m 
 
 AND CIVILIZED \_ 
 
 RUSSIA 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 '>, 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DK 71.P63 1879 
 
 Savage and civilized Russia 
 
 3 1924 028 426 819 
 
The original of this bool< is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92402842681 9 
 
Demy Octavo. Cloth, Is. Qd. {Longmans and Go.) 
 
 "SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED EUSSIA." 
 
 By W. R. 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 "The Globe:' 
 
 "The pregnant facts he marshalls are amply sufficient, we should 
 imagine, to make the most inveterate Eussophile in England doubt whe- 
 ther Muscovite predominance could ever become a reaUy civilizing influence 
 
 in the highest sense of that term If the world could be rendered 
 
 better by being crushed under a Juggernaut of Military despotism as 
 remorseless as cruel, if mankind might be improved by the persistent 
 development of its fighting instincts, if the highest purpose to which 
 human beings can be put, is to place them in array of battle — then, 
 indeed, a good deal may be said in favour of the Eussian method of civi- 
 lization. The present book brings out in strong relief the deeply significant 
 fact that the Russian people are not one whit behind their rulers in hun- 
 gering for foreign conquests Savage and unlettered as Ivan (The 
 
 Terrible) was, he discovered the natural disposition of his people for foreign 
 conquest, and they pardoned him his butcheries on account of his annexa- 
 tions." 
 
 " A book that everyone ought to read who cares to understand the 
 influences which have been and still are at work to render Russia the most 
 aggressive Power in the world. If anyone desires to obtain a true view of 
 Eiissia, historical, social, military, and national, we recommend a diligent 
 study of this book, evidently compiled with much labour of research." 
 
 " The Morning Advertiser." 
 
 "The materials are selected with great skill and sense, and cover a 
 sufficiently wide range. The book is valuable, as exhibiting Russia in the 
 various stages of her development, savagery, subjection, triumph, and 
 aggression. The prospects of an invasion of India from, the North, are 
 clearly set forth." 
 
 '■'•Notes and Queries." 
 
 "W. R. has herS got up materials whereby to get a general verdict 
 against the mendacity, ferocity, and utter untrustworthiness of the Musco- 
 vite policy." 
 
 "All who dislike the Tartar as much as some do the Turk, will be 
 delighted with the book." 
 
 " Tlie Bock." 
 
 "A remarkable work, which even more laboriously than any of its 
 predecessors, lays bare the springs of Russian ambition. * * * This lan- 
 guage is not one whit too strong to apply to those who still profess to- 
 believe the assurances of the Russian autocrat." 
 
" The Westminster Review." 
 "RUSSIA," by D. Mackenzie Wallace, M.A. 
 " SAVAGE & CIVILIZED RUSSIA," by "W. R. 
 
 "As to this question (Russian Designs), we have the advantage of. 
 having before us the distinct statements of an apologist for Russian Aggres- 
 sion, and of a writer who takes a very extreme view with reference to the 
 unjustiiiable nature of Russian territorial advancement. We think it due 
 to Mr Wallace, to examine with care everything he says, as we cannot but 
 think that his conclusions are not justified by the facts he adduces ; and an 
 error having the currency of his authority might be pecidiarly pernicious." 
 
 " Russia has always been and still is willing to volunteer police services 
 to her neighbours, and the pohceman who enters to keep the peace, gene- 
 rally turns out in time to be the man in possession." 
 
 " The writer of ' Savage and Civilized Russia' holds a very strong and 
 not altogether unjustifiable view of the aggressive tendencies of Russia. 
 His own opinion may be fuUy expressed in the words of the same historian 
 (Karamsin), who said ; — 
 
 " ' The object and character of our military policy has invariably been 
 to seek to be at peace with everybody, and to make conqi^est without war ; 
 always keeping ourselves on the defensive, placing no faith in the friend- 
 ship of those whose interests do not accord with our own, and losing no 
 opportunity of injiu'ing them without ostensibly breaking our treaties with 
 
 them,' — and he goes far to make good his position Philanthropy has 
 
 been the constant pretext of Russia, for wars during which human nature 
 was outraged by the cruelties which were perpetrated, and although the 
 stories of some of these atrocities are now old, human nature stands aghast 
 that men could perpetrate such barbarous crimes. No Nation has suc- 
 ceeded in making war so utterly horrible and revolting as the Russians. 
 They have given examples, these philanthropic people, which human 
 beings will do well to avoid^" 
 
 " He is not so well-informed as to the country, as Mr Wallace, but he 
 seems to have read, with care, the Hterature which bears upon the tra- 
 ditional and present pohcy of Russia. His book professes to be a hand- 
 book of the subject, and the various opinions of which it is mainly com- 
 posed, seem to have been carefully.ipollected." 
 
 " But, if we come to a conclusion adverse to that of Mr Wallace, and in 
 accord with that which ' W. R.' would impress upon us, if we believe that 
 Russia is an aggressive and grasping power, which, although its hands are 
 already too full of lands and countries — the spoils of the Nations^is still 
 to continue its career of territorial robbery, and is now clutching at Turkey 
 with its inordinate avarice and with its vindictive voracity, then it becomes 
 a question of importance to determine on which side the chances of success 
 
 really lie If she stiU aspires to a career such as that which she has 
 
 already achieved by dishonesty and violence, her history will find a place 
 in some future Newgate Calendar of the Nations." 
 
SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED 
 RUSSIA. 
 
 BY 
 
 (W. E.) 
 
 G. W. ROYSTON-PIGOTT, M.A. M.D. Cantab,, r.R.S., 
 
 MEMEEB OP THE EOTAL COLLEGE Or PHYSICIANS, LONDON ; 
 
 FELLOW or THE OAMBKIDGE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, BOTAL A3TB0N0MICAL AND 
 BOYAL MIOEOSOOPIOAL SOCIETIES ; 
 
 FORMEBLY FELLOW 01" SI PEIEe's COLLEGE, CAMBEIDGE. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 WITH AN INTEODUCTION BY THE 
 REV. FREDERICK ARNOLD, 
 
 OF CHEIST OHUECH, OXFOBD. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 
 1879 
 
 [All Rights reserved.] 
 
PRINTED BT 0. J. OLAY, M.A. 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In presenting tliis volume to English readers, the 
 author gladly acknowledges the primary assistance 
 obtained from almost every available source of infor- 
 mation, on Russian, affairs, within his reach : nearly 
 fifty separate authors having been dihgently searched 
 for materials germane to the various topics treated. 
 
 The earher chapters are principally derived froin 
 Russian sources. The life of Ivan the Terrible 
 contains a literal translation of selected portions from 
 Karamsin, "the Russian Livy." 
 
 Russia has had her stages in development — 
 savagery, subjection, triumph, and aggression. But 
 no handy book is now extant embracing these questions. 
 The necessary information is scattered over so vast 
 a field of English and foreign literature as to be 
 practically inaccessible to the busy reader of to-day. 
 
 That this work may be found to fill up a manifest 
 gap is the earnest desire of the writer. The subject 
 is full of an abiding interest. Russia, on her war 
 path, must one day be confronted by the power of 
 England to arrest her march. 
 
 Feb., 1879. 
 
 P. 11. 
 
INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTEE. 
 
 The present work, of which a Second Edition is now presented 
 to the reader, brings together a large body of information 
 drawn together from many sources, respecting the history, the 
 condition, and the political aims of Russia. The absorbing 
 subject of interest at the present moment is found in the 
 relations between Russia and Turkey, and the mode in which 
 those relations affect England and the world. If ever the 
 definition of history is to be justified, that it is philosophy 
 teaching by examples, it is at the present time, when the lessons 
 of the past, writ large and legible, should be our guidance in 
 the present crisis. From these lessons of the past we may derive 
 the lights which will illustrate the present perplexed and 
 stormy conditions. It is much to be regretted that in this 
 country we have hardly any adequate history either of Russia 
 or Turkey. Karamsin's great work on Russian history. Von 
 Hanflmer's great work on Turkish history, are only known, 
 unless fragmentarily, through the medium of French transla- 
 tions. 
 
 Under such circumstances, a careful and condensed abstract 
 of a Russian history, such as is presented in the following pages, 
 may be of much service to the general reader, and indeed that 
 information is hardly to be found elsewhere in an available 
 form. It is not so much with the vast mass of details of 
 Russian history that Dr Royston-Pigott's work is concerned, as 
 with the current and tendencies of that history. He carefully 
 
 62 
 
VI INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 Tvorks out the aggressive tendency of the northern nations gravi- 
 tating towards the southern sea-board, the political immorality 
 which has organised a system of diplomatic perfidy, the system 
 of encroachment which has become an historical law in Russian 
 development, the constant threat which the overshadowing 
 power of Russia offers to the peace and liberties of the world. 
 The present crisis is the natural outcome of antecedent history, 
 and the conditions of the problem have, in point of fact, long 
 been studied and foretold by students of history. 
 
 The crisis constitutes one of the great revenges of time, and 
 illustrates the law which the wise Thucydides noted, and the 
 tendency of history to repeat itself. The coming of the Turks 
 into Europe has been termed by Mr Gladstone the hinge of 
 European history. A stream of immigrant warriors repeatedly 
 passed from the Hellespont. One tract of the south-east of 
 Europe after another rapidly fell into their hands, and they 
 substantially possessed the Byzantine Empire before they con- 
 quered Constantinople itself That Empire possessed no great 
 historian, but it nevertheless left us the most complete and 
 fascinating of all histories. The Greek Empire yearly narrowed 
 its territory ; Greek society grew more corrupt and effete every 
 day. The converse has happened in our own day. The terri- 
 tory that had been gradually won has been gradually lost. 
 Constantinople and its immediate territory remains to the 
 Turk as once it alone remained to the Greek Empire. It 
 would add to the irony of fate if the Greeks should once again 
 possess Constantinople, and form a bulwark Empire against 
 Russia. It is a great drawback that the experiment of Hellenic 
 freedom has hardly been successful, and Greece and the character 
 of the Greek by no means stands high on the marts and ex- 
 changes of Europe. It is an ethnological mistake to suppose 
 that the present Hellenes are the descendants of the heroes 
 of Marathon. The students of Gibbon and Mr Finlay will 
 recall that in the tenth century, before the Turkish power 
 had developed, the Russians overran Bulgaria, and advanced 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Vil 
 
 through the passes upon Constantinople. They have shown 
 themselves impartially wishing to occupy Constantinople either 
 under a Christian or non-Christian power. Their great object 
 is the occupation of Constantinople. The great interest of 
 civilization is, by whatever methods, to prevent that occupation. 
 At the time of the final crusade there was a prophecy that 
 in the last days the Russians should possess Constantinople. 
 This belongs to that order of political prophecies whose ten- 
 dency is to fulfil themselves. From the immeasurable steppes 
 of the north, t?ie womb and hive of nations, there always 
 ' pressed downwards towards the south a superincumbent mass 
 of humanity. By a natural afBnity the northern barbarian 
 always desires the rich plains, the cultivated slopes, the wealthy 
 cities, the expansive sea-boards of the south. This has been 
 the course of the Huns, of the Calmucks, of Tamerlane, of 
 Genghis Khan. The Russ obeys the law which first brought 
 the Turk into Europe. Gibbon triumphantly asked, towards 
 the close of the eighteenth century, the century which was 
 to pass away in storm and convulsion, whence were to come 
 the barbarians who should overrun the world as they once had 
 destroyed the Roman Empire. The answer would be that in 
 the far north, the vast laboratory of the nations, the same 
 agencies are at work, the irresistible impulse southward, the 
 movement of vast hardy multitudes from the forest and the 
 steppes. Allowing for the altered conditions of modern life, for 
 the changed development of unaltered instincts, Russia now 
 represents the force and terrors of the old northern hordes. 
 The possession of Turkey would give her all for which she 
 craves. It would give her the development of her resources, 
 the increase of her population, the establishment of marts 
 and havens. Above all, as Napoleon said, the possession of 
 Constantinople means the Empire of the world. In the later 
 Ottoman history, it is not the Venetian, not the Hungarian, 
 not the Austrian, but it is Russia who is the persistent foe, the 
 embodied threat of Turkey. Twice her army has stormed the 
 
Viu INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 passes of the Balkans, and has been within a few marches of 
 Constantinople; once and again her fleet has sailed through the 
 pillars of Hercules and given victorious battle to that Ottoman 
 navy which, in its days of insolent strength, had once swept all 
 the Mediterranean shores. But it seems written in the fates, 
 that although Russia may win the frontier lands and even 
 pierce to the heart of the Empire, it is not destined to attain 
 the coveted possession. As Montesquieu pointed out, whenever 
 Russia attained a certain point in the satisfaction of her am- 
 bition, the Western maritime powers would be sure to interfere. 
 Some combination of the kind is being effected at the present. 
 A war between Turkey and Russia always passes into the 
 higher regions of the supreme interests of Society. 
 
 The general course of Russian history is rapidly and clearly 
 indicated in the following pages. Lately we have had frightful 
 pictures drawn of the ferocity which characterized the Turkish 
 immigration into Europe. It is impossible to say that this 
 portraiture has been overcharged. The Turk, with his steed 
 and his scymitar, was once the most frightful picture which 
 presented itself to the European imagination. That incubus of 
 terror and apprehension which Napoleon inspired during the 
 years in which his vast power was a deadly shadow projected 
 over Europe, only faintly mirrored the dread and urgency of the 
 Ottoman domination. Titian has a famous picture in which 
 he represents a Venetian nobleman arrayed in his armour, 
 with his wife and children around him, with sad calm eyes 
 looking into a terrible futurity as he proposes to encounter 
 the terrible Osmanli. The grass never grew where the hoof 
 of the Ottoman steeds had passed. They kept no faith with 
 ambassador or soldier. Their mission, for the time being, was 
 to exterminate and destroy. In the lives of the first twelve 
 great Sultans we have horrible instances of personal ferocity. 
 But in contemporary Russian history there are deeds and 
 scenes which might well challenge a comparison with the worst 
 Turkish "atrocities," and infinitely surpass them in horror. 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. ix 
 
 The cruelties of Hussian Czars are such as could hardly have 
 entered the perturbed imagination of demons. The readers 
 have only to refer iu these pages to the sketch of Peter the 
 Great, or the narrative abridged from Karamsin of Ivan the 
 Terrible\ The deeds of an Amurath or a Mohammed shrink 
 in the comparison. That Upas blight which once belonged 
 to the Osmanli has been transferred to the Muscovite. The 
 " divine figure from the north " comes red-handed from Turk- 
 istan, from Circassia, from Poland. Here again our readers 
 may be especially referred to the chapters on "Imperial 
 Russian Policy," and ''Eussian occupation." The physical 
 power of Russia, backed by the subtlest machinations, has 
 been steadily creeping on, with the deadly certitude of the 
 Cholera or the Plague. Its growth has been inimical to the 
 development of intellect, to the spirit of liberty, to the aspi- 
 rations of moral life. Its literature, which now exhibits vast 
 proportions, does not exhibit a single intellect of the first 
 order, to assume a co-ordinate rank with " the masters of 
 those who know.'' The blighting effects of an iron despotism 
 are terrible in every nationality to which it has been drawn 
 in withering contact. Such reflections would be dispirited 
 and despairing but for the belief that an inexorable limit will 
 be placed by Europe to this ever threatening expansion. To 
 use an inspired Hebrew phrase, " Thus far shalt thou go, and 
 no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." 
 
 The first conflict between Turk and Muscovite took place 
 in the reign of Selim the Second. That profound ruler had 
 formed a plan of uniting by a canal the waters of the Don 
 and the Volga, and so opening up a passage from the Black 
 Sea to the Caspian (nearly united by railway) and multiplying 
 the mutual commerce of Europe and Asia. Some traces of 
 this canal are still visible, and the scheme will probably be 
 
 ^ One of the critics of the first edition ohjeoted to the author's use of a 
 French version of the Bussian of Earamsiu. He ought to have known that 
 Karamsin was an excellent French scholar, that he carefully superintended the 
 French version, and gave it his entire sanction. 
 
X INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 one day carried into completion. We read how, while the 
 work was proceeding, a body of men with uncouth figures, 
 strange features, and barbarous language, sallied out from a 
 neighbouring town and cut the workmen into pieces. These 
 were Muscovite subjects of Ivan the Terrible ; this was the first 
 known encounter between Turk and Russian. The modem 
 history of the two nations is now mainly occupied by their 
 internecine strife. That history conducts us from battle to 
 battle, from siege to siege, from treaty to treaty. At the 
 present moment that the more recent treaty between Russia 
 and Turkey is absorbing public attention, it may be useful 
 if we rapidly glance at the diplomatic history, which will il- 
 lustrate the gradual progress of Russian innovation and the 
 ways in which England has intervened in the affairs of the 
 East of Europe. 
 
 The first treaty known in the public law of Europe and 
 of which the text is preserved, was in 1699, between Peter the 
 Great and Mustapha II. Von Hammer says that this treaty 
 — the Peace of Carlowitz — is to be studied with peculiar care. 
 It was the first time that either Turkey or Russia took part 
 in a European Congress, England and Holland being the other 
 Powers. At this time Russian statecraft was mainly devoted 
 to its relations with Sweden. The treaty was brought about 
 by the mediation of England, through Lord Paget, the English 
 Ambassador at the Porte. All that Russia agreed to in the 
 first instance was an armistice of two years, afterwards ex- 
 tended to thirty. The territorial losses of Turkey were im- 
 mense. Russia took Azoff; Austria, Hungary and Transyl- 
 vania ; and Venice the Morea. 
 
 Twelve years later was the famous Treaty of the Pruth, in 
 which Turkey recovered all the losses it had experienced in the 
 Treaty of Carlowitz. The war which this Treaty terminated 
 was originally caused by the refusal of the Ottomans to eject 
 Charles the Twelfth of Sweden from their territories. Peter 
 had incautiously pushed too far, and found himself hemmed in 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. xi 
 
 by superior forces in a most unfavourable position. The catas- 
 trophe very nearly anticipated that of Sedan. He was saved by 
 the tact and courage of his consort Catharine. She negotiated 
 a treaty, and made abundant use both of diplomatic finesse and 
 direct bribery. This was the most favourable treaty which was 
 ever made in favour of Turkey. The preamble to the Treaty 
 recapitulated the desperate condition to ■which Peter was 
 reduced. Peter had to renounce the southern frontier which 
 he had achieved, and Turkey subsequently recovered the Morea 
 from Venice. 
 
 Here again the characteristic craft of the Eussians was 
 manifested. They were slow and reluctant in executing the 
 provisions of the Treaty. A second Treaty was necessary, two 
 years later, in 1713. Seven years later another Treaty was 
 made. Russia was then threatened by a formidable coalition, 
 and she thought it her interest to swear eternal friendship with 
 Turkey. It has suited her interests to do the same on several 
 other occasions. 
 
 The insincerity was exhibited by another war which broke 
 out not many years later. The Russians were restless and dis- 
 satisfied with the conditions of the Treaty of the Pruth. True 
 to her pxjlicy of encroachment, the Russians had made advances 
 on the Crimea. The war between the Czarina Anne and 
 Mahmoud II. terminated in the Treaty of Belgrade, sometimes 
 called the Treaty of Nissa. 
 
 We now come to the Treaty of Kainardji, on which all 
 later diplomatic history is based. The Czar Nicholas used to 
 speak of this as "the glorious treaty" (1774). Von Hammer 
 brings his Ottoman history to a conclusion at this point, be- 
 lieving that with the conclusion of this treaty the independence 
 of Turkey comes to an end. One of the conditions was that 
 the Crimea should be formed into an independent State. This 
 may give us an anticipation of what may happen in the case 
 of a Principality of Bulgaria. Eleven years later this part of 
 the treaty became a dead letter, by Russia taking forcible 
 
Xll INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 possession of the Crimea. The free navigation of the inland 
 water was conceded, with the co-protectorate of Moldavia and 
 Wallachia. Until it suited the political purposes of Eussia 
 she had taken no note of the frightful evils which prevailed 
 in future Roumania. Turkey lost the territory between the 
 Dneiper and the Boug. The two special clauses of this treaty, 
 which proved momentous with future consequences, were the 
 seventh and fourteenth, on which Nicholas subsequently based 
 his extravagant claims. These clauses permitted Russia to 
 erect a Church in Constantinople, specifying its position, and 
 also permitted Russia to make representations on behalf of 
 that church and all connected with it. The Muscovite policy 
 turned permissions into rights, a particular case into a general 
 rule, and claimed a protectorate over all members of the 
 Greek Church. In the second volume of the Life of the 
 Prince Consort — a work which is a repertory of political in- 
 formation of the highest instructiveness at the present time — 
 we read how the Emperor Nicholas addressed an autograph 
 letter to Queen Victoria respecting his claims, and how Her 
 Majesty replied that having studied the treaty she cciuld not 
 reconcile its language with his claims. 
 
 Before many years another war broke out. This was be- 
 tween Catharine the Second and Selim the Third, terminating 
 in the treaty of Jassy. The design of Russia, in conjunction 
 with Austria, was nothing less than the partition of Turkey 
 after the fashion of the partition of Poland. This war is 
 rendered for ever infamous by the frightful massacres of the 
 Russian Suwarrow. Montesquieu's observation was verified, 
 and by the interposition of the Western Cabinets — and by 
 that only — the projected partition was frustrated. Nevertheless 
 the Porte recognized the Russian title to the Crimea, and 
 the frontier was removed from the Boug to the Dneister. 
 
 Twenty years later the Russian frontier was again advanced, 
 being shifted from the Dneister to the Pruth. The occasion 
 of the war had been the Protectorate claimed bj' Alexander 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Xiu 
 
 the First over all subjects of the Porte professing the Greek 
 religion. At the Treaty of Tilsit, Napoleon had agreed that 
 Alexander might take any port of Turkey except Constanti- 
 nople. " Constantinople never," muttered Napoleon ; " it is 
 the empire of the vporld." In M. Lanfrey's Memoir of Napo- 
 leon, which so completely destroys the lying Napoleonic 
 legend, there is a very clear account of these transactions. 
 The whole of Bessarabia, with the principal mouth of the 
 Danube, was added to Eussia. This is known as the Treaty 
 of Bucharest. 
 
 In 1826, the Treaty of Akkerman, between Nicholas, just 
 come to the throne, and Mahmoud II., took place. This Treaty, 
 peculiarly insulting to Turkey, was supposed to explain and 
 ratify the Treaty of Bucharest. The Porte was to indemnify 
 Russian merchants for the depredations of the Barbary Corsairs. 
 Servia held an important place in this Treaty, many stipulations 
 being made in support of her guaranteed independence. 
 
 1829. Treaty of Adrianople. — The war with E,ussia,between 
 the Emperor Nicholas and Mahmoud II., had commenced in 
 part as a natural result of the battle of Navarino. This treaty 
 is of a very memorable and glorious character to Russia. Her 
 army occupied Adrianople, and its advanced guard threatened 
 Constantinople. A secret convention had been made by the 
 Governments of Prince Metternich and the Duke of Wellington 
 to prevent the total conquest of Turkey. A heavy indemnity, 
 amounting to £5,000,000, was to be paid to Russia. Wallachia 
 and Moldavia were nominally restored to the Sublime Porte, 
 but by a separate convention they were made independent 
 Principalities. All conquests in Asia Minor were restored, with 
 the exception of five fortresses, with contiguous territory, which 
 constituted a most important acquisition for Russia. All 
 former conventions relative to Servia were fully ratified. The 
 passage of the Dardanelles was left open to Russia, and she was 
 to have undisturbed navigation of the Black Sea. 
 
 All articles in the Treaty of Akkerman relating to Servia 
 
XIV INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 were to be carried into immediate effect. The resources of 
 Turkey had never been at a lower point than during this war, 
 yet the result of the conflict was long doubtful, and the Rus- 
 sians lost 150,000 men in the invasion. If the Turks had pos- 
 sessed ample information the Russian army might have been 
 exterminated. By the tenth article Turkey became a party to 
 that Treaty of London between Russia, England, and France 
 Avhich had led to the battle of Navarino. The result was the 
 erection of Greece into a separate kingdom. 
 
 The year 1833 witnessed the Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi. After 
 Ibrahim's victory at Konieh the Porte applied to England for 
 assistance against the revolt of Mehemet Ali. The Liberal 
 Reform Government of the day answered that they had not at 
 that moment the means of affording the assistance required. 
 The Porte then applied to its inveterate enemy, Russia, which 
 eagerly accepted an exclusive protectorate. The autograph 
 letter requesting help is preserved in the Russian Imperial 
 archives. In reward for the services of Russia two treaties of 
 Unkiar-Skelessi, the one public, the other private, were exe- 
 cuted. By the first an offensive and defensive alliance was 
 made between Russia and Turkey, and by the secret articles 
 the Ottoman Porte was, at the request of the Russian Em- 
 peror, to close the Straits of the Dardanelles against the armed 
 vessels of all foreign Powers. It is sometimes called the Treaty 
 of the St-aits. 
 
 In 1840 (July 15th), a treaty or convention was made 
 between Turkey and four of the great European Powers, 
 England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia — France being excluded. 
 The result was that after the Syrian war, the object contem- 
 plated by the convention was achieved, Mehemet Ali being 
 compelled to relinquish all the provinces held by him except 
 the hereditary Pacbalic of Egypt. The exclusion or absence of 
 France from that Treaty nearly led to a rupture with England. 
 This led after a good deal of heartburning, to the Treaty of 
 London, 1841, between the same powers, with the addition of 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. xv 
 
 France. This treaty was supplementary to that of the pre- 
 cediug year, and defined the rights of Turkey and foreign 
 nations to the navigation of the Bosphorus and the Darda- 
 nelles. These waters were closed to all foreign vessels of war 
 while Turkey was at peace. 
 
 After the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829, nothing for an un- 
 precedented number of years of a directly hostile character 
 occurred between Turkey and Russia. The Treaty of TJnkiar- 
 Skelessi, though it interfered materially with the public law of 
 Europe, and veiled aims hostile to Turkey, was nominally one of 
 amity with her, according to the ironic and unnatural fashion of 
 the treaty of San Stefano. But the vision of the possession of 
 Constantinople has ever dazzled the mind of Muscovite rulers, 
 and has been the loadstar of their aspirations. War after war, 
 eventuating in peace after peace, has never practically brought 
 her nearei: to this accomplishment of her object. It may be 
 laid down as an historical law that within an almost calculable 
 number of years Russia, with dogged perseverance, will renew 
 her efforts. The first opening for a renewed struggle was occa- 
 sioned by a dispute respecting the so-called " Holy Places " 
 at Jerusalem, involving points of privilege and precedence, in 
 respect to the chapels and sanctuaries of the city. France 
 pra.ctically claimed the protectorate of all Roman Catholics in 
 the East, and the Czar, in his assumed position of the Head of 
 the Greek Church — a position, however, which has never been 
 defined or conceded — claimed the protectorate of the Greek 
 Christians. It is obvious that Turkey had no interest in the 
 quarrel between the Greek and Latin Churches except in pre- 
 serving the peace and doing equal justice to both. The quarrel 
 between France and Russia, mainly through the moderation 
 and good sense of the French Ministry, was satisfactorily ad- 
 justed. 
 
 But the wolf always finds a pretext for accusing the innocent 
 of disturbing the stream. The dream of the possession of Con- 
 stantinople at least entirely disturbed the Czar Nicholas's 
 
XVI INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 balance of mind, and destroyed the high personal reputation 
 which he had earned among the sovereigns of Europe. He de- 
 manded an exclusive protectorate over all the Christian subjects 
 of the Porte. This would have created an imperiuminimperio 
 in the Sultan's European dominions. On the Sultan refusing 
 to sign a treaty conceding this tremendous demand, Russian, 
 troops occupied the Danubian Principalities, which they after- 
 wards evacuated, in the well-founded apprehension that Austria 
 might join in the war, and allowed Austria's neutral army to 
 occupy them. The opportune death of the Czar Nicholas 
 removed the main obstacle to peace. Through the exertions of 
 Count Beust, the Austrian Minister, five propositions were sub- 
 mitted to Russia, and accepted by her as the basis of a pacifica- 
 tion. Paris was selected as the place of Conference, and even- 
 tually on Sunday, March 30th, 1856, a treaty based on these 
 propositions was signed. The signatures were those of the 
 Plenipotentiaries of Austria, England, France, Prussia, Russia, 
 Sardinia and Turkey. The treaty itself consists of some thirty 
 clauses. Its provisions entirely abrogated the monstrous claim 
 of a sovereignty over the subjects of the Porte belonging to the 
 Communion of the Greek Church. It abrogated the Czar's 
 protectorate of the Danubian Principalities, and substituted 
 that of the Six Powers. Russia consented to a rectific^ation 
 of her frontier, and the southern part of Bessarabia was assigned 
 to Moldavia. The free navigation of the mouths of the Danube 
 was provided for. Both Russia and Turkey were prohibited 
 from having fleets in the Black Sea. The effect of this was 
 that Turkey might have her own fleet in southern waters out- 
 side the Dardanelles, but the Russian southern seaboard was 
 left without a fleet. The war crippled, or rather destroyed, 
 the power of Russia in the Crimea, and her prestige became 
 immensely impaired. 
 
 A daring violation of this treaty, which now constituted 
 perhaps the most important part of the public law of Europe, 
 was made by Russia seven years ago with a. merely selfish object. 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. xvu 
 
 The neutralisation of the Black Sea had been one of the princi- 
 pal objects contemplated in entering upon the Crimean War. 
 When our French allies contemplated the relinquishment of 
 that object, Lord Palmerston declared 'that England would 
 rather be left to carry on war alone than abandon her demand. 
 By the Treaty of Paris it became part of the law of nations that 
 the Euxine was open to ships of commerce and closed to 
 ships of war. In 1871, the greatest sensation was caused 
 in all the courts and exchanges of Europe by the announce- 
 ment that the Russian Government had given notice that 
 they would no longer be bound by the terms of the Treaty of 
 Paris which prohibited a war fleet in the Black Sea. For 
 a time the question of peace or war seemed trembling in the 
 balance. But the Russian Government was not dealing with 
 Lord Palmerston, but with Mr Gladstone, a fact of which it 
 was perfectly aware, and on which it had doubtless based its 
 calculations. Turkey vehemently protested against this arbi- 
 trary and high-handed infraction of the Treaty, but it found no 
 support from England and the other signatory powers. A Con- 
 vention was summoned, and eventually this most important 
 requirement of the Peace of 1856 was relinquished, thus laying 
 the foundation for indefinite further demands in respect to the 
 Greek Church subjects of the Porte. 
 
 This rapid survey of the diplomatic victories which have 
 succeeded the material victories of Russia will enable us to 
 understand the contemporary condition of things. Russia is 
 uniformly true to her traditions. We are able to predict with 
 some certainty the corrupt and sinister course, which Russia 
 in parallel circumstances is sure to pursue. The latest as 
 well as the Stefano treaty^ is characterized by all the marks 
 
 1 The Black Mail habitually le-ried by Eussia has now assumed gigantic 
 proportions. No one blamed Germany for exacting the war fine from the 
 aggressor Prance. But the folly of the Allies in 1856 in remitting Eussia'a 
 war fine is now mockingly exhibited. Eussia prostrate paid nothing. Eussia a 
 successful aggressor now proves herself a veritable Shylook : the pound of flesh 
 is a bond for £35,0p0,000 to be used at discretion against the Turk, and it is 
 to be hoped with_a similar result in the Shakesperian sense. 
 
xviii INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 which are shown by the general course and current of 
 Russian diplomacy. The tortuous and secret element has 
 not been wanting. The terms of the peace were doubtless 
 formulated many weeks before they were made known. Terms 
 so disastrous, so ruinous to the integrity of the Ottoman cau 
 only be explained by the incapacity of Suleiman Pasha, the 
 purchased connivance of other generals, and the reckless 
 audacity of Gourko and Radetsky. The finesse and trickery 
 which we only meet in our own country in the offices of 
 the lowest pettifoggers, have been found in the chancellerie 
 of St Petersburg. The whole course of Russian diplomatic 
 history might have prepared us for duplicity, a duplicity which, 
 historically speaking, is never dispelled except by the certitude 
 of warlike antagonism. 
 
 Russia has always had a passion for secret clauses in her 
 treaties. She has always sworn faithful friendship with Turkey 
 after inflicting a deadly wound. These conditions are now 
 dragged into the light, and the great question will remain 
 whether Russia may impose whatever conditions she can wrest 
 from a prostrate foe, or whether these must be harmonized 
 with the public law of Europe and the separate interests of 
 the signatory powers. She has, indeed, approached nearer to 
 Constantinople than has ever been the case in her ante- 
 cedent history, but we believe the great historical law which 
 we have noted will hold good, that Stamboul will evade her 
 grasp, and when it seems within her power, mirage-like will 
 again and again retire into the despairing distance. 
 
 F. A. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 ANTIQUITY Oi" THE RUSSIANS. 
 
 That vast part of Europe, and of Asia, known to-day under 
 the name of Russia, was peopled from all antiquity in its tem- 
 perate climate; but its savage people, plunged in the thick 
 darkness of a profound ignorance, signalized their existence by 
 no precise historical monuments. We may except some of the 
 tombs inscribed with ancient Hebrew, written by individuals of 
 the dispersed Jews. But the history of Russia commences 
 really with the sons of Japheth. Eosh' was one of his descend- 
 ants. And from the earliest times of profane history this name 
 has been preserved. Perhaps above a thousand years before 
 our era, the entrance into the Bosphorus and the terrors of 
 the Black Sea, so called from its storms, had been explored by 
 the Argonauts, and sung by Orpheus. In that song already the 
 name of the Caucasus appeared : the Palus Mceotides or Sea of 
 Azof, the Caspian and the Cimmerian Taurus, with its ever- 
 lasting clouds and impenetrable mists, where it was said the 
 sun never shone, and profound night reigned supreme. 
 
 Cimmerian (or Crimean) darkness had passed into a pro- 
 verb. Yet the Homeric genius peopled this country with in- 
 habitants who lived only on the dew and the sweet juices of 
 flowers ! where passion and tempests were unknown, and where 
 they passed their innocent lives in the joys of a sweet repose, 
 and who, when too old to enjoy the^e delights, precipitated 
 themselves into the waves. But 500 B.C. the Greeks began to 
 colonize the coasts of the Black Sea, built a city at the mouth 
 
 ' See note at end of chapter. 
 E. 1 
 
2 ANTIQUITY OF THE RUSSIANS. 
 
 of the Dnieper, called the "Happy," where, in the reign of 
 Trajan, its inhabitants still delighted in the writings of Plato, 
 knew the Iliad by heart, and sang the verses of Homer in their 
 battles. A hundred years before Cyrus they were driven from 
 their country by the Scythians, who themselves were forced by 
 invaders from the East to the banks of the Danube and the 
 Don. There they resisted the forces of Darius. These Scythians 
 were Kirghiz and Calmucks, whose chief glory was their liberty, 
 and their only science to harass an enemy, or to avoid him 
 adroitly. But yet they permitted Greek colonists, and from 
 them th«y were impregnated with the first seeds of civilization. 
 Then there came a race formed of the mingled blood of the 
 astute Greek and the savage Scythian, who began to cultivate 
 corn-fields and commerce. So that, at the same time, the Scy- 
 thians were both nomadic and agricultural. And not far from 
 the mouth of the Dnieper, the tombs of their kings have been 
 discovered. During the age when Herodotus wrote, he de- 
 scribed two races, the Androphages and Melanchlenes, who lived 
 near each other about 600 miles to the north of the Black Sea : 
 and said that these peoples lived on human flesh ; and that in 
 the winter they always covered themselves with the skins of 
 wolves : that the Scythians were part of the Royal Horde ; and 
 beyond the stony mountains (the Ural) a people with flattened 
 noses surprised the caravans of merchants from the Black Sea. 
 
 The fable of dragons or griffins guarding the golden trea- 
 sures doubtless referred to the hideous Calmucks who pro- 
 tected the mines of Siberia. 
 
 Herodotus tells us also that these barbarians lavished gold 
 upon their helmets and girdles, harness and horses ; but that 
 they had only weapons of copper, and no silver ; that the Rus- 
 sian Scythian inhabited immense plains, unwooded, and that 
 the air was filled with light feathers (snow-flakes). He men- 
 tions also the Dnieper, the Bug, the Don, and the Dniester, as 
 well as the Pruth (under their Greek names) ; he also tells us 
 that, in general, Scythia is renowned for its immense navigable 
 rivers, abounding with fish, and bordered by prairies — rivers 
 exceeding the Nile in extent. He also relates that the Greeks 
 called the whole of Russia in Europe and Asia, Scythia, i. e. all 
 
ANTIQUITY OF THE RUSSIANS. 3 
 
 the Northern countries; just as they did the Southern, Ethiopia; 
 the whole of the West, Celtic ; and the East, India. 
 
 Their manners were peculiar. "They drank the blood of 
 their enemies, tanned their skins for clothing, used their skulls 
 as drinking bowls, and under the form of a glaive or sword 
 they adored the god of war." 
 
