Panin was, among this savage herd, the only man distinguished by courtesy of manners, and cultivation of mind; yet his was but a secondary influence. Intent on establishing his aristocratical system, he seized every occasion for displaying its advantages: observing the mind of Catherine disquieted by alarms, he conceived the moment favourable for pressing his plan. After aggravating the evils inseparable from an usurpation, and the dangers which menaced her on every side, he intimated an expedient for the removal of these vexations, to which a false delicacy only could in duce her to object.

He then proceeded to paint in glowing colours his favourite principles, while he exhorted her to limit those powers which, tempting the ambition of the bold pretender, so often proved fatal to their possessor. Make a sacrifice,' said he, 'of an absolute control. Create a fixed and permanent council which shall secure to you the throne. Renounce for yourself and your successors the power of depriving at pleasure the members of that august body. Declare that to their peers alone their conduct and their privileges shall be submitted. From the moment these measures shall be adopted, the means by which you obtained the crown will be remembered no more,

while it is seen that by justice you are determined to preserve it.'

The empress, dazzled by the plausibility and novelty of a project which appeared to promise conciliation and renown, lost sight at the moment of the mischiefs with which it teemed. The miseries of the people had little prospect of alleviation, in exchanging one sovereign, active and enlightened, for twenty or thirty tyrants, chosen from a privileged order, amenable to no authority, and unlimited in their jurisdiction. The despotism of a body is more terrible, because more permanent, than that of an individual.

Catherine having charged Panin to commit his thoughts to paper, he lost no time in obeying her; while, in order the more effectually to secure his interest, he placed at the head of those of whom the senate was to be composed the name of the favourite. Orloff, flattered by this distinction, demanded time for consideration, and, in the interval, imparted the plan to Bestucheff, Sensible of the value of a power which he had long directed, Bestucheff took the alarm, and, with energy, represented to the empress the perils which threatened the measure proposed by Panin: he conjured her not to expose herself to a long repentance by dividing an authority so dearly earned; which, if lost for an instant, would never be regained. Catherine perceived the prudence of this counsel, which she promised to observe. On his next appearance before her, Panin found her mind determined; she did justice to his zeal, praised his sagacity, but declined to avail herself of it. The minister, cruelly mortified by this overthrow of his hopes, gave vent, among his friends, to his disgust. ' If,' said he, rashly, the empress is determined to rule alone, you will see we shall make of it a sad reign.'

Panin was not long in discovering to whom he owed his defeat, nor in finding an opportunity to retaliate upon his adversary. Bestucheff, observing the influence of Orloff, which Catherine no longer attempted to conceal, artfully insinuated to the favourite, with a view of rendering himself yet more necessary, the pleasure he should feel in beholding him ascend the throne. It is to no purpose,' said he to him, that the empress gives you her heart, while she withholds from you her hand.' He went on to represent to him his claims to her affection, and his rights to her gratitude, with the propriety and practicability of the measure he proposed, concluding by an offer of his services in this delicate negociation, on condition of being left to pursue his own measures, while the favourite should affect ignorance of his proceedings. Orloff listened to the aged chancellor with profound attention, adopted with facility his ambitious projects, embraced him cordially, and promised an implicit compliance with his desires.

On the same day, Bestucheff, discoursing with the empress, artfully sounded her upon the subject. After some hesitation, Catherine replied, that, notwithstanding her inclinations might favour his proposal, she could not precipitately resolve on a step so hazardous and important, and which, however attempted, could scarcely fail of giving umbrage to the empire. Respecting the means of effecting his plan, Bestucheff engaged to be himself responsible. With this view, he composed a petition, in the name of the nation, in which, after dwelling with pompous eulogium on the qualities and virtues of the empress, with the happiness and glory derived from them to her people, he touched on the infirm constitution of the apparent heir, and the consequent disquietude of the empire, conjuring Catherine to give to her subjects an additional testimony of her affection, by taking a consort, and sacrificing to their welfare her own liberty.

To conceal his real intentions from those design

ed to promote them, he began by proposing prince Ivan, but too well aware of his rejection. Catherine, affecting to approve of the plan, yet fearful of precipitate measures, caused Ivan to be removed from Schlusselburg, and lodged in a monastery not far from Archangel, where he was at first treated with the honours due to his birth; but, as if to increase his sense of the misery of his destiny, he was soon carried back in secret to his dungeon.

What had been foreseen by the chancellor failed not to happen: the petition on being presented to the clergy, was eagerly signed by twelve bishops, previously gained over, who at the same time objected to Ivan: the prince, it was alleged, pre suming on his birth, might pretend to stand on his own rights, and, affecting independence of his benefactress, punish her for her bounty. Her majesty was therefore requested to select from among her subjects him whom she should conceive worthy of participating in her throne. Many of the general officers subscribed to the sentiments of the bishops; and, but for the dexterity of Panin, the courage of Razumoffsky, and the chancellor Vorontzoff, Orloff had been emperor of Russia. These courtiers combined to dissuade Catherine from the projected union, as not less