We have just seen an instance of arbitrary power outbraved and humiliated by the aristoci`acy.
This fact, and many others, justify me in maintaining that it is an aristo«`acy which constitutes the gi`eatest check огг the despotism of агг individual, — on an autoci*acy ; the вогг! of aristocracy is pi`ide, the spirit of demo«`acy is envy. We will now see how easily an aiitocrat гпау be deceived.
This morning we passed Revel. The sight of that place, which has not long been Russian territory,
CORPSE OF PRINCE DE CROÏ.109
recalled to our memories the proud name of Charles XII., and the battle of Narva. In this battle was killed a Frenchman, the Prince de Croï, who fought under the king of Sweden. His body was carried to Revel, where he could not be buried, because during the campaign he had contracted debts in the province, and had left nothing to pay them. According to an ancient custom of the land, his body was placed in the church of Revel until his heirs should satisfy his creditors. This corpse is still in the same church where it was laid more than one hundred years ago. The amount of the original debt has become so greatly augmented by interest, and by the daily charge made for the keeping of the corpse, that there are few fortunes which would now suffice to acquit it.
In passing through Revel about twenty years since the Emperor Alexander visited the church, and was so shocked with the hideous spectacle presented by the corpse, that he commanded its immediate interment. On the morrow the Emperor departed, and the body of the Prince de Croï was duly carried to the eemetry. The day after it was brought back to the church, and placed in its former position. If there is not justice in Russia, there are, it would appear, customs more powerful even than the sovereign will.
What most amused me during this too short passage was to find myself constantly obliged, in obedience to my instinctive notions of equity, to justify
Russia against Prince К's observations. This
won me the good will of all the Russians who heard our conversation. The sincerity of the opinions which
110RUSSIAN SENSITIVENESS.
the amiable Prince pronounces on his country, at least proves to me that in Russia there are some who may speak their mind.
When I remarked this to him, he replied, that he was not a Russian !! Singular assertion ! However, Russian or stranger, he says what he thinks. He ha¾ filled the most important political posts, spent two fortunes, worn out the favour of several sovereigns, and is полу old, and infirm, but especially protected by a member of the imperial family, who loves wit too well to fear it. Besides, in order to escape Siberia, he pretends that he is writing memoirs, and that he has deposited the finished volumes in France. The Emperor dreads publicity as much as Russsia dreads the Emperor.
I am mueh struck by the extreme susceptibility of
the Russians as regards the judgment which strangers
may form respecting them. The impression which
their country may make on the minds of travellers
occupies their thoughts incessantly. "What would be
said of the Germans, the English, and the French if
they indulged themselves in such puerility ? If the
satires of Prince Кarc disagreeable to his coun
trymen, it is not so much because their own sentiments
are wounded, as on account of the influence these
satires may have ггроп me, who am become an im
portant person in their eyes since they have heard
that I write my travels.
" Do not allow yourself to be prejudiced against Russia by this unpatriotic Russian; do not write under the influence of his statements; it is from a wish to display his French wit at our expense that he thus speaks, but in reality he has no such opinion."
RUSSIAN SENSITIVENESS.Ill
This is the kind of language that is addressed to me, privately, ten times a day. It appears to me as though the Russians would be content to become even yet worse and more barbarous than they are, provided they were thought better and more civilised. I do not admire minds which hold the truth thus cheaply; civilisation is not a fashion, nor an artificial device, it is a power which has its result, — a root which sends forth its stalk, produces its flowers, and bears its fruit.
" At least you will not call us the barbarians of the north, as your countrymen do." This is said to me every time I appear amused by some interesting recital, some national melody, or some noble or poetic sentiment ascribed to a Russian. I reply to these fears by some unimportant compliment, but I think in my own mind that I could better love the barbarians of the north than the apes who are ever imitating the south.
There are remedies for primitive bai`barism, there are none for the mania of appearing what one is not.
A kind of Russian savant, a grammarian, a translator of various German works, and a professor of I know not which college, has made as many advances towards me as he could during this passage. He has been travelling through Europe, and returns to Russia full of zeal, he says, to propagate there all that is valuable in the modern opinions of western Europe. The freedom of his discourse appeared to me suspicious: it was not that luxury of independence observable in
Prince К; it was a studied liberalism, calculated
to draw out the views of others.
112
A SPY.
If I am not mistaken, there may be always found some savant of this kind, on the ordinary lines of route to Russia, in the hotels of Lubeek, the steamboats, and even at Havre, which, thanks to the navigation of the German and Baltic seas, has become the Muscovite frontier.
This man extracted from me very little. He was specially desirous of learning whether I should write my travels, and obligingly offered me the lights of his experience. He left me at last thoroughly persuaded that I travelled only to divert myself, and without any intention of publisliing the relation of a tour which would be performed very rapidly. This appeared to satisfy him ; but his inquietude which was thus allayed, awoke my own. If I write this journey I must expect to give umbrage to a government more artful and better served with spies than any other in the world. This is an unpleasant idea. I must conceal my letters, I must be guarded in my language ; but I will affect nothing : the most consummate deception is that which assumes no mask,
THE RUSSIAN MARINE.113
THE RUSSIAN MARINE. REMARK OF LORD DURHAM'S. — GREAT
EFFORTS FOR SMALL RESULTS. — THE AMUSEMENTS OF DESPOTISM.
KRONSTADT. RUSSIAN CUSTOM-HOUSE. GLOOMY ASPECT
OF NATURE. RECOLLECTIONS OF ROME. ENGLISH POETICAL
NAME FOR SHIPS OF WAR. OBJECT OF PETER THE GREAT. —
THE FINNS. BATTERIES OF KRONSTADT. ABJECT CHARACTER
OF THE LOAYER CLASSES OF RUSSIAN EMPLOYES.INQUISITIONS
OF THE POLICE, AND THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. SUDDEN CHANGE
IN THE MANNERS OF FELLOAV-TRAVELLERS, FICKLENESS OF
NORTHERN PEOPLE.
As we approached Kronstadt, — a sub-marine fortress of which the Russians are justly proud,—the Gulf of Finland suddenly assumed an animated appearance. The imperial fleet was in motion and surrounded us on all sides. It remains in port, ice-locked during more than six months of the year; but during the three months of summer the marine cadets are exercised in nautical manoeuvres, between St. Petersburg and the Baltic. After passing the fleet we again sailed on an almost desert sea; now and then, only, enlivened by the distant apparition of some merchant vessel, or the yet more infrequent smoke of a pi/roscaph, as steam-boats are learnedly called in the nautical language of some parts of Europe.