 At last the mixed people of Ancient Russia and the sur- 
 rounding hordes took the name of Sarmatians in the first cen- 
 tury, and these inhabited the whole region from Germany to 
 the Caspian Sea, and from the Black to the White Sea. The 
 Romans, after a few centuries, no longer blushed to purchase of 
 the Sarmatians, with gold, their friendly alliance. It was these 
 people who gave the fatal signal for establishing barbarism on 
 the ruins of Roman civilization. Russia for many ages was the 
 battle-field of swarming nations, wave after wave inundating 
 and devastating its lands ; the Goths, Vandals, Huns, or Tartars, 
 each worse than its predecessor. During all these long ages of 
 bloodshed and victory, the original people, " Slaves" by descent, 
 were, more or less, mingled with their various conquerors. But 
 they kept one pure distinction. All these fought against them 
 mounted, carried their families on carts, and lived in tents : 
 whilst the Slaves fought on foot, built wooden houses, and were 
 renowned for fleetness of foot. It is not surprising that, under 
 these successive wars and rivers stained with blood, Southern 
 Russia became one vast desert, offering but a sad and miserable 
 spectacle of ruin and depopulation. The Sarmatians lost their 
 name, confused with the leavings of so many invading hordes. 
 The Bulgarians, having their city destroyed, migrated from the 
 East of the Volga and the Ural mountains, to seek refuge on 
 the Southern banks of the Danube. These people, called 
 Ougres, hitherto unknown to the Greeks, in 474, began to 
 threaten Constantinople itself. But even then the Slaves were 
 still preserved, and they appear on the stage of history with 
 4clat. They tested their valour under Attila. 
 
 The grand and patient spirit of the Slaves, when habituated 
 to war, is seen in the answer of Lauritas, one of their chiefs, 
 to Baian, the Khan of the conquering Avars : " Who can ravish 
 our liberty? We are accustomed to conquer countries, and not 
 
 1—2 
 
4 ANTIQUITY OF THE RUSSIANS. 
 
 to cede our own to enemies. Such will be our thought so long 
 as swords and brave men exist upon the earth." But in the 
 end they were compelled to furnish an army, and the Khan 
 sacrificed them ruthlessly as "forlorn hopes" in his audacious 
 siege of Constantinople in 626. This Baiian, however, demanded 
 fresh troops from the Northern Slaves. Their ambassadors 
 returned carrying harps and lutes, declaring they had been five 
 months on the journey. They asserted that in their northern 
 country iron was unknown, they were ignorant of the art of 
 war, and were only impassioned with the love of music, and 
 that they led a life of peace and tranquillity. He admired their 
 high stature, the sweetness of their manners and the strength 
 of their bodies, treated them with kind hospitality, furnished 
 them with means of returning home in safety, and accepted 
 their excuses, as dwelling at too immense a distance to prove 
 effectual allies. Historians agree that in the far North these 
 Slaves dwelt happily on the shores of the Baltic, protected from 
 the barbaric horrors of successive desolations bursting from the 
 Eastern Tartar steppes. 
 
 Novgorod, it is said, was built before the Christian era by 
 the Slaves, and Kieif also. Subsequently they built Izborsk, 
 Polotsk, Smolensk, Lubisch, and TchernigofP. The Fins, more 
 ancient still than the Slaves, had abandoned all to their con- 
 querors — in Sweden and Norway to the Goths, and in Russia to 
 the Slaves. " Never seeking safety," says Tacitus, " except in 
 misery; they possess neither horses, arms, nor houses; they feed 
 on herbs, clothe themselves with skins, and protect themselves 
 from the air under the interlaced branches of trees." Before 
 the time of Rurik, the Russian peoples lived separated, with 
 no bond of union, and were totally unable to make great con- 
 quests, or ensure internal peace, among so many rival com- 
 munities. 
 
 But while no impression had been made in Russia or Scy- 
 thia, New Bulgaria, as it might with propriety have been called, 
 began to feel the benign influence of the Christian religion. 
 Formosus went into Bulgaria as a legate from Pope Nicholas, 
 in order to complete the christianization of the people, and 
 to correct the errors learned from their first teachers. 
 
ANTIQUITY OF THE RUSSIANS. 5 
 
 The Dame of the Bulgarians, a race, next to the Huns, the 
 most terrible and most hateful to the invaded Europeans, was 
 known in the West as early as the reign of Theodoric the 
 Ostrogoth. They had dwelt in Asia on the shores of the Volga 
 or Boulgar, and either gave that river their name or derived 
 it from the river. The Teutonic tribes had gradually yielded 
 to the Christian yoke. The fierce Northmen pouring from the 
 havens and lakes of the Baltic regions, fully though rudely 
 armed in their piratical vessels, alone resisted their sway. For 
 three centuries scarcely any impression had been made either 
 on the Bulgarians of the Volga or on the "Sclaves of Russia." 
 A national calamity, a zealous monk and pious princess, opened 
 the gates of this heathen land. 
 
 New Bulgaria, near the Danube, had a king Bagoris whose 
 sister had fallen in childhood into the hands of the Greek 
 Emperor. Two monks, Cyril and Methodius, together with the 
 restored princess, united to convert the people. Methodius skil- 
 fully painted the torments of the damned. Bagoris was horror- 
 struck and was converted. His subjects refused to follow his 
 example. He was baptized by night. The rebels preferred 
 their national gods, surrounded the palace and prepared a new 
 king. Bagoris with the Cross painted on his breast and a few 
 attendants issued forth unarmed to meet them. This sight, 
 so full of kingly courage, struck the rebels with panic. All 
 fled. The king, notwithstanding his conversion, put to death 
 all the rebellious nobles, not even sparing infants. Cyril 
 (Constantino), an erudite scholar, learned in Greek, Latin, Scla- 
 vonian, Armenian and the Khazavian languages, invented their 
 alphabet and translated for the Bulgarian the Scriptures into 
 Sclavonian. Cyril had spent a long time on the north shore 
 of the Euxine, bent on the conversion of the Khazars : and for 
 the same purpose passed into Moravia. The king of Bulgaria 
 sent 106 questions on discipline, ceremony and manners to the 
 Pope, who replied with great prudence. Instead of enchant- 
 ments and auguries and having fortunate days they were to 
 make votive offerings in the churches, and they were not to 
 put to death soldiers, before battle, for neglect of their arms or 
 horses. 
 
6 ANTIQUITY OF THE RUSSIANS. 
 
 The Bulgarian king ate alone. Not even his wife was 
 allowed to sit down in his presence. The warriors took an 
 oath upon their naked swords driven into the ground : and in 
 many parts this weapon was worshipped. 
 
 The great Russian historian' eloquently declares that '' not- 
 withstanding the enlightened careers of Rome and Greece, the 
 history of Russia yields in interest neither in its facts, por- 
 traits, or progress, to those of these polished ancients." " Such 
 are the exploits of Sviatoslaf, the horrible invasion of Bati, 
 the dash and audacity of Dmitri, the fall of Novgorod, the 
 taking of Kasan, the triumph of civic virtues during the inter- 
 regnum, the shades of Oleg and the son of Igor, floating 
 majestically across the veil which covers the cradle of Russia, 
 the valiant Nitislaf as horrible in combat as he was condescend- 
 ing in peace, the brave yet unfortunate Nevsky, — ^that the 
 lightest touches and the least trait of these grand characters 
 ought to fill both the heart and the imagination with emotion. 
 The reign of Ivan III. is a treasure of history. I know 
 not a sovereign more worthy of being placed at the pinnacle 
 of the Temple of Memory. The rays of his glory illumi- 
 nate the cradle of Peter the Great. Between these two 
 monarchs appears Ivan IV. called the TERRIBLE; Godounof 
 equally meriting his good and bad fortune ; the false Dimitri, 
 that extraordinary man ; all followed by a phalanx of intrepid 
 patriots ; the wise Alexis, the father of that Emperor to whom 
 Europe has given the name of ' the Great.' It would seem 
 as though all modem history should remain unspoken, if that of 
 Russia is not worthy to fix the general attention of the world." 
 
 "I come to my labours. I abstain from nothing and I 
 invent nothing. I have sought my expressions in my spirit, 
 and historic monuments have alone inspired my thoughts. 
 I have sought the soul and the life of these histories in the 
 dust of the old chronicles." 
 
 The significant history of this mighty people from the 
 cradle to the throne of All the Russias, reveals the genius, 
 spirit and temper of the nation, presented to us after so many 
 
 > Earamsin. 
 
ANTIQUITY OF THE RUSSIANS. 7 
 
 ages of enterprise, confusion, conquests and disasters ; the 
 contemplation of such a people, so indomitable, so superior to 
 the accidents of climate and the catastrophes of invasion, can- 
 not but shed a brilliant light upon its possible future. Ka- 
 ramsin's work of eleven volumes, translated into French under 
 his' special supervision, is full of thrilling interest, and if this 
 brochure only succeeds in drawing attention to this immortal 
 work, a great object will be fulfilled. The translators^ thus 
 speak of this author (page viii.). 
 
 "A man has appeared, who, endowed by nature with an 
 ardent spirit, a brilliant imagination, modified by profound 
 studies and experience, has plunged into his career, and has 
 placed himself in the first rank of the most celebrated historians. 
 He has consecrated fourteen years of his life to searching the 
 old chronicles and national archives for the proof of the glorious 
 antiquity of his country. Indeed the distinguished approval of 
 his sovereign, the just appreciator of true talent, as well as the 
 enthusiasm with which the whole Russian nation has received 
 his work, have been the recompense for his labours." 
 
 Karamsin has quoted many authors, but his chief ancient 
 authority is Nestor, sumamed the Father of Russian history, 
 who lived in the tenth century at the monastery of Petchersky : 
 who visited ancient temples, searched Byzantine chronicles, and 
 conversed with the old men of Kieff, travellers and other 
 natives of aU parts of Russia, as well as consulted the registers 
 preserved in the churches. His next is Basile, of the end of 
 the eleventh century. The different classes of his authors 
 are arranged under seven heads. 
 
 It seemed more convenient to compress the progress of 
 Russia into as small a compass as possible for reference, and 
 to add a few notes explanatory of some of the allusions in the 
 text at the end of each chapter. The matter contained in 
 Karamsin's grand history, as well as that in the numerous 
 other works consulted, is so profuse, that the task of striking 
 out a new path, amid such a forest of antiquity, for English 
 readers, is one of some difficulty ; the chief object kept in 
 
 1 MM. St Thomas et Jauflret, Histoire de I'Empire de Bussie, par M. 
 Karamsin. Paris, 1819. 
 
8 ANTIQUITY OF TEE RUSSIANS. 
 
 view having been to display the genius of Russia for enter- 
 prise, success, and permanent occupation. 
 
 To fully comprehend the Russians one ought really to be a 
 Russ. But a perfect despotism, such as that inaugurated by 
 the great Peter, is so complete, thorough and penetrating, that 
 it requires a great mental effort to grasp the idea in all its 
 mystery : for mystery it must ever be to the free, where life, 
 person and property are sacred. The following, translated from 
 a foreign writer, well explains this point. 
 
 " It is always requisite to go back to Peter in order to under- 
 stand Russia as it is. He discovered that the chiefs of his 
 people were too independent, and too full of their own thoughts, 
 to be apt ministers of his will. To remedy this, though endued 
 with an active and sagacious mind, yet too narrow to appreciate 
 the advantages of liberty, he imagined nothing could so well 
 answer his purpose as being a grand master of arbitrary power, 
 and a complete restraint which should succeed in dividing his 
 various subjects so as to sever them entirely from the in- 
 dependence conferred by illustrious birth, rank or talent. He 
 designed that the heir of the highest should serve in the lowest 
 ranks, and that the son of the sod should be elevated by a nod 
 to the highest distinctions. By this, every one entirely depended 
 upon the smile of the Emperor. Each was elevated by the 
 favour of his prince. Behold how Russia became a regiment 
 of seventy million men: and this is the work of Peter the Great ! 
 He freed in one day the fetters of ages; in the eager desire to 
 regenerate his people, he reckoned nature, history, chaxacter 
 and life as an old song. He perceived with a rare sagacity, 
 better than, any predecessor, that whilst independent nobility 
 subsisted, the despotism of a single man was only a fiction : he 
 formed a new caricature of true nobility by transforming them 
 into the creatures of his hand. 
 
 But the true spirit and genius of this founder of the modern 
 Russian Empire is best illustrated by his own military code. 
 
 "The Christian soldier ought to be always ready to appear 
 before God, without which he would not have the security 
 necessary for the continual sacrifice which his country demands 
 of him. 
 
ANTIQUITY OF THE BUSSIANS. 9 
 
 "All the estate lies ia the Emperor; all must be done by him, 
 absolute and despotic master, and he ought to give an account 
 to God only. That is why every word injurious to his person, 
 every judgment hostile to his actions or intentions, ought to be 
 punished with death." 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The earliest mention of the name Eosh (0 being long as in host) is in 
 Genesis xlvi. 21. He is there mentioned with Muppim, Huppim and Ard. He 
 is next mentioned in connection with Tobl and Mosk, but only in a subordinate 
 sense: "The laud of Magog and the chief ruler of Eosh, Mosk and Tobl." 
 Bosh is in this passage a part of a general kingdom, including also Mosk and 
 Tobl. The Eussians have favourite terminations in "ki, ski and ow," and 
 it is not difficult to recognize these words in "Eussia," "Moscow," and 
 " Tobolsk." 
 
 By a singular oversight, the English, French, German and Latin translators 
 have, we find by comparison, entirely omitted the word Eosh (Ezek. xxxviii. 2), 
 though found in the Hebrew and Septuagint (Greek) originals, both which pre- 
 serve the name in Genesis xlvi. 21. Taking the name Mosk, it is a striking 
 fact that the national and indigenous perfume of Eussia has long been known 
 by the same consonants m, B,k (musk) ; but even in the time of Herodotus these 
 nations were mentioned as the Moskoi and Tibarenoi. The Moschi were a 
 barbarous people, inhabiting the Mosohian mountains between Iberia, Armenia 
 and Colchis (Caucasus), the eastern part of the Black Sea. The Koran also 
 gives the same name Ewsh. The original meaning of the word msk is the 
 scattering abroad of seed ; and certainly the Moskowites have preeminently 
 exemplified the radical signification of this interesting word. It should be 
 remembered that the original Hebrew gave only these consonant letters. The 
 learned, full 0, thousand years after they were given in Ezekiel, laboured to 
 recover the lost pronunciation, and inserted the vowels e, e (MeSHeCH). It 
 was somewhat uncertain whether the SH here given was the soft S or the 
 stronger SH, in which case it might have been, as stated, MSK. 
 
 In the Samaritan copy of the Scriptures this word is spelt two ways, MosoK 
 and Mosk ; whilst the Greek and Latin Vulgate give it Mosok and Mosoch re- 
 spectively. It may.be interesting to compare these verses containing Magog 
 and Gog by ctuoting the translations : 
 
 English Version. 
 
 "Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal." 
 
 Hebrew and Greek Versions. 
 
 " Gog, of the land of Magog, chief ruler of Eosh, Meshek and Tobl." 
 (Hebrew.) 
 
 "Gog and the land of Magog, the chief ruler of Kosh, Mesakh and Thobel." 
 (Greek.) 
 
 Now of this Magog the Ma denotes the place, so that Magog means really 
 the place of Gog. Magog was the son of Japheth. " It is also the name of a 
 
lO ANTIQUITY OF THE RUSSIANS. 
 
 region, and a great and powerful people of the same name, inhabiting the 
 extreme recesses of the North." "We are,'' says Gesenius, " to understand just 
 the same nations as the Greets comprised under the Scythians (Josephus), 
 which term was a general description of the nomadic tribes of the North of 
 Europe beyond the Black Sea." Horace particularly mentions them, as also 
 do PUny and Cicero, as Scythians. 
 
 On the whole, therefore, Gog appears to be a generic term, and to denote the 
 chief ruler of the whole of the northern nations east and north of the Black 
 Sea. The Bomans appear to have had no other name for these nations than 
 Scythians. In the Crimea, however, they were known as Taurians, who sacri- 
 ficed what foreigners they could get hold of to their goddess Diana, as well aa 
 calves and bulls. 
 
 An able writer identifies the Eussians with the descendants of the Assyrians, 
 and the Turks with those of the Medes. The learned MicHevicz, in his lectures 
 at the University of Paris, has endeavoured to prove this point. A curious item 
 of his illustrations is the adoration of a " human God." It appears that the 
 name Nebuchadnezzar is nothing more than the Bussiau phrase ' ' There is no 
 God but the Czar." Layard, Botta, Eawlinson, Hincks, and others, have, to 
 their infinite surprise, discovered the TwkiBh language in the monuments of 
 ancient times. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE RUS&IANS FROM RURIK (862) DOWN TO THE 
 FALL OF SEBASTOPOL (1855). 
 
 THE^igantic form of "Russia rising from a little Duchy (named 
 Muscovy), and creating for itself a South Eussia, a West Russia, 
 a Great Russia, and in the East a New Russia, extending 
 through thirty degrees of latitude, and one hundred and forty 
 of longitude, fills the mind with astonishment. This Empire, 
 thus huge in its awful dimensions, seems to overshadow with 
 its broad expanse the puny remnant of Western Europe. Still 
 more amazing is the rapidity of its growth. 
 
 Combining with a subtle diplomacy, unlimited religious pre- 
 tensions, a restless policy of encroachment, and uniting with 
 all these a fanaticism which, of all other influences, has in all 
 ages most despotically swayed the human spirit, the genius 
 of Russia has started up from the prostration following the 
 fall of Sebastopol like the fabled Phoenix resuscitated from its 
 ashes. 
 
 To trace the gradual development in detail of this stem 
 and unyielding Asiatic power, rarely known to give back the 
 prey once seized, would far exceed the present scope of this 
 short account. 
 
 In order, however, to give, cursorily, an insight into the 
 Tartar influences, so wonderfully welded into the body politic, 
 and so keenly directing the cruel sufferings to which the Rus- 
 sians have been schooled by the iron grasp of relentless and 
 almost ever-returning tormentors, the Mongolian. Calmucks, 
 
12 THE RUSSIANS FROM RURIK, 862, 
 
 more like demons than men ; — it is necessary to glance 
 briefly at the various leaders, chieftains, dukes, Tartar khans, 
 princes, and emperors, who have combined to generate the 
 spirit, and make up the sum total of modern Russian political 
 life. This blending of Asiatic power and barbaric taste is 
 truthfully displaiyed in the very pinnacles and architecture of 
 the ancient capital of the nation. 
 
 At this early epoch of Russian development, several traits, 
 peculiarly characteristic of the age, are highly interesting. In 
 war the rights of the sovereign were limited by those of the 
 soldiers. He could only take a certain part of booty. Russia 
 lay entirely at the mercy of piratical adventurers from the 
 shores of the Baltic. They divided the towns and villages at 
 will among themselves. The people of the soil had simply to 
 submit, and the new rulers everywhere took the name of 
 princes, who soon after their arrival introduced the Scandinavian 
 usages and laws ; some of which were, that the father had a 
 right to kill the murderer of his son, and that every one might 
 kill a robber. These foreign leaders also introduced the art of 
 war, standards and battalions, cavalry, vanguards, and taught 
 the Russians how to seize towns, and to entrench themselves 
 against an enemy; taught also navigation, so that the Greek 
 fire alone saved' Constantinople from the attack of Igor. The 
 guard of Igor after his death took his name. 
 
 In the ninth century the Northmen, true pirates by trade, 
 warriors and conijuerors by the right of the strong arm and the 
 daring soul, were ravaging nearly all Europe. Ascending the 
 rapid Rhone, infesting even the Alps, spoiling even Saracen 
 Sicily and disturbing even Charlemagne himself, overrunning 
 the Mediterranean and disputing with the Saracens, the same 
 audacious race equally ravaged the Northern seas ; nothing 
 was secure, even in the heart of a country. They seemed to 
 defy, in their ill-formed barks, the wildest weather, the most " 
 dangerous shores, and the swiftest rivers. Their black sails 
 flapped on every river. In Spain the worshippers of Odin 
 encountered the followers of Mahommed. But these wild 
 Arabs of the sea had no union. Castles or churches, bishops 
 or counts, equally shared the fate of the cloister and the farm. 
 
DOWN TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 1 3 
 
 The churchmen thought these Northmen were God's instrument 
 to puQish the sins of the people, and gladly paid whatever black 
 mail they chose to extort. Paris, even Paris fell, after its 
 famous siege hy these daring spirits, in 885. The followers of 
 RoUo became Frenchmen, and ceased to be vulgar pagans. 
 
 At this epoch too, Novgorod was the great emporium of 
 trade, where the natives of the Baltic shores came to buy rich 
 stuffs, and to exchange the wares of their piracies. In spring- 
 time also the Norwegian races assembled there to purchase 
 slaves and rich furs, which they carried back in the autumn. 
 Novgorod at this time received an immense number of carts 
 loaded with honey and fiirs : then, the revenue of the prince. 
 The Russians practised piracy equally with trading. Iron 
 chains fixed near Stockholm (then Stockzund) were insufiScient 
 to bar their visits*. 
 
 But the Greeks exacted from the Russians a treaty, in 
 which it was stated, that no Russian should be allowed to trade 
 unfurnished with a signed paper, attesting his pacific intentions. 
 " The reason of this was, that many Russians, under the pre- 
 text of commerce, exercised their brigandage upon the Black 
 Sea. They perceived then the necessity of distinguishing a 
 corsair from a true merchant." 
 
 But thus early the Russians displayed a grand facility for 
 imitating Greek luxury. Each prince modelled his court after 
 Eastern magnificence ; their wives, and even their children, had 
 each their own court and suite, and occasionally they demanded 
 from the emperor royal robes and crowns, which it was asserted 
 were the handiwork of angels. They even dined off silver 
 dishes, and hydromel was the very soul of their entertainment, 
 notwithstanding at Kieff they already drank the wines of 
 Greece, where the fashion of purple and rich dressing, borrowed 
 from the Grecian court, had been established. 
 
 During the first century of Russian aggression, the ter- 
 ritory had been spread to a much greater extent than that of 
 any other European power. Starting from Novgorod, the 
 Normans, having been invited by its helpless inhabitants totally 
 
 ' Bayer, Gomment, de VAcad. t. x. p. 406. 
 
14 THE RUSSIANS FROM RURIK, 862, 
 
 unable to rule themselves or others, soon pressed their con- 
 quests north, east, south and west. These daring bands of 
 adventurers, a brotherhood" in arms, as they were much more 
 civilized and educated than the barbarian Sclavs of the North, 
 partook in all the sports of war, became chief functionaries, 
 officers, ministers, and the most distinguished citizens of the 
 infant kingdom, and formed the guard of the Prince and the 
 grand Council of the State, without whom neither war nor 
 alliance was decided upon. Even Igor could not make a treaty 
 with the Greek Emperor without the sanction of this guard of 
 boyards, all of whom swore fealty on the sacred hill. The 
 general bulk of the Eussian population, the base of which was 
 Sclave, were the obedient slaves of these haughty Varangians, 
 who in their weakness, ignorance, and simplicity, found them- 
 selves totally unable to guide the destinies of the country, or 
 control its incessant internal quarrels. Two years after his 
 brothers died, Rurik united the several principalities into one, 
 and thus founded the Russian monarchy under a feudal systenl. 
 For nothing but the sword of the victor could control the 
 passions or extort the obedience of the slavedom of the 
 country. 
 
 Feuds however soon arose among the Normans; Ascold 
 and Dir, offended with Rurik, betook themselves to the great 
 southern districts and were accompanied by many of their 
 adventurous race. They had little difficulty in subduing the 
 feeble Slaves of the south, and soon established themselves at 
 Kieff on the Dnieper. Trained in the northern seas, these 
 men, brave and skilful, now took the name of Russians ; and 
 their warlike fame soon reached the ears of the Greek Ruler 
 at the Bosphorus, against whom they had the conspicuous 
 audacity to declare themselves as "enemies of the Greeks." 
 Michael III., the Nero of his time, was absent. But he re- 
 turned in haste, and for the first time found his citizens groan- 
 ing with the very name of a Russian on their lips (Rios or Roos), 
 whom the people called Scythians, descended as they thought 
 from the fabulous mount Taurus, and the conquerors of so 
 many neighbouring nations. Two hundred Russian boats ap- 
 proached. In consternation, the patriarch Photius seized the 
 
DOWN TO -THE FALL OF SEBASTOFOL, 1855. 15 
 
 robe of the holy virgin, guarded in the church of Blachern, and 
 pUmged it in the waves of the Bosphorus to arrest the hostile 
 fleet. A miracle appeared. A mighty tempest arose. The 
 fleet was scattered and Byzantium was this time saved'. The 
 miserable remnant of the Eussian fleet returned to Kieff. 
 
 Brief History of Russian Development, from its Cradle to 
 the Throne of All the Russias. 
 
 EURIK. 862. The Sclaves^ of Novgorod send for rulers 
 to govern their country, reduced to anarchy, from Scandinavia. 
 Rurik and two brothers desert their country to settle in North 
 Russia. These brothers bring a band of comrades called Varan- 
 gians or Normans. Rurik leaves a son (1) 
 
 Igor, four years old. Oleg is regent till 912. 
 
 Oleg was remarkable for the audacious stratagem by which 
 he annexed Kieff. Taking the young Igor in his arms and a 
 trusty band of armed adherents, concealed in his boats, they 
 descended the Dnieper, under the guise of friends wishing to 
 visit their kinsmen in the south. Arrived at the rendezvous, 
 the unsuspecting chieftains of Kieff, thus entrapped with true 
 Muscovite guile, were suddenly surrounded with armed men. 
 '' You," exclaimed Oleg, " are neither Princes nor a race of 
 Princes. I am a Prince and this is Igor, the son of Rurik." 
 At a signal instantly these friendly chiefs were slain on the 
 spot. The inhabitants, totally taken by surprise and paralysed 
 with consternation, threw open their gates to these treacherous 
 visitors. Kieff was thus occupied. Oleg next attempted Con- 
 stantinople with 80,000 men conveyed in boats along the coast 
 
 1 Karamsin, vol. I. p. 147. 
 
 ' Kaeamsin, p. 339, vol. i. The Sclaves reached to the Baltic Sea and 
 lived in the neighbourhood of the Goths and Germans; one may give them 
 the name either of Sarmatians or of Scythians. Gibbon says that towards the 
 sixth century the Sclaves possessed 1600 villages In Russia and Poland. But - 
 these people were then called slaves, true serfs or slaves of the rulers as it is 
 supposed by some; this hardly seems probable, as Procope mentions that in 
 each of their invasions in Dalmatia the Slaves killed or made prisoners 200,000 
 men. Still we think they might have fought extremely well as slaves or serfs 
 under able commanders. 
 
1 6 THE RUSSIAXS FROM RURIK, 862, 
 
 of the Black Sea ; but a chain forbad their entrance. Landing, 
 they intimidated Leo, extorted not only huge treasure, but a 
 treaty, the first Russian treaty on record. (2.) 
 
 913. Igor mounted the throne. A second expedition with 
 a much more numerous army failed. The Greek fire used by 
 the defenders this time preserved the city. When advanced in 
 years the insatiable rapacity of Igor's officers impelled him to 
 try and extort increased tribute from the Drevlians. Succeeding 
 in this, he sent a large part of his army home : the inhabitants 
 fell upon the remainder and massacred Igor. The queen- 
 mother Olga now became regent. At length the Drevlians 
 sought peace and friendship. She ensnared and destroyed their 
 deputations. She next invited all the chief men of their State, 
 pretending to listen to overtures of marriage with their chief 
 prince. Ignorant of the fate of their predecessors they com- 
 pHed. These were also all put to death in secret. Next, pre- 
 tending to accept the alliance, a great entertainment was 
 proclaimed. All that came were also assassinated. Not yet 
 gorged with blood, she next laid waste with fire and sword their 
 country. One town, near which Igor had lost his life, resisted 
 bravely. At length she promised mercy on condition of receiv- 
 ing all the pigeons in the to-mi. To the tails of these birds she 
 fixed lighted matches, which caused the birds to seek their 
 native nests among the wooden roofs of the town, which were 
 thus set on fire. The inhabitants were driven by the flames 
 upon the swords of their enemies; none escaped. (3.) 
 
 969. SviATOSLOP. A true Russian hero. Wholly war- 
 like and fired with a devouring ambition for conquest, he 
 disdained no hardships; slept without tent, in the open air, 
 wrapped in a bearskin. As the son of Igor, he was the first 
 Russian prince. He lived entirely on horseflesh or savage 
 animals ; roasted his own meat ; inured himself to every kind of 
 hardship: his saddle was his pillow, and he became the idol 
 of his army. He lived for conquest alone, and burning with a 
 fiery ambition to shed a new lustre upon the Russian army flew 
 with youthful impetuosity to the field of honour. But he never 
 profited by surprises. With the haugljty pride of an ancient 
 
D0W2f TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 17 
 
 hero he ever annouticed by ambassage " I march against you." 
 In the" time when barbarism spread over the whole Russian 
 empire, he loved to comply with all the chivalrous rules of 
 honour. He attacked and occupied (West) Bulgaria. John the 
 new Greek Emperor sent ambassadors requiring him to evacuate. 
 He refused, gathered an army of Bulgarians, Hungarians and 
 others amounting to 300,000 men. But quite beaten by strata- 
 gem, by the skill and valour of the Greeks, he was at length 
 defeated and slain in his retreat on the Dnieper. Russia was 
 now divided among his three sons, Yaropolk at Kieff, Vladimir 
 in lSrovgorod,,and Oleg in the country of the Drevlians. Vladimir 
 now made war on both his brothers. One was treacherously 
 murdered, trusting in good faith to his plighted honour and 
 hospitality. The other, Oleg, was slain in battle, not however 
 unwept by Vladimir. Yaropolk had been betrayed by a par- 
 tisan Blude. This man Vladimir also entertained, for three 
 days loaded him with hospitalities, and then had him suddenly 
 executed, Vladimir the pagan was signally devout: sacrificed 
 prisoners to his gods and zealously embraced the Greek faith ; 
 forswore his idols, and relinquished six wives and eight 
 hundred concubines. Introducing the Greek form of worship, 
 he adopted many Greek arts and even utilized the Greek 
 alphabet. He prevailed upon the dwellers at Kieff also to be 
 baptized. '"Dans ce grand jour,' dit Nestor, 'les cieux et la terre 
 tressaillirent d'all^gresse:'" Vladimir was transported with 
 ecstasy at the sight of so many Christians redeemed from 
 idolatry. The altar of the true God replaced the pagodas of 
 idols. In 983 he raised a church to the holy Virgin, built of 
 stone by Greek architects. The new religion spread in Russia, 
 but paganism still lingered. Vladimir enlightened his counlry : 
 diffused a knowledge of the Bible, translated by Cyril and 
 Methodius into the old Sclavonic language in the ninth century. 
 This Grand Prince, after embracing Christianity, was inspired 
 with an extraordinary tenderness and charity. He pardoned 
 murderers, only imposing a fine. But at last, being remonstrated 
 with by the pastors on account of the enormous increase of 
 crime, he re-established capital punishment as it existed under 
 Igor and Sviatoslof. During some years, a Norwegian prince 
 R. 2 
 
 1^, 
 
1 8 TSE RUSSIANS FROM RURIK, 862, 
 
 Olof was sheltered at the Court of Vladimir, and later, by 
 its aid, became King of Norway. But in his old age this 
 great prince was overwhelmed with misery and grief through 
 the ambition of his numerous sons, who forgot the most sacred 
 bonds, armed brother against brother. One of them rebelled 
 against his parent. Yaroslaf refused the accustomed tribute 
 due at Novgorod to his father, transported a large army of 
 Normans : Vladimir died on the march to give them battle. 
 
 Prince Sviatopolk, an adopted nephew of Vladimir, divided 
 his territories among his undutiful sons, exhorting them with 
 his dying lips to live in peace and harmony. But the lust of 
 loot and conquest again proved too strong for these fierce 
 descendants. Intestine wars and commotions followed the race 
 from generation to generation. Complete anarchy and con- 
 fusion at length offered too tempting a bait to the voracious 
 hordes outlying upon the eastern steppes. Kieff and Novgorod 
 however had risen from this chaos of brotherly affection to 
 become chief principalities, of which seventeen had been re- 
 duced to seven. At last Vladimir II. arose chief of all, from 
 these long-smouldering ruins \ 
 
 "This prince," says our Russian historian, "whom the 
 Church recognized as equal to the Apostles, has merited in 
 history the name of ' Great.' It belongs to God alone and not 
 to men, to know whether Vladimir was a real Christian from 
 internal conviction, or whether he was not carried away with 
 the ambition to become a relative and ally of a Greek Em- 
 peror. This prince, from the time that he was imbued with 
 the highest philanthropy, so lately the worshipper of idols, 
 who loved to taste the cruelties of his vengeance and the vile 
 delights of an abandoned life— this prince, who to crown his 
 wickedness had dipped his hands in his brother's blood — trem- 
 bled to shed that of criminals and the enemies of his country. 
 His principal title to immortality is, without doubt, to have 
 placed the Russian peojAe upon the path of the true religion." 
 Karajvisin, Vol. I. p. 287. 
 
 1 Called Monomaque. His crown, called tlie Bonnet of Monomaqne, his 
 gold chain, the imperial globe and sceptre, and other ancient ornaments, are 
 still preserved in the Museum at Moscow, and used at coronations. 
 
DOWN TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 19 
 
 ["Yakut, in the 13tli century, gives an account, which is 
 preserved in three public libraries, Copenhagen, Oxford, and 
 St Petersburg, particularly descriptive of the ancient Russians 
 and Khozars. 
 
 'The Russians are the neighbours of the Slavs and the 
 Turcs ; they have a particular language and religion ; it is re- 
 ported that their number is 100,000,000. They possess neither 
 fields nor herds. The Slavs pillage them in their incursions ; 
 every father puts a sword in the hands of his new-born son, 
 saying, You have no other inheritance but this steel to conquer 
 with. Are suitors discontented with the sentence pronounced 
 by their king? then he says to them, "Ah, well, decide your 
 quarrel by the sword, the victor is he whose sword has the best 
 steel." This is written (a.d. 912 or 944). 
 
 ' Akhmet, son of Fotzlan, being sent from Bagdad A.D. 922, 
 under the reign of Igor, by the Kaliph Muktidir to the king of 
 the Slavs, has left a description of all that he saw during his 
 journey. I am going to communicate to the readers of these 
 memoirs what I have read with astonishment. I have seen, 
 said he, the Russian merchants in one of ^,he havens of the 
 Volga ; their bodies are red, they wear neither coats nor vests ; 
 the men throw on one side of their shoulders a thick garment, 
 so that one of their arms remains free. Each one carries a 
 hatchet, a long knife, and a very large sword of European make, 
 without which they never stir. All the women carry, suspended 
 to their bosom, a little case of iron, copper, silver, or gold, 
 according to the richness of their husbands, to which is fastened 
 a knife. They wear round the neck chains of gold or silver. 
 A husband who owns 10,000 drachms, orders a wrought chain of 
 gold for his wife, and for every other 10,000 drachms she is 
 presented with another chain, so that the rich women carry 
 many. 
 
 'Their principal ornaments consist of false green pearls; 
 the husbands give a drachm for a necklace of this kind. The 
 Russians are the most " mal apropos " of all people, they never 
 wash themselves ! When they come from their country they 
 cast anchor in the Volga, disembark and construct on the banks 
 of the river large wooden houses, where they live ten or twenty 
 
 2—2 
 
20 THE RUSSIANS FROM RVRIK, 862, 
 
 together ; each has a large bench upon which he sits with his 
 wife and the Slav which he wishes to sell. The author de- 
 scribes their peculiar behaviour who come to buy the Slavs. 
 
 'Every morning a girl, brings to her master a vesselfull of 
 water, in which he washes his person, hands, and hair, then she 
 arranges his head with a comb, with attention'. When he 
 arrives at the haven, each Russian offers some bread, meat, 
 onions, milk and cider to an idol of wood surrounded by small 
 idols; he then worships them, saying, Master, I have come 
 a long way with so many Slavs and sable furs, &c., accept my 
 presents. Then he places all that he has brought before the 
 god, and he adds, Send to me a good merchant, very rich in all 
 kinds of gold and silver. After which he goes away ; but in 
 case of bad success in his commerce, he comes back to his idol 
 with new presents, and brings some even to the little idols, 
 conjuring them to accord him their protection, and prostrates 
 himself humbly before them. When he has found a good 
 market, he says to himself. The god has favoured me, I must 
 pay him my debt. Then he sacrifices some oxen and sheep, 
 and distributes some of their flesh to the poor, deposits the 
 remainder before the idols great and small ; suspends to the 
 first the heads of the victims, and, if during the night the dogs 
 have devoured these viands, the Eussian cries out, "The god 
 wishes me well, he has eaten my presents." 
 
