uncomfortable appearance. It consisted of a tent made of skins, with the fur turned inwards, and had an opening at the top, which answered the double purpose of chimney and of window. An iron pot, containing soup, was suspended over a small fire in the centre of this tent, and the floor of ice in the hut was covered by rugs; but all the domestic arrangements inside were of a most repulsive character, and made us feel unspeakably thankful for the mercies and comforts of our own Christian home. The population of St. Petersburg is about 800,000. "This city is situated on the river Neva, near its entrance into the gulf of Finland, 15 miles from Lake Ladoga, where it is divided by islands into four channels called the Great and Little Neva. The dead flat, on which the city now stands, was once a morass, occupied by a few fishermen's huts, on the site of which Peter the Great began to build in 1703, by erecting a small hut for himself, and some wooden hovels near the Old Fort. The best streets are broad and spacious, and the Nevski Prospekt, is nearly three miles in length." The last time Mr. Müller held a meeting in _English_ at St. Petersburg was at the British and American Chapel, where on Sunday evening, March 11th, he preached a farewell sermon to a large congregation from Prov. iv. 23; "Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life."