Russian equipage to withstand the pace of the horses and the hardness of the road, is discovered. The rails of the bridges are formed of handsome iron balustrades, and the granite pillars which support them are carved with the imperial arms. This road is broader than those of England ; it is also as even, although less easy; the horses are small, but full of muscle.
My feldjager has ideas, a bearing, and a person, which prevent my forgetting the spirit which reigns in his country. On arriving at the second stage, one of our four horses fell on the road. Notwithstanding the advanced season, the middle of the day is still excessively hot, and the dust renders the air suffocating. It appeared to me that the horse had fallen under the influence of the heat, and that unless he were instantly bled, he would die. I therefore called the feldjager, and taking from my pocket a case containing a fleam, I offered it to him, telling him to make prompt use of it if he wished to save the life of the poor brute. He answered, with a malicious phlegm, while declining the instrument I offered, that it was of no consequence, as we were at the end of the stage. Thereupon, without aiding the unfortunate coachman to disengage the animal, he entered the stable hard by, in order to prepare another set of horses.
The Russians are far from having, like the English, a law to protect animals from the ill-treatment of men. On the contrary, it is among them as necessary to plead the cause of the men, as it is in
DESCRIPTION OP A LIVONIAN.231
London to plead the cause of the dogs and horses. My feldjager would not believe in the existence of such a laAV.
This man, who is a Livonian by birth, fortunately for me, speaks German. Under the exterior of an officious civility and obsequious language, may be discovered much obstinacy and insolence. His figure is slim ; his flaxen hair gives to his features an infantile appearance which belies their really dry and harsh expression. That of his eyes, more especially, is crafty and relentless. They are grey edged Avith almost white lashes; his thick eyebrows are very light, his forehead full but low ; his skin Avould be fair were it not tanned by the constant action of the air; his mouth is finely formed, always closed, and the lips so small that they are not seen until he speaks. His clean and neatly-fitting uniform of Russian green, with a leather belt round his Avaist, buckled in front, gives him a certain ah* of elegance. He has a light step, but an extremely slow understanding.
Notwithstanding the discipline under Avhich he has been bred, it can be perceived that he is not of Russian descent. The race, half Swedish, half Teutonic, Avhich peoples the southern side of the Gulf of Finland, is very different from that either of the Finns or the Slavonians. The real Russians are, in their primitive endowments, more to be admired than the mixed populations that defend the frontiers of their land.
This feldjager inspires me Avith but little confidence. Officially, he is my guide and protector; nevertheless I see in him only a disguised spy, and feel toAvards
232PUNISHMENT OF A POSTILLION.
him as towards one who might at any moment receive an order to become my gaoler.
I have already spoken of the mingled interchanges of politeness and brutality, of the bows and blows which the Russians practise among each other; here, among a thousand, is another example. The postillion who brought me to the post-house from whence I write, had incurred at the stage where he set out, by I know not what fault, the wrath of his comrade, the head hostler. The latter trampled him, child as he is, under his feet, and struck him with blows which must have been severe, for I heard them at some distance resounding against the breast of the sufferer. When the executioner was weary of his task, the victim rose, breathless and trembling, and without proffering a word, readjusted his hair, saluted his superior, and, encouraged by the treatment he had received, mounted lightly the box to drive me at a hard gallop four and a half or five leagues in one hour. The Emperor travels at the rate of seven. The trains on the railways would have to do their best to keep up with his carriage. What numbers of men must be beaten and horses killed, in order to render possible so amazing a velocity, and that for one hundred and eighty leagues in succession ! Some pretend that the incredible rapidity of these journeys in an open carriage is injurious to the health ; and that few lungs can stand the practice of cleaving the air so rapidly. The Emperor is so constituted that he can support every thing ; but his son, who is less robust, suffers from the demands made upon his frame, under the pretext of fortifying it. With the character which his manners, expression, and language convey the
SPIRIT OF RUSSIAN SOCIAL ORDER.233
idea of his possessing, this prince must suffer mentally as well as physically. With reference to him may be applied the words of Champfort, —' In the life of man, an age inevitably arrives at which the heart must either break or harden.'
The Russian people give me the idea of being men endowed with gentle dispositions, but who believe themselves bom exclusively for violence. With the easy indifference of the Orientals they unite a taste for the arts, which is tantamount to saying that nature has given them the desire of liberty; whilst their masters have made them the machines of oppression. A man, as soon as he rises a grade above the common level, acquires the right, and, furthermore, contracts the obligation to maltreat his inferiors, to whom it is his duty to transmit the blows that he receives from those above him. Thus does the spirit of iniquity descend from stage to stage down to the foundations of this unhappy society, which subsists only by violence—a violence so great, that it forces the slave to falsify himself by thanking his tyrant; and this is what they here call public order; in other words, a gloomy tranquillity, a fearful peaee, for it resembles that of the tomb. The Russians, however, are proud of this calm. So long as a man has not made up his mind to go on all-fours, he must necessarily pride himself in something, were it only to preserve his right to the title of a human creature.
By a spirit of reaction against the doctrines of Christianity, the world has become, especially during the last century, of one accord in extolling ambition, as though it were not the most cruel, the most unmerciful of the passions, and as though society were in
234SPIRIT OF ТПЕ GOVERNMENT.
danger of lacking proud talents, greedy hearts, and domineering minds. But more particularly is ambition conceded to governments. It would seem as though the heads of the people were especially privileged to commit iniquity. For my part, I cannot perceive any moral difference between the unjust covetousness of a conquering nation and the attacks of an armed brigand. The sole distinction to be made between public and individual crimes is, that the one produces a great, the other a little evil.
The Russians excuse themselves in their own eyes under the idea that the government to which they submit is favourable to their ambitious hopes; but an object that can only be attained by such means must be bad. The people are an interesting race ; I can recognise among those of the lowest orders a kind of intelligence in their pantomime, of suppleness and quickness in theh` movements, of ingenuity, pensiveness, and grace in their countenances, which denote men of good blood ; but they are made beasts of burden. Shall they persuade me that it is necessary to manure the soil with the carcasses of this human cattle, that the earth may fatten during ages, before she can produce generations worthy of reaping the glory which Providence promises the Slavonians ? Providence forbids the commission of a small evil even in the hope of the greatest good.
I do not mean that they should, or that they could, in the present day, govern the Russians as they govern the other European lands; but I mean that numerous evils would be avoided, if the example of jjentleness and lenity were given in the highest quarters. But what ean be hoped from a nation of