 'When any one of them is attacked with a malady, they con- 
 struct for him at a distance a tent, where they place him with 
 some bread and water. Never do they approach too near the 
 sick ; never speak to him, but every day one goes to see him, 
 especially if he is poor or a Slav. If he recovers he returns to 
 his friends ; in case he dies, and if he is a free man, they bum 
 him ; if he is a Slav he is cast to the dogs and birds of prey. 
 
 ' They hang a robber or a brigand immediately on a high 
 tree, where he remains till the weather causes him to fall to 
 pieces. 
 
 ' Having been informed that they bum with singular cere- 
 monies the bodies of their chieftains, I waited for an occasion to 
 
 1 Many particulars are necessarily omitted in the translation. 
 
DOWN TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 21 
 
 be a wituess, and I saw these ceremonies with my own eyes. 
 They began by placing the dead in a grave, and wept over him 
 for ten whole days, during which they made for him certain 
 vestments. A poor man is generally burnt in a little boat. 
 The possessions of a rich man are collected and divided into 
 three portions ; one for his relations, another is sold for making 
 the vestments, the third to buy liquors for the day when a 
 slave of the dead is to be killed and burnt upon the body of his 
 master. They drink day and night so immoderately that many 
 expire glass in hand. 
 
 'At the death of a man of quality, his relations ask the 
 slaves and his domestics, Which of you is willing to die for him ? 
 I will, replies one of them. They then ask the same question 
 of the women slaves, and one of them gives the same answer. 
 Then they appoint two women for her guard, to follow her 
 about, and even wash her feet, while his relations are making 
 the vestments for the dead and preparing for the funeral pyre. 
 Nevertheless, the slave destined to die drinks, sings, and diverts 
 himself 
 
 ' When the day for combustion had airived, I came to the 
 river where the barque of the dead was secured, but it was no 
 longer on the bank; it was placed on four posts, surrounded 
 with great wooden idols in human form, around which they all 
 marched round and round, the men pronouncing words I didn't 
 understand. The dead was in his grave at some distance; they 
 .then brought in the barque, a bench covered with cushions 
 and Grecian stuffs. Immediately came an old hag, called the 
 " angel of death,'' who extended the body upon the bench ; it 
 is her duty to make all the vestments and preparations; and 
 it is she who kills the slave. Then they draw the dead from his 
 grave, also some cider and fruit, and the lute that had been 
 deposited there. He wore the same clothes in which he died; 
 the excessive cold of the earth had blackened the whole of 
 his body, but the body was only altered in colour. They ar- 
 rayed him in a shirt, boots, girdle, a camisole, and a silk coat 
 ornamented with gold buttons, and a cap of marten skin. Im- 
 mediately they placed him in the barque on the coverings, and 
 they surrounded hiai with cushions, and placed before him 
 
2 2 THE RUSSIANS FROM RURIK, 862, 
 
 cider, fruit, aromatics, bread, meat, onions, and his weapons 
 were deposited at his side. At last they brought him a dog 
 divided into two parts, which were cast into the barque ; two 
 horses, two cows, a cock, a chicken, all underwent the same 
 fate. Then the girl devoted to death began to march from one 
 place to another : she entered into a chamber, where one of the 
 relations of her master came to console and converse with her 
 for the last time. 
 
 ' It was a Friday, after dinner, they brought the girl to a 
 kind of cage prepared for the ceremony; the men carried her in 
 their arms ; she looked at this cage pronouncing certain words ; 
 three times they let her down to the earth and raised her 
 again ; then they gave her a cockj whose head she cut off and 
 cast it away; the others picked it up and threw it into the 
 barque. I demanded the explanation of all this : the first time 
 the interpreter told me. The girl has said, I see my father and 
 mother ; the second time, Now I see all my relations are dead; 
 the third time, There is my master, who is in glory, in paradise, 
 surrounded with men and young people ; he calls me, let me go 
 to him. They conduct her to the barque, where she takes off 
 her bracelets, and gives them to the old hag, honoured with 
 the name of the angel of the dead. Then she gives her golden 
 anklets to two girls, who attend her under the name of the 
 daughters of the angel of death. Immediately they carry her 
 to a little cabin prepared at one end of the barque. The men, 
 armed with bucklers and clubs, come and present to her some 
 cider, that she drinks after having sung her requiem. The 
 interpreter tells me that it is a sign that she is taking 
 leave of her friends. They offer her some more cider, which 
 she drinks, and she then sings a very long chant; but, all of 
 a sudden, the hag compels her to drink more quickly, and to 
 enter into the little cabin, where was laid the body of her 
 master. 
 
 'At these words she became deadly pale; she could hardly 
 force herself to enter, but she looked into the cabin; the hag 
 seized her by the hair, and compelled her to enter with her. 
 
 ' The men then began to beat loudly upon their shields, in 
 order to prevent the other girls hearing the cries of their com- 
 
DOWN TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 23 
 
 panion, lest it should horrify them from dying some day for 
 their own masters. 
 
 ' Six men having penetrated into the cabin, she was placed 
 beside the dead ; two of them took her by the legs, two others 
 by the arms : the angel of death passed a nmning noose around 
 her neck, and gave the strangling-cord to the two other men. 
 The hag seized at the same instant a huge knife, and buried 
 it in the bosom of the victim : she retired, and the men strangled 
 her until the girl had rendered her last sigh. 
 
 'Then appeared on the scene the nearest relation of the 
 dead : he was nude, and with one hand he took a lighted brand 
 and lit the funeral pyre; the rest came with flaming torches, 
 and cast them on the dead. Quickly, the pile, the barque, the 
 cabins, the body of the master and of his slave, which was in 
 the barque, were all surrounded with flames, and there arose 
 a tremendous wind which fanned them. It happened that 
 near to me was a Russian talking with my interpreter. The 
 Russian said. You Arabs, you are fools, you bury a man 
 that you have loved the most in the earth where he becomes 
 a prey to worms ; we, on the contrary, burn him in the 
 twinkling of an eye, in order that he may fly at once to para- 
 
 ' At these words, the Russians cried out laughing boisterously, 
 saying, " God, wishing to prove that he loved the dead, has sent 
 the wind to consume him more rapidly." In effect, in less than 
 an hour, the barque and the corpses were reduced to a cinder. 
 At the very place where the barque had stood they raised 
 upon the bank a kind of circular mound, in the midst of which 
 they erected a column inscribed with the name of the dead, and 
 of the Russian prince to whom he belonged. 
 
 'The princes of Russia commonly have in their palace a 
 choice guard of 400 warriors, of which many die with them, or 
 sacrifice themselves on these occasions. Each warrior has a girl 
 that waits on him, washes his head, brightens his shield, and 
 serves other domestic purposes. These 400 men sit below the 
 prince upon grand sofas ornamented with precious stones. 
 Nearer to the prince are accommodated 40 of his favourite 
 women who receive his attentions : when he wishes to ride on 
 
24 THE RUSSIANS FROM RIJRIK, 8G2, 
 
 horseback, they bring hhn his horse to the foot of his throne ; 
 and upon his return, he alights upon the same throne. 
 
 ' The prince has a lieutenant who commands his armies, 
 makes war upon enemies, and represents him before his subjects. 
 
 ' Such are the details I have extracted, word for word, from 
 the son of Fotzlan: may the author be responsible for their 
 authenticity; God knows the truth of it better than any person.' 
 Yet it is entirely conformable to everything that Nestor has 
 related, as well as several other annalists, as regards the man- 
 ners and customs of the Sclavs and Slave Russians. We know 
 that the women were burnt with their dead husbands. Orieiital 
 writers also assert that the peaceful Khozars were constrained 
 to cede to the restless and turbulent Russians all the isles of 
 the Volga where they sow buckwheat (du sarrazin)." (Kuku- 
 rouze, Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient, au mot Eous)l] 
 
 Vladimir, who had truly usurped the throne, wished to 
 obliterate his crimes by a wise and benevolent government. 
 He drove out from Russia a great number of Normans, who 
 had become dangerous to the safety of the State. He founded 
 the first schools and instituted courts of justice. 
 
 Amid so much internal anarchy nothing particularly worthy 
 of record occurred till 1223, when wandering hordes of Mongol 
 Tartars flocked to the borders of the Sea of Aral. Their leader 
 Tuschi, one of the sons of the famous Zenghis Khan, conducted 
 them to the Caspian Sea and the banks of the Dnieper. The 
 Russians were completely routed near Kalka, which flows into 
 the Sea of Azoff, Another horde, about 1236, attacked the 
 Bulgarians. Devastation, fire and sword, sparing no man, 
 were followed by the seizure of all the women, children, and 
 old men, who were carried into captivity. The Tartars ad- 
 vanced to Vladimir, and again glutting their insatiable thirst 
 for blood, pushed forward to Novgorod, and Kieff was similarly 
 treated. For more than 200 years the Tartars reigned supreme 
 in Russia. Vladimir, the chief principality, had Moscow for 
 its central town. 
 
 1237, 8. Again was Russia overrun with fire and sword 
 by the Tartar Batu Khan, some years before his invasion of 
 
DOWN TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 25 
 
 Poland and Silesia. Tartar tax-gatherers were established in 
 the Russian cities as far north as Rostov and Jaroslavl, and 
 for many years Russian princes as far as Novgorod paid homage 
 to the Mongol khans in their court at Sarai. Their subjection 
 to the khans was no trifle : at least a dozen Russian princes 
 met their death at the hands of the Mongol executioner (Yule's 
 Notes to Transl. of the Booh of Marco Polo). This Batu was a 
 khan of the Golden Horde and bore the name of Sain Khan, 
 the Good Prince!! Of him Carpini says (in the Latin text), 
 " He was kind to his men, was terribly feared by them, but was 
 most cruel in battle, very sagacious and particularly most cun- 
 ning in war. At Moscow he ordered a general massacre and 
 required that the right ears only of the victims should be 
 brought as proofs of its accomplishment : accordingly 270,000 
 right ears were exhibited. This unsparing Tartar Khan had 
 carried war and desolation, assisted by his three sons, away from 
 Kiptchak Tartary right through the Caucasus to Poland and 
 Hungary, also killing princes in Bulgaria, and on the Volga 
 and Kama. 
 
 1303 — 1328. Andrei Alexandrovitch, Prince of Moscow, 
 having endeavoured to deprive his brother Daniel of Pere- 
 slavle, involved all Russia in the quarrel. But during these 
 civil wars Andrei fortified Moscow, about 1304, with a deep 
 ditch filled with water, a high rampart and a double wall 
 defended by twelve towers, which once for all settled the inde- 
 pendence of this dukedum\ 
 
 Feeling the approach of death, Daniel turned monk ; he 
 was the first prince buried at Moscow ^. 
 
 1328. His son, Duke Ivan, was appointed by the Tartar 
 Khan to the principality of Vladimir. Accustomed to live in 
 Moscow and on good terms with its Metropolitan, he trans- 
 
 1 Karamsin, Vol. it. p. 148. 
 
 ' This principality became White Russia. He bad added to it that of Pere- 
 slavle, Novgorod became the capital of Great Russia, and Kieff was the capital 
 of Little Euisia. Into these three principal duchies did the seventeen princi- 
 palities resolve themselves. 
 
26 THE RUSSIANS FROM RURIK, 862, 
 
 ferred his capital thither, fortified it with a wooden wall and a 
 thrown-up bank of earth and stones'. Trusted by the Khan, 
 these doings were not much regarded by the Tartars. 
 
 1336. By a series of victories the Tartars at length retook 
 Moscow, and slew Yury, the Grand Duke, who had gone impru- 
 dently to a marriage-feast at first instead of defending Moscow 
 from the Tartars ; pushing forward they occupied Novgorod 
 and then Kieff. 
 
 These Tartar hordes then established themselves securely 
 in the three princedoms. The Khan however before retiring 
 placed on these thrones such as pleased him best by the mag- 
 nificence of their presents. Torn, rent and disorganized for a 
 long period, the aspect of Eussian affairs remained unchanged. 
 At length, in the year 
 
 1362, Dmitri, a Russian prince, son of Ivan, having im- 
 pressed his brother chiefs with the advantage of conferring 
 upon him a patronizing protectorate (the key to all Russian 
 successes), persuaded the clergy to preach up a crusade against 
 the thraldom of the Tartars. They, as usual, promised crowns of 
 glory and other fine things to the slain in battle. By fortunate 
 circumstances the Tartars were defeated on the Don. Gun- 
 powder introduced. 
 
 In 1382 the Tartars took Moscow by treachery, and put 
 the whole of its inhabitants to the sword without the slightest 
 respect for age or sex. The most holy things were given to 
 the flames. The Grand Duke, having fled, on his return found 
 the town full of dead bodies. He offered a rouble for every 
 80 buried, and paid 300 roubles; so that 24,000 were thus 
 interred, not including those who perished in the flames, were 
 drowned in the Moskwa or driven in flocks as prisoners into 
 slavery. " Besides the images and holy vessels," says Karamsin, 
 
 "they took an enormous quantity of gold This populous 
 
 capital formerly bubbled (' boiled ') with riches and with fame. 
 In one day her beauty perished; smoke, ashes, the earth 
 covered with dead bodies, deserts and burned churches alone 
 
 1 Stcherbatoff, Vol. iii. p. 366. 
 
DOWN TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 27 
 
 remained\" For a long time the city appeared almost bereft 
 of inhabitants. 
 
 A cornet^, it was thought, predicted this dreadful invasion. 
 
 1383. Peace with Tartary. The town was rebuilt. 
 
 1389. Death of Dmitri. _ The Tartars usually retired after 
 their devastations, and in this way the infant Russia from time 
 to time resuscitated her exhausted forces. The son of Dmitri 
 ascended the princely throne. But those everlasting Tartars were 
 always returning on their wild horses to ruin, burn, slay, and 
 devour, fired with an insatiable lust and implacable brutality. 
 It was in a severe school, indeed, that Young Russia formed the 
 early elements of her future empire. Now the great Tamer- 
 lane perpetrated new horrors, having once for all subdued in 
 one mighty conquest the whole of the prowling hordes of the 
 neighbouring steppes. The great principality of Vladimir had 
 been called Moscow, whilst Kieff was under the Polish duke 
 of Lithuania. 
 
 In 1390 a fresh fire consumed many thousand wooden 
 houses. 
 
 In 1408 or 1409 again come the Tartar hordes. The Grand 
 Duke fled with his wife and family, and he collected forces. 
 But the citizens murmured. His aged brother Prince Vladimir 
 encouraged the people. That the Tartars might not take 
 primeta (or combustible materials) to the walls of the Kremlin, 
 he ordered the suburbs to be fired. The people prayed in vain 
 to be admitted to the Kremlin. The spectacle was dread and 
 awful in the extreme. Universal consternation and cries of 
 despair marked the torrents of destructive rivers of fire and 
 smoke. Villains pillaged the houses untouched by fire ; with- 
 out the Tartars, within the burning flames. Horror and mad- 
 ness seized the frantic populace. However Edigii feared an. 
 ^meute in his horde and decamped at last with enormous loot 
 in money — 3000 roubles'. 
 
 1438. Again appear those infernal Tartars, worse than the 
 
 ^ Vol. V. p. 8i. - Halley's comet. 
 
 <' A large sum in those days. 
 
28 THE RUSSIANS FROM RURIK, 862, 
 
 most savage savagery of American Indians. As usual the Grand 
 Duke fled. The Tartars, after lying before the walls, departed, 
 and burned Kolomna and many other places. 
 
 1445. In fear of the Tartars the country people had flocked 
 to lodge in the Kremlin. But the dryness of the season gave 
 unexpected violence to a fire. Three thousand perished in the 
 flames, afraid of the open country. Not one wooden building 
 was left. The Grand Duchess could not discover a single house 
 to live in (Karamsin). 
 
 Innumerable fires, reckoning all we can, appear to have 
 many times reduced this Moscow to ashes. A dreadfully 
 severe earthquake was felt on the very day that the Khan of 
 Tartary gave liberty to his prisoner, the Grand . Duke Vassilii 
 Vasillievitch. Some lost their senses with terror, thinking 
 the earth was opening her bosom to swallow Moscow. 
 
 In 1451 those restless Tartar marauders again attacked the 
 fated Moscow, set fire to it in many places and entered through 
 the flames, in the midst of which crowds went to the temple 
 with cries and tears, supplicating aid. The Tartars, tired of 
 watching the flames, and disheartened by the fighting of the 
 defenders, again disappeared. 
 
 In 1470, and again in 1472, 1475, 1493 and 1547, immense 
 fires nearly destroyed the town. Particialarly the last, which 
 exceeded all others in dire results. Wooden edifices disappeared, 
 stone buildings were demolished, iron glowed red as in the 
 forge, melted copper flowed. The roaring of the storm, the 
 crackling of the fire, the cries of the people, from time to time 
 were drowned by the explosions of gunpowder. Reports were 
 generally believed that the city had been burnt by the enchant- 
 ment of sorcer-ers. In 1568 and 1570 the plague reappeared. 
 But alas ! the Crimean Tartars now had their turn. In three 
 hours three suburbs were burned : 100,000 perished, either by 
 the flames or by the hands of the demon Tartars. Then it was 
 that 23 persons of the British factory also perished'. 
 
 Never was a town more combustible or so ravaged by 
 
 1 Letter to Richard Usoombe, August, 1571. 
 
DOWN TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 29 
 
 diabolized humanity. It is a remarkable fact tliat the very 
 word used by Xenophon, Mosun, denotes a wooden house or 
 tower, and Mosunockoi, easily contracted to Moscoi, in his time 
 denoted "an Asiatic race near the Black Sea, neighbours to the 
 Colchians and Tibareni, living in wooden houses." Strabo also 
 uses the same term. The Moskow' people, or Muscovites, have 
 therefore been already characterized by their preference for 
 wooden houses or huts for above 2000 years. The peasants to 
 this day carry an axe, and are so skilful in its use that in a very 
 short time they can put up a small wooden hut for the con- 
 venience of the traveller, where wood abounds. 
 
 Moscow, however, again rose to greater importance than 
 ever and completely eclipsed Kiefif, which proportionably 
 declined. It is useless to detail the never-ending squabbles and 
 wars waged for the next seventy years, and so the reader may 
 pass on to 
 
 1462. Ivan Vasilivitch. He mastered Kazan in Tartary 
 and was solemnly crowned about 1470, with a diadem said to 
 be still used. Asiatic Bulgaria, and nearly all Lapland, sub- 
 mitted to his rule. Even the great rival city Novgorod, after 
 a seven years' siege, yielded immense treasures. But after 
 he had quitted the city he largely practised the custom still 
 popular with the Russians. He deported thousands of the 
 inhabitants to various parts of the empire, substituting for them 
 people of his own principality, more attached to his person and 
 reign. He even imprisoned all the German merchants, abolished 
 the old municipal franchise and gave a blow to its trade from 
 which it never recovered. 
 
 This prince more enlarged his dominions than any pre- 
 ceding duke. Marrying the sister of Duke Tver, which 
 effectually lulled suspicion, he deposed his ducal brother-in-law 
 under pretence of revenging his father, and thus took possession 
 of the province. On the death of his wife he married Sophia, 
 daughter of the. expelled Thomas Palseologus. It was through 
 her energetic representations that his spirit was roused to 
 undertake his successful campaign against Kazan. 
 
 ' The Busaiaus call Moscow Moskua, 
 
30 THE RUSSIANS FROM RURIK, 862, 
 
 He also acquired, by the law of might over right, Livonia 
 and Esthonia. He died in 1505. 
 
 1505. Vassilii Ivanovitch, called Basilius III. 
 
 1530. Kazan Tartar rebellion. 300,000 prisoners carried 
 off by the Tartars from Moscow, most of whom they sent to the 
 Crimea or sold to the Turks. Immense treasure captured. 
 Basilius died 
 
 1533. Ivan IV., his son, commonly called The Teerible. 
 He emancipated Russia from Tartaric thraldom, seized the 
 west shores of the Caspian, the right bank of the Volga, and 
 the city of Astrakan ; inflicted summary vengeance on the 
 conspiring inhabitants of Novgorod; executed "25000 of the 
 conspirators"; accidentally formed commercial relations with 
 England ; annexed Astrakan', and was defeated by the Tartars in 
 1571, who beleaguered Moscow; 50 rods of the city-wall were 
 blown up by a powder magazine ; in the conflagration 120,000 
 Russians perished. Peace concluded with the Tartars in 1584. 
 
 About this time Constantine, Duke of Ostrog, had the 
 ancient MSS. of the Holy Scriptures collated and revised, and 
 at his own expense had the whole published in the Slavonian 
 language — a dead letter to the Russ. 
 
 1584. The Czar Ivan IV. dies: in his latter days he had 
 been worsted by the Tartars. His sons Feodor and Dmitri were, 
 it was believed, got rid of by Boris, by means of assassination 
 and poison. Thus ended the dynasty of Rurik the Varangian, 
 which had lasted 700 years. Boris, through the influence of 
 the Patriarch, is elected by the nobles to the sovereignty; 
 Moscow was shortly desolated by a famine, the most dreadful 
 recorded in history : parents are said to have eaten their children 
 and the children their parents. A Jesuit monk pretended to 
 be the young Dmitri whom Boris had caused to be assassinated ; 
 he retired to Poland, and so ingratiated himself with the king 
 that he gained him over to his party; the Kossacks, oppressed 
 
 ^ The provinee of Astrakan is an immense territory about 1000 miles long, 
 between the rivers Ural and Volga ; the city of Astrakan being situated on one 
 of the mouths of the latter. 
 
DOWiY TO TUB FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 31 
 
 by Boris, eagerly embraced his cause; Boris took poison 1605; 
 his son Theodore was enthroned but soon dethroned, and the 
 successful monk made his triumphant entry into Moscow with 
 the utmost magnificence; the priests again excited the populace; 
 an assault was made on the palace and the monk slain. 
 
 [The coronation of this Jesuit monk was perhaps the most daring and in- 
 genious manoeuvre ever executed by this powerful order for creating their grand 
 lever of conquest, u. State within u State. They succeeded in insinuating a 
 College at Moscow afterwards closed hy Peter. Catharine n., however, was 
 hospitable to them as a simple religious order. They extolled her to the skies. 
 She protected them notwithstanding the dissolution of their order by Clement 
 XIV. and preserved their posts in the government of Wiite Eussia, which 
 afforded a safe asylum. In 1800 they officiated in St Petersburg, their 
 general formed a. College and began to make proselytes. They propagated the 
 notion that science is unsuitable for military men, i. e. that 80,000 of the 
 Eussian nobQity ought to be unlearned (learning was denounced as causing 
 idleness, and destroying the impetuosity necessary for successful enterprise) : and 
 that the higher classes ought not to apply themselves to study : they iuterdicted 
 Greek and German ; they recommended Decorations. Their great apolo- 
 gist Count do Maistre declared it was impossible to find a substitute for this 
 useful body. " This Society is the watch-dog which you must not dismiss : if 
 you do not allow it to bite the thieves, that is your affair ; but at least allow 
 it to wander round your house and to awaken you before your doors are broken 
 
 open, or they make entrance by the windows God is the author of this 
 
 Society. It is God whom nations obey in the person of their sovereigns." 
 
 They pleaded that they owed their preservation to Eussia, and therefore 
 from gratitude, self-interest and necessity, they could have no other interest but 
 that of the State ! In order to combat the principles of the Eeformatiou they 
 adopted such imscrupulous and characteristic arguments as the following. 
 
 "All should shudder at the fundamental sophism of Europe — 'Webeheve 
 nothing but the Word of God.' What an abuse of words ! ...Are not the Holy 
 Scriptures Writings ? were they not traced with a pen and a little hlach fluid ? 
 Do they know what ought to be told to one man and hidden from another ? Do 
 not Leibnitz (the great mathematician) and his maid read the same words 
 there ? Can writing be anything but the portrait of a word and, if interrogated, 
 must it not keep holy silence? If you attack or insult it, can it defend itself in 
 
 the absence of its father? Let others then invoke as much as they please the 
 
 dumb word. We laugh in peace at the false god."] 
 
 1613. The House of Romanoff was enthroned. The Rus- 
 sians had offered the Grown to several neighbouring potentates — 
 to a son of the King of Poland, if he would adopt the Greek 
 faith : refused. They turned to a son of Charles IX. of Sweden 
 in vain. Next they pressed it on a young native Russian^ aged 
 sixteen, Mikhail Feodorovitch, of the House of Romanoff: a 
 
32 THE RUSSIANS FROM RURIK, 8G2, 
 
 family which was distantly related to their ancient Czars, and 
 ■whose head was then Metropolitan or Bishop of Kostof. The 
 clergy were here pre-eminently active ; they pretended revela- 
 tions from Heaven ; they intrigued with all their might — a fine 
 opportunity for aggrandizing the interest of their order. To 
 cause the son of the Metropolitan to ascend the throne of 
 Russia was to them a kind of ecclesiastical ecstasy. And they 
 succeeded. Fortunately for Russia, this family, after such a 
 huge series of confusion, ruin, and military disasters in Tartaric 
 wars, was destined to raise the Russian throne to a glory of 
 empire, a grandeur of extent, and a consolidation of power, un- 
 paralleled in the history of mankind. 
 
 But these magnificent results were the work of time and 
 policy. The young Mikhail found party spirit run high : and 
 though he inaugurated economy, alliances and commerce, it was 
 left to his son Alexei to carry out these beneficial ideas. He 
 died— after initiating mighty changes — in the year 
 
 1645. Alexei. Ambitious as Boris, imprudent so as to 
 incur universal hatred, he totally neglected home policy, but 
 connived at flagrant enormities in judicial cases. The populace 
 rebelled, and to appease their wrath one of the most nefarious 
 judges was executed. Alexei now patronized the Cossacks. 
 The Polish clergy tried to impose Catholicism. He protected 
 them as his subjects. He improved the Russian laws, and 
 caused a standard Digest, called the Uloshenid, to be made, 
 which long abrogated all other laws. He left his son Feodor 
 heir to the Russian throne. 
 
 1676. Feodor reigned but a short time, but he made a 
 "happy despatch" of the ancestral pretensions of the quarrel- 
 some Russian nobility, who continually squabbled on questions 
 of precedence. He ordered all their written genealogies to ba 
 confided to him. He publicly consigned the whole collection to 
 the flames. All nobility now could only flow from the throne. 
 He died in the same year. 
 
 1682. Pkter I., a half brother, should have succeeded, 
 but this would have highly displeased the nobles, particularly 
 
DOWN TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 33 
 
 Galitzin the late prime minister, who had espoused the cause 
 of Sophia, the sister of the brothers Feodor and Ivan, and a 
 princess of the most insinuating address and eminent abilities. 
 The qualities of this lady are quite a study. Exquisite 
 in beauty, she enslaved the heart of the wise Galitzin. To 
 reign was the chief desire of her heart. Thousands were slain 
 in her contests with Peter's party. By false accusations she 
 compassed the death of sixty nobles, plotted the death of Peter, 
 her half brother ; failing this she excluded him from the throne. 
 " What a sea of blood seems," says Ker Porter, " to encom- 
 pass her grave ! I shuddered when I looked at the end of all 
 this guilt — a stone bed of six feet square. Forty-six years 
 terminated this career of ambition, murder, and incest : and all 
 for what ? — a throne' ! " Death ensued five years after the plot. 
 Ivan was weak in body and mind. Peter was then only ten 
 years old; Sophia and Galitzin rided Kussia. The plot thickened. 
 Peter was now 17. He successfully lulled the suspicions of 
 Sophia, fascinated his youthful companions, Gordon a Scotch- 
 man, and Lefort a Genoese, and secretly won over partisans. 
 When too late, Sophia formed a plot for his assassination, but 
 discovered in time she was banished to a nunnery. Peter now 
 reigned supreme. Lefort and Gordon were ordered to levy new 
 regiments on the European model. He learned the trade of a 
 shipwright at Archangel, fitted up a workshop, despatched 
 young Kussians to European arsenals ; relit the torch of war in 
 Turkey, decoyed artillerists and engineers from the Dutch, 
 provided transports, defeated the Turks by sea and land at 
 Azof, and OCCUPIED it. To form a Black Sea fleet was now his 
 most ardent desire. Russia was essentially an inland power. 
 The ocean he felt was life, and the land death, to his far-reach- 
 ing schemes. A ukase commanded the patriarch, the nobility, 
 clergy and merchants, to contribute funds to equip a navy. He 
 sent young nobles on a European tour; and proclaimed a similar 
 project for himself. At length, warring with Sweden, he ob- 
 tained quiet possession of the Baltic. He made a triumphal 
 entry into Moscow, the ostentatious vanity of which exceeded 
 all similar exhibitions of pride. The Swedes ceded Livonia, 
 
 1 Sketches in Russia, by Sir W. Ker Porter. 
 E. 3 
 
34 THE RUSSIANS FROM RURIK, 862, 
 
 Esthonia, Ingria, part of Karelia, Vyborg, the isle of Osel, and 
 all islands from Courland to Vybourg ; for which he gave them 
 back Finland. He erected an Observatory in St Petersburg, 
 predicted eclipses, and so taught his subjects to consider such 
 a phenomenon no longer ominous nor full of menace. He cer- 
 tainly diminished the barbarism of his subjects. Peter, as a 
 reward of these enormous spoils of gratuitous war, received 
 from the Senate the august title of Emperor and Autocrat of 
 all the Russias. He died in 
 
 1725. His benign, beloved and gentle consort, Catharine I., 
 reigned two years, in which she found time to win the hearts 
 of her people, and extended the Empire over Georgia. She 
 recalled the exiles from Siberia, sent thither by Peter: the 
 Kubinskian Tartars voluntarily offered their homage. She 
 settled the crown on Peter II., the son of Alexei, then twelve 
 years of age. Latterly she gave herself- up to flagrant excesses, 
 and was probably poisoned. 
 
 1727. Under the tutelage of Prince Menzikoff, whose 
 daughter Catharine had decreed him to marry, the young 
 Emperor was thus early left in the hands of unscrupulous 
 designers. 
 
 Menzikoff, originally a pie-boy, had been raised by Peter to 
 distinction, and was now a chief officer of State, but surrounded 
 with enemies, who persuaded Peter to banish the minister and 
 all his family to Siberia. Thus having cleared the ground, 
 they persuaded this lad of tender years to take violent exer- 
 cises unsuitable to his age, and to exhaust his unripened strength 
 with hunting sports, and other athletic exercises. It is sup- 
 j)osed that debility ensued, and small-pox rapidly finished his 
 career in 
 
 1730. The Russian Senate and nobility, now setting aside 
 the will of Peter I. and that of Catharine I., made Anne, duchess 
 of Courland, Empress. Her reign proved prosperous. In a new 
 war she was induced to give up Azof and Moldavia to Turkey, 
 and as a set-off for a loss of 100,000 men and vast sums of 
 money, Russia gained the privilege of building a fortress on the 
 Don ! Anne died in 1740. Ivan the son of her niece was then 
 
DOWxV TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 35 
 
 entitled by her will to the throne. But Elizabeth, Peter the 
 First's daughter, was proclaimed in the night: the family of 
 Mecklenburg were seized. All but Ivan were exiled to the 
 mouth of the Dwina in the White Sea. His father died in 
 prison. The youthful Emperor Ivan was imprisoned in the 
 castle of Schlussenberg, and was there done to death in a cruel 
 
 The Empress Elizabeth began to reign in 1741. She was 
 vain in the extreme, capricious and unjust. She abolished 
 capital punishment, but retained a lingering death from the 
 effects of torture. She had inscribed on her coins Elizabeth the 
 Clement, yet she ordered two ladies of extraordinary beauty, 
 guilty of no real crime (whatever was pretended), to be ex- 
 posed almost naked, on a scaffold, to be subjected to the most 
 inhuman infliction of the knout, and had their tongues cut out 
 with every circumstance of the most outrageous barbarity. 
 Beauty with her was an unpardonable crime. Abandoning 
 herself to vice and every excess of intemperance, she was in- 
 flexibly severe to those who imitated her noble example. She 
 was prodigal, pusillanimous, vindictive and inconstant. Eliza- 
 beth died a victim of cancer and excessive indulgence in Tokay. 
 Her successor was Peter III., grandson of Peter I. by Anne. 
 "His education was shamefully neglected. In childhood they 
 treated him as a man, in manhood they amused him as a 
 child." Catharine II. became Empress June 8, 1762. 
 
 1762. Grand Duke Peter III. ascended the throne. His 
 chief amusement was buffoonery. He suffered himself to be 
 persuaded that the Russians were fools and beasts, unworthy of 
 his attention except to make them by means of the Prussian 
 discipline good fighting machines. Honoured with a gifted 
 and accomplished consort, Catharine Vorontzoff, of great beauty 
 and in the prime of life, he loved a mistress one degree above 
 an idiot. Three brothers, the nobles Orloff, gained over 8,000 
 men. Catharine making herself popular, compiled improved 
 laws, privately circulated. All was ready. Revolt broke forth. 
 Peter was imprisoned. Made to drink poison, he was in this 
 state strangled in the most brutal manner. 
 
 3—2 
 
36 THE RUSSIANS FROM RURIK, 862, 
 
 Peter in a faint voice said to his murderers, the Princes 
 Baratinski, and Orloff who had already thrown down the Em- 
 peror and was pressing upon his breast with both knees and 
 firmly griping his throat with his hand, " It was not enough 
 then to prevent me reigning in Sweden, and deprive me of the 
 crown of Russia, I must also be put to death." The unhappy 
 monarch now struggling with the strength of despair, the two 
 other assassins threw a napkin round his neck, and put an end 
 to his life by suffocation. 
 
 " It is affirmed that on the very day on which it happened, 
 while the Empress was beginning her dinner with much 
 gaiety, an officer," supposed to be one of the assassins, entered 
 the apartment precipitately, with his hair dishevelled, his face 
 covered with sweat and dust, his clothes torn, and his counte- 
 nance agitated with horror and dismay. On entering, his eyes, 
 sparkling and confused, met those of the Empress. She arose 
 in silence, went into a closet, whither he followed her. In a 
 few moments afterwards she sent for Count Panin, the former 
 Governor, whom she had already appointed her minister. They 
 together devised the plan, as the least suspicious, of exposing 
 the body of the murdered emperor three days to the public 
 gaze. On the following day a manifesto was issued, that Peter 
 had died of hemorrhoidal colic, and the brand-new empress 
 appeared bathed in tears. The face of the dead was black and 
 the neck excoriated. Notwithstanding these horrible marks, it 
 was left for three days exposed to all the people, with only the 
 ornaments of a Holstein officer." The unhappy Peter III. thus 
 fell in 17(>2 in the 34th year of his age, having reigned only 
 six months. 
 
 1762. Catharine II. The events of the reign of Catha- 
 liue II. thickened so fast that it is here impossible to enumerate 
 them. In 1764 she caused the assassination of the dethroned 
 Czar Ivan. She declared in a manifesto that " he was put to 
 death by the officers of his guard, alleging an attempted escape." 
 
 1766. A carousal was appointed for the nobility, the splen- 
 dour of which outshone all former attempts of the kind. A 
 thousand spectators were present. 
 
DOWN TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 37 
 
 1772. The Scotchman Grieg highly distinguished himself 
 as an officer in the Kussian army in a war against Turkey. 
 
 1775. By war, successfully maintained, the Crimea was 
 wrested from Turkish rule. 
 
 1783. The Empress instituted schools with extraordinary 
 vigour. 
 
 1784. Georgia annexed. 
 
 1790. Ismail surrendered its fortress with 42,000 Turks : 
 88,000 slain on the spot (the Turks do not often run away) : 
 2,000 died of wounds : 9,000 were taken prisoners, and 265 
 pieces of cannon were captured, yet the Russians only lost, 
 as they say, 1,850 killed and 2,450 wounded. The next year, 
 after severe defeats of the Turks, the Russians acquired the 
 country lying between the Bug and Dniester. Here we have 
 a vivid example of the use Russia made of her Tartars. The 
 fortress of Anapuas was taken by storm, when the garrison of 
 25,000 men were all slain excepting the quarter given to 1,000 
 prisoners. The Turks had 80,000 men, but besides a numerous 
 army the Russians had the hordes of two Tartar Sultans. We 
 cannot discover what were the numbers of the hordes which 
 accompanied them. Repnin, the Empress' very particular 
 favourite, commanded the army. 
 
 1792. Catharine II. declared war against Poland. She 
 could not forgive the new constitution which the Poles had 
 elaborated for their political and social improvement. She 
 could not endure the spectacle of a nation which she had 
 destined to swell her dominions, rising, as it were from the 
 grave of chaotic forces, to a new bright career of national 
 manhood. Russia in the olden time had to record many a 
 wound given by the valorous yet vainglorious Poles. They had 
 burnt Moscow, which itself had once been merely a fief of their 
 empire. Their very existence was a standing reproach to the 
 portentous and magnificent empire now bursting into marvel- 
 lous activity and life. Here, more than anywhere, the proud 
 flourish of the trumpets of an ancient empire sounded harsh 
 in the ears of the daring yet cautious genius of the Russian 
 
38 THE RUSSIANS FROM RVRIK, 862, 
 
 nation. Poland, by its peculiar geographical position, if not 
 conquered, could dominate from three cardinal points of the 
 compass — north, south, and east. 
 
