Russian, and then deliver it to me to be conveyed to the Asylum, and entered into the journal there, for immediate adoption. I remember, on one occasion, taking a list of rules, at least fourteen in number, and the same day they were confirmed by the Empress. These rules introduced the following important arrangements; viz., the treating the inmates, as far as possible, as sane persons, both in conversation and manners toward them; to allow them as much liberty as possible; to engage them daily to take exercise in the open air; to allow them to wear their own clothes and no uniform prison-dress; also to break up the inhuman system of permitting the promiscuous idle curiosity of the public, so that no one was allowed to see them without permission; a room, on entering the asylum, was prepared for one at a time, on certain days, to see their relations. The old cruel system drew forth many angry expressions from the poor lunatics: ‘Are we, then, wild beasts, to be gazed at?’
“The Empress made a present to the Institution of a pianoforte; it had also a hand-organ, which pleased the poor inmates exceedingly. On one occasion the Empress, on entering the asylum, observed that the inmates appeared unusually dull, when she called them near, and played on the hand-organ herself an enlivening tune.
“Another important rule of your mother’s was, most strictly to fulfil whatever you promise to any of the inmates, and, above all, to exercise patience, gentleness, kindness, and love towards them; therefore, to be exceedingly careful as to the character of the keepers you appoint. These are some of the pleasing results of your mother’s work. The dowager Empress, on one occasion, conversing about your mother, said: ‘How
