Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

murmur reminded the monarch that he was a man, and that he had erred in abandoning his post as a monarch. The Poles and Swedes witnessed by turns the excess of his arrogance and his cowardice. In his negotiations with the Khan of the Crimea he so lowered himself as to

330FRIENDSHIP OF IVAN AND

offer to the Tartars, Kazan and Astrachan, which he had formerly taken from them so gloriously. At a later period he yielded to Stephen Batori, Livonia, that price of blood, the object of his people's efforts during many ages. But notwithstanding these treasons of her head, Russia, indefatigable in servility, did not for one moment falter in her disgraceful obedience.

Under this reign Siberia may be said to have been first discovered and conquered by heroic Muscovite adventurers. It was the fortune of Ivan IV. to bequeath to his successors that instrument of tyranny.

Ivan felt for Elizabeth of England a sympathy which had the nature of an instinct. These two wild beasts understood each other, even at a distance; the affinities of their dispositions operated, notwithstanding that difference in their situations which explains the difference in their acts. Ivan IV. was a tiger at liberty, Elizabeth was a tigress in confinement.

Ever a prey to imaginary terrors, the Muscovite tyrant wrote to the cruel daughter of Henry VIII., the triumphant rival of Mary Stuart, to beg of her an asylum in her realm in case of a reverse of fortune. She replied to him in a long affectionate letter. Karamsin only cites parts of this letter in the original language. It is preserved, he says, in the archives of Russia. I translate literally the English passages which he gives us.

' To the most high and mighty Prince, our beloved brother the Emperor and Grand Duke Ivan Vassili, Sovereign of all the Russias.

' If at any time it should come to pass that you should, by any casual event, by any secret conspi-

QUEEN ELIZABETH OF ENGLAND.331

racy, or by any foreign hostility, be obliged to leave your country, and should, in such case, desire to come into our realm, together with the noble empress your consort, and your beloved children, we shall, with all honour and courtesy, receive and act towards your Highness and your suite in such wise as is due to so great a prince; leaving you free to pass a quiet and peaceable life, with all those whom you may bring with you. And you shall be at liberty to practise your Christian religion in that manner which you prefer; for we have no mind to offend your Majesty nor any of your subjects, neither in any way to meddle ourselves in the matter of the conscience and religion of your Highness.

' And we will assign a place in our kingdom whereat you may reside, at your опт charge, so long as it shall please you to remain with us. We promise this by our letter, and by the word of a Christian sovereign. In pledge whereof, we Elizabeth, the Queen, subscribe this letter with our own hand in presence of our «obles and council:

' Nicholas Bacon, Knight (father of the celebrated philosopher), Grand Chancellor of our Realm of England; William Lord Parr, Marquis of Northampton, Knight of the Garter; Henry Earl of Arundel, Knight of the said Order ; Robert Dudley Lord Denbigh, Earl of Leicester, Master of the Horse, and Knight of the Garter.'

Several other names follow, of which the last is Cecil, Secretary of State.

332IVAN ASSUMES THE COWL.

In conclusion, the Queen adds these lines:

' Promising ourselves that we shall unite our forces to combat together our common enemies, and that we shall observe all that is contained in this letter, so long as God shall grant us life; and this is confirmed by our word and royal faith.

' Given at our palace of Hampton Court, this 18th day of May, in the twelfth year of our reign, and in the year of our Lord 1570.'

This friendship lasted during the life of the Czar, who was even at one time on the point of contracting an eighth marriage with Mary Hastings, a relative of the Queen of England: but the reputation of Ivan IV. had not, for the imagination of the betrothed, the same fascination that it had for the masculine spirit of Elizabeth. Happily there are not many hearts that can be seduced by the attractions of barbarity.

The negotiations connected with this project of marriage had been opened by Robert Jacobi, one of the physicians of the English court ,?whom Elizabeth sent to her ' beloved brother' together with surgeons and apothecaries, a little before his death. These relations suffice to exhibit the character of the feeling which the instinct of despotism and commercial interests, thenceforward the first for England, had established between the two tyrants. I must now finish the sketch of the tyranny of Ivan.

One day he took it into his head to assume the habit of a monk, and clothed his companions in debauchery with the same dress. Disguised in this manner, he continued to horrify heaven and earth by his inhumanity and monstrous libertinism. He

RELIGIOUS RESIGNATION.333

tempted his people by driving them to despair, but it was in vain. To the insatiable cruelty of their master, the slaves continued to oppose an invincible resignation. Nothing could cmench their thirst for servitude. Obedience carried to such excess was not an exercise of patience, it was a passion; and this explains the enigma.

Among nations yet young there exists so practical a faith in the universal presence of God, so strong a sense of his intervention in the smallest events of this world, that the march of human affairs is never viewed as caused or directed by man ; every thing that happens is the result of a decree of Heaven. Life seems nothing to those who aspire to the bliss of the elect. The hand that takes it docs good rather than evil. Little is lost, much is gained. What is the possession of the whole earth compared with the sure reward of virtue, that only good of which tyranny cannot deprive man ? The executioner only increases a hundred fold the treasures of the victims, by the means of sanc-tification which he offers to their pious resignation.

Thus reason people smitten with the passion of unconditional submission : but never has this dangerous religion produced so many fanatics as have been, and still are to be seen in Russia.

It is fearful to think of the uses which religious truth can be made to subserve here below. Had a man permission to kneel before God to ask for one, one only favour, it should be that he would be pleased to grant that the interpreters of his supreme wisdom might be always free men. A slavish priest is in-evitablv a liar, an apostate, and may also become an executioner. Every national church is schismatic,

334THE ONLY INDEPENDENT CHURCH.

and dependent. Every true priest is a citizen of the world and a pilgrim of heaven. Without placing himself beyond the laws of his country as a man, he has alone for the judge of his faith as an apostle, the bishop of bishops — the only independent pontiff that can be found upon earth. It is the independence of the visible head of the church that assures to all the Catholic priests their sacerdotal dignity: it is it also which promises to the Tope the perpetuity of power. All the other priests will return to the mother church when they recognise the sanctity of their missions, and they will then weep, with burning shame, for their apostacy. The temporal power will then no longer find preachers to justify its encroachments on the spiritual. Schism and heresy, those national religions, will give place to the Catholic Church—the religion of the human race: for, in the beautifully expressive words of M. de Chateaubriand, ' Protestantism is the religion of princes.'

Nevertheless, it must be recorded that, despite the proverbial timidity of the Russian clergy, it was the