Page:Ancient and modern history of the Russian Empire.pdf/3

3 The country now comprehended under the name of Russia, or the Russias is of greater extent than all the rest of Europe, and more than the Roman Empire ever was, or that of Darius, subdued by Alexander the Great; for it contains upwards of one million, one hundred thousand square leagues (three English miles is a league. Neither the Roman Empire, nor that of Alexander, contained more than five hundred and fifty thousand each; and there is not a kingdom in Europe the twelfth part so extensive as the Roman empire way but to make Russia as populous, as plentiful, and as well stored with towns, as our southern countries, would require whole ages, and a race of monarchs such as Peter the Great.

The English ambassador, who resided at St Petersburg 1733, and who had been at Madrid, says in his manuscript relation. That in Spain, which is the least populous state in Europe, there may be reckoned forty persons to every square mile and in Russia not above five-Marshal Vauban, the greatest of Engineers and the best of citizens, compates, That in France, every square mile contains 200 inhabitants. These calculations are never very exact, but they serve to show the amazing disproportion in the population in two different countries.

It is proper to observe here, that from Petersburg, the new capital of Russia, to Pekin, the capital of China, there is hardly one mountain to be met with in the route which the caravans might take through independant Tartary; and that from Petersburgh to the north of France,