 The Empress sent into Poland two of her very best generals, 
 Suwarroff and Fersen. Her troops entered Poland, and their 
 atrocities will ever blot the pages of Russian aggression. 
 
 1795. "In this year, by treaty with England, Russia agreed 
 to furnish Great Britaia with 10,000 troops! and 2,000 horse in 
 case of invasion!! whilst we engaged to send, if required, two 
 seventy-four ships, six of sixty. and four of fifty guDS, with a 
 complement of 4,560 men." (The British valour must have 
 been in high honour indeed.) But the last important act of 
 this imperial lady's reign consisted in attempting to take 
 Derbend, an important city on the shores of the Caspian. 
 But the Persians defeated the Russians. She died, leaving a 
 son ; infamy and wickedness stain her memory. 
 
 1796. Paul I. in his 42nd year. In order to shew his 
 filial respect to his father Peter III., he caused his corpse to be 
 removed to the cathedral and to lie in state three days and 
 nights, compelling his murderers to watch over it night and 
 day. A dreadful mark of his justice, surely most terrible to the 
 guilty. The Emperor Paul had many extravagances. During 
 his visit to the dockyards he observed a fellow diligently 
 caulking. " Admirably caulked," cried he, " you must be re- 
 warded for this. Rise, rise, I confer on you the rank of Lieut.- 
 General," and threw over the enraptured caulker several orders. 
 " The poor man was made," says Ker Porter, " a Lieutenant- 
 General, but unmade as a man, for reason deserted her throne. 
 He seems perfectly happy decorated with stars and ribbons, in 
 full military dress, and accosts every man of rank he meets as 
 brother.'' 
 
 1799. Having entered into an alliance offensive and de- 
 fensive with his Britannic Majesty, who agreed to pay Russia 
 £44,000 per month, £58,929 towards equipping a Russian 
 fleet, and £19,642 per month so long, as this fleet should be 
 imder English command ; Russia on her part engaged to 
 furnish 17,500 troops, and artillery to match, six ships, five 
 
DOWIf TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 39 
 
 frigates, and two transports, for carrying a British invading 
 force ; yet wonderful to record, notwithstanding a Russian fleet 
 actually joined us in Yarmouth Roads, Paul in the very next 
 year openly repudiated his treaty and joined the great Northern 
 coalition of Sweden, Denmark and Prussia against Great 
 Britain. Insanity began to show itself in the Romanoff family. 
 Paul — incessantly tormenting his army with military caprices, 
 alternately honouring and humiliating the captive king of 
 Poland, and saluting his coffin when dead, raising a statue to 
 Suwaroff after he had caused that glorious Russian general to 
 die broken-hearted — was haunted with a' thousand mad caprices, 
 and wore out the patience of friends and foes. Though he was 
 clearly insane he was not deposed. In Asiatic nations, the 
 bowstring, poison or the dagger seem to be the approved forms 
 of getting rid of a troublesome emperor or sultan. Count 
 Pahlen, governor of St Petersburg, with other men of rank, 
 Zuboff and his brothers, resolved he should die. On the 11th 
 of March, o. s., 1801, his assassins, gaining entrance by a stair- 
 case, cut down his faithful guard, and rushed into the apart- 
 ment. He entrenched himself behind the chairs, and as they 
 advanced knocked down one of the conspirators. A dreadful 
 conflict now aroused the Empress, but a voice whispered instant 
 death on the least alarm. The murderers having beaten him 
 down, completed their work with a sash twisted twice round 
 the naked neck of the Emperor. His son Alexander on ascend- 
 ing the throne extended his mercy to the murderers of his 
 father ; Zuboff was merely ordered not to approach the palace, 
 and the Governor Pahlen was quietly transferred to Riga ! ! 
 It was this very Alexander who was fated to witness the dread- 
 ful conquests of Napoleon and the burning of Moscow in 1812. 
 A sequel of the Tilsit, Russo-French plot. 
 
 1801. Alexander, whilst cultivating the friendship of Great 
 Britain, established a University in Lithuania, emancipated the 
 Jews, leagued with England as against France ; levied 100,000 
 men ; assured the Porte of amicable intentions, fought at Eylau, 
 surrendered 18,000 Russians and Prussians to the French at 
 Dantzig; and lost 30,000 Russians in the German campaign. 
 
40 THE RUSSIANS FROM RURIK, 862, 
 
 Turkey incited by France declared war against Russia, who 
 now concluded an armistice with France. On the 25th June on 
 the Niemen, Napoleon and Alexander concluded the infamous 
 treaty of Tilsit (1807), which in its effects really sacrificed 
 millions of human lives. Alexander now assumed the undigni- 
 fied and unworthy character of Napoleon's ally. 
 
 1811. Russia commenced a new war with Turkey. So 
 true is it that a powerful and voracious State can never want 
 pretexts for attack. But Napoleon was enraged with his brother 
 emperor, and organized an invasion which ended in the final 
 destruction of his immense armies, retreating from Moscow. 
 
 Leipsic finished French domination. Russia seizing her 
 opportunity pushed to the forefront. At the Congress of 
 Vienna, the duchy of Warsaw was secured as her share of the 
 prey. She got four-fifths of the territory and three-fourths of 
 the Polish population. 
 
 Russia might well now pause. Catharine II. had ac- 
 quired the Crimea, Georgia, Bessarabia and part of Moldavia 
 and other Turkish lands, Courland, and a large slice of Poland. 
 Alexander vanquished in the Caucasus several tribes ; ab- 
 sorbed Daghestan (East of the Black Sea). Finland and 
 other parts were ceded in 1813; and also Napoleon's Grand 
 Duchy of Warsaw : the total population of aU these certainly 
 exceeding 15 millions. 
 
 1815. The Foreign Policy of Alexander may be thus 
 summarized. — 
 
 (1) Suppression of revolutionary movements in Europe. 
 
 (2) The prostration of Turkey to Russian power. 
 
 (3) Sovereignty in the Levant. 
 
 (4) Paving the way to India. 
 
 (5) The formation of the Holy Alliance — one of the 
 first instances of a triple imperial conspiracy condescending to 
 profane Christianity as a pretext for spoliation. 
 
 (6) The gradual isolation of Turkey as regards the 
 rest of the European world : and a total dependence on Russian 
 protection. 
 
DOWN^ TO THE FALL OF SFBASTOPOL, 1855. 41 
 
 In foreign policy his great object was the extension of the 
 Russian Empire by unscrupulous diplomacy, and when that 
 failed, by war. 
 
 The most important affair to Englishmen is the design 
 of Russia upon our Indian Empire. The elaborate system of 
 intrigue amongst our continental neighbours was not how- 
 ever revealed till after Alexander's death. This Emperor 
 actually projected the serf-freedom, patronised youthful edu- 
 cation, and " missionary enterprise. " But his latter end was 
 completely miserable. Disappointment in policy, religious de- 
 pressiiDn, terror of extermination of the whole royal family, 
 which urged upon him incessant travel from place to place 
 to avoid the dagger, the bullet or the poisoned cup, culminated 
 in death at Taganrog, Sea of Azof, Dec. 1. 
 
 1825. His brother Constantine, after proclamation, de- 
 clined the throne. Nicholas I. and his consort were crowned 
 at Moscow. Duke Constantine Russianized Poland. 
 
 1826. Immediately war being declared against Persia she 
 was compelled to sue for peace. Russia now secured Erivan 
 and Wakshivan, and replenished her treasury with £8,000,000 
 sterling. The same year 150,000 Russians invaded Turkey: as 
 also Asia. Paskievitch won Poti, now being transformed into 
 a Black Sea Liverpool, which, when the railway is completed 
 (if not already finished) to the Caspian, will form one more 
 stage to Central India. In a single week he took Kars. 
 
 1829. In the spring 120,000 Russians again crossed the 
 Danube. The remainder reaching the Balkans crossed them 
 without opposition. Though weakened marvellously by sickness 
 and fatigue, hundreds dying daily, Diebitsch adroitly managed 
 to conceal his real condition from the Turk, who, had he 
 known the exhaustion of his enemy, could easily have arrested 
 his march over the Balkans ; but the Russian commander 
 astutely working upon the Turkish fears of a march to Con- 
 shantinople, a treaty of peace was extorted, which further un- 
 dermined the Turkish power to an enormous extent. 
 
 Russia exacted a war indemnity of £5,000,000, to be paid 
 
42 THE RUSSIANS FROM RURIK, 862, 
 
 by instalments, and secured the possession of the Princi- 
 palities as a material guarantee for ten years. Not a single 
 Mussulman was to remain there : fortresses, cities and lands 
 as well as the mountains of the Caucasus were all surren- 
 dered. 
 
 1830. Nicholas crowned at Warsaw, Polish language 
 abolished. Multitudes deported to Siberia, to the Caucasus, 
 and enrolled in the army. A new Calendar, weights and 
 measures imposed. 
 
 1840. Nicholas sent' out an expedition against Khiva. 
 
 1849. Fall of Hungary. Turkey manfuUy refused to 
 
 give up Hungarian refugees. Nicholas threatened, but the 
 
 British fleet appeared in the Dardanelles and he at once 
 lowered his tone. 
 
 1853. Sinope Massacre : Te Deum commanded by the 
 Emperor. 
 
 1854. Our fleet having been ordered into the Black Sea, 
 sailing with that of France, the Russian ambassador closed 
 his embassy in London. The war commenced. 
 
 1855. Sardinia joined the Allies. Fall of Sebastopol. 
 
 1855. March 2. Death of Nicholas I. Accession of 
 Alexander II. the present Emperor, 
 
nO]VJ!i TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 43 
 
 Tabular List of Chieftains, Dukes, Czars, and Emperors 
 OF Russia, with their dates of Accession. 
 
 I. DoitES oE Chiefs or Kieff. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Eurik 861 
 
 Igor 878 
 
 Sviatoslof 945 
 
 Yaropoli I. 972 
 
 Yladimix the Great 980 
 
 Yaroslaf I. 1015 
 
 Isiaslaf 1054 
 
 Vsevolod I. 1078 
 
 Sviatopolk 1093 
 
 ■Vladimir II. 1114 
 
 Mslislaf, or Michael I. 1125 
 
 Yaropoli H. 1132 
 
 Viatoheslaf (eight days) 1138 
 
 Isiaslaf 11. 1146 
 
 Eostislaf, Isiaslaf III. 1154 
 
 Yury, Igor, or George I. 1155 
 
 II. Grand Dukes op Vladiiiie. 
 
 Andrew I., Michael II. 1157 
 
 Vsevolod in. 1177 
 
 Yiiry, Igor, or George II. 1213 
 
 Yaroslaf H. 1238 
 
 Saint Alexander Nevsky 1245 
 
 Yaroslaf HI. 1263 
 
 Vasim, or Basil I. 1270 
 
 Dmitri I. 1277 
 
 Daniel 1294 
 
 Yury, Igor, or George ni. 1802 
 
 Michael HI. 1305 
 
 Vasilii, or Basil II. 1320 
 
 George III. restored 1325 
 
 III. Geand Dukes of Moscow. 
 
 Ivan, or John I, 
 
 Simeon 
 
 Ivan, or John 11. 
 
 Dmitri II. 
 
 1328 
 1340 
 1353 
 1359 
 
 Vasilii, or Basil III. 
 Vasilii, or Basil IV. 
 Ivan, or John III. 
 Vasilii, or Basil V. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1389 
 1425 
 1462 
 1506 
 
 IV. CzAES OF MnscovY. 
 Ivan, or John IV. 1534 
 
 Feodor, or Theodore I. 1584 
 Boris Dodunof 1598 
 
 Feodor, or Theodore II. )-.„„_ 
 
 (six weeks) i 
 
 Dmitri (the Jesuit), •> 
 pretended son of Ivan 11604 
 IV. ) 
 
 Schouisky, or Basil VI. 1605 
 Vladislaf (elected but re- 
 fused the Crown) 
 Mildiail, or Michael (Ro- 
 manoff) 
 Alexei 
 
 Feodor, or Theodore III. 
 Ivan V. and Peter I. to-) 
 
 1610 
 
 1613 
 
 1645 
 1676 
 
 gether 
 
 1682 
 
 V. Empeeoes of Russia 
 Peter I., the Great, alone 1696 
 
 Catharine I. 
 
 1725 
 
 Peter n. 
 
 1727 
 
 Anne 
 
 1730 
 
 Ivan VI. 
 
 1740 
 
 EHzabeth 
 
 1741 
 
 Peter III. murdered (six 
 
 months) 
 Catharine II. 
 
 |l762 
 1762 
 
 Paul I. murdered 
 
 1796 
 
 Alexander I. 
 
 1801 
 
 Nicholas I. 
 
 1825 
 
 Alexander II. (the pre)j„,_ 
 sent Emperor) i 
 
44 THE RUSSIANS FROM RURIK, 862, 
 
 NOTES TO CHAPTEK II. 
 
 (1) Nestor, the grand foundation of early Eussian history, says nothing of 
 the discontent of the natives with the Scandinavian rulers invited by them. He 
 tells us, however, that Burik and his brothers Sineous and Trouvor were 
 accompanied by numerous bands of armed Scandinavians, Normans or 
 Varangians. The three brothers fixed themselves respectively at Novgorod, 
 Bielo-Ozero' and Izborsk, Smolensk and Potolsk remaining independent. The 
 message sent was this — by ambassadors : 
 
 " Our country is great and fertile, but under the empire of anarchy. Gome 
 and govern us and reign over us." 
 
 Karamsin says modern historians pretend that the natives soon murmured 
 against their new rulers, and that a certain Vadime called "the Brave" perished 
 by the hands of Eurik. However it is curious to remark in the treaty of peace 
 signed afterwards by his grandson Sviatoslof that above a dozen Norman or 
 Scandinavian names of brothers-in-arms were attached to the treaty. 
 
 (2) It appears that the illustrious success of Eurik and his brothers attracted 
 many other Normans to Eussia. Oleg became acquainted with the delicious 
 chmate of Southern Eussia and its other advantages, which attracted him to 
 Kieff, where the princes Asoold and Dir had established themselves, his com- 
 patriots and equals in arms. Oleg therefore and a small band, concealing the 
 bulk of his army, approached as false merchants, and thus succeeded by a ruse 
 in murdering these princes. " The beauty of the site," says Karamsin, " the 
 easiness of boating on the Dnieper, and the facilities for either making war or 
 commerce with many rich countries, such as the Crimea, Bulgaria, and even 
 Constantinople, enchanted Oleg to that degree of ecstasy that he exclaimed. 
 Let Kieff be the mother of all Russian towns." Oleg, who had meditated only 
 war, resolved to estabUsh himself on the frontier, in order, says Karamsin, to 
 have the power of promptly invading the strangers' countries. He wished to 
 terrify his neighbours instead of being frightened by them. He soon became 
 the terror of those without and of rebels within his frontiers. He soon com- 
 pelled the Drevlians to pay a heavy tribute — the furs of black martens. He 
 united Novgorod to Kieff, and then attacked the Crimea. But the new capital 
 of Eussia (Kieff), while this Eussian hero (as he is called) was floating his 
 victorious flag on the Bug and the Dnieper, was startled by the appearance of 
 the Ougres (ancestors of the Magyars of to-day) — their encampment is still 
 called (says Nestor) Ougarskoi — who now spread themselves over Moldavia, 
 Bessarabia and WaUachia. Oleg, however, did not hesitate tiU the day of his 
 death to reign, long after Igor had attained his majority. ' Igor received at the 
 hands of Oleg a wife called Olga, who was of a Norman family of a low order, 
 living near Pskoff in a viUage, whom the young prince, engaged in the chase, first 
 saw, and preferred her to all others, in spite of the low birth of her parents. 
 This girl was destined to become one of the most remarkable characters of 
 liussian history. 
 
DOWN TO THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 1855. 45 
 
 Kieff was destroyed under the attack of the Mongol Batn in 1204. A 
 fatal hour for Kieff — the Eussian mother of cities, magnificently placed on 
 the bania of the Dnieper, with its white walls, its beautiful gardens, and 
 its thirty churches, with their gilded cupolas, which gave it its pretty Tartar 
 name, " Court of the Golden Heads." It was the metropolitan city of old 
 Eussian princes, the seat of the chief patriarch of All Eussia. It had latterly 
 Buffered much from internal Eussian hroUs, it was now to be erased altogether. 
 The terrible hosts of the enemy came on, and the noise of their -carts, the 
 miurmurs of their herds of camels, oxen, and horses, and their own ferocious 
 cries, drowned the voices of the inhabitants within. The attack continued 
 night and day. Fugitives of all classes were collected on the flat roof of the great 
 church, which gave way and overwhelmed a vast hecatomb in its ruins. The 
 Mongols slaughtered all without mercy ; the very bones were torn from the 
 tombs and trampled under the horses' hoofs, as were the bones of Vladimir 
 and the tomb of Olga'. 
 
 (3) The peculiar subtilty with which Olga took so deep a revenge is well 
 related by Nestor. She replied, when her hand was sought, " Tom: proposition is 
 very agreeable. I cannot revive my husband. When my men come towards 
 you (in your boats) order them to carry you on their shoulders." At the 
 instant Olga ordered a deep pit to be prepared. The next day the ambas- 
 sadors said, " We will go neither on foot nor on horseback, but your men shall 
 carry us on their shoulders." According to their secret orders they precipitated 
 them into the pit. The vindictive princess caused them to be buried ahve. 
 She sent fresh messengers, declaring that the Kievians would not let her depart 
 without a very numerous guard of honour. The Drevlians sent the most 
 iUustrious chiefs and citizens, who were honoured with fetes and baths. On 
 pretext of sacrificing to her widowhood, she gathered them all together, in- 
 toxicated them with hydromel, and at a signal had every one of them mas- 
 sacred. Such was a pagan widow's revenge. 
 
 ^ Histoire de VBmpire de Bussie. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 
 
 To form a true estimate of the Russians we must consider all 
 the mighty influences which have affected their national exist- 
 ence. Though in the time of Herodotus they were recognized 
 as Moschians, who lived to the north-east of the Black Sea, 
 and as people remarkable for their national attachment to 
 wooden huts, or houses, these mountains formed almost the 
 only defiles through which south-eastern hordes could con- 
 veniently reach Europe. The Huns first appeared, crossing 
 the Sea of Azof and the River Don. They swooped forward 
 from the Chinese Wall and Manchu Tartary, and the country 
 between the Irtish river and the Altaian mountains. These 
 people built no cities or houses ; they regarded a walled 
 enclosure as only fit for a sepulchre, and never believed in, or 
 trusted themselves to, the safety of a roof. So early as 100 A.D. 
 the southern Huns drove out the northern, and projected them 
 upon the Bashkirs, whence they were propelled forward again 
 by the Alans and other continually increasing eastern hordes, 
 until they took quiet possession of the Volga and the Don. 
 Later, still further increased, they precipitated themselves upon 
 the Goths, who had just then succeeded in the high cultivation 
 of a fertile country. The king of the Goths fortified himself 
 between the Pruth and the Danube (Roumania). But reduced 
 to despair the Goths obtained leave to cultivate the waste 
 lands of Thrace, and their celebrated bishop invented for them 
 the Gothic alphabet. These barbarian incursions delivered 
 England from the Romans, who withdrew to protect Rome. 
 
TAETARDOM IN RUSSIA. 
 
 47 
 
 Russia became the changing scene of many a nation often dis- 
 placed by a new one. For two thousand years and more this 
 vast country has at one time or another been overflown by 
 barbaric hordes. Some remained, others dispersed, whilst not 
 a few formed alliances and sharpened the tame blood of heredi- 
 tary serfs with the wild pulses of the roaming savages of the 
 desert. 
 
 From a copy of a map drawn in the ninth century, it appears 
 on inspection that at this time the Black Sea was called the 
 Russian Sea; the Baltic, the Sea of the Varangians or North- 
 men ; and that the Slaves existed only about Novgorod around 
 Lac Hmen, near the Baltic. 
 
 Ijoea. 
 
 N. 
 
 VOJANS. — W.- 
 
 Slaves. 
 
 -E. — Vesses. 
 
 S. 
 Kewitches. 
 
 And this district is about twice the size of the Crimea. 
 The following cities are also on this map : 
 
 Cherson. Rostof. 
 
 Kief Mourom ori the Oka. 
 
 Potolsk. Sarkel on the Don. 
 
 Smolensk. The Grand City of Bulgaria 
 
 Novgorod. on the Volga. 
 
 Atel, a town at the mouths of the Volga. 
 
 The Caspian Sea was the Sea of the Khvalisses. 
 
 On this map Moscow did not exist. But as this city was 
 destined to become the seat of empire and the scene of the 
 most tremendous events in national histories, we shall here 
 give an account of its foundation. 
 
 J.i is related that a Prince Georges, having punished with 
 death, for want of respect, a rich noble dwelling on the banks 
 
48 TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 
 
 of the Moskva, was perfectly delighted with the situation, and 
 gave to the lovely daughter of the decapitated lord his son 
 Andre, prince of Vladimir, as husband. "Moscow," say the 
 historians of those days, " was a third Rome, and there never 
 will exist a fourth. The capital was built just where the head 
 of a murdered man was found ! the foundations are equally 
 ensanguined, this new city gives its name to an immense 
 empire." It was called during a long period Koutchkavo 
 (d'Etienne Koutcho being the name of the former lord of the 
 soil and owner of the village). The Russians loved Kiefif as the 
 birthplace of their empire. They gave it a gate of gold. In 
 1169, "the vanquishers of this renowned fortress forgot they 
 were Russians." Andrd gave Kieff to his brother Gleb, though 
 nothing remained of its magnificent buildings, monasteries, and 
 churches, but smoking ruins encumbered with the dead. They 
 seized all the precious images, sacred ornaments, books, and 
 even the bells. The naif annalist justifies all this by the 
 statement that the Kievians thus expiated some false dogmas 
 admitted by their metropolitan Constantino. 
 
 During more than 200 years Russia was torn indeed with 
 civil wars, and the inroads of foreign enemies; but this was, 
 alas ! a golden age compared with the times about to foUow. 
 The country was sprinkled with the blood and tears of many 
 generations. In 1224 Russia heard the dread name of the 
 Tartars. The moment was arriving when unparalleled disasters 
 (destroyed armies, provinces trampled under the Mongol hoof, 
 ruin and devastation) were about to culminate in a grandeur of 
 tragedies, and epochs of massacres, unknown elsewhere in the 
 history of mankind. Turn we now to a description of these 
 dreadful agents of domination and destruction. 
 
 "From the fourteenth century robbers had been punished 
 with the gallows. The Russian used blows only in the heat of 
 dispute. It was the Tartar yoke that introduced among us 
 corporal punishment, branding for robbery, and the infliction 
 of the knout for political offences. How could the disgrace 
 of flagellation be of any avail where branded men still re- 
 mained in society ? Our ancient history presented much greater 
 crimes than the mere ferocity of princes and people. For the 
 
TARTARDOM IX RUSSIA. 49 
 
 sentiments of oppression, fear and hatred, stamped upon the 
 manners of the age a dark and fierce expression. The actual 
 character of the Russians retained some of the stains which 
 soiled the Mongol harbarians. The Tartars were called by us 
 ' THE IMPURE.' We regarded them as enemies both impious and 
 odious; and in spite of the vile slavery into which they plunged 
 us, we perceived the superiority of our civil existence : and the 
 Russians, when once free, developed rather a European than an 
 Asiatic character. Still we remained contemptible in the eyes 
 of Europe, because for two hundred and fifty years we remained 
 stationary '." 
 
 At this time Russia was a very paradise for hunters. 
 Abounding in fallow-deer and game on the wing, the earth was 
 covered with forests thick and impenetrable, and a general 
 tranquillity reigned in the deepest solitudes, so favourable to 
 the increase of game : even in the eleventh century, wild horses, 
 buffaloes, wild boars and stags, wandered in Southern Russia ; 
 but towards the fifteenth, the castor, the goat, and the elk, en- 
 joyed their full liberty in the North. Innumerable flocks of 
 swans visited the rivers and lakes. But Russia, newly and 
 thinly inhabited, a constant prey to sanguinary wars, famine 
 and pestilence, was only rich in these brute gifts of Nature. 
 "Yet the merchants belonging to the Golden Horde, fixed at 
 Moscow, Tver, and Rostof, brought the precious products of 
 Asia, in exchange for rich furs and falcons'*. On their part, the 
 Russians sold to the Mongols the fabrics of Germany at Kazan, 
 which had taken the place of the ancient capital of the Bul- 
 garians, then destroyed, and Kazan had become the grand mart 
 of the Eastern and Western worlds. We paid most exactly 
 our tribute to the Tartar Khan of the Horde." (Marco Polo, 
 the Venetian traveller, speaks of Glacial Russia and the banks 
 of the Caspian Sea, where, he says, the people have a beautiful 
 figure and a white complexion, and that their country was rich 
 in mines and silver.) 
 
 " We paid for each village a certain tribute, but our com- 
 
 • Hutoire de V Empire de Bussie. 
 
 ' This fact perhaps in some measure reconciled the BussianB to their Tar- 
 tardom. 
 
 R. 4 
 
50 TARTARDOM IX RUSSIA. 
 
 merce with the horde repaid us all that was sent. In fact, we 
 became richer for this connection. Yet, as silver was scarce, the 
 Russians had recourse to pieces of skins, skins of martens, and 
 complete squirrels, as money. And, since the Mongols had 
 separated us from the rest of Europe, the Western monarch s 
 ceased to contract alliances with us, yet the Moscovites learned, 
 in course of time, through merchants coming from Germany, of 
 new European inventions, such as gunpowder for cannon and 
 the invention of paper, which they then began to use instead 
 of parchment." 
 
 Well, in 1433, an archbishop of Novgorod actually erected a 
 palace of stone, built by German artists, with thirty doors, 
 ornamented with paintings and a clock ^. Kieff however, that 
 ancient seat of the Moscovites, embellished with the chefs- 
 d'oeuvre of Byzantine art, and enlivened by the afHuence of 
 the Italian, German, and Greek merchant princes, in the 15th 
 century, greatly surpassed Moscow. Kieff was readily reached 
 from Constantinople, and the Greek language was indispen- 
 sable to its merchants. The exploits of Alexander the Great, 
 the heroes of antiquity, and "The Riches of the Indies," were 
 favourite Greek studies, and especially the "Arabian Nights 
 continued." Kieff was the nursing mother of the Russians. 
 
 The origin and progress of the Tartars is now worth 
 attention. 
 
 A comparatively small horde of Chinese Tartars dwelt in 
 the north of China, but about the middle of the 12th century 
 they began to be notorious. A young chief, brought up by his 
 mother in the simplicity of pastoral life, was about to astonish 
 the world as a new hero — subjugate millions of men, and over- 
 whelm the most illustrious monarchies. His successes spread 
 in all directions; "God," said he, "gives the whole world to 
 Temoutchin, and its master ought to receive the name of 
 Zenghis Khan," which means. Grand Khan. The whole of 
 the Eastern regions poured forth their myriads at his orders. 
 Thibet itself recognized his sway. The celebrated "Garden of the 
 East," now called Turkistan, at once fell an easy prey to his 
 attacks. This country, so distinguished from the most ancient 
 
 1 Karamsin, t. 486. 
 
TARTARDOM IX RUSSIA. 51 
 
 times for its fertile plains, its rich mines, beautiful forests, lim- 
 pid waters, and the civilization and the prodigious population of 
 its cities, was converted almost into a desert. It was there 
 that Bokhara had the grand school for the Mahometan youth. 
 
 There, Sarmacand contained its hundred thousand soldiers, 
 and an enormous quantity of elephants ; and there, Khiva 
 revelled in its eastern glories and Asiatic riches. 
 
 For nearly three years these ferocious Tartar executioners 
 ravaged the whole country from the Sea of Aral to the Indus, 
 so that for the next six hundred years the country could not 
 reach its former flourishing state. 
 
 Mahomet the Second, who had reigned there under the 
 title of the second Alexander the Great, retired to a small 
 isle in the Caspian Sea, to expire, overwhelmed with rage 
 and despair. The Mongols penetrated through the Caucasus 
 by a clever ruse and reached the Sea of Azof, subduing all 
 the nations along their route. Many flew to Kieff with their 
 wives, animals, and riches, and they gave to the Russian princes 
 many kinds of presents and beautiful slaves, saying, "They have 
 taken our country, to-morrow they will take yours." At these 
 words the Russians groaned with affright, and demanded who 
 these unknown warriors could be. (1223.) 
 
 They said they were the Taetars, and in their superstition 
 they believed that these were the very people' vanquished by 
 Gideon, 1200 B.C., and that they were about to appear in Europe 
 to conquer the whole world, as heralds of the day of doom. 
 
 The valorous prince Galitch burned with warlike ardour to 
 measure his strength with these new enemies. 
 
 The Russians gathered a considerable army at the isle of 
 the Normans^ on the Dnieper. Suddenly appeared the Tartar 
 
 1 "The CMldren of the East"..." They left no sustenance for Israel, neither 
 sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and 
 they came as grasshoppers for multitude ; for both they and their camels were 
 ■without number ;- and they entered into the land to destroy it." Judges vi. 
 3 — 5. A concise description of this people to this day. 
 
 The distance of Palestine from the deserts inhabited by roving Tartars at 
 this day is not nearly so great as they often delighted to travel on their 
 nomadic excursions. 
 
 '■^ Varangians, or Northmen of the Baltic. 
 
 4—2 
 
52 TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 
 
 ambassadors: "You march against us," said they; "we have 
 done nothing to irritate you ; we only come to punish our slaves 
 and a,ttendants. Become, then, our friends." 
 
 These moderate propositions appeared to the Russian 
 princes either a ruse or a proof of timidity. They slew the 
 ambassadors. The Tartars sent others asking, "Is it true 
 that you have killed our deputies? Very well then, if you 
 wish war you shall have it ; we have done you no evil. God 
 is the same for all peoples, it is He who shall decide our 
 quarrels." 
 
 The Russian princes were astonished at this greatness of 
 soul displayed by the Tartars. 
 
 Besieging the Russians at Kieff", without prospect of early 
 success, the Tartars resorted to their usual treachery. The 
 Russian princes consented to negotiate ; the Tartars swore 
 to execute faithfully their agreement, but put every Russian 
 to the sword. They suffocated three princes under planks 
 over which they celebrated a feast. The Tartars acted upon 
 a national maxim, "that the vanquished can never be the 
 friends of the conquerors." "The whole of the south of Rus- 
 sia trembled with affright, and the people, emitting profound 
 groans and cries of grief, rushed into the temples : the hea- 
 vens at this time heard their prayers." 
 
 The Tartars, finding no more resistance, retired towards the 
 east. Then Russia breathed again ; the frightful tempest was 
 dissipated as quickly as it had arisen. "What then is this 
 scourge which God in His anger has sent against Russia ?" 
 demanded the people, astonished. "Whence have come these 
 terrible strangers 1 Where have they hidden themselves ? 
 Such secrets are known only to God and the people instructed 
 in the art of reading books." Such was the first Tartar ava- 
 lanche which fell upon Russia. 
 
 Ancient Poem. The Battle of Koulihof. 
 
 [At this epoch Russia was already enriched with many 
 a song and well-loved legend, thanks to the lore buried in 
 her monasteries. She had already long possessed the Song 
 of Igor. Sophronime now celebrated the feats of Dmitri :-^ 
 
TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 53 
 
 Brave and bold are our warrior nobles : redoubtable are 
 our Russian cavaliers : riding on swift coursers, impenetrably 
 armed. Their shields glow with purple and their lances 
 glitter with gold. Heavy are their cimiters. Polish are their 
 daggers, and Italian skill furnishes them with quivers, Ger- 
 many, with javelins. "Well-known are all the windings of the 
 Oka to our warriors. Eudoxia, the princess, sits at her window, 
 locked fast in the palace with her ladies, the wives of the 
 nobles. She follows with the piercing glance of her beautiful 
 eyes, which shed floods of tears, the course of her well-beloved 
 husband. She sits fondly gazing towards the south from her 
 window, and with clasped hands she adjures the Most High : 
 
 " Great God, listen to the prayer of thy humble servant. 
 Restore to my arms the Prince Dmitri, my weU-beloved : 
 restore him to me, radiant with glory, in the midst of his 
 nobles. Lend him thy powerful arm to crush his enemies. 
 Defend the Christians from the Infidels' steel. Deign to save 
 these brave warriors. It is in Thee alone, whose eye nothing 
 escapes, that sorrowing Russia places her confidence. I have 
 two sons, who have no other defence than their innocence. 
 Who shall protect them from the cold raging blast and the 
 burning heats of summer ? my God ! let them again kiss 
 their father, and reign in their day for long years to come . . ." 
 
 The illustrious captain watches the battle-field afar, watch- 
 man of the night, full of sagacity, Prince of Volhynia (he 
 follows the grand Prince to foretel the fortune which awaits 
 his country). In front is the camp of the Infidels, behind 
 the Russians. The Prince listens, and hears loud cries and 
 a confused tramp of mighty hosts, and the sharp caUs of the 
 trumpets : still further he hears the roars of ferocious beasts, 
 and the hoarse croakings of ravens : immense flights of geese 
 and swans disturb the air with flapping wings, which seem to 
 announce a homble tempest. " Now turn thee," said the cap- 
 tain of the watch, " towards the camp of the Russians ; what 
 hearest thou?" "All is calm," replied Dmitri; "I perceive only the 
 fires of heaven, which mingle their sparMing with the brilliant 
 aurora." The captain alights from his charger : he long lis-. 
 
5^ TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 
 
 tens — his ear upon the earth. Then he rises and keeps silence. 
 " Well, what now?" demands the prince. "Ah," replied the 
 captain, " we shall have both good and bad fortune. Both 
 armies groan: one like a widow just bereaved, the other as a 
 young virgin, whose plaintive voice resembles the sound of the 
 shepherd's flute. We shall triumph, Dmitri, but, alas ! 
 victory will cost us dear." At these words the eyes of the 
 Grand Prince filled with tears. 
 
 " Yet still enveloped in a thick mist, the two armies join 
 the battle. The Christian standards are unfurled. The charg- 
 ers rest immoveable under their riders : the sound of our 
 trumpets is ringing clear. The Infidel clarions sound muffled. 
 The earth groans, from the east to the sea, and from the west 
 to the Danube. The trampled field of battle seems to fly 
 under the hoofs of the horsemen. The waters inundate the 
 countries. The fatal hour has struck. Each soldier plunges 
 his spurs into his charger and dashes onward, crying, Great 
 God, be favourable to the Christians ! They combat, man to 
 man, body to body. The warriors are fallen under the hoofs ; 
 and stifled in the melde. Sanguinary flashes leap from the 
 clashing swords. Forests of spears are shattered in the shock 
 of battle. Majestic, like waving trees swaying in the wind, 
 our valorous soldiers bend towards the earth. O prodigy ! 
 The heaven opens above the legions of Dmitri, and above are 
 seen, in the midst of a brilliant cloud, thousands of hands 
 
 grasping glittering crowns ready for the conquerors Now 
 
 from the ambuscade dart the concealed horsemen of Dmitri, 
 and burst upon the Infidels, like falcons upon a flight of geese, 
 or as panting guests rushing to the wedding-feast. Nothing 
 resists their shock. The enemy flee, crying, " Woe to thee Mamai! 
 thou wast in heaven. Lo, now thou art plunged into hell...."Y 
 
 The Russian princes as well as the people regarded the 
 Tartar invasions as punishment for their sins. 
 
 Vasilii the blind, as he was called, during the last years of 
 his life paid no tribute to the Tartars (1455), who were them- 
 selves torn with civil wars, yet they often tormented the 
 
 1 Mamai was the name of the Khan of the Grim Tartars. 
 
TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 55 
 
 Russians by sending small hordes. Achmet, the Khan of the 
 Great Horde, also led an army, which was defeated, and peace 
 with Kazan was concluded. 
 
 Vasilii met his death in a manner which singularly depicts 
 the barbarity of the Eussian manners. In the mistaken idea 
 that he was threatened with consumption, he had recourse to a 
 heroic remedy, considered efiScacious, and much in use, which 
 consisted in scorching the whole of the body with burning 
 amadou. Soon the sick man was covered with wounds, in 
 which a mortal gangrene appeared. 
 
 As with medical so it was with political treatment of men's 
 lives and bodies. Princes were slain and poisoned without 
 hesitation or proof of crime. Not only the populace drowned 
 and burnt to death, without formalities, every one they found 
 guilty of any crime ; not only the Russians treated their pri- 
 soners with the utmost barbarity; but the punishment decreed 
 by law indicated the most refined cruelty. And it was exactly 
 at this time, when the Tartars were losing their power in Russia, 
 that their own national instrument of torture, the Knout, was 
 adopted by the Russians. They condemned persons of the 
 highest distinction to this torture who happened to be accused 
 of crime against the state — a chastisement, says the Russian 
 narrator, so vilifying to humanity. 
 
