KARAMSIN.
139
the sweat fell from his brow ; and when I expressed my surprise to him,
This letter, written more than three centuries ago, describes the Russians precisely as I now see them. Like the ambassador of Maximilian, I still ask, is it the character of the Russian which has made the autocracy, or is it the autocracy which has made the Russian character ? and I can no more solve the question than could the German diplomatist.
It appears to me, however, that the influence is reciprocal : the Russian government could never have been established elsewhere than in Russia; and the Russians would never have become what they are under a government differing from that which exists among them.
I wTill add another citation from the same author, Karamsin. He repeats the observations of the travellers who visited Muscovy in the sixteenth century. ' Is it surprising, say these strangers, that the grand prince is rich ? He neither gives money to his troops nor his ambassadors ; he even takes from these last all the costly things they bring back from foreign lands.* It was thus that the Prince Yaroslowsky, on his return from Spain, was obliged to place in the
* Dickens, in his Travels through the United States, informs us that the same practice is at this day observed in America.
140THE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE
treasury all the chains of gold, the collars, the coa‡ly stuffs, and the silver vessels, which the Emperor and the Areh-duke Ferdinand had given him. Nevertheless, these men do not complain ; they say,
At the present day you will hear, both in Paris and in Petersburg, numbers of Russians dwelling with rapture on the prodigious effects of the word of the emperor; and, in magnifying these results, not one troubles himself with dwelling upon the means. ·? The word of the emperor can create,' they say. Yes; it can animate stones, by destroying human beings. .Notwithstanding this little restrictive clause, every Russian is proud of being able to say to us, ' You take three years to deliberate on the means of rebuilding a theatre, whilst our emperor raises again, in one year, the largest palace in the universe.' And this puerile triumph does not appear to them too dearly bought by the death of a few thousand wretched artisans, sacrificed to that sovereign impatience, that imperial fantasy, which constitutes the national glory. Whilst I, though a Frenchman, see nothing but inhuman ostentation in tins achievement, not a single protestation is raised from one end of this immense empire to the other, against the orgies of absolute power.
People and government are here in unison. That a man brought up in the idolatry of self, a man revered as omnipotent by sixty millions of men, or at least of beings that resemble men, should not undertake to put an end to such a state of things — this
AGREES WITH THAT OF THE GOVERNMENT. 141
does not surprise me : the wonder is, that among the voices that relate these things to the glory of this individual, not one separates itself from the universal chorus, to protest in favour of humanity, against such autocratic miracles. It may be said of the Russians, great and small, that they arc drunk with slavery.
142PETERSBURG IN ТПЕ MORNING.
THE DROWSKA. — COSTUME OF THE LOWER ORDERS. — WOODEN
PAVEMENTS. — PETERSBURG IN THE MORNING. RESEMBLANCE
OF THE CITY TO A BARRACK. CONTRAST BETWEEN RUSSIA AND
SPAIN.DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TYRANNY AND DESPOTISM. —
THE TCHIN. — PECULIAR CHARACTER OF THE RUSSIAN GOVERN
MENT.THE ARTS IN RUSSIA.A RUSSIAN HOTEL. THE EVILS
TO BE ENCOUNTERED THERE.THE MICHAEL PALACES. — DEATH
OF PAUL I. — THE SPY 'BAFFLED.THE NEVA, ITS QUAYS AND
BRIDGES. CABIN OF PETER I.THE CITADEL, ITS TOMBS AND
DUNGEONS.CHURCH OF ST. ALEXANDER NEWSKI. RUSSIAN
VETERANS. AUSTERITY OF THE CZAR. — RUSSIAN FAITH IN THE
FUTURE, AND ITS REALISATION. MUNICH AND PETERSBURG
COMPARED. INTERIOR OF THE FORTRESS. THE IMPERIAL
TOMBS. SUBTERRANEAN PRISON.RUSSIAN PRISONERS.
MORAL DEGRADATION OF THE HIGHER CLASSES. CATHOLIC
CHURCH. PRECARIOUS TOLERATION. TOMB OF THE LAST
KING OF POLAND AND OF MOREAU.
It Avas on the day before yesterday, between nine and ten o'clock, that I obtained the liberty of entering Petei`sburg.
The city, whose inhabitants are not early risers, gave me at that hour of day the idea of a yast solitude. Now and then I met a few drowskas. The drivers Ave re dressed in the costume of the country. The singular appearance of these men, their horses and carriages, struck me more than anything else on my first view of the city.
The ordinary costume and general appearance of the lower classes of Petersburg, (not the porters, but) the workmen, coachmen, the small trades-
COSTUME OF THE LOWER ORDERS.143
people, &c. &c, is as follows: — on the head is worn either a cap, formed somewhat in the shape of a melon; or a narrow-brimmed hat, low crowned, and wider at the top than the bottom. This headdress slightly resembles a woman's turban or a Norman cap. It becomes the younger men. Both young and old wear beards. Those of the beaux are silken and carefully combed; those of the old and the careless appear dirty and matted. Their eyes have a peculiar expression, strongly resembling the deceitful glance of Asiatics — so strongly, that in casually observing them, you might fancy yourself in Persia.
Their locks, worn long on each side, fall upon the cheeks and conceal the ears; but their hair is cut closely off from the nape of the neck upwards, which original mode of wearing it leaves the neck behind quite bare, for they have no cravat. The beard sometimes falls upon the breast, sometimes it is cut close round the chin. Much value is attached to this ornament, which accords with the
