GOOD MANNERS.
73
Sir, and his physician's wife, a Lady; but, although his powers of comprehension were good, he died without being able to understand our explanations, or the value of the new dignity conferred upon his medical man.'
' The ignorance of the Emperor Alexander,' I replied, 'is justified by that of many well-informed men: look at the greater mmiber of novels in which foreigners attempt to depict English society.' This discourse served as a prelude to a most agreeable conversation, which lasted several hours. The tone of society among the higher ranks in Russia is marked by an easy politeness, the secret of which is almost lost among oiu`selves.
Every one, not even exchiding the French secretary of Prince K., appears modest, superior to the little cares and contrivances of vanity and self-love, and consecpiently, exempt from their mistakes and mortifications. If it is this that one gains from living under a despotism,
Notwithstanding the reserve which I threw into
* The author here requests a liberal construction on the part of the reader, in order to reconcile his apparent contradictions. It is only from a frank statement of the various contradictory views that present themselves to the mind that definitive conclusions are eventually to be attained.
VOL. I.E
74FREEDOM ОГ SPEECH. — CANNING.
my answers to the Prince К, the old diplomatist
quickly discovered the tendency of my views.
' You do not belong either to your country or to your age,' said he, ' you are an enemy to the power of speech as a political engine.'
' It is true,' I replied; ' any other way of ascertaining the worth of men appears to me preferable to public speaking, in a country where self-love is so easily excited as in mine. I do not believe that there could be found in France many men who would not sacrifice their most cherished opinions to the desire of having it said that they had made a good speech.'
' Nevertheless,' pursued the liberal Russian prince 'everything is included in the gift of language; everything that is in man, and something even beyond, reveals itself by discourse: there is divinity in speech.'
' I agree with you,' I replied; ' and it is for that very reason that I dread to see it prostituted.'
' When a genius like that of Mr. Canning's,' continued the prince, 'enchained the attention of the first men of England and of the world, surely political speech was something great and glorious.'
' What good has this brilliant genius produced ? And what evil would he not have caused if he had had inflammable minds for auditors? Speech employed in private, as a means of persuasion, to change the direction of ideas, to influence the action of a man, or of a small number of men, appeal's to me useful, either as an auxiliary, or as a counterbalance to power; but I fear it in a large political assembly whose deliberations are conducted in public. It too often secures a triumph to limited views and fallacious popular notions, at the expense of lofty,
CONFIDENTIAL CONVERSATION.75
far-sighted conceptions, and plans profoundly laid. To impose upon nations the domination of majorities is to subject them to mediocrity. If such is not your object, you do wrong to laud oratorical influence. The politics of large assemblies are almost always timid, sordid, and rapacious. You oppose to this the case of England : that country is not what it is supposed to be. It is true that in its houses of parliament questions arc decided by the majority ; but this majority represents the aristocracy of the land, which for a long tune has not ceased, except at very brief intervals, to direct the affairs of the state. Besides, to what refuges of lies have not parliamentary forms compelled the leaders of this masked oligarchy to descend ? Is it for this that you envy England ? '
' 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. —
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