 [Ker Porter, when Russia was more obliging to inquisitive 
 strangers than she is at present, was favoured with a precise 
 explanation and exhibition of this Tartaric piece of devilry. 
 We do not wish to horrify our readers with the uses to which 
 this instrument has been applied politically by Russia, and give 
 ■here merely the description of that English traveller. 
 
 The Governor of the Kremlin at Moscow was so good as to 
 give Sir W. Ker Porter every facility. He accordingly describes 
 the executioner and his instrument the knout. "A man of huge 
 herculean aspect, of a dark sallow complexion, with a determined 
 ferocious face and black and grisly beard. His wages, 10 
 roubles yearly (30 shillings). On an average he then had one 
 victim a month. 
 
 " The knout is formed thus : its handle is of wood about a 
 foot' in length, very strong and hard woven with leather. To 
 1 Other writers say the handle is two feet long. 
 
56 TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 
 
 this is attax:hed a stout and weighty thong, much longer than 
 the handle, fastened in the manner of a flail. Next comes a 
 well-dried strip of bufFalo's hide'much like pliable horn. This 
 the executioner puts on the knout afresh every twenty lashes. 
 Its shape is tapering to a point, being full a quarter of an inch 
 thick and very long. 
 
 " Having adjusted this efficient part of the grand instrument 
 of his vocation, he placed himself about four paces from where 
 the supposed culprit was to stand, or kneel, and putting the 
 thoDg fast between his legs, he drew it up behind him, and 
 then seized the handle with both hands ; and stepping two 
 paces forward, raising the terrible machine over his head, he 
 made a straight cut down, which fell on a thick board, making 
 a hollow deep enough to bury your finger. If he knouts every 
 individual with the same force he did the wood, each stroke 
 must find the bone. It is considered an abomination to touch 
 the knout, such is the horror it inspires." (Porter, page 272.) 
 The same writer seems to have indulged a vehement curiosity 
 to witness the infliction of this instrument of torture upon a 
 condemned criminal. "A wretch, who, goaded by the cruelty 
 
 and penuriousness of his master, the Count of , not only 
 
 to himself, but to the rest of his slaves, of stolid features, 
 possessing not one trait in his face capable of suggesting 
 murder, meekness and harmlessness being unmistakeably pro- 
 nounced in his physiognomy, this man was condemned to the 
 knout without mercy, and exiled to Siberia if he survived the 
 hellish ordeal. He was paraded by the police before the 
 populace. At the place of execution, he was secured, neck, 
 arms, body, and .legs by straps, to a strong block of wood. 
 This constrained him to bow forwards. The awful moment 
 was at hand. The first, and each repeated stroke, tore the 
 flesh from the bone. A few seconds interval. During the 
 first twelve the sufferer roared most terribly: faint and sick 
 the cry died away. Nothing soon was heard but the bloody 
 splash of the knout... Oh, if God punished so, who could stand 
 before his judgment-seat ?... A full hour was occupied. More 
 than two hundred strokes were given to him. Not the smallest 
 spark of life seemed to remain. The executioner took the 
 pale and lifeless body by the beard. An instrument with ii'on 
 
TARI'ARDOM IN RUSSIA. 57 
 
 teeth was placed below his temple. It was struck with the 
 utmost force : and the pointed fangs driven into the flesh. 
 The 'opposite temple and forehead received the same appli- 
 cation. The parts thus pierced were then rubbed with gun- 
 powder, to remain a perpetual brand. Still yet one more 
 punishment was in store. The nose was deprived of both 
 nostrils by pincers, like immense curling irons. The acuteness 
 of this last torture, tearing the parts from his head in tlie 
 most shocking manner, brought back sense to the torpid body. 
 What was my horror to see the writhings of the poor mangled 
 creature ! He arose and walked to his prison by assistance. 
 From whence, unless death supervened, to be conveyed im- 
 mediately to Siberia ! " (Ker Porter, Travelling Sketches in 
 Russia.) 
 
 " In the time of the early Tsars the performers of this 
 ancient rite were the objects of respect. The great Dukes of 
 Muscovy frequently became amateurs in the performance. A 
 permanent performer, when Letters and Humanity kissed 
 each other, became difficult of engagement, and a law was 
 passed to give an agreeable occupation as an inheritance to 
 the last purchaser for ever. But assuredly the knout, as an 
 
 estate, is by no means improvable In case the male progeny 
 
 fails, the corporation of butchers are to be called upon in- 
 stantly. ..Thus I have seen it... If your dreams be but half as 
 much disturbed by the recital, as mine were by the sight, I 
 have broken your rest for a night or two at least." (Ker Porter.) 
 
 The Plitt is now substituted for the knout. Rods also and 
 sticks : rods are used for hundreds of strokes, sticks for scores; 
 but the plitt.can be made equally fatal, as also the rod. It 
 is an instrument very similar to the knout, but not quite so 
 heavy. It kills more slowly. 
 
 The knout is abolished, but the pKtt is nearly as severe; 
 and running the gauntlet, Siberian mines, or simple banish- 
 ment to these intensely cold regions, where the mortality per 
 annum is admitted to be great, are all still in force. The 
 Rod, when several hundred strokes are administered, is almost 
 as severe as human nature can survive, especially when in- 
 flicted upon bared female forms. 
 
58 TARTARBOM IX RUSSIA. 
 
 As the proceedings iu the courts are carried on only in 
 writing, which of necessity leads to venality, delay, gorging of 
 the prisons, and innumerable vexatiqns ; there is with the bribing 
 system, one law for the rich, and almost no law for the poor.] 
 
 The Mongol Tartars. 
 
 From 1223 to 1554i the Russians were ground down under 
 Tartar yoke. It was then that Ivan IV., the Terrible, destroyed 
 the power of the Kiptchaks or GoLDEN HoBDE of the Kalmucks, 
 pursued them to Kazan and Astrakan, and for ever annihilated 
 the Tartar supremacy. Thenceforward the Kalmuck Tartars 
 sank from being lords to tributaries. " Their physiognomy 
 still bespeaks the Tartar blood. The strong line of their eye- 
 bone is far more perpendicular than that of the Chinese. Hence 
 we must suppose that if Zenghis Khan and the renowned 
 Tamerlane resemble their descendants, that Venus here shewed 
 her old enmity against the warlike in the person of her favour- 
 ites, and while the one was blessed with the courage of Mars, 
 the other was cursed with the aspect of Vulcan. So much for 
 the Tartarian heroes\" 
 
 In many parts of Russia the peculiar features of the mix- 
 ture of the Tartar with the Russian blood are still plainly 
 distinguishable. 
 
 The horror excited by the deeds of the Mongols gave rise 
 to some strange beliefs respecting them. Vincent of Beauvais 
 tells us that, before Batu invaded, he sacrificed to the demons. 
 One lived in an idol, addressed him, and bade him march on 
 hopefully, saying that he would send three spirits before him, 
 against whom his enemies should not be able to stand. And 
 that this came to pass, the three spirits being the spirit of 
 discord, the spirit of distrust, and the spirit of fear. Ivo of 
 Narbonne has this marvellous account: "that the Mongolian 
 princes who had dogs' heads, ate the bodies of the dead, leaving 
 only the bones for the vultures, which foul birds however 
 despised and rejected these remnants.'' Von Hammer says : 
 
 1 Sir W. Ker Porter. 
 
TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 59 
 
 " We may enumerate their virtues by those of the animals 
 of their Zodiac, which ran thus : — mouse, ox, panther, hare, 
 serpent, dragon, horse, sheep, ape, hen, dog, pig. 
 
 Thievish as mice, 
 Strong as oxen, 
 Fierce as panthers, 
 Cautious as hares, 
 Artful as serpents. 
 Frightful as dragons, 
 
 Mettlesome as horses, 
 
 Obedient as sheej], 
 
 Loving their offspring as apes. 
 
 Domestic as hens, 
 
 Faithful as dogs, 
 
 Unclean as swine!' 
 
 The manners of these Mongols almost pass belief. Ogotai, 
 one of the greatest monarchs the world has ever seen, the son 
 of Zenghis Khan, had heard that a khan of one of his tribes 
 meant to marry their daughters to another tribe. Ogotai 
 ordered all the girls married that year to be ranged in a row. 
 Having picked out the fairest for his own harem, he sent the 
 others to the public " establishments \" The most peculiar part 
 of the story is that none of the girls' relations opposed the 
 slightest obstacle to this odd arrangement. There were 4000 
 girls to be disposed of 
 
 The Mongols took Khiva in 1220, fired its buildings with 
 naphtha, sent 100,000 of the artizans into Tartary, opened the 
 dykes of the Oxus and submerged the city; used all prisoners 
 to serve the catapults on a huge platform, and made them bear 
 the whole brunt of the fight; killed all the soldiers, and en- 
 slaved the women and children. A specimen of Mongol warfare 
 is given as follows: "The Mongols had a chief killed before 
 Nessa; they took it by catapults and storming. The inhabitants 
 were all ordered to evacuate the city and lie down in pairs, 
 they were then bound together with cords, and 70,000 were 
 shot to death with arrows. At another place, Meru, called the 
 king of the world, was besieged by the Mongols; after un- 
 successful sorties the governor visited the camp, was loaded with 
 presents, and asked to send the chiefs and his friends. They 
 were all slaughtered. The Mongols entered, the people were 
 
 1 The History nf the Mongols, by Howorth, p. 160. London, 1876. 
 
6o TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 
 
 ordered to defile out, which took four days." One author says, 
 "After the slaughter 1,300,000 corpses," and another, that 
 "700,000, were counted," At another place, Nishapoor, the 
 Mongols accumulated 3000 ballisters, 300 catapults, 700 
 machines for throwing naphtha, 2,500 loads of stones; 10,000 
 men led the storming party through a great mauy breaches.. 
 To prevent the living hiding among the dead, every head, of 
 man, woman, and child, was cut off. According to Markhoud, 
 1,747,000 lost their lives in this massacre. At Herat, 1,600,000 
 people were destroyed. Zenghis Khan preserved several 
 superstitions in his code of laws. It was forbidden to have a 
 chair, to wash the hands in running water, and forbidden to 
 wash clothes, which were to be used till worn out. Cooking 
 utensils were denied ablution, and this custom still prevails 
 among the Calmucks. Carpini says they would not touch fire 
 with a knife, or take their food with it out of a kettle. In 
 killing an animal it must be laid out on its back, the body 
 opened and the heart torn out or squeezed with the hand: the 
 Kalmucks still attribute this practice to Zenghis. Another rule 
 was, that those who killed animals in the Mussulman way 
 must be killed themselves. The Mongols were avaricious to 
 the last degree, and only killed animals that were sick or 
 wounded. " It may be," says Ho worth, " that he and his followers 
 tramped over the fairest portions of the earth with the faggot 
 and the sword in their hands, forestalling terribly the day of 
 
 doom His creed was to sweep away all cities, as the haunts 
 
 of slavery and luxury, that his herds might freely feed upon 
 grass whose green was free from dusty feet! It does make 
 one hide his face in terror to read that 18,470,000 people 
 perished in China and Tangut alone at the hands of Zinghis 
 and his followers. The scourges of God seem inevitably to 
 recur at intervals, to purge the world of the diseased and the 
 decaying, the weak and the false, the worn out and the biased, 
 the fool and the inave. The pelican and the stork watch over 
 the ruins of Mesopotamia, and a hundred other sites are 
 witnesses of our conclusion; grim witnesses, too, of the truth 
 that 'blood and iron' is neither a new creed nor invented by 
 Zinghis Khan. It may be that in his hands we see the steel 
 
TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 6i 
 
 more bright and keen, and that he did not hide his work 
 under the fantastic guise that he was the champion of freedom 
 or of some other fine-sounding pretence." 
 
 The Mongols were bound by no oath ; and however solemnly 
 sworn to the besieged, it was broken without scruple, and a 
 general massacre ensued. They desired to leave no enemies 
 behind. "They gloried in the slaughter of men: blood to them 
 was spilt as freely as water. They employed lies and deception 
 to delude their victims." Having laid waste a wide circle of 
 country round their camp, they gave themselves up to excess 
 and debauchery: waited upon by their young and beautiful 
 captives, one of whom was chosen before his death by each 
 warrior to be buried alive with him. As the hard and dangerous 
 work was done by the prisoners and captives, the lordly Mongols 
 easily kept up their strength in the most distant expeditions. 
 The idea of happiness to this great Mongol chief was thus 
 described: "The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies, 
 to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see 
 those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses, and to 
 clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters'." 
 
 The following account of the great Mongol winter-hunt is 
 not without a significant interest. "It was more like a military 
 expedition than anything else." Orders were given to the 
 different tribes, a month's journey off, to extend themselves and 
 form a huge ring, enclosing the prey: their human game was 
 gradually driven into a kind of battue, enclosing, by felt hung 
 on cords, a circuit of two or three leagues. The Khan first 
 entered the ring with his wives and suite, who when tired of 
 the slaughter retired to an eminence to watch the great 
 chieftains htint. The whole concluded by a general rush 
 of the troops at the remainder. When only a few old men 
 were left they begged of the Mongols that their lives might be 
 spared for another season. Eight days were generally consumed 
 in this national sport, celebrated once a year. 
 
 The Mongols captured Herat, and for a whole week ceased 
 not to kill, burn, and destroy, and it is said that 1,600,000 
 
 ' H. H. Howorth, F.E.G.S. Hiitory nf the Mongols, p. 110, 1876. 
 
62 TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 
 
 people were killed. The place was so entirely depopulated 
 that it became a desert. The Mongols then retired. Soon 
 afterwards they sent back 2000 troops to seek out and destroy 
 any that had hidden, and so escaped the massacre. After their 
 final departure, forty persons, the miserable remnant of the 
 once teeming population, assembled in the great Mosque 
 (Wolff, p. 94). 
 
 The great cause of their successes was the terror inspired 
 by their brutal atrocities and universal slaughters. The pro- 
 vinces of Khorassan and Irak, after repeated Tartar invasions, 
 did not contain one thousandth part of their old inhabitants'; 
 the population, the writer thought, would not reach its former 
 numbers before the day of doom. Their savagery caused the 
 Greeks to say "these Mongols had dogs' heads, and lived on 
 human flesh." 
 
 Cabnuck Tartars. 
 
 In the southern, and south-eastern parts of Russia, the 
 inhabitants shew all the varieties of the Asiatic type, whether 
 Turks, Persians, Indians, or Chinese ; together with every 
 shade and tint of complexion, and form of feature, which so 
 sharply mark the different races of the Calmucks and Tartars. 
 In 1768 the Calmucks extended from Astrachan to the lake 
 Baikal: and defended a Russian frontier of 1500 miles, against 
 the Kubans, Karakalpacs, Usbegs, and Kirghiz Tartars. The 
 term Tartar was then used to denote the whole of the in- 
 habitants who were not Christians, in Siberia, Kazan, and 
 eastern Russia, up to Kamtschatka. 
 
 The Calmuck Tartars are some of the best disciplined 
 troops in the Russian service. They sprang from the Huns, 
 who overwhelmed the neighbouring nations of Russia, long 
 after their ancestors had subverted the Roman Empire. 
 
 Their ancient seat, for ages, was Mongolia, and thence 
 marching in battle array, they mingled with the races reaching 
 to the Oural and Caspian, and in course of time, by associa- 
 tion and cohabitation, lost their primaeval characters ; incor- 
 
 1 Paohymerea, i. 87, quoted hy H. H. Howortli, P.B.G.S. 
 
TARTARDOM IN liUSSIA. 6 
 
 J 
 
 porating themselves with Turkomans, Sarmatian and Scythian 
 swarms, in the classical region of Ararat. After returning to 
 subdue China, Bukaria, and Persia, by an ebbing flow of an im- 
 mense westward wave, they, found Russia divided against itself, 
 an easy spoil. The Russians in vain groaned under this Cal- 
 muck Tartar oppression, till rescued finally by the arm of Ivan 
 the Terrible. So sank the Tartar glories : they paid, instead of 
 receiving, Russian tribute. In Ker Porter's time a corps of 
 this ancient warrior horde passed before him in all their native 
 aspect of dark ferocity. 
 
 Baskirs. 
 
 Anciently dwelling on the Kama, the Baskirs are a people 
 that united with the Tartar hordes. The meaning of the term 
 (Baskeer) is Wolf, so-called from their dexterity at plunder. 
 It is said they are derived from Tartar blood. They live in 
 the Ural mountains. Formerly roaming over southern Siberia, 
 to avoid the tyranny of its khans, they settled on the Kazanian 
 khanate, and preferred allegiance to the Tsar, Ivan II., and 
 the reward of his protection. In 1770 they were 27,000 
 families, living in huts in winter, and tents in summer. Their 
 language is a Tartar dialect, their religion Mahometan. 
 
 Another tribe of Russian horse are the Kirghizes, the 
 ancient enemies of the Baskirs ; yet under the firm protec- 
 tion of Russia they march against a common foe. Their terri- 
 tories extend from the Ural to the Caspian, and even far away 
 to the east, almost to the wall of China. In appearance their 
 countenance greatly resembles the dwellers in the Celestial 
 Empire. 
 
 Ker Porter thus describes them. " As this strange people 
 marched forward, I was struck by their appearance, so peculiar, 
 grand, and picturesque. I seemed to b§ viewing the armies of 
 Zinghis Khan, or Tamerlane !... The men were cased in shirts 
 of mail, with shining helmets (surmounted with a spike), and 
 armed with long pikes, adorned at the top with various coloured 
 pennons. Their other weapons were swords, bows and arrows. 
 
64 TARTARDOM IX RUSSIA. 
 
 Their dexterity at shooting is amazing. This little army was 
 led by two chiefs. A bright coat of mail covered their body 
 to the middle of the thigh. A well-constructed helmet covered 
 the head, accompanied by an ingenious protection for the neck. 
 A scarlet kaftan bung from their shoulders down on the 
 backs of tbe finest Persian horses I ever beheld. These and 
 the leopard skins, sbubrach, or saddle-covering, gave magni- 
 ficence to their appearance." 
 
 " The Kirghises now marched past their ancient enemies the 
 Bakshirs. This race once held the Chinese in awe. Their 
 territories extend from the river Oural and the Caspian Sea to 
 the great Wall of China." 
 
 The Cossacks of Zaporavia. 
 
 They consist of a mixed crowd of persons of all nations, who 
 live in a singular sort of society, to whicb no women are admitted; 
 they are a sort of male Amazons, who, at a particular season of 
 the year, resort to certain islands of the Dnieper in their neigh- 
 bourhood, where they rendezvous with the women dependent 
 on them : on these occasions the union of the sexes is by no 
 means regulated by those laws which prevail in other societies. 
 The children born from these indiscriminate unions are left 
 with their mothers till a certain age, at which the males are 
 delivered to their fathers, and, like their fathers, become 
 hunters and warriors, whilst the females remain with those 
 of their own sex. All the Cossacks profess the Greek re- 
 ligion, and serve as irregulars in tbe Russian army'. 
 
 The Cossacks have played a most important part in the 
 fortunes of Russia. Wandering from the regions of the Caspian 
 sea, and infesting the Black Sea, they subsisted by piracy, 
 ravage, and plunder. Combining the qualities of seamen and 
 soldiers, they became formidable enemies. Batori, king of 
 Poland, attached them to his interests, and gave them, land and 
 privileges in the Ukraine. But his successors, less prudent, by 
 attempting their subjugation lost their friendship : they fled in 
 
 ' An Account of Russia, (by the Earl of M'Cartney), p. 33. 
 
TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 65 
 
 vast numbers to the banks of the Don and Volga. Still harassed 
 by the imprudent Poles, they sought aid from Moscow. From 
 that time forward they have continued most firmly attached to 
 the Eussian power. The sagacious Peter retained their faithful 
 services on the lightest conditions — protection without tribute 
 and election of their own Hetman, but readiness to serve when 
 required. This was, of all other inducements, that which exactly 
 suited the genius of these brilliant horsemen. Pagans under 
 Poland, they are Christians under Russia. 
 
 Although their name comes to them from a Tartar tribe, 
 which was to be found at the foot of the Caucasus a thousand 
 years ago, the Cossacks are mainly of Russian blood, dashed 
 indeed with that of Turks, Poles, Serbs and Tartars : they are 
 members of the old faith, or Slavovirtze, belonging to the Greek 
 and not the Russian Church.- Peter abolished the Patriarchate, 
 and neither persecution nor concession can make them conform 
 to the Imperial State Church. They hold to ancient customs, 
 not in religion only, but in all things. Great have been the 
 services of the Cossacks from the time of Yermak. But even 
 these may be pressed too far. Maurice Wagner, in his work on 
 the Caucasus, utters a few words of warning to Europe in the 
 name of a Sclave writer : — " We Slaaves are bound to give to 
 our brethren in the West a warning of the highest importance. 
 The West is too oblivious of the North of Europe and Asia, the 
 home of rapacious and destructive races. Let it not be sup- 
 posed these nations have ceased to exist. Like clouds charged 
 with storms, they are awaiting but the all-powerful command to 
 advance and desolate Europe. Let it not be thought that the 
 spirit which animated Attila, Zenghis Khan and Tamerlane, 
 those scourges of mankind, is extinct'." 
 
 " In a night of stomj I have seen a form, and the figure was a giant, 
 And his eye was bent on the Cossack's tent, and his look was all defiant. 
 Kingly his crcst^^and towards the West with his hattle-ase he pointed. 
 And the form I saw was Attila, of this earth the Scourge anointed." 
 
 Deserters, outlaws, peasants flying from the tyranny of 
 
 ■^ " The Emperor (Nicholas) is reported to say that the war is not yet begun 
 in earnest, and that sooner or later we shall see him at the head of his armies 
 scattering the nations before him like another Attila." The Times, 1854. 
 
 E. 5 
 
66 TARTARDOM IX RUSSIA. 
 
 their masters, brave and adventurous spirits of every sort, who 
 could not find room for themselves in Russia, joined the tribes 
 living on the Don, and made up the community which soon 
 became known as the " Cossacks of the Don." The name really 
 means in the Tartar-Turkish language a vagabond, and thus 
 a partisan or guerilla. Kazok is another Russian name 
 (Schuyler, p. 10). 
 
 Since these pages have been written, a striking confirma- 
 tion of the potent action of the Tartar rule upon Russian life 
 has been observed in the article by Professor Gregorief of 
 St Petersburg, some of which is here quoted from Schuyler. 
 
 " There was a time when orthodox Russia seemed thoroughly 
 Tartar. Everythiag in it, except its religion, was permeated 
 and impregnated with Tartardom. It was permeated and im- 
 pregnated then by Tartardom in the same degree, if not more 
 so, as it is now by the ideas of Western Europe; and as 
 European ideas, which have already for a century and a half 
 affected the higher and more influential classes of the Russian 
 people, are the weaker as their influence extends to the lower 
 and poorer classes, so especially the top and branches of the 
 Russian tree, but the root and trunk less. And not only in 
 externals — in dress, manners, and habits of life— did the 
 Russian princes and boyards, the Russian officials and mer- 
 chants imitate the Tartars ; but everything — their feelings, their 
 ideas, and their aspirations in the region of practical life were 
 in the strongest way influenced by Tartardom. Our ancestors 
 received this Tartar influence during 200 years — at first from 
 an unwilling, but afterward from an habitual conformity to the 
 tone, the manners and the morals that reigned at Sarai on 
 the Volga, which in its time played in relation to us the same 
 rSle that subsequently fell to the lot of Paris. Russia con- 
 tinued to seem Tartar even after the fall of the Golden Horde. 
 
 "During the continuance of the whole Moscow period, up 
 to the very time of Peter the Great, the statecraft and the 
 political management of the Russian Tsars and magnates con- 
 tinued to be in every respect Tartar; so that without an 
 acquaintance with real Tartardom it is impossible correctly to 
 understand and estimate many phases in Russian history 
 
TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 67 
 
 Thanks to having identified themselves in such a way with 
 Tartardom, our ancestors succeeded in freeing themselves from 
 the Tartar yoke. It was in consequence of their complete 
 acquaintance with Tartardom that the rulers of Moscow were 
 ahle to carry on their affairs in relation to it as skilfully as 
 they did after the fall of the Golden Horde. The Tsars and 
 
 their counsellors understood what they wanted, calling into 
 
 their service those distinguished men of the Horde, who for 
 some reason or other did not get on well at home. By means 
 of these immigrants, who appeared accompanied by a greater 
 or smaller number of followers, the Muscovite Grand Princes 
 and Tsars obtained first an excellent military force, which they 
 used against their enemies as well on the east as on the west 
 of Russia ; and secondly, an excellent support against their own 
 
 selfish and disobediently disposed hereditary boyards If not 
 
 in the first as usual, at least in the second generation, the 
 Tartar immigrants into Russia became orthodox, and entering 
 then into the flesh and blood of the Russian people, strengthened 
 instead of weakened the empire, which was then in course of 
 foundation. But as it was impossible to turn every useful and 
 valuable Tartar into a Christian, and as the unavoidable per- 
 spective of becoming christianized in Russia might have served 
 as a preventive to this permanent or temporary injmigration, 
 a clever method was found of getting out of this dilemma. 
 
 " There was founded within the boundaries of Russia a 
 special Khanate, where the useful immigrants fronj the Horde 
 might remain Mussulmans without injury to their true and 
 faithful services to our political interests — the Khanate, or 
 as it was called the Kingdom of Kasimof, which during two 
 hundred years successfully performed the functions allotted to it." 
 
 The Mongols ^ or Mongol Tartars, were known to Chinese 
 history (618 — 907). They used grass for saddles, pig-skins for 
 beds, small pieces of wood for calendars, lived principally on 
 fish, made clothes of fish-skins, wore caps of fox and badger 
 skins. A Chinese account of the Royal house of the Mongols 
 gives the legend, that its ancestor was a sky-blue wolf. This 
 
 ' The Mongols derive their name from Moug, which denotes a hold, daring, 
 brave man. 
 
68 TAETARDOM IN RUSSIA. 
 
 ■wolf married a white and savage bitch named Goa Masai. Goa 
 means lady in Mongol. A child, whose hands and feet had been 
 cut off in a massacre, having been nourished by a wolf, m 
 remembrance of this they bore wolf-heads on their standards 
 (Howorth). The Mongols are almost always named Tartars iu 
 the Eussian accounts. There were many nations of them, and 
 their immense territories went by the designation of Grand 
 Tartary. 
 
 Cossack Superstition. 
 
 In the year 1714 the King of Persia sent a present to the 
 Princess Sophia of an elephant which some Armenians had 
 conducted from Astrakan, who related that the inhabitants 
 there on its arrival had adored that animal, and that several 
 hundreds of them worshipped it so much as to follow it along 
 the road above a hundred miles\ 
 
 " The Cham of the grim Tartars invaded Russia with 
 400,000 men, beseiged the Imperial City of Mosco three months, 
 burnt and spoiled the Country many hundred miles in compass 
 and on his departure, he required Homage of the Emperour ; 
 which was, That the Emperour of Russia should come forth 
 of the city of Mosco on foot, attended by his Princes and Nobles 
 of Russia, bare headed ; and that the Emperour should then 
 bring Oats in his Cap, and present them to the Cham of Tartary 
 his horse (he himself then sitting upon his horse-back), and to 
 feed the horse out of his cap ; AU which, for the saving of the 
 lives of many thousands of his people, and utter devastation of 
 his Empire, the Emperour performed, feeding the great Cham 
 of Tartary's horse with Oats out of his own Cap or Colpack, 
 
 "This Homage being performed, the Cham of Tartary 
 streaked the Emperour of Russia three times on his face and 
 beard, presented him with a Cymiter and a Bowe and Case of 
 Arrows and so departed carrying many thousands Captive ^" 
 
 1 Memoirei pour servir a I'Histoire de VEwipire Bussien. Par un Ministre 
 etranger. A La Haye. 1725. = Empire of Russia. By J. F. 1684. 
 
TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 69 
 
 Modern Cossacks. 
 
 "Through the kindness of the officer in command of the 
 Grand Ducal Oossack body-guard, I witnessed a truly novel 
 equestrian expedition. After being paraded, the men, about 
 sixty in number, mounted on strong ugly little horses, were 
 ordered to perform a sham skirmish. Forming themselves into 
 two camps, each combatant attacked his opponent, on his own 
 hook, and after his own fashion. Here was a feUow, standing 
 bolt upright up in his saddle, and discharging his musket at 
 another, who, hanging pendant by his legs, returned fire from 
 underneath his horse's belly : then a couple, clinging like cats 
 to the flanks and ribs of their chargers, and thus completely 
 sheltering their own bodies, watched a favourable moment of 
 pinking each other, though to me they almost appeared like a 
 couple of riderless horses ; whilst others flattened themselves at 
 full length on their beasts' backs, and manoeuvred for the 
 chance of some unguarded movement on the part of their 
 foes. All this at full gallop, accompanied by a good deal of 
 screaming and yelling. Other feats were then performed. 
 Galloping with the head downwards in the saddle and the 
 body and legs erect in the air seemed a favourite one; still 
 more so picking up a stone or even a coin at the same pace, the 
 performer holding on the while to his saddle by his feet. A 
 couple of hours of this sort of work seemed to be enough for 
 horse and man ; so, closing up into a column four deep, the 
 Cossacks marched home, singing in remarkably good time a 
 native chorus, with an accompaniment of two kettle-drums. 
 They are first-rate irregular cavalry these Cossacks, strong, 
 
 well-built fellows, and active as cats Instead of boots they 
 
 wear a species of buskin of very pliable leather, reaching to the 
 knee ; and in the place of soles a pair of mocassins of the same 
 material, fitting like a glove, and leaving the foot in perfect 
 freedom'." 
 
 ' Journey through the Caucasus to Persia. By A. H. Mounsey, F.E.G.S. 1871. 
 
70 TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 
 
 The Tartars may perhaps be considered the most wonderful 
 race in history as regards their peculiar hardihood, endurance, 
 independence of stores and of weather, cold, heat and drought. 
 Able to sit days and nights on horseback, capable of subsisting 
 on nothing but mare's milk and such game as they can kill 
 on their journeys, provided with everything they require ; their 
 clothing a coat of buffalo or other hide, their horses content 
 with the grass of the plains, carrying neither straw, oats nor 
 fodder — a Tartar prince goes forth to war with such cavalry 
 as no other nation can produce, and 100,000 horse forms his 
 corps called a tuc. In case of need, they can ride ten days on 
 end without lighting a fire, ©r taking a regular meal. They 
 have dried milk, which dissolved in water serves them at once 
 with both food and drink, so as he rides along he can prepare 
 his dainty dinner ! The Tartars double and double again, 
 and wheel round in an instant, and have won many a fight by 
 these tactics. When in want of food they bleed their horses 
 and suck the veins. If they need anything more solid than 
 the milk paste, they put a sheep's pudding full of blood under 
 the saddle, and in time it gets coagulated and cooked by 
 the heat and then they devour it (Georg Pachymeres, V. 4). 
 Botero had "heard from a trustworthy source that a Tartar 
 of Perekop, travelling on the Steppes, lived for some days 
 on the blood of his horse, and not daring to bleed it more, 
 cut off and ate its ears " (Eelasione Vhivers., p. 93). Another 
 account brought by the spies of the Sultan of Khwarizin when 
 first menaced by Zhinghis Khan was^" The army of Zhinghis 
 is countless as a swarm of ants or locusts. Their warriors are 
 matchless in lion-like valour, in obedience and endurance. 
 They take no rest, and flight or retreat is unknown to them. . . . 
 They will open a horse's vein, draw blood and drink it. In 
 victory they leave neither small nor great alive \" 
 
 The Golden H<yrde. A very considerable treatise has been 
 written on this interesting nation, by Von Hammer Purgstall. 
 He quotes from 400 different authors in almost all Asiatic 
 and European languages. This Horde, which finally ruled 
 
 1 See Marco Polo, by Yule. 
 
TARTARDOM IN RUSSIA. 7 1 
 
 Russia for above 200 years, was so called from the fact that 
 its Grand Khan (Zenghis) had received from the Emperor of 
 China a present of a rich tent covered with cloth of gold. 
 The Horde was originally the Kaptschak or Kiptchack. But 
 the Russians applied this name Golden Horde to the whole 
 range of the Tartar Empire. Levesque states this Horde dwelt 
 in the regions lying between the Volga, the Yalk and the 
 Don ; and that it was afterwards divided into four Khanates — 
 Kazan, Astrakan, Kaptschak and the Crimea: each and all 
 of which successively fell under the Russian sceptre. 
 
 Russian Tartardom. If we consider the immense distances 
 at which the Tartar Khans continued to oppress and trample 
 down the Russians; the long journeys which they compelled 
 the Russian princes to undertake to pay tribute in person, 
 journeys which occupied a year; the dissatisfaction and sedi- 
 tion engendered by the absence of rulers, we cannot but be 
 astonished at the power, sagacity, and cunning by which the 
 Golden Horde grasped the reins of Russian rule. One of their 
 chief means of success was the constant promotion of domestic 
 broils, which undermined native authority, and alienated the 
 people from their native princes. 
 
 Another method of subjection was the promotion of peace- 
 ful arts and religious veneration for their Russian priesthood. 
 The more the despairing Russian flew to the protection of 
 his national saints, the less warlike became the habits of the 
 people. The priests enervated Russia by a profuse supersti- 
 tion. 
 
 Cowed, and kissing the stirrup of their cruel masters, the 
 Russian nobles sequestered themselves in monasteries and 
 cloisters. The Tartars punished sacrilege with death, and 
 exempted all religious bodies from tribute. The nobles en- 
 riched the Church who taught that the monastic habit taken 
 before death assured eternal life. The Russian Church rose 
 to a height of power, riches and consideration, in the hearts 
 of the nation, such perhaps as the Catholic faith had never 
 enjoyed. Saints were multiplied; relics seemed prolific. The 
 country swarmed with priests, processions, pictures and images. 
 
72 TARTAKDOM IN RUSSIA. 
 
 Crossings and bowings to the family Bog were sufficient to 
 sanctify the robber, the cheat, and the villain. 
 
 "In my time (1716), the prince Gagarin gave an ordinary 
 repast where fifty courses of fish were served on sUver plates. 
 .... He brought me into his cabinet, and I saw there his BOG 
 (the word signifies God), which forms a portable oratory (un 
 Oratoire, ou petite chapelle portative) that the Russians al- 
 ways have with them in their travels, and which they suspend 
 on the walls in their bed-chambers. This particular BoG was 
 enriched with beautiful diamonds above and below. The 
 jewellers of the town (Moscow) assured me that it had cost 
 the prince more than a hundred aUd thirty thousand roubles. 
 (He had been Governor of Siberia.)" 
 
 The same writer in describing a nun taking the veil at 
 Moscow, says the priest asked her whether, of free-will, she 
 would take the veil and renounce the world, and if she 
 would obey the orders given her ; she answered in a distinct 
 
 voice— 
 
 /, /; Bog : by the grace of God. 
 
 As this was the most solemn act of her life, we here see 
 the sacred character of the word Bog\ 
 
 Prince Gagarin was afterwards accused of having robbed his 
 majesty's caravans from China, and of murdering the persons 
 conducting them, by which he had possessed himself of enormous 
 wealth. The proofs against him were adequate. Peter visited 
 him in person, and pledged his royal word that if he would 
 confess fuEy his crime in writing he should be pardoned. But 
 when in court this confession was read, Gtagarin declared the 
 Emperor had worked on his fears and compelled him to sign 
 the statement against his wiU. The witnesses to his guilt, 
 including the governor's own private secretary, were then pro- 
 duced, and Gagarin was hung, the victim of his own toils, on a 
 gallows fifty feet high. This was the man who possessed the 
 beautifully ornamented picture referred to above. 
 
 1 The French relation is given in these words : Elle r^pondit 2k chaqne 
 dcmande, d'nne voix haute et distincte, 
 
 Je, Je ; Bog ; moyennant la grace de Dieu. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IfAN THE TERRIBLE'. 
 
 An attentive perusal of the history of the Tartars in the last 
 chapter significantly suggests the powerful influence which 
 Tartardom must have had upon the character and the future of 
 the Russian nation. They had escaped at length from the 
 servitude, oppression and degradation forced upon them by 
 Tartar rule. The vestiges of this subjugation — so stem a school 
 for emancipated Russia — could not speedily be effaced. It was 
 Ivan the Terrible who finally delivered her from the incursions 
 of these barbaric hordes. In dealing therefore with the tre- 
 mendous events which ensued, it would be unfair to the history 
 of Russia to omit these circumstantial agencies. A nation 
 revelling in a newborn freedom may well be excused for 
 singular excesses. To it, anything seemed preferable to Mongol 
 servitude and Asiatic barbarities. To a strong ruler, the nation 
 would enthusiastically deliver itself over, bound hand and foot, 
 and prostrate itself without remorse. The heel of despotism 
 seemed a paradise compared with the hoof of the Tartar. The 
 power of life and death was cheerfully yielded to the hands of 
 a sovereign tyrant, who could protect them from Asiatic knives 
 and savage vengeance. The reign of Vasili heralded Russia's 
 deliverance. Amongst the splendid histories of Russia that of 
 Vasili, the father of Ivan, would here claim a more extended 
 notice. Suffice it, however, to glance at his closing hours. 
 
