" Nevertheless, man must be led either by fear or by persuasion."
" True; but action is more persuasive than words. Does not the Prussian government prove this ? Does not Buonaparte ? Buonaparte at the commencement of his reign governed by persuasion as much as, or more than, by force, and yet his eloquence, though great, was never addressed except to individuals; to the mass he never spoke except by deeds: to discuss the laws in public is to rob them of that respect which i.? the secret of their power."
" You are a friend to despotism ?"
" On the contrary, I dread the lawyers, and their echo the newspapers*, which are but speeches whose echo resounds for twenty-four hours. Such is the despotism which threatens us in the present day."
* These allusions, it must be remembered, refer more especially to France. — Ti`ans.
76GLANCE AT RUSSIAN HISTORY.
" Come among us, and you will learn to fear some other kinds."
" It will not be you, prince, who will succeed in imbuing me with a bad opinion of Russia."
"Do not judge of it, either by me, or by any other Russian who has travelled : our natural flexibility renders us cosmopolites the moment we leave our own land; and this disposition of mind is in itself a satire against our government! "
Here, notwithstanding his habit of speaking openly on all subjects, the prince began to distrust both himself, me, and every one else, and took refuge in some remarks not very conspicuous for their perspicuity. He afterwards, however, availed himself of a moment when we were alone to lay before me his opinion as to the character of the men and the institutions of his country. The following, as nearly as I can recollect, forms the sum of his observations.
" Russia, in the present age, is only four hundred years removed from the invasions of barbarian tribes, whilst fourteen centuries have elapsed since western Europe experienced the same crisis. A civilisation older by one thousand years of course places an immeasurable distance between the manners of nations.
" Many ages before the irruption of the Mongol», the Scandinavians placed over the Slavonians (then altogether savages) chieftains, who reigned at Great Novogorod and at Kiew, under the name of Varegues. These foreign heroes, supported by a small retinue of armed followers, became the first princes of the Russians; and their companions in arms are the stock whence proceeds the more ancient nobility. The Varegue princes, who were a species of demi-
INSTITUTIONS OF CHIVALRY UNKNOWN. 77
gods, governed this nation while still composed of wandering tribes. It was from the emperors and patriarchs of Constantinople that they at this period derived all their notions of luxury and the arts. Such, if I may be allowed the expression, was the first laid stratum of civilisation in Russia, afterwards trampled on and destroyed by the Tartar conquerors.
t£ A vast body of saints, who were the legislators of a newly converted Christian people, illume, with their names, this fabulous epoch of Russian history, Princes also, great by their savage virtues, ennoble the early period of the Slavonian annals. Their names shine out from the profound darkness of the age, like stars piercing the clouds of a stormy night. The very sound of these strange names excites the imagination and challenges curiosity. Rurick, 01eg, the Queen Olga, Saint Wladimir, Swiatopolk, and Monomaque, are personages whose characters no more resemble those of the heroes of the west than •lo their appellations.
" They have nothing of the chivalrous about them ; they are like the monarchs of Scripture ; the nation which they rendered great remained in the vicinity of Asia; ignorant of our romance, it preserved manners that were in a great measure patriarchal.
" The Russian nation was not formed in that brilliant school of good faith, by whose instructions chivalrous Europe had so well profited, that the word honour was for a long period synonymous with truth, and the гсога of honour had a sanctity which is still revered, even in France, where so many things have been forgotten.
" The noble influence of the Knights of the Cross
78GREEK rOLICY Ш RUSSIA,
stopped, with that of Catholicism, in Poland. The Russians are warriors, but they fight under the principle of obedience, and with the object of gain; the Polish chevaliers fought for the pure love of glory; and thus, though these people spring from the same stock, and have still many points of resemblance, the events of history have separated them so widely that it will require a greater number of ages of Russian poliey to reunite them than it has required of religion and of social habitudes to part them asunder.
" Whilst Europe was slowly recovering from the efforts she had made during centuries to rescue the tomb of Christ from the unbelievers, Russia was paying tribute to the Mohammedans under TJsbeck, and at the same time drawing her arts and sciences, her manners, religion, and politics, as also her principles of craft and fraud, and her aversion to the Latin cross, from the Greek empire. If we reflect on all these civil, religious, and political influences, we shall no longer wonder at the little confidence that can be placed in the word of a Russian (it is the Russian prince who speaks), nor that the Russian character in general should bear the impress of that false Byzantine stamp which influences social life even under the empire of the Czars — worthy successors of the lieutenants of Bati.
" The unmitigated despotism that reigns over us established itself at the very period that servitude ceased in the rest of Europe. From the time of the invasion of the Mongols, the Slavonians, until then one of the freest peoj)le in the world, became slaves-: first to their conquerors, and afterwards to their own princes. Bondage was thenceforward established
NATURE OF AN AUTOCRACY.79
among them, not only as an existing state, but as a constituent principle of society. It has degraded the right of speech in Russia to such a point that it is no longer considered anything better than a snare: our government lives by lies, for truth is as terrible to the tyrant as to the slave. Thus, little as one speaks, in Russia, one always speaks too much, since in this country all discourse is the expression of religious or political hypocrisy."
" Prince," I replied, after having listened attentively to this long series of deductions, " I will not believe you. It is enlightened to rise above national prejudices, and polite to deal gently with the prejudices of foreigners; but I have no more confidence in your concessions than I have in others' claims and pretensions."
" In three months you will render me greater justice ; meanwhile, and as we are yet alone," — he said this after looking round on all sides, — "I will direct your attention to a leading point, I will present you with a key which will serve to explain every thing to you in the country you are about to visit.
" Think at each step you take among this Asiatic people that the chivalrous and Catholic influence has never obtained in their land; and not only have they never adopted it, they have withstood it also, with bitter animosity, during long wars with Lithuania, Poland, and the knights of the Teutonic order."
" You make me proud of my discernment. I wrote lately to one of my friends that I conceived religious intolerance to be the secret spring of Russian policy.
" You anticipated clearly what you are going to see ; you can have no adequate idea of the intense intolerance of the Russians ; those whose minds are E 4
80POLITICS ANT) RELIGION IDENTICAL,