138

CITATION FROM HERBERSTEIN.

It is not now for the first time that foreigners have been struck with astonishment at contemplating the attachment of this people to their slavery. The following passage, which is an extract from the correspondence of the Baron Herberstein, ambassador from the Emperor Maximilian, father of Charles V., to the Czar Vassili Ivanowich, I have found in Karamsin.

Did the Russians know all that an attentive reader may gather even from this flattering historian, in whom they glory, and whom foreigners consult with extreme distrust, on account of his partiality as a courtier, they would entreat the emperor to forbid the perusal of his, and of all other historical works, and thus be left in a darkness equally favourable to the repose of the despot and the felicity of his subjects, who believe themselves happy so long as others do not stigmatise them as victims.

Herberstein, in characterising the Russian despotism, writes as follows:-"He (the czar) speaks, and it is done; the life and fortunes of laity and clergy, nobles and burghers, all depend on his supreme will. He is unacquainted with contradiction, and all he does is deemed as equitable as though it were done by Deity; for the Russians are persuaded that their prince is the executor of the Divine decrees. Thus, "God and the prince have willed,' God and the prince know,' are common modes of speech among them. Nothing can equal their zeal for his service. One of his principal officers, a venerable gray-haired person, formerly ambassador in Spain, came to meet us on our entry into Moscow. He galloped his horse, and displayed all the activity of a young man, until

the sweat fell from his brow; and when I expressed my surprise to him, Ah, Monsieur le Baron,' he replied, we serve our sovereign in a manner altogether different from that in which you serve yours.'

"I cannot say whether it is the character of the Russian nation which has formed such autocrats, or whether it is the autocrats themselves who have given this character to the nation."

This letter, written more than three centuries ago, describes the Russians precisely as I now see them. Like the ambassador of Maximilian, I still ask, is it the character of the Russian which has made the autocracy, or is it the autocracy which has made the Russian character? and I can no more solve the question than could the German diplomatist.

It appears to me, however, that the influence is reciprocal: the Russian government could never have been established elsewhere than in Russia; and the Russians would never have become what they are under a government differing from that which exists among them.

I will add another citation from the same author, Karamsin. He repeats the observations of the travellers who visited Muscovy in the sixteenth century. "Is it surprising, say these strangers, that the grand prince is rich? He neither gives money to his troops nor his ambassadors; he even takes from these last all the costly things they bring back from foreign lands.* It was thus that the Prince Yaroslowsky, on his return from Spain, was obliged to place in the

* Dickens, in his Travels through the United States, informs us that the same practice is at this day observed in America.

140

THE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE

treasury all the chains of gold, the collars, the costly stuffs, and the silver vessels, which the Emperor and the Arch-duke Ferdinand had given him. Nevertheless, these men do not complain; they say, 'The great prince takes away, the great prince will give again."" It was thus the Russians spoke of the czar in the sixteenth century.

At the present day you will hear, both in Paris and in Petersburg, numbers of Russians dwelling with rapture on the prodigious effects of the word of the emperor; and, in magnifying these results, not one troubles himself with dwelling upon the means. "The word of the emperor can create," they say. Yes; it can animate stones, by destroying human beings. Notwithstanding this little restrictive clause, every Russian is proud of being able to say to us, "You take three years to deliberate on the means of rebuilding a theatre, whilst our emperor raises again, in one year, the largest palace in the universe." And this puerile triumph does not appear to them too dearly bought by the death of a few thousand wretched artisans, sacrificed to that sovereign impatience, that imperial fantasy, which constitutes the national glory. Whilst I, though a Frenchman, see nothing but inhuman ostentation in this achievement, not a single protestation is raised from one end of this immense empire to the other, against the orgies of absolute power.

People and government are here in unison. That a man brought up in the idolatry of self, a man revered as omnipotent by sixty millions of men, or at least of beings that resemble men, should not undertake to put an end to such a state of things-this

AGREES WITH THAT OF THE GOVERNMENT. 141

does not surprise me: the wonder is, that among the voices that relate these things to the glory of this individual, not one separates itself from the universal chorus, to protest in favour of humanity, against such autocratic miracles. It may be said of the Russians, great and small, that they are drunk with slavery.

142

PETERSBURG IN THE MORNING.

CHAP. IX.

THE DROWSKA.- COSTUME OF THE LOWER ORDERS. — WOODEN PAVEMENTS. PETERSBURG IN THE MORNING. - RESEMBLANCE OF THE CITY TO A BARRACK. CONTRAST BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SPAIN. - DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TYRANNY AND DESPOTISM. THE TCHIN. -PECULIAR CHARACTER OF THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT. THE ARTS IN RUSSIA. A RUSSIAN HOTEL. -THE EVILS TO BE ENCOUNTERED THERE. THE MICHAEL PALACES.-DEATH OF PAUL I.—THE SPY 'BAFFLED.— THE NEVA, ITS QUAYS AND BRIDGES. CABIN OF PETER I.—THE CITADEL, ITS TOMBS AND DUNGEONS. CHURCH OF ST: ALEXANDER NEWSKI.— RUSSIAN VETERANS. AUSTERITY OF THE CZAR.-RUSSIAN FAITH IN THE FUTURE, AND ITS REALISATION. MUNICH AND PETERSBURG COMPARED. INTERIOR OF THE FORTRESS. THE IMPERIAL PRISON. RUSSIAN PRISONERS.

TOMBS. -SUBTERRANEAN

MORAL DEGRADATION OF THE HIGHER CLASSES. - CATHOLIC CHURCH. PRECARIOUS TOLERATION. - TOMB OF THE LAST

KING OF POLAND AND OF MOREAU.

It was on the day before yesterday, between nine and ten o'clock, that I obtained the liberty of entering Petersburg.

The city, whose inhabitants are not early risers, gave me at that hour of day the idea of a vast solitude. Now and then I met a few drowskas. The drivers were dressed in the costume of the country. The singular appearance of these men, their horses and carriages, struck me more than anything else on my first view of the city.

The ordinary costume and general appearance of the lower classes of Petersburg, (not the porters, but) the workmen, coachmen, the small trades