 1 The Russian historian, KabamsIn, devotes three volumes to the extra- 
 ordinary reign of this IVAN, whose atrocities exceeded the combined cruelties 
 of all former Emperors in ancient history. The most striking passages of these 
 three volumes have here been condensed into two Chapters (iv. and v.) and this 
 may be allowed to account for the curtness of the style. 
 
74 IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 A singular scene happened at the deathbed of Vasili. " He 
 had determined to die a monk. He was dying. He was 
 speechless. His eyes were dim. He grasped the image of the 
 holy Virgin and was impatient for the last rite. The Metro- 
 politan Daniel seized the black robe to give it to the Abbot 
 Josephat, but the princes Andr^ and Voronzofif attempted to 
 snatch it from him ; then the prelate pronounced with furious 
 accents these terrible words : ' I curse you in this world and in 
 the next. No, no person shall ravish me of his soul.' Yet 
 Vasili was expiring. The Metropolitan hurried to complete 
 his investiture and reclothed the abbot with his vestments, and 
 gave, with the tonsure, to the Grand Prince the name of Varlam. 
 But as he had forgotten, in the confusion of the moment, the 
 mantle necessary for a neophyte, Serapion, a father of the 
 Church, presented his own. The gospel was placed upon the 
 breast of the dying, when some one near him cried oiit, ' It is 
 over, the monarch is no more.' It is related that the visage of 
 Vasili appeared all of a sudden radiant with glory; and instead 
 of the dreadful odours which exhaled from the plague-spot of 
 which he died, an agreeable perfume was diffused in the apart- 
 ment of the dead." 
 
 The funeral ceremonies were magnificent, and the grief of 
 the people was inexpressible ; they were children who interred 
 their father. 
 
 Vasili had a noble exterior, a majestic presence, an agree- 
 able expression, an eye piercing but sweet. He was naturally 
 more inclined to kindness than to harshness. He was a man 
 of extraordinary talent and brilliant qualities. He was more 
 anxious for the good of his people than to be called great ; he 
 is indeed deserving of immortal eulogy, of which so few sovereigns 
 have been worthy. 
 
 Russian Reigns of Terror. 
 
 On the death of Vasili, 1533, Russia for the first time 
 found herself ruled by traitors, in the name of a boy. " Woe 
 to a nation whose prince is a child, and whose servants bear 
 rule." Vasili was dead ; his magnificence remained. To give 
 
IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 75 
 
 an idea of the immense population of Russia at this time, the 
 riches of its inhabitants, as well as the power of this great prince, 
 who gloried in splendid displays on solemn occasions, receptions, 
 and presentations, it will be sufficient to describe one occasion. 
 All labour ceased in the city; the citizens appeared in holiday 
 attire, and pressed in thick masses towards the Kremlin. The old 
 boyards accompanied by their sons from all the towns repaired 
 to the f§te. The troops were under arms; the most distinguished - 
 officers came to the audience-chamber. In this immense hall, 
 filled with a multitude, reigned a profound silence. The 
 monarch was enthroned ; suspended above him was the sacred 
 picture or image; at his right hand his royal bonnet, at the 
 left hand his sceptre. The boyards, or Russian nobles, covered 
 with robes enriched with a profusion of pearls, sat at dinner, 
 long protracted sometimes into the night. Many tables were 
 spread in the grand hall. The brothers of the Grand Prince 
 or the Metropolitan occupied the seat of honour by his side: 
 further down were the lords and officers, among whom were 
 seen sometimes the simple soldiers who had been distinguished 
 in bravery. In the midst glittered a great number of golden 
 vessels, goblets, and winecups. The first course was roast 
 swan, washed down with Malvoisie and other Greek wines. 
 As a sign of favour the monarch sent choice morsels to his 
 friends, then he rose and saluted them, and he thanked them 
 for particular healths. To drive away melancholy or ennui, 
 general talk was encouraged, which became gay, yet decorous, 
 and free from constraint. During the dinner he conversed 
 particularly with strangers, and praised their sovereigns. The 
 streets of Moscow were so illuminated that the night, said an 
 ambassador, resembled the day. AH ambassadors were en- 
 tertained without the least expense to themselves; it would 
 have been an offence to allow them to purchase a single thing. 
 Vasili had limited himself like his father to the title of 
 " Grand Prince," but in foreign intercourse he adopted the title, 
 " Vasili, by the grace of God, Grand Monarch, Tsar and Sovereign 
 of All the Russias." His father had with indignation refused 
 the proposition of the Pope and the Emperor to accept the 
 royal title. 
 
76 IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 After such a father, the young prince Ivan came to the 
 throne surrounded by boyards, who were inflated with the 
 utmost pride and jealousy as regards their rights and precedence, 
 and animated with the most intense ambition to surround the 
 throne and seize its powers. Without a throne, even though 
 occupied by a child, Russia would again have torn itself into 
 pieces. Fearing this catastrophe, the most powerful nobles 
 placed Ivan in the church of the Assumption, where he took 
 the oath of fidelity, 1533. His young brother Yuri, a week 
 afterwards, the 11th December, was arrested and imprisoned 
 in the same place where the unfortunate Grand Prince Dmitri 
 had died. The new government spread at once a universal 
 consternation. The people, seeing this done with a prince, 
 trembled for themselves. Russia seemed suddenly bowed 
 under the yoke of an irresponsible council. It is true the 
 regent Helen stiU presided; but Michel Glinsky was its soul, 
 as he had been the right hand of Vasili: him they seized. 
 He had seen with the deepest pain the shameful penchant of 
 Helen for her lover. Prince Telenef, who became master of 
 the court and governor of the council. Glinsky had a brilliant 
 European name; was accused of an intention of seizing the 
 empire, was imprisoried and murdered. The innocent Voron- 
 zoff was the next victiru ; after burial they however exhumed 
 the body and gave it a tomb worthy of the monarch's uncle. 
 Another uncle. Prince Andre, was accused of disparaging Helen. 
 Yuri was destroyed by hunger in his prison; Andr^, over- 
 whelmed with affright at this event, fled, but he stopped at 
 Novgorod. He formed the design of saving Russia; his 
 manifesto ran thus — " The Grand Prince is still an infant, and 
 you only serve boyards: assemble about me and you will be 
 recompensed." Telenef commenced war. Andrd began to 
 negociate, and exacted an oath from him, that neither the 
 Grand Prince nor Helen should take vengeance on him. Helen 
 loaded him with chains and threw him into a narrow cell; 
 his boyards, counsellors, and faithful servants were tortured, 
 of whom some died and others were immured; thirty were 
 hung at equal distances upon the road to Novgorod. Andre 
 perished, as did his brother, by a violent death. The secrecy of 
 
IVAJSr THE TERRIBLE. J 7 
 
 these massacres announced a criminal cowardice on the part 
 of the perpetrators. Helen thought that during the minority 
 of the prince such sanguinary executions could alone display 
 firmness. This princess, abandoned to the delights of an 
 illegitimate affection, exhibited singular ferocity of spirit. 
 
 Confusion increased. The silver money was profusely de- 
 based, by secret coiners, with alloy, so that a pound of silver 
 produced ten, instead of five roubles and two gridnas; this 
 fraud was wholesale; many enriched themselves by this daring 
 swindle, as well as by chipping. Merchandise continually 
 fluctuated in price, because of the uncertain value of the coin. 
 Helen caused it to be called in and recoined, and stamped it with 
 a figure representing the prince on horseback, lance in hand; 
 and from this fact arose the name copeck (kopi^ in Buss 
 meaning a lance). But though she developed great clearness 
 and sagacity in Russian affairs, and gathered many laurels, her 
 tyranny and passion for Telenef excited a general hatred and 
 contempt. 
 
 Telenef alone reigned supreme, grand chief of the empire. 
 No services were recognized. The nation sighed for a change : 
 and the Grand Princess Helen, brilliant in the Mat of her 
 beautiful youth and perfect health, suddenly died. There 
 were no inquests. Baron Herbstein declares she was poi- 
 soned. She expired at two o'clock, P.M., and was buried the 
 same day in a monastery! History does not even say that she 
 received proper funeral rites; but neither people nor, nobles 
 shewed the least regret. Young Ivan threw himself into the 
 arms of Telenef, weeping in despair, In losing Helen, he had 
 lost all the world. 
 
 The nation, astounded, trembled at its future. Helen's 
 death revealed a latent power. This was Telenef. It was he, 
 and he alone, that could profit by it. (Ivan was seven years 
 old.) The boyards of the council loaded Telenef with chains, 
 within a week of Helen's shameful burial ; cast into a dungeon, 
 there they let him die of famine. Everyone most valuable 
 to Ivan, in spite of his tears and cries, was arrested. Shouisky 
 now was declared chief of the State ; he tore away the governess 
 and guardian of the young prince, who had been particularly 
 
78 IVAy THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 entrusted to them by his dying father, ,Vasili. Very soon 
 Shouisky also died, it was said wrongfully. Another Shouisky, 
 Jean, now assumed the reins; disrespectful to his prince, he 
 assumed the ridiculous pride and airs of a valet suddenly made 
 master. He encouraged on all sides false accusations, exacted 
 riches from the innocent accused, and violated the sanctity 
 of asylum in the monasteries; and, says one historian, "they 
 sought for booty with aU the greedy ferocity of the Mongols." 
 The towns became mere dens of brigands; the population 
 abandoned their unhappy country iu trepidation ; the markets 
 and monasteries were deserted. But besides all this, their 
 external foes from the Crimea now added fire and sword, and 
 even to these despised victims, the Russians, the Khan of the 
 Crimea dictated laws whilst plundering their country. Then 
 the Hospodar of Moldavia also threatened: "Think not that 
 I shall come alone, but accompanied by the Grand Sultan 
 Soliman, who has subjugated the universe from the east to 
 the west, and it is I who shall shew him the road to your 
 capital" The boyards sent presents to purchase a perfidious 
 alliance. It was all in vain. For two years Russia was given 
 over to pillage, fire and sword, by another enemy, the Kazan 
 Tartars. " They stayed in Russia shedding torrents of Christian 
 blood; the wretched inhabitants, without defence, hid them- 
 selves in caverns and forests. All the districts formerly rich 
 in villages and people were deserted and became overgrown 
 with brushwood. In the midst of the cinders of ruined 
 monasteries lived these savages, sleeping in the churches, 
 drinking out of the sacred vessels, robbing the ornaments of 
 the images to make earrings and collars for their women. They 
 forced the religious to dance a kind of devil's hornpipe, their 
 boots being charged with live coals and charcoal. They violated 
 the nuns, put out their eyes, and cut off the noses, ears, hands 
 and feet of all that they did not lead away captive. " But, most 
 horrible," says one historian, "many Christians adopted their 
 faith; and then these renegades persecuted the faithful with 
 as much carnage as the most ferocious Tartars. This is 
 not hearsay, but what I myself have seen with my own eyes, 
 and never can I forget these fatal deeds." But -the boyards. 
 
IVAN THE TERRIBLE. " 79 
 
 by their foolish measures, lost all opportunity of saving 
 Russia. 
 
 Simeon Belsky had been imprisoned, but he was released. 
 He joined the Crimean Tartars, and served them as guide. 
 Innumerable files of the enemy appeared covering the level 
 steppes in the far distance. The Russian troops occupied the 
 river Oka. A most touching spectacle engaged the citizens. 
 The young Grand Prince Ivan, with his brother Yuri, wor- 
 shipping before the image of the holy Virgin, invoked the pro- 
 tection of the Almighty in the church of the Assumption. He 
 offered, whilst weeping profusely, these words heard by the 
 people : " My God, thou who hast defended my ancestors against 
 the cruel Tamerlane, take us also under thy guardiance, young 
 and orphans as we are. Our spirit and our arms are without 
 vigour, and yet the country expects deliverance from, us^ The 
 council met. The prince said, " The enemy approaches, decide 
 whether I am to stay here or flee." In consternation the 
 boyards at last decided to keep him in Moscow. Ivan sent a 
 letter to be read to the army: — "Let the Oka become an 
 insurmountable barrier against the Tartars, and if that river is 
 not obstacle enough, bar their road to the capital with your 
 bosoms : fight with valour, in the name of the Almighty : my 
 friendship and my benefits shall be your recompense and the 
 heritage of your children. I will have inscribed in the military 
 records of Russia the names of all that fall for her upon the 
 field of honour. Their wives and children shall make part of 
 my own family." Ivan wrote this letter because the nobles 
 were all disputing about * pre-eminence and priority instead of 
 preparing for battle. On receiving this letter, the voievodes, 
 penetrated with emotion, cried out, "Let us all forget our mutual 
 animosities and only remember the benefactions of Vasili. The 
 glory of our actions shall be celebrated in the most distant 
 countries, and since we are not immortal, let our blood flow at 
 least for our country." These quarrelsome lords then shed 
 tears, embracing each other, and swore in the heat of a fiery 
 enthusiasm to die on the banks of the Oka. Rushing from the 
 tent of conference, they declared the result to the soldiers. 
 The effect of this profound sentiment was inexpressible. With 
 
8o IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 one great voice the soldiers exclaimed : " Tes, yes, for the Grand 
 Prince we will fight to the death with the Tartars. Remain 
 united, fathers of our country, and we will march with all 
 ardour against the ivfidels." 
 
 The Russians, who made no use of bows, at first recoiled 
 from the Tartar storm of arrows, in confusion. But reinforced, 
 they planted the national flags on the banks of the Oka; its 
 passage was resisted successfully, artillery was brought forward, 
 and the Crimean Tartars dismayed took flight. They attacked 
 Pronsk, but were soon obliged to raise the siege. 
 
 This new expulsion of the Tartars excited the most intense 
 joy in the bosom of Russia. The tender age of Ivan charmed 
 all the citizens with the most lively enthusiasm, especially 
 when he returned to the church to give thanks for the deliver- 
 ance of Russia. They crowded about him with streaming eyes, 
 exclaiming, " Prince, it was your angelic prayers and your for- 
 tunate star which have made us triumph." In every case the 
 Russians attributed the success to this latter cause; and the 
 extreme youth of Ivan seemed to open a vast field for hope. 
 
 Prince Belsky was the soul of the government, he inspired 
 everything. The faculties of the young prince seemed to be 
 developed day by day. Belsky was recoinpensed for his con- 
 duct by the calmness of his conscience and the satisfaction of 
 the nation ; a near relation of the prince,- he was the target of 
 secret machinations. His magnanimity was his danger, he was 
 thrown into prison by the Metropolitan and the boyards. No 
 pretext whatever was offered for this violent seizure of the chief 
 of the State. They next imprisoned the Metropolitan himself. 
 This era is one vast picture of successful conspiracy and bound- 
 less massacre. 
 
 These horrible violations, ordered by the grossest despot- 
 ism, disgusted the nation, and with breaking hearts they sighed 
 incessantly for happier times. 
 
 Shouisky was now the undisputed regent of the people, and 
 Ivan was but thirteen years old. Born with an ardent soul, rare 
 penetration, and an extraordinary force of will, he would have 
 possessed all the qualities of a grand monarch if only his natural 
 gifts had been cultivated. But, deprived early of his parents, 
 
IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 8 1 
 
 abandoned to the care of violent nobles, who were blinded by 
 their unscrupulous ambition, he was on his throne the most 
 unfortunate of orphans ; for the vices given to him by a 
 neglected youth prepared the way for his own miseries and 
 the miseries of millions of other men. 
 
 Belsky would have been a model for the orphan prince, but 
 Schouisky practised the basest arts in order to captivate him. 
 He encouraged in him all kinds of cruelties and violent games, 
 torturing his domestic animals, climbing a ladder and precipi- 
 tating down wild animals. The boyards said, "What does it 
 matter as long as the sovereign is diverted?" Sometimes, sur- 
 rounded by a troop of young men, he would gallop through the 
 streets, crushing old men and women, at which they smiled, 
 praising his courage. 
 
 At length a plot was conceived to get rid of the tyrant 
 regent. Ivan ordered a grand chase, he suddenly called around 
 him the boyards, and, for the first time, displayed an imperious 
 and menacing attitude. He declared to them that they had 
 abused his extreme youth, that they had executed people, de- 
 livered the country to pillage, that they were the criminals, 
 but he would be contented with the death of Schouisky, the 
 tyrant chief of the council and the greatest criminal. At the 
 same instant he was seized and delivered a victim to a pack of 
 hounds in the open street, who tore him in pieces ; the rest of 
 the boyards kept a gloomy silence. It is said this man was 
 insatiable — that he ravaged the lands of the gentry as if they 
 had been his own, oppressed the peasantry in the most cruel 
 manner, and that his servants exercised all kinds of tyranny, 
 fearing neither law nor justice. The annalists declare, that 
 from the moment the Glinskys came into power their con- 
 fiscations struck terror through -every living soul ; they exiled, 
 tortured, robbed, murdered, without limit and without mercy. 
 
 Ivan now undertook journeys throughout his empire, amus- 
 ing himself with the chase, and disregarding the laws and 
 the protection of the people. He was accompanied by his bro- 
 thers and a crowd of boyards, who entirely concealed from him 
 the spectacle of the consternation of the people ; and in the 
 midst of a tumult of pleasures their lamentations and cries 
 E. 6 
 
82 17 AN THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 could not reach him. In his rapid courses, the only traces of 
 his passage were tears, plaints, and increased misery. Besides 
 this, the court, instead of paying its expenses, made exactions ; 
 these travels ruined the people. Ivan was eighteen years old 
 in 1546, and he had a long and secret interview with the me- 
 tropolitan Macaire. The secret was well kept for a while. 
 Ivan at last announced that he wished to find a Eussian 
 consort; the metropolitan replied, with a sweet satisfaction, 
 " Prince, it is God himself who has inspired you with an inten- 
 tion so advantageous to your people." The boyards, moved to 
 tears, lavished their praises upon the wisdom of their sovereign. 
 A grand ceremony was ordered ; on the 16th of January, 1547, 
 the grand prince appeared in the halls of the palace, where were 
 assembled the boyards. The young Anastasie had been found : 
 the boyards had searched all Russia for a fiancde worthy of the 
 sovereign. Chastity, sweetness, piety, sensibility, and goodness, 
 in her, were united to a solid spirit and a beauty most rare. 
 " Prince," said Macaire, " love and honour your bride ; and you, 
 Tsarine, who are truly Christian, submit yourself to your hus- 
 band ; for as the holy Cross represents the chief of the Church, 
 so is the man the chief of the woman; fulfil earnestly the 
 commandments of God, and cause the prosperity of Jerusalem 
 to flourish." The ceremony was over, the young couple shewed 
 themselves to the people, and the broad street of the Kremlin 
 resounded with a thousand blessings. 
 
 The rich were overwhelmed with benefits by the Tsar, the 
 Tsarine took care of the poor : the sweet Anastasie, ever since 
 the death of her father, had been brought up far from the 
 world, and in the bosom of tranquillity. She saw herself, at 
 one stroke of fortune, transported as it were supematurally 
 upon the stage of human grandeur ; but, in spite of this change 
 in her situation, her spirit gave way to no suggestions of pride ; 
 but, referring everything to God, she humbled herself before 
 Him in the palace of the Tsar, just as she had lived before, in 
 the sad habitation of her mother bereaved of her husband. The 
 court rejoicings subsided, and Ivan and his consort prayed 
 each day at the tomb of St Serge. 
 
 But neither these acts of devotion, nor his love for his prin- 
 
IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 83 
 
 cess, could calm the burning spirit and restlessness of Ivan ; 
 he abandoned himself to the transports of most violent rage, 
 and only sought the grossest amusements, unworthy of a prince. 
 He persuaded himself that arbitrary orders would prove his 
 independence ; but, while he neglected his empire, it was sub- 
 mitted to the will of the nobles. Never was Russia so badly 
 governed ; whoever knew how to intrigue with the court could 
 with impunity oppress the people ; and it was only necessary 
 to be a court valet to dominate in Eussia. The governors 
 had nothing to dread, and woe to the oppressed who dared to 
 bring their complaints to the foot of the throne. Sixty people, 
 who had the hardihood to present their petitions, so incensed 
 him, that he ordered their beards and hair to be saturated with 
 spirit, and set on fire ; but by the fall of a great bell at Moscow 
 which called him away, they escaped further punishment. 
 
 But in the midst of all these miseries Moscow took fire in 
 April, 1547. 
 
 No one was more terrified than Ivan. 
 
 The Kremlin and the whole of the town in a very short time 
 fell a prey to the flames. 
 
 Seventeen hundred persons, excluding children, perished in 
 the flames. The Tsar and the nobles, not to witness the 
 desolation, withdrew to a village. The superstition of the 
 people rose to its greatest height ; " they declared that Moscow 
 was burnt by sorcery — that Princess Anne, the mother of the 
 Glinskys, had snatched the hearts of the dead, and, running 
 about the streets of Moscow, sprinkled them with blood ; lo," 
 said they, " that is the cause of the fire." 
 
 This falsehood was spread amongst the people by conspi- 
 rators. They tore Ivan's uncle from the altars, and then dragged 
 him to the place of execution, and put a great number of 
 servants and young boyards to death. There was no one to 
 repress crime. Moscow, without government, was delivered to a 
 bloody anarchy. In this terrible moment, while the young 
 Tsar was trembling in his palace, and the virtuous Anastasie 
 was praying to heaven, an extraordinary man of religion, Syl- 
 vester, approached Ivan, with a menacing eye, his finger raised, 
 like a man inspired, announcing to him that the hand of God 
 
 6—2 
 
84 IVAN' TEE TERRIBLE. 
 
 was suspended over the head of a frivolous Tsar, mastered by 
 shameful passions. 
 
 He opened the Holy Gospel, and shewed him its divine 
 precepts. 
 
 At the instant the Tsar became another man; bathed in 
 the tears of repentance, he seized the hand of his courageous 
 monitor, and demanded the strength to become virtuous; and 
 Heaven, says our historian, fulfilled his desires. His humble 
 monitor refused all honours and riches, but placed himself near 
 the throne to strengthen and encourage the young sovereign. 
 
 Ivan soon assembled all the people, and after mass he 
 gathered the clergy and boyards to the grand place of execution, 
 where the people kept a profound silence. Ivan then addressed 
 the metropolitan as follows : 
 
 "Holy Father, your zeal for virtue, your love for my country 
 are known to me, second my good intentions. Host my parents 
 too young; the boyards and the nobles, who only aspired to' 
 domination, took no care of my person ; they have usurped in 
 my name wealth and honours ; they are enriched by injustice, 
 and overwhelm the people, so that no one dares to hinder their 
 ambition. I was, as it were, deaf and dumb ; I heard not the 
 lamentations of the poor, and my words did not sweeten their 
 woes. 
 
 "You, you are delivered then to your caprices, you rebellious 
 subjects, you corrupted judges; how can you now justify your- 
 selves? What tears you have caused, what blood you have 
 shed, which falls upon me! But fear the judgment of God." Then 
 saluting the people on all sides, the monarch continued, "Oh 
 you! a people that the Almighty has confided to me, I invoke 
 to-day both your religion and your love for me; shew your- 
 selves generous 1 It is impossible to repair the past evils, but 
 I shall in future wisely preserve you from apprehension and 
 pillage. 
 
 "Forget the sorrows that shall never be renewed, scatter 
 every subject of hatred and discord, let a Christian and brotherly 
 ardour embrace all your hearts. From this day forward, I, I 
 will be your judge, your defender." 
 
 In this solemn day, when the whole of Russia received the 
 
IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 85 
 
 promise of Ivan to live only for the good of his people, Ivan 
 granted a general pardon. The sovereign power was established 
 upon the principles of wisdom, moderation, and peace under 
 new laws. Ivan sent to Germany for artists, physicians, apothe- 
 caries, printers, and also scholars learned in dead and living 
 languages, and even some theologians. 
 
 On the taking of Kazan the victorious boyards found sixty 
 thousand Russian prisoners, whom they provided with food and 
 clothing. With eyes full of tears they raised their hands to 
 heaven to give glory to God. Never had Russia enjoyed a 
 spectacle so full of emotion ; they said that it was a new exodus 
 of the people of Israel. They established them on the Volga, 
 and built the city of Sviaga. 
 
 Ivan now organised a new warlike republic, between Azof 
 and the Caspian Sea, called the Cossacks of the Don. 
 
 Ivan had now enjoyed for thirteen years all the conjugal 
 happiness that a virtuous and loving consort could accord. He 
 had now two children, Theodore and Eudoxie. Anastasie, 
 still brilliant in youth and beauty, in June, 1560, was attacked 
 with a serious illness aggravated by fright. 
 
 Moscow was again on fire ; she was removed in the midst 
 of flame and smoke, and at length expired in August. The 
 despair of Ivan cannot be expressed, and never was public 
 affliction so acutely and touchingly manifested. At her funeral 
 all wept; the poor were inconsolable, and even refused to accept 
 the charities usually given on -these occasions. Ivan, sustained 
 by his brother Yuri, his brother Vladimir, his cousin, and 
 Alexander, the young Tsar of Kazan, slowly followed the 
 coffin. 
 
 The groans and the transports of his grief verged upon 
 frenzy; the metropolitan himself, bathed in tears, was the 
 only one who dared to exhort him to submit to the decrees of 
 Heaven. But no one could yet divine all that Anastasie carried 
 to her tomb. Here terminated the happy days of Ivan and of 
 Russia, for at the same time that he lost his consort he 
 abandoned the sentiments of virtue. Both the spirit of the Tsar 
 
86 /FJ-V THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 and the fortune of the empire underwent a most terrible 
 revolution. 
 
 The virtuous and beautiful Anastasie had a marked influ- 
 ence upon the conduct of Ivan and upon the prosperity of the 
 country. A large army was raised, he marched against Kazan, 
 and captured it by springing a mine. A successful campaign 
 in Astrakan enabled him to annex it. Here was vintaged 
 delicious wine, among other rich productions of the soil. Besides 
 this, Siberia was explored, inexhaustible in mines of salt, 
 copper, and silver, and producing the most valuable furs. This 
 country was permanently occupied through the influence of 
 a rich merchant, Strogonof, and a robber-chief, called Yermak, 
 at the head of a gang of Don Cossack marauders. 
 
 Through Anastasie's influence Ivan had been induced to 
 listen to the voice of the good old bishop Silvester, and in a 
 great many wise amendments had promoted the welfare of 
 Russia. 
 
 At thirty years of age he was a model sovereign, religious, 
 wise, zealous for glory and for the happiness of his country. 
 In the temple, in pious retreats, at his council, or in the midst 
 of the people, he was always saying, " that I might reign 
 according to the precepts of the Most High in holy writ !" 
 
 A strict justice, public safety, integrity of his dominions, a 
 triumph of religion, the liberty of Christians — such were the 
 single objects which unceasingly occupied his thoughts. Even 
 the English then wrote : — Ivan has eclipsed all his ancestors, 
 both by his power and by his virtues. Two thoughts absorb him 
 entirely, to serve God, and to terrify the enemies of Russia. 
 
 Ivan was absorbed in grief, so that all around him wept; 
 but, under the mask of zeal, some traitors uttered the blackest 
 calumnies. "Prince," they said, "all Russia partakes in your grief, 
 but two monsters flourish. Yes, the virtuous Anastasie has 
 been ravished from you by two magicians, her secret enemies, 
 Sylvester and Adascheff." The former was exiled, and the latter 
 died in prison. 
 
 At the news of his death, his enemies, intoxicated with joy, 
 
 ' The Englisii made Ivan acquainted with Archangel, and this man set up 
 salt-works there. 
 
IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 87 
 
 assured the Tzar that this traitor, in deep remorse, had poisoned 
 himself. 
 
 The tyranny began. They now said to Ivan, "What, indeed, 
 "will you weep eternally for your consort? you will find another 
 quite as beautiful. Consider that this excess of sorrow may 
 injure your valuable health. God and your people require in 
 an unhappy world that you should seek worldly consolations.'' 
 He hstened without anger to these insidious advisers, and 
 within eight days after the burial of Anastasie, the metro- 
 politan, the bishops, and the nobles, urged him to seek a new 
 wife. The Tsar distributed millions of roubles to the churches 
 and the poor, and even sent rich donations to Jerusalem, and 
 declared that he should demand the sister of the king of Poland 
 in marriage. 
 
 The mourning was over, brilliant festivities diverted the 
 monarch, they declared that wine rejoiced the heart, they 
 jeered at sobriety and denounced fasting as hypocrisy. The 
 palace resounded with boisterous conviviality. His brother 
 Yuri and the prince of Kazan were carried off to other resi- 
 dences. The whole day long they invented new diversions and 
 games, where gravity, temperance, and decency itself, appeared 
 ridiculously out of place. Many of the nobles, however, who with 
 frowning looks attended these sumptuous banquets, declined 
 the cup with sighs: but roistering nobles had recourse to 
 humiliating mockeries, pouring the wine that they refused upon 
 their heads. 
 
 The old friends of Ivan loved the sovereign and virtue; 
 the new ones intrigued with two or three monks, of most subtle 
 character, to justify by their presence the disorder rampant in 
 these brutal festivities. The path of vice is slippery. While 
 waiting for his new consort, who ought to have been the object 
 of his constant and only love, he delivered himself over to the 
 wildest licence. But the veil of mystery is always transparent 
 to royal- weaknesses; so that every one, struck with stupor, 
 inquired by what fatal influence, a model, hitherto of tempe- 
 rance and chastity, became thus shamelessly abandoned. 
 
 The corrupters of the prince continually envenomed his 
 mind. The Annalists write that in face of his horrible ac- 
 
88 IVAX THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 tions, the tyranny of Ivan was an inexplicable tempest, vomited 
 from the infernal regions, in order to trouble and rend Russia 
 in pieces. Our historian declares horror seized Moscow, 
 streaming with blood. The prisons, the monasteries, were 
 gorged with victims, whose number was ever increasing. " Ter- 
 ror reigned in the capital." The present predicted a frightful 
 future. A tyrant corrects himself never; he becomes every day 
 more suspicious and more barbarous ; for the sight of blood 
 excites instead of quenching the thirst for more. This passion, 
 the most terrible of all, confounds the human spirit like a mad- 
 ness, a scourge of peoples and of tyrants themselves. 
 
 It is curious to see how this prince, even to the end of his 
 life, was a zealous observer of the Christian religion, and at- 
 tempted to conciliate the divine precepts with his unparalleled 
 cruelty. He even justified it under an appearance of equity, 
 pretending that all his victims were traitors, or enchanters, or 
 the enemies of Christ and of Russia. Sometimes he accused 
 himself humbly before God and before men. He avowed him- 
 self an infamous murderer of the innocent, then he ordered 
 prayers for them in the temples. Soon he consoled himself 
 ■with the hope that a sincere repentance would save him; and 
 when he should lay aside the diadem, he would become some 
 day a model of religion in the peaceful monastery of St Cyril. 
 He wrote this even to the superiors of the monasteries — an 
 irrevocable testimony that the inflexible voice of conscience 
 would trouble the sombre lethargy of his soul and prepare it 
 for a frightful awakening beyond the tomb ! Let us suspend, 
 says this writer, these horrors of tyranny, to follow the course 
 of political events. Here one sees again the rays of genius in 
 Ivan the Fourth shine forth brilliantly across a black horizon. 
 
 The celebrated metropolitan Macaire died 1563. He was 
 a man of illustrious soul, who preferred the calm of solitude to 
 the highest dignities of his office.- He translated the lives of 
 all the Greek saints, and added those of Russia, in honour of 
 which he had composed the book of Degrees and established the 
 first printing press in Moscow. In 1564 the Russian church 
 ordered in future the bishops to wear a white mitre, and that 
 all their decrees should be sealed with red wax. "The seal 
 
IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 89 
 
 should represent on one side the Virgin Mary with the infant 
 Jesus, and on the other, a hand giving the blessing, and also 
 the name of the metropolitan." 
 
 A few days after his death, Athanasius, confessor of the 
 Tsar, was chosen chief of the Russian clergy. He was invested. 
 They placed on his breast the golden image of the gate of 
 the sanctuary, and a white mitre upon his head. Athanasius 
 ascended the metropolitan chair and gave Ivan his blessing, and, 
 in a loud voice, prayed the Almighty to accord to him health 
 and victory. It seems, says our historian, that he no longer 
 dared to speak of virtue. 
 
 In diplomatic intercourse Polish pride would not accord to 
 Ivan the name of Tsar. Ivan replied to the envoys, "I've 
 no need of titles, for no one is ignorant that my dynasty 
 descended from Csesar Augustus, and it is beyond the power of 
 man to steal away that which God has given." (!) 
 
 The candid writer, Karamsin, says, that the learned scribes 
 of the time, to flatter the pride of Ivan, made Rurik, the first 
 Prince of Novgorod, descend from a pretended brother of Au- 
 gustus, named Pruss, who had a.bandoned Rome. The Polish 
 ambassadors at all events retreated from Moscow on receiving 
 this astounding intelligence. Ivan experienced a severe defeat, 
 however. Russian prisoners were presented to the Polish king 
 lying sick at Varsovie. A Te Deum was sung before him, and 
 the ecstasy of his joy restored Sigismqnd to health. 
 
 But an immense number of Russians, princes and people, 
 fled into other countries, terrified by the cruelties of the Tsar. 
 Can this be considered treason ? It is a painful duty for the 
 historian to rank an illustrious man amongst criminals, yet he 
 must be impartial. A young and brave noble, covered from his 
 most tender years with glorious wounds, a man of war, a man 
 of counsel, a companion of the brilliant conquests of Ivan, 
 a hero at Toula, at Kazan, as well as in the deserts of the 
 Bashkir Tartars, formerly a favourite and particular friend of 
 the Tsar — alas, the prince Andre impressed upon his own 
 brow the brand of infamy. Until that moment he had never 
 soiled his glory for the eyes of posterity. Suddenly Ivan with- 
 drew his attachment and sought to condemn an innocent man. 
 
90 IVAIf THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 This proud noble, when he had been commanding at Dorpat, had 
 been submitted to all kinds of reproaches and insults, and was 
 astonished to learn that his death was prepared. At an honour- 
 able death in the midst of battle he could not tremble, but he 
 groaned at the idea of execution. He explained to his wife 
 that nothing remained except either to die directly before her 
 eyes or to have the courage to quit her for ever. This gene- 
 rous woman replied, that she was ready to sacrifice her happi- 
 ness to save him, and the prince, bathed in tears, bade her fare- 
 well ; he gave his blessing to his boy, leaped the walls of the 
 town by night, and rode rapidly to Volmar, a town occupied by 
 Poles. He was received graciously, and promised a rank and 
 fortune worthy of him. The prince sent a letter to the Tsar, 
 explaining his flight, grief, and indignation, which was conveyed 
 by a faithful servant, who presented it to the Tzar at Moscow. 
 It is, said he, a despatch from my master, now exiled, the prince 
 Andrfe. The Tsar, transported with rage, struck him with his 
 iron-loaded biton. Unmoved, the servant kept silence, while 
 Ivan, leaning on his baton, read the letter of the prince. 
 
 "Illustrious monarch, already blest of God for the punish- 
 ment of our sins, consumed to-day with an infernal fury, cor- 
 rupted to the very depth of conscience ; tyrant, to whom the 
 most infidel sovereigns never offered any example — Hear me, 
 while I utter the accents of truth. Why, in the midst of fright- 
 ful tortures do you rend those illustrious warriors that heaven 
 has granted thee ? Why shed their blood, sacred and precious 
 in the temples of the Most High ? Burned they not with zeal 
 for their country ? Thou, so able at calumnies, givest to the 
 faithful the name of traitors; to Christians, enchanters ; in thy 
 eyes virtues are vices, and light itself is darkness. Were they 
 not heroes who have covered with glory thy reign and name ? 
 What is their recompense ? Death ! ! Ah ! then, indeed, be- 
 lievest thou thyself immortal ; is there not a God and a su- 
 preme tribunal for kings ? I have scrupulously questioned my 
 conscience, and I find no crime there towards thee. Never 
 have thy battalions under my conduct turned their backs to the 
 enemy. Count my battles and my wounds. I would not speak 
 from vanity, but God knows all ; it is to Him that I confide 
 
IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 91 
 
 myself, full of hope in the intercession of the saints, and of my 
 grandfather, the Piince Theodore De Yaroslaf 
 
 " Adieu ! we now separate for ever, but we shall meet at the 
 final day of doom ; let the tears of innocent victims prepare the 
 punishment of a tyrant. Fear the dead themselves — those whom 
 thou hast already massacred are before the throne of the Sove- 
 reign Judge and cry for vengeance ; thy armies will not save 
 thee ; the vile flatterers, who are the companions of thy feasts 
 and debaucheries, corrupters of thy soul, will bring thee their 
 children in sacrifice. This letter, watered with my tears, will 
 be deposited in my tomb. I shall appear with it at the judg- 
 ment of God. Amen. Written in the town of Volmar." 
 
