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

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

CHAP. VII.

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.

The Baltic sea, by the dull hues of its unfrecµiented waters, proclaims the vicinity of a continent depopulated under the rigours of the climate. The barren

114THE RUSSIAN MARINE —

shores harmonise with the cold aspect of the sky and water, and chill the heart of the traveller.

No sooner does he arrive on this unattractive coast than he longs to leave it; he calls to mind, with a sigh, the remark of one of Catherine's favourites, who, when the Empress complained of the effects of the climate of Petersburg upon her health, observed, ' It is not God who should be blamed, Madame, because men have persisted in building the capital of a great empire in a territory destined by nature to be the patrimony of wolves and bears.'

My travelling companions have been explaining to me, with much self-satisfaction, the recent progress of the Russian marine. I admire this prodigy without magnifying it as they do. It is a creation, or rather a re-creation of the present emperor's. This prince amuses himself by endeavouring to reahse the favourite object of Peter I., but however powerful a man may be, he is forced sooner or later to acknowledge that nature is more powerful still. So long as Russia shall keep within her natural limits, the Russian палу will continue the hobby of the emperors and nothing more !

During the season of naval exercises, I am informed that the younger pupils remain performing their evolutions in the neighbourhood of Kronstadt, while the more advanced extend their voyages of discovery as far as Riga, and sometimes even to Copenhagen.

As soon as I found that the sole object of all this display of naval power which passed before my eyes, was the instruction of pupils, a secret feeling of ennui extinguished my curiosity.

lord Durham's opinion of it. 115

All this unnecessary preparation which is neither the result of commerce nor of Avar, appears to me a mere parade. Now, God knows, and the Russians know, whether there is any pleasure in a parade ! The taste for reviews in Russia is carried beyond all bounds, and here, before even landing in this empire of military evolutions, I must be present at a review pn the water. But I must not laugh at this. Puerility on a grand scale appears to me a monstrous thing, impossible except under a tyranny, of which it is, perhaps, the most terrible result! Everywhere, except under an absolute despotism, men, when they make great efforts, have in view great ends; it is only among a blindly abject people that the monarch may command immense sacrifices for the sake of trifling results.

The view of the naval power of Russia, gathered together for the amusement of the Czar, at the gate of his capital, has thus caused me only a painful impression. The vessels which will be inevitably lost in a few winters, without having rendered any service, suggest to my mind images — not of the power of a great country, but of the useless toils to which the poor unfortunate seamen are condemned. The ice is a more terrible enemy to this navy than foreign war. Every autumn after the three months' exei·cise, the pupil returns to his prison, the plaything to its box, and the frost begins to wage its more serious Avar upon the imperial finances. Lord Durham onee remarked to the Emperor himself, with a freedom of speech which wounded him in the most sensitive part, that the Russian ships of war were but the playthings of the Russian sovereign.