EMPIRE ОЕ THE CZAB,
l·ete l)f feterhoff.—the people in the palace of their master. — immense power of the emperor. —the empress Catherine's motives for instituting schools. — views of
the present emperor.russian hospitality.foreigners'
descriptions of russia the author`s motives in writing
his travels. — no middle class in russia.the children
of the priests.capital punishments.abject misery
of the people. rules for foreigners who would seek
popularity in russia.probity of the peasants. pick
pockets in the palace.the journal des debats. the
site of peterhoff.the park illuminations.a citizen
bivouac.the english palace.silence of the crowd.
the ball. good order of the peasants. — accident in
the gulf.evil omens. the empress's mode of life. —
description of the illuminations. — review of the corps
of cadets.a cadet in favour.the circassian guard.
It is necessary to view the fete of Peterhoff under two different lights, the material, and the moral ; thus viewed, the same spectacle produces very different impressions.
I have never seen any thing more beautiful to contemplate, yet at the same time more saddening to reflect upon, than this pretended national reunion
VOL. II.В
2FETE OF PETERHOFF.
of courtiers and peasants, who mingle together in the same saloons without any interchange of real sympathy. In a social point of view the sight has displeased me, because it seems to me that the emperor, by this false display of popularity, abases the great without exalting the humble. All men are ecµial before God, and the Russians' God is the emperor. This supreme governor is so raised above earth, that he sees no difference between the serf and the lord. From the height, in which his sublimity dwells, the little distinctions which divide mankind escape his divine inspection, just as the irregularities which appear on the surface of the globe vanish before an inhabitant of the sun.
When the emperor opens his palace to the privileged peasants and the chosen burghers whom he admits twice a year to the honour of paying their court *, he does not say to the labourer or the tradesman, 'You are a man like myself,' but he says to the great lord, ' You are a slave like them, and I, your God, soar equally above you all.' Such is (all ])olitical fiction aside) the moral meaning of the fete : it is this which, in my opinion, spoils it. As a spectator, I remarked that it pleased the sovereign and the serfs, much more than the professed courtiers.
To seek to become a popular idol by reducing all others to a level, is a cruel game, an amusement of despotism, which might dazzle the men of an earlier century, but which cannot deceive any people arrived at the age of experience and reflection.
* On the 1st of January, at Petersburg, and at Peterhoif, nn the birthday of the, Empress.
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3
The Emperor Nicholas did not devise this imposition ; and such being the case, it would be the more worthy of him to abolish it. Yet it must be owned, that nothing is abolished in Eussia without peril. The people who want the guarantees of law, are protected only by those of custom. An obstinate attachment to usages, which are upheld by insurrection and poison, is one of the bases of the constitution, and the periodical death of sovereigns proves to the Russians that this
In point of magnificent decorations, and of picturesque assemblage of the costumes of all ranks, the fete at Peterhoff cannot be too highly extolled. Nothing that I had read, or that had been related to me concerning it, gave me any adequate idea of this fairy scene; the imagination was surpassed by the reality.
The reader must picture to himself a palace built upon a terrace, the height of which seems that of a mountain in a land of plains extending farther than the eye can reach : a country so flat that, from an elevation of sixty feet, the vision may sweep over an immense horizon. At the foot of this imposing structure lies a vast park, which terminates only with the sea, on whose bosom may be descried a line of vessels of war, which were illuminated on the evening of the fete. This illumination was general; the fire blazed and extended, like a conflagration, from the groves and terraces of the palace to the waves of the Gulf of Finland. In the park, the lamps produced the effect of daylight. The trees в 2
4
FETE OF PETEKHOFF.
were lighted up by suns of every colour. It was not by thousands nor tens of thousands, but by hundreds of thousands, that the lights in these car-dens of Armida might be counted; and they could all be seen from the windows of a palace crowded with a people as profoundly respectful as if they had lived all their days at court.
Nevertheless, in this assemblage, the object of which was to efface all distinctions of rank, each class might still be separately traced. Whatever attacks despotism may have made upon the aristocracy, there are yet castes in Eussia. Here is presented one more point of resemblance to the East, and not one of the least striking contradictions of social order created by the manners of the people operating in unison with the government of the country. Thus, at this fete of the empress,, this true bacchanalian revel of absolute power, I recognised the order which reigns throughout the state, through the apparent disorder of the ball. Those whom I met were always either merchants, soldiers, labourers, or courtiers, and each class was distinguished by its costume. A dress which would not denote the rank of the man, and a man whose only worth should arise from his personal merit, would be considered as anomalies, as European inventions, imported by restless innovators and imprudent travellers. It must never be forgotten that we are here on the confines of Asia: a Russian in a frock coat in his own country appears to me like a foreigner.
True bearded Russians think as J do upon this subject, and they comfort themselves with the idea that a day shall come when they will be able to put
FETE OF PETEKHOFF.5
to the sword all these coxcombical infidels to ancient usages, who neglect the nation, and betray their country, in order to rival the civilisation of the foreigner.
Russia is placed upon the limits of two continents. It is not in the nature of that which is European to amalgamate perfectly with that which is Asiatic. The Muscovite community has been governed hitherto only by submitting to the violence and incoherence attendant upon the contact of two civilisations, entirely different in