 Ivan, having read the letter, tortured the virtuous courier, 
 but extracted nothing from him but the praises of his master 
 and his content to die for him. All the spectators were as- 
 tonished at the attachment arid firmness of the prince's faithful 
 servant. Ivan wrote an answer to this letter, full of quotations 
 from the Old and New Testament versions, and the grossest 
 sarcasms, which form a whole book in the original. Amongst 
 other things, the Tsar wrote, "I'm no longer a child; I want 
 the grace of God, the protection of the Virgin Mary and all the 
 saints, but no lessons from men. Glory to God, Russia prospers ; 
 my nobles live in peace and concord ; it is only your friends 
 and counsellors who machinate in the dark. You tell me I 
 shall never see your negro face again ; oh heaven ! what a mis- 
 fortune for me . . . ! You surround the throne of the Most High 
 with those that I have destroyed — new heresy. No one, says 
 the Apostle, can see God. Yes, shut up thy letter in thy tomb, 
 and you will only prove that the last spark of Christianity is 
 extinguished in your heart, for a good Christian dies loving aad 
 pardoning, and not under the sentiments of hatred. You have 
 abandoned the master that God has given you, to choose a 
 better. Your grand king is the slave of slaves : is it thus sur- 
 prising that he should be praised by slaves ? But I stop, for 
 Solomon forbids to waste words with madmen, and I consider 
 you one. Written in our residence of Moscow, in Great Russia, 
 the fifth of the month of July, and the year of the world 7072" 
 (1564). 
 
92 IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 The crime of Prince Andrfe' was this : — he joined Sigismond, 
 heart and soul, and lavished his counsels for the ruin of Russia. 
 An army of 70,000 men, Poles, Lithuanians, Prussians, Ger- 
 mans, Hungarians, &c., marched against Polotsk, commanded 
 by the traitor Andrfe; while 60,000 Tartars attacked another 
 side of Russia. This invasion was of short duration : Mos- 
 cow recovered its calm, but it soon experienced a new conster- 
 nation. Ivan mysteriously departed, taking his Court with him 
 en masse, nobles, bishops, and gentlemen, with their families. 
 Long trains bearing gold, silver, the images, crosses, and precious 
 vases, appeared early on the grand place of the Kremlin. Ivan 
 entered the church, attended by his clergy and nobles, ordered 
 " a celebration," prayed with fervour, received the blessing of 
 Athanasius, presenting graciously his hand to be kissed by the 
 nobles, ojBS.cers, and merchants. Immediately he mounted his 
 carriage with the Tsarine and his children. In about a fort- 
 night, the Tsar, followed by all his baggage, arrived at the f^te 
 of Noel. All at Moscow marvelled at this strange and mysteri- 
 ous movement. Delivered to uneasiness and affright, they ex- 
 pected some sinister catastrophe. A month passed ; on the 3rd 
 Jan. 1565, an officer brought a letter from the Tsar, accusing 
 the nobles of ha.ving committed seditions, disorders, and crimes, 
 during his minority. He said in the letter, " I testify my resent- 
 ment against these unworthy ministers. The metropolitan and 
 the clergy defend criminals in order to displease and worry us, 
 so that we will no longer support your perfidies; our hearts 
 being cruelly lacerated, we have abandoned the government of 
 the State, and have departed to follow the road that Providence 
 shall indicate." 
 
 This news spread a profound sensation, for anarchy ap- 
 peared more terrible still than tyranny. " The Tsar has aban- 
 doned us," shrieked the inhabitants, "we are lost. How can 
 sheep rest without a shepherd?" The clergy, the nobles, the 
 grand officers of state and of the tribunals, supplicated the 
 metropolitan to soften the Tsar at any price. "Let him punish," 
 said they, with a unanimous voice, " let him punish the seditious 
 
 1 Andre Kourbsky. 
 
IVAiV THE TERRIBLE. 93 
 
 and conspirators. Has he not the right over us of life and 
 death ? ah, how can the state remain without a chief? he is our 
 legitimate sovereign, whom God has given us ; we recognize 
 no other. We will carry to him our heads, we will bow down 
 before him our faces upon the earth. We will touch him with 
 our tears." The merchants and traders said the same thing, 
 and added, "Only let the Tsar point out who betray him, 
 and we will do justice on them ourselves." I'he capital aban- 
 doned itself to inexpressible anxiety. All business ceased. All 
 oflSces were closed. Everything seemed at a dead lock; ambas- 
 sadors were chosen, princes, bishops, nobles, officers, gentlemen, 
 employes of justice, and an immense crowd of people departed 
 to prostrate themselves at the feet of the sovereign and to soften 
 him with their tears. 
 
 First of all arrived the prelates; they conjured the Tsar with 
 tearful faces to renew his good graces with the Muscovites, 
 to retake the helm of state, and to reign and act only accord- 
 ing to his own good pleasure, and besought him to receive the 
 homage of the nobles who were come. These nobles, when 
 admitted, energetically entreated the Tsar to have pity on 
 Russia. The civil and ecclesiastical dignitaries with one voice 
 declared, "If you despise the grandeur and vanities of this 
 world, remember at least that in quitting Moscow you are 
 abandoning those sacred temples where the miracles of divine 
 glory have been accomplished upon you ; where now repose the 
 relics of saints ; remember that you are not merely the pastor 
 of the state, but still more the pastor of the church, the first 
 monarch of orthodoxy. If you abandon us, who shall pre- 
 serve the truth and the purity of our religion, who shall save 
 millions of souls from eternal damnation?" The Tsar replied 
 with his usual fluency. He repeated his reproaches, and pre- 
 tended that they wished to murder him, himself, his consort, 
 
 and his sons The nobles kept a profound silence, but he 
 
 added, " Out of regard for my father Athanasius, and consider- 
 ation for your venerable intercessors, archbishops and bishops, 
 I am willing to retake my sceptre under the conditions that 
 I shall make known to you." 
 
 What were these conditions ? That Ivan should be entirely 
 
94 /r.4iV^ THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 at liberty, without bearing representations or clerical importu- 
 nities, to chastise traitors by death, disgrace, or confiscation 1 
 These few words pronounced the sentence of death of many 
 of the nobles then in his presence. Not one seemed to think 
 of his own life, absorbed only with the desire of recovering the 
 sovereign by this frightful submission. 
 
 By this subtle decision he robbed the ecclesiastics of their 
 antique and sacred right of interceding for the innocent, and 
 for transgressors still worthy of clemency. He then celebrated 
 the f6te of the Epiphany. He returned to Moscow on the 
 2nd February, convoked the whole court the next day, but 
 his aspect excited in the assemblage a profound astonishment. 
 
 [For more than a month Ivan bad been brooding over his 
 future plans of massacre. The storm of his gathering passions 
 appeared already to have scathed the natural beauty of his 
 countenance. Our historian lays great stress upon this sudden 
 ruin of his features and expression. He was about to put in 
 execution a scheme for indiscriminate plunder and assassina- 
 tion on such a scale as history has nowhere before depicted. 
 We return to our author Karamsin in the next chapter : and 
 we preserve the literal meaning in the translation with scrupu- 
 lous attention.] 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 IVAj^ the terrible (Continued). 
 
 We may as well here describe the exterior of Ivan IV. This 
 prince, tall, well-made, with high shoulders, muscular arms, 
 large chest, beautiful hair, long moustachios, large and aquiline 
 nose, small grey eyes, but brilliant and full of fire, — was 
 on the whole a handsome man [hello di corpo), and his figure 
 revealed no ferocity. He now appeared totally changed; they 
 hardly recognised him; a dark fierceness loomed in his altered 
 looks ; his eyes were sunken ; he was almost bald ; and only a 
 little of his beard remained, the inexplicable effect of the fury 
 which devoured his soul. He enumerated afresh the faults of 
 the nobles, and now proposed the establishment of a new per- 
 sonal guard, the Opritchnina, a word hitherto unknown. He 
 then declared that about twenty distinguished towns belonged 
 to him entirely, as well as their revenues. 
 
 He chose a thousand satellites, whom he afterwards in- 
 creased to six thousand, and gave them the ownership of these 
 towns and removed the proprietors elsewhere. He seized 
 even in Moscow many streets, whence he chased every gentle- 
 man and employ^ whose name was not inscribed in the Tsar's 
 "thousand." 
 
 Of the officers of this chosen legion he appointed for his 
 service all manner of agents. Taking a hatred to the Kremlin, 
 he built a new fortress outside for the residence of himself and 
 satellites. The whole of the remainder of the empire was 
 divided into Communes which were confided to nobles. 
 
 Perhaps one of the most fearful deeds ever perpetrated in 
 
96 IVAi\ THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 the history of the world, was the appointment of this band 
 of ferocious brigands by Ivan. 
 
 He chose them for their audacity, base birth, debauchery 
 and coiTuption, which i5tted them for any enterprise, however 
 wicked. He delivered into their hands the spoils of 12000 
 proprietors, who were driven from their possessions in abject 
 poverty, with their wives and families^ in the depth of winter, 
 many of whom were distinguished for honourable wounds and 
 service. The gentlemen of the new guard, so recently elevated 
 from the lowest ranks, concealed their baseness under cover of 
 magnificence, and even robbed the workpeople of their wages. 
 Law and justice ceased to exist. A common stratagem was 
 this: a member of this new Legion of Honour causes his valet 
 to secrete himself in a house, hiding there his master's property. 
 He calls in the police to take the pretended robber, identifies 
 the property as his own, and then exacts from the owner of 
 the house, as a receiver of stolen goods, a tremendous fine of 
 a hundred thousand roubles, sometimes, says Karamsin, even 
 more. If he failed to pay, the accuser had the right to beat 
 him with rods in the public square until he did. Sometimes a 
 tyrant-guard would leave some object in a rich shop, and then, 
 fetching a rabble of police, accuse the merchant of theft, and 
 ruin him at once. From the upper to the lowest class all 
 were terror-stricken and mute. These troops carried the heads 
 of dogs and also brooms attached to their saddles, to teach the 
 people that they ate up the enemies of the Tsar, and swept them 
 from his kingdom. Ivan now gave the name of Brothers to 
 300 of the most depraved of his guard, took the title of Abbot, 
 and named his Treasurer, and Sacristan. All the Brothers 
 attended service in the church at three o'clock in the morning, 
 to the sound of the great bell; an absentee was punished by 
 eight days' prison. During service the Tsar was so devout as 
 to cany on his forehead the marks of his frequent prostrations. 
 Mass at eight; at ten all dined except Ivan, who read aloud 
 salutary precepts. The repast was lavish, the wine flowed, and 
 hydromel, so that each day was a feast. The Abbot, i. e. the 
 Tsar, dined after them, discoursed religiously, slept, or repaired 
 to the prisons to superintend the tortures. These horrid 
 
IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 97 
 
 spectacles seemed to amuse him, he always returned from them 
 radiant with satisfaction; he gave way to pleasantry and talked 
 more gaily. At eight, vespers; and at ten three blind men 
 discoursed him to sleep. He rose to pray. Sometimes they 
 brought him reports in the church ; sometimes he gave them 
 orders for sanguinary executions during Morning Song, or the 
 Mass. When ambassadors arrived he appeared in magnificent 
 costume, and received them at the new palace of the Kremlin; 
 and the "Brothers," or banditti, habited in cloth of gold, 
 regarded the native nobles with an eye of disdain and pride, as 
 if they were slaves, unworthy of their favour. Ivan appointed 
 a new metropolitan. He delighted in his accents reverberating 
 under the arches of the temple so long given to silence. The 
 monster slept. From the depth of his den {du fond de son 
 autre) the tyrant cast upon Moscow a ferocious glance. Feodorof, 
 a man honoured, a great general, whitened in the service of 
 the state, was declared a conspirator, (the Tsar feigning to 
 believe it). He clothed him with royal ornaments, crowned 
 him, and placed him on his throne. Then uncovering, he said, 
 "I salute you as grand Tsar of Eussia ; you receive from me the 
 honour for which you were so ambitious; but if I have had 
 the power to create you a sovereign, I have also that to de- 
 throne you." At these words Ivan plunged his dagger into 
 the heart of the old man (1567). 
 
 The Prince Tchematef escaped to a monastery and re- 
 nounced all. The "brothers" snatched him from his cell and 
 killed him with frightful tortures. An immense number of 
 nobles perished. The "brothers," armed with long daggers 
 and hatchets, rushed everywhere, seeking fresh victims. In the 
 streets, upon the open spaces, everywhere, were seen bodies of 
 the dead that no one dared to bury. The citizens feared to go 
 out ; a profound silence reigned in Moscow, which was only 
 interrupted by the ferocious cries of the executioners of the 
 Tsar. The good people flew to the metropolitan, groaning at 
 the streets stained with blood. He promised them to save his 
 compatriots or die in the attempt. Ivan and his suite ap- 
 peared in the cathedral in black. The prelate refused to bless: 
 bim; and reproached him with worshipping God while his hands 
 E. 7 
 
98 IVAJf THE , TERRIBLE. 
 
 were reeking with innocent blood. Ivan raged, and ordered 
 greater massacres. Having cast the old prelate naked into a 
 dungeon, loaded with chains, Ivan abandoned himself to ferocity. 
 He began to exterminate whole towns. Nothing disarmed his 
 barbarity. In June, 1566, a plague commenced and devastated 
 large cities, one after another; people died quite suddenly. 
 A cordon of troops cut off aU communication. In ELazan 
 appeared suddenly an innumerable number of rats, and de- 
 voured the wheat everywhere: in vain did the labourers 
 attempt to stop their ravages: they came from the snowy 
 forests. With foreign countries Ivan conducted the affairs of 
 state with grandeur and eclat. (A clear proof of sanity.) 
 
 Marie, the second wife of Ivan, died on the 1st September, 
 1569. Anastasie had borne away into the tomb all the vir- 
 tues of Ivan, if he had any; but Marie seemed to have be- 
 queathed to him the faculty of surpassing himself in the career 
 of cruelties. Ivan now spread the report that the latter prin- 
 cess had been poisoned, like the Princess Anastasie, by secret 
 machinations. The Prince Vladimir was yet living, but Ivan 
 stUl nourished the memory of the faults he had committed six- 
 teen years before. He had already pardoned him and assigned 
 to him a handsome residence in the Kremlin. He tenderly in- 
 vited this cousin to visit him at Nijni-Novgorod. Ivan prepared 
 his death in the following manner : — He employed the palace 
 cook to declare that Yladimir had given him money to destroy 
 Ivan by poison. He with his wife and two little boys were 
 brought before the Tsar, protesting their innocence. " Traitors," 
 cried he, " you have prepared poison for me, and now you shall 
 drink it instead." His wife, Eudoxia, a lady of high birth and 
 virtue, seeing that there was no hope and their murderer had 
 no pity, dried her tears and said to her husband with firmness, 
 " Our death is no suicide, it is the tyrant who poisons us — it is 
 better to die by the hand of the Tsar than by the executioner." 
 Vladimir took his last farewell of his wife, and drank the cup 
 to the dregs ; Eudoxia and her children followed his example, 
 praying together. The poison began to operate. Ivan remained 
 to witness their convulsions and death; he then called the 
 ladies and servants of the princess, saying, " Behold the bodies of 
 
IVAX THE TERRIBLE. 99 
 
 my enemies; you were iu their service, but I will be clement 
 towards you, and grace you with your life." Seized with horror, 
 they cried out with one voice, "Sanguinary monster, we want 
 none of your pity, we execrate you; tear us in pieces, we despise 
 life and torment." Thus did they brave death and shame. 
 Ivan ordered them to be stripped naked and shot. These 
 murders seemed to rouse the generous seatiments of Russia to 
 a state of wild excitement. The people forgot to fear, and 
 ■wept in their houses and temples. They did not believe in the, 
 accusation, they saw only a fratricide goaded rather by hatred 
 than inspired by suspicion. 
 
 Ivan seemed only to be waiting for excuses to immolate 
 fresh victims. A vagabond, named Peter, a native of Volhynia, 
 had been chastised at Novgorod for bad conduct ; he, deter- 
 mined to be revenged, wrote a forged letter in the name of 
 the archbishop, and secreted it behind the image of the Virgin 
 in the Church of St Sophia. He then fled to Moscow, and 
 declared to the Tsar that Novgorod was betraying Russia. But 
 this required proof. The subtle conspirator said he could 
 easily give the proof. The Tsar ordered his confidant to go 
 with him to Novgorod, he then indicated the position of the 
 letter. The letter was found, in which it was stated that the 
 archbishop, clergy, and the whole population were plotting a 
 submission to Poland. 
 
 In December, 1569, the Tsar, with his son Ivan, all his 
 court, and his diabolical banditti, went to the ancient town 
 Twer ; he thought that all its inhabitants were his secret ene- 
 mies ; his favourite guards, at his signal, destroyed every one 
 they could find. One of his myrmidons, Malutar, was sent to 
 destroy the holy old saint, Philip, living in a monastery. The 
 old man divined the object of the assassin, and said to him with 
 gentleness, " For a long time I have waited for death, let the 
 will of the sovereign be accomplished." The other members of 
 the convent buried their master in the presence of his mur- 
 derer. His relics were transported afterwards to Moscow, in 
 1652, where they are still regarded with the veneration of the 
 faithful. Ivan now began his public amusements, torturing 
 and rending the inhabitants in pieces, imitating the diaboli- 
 
 7—2 
 
lOO IVAN TEH TERRIBLE. 
 
 cal cruelties of the Tartars, who were there in 1327. Novgorod 
 •was next attacked. He proceeded in this manner: — All the 
 towns were iSrst depopulated on his route. Of all the monks 
 twenty roubles a head were demanded, those who could not pay 
 were deliberately flogged from morning till night ; the next day 
 all the monks who failed to pay were beaten to death with 
 clubs and sent back to their monasteries for interment. He 
 now invited to dinner — after mass in the church, where he 
 prayed with great fervour — all his boyards at the episcopal 
 palace, in the midst of which he uttered a terrible shout ; at 
 this sudden signal his satellites appeared, seized the archbishop 
 and all his retinue, devastating the church, the palace, the town, 
 and the rich monasteries. Then he commenced the judgments, 
 which were presided over by himself and his son. Every day 
 they brought before them five hundred or a thousand Novgorod- 
 ians, who were immediately felled, tortured, or burnt by com- 
 bustible compositions, or, attached to sledges by the head or 
 feet, were drawn to the river side, and were precipitated into 
 the water from the bridge — whole families, wives with their 
 husbands, mothers with their infants ; while the Muscovites, in 
 boats, armed with clubs, spears, and hatchets, pursued them 
 upon the river. 
 
 This massacre lasted five weeks, and finished with a general 
 sack. Ivan, this human devil, followed by his legion of fiends, 
 visited all the neighbouring m.onasteries, stole all the treasures of 
 the churches, razed the buildings, destroyed the horses and cattle, 
 and burnt the grain. Novgorod was wasted. The Tsar pranced 
 about the streets, looking at his greedy soldiers besieging the 
 houses and the magazines, forcing the gates and entering the 
 windows and enjoying the piUage and the extermination of the 
 inhabitants effected without distinction and without question. 
 
 It was now the second week in Lent, the 12th February, 
 1570. The Tsar ordered all the remainder of the inhabitants 
 to appear before him. Spectral, pale, emaciated by despair 
 and terror, and awaiting the stroke of death, they were as- 
 tonished to see that Ivan regarded them with a look of clemency 
 and kindness. The fury which had flashed in his eyes was 
 extinguished like a frightful meteor. He addressed them kindly, 
 
IVAN TEE TERRIBLE. lOI 
 
 — "Inhabitants of Novgorod, you who have preserved life, 
 pray God to give us a happy reign, pray for our soldiers, faith- 
 ful servants of Jesus Christ, in order that we may tr'.umph 
 over our enemies visible and invisible. Now let tears and 
 groans cease and your grief and regrets be calmed ; live and 
 prosper in Novgorod. I leave you, return in peace to your 
 dwellings." About 60,000 men were slain at Novgorod; the 
 citizens buried in a field, near the Church of the Nativity, 
 10,000 bodies without rites. But a poor beggar was seen at 
 this touching spectacle, named Ivan Igatzo, who alone during the 
 Eeign of terror had interred the dead and prayed for them. 
 
 . Ivan next reserved Pskof for the same fate as Novgorod, 
 but its prince, by a happy audacity, snatched the city from 
 destruction. When the citizens were affrighted at the approach 
 of Ivan, he caused the bells of all the churches to peal loudly. 
 Ivan's heart softened strangely; the idea that God might listen 
 to the people in their distress seemed to touch him to the quick. 
 In an inexplicable pang of pity he said to his generals, "Blunt 
 your swords upon the stones, let the slaughter cease." The 
 next day, by the counsel of the prince, the citizens presented 
 themselves at the head of their families, and offered to Ivan 
 bread and salt, blessing him. "Sire," said they, "receive frorn us, 
 your faithful subjects, this bread and salt, offered with our 
 love ; dispose of our lives and possessions, for all we have is 
 yours." This unexpected submission pleased Ivan; but a 
 hermit, Nicholas, appeared on the scene : he feigned madness 
 and offered to the sovereign a piece of raw meat; but the prince 
 said, "I am a Christian, and I do not eat meat in Lent." The 
 anchorite replied, "You do worse, you are nourished with 
 human blood and flesh, forgetting not only Lent, but God 
 himself." Then, in a threatening tone, he predicted horrible 
 woes against Ivan, and inspired him with such fear that he 
 retreated immediately; and thus the town was spared. "We 
 omit the narrative of still greater horrors detailed by Russian 
 historians. (Keen examples of Russian Christianity.) 
 ***** 
 
 Ivan, however, had spared the riches of the priests and 
 monks in general, but he could not resist the temptation of 
 
I02 IVAJff^ THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 carrying off the treasures of the convents, some sacred vessels, 
 images, and books. And bidding farewell to the ancient 
 country of the celebrated Olga, urged by a superstitious dread, 
 he proceeded towards the capital, with the insatiable desire of 
 assuaging an unquenchable lust for slaughter, in the search 
 for new victims. His private physician, Arnolphe Lensey, 
 his secret confidant, was the recipient, at night, of his horrid 
 meditations. He arrived at Moscow. 
 
 He suddenly tortured, and finally executed before the eyes of 
 the Moscowites, a number of distinguished people in a manner 
 utterly astounding: even they, accustomed to horror, became 
 unspeakably shocked. Ivan's eldest son was the active and 
 murderous assistant of his father. 
 
 It is impossible to describe this new reign of terror. France 
 and Spain have had their tortures and massacres; even the 
 Inquisition had the semblance of piety. But these Russian 
 barbarities had no religious motive whatever. They were 
 imperial amusements : quite as much so as the gladiatorial 
 spectacles of ancient Rome. But these men saluted the 
 Emperor, and died, according to their ideas, gloriously, sword 
 in hand, amid the plaudits of a nation. Compare these im- 
 molations with the Russian pandemonium — "All eyes averted in 
 horror," except those of the perpetrators. We translate literally : 
 " On the 25th of July, 1570, in the midst of the grand market- 
 place were seen erected eighteen platforms (in the quarter 
 called Kitai-Gorod) : instruments of torture were displayed : 
 enormous piles of wood were lighted, above which was sus- 
 pended an immense copper filled with water\ At these 
 dreadful preparations, the Moscowites felt their last hour had 
 arrived : and believed the Tsar was about to destroy both them 
 and their city, all at once. Lost in affright, they fied, abandon- 
 ing their shops, houses, goods, and money, only hoping for 
 concealment. The whole city was deserted : only a few Opritch- 
 nicks stood round the torture-places, stirring up the fires, in 
 deep silence. Suddenly the air resounded with the roll of 
 
 1 Guagnini 287, Taube et Knise, p. 225. These last authors relate that 
 Ivan awaited the departure of the Polish Ambassadors and the Duke Magnus 
 who were then at Moscow, in order to put these punishments into execution. 
 
IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 1 03 
 
 drums. The Tsar and his eldest son arrived on horseback ; 
 boyards, and the leaders of his infernal legion, marched in 
 fine order, followed by three hundred persons condemned, re- 
 sembling spectres, black and bruised, torn, ensanguined, and 
 scarcely able to drag themselves forward. Arrived at the place 
 of torture, Ivan cast his eyes around, and, surprised to observe 
 no spectators, ordered his familiars to assemble the inhabitants 
 on the spot. Impatient at the delay, he followed, calling the 
 people to come and witness the spectacle prepared : promising 
 them grace. They dared not disobey. They emerged from 
 holes and caves, and cellars, where they had hidden ; crowded 
 to the executions : and swarmed upon the walls. Then the 
 Tsar raised his voice : 
 
 " People of Moscow, you are going to witness tortures, and 
 executions. I punish some traitors. Answer me, my judgment 
 does it not appear to you just ?" Ivan granted life to 180 of 
 these tortured victims. The rest were disposed of in a manner 
 too horrible to describe. One of them was his treasurer, 
 Founikof, accused without cause, of treasons. "It is for the 
 last time," said the Tsar, "that I salute you upon earth, and 
 I pray God to accord you in the next world a reward worthy 
 of your actions." Tbese words were meant to be stinging 
 sarcasm, instantly illustrated by the deeds that followed'. In 
 a quarter of an hour they put to death about two hundred 
 men. It is significant that during these demoniacal proceed- 
 ings, the Tsar himself on horseback stabbed some with his 
 spear ; some were hung, or decapitated, others hacked in pieces. 
 After all was over, the assassins formed round the Tsar as their 
 chief, shouting ' the old Tartar cry, Hoida, Ho'ida, and glorified 
 his justice. The wretch, who was the inciter of these deeds, 
 rested three days at Moscow to bury the dead. On the fourth 
 day he commenced again. 
 
 ******** 
 
 "It is impossible to read," says Karamsin, "without a groan, 
 in the memoirs of the contemporary writers, the details of 
 
 1 "They then poured, alternately, boiling and iced water upon his person 
 until he expired in horrible tormentfi." — The Russian historian, Karamsin, Vol. 
 IX. p. 199. Paris edition, 1823. 
 
I04 IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 these infernal inventions of tyranny'. Russia was petrified 
 with horror; but the palace of Ivan resounded with revelry 
 and joyous feasts. He delivered himself to pleasure, thronged 
 by assassins and actors, who brought with them bears from 
 Novgorod, and other places, which he let loose upon the people 
 who unwittingly approached the palace ; and roared with delight 
 at the horrible shrieks of the flying people, who were caught 
 ind torn by these ferocious and hungry animals. 
 
 ******** 
 
 "One of the principal amusements of the Tsar was a 
 numerous troop of court fools, whose duty it was to cause mer- 
 riment, both before and after his murders. A distinguished 
 member of this fraternity was Prince Gvozdef, of elevated rank. 
 On one occasion, discontented with one of his pleasantries, the 
 Tsar threw upon his head a bowl of boiling soup. The un- 
 fortunate man uttered a cry, and fled, but the Tsar was too 
 quick for him : he struck him with his knife : Gvozdef, bathed 
 in blood, fell senseless. Arnolphe, the doctor, was called. 
 ' Save my servant,' said Ivan, ' I have joked with him a little 
 too rudely.' ' So rudely,' said Arnolphe, ' that God alone, and 
 not your majesty, can give him back his life. He breathes 
 no more.' The Tsar, with a gesture of contempt, called the 
 dead a dog, and continued his amusements." (p. 207.) 
 
 Perhaps one of the most significant proofs of the dumb and 
 terrified submission of the Russian people to these nameless 
 deeds is given in the following relation by Karamsin : 
 
 " Another day, when the Tsar was at table, Boris Titof, Voie- 
 vode of Slavitza, presented himself, bowing to the earth, with 
 the accustomed address : ' May God preserve ' thee, my dear 
 Voievode !' said the Tsar, 'you merit a favour from me;' and 
 taking a knife he cut off an ear ! Titof, without the least sign 
 of pain, and without change of expression, thanked the Tsar for 
 his gracious punishment, and wished him a happy reign''. 
 Plunged in sensuality, the Tsar seemed often to tire of his plea- 
 
 ' "They constructed peculiar torture furnaces : made pincers : iron claws ; long 
 spindles : they cut off their limbs piecemeal, they sawed them in two with cords : 
 flayed them in strips: scorched them to death," &c. , Karamsin, Vol. ix. p. 205. 
 
 ' Karamsin gives this account from Guagnini, p. 254. 
 
' IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 105 
 
 sures, refused meats and liquors, and abandoned feasts : then, 
 with a voice of thunder, he would call his legion, mount his 
 horse, and rush to the massacres. A man of spirit once nearly 
 slew him with a spear, but his son, always at his side, snatched 
 away his weapon, and slew the courageous Bykovsky, who 
 would have been worthy of the name of the Russian Tell. 
 The son Ivan intended to destroy in the minds of the people all 
 hope that his reign would be less cruel than his father's : after 
 killing more than a hundred persons, he would return to the 
 palace amidst the Tartar shouts of the legion — ' Hoida, Hoida,' 
 and again sit down to dinner : yet some dared to reproach the 
 Tsar at his own table. He had compelled Mitkof to empty a 
 cup of wiue-hydromeP : then this courageous man cried out, ' O 
 Tsar, you order us to drink with you hydromel, mixed with 
 the blood of Christians, our brothers.' At these words, Ivan 
 felled him with his iron mace. Mitkof, having made the sign of 
 the Cross, expired, praying. Such," says our author, "were the 
 Tsar and his subjects : which astonish us the most ? If he was 
 not the greatest of tyrants, they were the most resigned of vic- 
 tims, because they regarded the sovereign power as that of God 
 himself. Tyranny appeared to them an effect of celestial anger 
 punishing their sins, and, full of faith and hope, they awaited 
 the day of pity : but they feared not death, consoled by the idea 
 of another life, where virtue receives its recompense, (p. 208.) 
 
 " Let us close these tableaux of horror : pestilence and famine 
 aided the tyrant to depopulate Russia. It seemed that the 
 earth had lost its fertility, and cold or drought destroyed the 
 • meagre harvests gathered in : the excessive dearness of pro- 
 visions in the markets caused the poor to howl with despair. 
 The famine exceeded all others on record. In an open country, 
 the pallid exhausted wretches expired on the roads. But there 
 was no open revolt : only private murders for the sake of ob- 
 taining sustenance". A pestilence now began to ravage the 
 remainder. All travellers without passports entering Russia 
 were ordered to be burnt with their horses to stop the infection." 
 
 Notwithstanding the atrocities of Ivan, the meek, submis- 
 
 • Probably red wine. 
 
 2 See despatcb, dated Aug. 8, 1571, p. 115. 
 
lo6 IVAN ^ THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 sive, and superstitious Slavs adored the tyrant still. A me- 
 morable instance of fidelity is given in the following anecdote : 
 
 " Nothing," writes a Livonian author, " neither tortures nor 
 dishonour, could weaken Russian devotion to the Tsar." The 
 Prince Sougorsky, ambassador to Germany in 1576, fell sick 
 en route in Courland. Its duke frequently inquired of his 
 health. The only reply was incessantly, "My health matters 
 nothing, provided my sovereign's prospers." The minister, 
 surprised, said — "How can you serve a tyrant with so much 
 zeal ? " He replied, " We Russians are always devoted to our 
 Tsars, good or cruel." To prove this, the sick envoy repeated 
 this story — " My master Ivan had impaled a man of mark for 
 a light fault, who for twenty-four hours, in his dying agonies, 
 talked with his family, and without ceasing kept repeating — 
 " Great God, protect the Tsar" (Vol. ix. p. 344.) 
 
 The priesthood remained passive until Ivan dared to set the 
 
 laws of the Church at defiance by marrying a fifth wife, Anna'. 
 
 She however soon died and was buried. His sixth wife was a 
 
 widow. There was no marriage ceremony. Ivan contented 
 
 himself with the blessing of his confessor. 
 
 ****** 
 
 Ivan returned triumphant to Moscow. The Khan was 
 subdued, the Sultan no longer thought of war. Lithuania and 
 Poland desired the friendship of Russia. Famine and plague 
 disappeared. It seemed as though Heaven wished to soften 
 the heart of a sovereign who had proved by the horrors of an 
 unparallelled tyranny the unquenchable fideKty of his subjects. 
 
 To their joyous astonishment he suddenly abolished his guard 
 of satellites, which for seven years had brought ruin and woe 
 to the country. The Russians dared to hope that the time of 
 injustice had passed, and that they would again live in peace 
 and security. Ivan justified these hopes by a few acts of 
 equitable rule. It seemed as though Providence had not 
 abandoned Russia to a blind fatality. 
 
 Boris Godounof, a man whose noble nature was tainted with 
 excessive ambition, had for a time a good influence over his 
 sovereign, and it may be that it was he who contrived the 
 suppression of his guard. 
 
IVAN TEE TERRIBLE. 1 07 
 
 The "brotherhood," so fatal to Moscow, had ceased to exist, 
 says Karamsin, but Tyranny was not yet satiated with victims. 
 
 In 1577 Livonia had been conquered. We shall now see 
 how cowardice is natural to a tyrant. Ivan appears on the 
 page of history for the last time as a demon of darkness. 
 
 This is the sixth epoch of massacres. Prince Michael was 
 accused by one of his serfs of seeking the aid of magicians to 
 compass the death of the Tsar. He defended himself in the 
 following words, "Sire, I serve with zeal God and my sovereign, 
 and I have recourse in my sorrows to the altars of the Most 
 High, and not to sorcerers. The slave who calumniates me is 
 a fugitive and a robber, how can you believe his testimony ? " 
 Still, though seemingly convinced, Ivan would not spare, and 
 himself helped to pile the faggots round the body of the prince. 
 
 Our limits do not admit of giving in detail this epoch of 
 
 massacres, and we gladly pass on to an interesting episode in 
 Ivan's diplomatic life. 
 
 Whilst involved in a war with Poland he heard that Veliki- 
 Louki was taken. From his retreat at Alexandrovsky he 
 sent envoys to Varsovie to treat for peace. They were ordered 
 to return to the Tsar with this reply, "I shall never accord 
 either embassy, peace or treaty, until the Russian army has 
 evacuated Livonia." Ivan humbled himself even to enjoining 
 his messengers to bear meekly any insults and injuries 
 heaped upon them. " Thus," says the Eussian historian, " a 
 Tsar of Muscovy drained to the dregs the cup of opprobrium; 
 eternal shame that he merits." 
 
 Not succeeding with this humility, Ivan wrote thus to the 
 king, "Treason has made you master of Polotsk, and by a 
 solemn manifesto you are now trying to seduce my people, 
 and engage them to betray their sovereign, their conscience 
 and their God. You fight with perfidy for weapons, not with 
 the sword, and your soldiers mutilate the dead with a bar- 
 barous atrocity. I desire peace ; you encourage murders ; I 
 make sacrifices ; you raise new pretensions ; and, to crown all, 
 you demand gold for having iniquitously and disloyally devas- 
 tated my realm.... Man of blood, remember there is a God!" 
 
 The king of Poland replied to this letter by a third cam- 
 
lo8 IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 paign, preceded by a despatch of surpassing piquancy. He 
 wrote, "You reproach me with having mutilated the dead; 
 'tis a calumny: it is certain that you torture the living: you 
 accuse me of perfidy ; you, author of false treaties, fraudently 
 altered in their sense by the insertion of articles which favour 
 
 your mad ambition Where are you, Qod of the Russians, 
 
 as your wretched slaves are compelled to call you ? We see 
 neither you nor your vaunted standard of the Cross. You 
 terrify the Russians, but not your enemies, with your crucifix. 
 If it be true that you would spare Christian blood, I challenge 
 you to mortal combat, body to body ; name the time and the 
 place, and may God defend the right ! " (p. 407.) 
 
 Ivan, on hearing this despatch, said to the Polish envoy, 
 " We will reply to our brother. King Etienne." Then rising 
 from his seat, continued, "Make our complinxents to your 
 sovereign." 
 
 Pope Gregory now came on the scene. He formed a scheme 
 for, as he said, christianizing Europe, and wished for Ivan's 
 co-operation in attempting to overthrow the Turks. The pope 
 promised to induce Poland to be at peace with Russia, in 
 return for which he expected Ivan would merge the Greek in 
 the Catholic faith. Ivan refused this; but would gladly 
 assist in the destruction of the Ottoman empire. Gregory's 
 Jesuit ambassador, Antoine Klenchen, was treated with great 
 affability and condescension by the Tsar. 
 
 He returned to Poland and found Etienne surrounded by 
 his splendid troops. An Ottoman ambassador on beholding 
 them exclaimed, "If only the Sultan and Batory would league 
 together they might conquer the world." 
 
 On the 25th of August, 1581, Batory, the king of Poland, 
 began the siege of Pskof. The siege lasted three years, but 
 the Russian priests did good service when the defenders were 
 killed in the breaches by showers of balls ; the Russian defend- 
 ers were about to fly, but were rallied by the appearance of 
 the priests carrying the image of the Virgin and the relics 
 of St Gabriel. The Russians, inspired by the sight, shouted, 
 " We will not abandon our protectors the relics;" then, even the 
 women armed with spears fell upon the Poles. A Te Deum 
 
IVAN THE TEliRIBLE. 109 
 
 ■was sung for the repulse. Ivan trembled with affright at the 
 successes, also, of invading Swedes; he thought not of the re- 
 sources of Russia, he could see nothing but the force of the 
 enemy, and he placed all his hopes in the pope's Jesuit, An- 
 toine, who ere long wrote from the camp of Batory that Ivan 
 might obtain peace on certain conditions, and for this purpose 
 he awaited the Russian plenipotentiaries. During this siege 
 the Russians had made no less than forty-six sorties. 
 
 A treaty of peace was concluded amidst very lively discus- 
 sions during many days. On one occasion, in a moment of 
 vivacity, the humble Jesuit, Antoine, snatched from the hands of 
 the writer the minutes of the treaty, which he threw down on 
 the ground, and took the Russian dignitary by the throat. Ivan 
 lost Livonia by this arrangement, but he caused himself to be 
 designated in the treaty which despoiled him, as Sovereign and 
 Tsar of Livonia, in the sense of being Emperor, the very thing 
 that the Polish papal ambassadors would not agree to 
 
 " The three years' war was disastrous to Russia and more 
 ignominious for Ivan than glorious for the Poles. With an 
 army as numerous as that of Xerxes he surrendered with 
 Livonia the honour and interest of his country to the exhausted 
 remnant of a medley of foreign troops. 
 
 " For nearly 600 years Russia had governed the savage in- 
 habitants of Livonia from the reign of Vladimir the Great, and 
 had levied tribute in the province of Dorpat ! 
 
 " Yet the people, sighing for peace, blessed the end of a dis- 
 astrous war." Ivan wrote to Queen Elizabeth, requesting an 
 asylum, which she granted graciously. 
 
 The Tsar Ivan prepared for Russia a second self in the 
 person of his eldest son Ivan, the particular object of his affec- 
 tions. He busied him in the affairs of state. A companion of 
 his debaucheries and murders, Ivan determined that this young 
 prince should not blush for his father whose first two wives 
 had been forced to take the veil. The son entirely imitated the 
 caprices of the father as regards his wives and concubines. We 
 must remember, his education had frightfully hardened his heart, 
 but though plunged in dissipation he displayed a fine diplomatic 
 spirit, and keenly felt the ignominy of his country. 
 
no IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 Whilst peace was being arranged, touched with the general 
 grief of the nation at its humiliation, the Tsarevitch was ani- 
 mated by a noble zeal. He arose in the Hall of Council, and 
 crossed over to his father and demanded to be sent at the head 
 of an army, to drive away the enemy, and restore the honour of 
 Russia. Karamsin continues (p. 447) : 
 
 "This generous sentiment excited the fury of Ivan. 'Rebel,' 
 shouted he, 'you would dethrone me in concert with the 
 boyards.' He raised his arm against his son ; Boris rushed in 
 vain to stop him, the Tsar with his mace inflicted many wounds, 
 and one violent blow upon his head felled his unfortunate 
 son to the ground. At this sight the father's fury vanished. 
 Stricken with horror, pale, and quivering, Ivan shrieked with 
 accents of despair, 'Wretch that I am, I have slain my son ! ' He 
 cast himself upon him weeping, he embraced him, trying to 
 staunch the blood which streamed from a deep wound, he 
 raised great cries for the help of physicians. He implored the 
 pity of God and the pardon of his son... but divine justice was 
 
 about to accomplish its own decrees The Tsarevitch kissed the 
 
 hands of his father and lavished upon him tender signs of love 
 and compassion, telling him not to abandon himself to despair." 
 
 "The gladiator fell with grace, not through a vile pride, 
 but by an effort of charity, in order to assuage the remorse of 
 his culpable father. He protested with his dying breath his 
 fidelity, his submission to the legitimate sovereign of Russia, 
 and he died kissing the hands that had killed him, blessing God, 
 his father, and his country.... What a tragedy ! never had pagan 
 or Christian Rome produced anything more noble than these 
 long adieus , between the son of Ivan and his father." " If the 
 Russians," continues Custine, " know not how to be humane, they 
 know sometimes how to rise above humanity." The Russian, more 
 severe, revokes in doubt the sincerity of Ivan's grief. "It is true 
 that it endured a while, but I do not believe it was sincere." 
 
 He expired, says Karamsin, four hours afterwards, in the 
 horrible retreat Alexandrovsky. In the midst of those very 
 walls, where, year by year, the innocent were slain, the Tsar, 
 with haggard eye, stupefied, remained many days, sitting near 
 the body of his victim, refusing food and sleep. At the funeral 
 
IFAJff THE TERRIBLE. Ill 
 
 rites, despoiled of the marks of his dignity, covered with dingy 
 vestments, he rent the air with his cries, and dashed his head 
 against the ground and the coffin of his son. "Behold," says the 
 Russian narrator, "how celestial judgment falls sometimes in this 
 world upon monsters of inhumanity." For some days he was 
 ahandoned to the most violent anguish. In the middle of the 
 night, as if horrified by spectres, he woke with a start, fell upon 
 his bed, uttering frightful shrieks. In the trouble of his soul he 
 convoked the boyards, and addressed them gravely : " The 
 hand of God is heavy upon me, nothing remains but to finish 
 my days in a monastery. Theodore, my second son, could not 
 reign long; choose, then, a worthy monarch ; I surrender to him 
 at this moment my sceptre and realms." His subjects, with 
 that astonishing submission and devotion, which might be 
 called abject, replied, unanimously, "Do not abandon us; we 
 wish no other sovereign than those which God has given us — 
 you and your son." Ivan went into mourning; he imposed 
 upon himself penances, and sent 10,000 roubles to the patri- 
 archs of Constantinople, Antioch, and Jerusalem, engaging 
 them to pray God for the repose of his son's soul. Little by 
 little his agitation was becalmed. 
 
 The Jesuit, Antoine, reappeared boasting that it was he that 
 had wrung the peace from Poland, and that in return he now 
 demanded the union of the Russian-Greek Church with the 
 Romish Church. " The Catholics," said Ivan to Antoine, " are 
 free to live among us according to their religion without re- 
 proach or shame ; let that suffice." It is curious to remark 
 that Antoine rated the Russians roundly for their bizarre man- 
 ners as compared with the rest of Europe. For instance, the 
 Tsar, whenever he let the German ambassadors kiss his hand, 
 instantly washed it in their presence, as if soiled by their 
 touch. Here ceased, for a long time, all relations between Rome 
 and Moscow. 
 
 In 1572, English commerce with Russia recommenced with 
 new vigour. Queen Elizabeth wrote to Ivan that the English 
 sailors were made by the king of Denmark to pay toll for their 
 passage towards Russia. Soxne letters were exchanged. Ivan, 
 in a letter to her, complains that the queen did not kiss the 
 
112 1 7 AN THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 cross upon his letter in the presence of his ambassador, and that 
 her merchants behaved themselves very ill. Nevertheless, 
 Ivan entertained a personal friendship for Elizabeth. The 
 English agents at Moscow, indeed, highly lauded her grand 
 qualities, described her jioble figure, amiability, good intentions, 
 and friendship for the Tsar. Ivan, already married for the 
 sixth or seventh time, and knowing the pregnancy of Marie, his 
 last wife, earnestly sought for an illustrious English bride, in 
 order to strengthen his alliance with Elizabeth. The affair is 
 so remarkable in English history that some particulars are here 
 inserted. Robert Jacobi, a physician of the English court, 
 arrived at Moscow in the summer 1581, bringing a letter from 
 the English queen. She wrote, " I yield up to you, my dear 
 brother, a most skilful physician, who, although very useful to 
 me, is more necessary to you. You may abandon your health 
 to him in all confidence. I send with him apothecaries and 
 surgeons (expddids de gr^ ou de force), although, indeed, we 
 have not enough of these people for ourselves." 
 
 Ivan now asked Robert if he could find in England either a - 
 widow or a girl worthy the hand of a sovereign. " I know only 
 one," he replied, " it is Marie Hastings, thirty years of age, and 
 daughter of the Count of Huntingdon, a rich prince, and niece 
 of the Queen on her mother's side." 
 
 Jacobi captivated the imagination of Ivan by the picture he 
 drew of Marie, and a gentleman was immediately despatched to 
 London, instructed to form an intimate alliance and make most 
 particular inquiries as to the relation of Marie to the queen, 
 her real rank, and how many brothers and sisters she had, and 
 to obtain the most complete information as to her personal 
 charms. Also to declare that Marie must embrace the Greek 
 religion, that Feodor was the rightful heir, and that her 
 issue should have particular possessions or estates. The envoy 
 was very highly honoured. The Queen rose as Ivan's name 
 was pronounced, took some steps forward, and received the 
 letter and the presents of the Tsar, saying, with a smile, that 
 she knew not the Russian language. She then inquired after 
 the health of her friend, testified her regret at the death of his 
 son, and, in a word, shewed a great deal of good-humour and. 
 
IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 1 13 
 
 affability, upon which the envoy declared to her the attach- 
 ment of the Tsar for her, and his preference for her above all 
 other European sovereigns; she replied, "I love him also with 
 sincerity, and I earnestly desire to see him some day with my 
 own eyes." On the ISth January the queen sent for the 
 Russian envoy, and received him alone. She informed him 
 that Marie Hastings, only distinguished by her moral qualities, 
 could not be pleasing to a prince who was a notorious lover of 
 beauty. "Besides," added Elizabeth, "she has just had the smallr 
 pox, and you cannot see her in that state, neither can she have 
 her portrait painted whilst her face is purple and marked with 
 this malady." Notwithstanding, the Russian ambassador still 
 insisted on seeing her; he waited many months, hoping to be 
 gratified. The queen then sent an envoy to Ivan, and offered to 
 send him the portraits of ten or more of the fairest and noblest 
 of English maidens; but his illness and approaching death 
 interfered with any further matrimonial aspirations, 1584. 
 
 Ivan still expected to live many years, enjoying apparent 
 health; but his excessive passions and vices had destroyed his 
 constitution. In the winter of 1584 appeared a comet in the form 
 of a cross. The Tsar observed it attentively for a long time, and 
 then said to those around him, '•Behold the omen of my death!' 
 Haunted by this idea, he gathered sixty astrologers from various 
 parts. He housed them in Moscow, and sent Belsky daily to 
 discuss the comet. The monarch was soon seized with an 
 alarming illness; the astrologers declared he had only a few 
 days to live. He swore that he would have them burnt 
 alive if they had the audacity to spread the report. Before 
 he died he exhorted his son Feodor to reign with piety, love, 
 and clemency, and to avoid wars with Christians. A mournful 
 silence reigned in the court; for a court always weeps, or feigns 
 to weep, when a monarch is dying. Forgetting the cruelties 
 of the Tsar, the citizens, prostrated in the temples, made vows 
 for his restoration. Persecuted families — the widows and 
 orphans of his fury — implored heavenly aid in his favour. 
 And he, on the verge of the tomb, causing himself to be carried 
 into the room where his treasures were stored, gazed fondly 
 at his precious jewels. Was this man a repenting sinner, was 
 K. 8 
 
114 I^-^N THE TERRIBLE. 
 
 he thinking of the awful judgments of his God ? After a time 
 he became delirious, he called aloud for the son whom he had 
 slain, he imagined he saw him, and spoke to him tenderly. 
 On the I7th of March he appeared a little better, and said 
 to Belsky, "Go, put to death those impostors, the astrologers; 
 they foretold this as the day of my death, and I feel myself 
 stronger." He took a bath, afterwards returned to his bed and 
 rested for some time. Then he arose, asked for a chess- 
 board, and, sitting on the bed, he arranged the pieces for a game 
 with Belsky. Suddenly he fell, and closed his eyes for ever. 
 His country mourned him, and why? 
 
 Karamsins Character of Ivan the Terrible. 
 
 " The Russian treasury was enriched with foreign commerce, 
 by exchanges of merchandise, by taxes imposed upon her 
 towns and people, and especially by the disendowment of many 
 of the domains of the Church. By these means arsenals were 
 established, containing 2000 cannon, fortresses and luxurious 
 palaces were built. The fetes and grand entertainments held 
 in Moscow astonished all foreigners. One dinner lasted five 
 or six hours, and comprised 700 guests. At the Kremlin, 2000 
 allied Tartars were sumptuously dined on their way to Livonia. 
 In Ivan's triumphant progresses, his guards were covered with 
 gold : their armour and harness brilliantly polished. The 
 whole offered a spectacle of Asiatic magnificence. When Ivan 
 presided at a review, 5000 of the elite of his legion, five abreast, 
 opened the march : then followed hundreds of princes, voievodes, 
 
 and dignitaries marching three abreast ahead of the Tsar 
 
 In the Church ceremonies, Ivan exhibited the same astonishing 
 magnificence in the sight of the people ; in whose memory 
 the brilliant celebrity of their monarch survived all the more 
 sombre reflections. The silent witnesses of these Russian 
 atrocities were profoundly buried at the bottom of the archives : 
 while in the course of ages, Kazan, Astrakan, and Siberia were 
 imperishable monuments of his glory. The Russians who 
 revere in him the illustrious author of their power and their 
 civilization, have rejected, or forgotten, the NAME OF Ttbaxt, 
 
irAiY THE TERRIBLE. i 1 5 
 
 which his contemporaries had bestowed upon him." Thus 
 apologizes the Russian historian for the pride still felt by the 
 people for the name of Ivan the Terrible. 
 
 Extracts from State Papers. 
 
 The earliest notices of diplomatic intercourse between Eussia and Great 
 Britain as given in the English State papers are as follows : — 
 
 1515, April. Sir Robert Wingfield to Henry VIII. 
 
 The King of Poland is coming here with a great company to treat matters in 
 variance between him and the Great Euss of Bussia. 
 
 1515, May 20. The same to the same. 
 The Duke of Eussye hath now, in the absence of the King of Poland, given a 
 great overthrow to the said King of Polls army. 
 
 1515, Sep. 7. The same to the same. 
 Wrote last on the first from Insbroke. The Emperor arrived the same night 
 and on the 3rd went hunting with Jemsis (Chamoi). An Embassy came that 
 day from the Great Eusse of Eussye. 
 
 1517. 
 The Pope will endeavour to induce the Scythians and Tartars who border on 
 the Eussians (Euthani) and Moldavians to join as mercenaries. 
 
 The King of Poland will join the French king, and together wiU attack 
 Philippopohs and Adrianople, and if successful garrison them with Tartars. 
 
 Aug. 8, 1571. Antony Jenkins to Lord Burley. 
 
 He stopped at Kolmogarod by a great plague which is raging. The late 
 Eussian Ambassador slandered the English nation to Ivan, which caused him 
 to take away from them all commercial privileges. This country has been 
 plagued many ways, the people have been forced to eat bread made of bark 
 of trees, and it is reported in some places they have eaten one another. Also 
 the prince has by sundry torments put to death a great number of his people, 
 chiefly of his nobiUty, gentlemen and principal merchants. Further, the 
 plaguers consumed by credible report this last year above 300,000. Besides all 
 this "the Crymes," a vaUant nation of Tartars, in the latter end of May invaded 
 this realm, gave the prince an overthrow in the field, burnt and consumed all 
 the country before them, and coming to Moscow set it on fire, not leaving one 
 house standing. 
 
 The number of those burnt, besides those carried away captive, is thought to 
 be above 300,000. A just punishment for such a wicked nation. It is to be 
 doubted that the " Cryme " will be here again next year. 
 
 (Colmogar., 8 Aug. 1571.) 
 
 8—2 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PETER TEE GREAT. 
 
 In comparing Peter the Great, that truly great and -wonderful 
 man, with a predecessor like Ivan the Terrible, we may dis- 
 tinguish some points of similarity in the two monarchs. It is 
 true that the former possessed many brilhant qualities totally 
 lacking in the latter ; but they seem to have been equals in 
 cruelty and bloodthirstiness. 
 
 The genius of Peter, so daring, comprehensive and potent, 
 completely outshone that of all former monarchs. His direct- 
 ness, self-denial, energy and perseverance ; his sagacity, pene- 
 tration and acquirements, far in advance of his time, equally 
 glorify his name and reign ; his humour, tranquillity and se- 
 verity; his powers of invention and command of men and 
 things surprise an attentive student of his life. 
 
 He, single-handed, succeeded in reducing the chaos of a 
 nation to the order of a trained regiment — obedient, passive, 
 unhesitating and fearless. The life of this tremendous cha- 
 racter has been so well and often painted that it would be 
 presumption to attempt it anew. Nevertheless a few points 
 are worthy of note here. 
 
 Peter ascended the throne as already related', after sur- 
 mounting imminent dangers from incessant intrigues. His 
 principal idea, at this time, was the formation of a navy. This 
 happy inspiration came to him from seeing, for the first time, 
 an English wreck furnished with sails. His curiosity was 
 intense. He searched Russia for a shipwright to refit the 
 
 1 Page 33. 
 
PETER THE GREAT. WJ 
 
 wreck, and sailing in it on lakes, learned the art of the steers- 
 man and sailor. He commenced a fleet, and with it, when 
 finished, attacked Azof by sailing down the Don. Failing in 
 his first expedition, the next year he conquered the Turks and 
 seized the harbour and fortress. He now divined the subtle 
 policy of Ivan the Terrible in his contests with Livonia for a 
 seaport trading station. But the Black Sea did not open a 
 pathway to Europe. The forts of Riga and Finland, however, 
 might serve his purpose to emancipate him from the gross 
 Gothic and Asiatic ignorance which enslaved the superstitious 
 minds of his serfs. He was but twenty-four years of age when 
 these grand ideas pervaded his soul. He said that, uneducated 
 and inexperienced as he was in the magnificent arts of war and 
 peace in the west, he could accomplish nothing. He resolved 
 to make the tour of Europe, and not only study but practise 
 many of its handicrafts. There was no public opinion in 
 Russia for want of a press (there is no free press now). Peter 
 determined to revolutionize the country and remodel it, so soon 
 as he should have acquired the necessary basis. 
 
 He violated all the feelings of his people by these new 
 ideas. He was no longer a Tsar of the olden time. Where 
 had gone that splendid Asiatic pomp and pageantry which they 
 had so long been accustomed to adore at an awful distance, at 
 whose passage they prostrated themselves in the Eastern atti- 
 tude of worship ? There was the Tsar in a plain, ugly suit, 
 hasting hither and thither amongst his guards and artisans, 
 handling a gun or a hammer with equal facility. Such vulgar 
 deeds scandalized all feelings of hereditary reverence and awe. 
 Why should a Tsar endure bodily toils and labour like one of 
 the people ? 
 
 But Peter gradually increased his army, and served in it 
 from a drummer to a colonel. He raised the able to distinction, 
 regardless of rank ; he dispatched agents everywhere to foreign 
 parts and resolved to disappear himself on a similar errand. 
 This resolution appalled the people who existed only in the 
 presence of a Tsar. The consternation spread. The clergy 
 opposed all changes and enlightenment. Their laws were im- 
 mutable and sufficient. Their flocks were happy and satisfied. 
 
I 1 8 PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 It was true they understood not one word of the public prayers 
 offered for them in Slavonian ; but they paid their fees ; they 
 fasted ; th&y gorged ; they crossed themselves and bowed to their 
 family Bogs ; what more was requisite to be a perfect Christian ? 
 Foreign impregnation with heretical ideas was to them an 
 inexpressible horror; even a novelty in dress was a wicked 
 snare. Nobles, pastors, and their flocks met these innovations 
 in a terrified, obstinate, and almost ferocious attitude. But 
 Peter stood firm. Despotism and energy were there found 
 united in one single man. He awaited his hour : and it was at 
 hand. 
 
 So late as the beginning of the last century no European 
 costume could be worn in Russia without danger of insult to 
 the wearer. The abhorrence in which Europeans were held 
 was so great that the Russians then considered it a sacrilege 
 for them to assume the national costume. A London coat or 
 dress was a mark for scorn and abuse; and a Parisian dress 
 represented all manner of evil principles, habits and ideas, 
 abominable to the true Russian. Foreigners were obliged to 
 seek protection and isolate themselves in selected quarters. It 
 was Peter the Great, in many instances no iinfit representative 
 of Ivan the Terrible, who dared by edict to erase this almost 
 superstitious hatred against foreign dress. He would enter the 
 Hall of Audience habited in only a plain brown suit, whilst 
 the extreme pomp of his favourite Mentchikoff^ was a great 
 source of Imperial amusement. This low-bom prince would 
 never commence his dinner without fl.ourish of trumpet and. 
 other musical instruments. 
 
 The Imperial Guard or Strelitz joined the people in their 
 murmurs of discontent and in refusal to submit to these changes. 
 They planned the burning of the city and the assassination of 
 the Tsar ; no longer the idol of the people ; no longer the god 
 whom they had been accustomed to worship. 
 
 Two leaders, Tsikler and Sukanim, were the archconspi- 
 
 ' Bom on the Volga of poor parents, at 14 he sought a situation with a 
 pastry cook in Moscow. He sold pies in the streets. He was uneducated. 
 But a sweet voice brought him good custom. He was presented to the Tsar by 
 Lefort. He afterwords, it is said, frustrated an attempt to poison Peter. 
 
PETER THE GREAT. 1 19 
 
 rators. A great revel was ordered at Sukanim's house ; but 
 their resolution failed them under the effects of their carouse. 
 Two of the party fled to Peter and disclosed the plot. The 
 Tsar ordered out his troops for eleven at night instead of ten 
 by mistake. At ten, as he thought correct, he entered the 
 house ; in a moment he found himself alone with a drunken 
 mob swearing his destruction. He saw his peril : spoke famili- 
 arly to them one by one ; drank their health with apparent 
 heartiness and shamed the assassins. Peter watched them 
 narrowly. At last his enemies gi'ew bold. Sukanim exclaimed, 
 "Brothers, the time is come!" Peter at that instant heard 
 the tramp of his approaching guards, and with one blow upon 
 the traitor's face felled him to the ground, crying aloud, " Not 
 yet, villain ; it is not yet the time for you, scoundrel, it is the 
 time for me." The guards rushed in : a general consternation 
 seized the conspirators : they were loaded with chains. 
 
 Peter struck the captain of the guard in the face, reproach- 
 ing him for neglect of duty, but he produced the written 
 order, " eleven o'clock.'''' How nearly this slight error cost Russia 
 her greatest of Emperors ! 
 
 He first condemned the culprits to the rack, and then while 
 suffering this torment he ordered their members to be slowly 
 and successively mutilated, and life to be extinguished by a 
 final process. The sight threw the Russians into paroxysms of 
 horror. He went abroad. 
 
 During his absence the Strelitz and other troops had re- 
 ceived orders to repair to the Polish frontiers, to be in readiness 
 to support the Elector of Saxony against the Prince de Conti. 
 They refused and left the ranks. They were incensed at 
 Peter's foreign alliances. This was the work of the priests. 
 Gordon, a Scotchman, the intimate friend of Peter, marched 
 against the rebels, subdued them and threw them into prison, 
 to await the return of the sovereign. 
 
 In the punishments which he devised for these wretches, 
 Peter verily vied with Ivan the Terrible, and shewed that the 
 Tartar nature still remained in him. He did not satisfy him- 
 self with ordinary cruelty, but spared no detail of physical 
 pain that could prolong and render still more acute the 
 
I20 PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 dying agonies of his victims. He first put thera to the 
 torture, interrogating and reviling them (d la Ivan) and when 
 he had sufficiently feasted his eyes with that exhibition of 
 cruelty, he ordered 2000 of the mangled wretches to be put to 
 death, taking a part in the execution himself. Throughout 
 this barbarous scene, Peter, seated on his throne, gazed with 
 calm and unpitying looks on the work of death, and never 
 moved from his stern composure, except to indulge his cruelty 
 by participating in the business of the executions. Nor did his 
 vengeance rest here; to these horrors he added the intoxication 
 of wine, as if his blood were not violently inflamed enough 
 already. With the wine cup in one hand, and the axe in the 
 other, he drank twenty successive draughts, as he smote off 
 twenty successive heads within a single hour, exulting at every 
 stroke in the skill and dexterity he displayed. (Lardner.) 
 
 M. Printz, ambassador from the court of Prussia, was- present 
 on this occasion. "When Peter, in the midst of the revelry, had 
 completed his horrible purpose, he proposed to M. Printz to 
 try his skill, which of course the ambassador declined. Levesque 
 and Segur adopt this statement of Printz, but Voltaire omits 
 this anecdote, although communicated to him by Frederic II. 
 Frederic, in a note to Voltaire, condenses the character of Peter 
 into these remarkable words : 
 
 "The Tsar had not the slightest tincture of humanity, of 
 magnanimity, or of virtue; he had been brought up in the 
 grossest ignorance, and only acted by the impulse of the grossest 
 passions." 
 
 But to proceed ; Peter was not able to assuage his thirst for 
 executions in this summary manner. For five months he con- 
 tinued to appal Russia by abominable cruelties. In his domestic 
 relations he was not less implacable'. 
 
 ^ His consort EudoMiia Laputhin, a lady of distinguished rank, descent 
 and spirit, ventured to reproach the Tsar with his illicit amours, and opposi- 
 tion to the clergy. He took a dislike to his son Alexis hy her, and raised Ann 
 Moens a Fleming to favour. Hurt by this public insult, Eudokhia unwisely 
 appeared to favour a Boyard, Glebof. She was rigorously imprisoned. Glebof 
 was impaled on a spike alive, and hngered in torture twenty-four hours, during 
 which time Peter approached to gloat over his victim. But Glebof, spitting in 
 his face, bade him begone. 
 
PETER THE GREAT. 121 
 
 Insurrections broke out, and they were summarily ex- 
 tinguished. Eighty Strelitz were dragged from Azof to Moscow 
 in chains. Peter with his own hands struck off their heads. 
 
 The Princess Sophia no doubt had instigated this move- 
 ment. But Peter's final revenge on his sister completely broke 
 her heart. Three of the Strelitz had prepared an address; 
 they were discovered, and hung in front of her prison window. 
 Then Peter ordered the arm of one of the dead men, clasping 
 this address, to be placed in her room until it should moulder 
 into dust and drop at 'her feet. She died, changing her name 
 into Marpha. 
 
 Peter's gigantic task had hardly commenced. He resolved to 
 Europeanize his people on the French model — to arrange their 
 costume, reform their manners, revolutionize their customs, 
 reorganize their arms, education and religion, and convert them 
 into the most passive and unflinching instruments of his will. 
 Not even the domestic usages of the people escaped his scrutiny ; 
 nor did the rich domains of the clerical bodies elude his grasping 
 genius for appropriation. 
 
 To build a city, a monument of his glory and power, and to 
 open a road to Europe, he chose a pestilential swamp, drove 
 into it innumerable piles, and during the first year alone 
 sacrificed 100,000 men in the preparations. Tartars, Calmucks, 
 Cossacks, Ingrians, Finns, and Russians, all swelled the ranks of 
 his toilers, deepening the river, raising the islands, which were 
 below water in midwinter. These wretches were employed 
 without intermission, without shelter, and during inclement 
 seasons, and with scanty food. Thus rose Cronstadt into an 
 impregnable fortress. The clergy, pitying the sufferings of these 
 slaves of the northern despot, and dreading the insalubrity of 
 the site of the proposed city, pretended that the image of the 
 holy virgin had been seen to shed tears. The Tsar exposed the 
 trick. Minute apertures at the eyes of the statue were made to 
 exude drops of oil by a simple contrivance. Doubtless the 
 splendid projects of Peter and the development of Russia were 
 much assisted by the concentration of her princes and merchants 
 at a city near a seaport, open to vessels from Europe. 
 
 Peter accomplished herculean tasks : and in this respect 
 
122 PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 deserved the title of Great. But his conduct towards his son 
 Alexis has stained his memory with a blot which can never be 
 obliterated. 
 
 Alexis had written, "I take God to witness, and I swear upon 
 my soul, that I will never lay claim to the succession." Peter 
 replied, "Amend yourself, render yourself worthy of the succes- 
 sion or become a monk. Reply either in writing or in person, 
 or I will deal with you as with a criminal." Alexis fled. He 
 was tracked from place to place by Tolstoi and Romanzoff, 
 bearers of a letter from Peter, in which were these words: — 
 
 "If you obey me I promise before God, that I wUl not 
 punish you, but that if you return I will love you better than 
 ever; but if you do not, I give you my eternal curse: and as 
 your sovereign, I shall find means to punish you." The promise 
 of pardon was also made in his favour to the Emperor of 
 Germany and the King of Naples who both used their in- 
 fluence to persuade Alexis to return to his father. 
 
 Alexis, in good faith, returned to Moscow, 13th February, 
 1718. The great bell was tolled; a great assemblage received 
 him in the Cathedral. Alexis was deprived of his sword and 
 imprisoned: condemned by a mock trial, after being accused by 
 his father of the very immoralities of which he himself had been 
 so notorious an example — infidelity to his wife*. He was judi- 
 cially deprived of the succession, closely confined in a prison, 
 without a visitor except Tolstoi, Peter's agent. The dangerous 
 despotic law of Russia certainly gave the Tsar the right of the 
 life or death of his son. Alexis, wan, wasted, and bent down 
 by abject misery and mental depression, was placed at the 
 bar, and publicly and elaborately accused by his own father in 
 tones of proud and magnificent disdain — and after a long 
 recapitulation of the errors of Alexis he proceeded — 
 
 " Though by all the laws human and divine, and particularly 
 by the laws of Russia, which give absolute jurisdiction to 
 fathers over their children, even in private life, we have a full 
 
 ^ Voltaire says: " It is true that Peter had repudiated his wife in favour of 
 a captive, but that captive was a woman of superior merit. Alexis on the con- 
 trary had neglected his wife for a young and obscure stranger, who had no 
 merit but her beauty.'' 
 
PETER THE GREAT. 123 
 
 and unlimited power in pronouncing sentence upon our son for 
 
 the crimes he has committed should you decide that he 
 
 deserves but a slight punishment, your decision will not be 
 unwelcome to us: and we pledge ourselves by the great Lord 
 you shall have nothing to apprehend. Be not uninfluenced by 
 the reflection that you are called upon to pass sentence upon 
 the son of your sovereign, but administer justice fearlessly 
 without respect of persons : and peril not your own souls n6r 
 ours by doing anything which would be likely to injure our 
 country or to upbraid our conscience on the terrible day of 
 judgment." Peter also transmitted an address to the clergy. 
 The ministers, senators, and generals, condemned Alexis the 
 same day to death. The servile senate knew the wishes of 
 their master. The prisoner was removed. He was shortly 
 attacked with convulsions, and after confession he received the 
 sacrament and expired at six in the morning of the 7th July. 
 Peter's circular to the Courts of Europe thus explained the 
 death of his son; but it was generally believed that he had 
 ordered poison to be administered to him^ 
 
 The character of Peter is best shown by the records of his 
 acts. 
 
 His life was a life of action, and the difficulties he en- 
 countered in his career afford a slight palliation of his inhuman 
 atrocities. He found the empire convulsed by disorders, weak 
 by disunion, and trembling before nations more advanced in 
 civilization, and consequently more powerful than itself : he left 
 it an ally and an equal of the states of Europe. His people 
 called him Father, a title justly earned: and never were the 
 solemn obligations the name suggests discharged with firmer 
 courage and deeper sagacity. 
 
 ^ Mr Peter Bruce, a military officer in the service of Prussia, Russia, and 
 Great Britain, published his memoirs in German, translated for the benefit of 
 his widow in 1782. From this work it appears that Mr Bear the apothecary 
 had been ordered to prepare u strong potion. Peter ordered Mr Bruce to go 
 for this potion, and the apothecary turned very pale and trembling; Marshal 
 Weyde then also came for it, and he shewed similar appearances, and with 
 staggering steps took the poison in a silTer cup to Alexis. Bruce's Me- 
 moirs. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 niPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 We have already seen how much the old civilization in Russia 
 suffered from the incursions of the Eastern hordes. She pre- 
 served indeed her own religion, but her spirit was broken. Her 
 bigotry, such as remained, became the ready instrument of 
 hereditary despotism. In remaining Asiatic she was scarcely 
 European. The Russians had lost a cruel tyrant, IVAN IV., THE 
 Terrible, superhuman in evil, fitly representing the essence of 
 Tartar blood. Yet far behind in the past, there was, according 
 to history, a golden age, sunny and smiling, before the dark 
 storm-clouds of Tartar thunderbolts burst in desolating fury 
 upon the trembling Slaves. Tourgeuneff declares there was a 
 time when Russia, formed and elevated by the singleness of the 
 sovereign authority, yielded not in strength or civilization to 
 any of the great powers formed by the German tribes on the 
 ruins of the Western Empire. Jaroslav the Great, at the be- 
 ginning of the eleventh century, was surrounded with civil 
 liberty, schools, laws, commerce, and a numerous army, when 
 Europe was only one vast scene of feudal tyranny, slavery, and 
 superstition. Russia had felt the refining influence of Greece, 
 which had never been overwhelmed by the immense tide of 
 barbaric hordes. " The dark shadow of barbarism," says a his- 
 torian, " as it threw a veil over the horizon of Russia, took from 
 us the light of Europe, just at a time when intelligence com- 
 menced to spread itself abroad, when the peoples began to 
 emancipate themselves from slavery, and the towns to contract 
 mutual alliances; when the compass extended -navigation, when 
 Universities were founded, and men's manners began to soften 
 
IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 125 
 
 and to sweeten. What was our fate then ? Russia, oppressed 
 and torn to pieces by the Mongpls, was obliged to strain every 
 nerve to prevent her life becoming extinct. It was not for 
 Russia a question of civilization, but of existence or annihi- 
 lation." [La Bussie et les Busses.) Such was the deplorable 
 Tavtarization of the ancient Slaves. The Russian empire was 
 indeed flooded unceasingly by hordes of wild marauders, each 
 worse than the last, gathering like eagles and vultures to the 
 spoil. The ethnological base, however, of the bulk of the 
 Russians must have been Slave : the meaning of this is in itself 
 significant — glory. In the time of Tacitus, we learn that the 
 Germans were distinguished from the Slaves by three parti- 
 culars. " The Germans," he says, " were always bathing, the 
 Slaves performed ablutions, or had ablutions performed on 
 them, thrice only, viz., at birth, at marriage, and after death." 
 Legalized infanticide, parricide, and widow burning, however, 
 would seem to connect the Slaves with a Hindu extraction. 
 
 The Russians have the same right to identify themselves 
 with the Slaves, as the Germans with the English, or the 
 French with the Irish'. " In manners, habits, and features, the 
 Russians generally are strongly Mongolian." And before Peter 
 the Great, they were wholly Asiatic. " Whatever may be be- 
 lieved of the golden age of Sclaves, from the time of Jaroslavitch 
 to Ivan Kalita, our country," says our historian, " was more like 
 a bleak forest than a state. There was everywhere murder and 
 robbery." 
 
 The taking of Constantinople by the Turks in the last years 
 of Vasilii III. made a tremendous sensation at Moscow. Ka- 
 ramsin says, " Greece was a second mother to us, we owed her 
 our Christianity, the rudiments of the arts, and many of the 
 blessings of social life. In the town of Moscow, people spoke of 
 Constantinople as in modern Europe they spoke of Paris 
 under Louis XIV. Amongst the annals of that epoch, a re- 
 markable prophecy was found, that The Russians should 
 
 * Prof. Eawlinsou states that abovit 624 a. d. , Avars, Slaves, Gepidaa, Bulgarians, 
 and others, attacked Constantinople, and that all these came from beyond the 
 Danube. The Northern banks of the Danube appear to have been their ancient 
 seat. Seventh Monarchy, p. 578. 
 
126 IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 TRIUMPH OVER THE CfflLDEEN OF ISHMAEL, AND REIGN OVER 
 THE SEVEN HILLS OF CONSTANTINOPLE." 
 
 The Jews cling to their restoration no more firmly than the 
 Russians aspire to empire on the ancient throne of Constantine. 
 Thus early was the imperial policy of Russia revealed. 
 
 But it was Ivan the Terrible, whose demon deeds, lurid in 
 horror, "render those of Tiberius and Nero like the freaks of 
 froward children by comparison," it was Ivan who first dared to 
 assume the title of Tsar, to be crowned by the metropolitan, 
 and to be saluted by the Byzantine title of AuTOCEAT. Here 
 lurked the wish for the defunct sovereignty of Greece. To be 
 master of the lovely queen of the East was not -the original plot 
 of Peter ; but it has been a fixed idea, crystallized in the very 
 soul of Russian policy. Russia, for ages, has been creeping 
 around this central jewel of empire. The provisional centre, 
 St Petersburg, perhaps destined to sink into its native bogs, 
 where lie, till the day of doom, the bones of the hundred thou- 
 sand men sacrificed by Peter on its foundation of piles, they 
 hope will one day be deserted for the goal of centuries of hope, 
 of intrigue, of conquest, and of holocausts of willing crusaders. 
 " Could England and France have kept quiet, the city of the 
 Golden Horn would have dropt into Russia's open mouth, as 
 the bird is said to drop from the bough into the mouth of the 
 serpent that fascinates it." 
 
 A strong peculiarity in Russian rule is the state of her 
 administration ; underpaid judges, a hungry police, and offices 
 sold by auction to the highest bidder : subjecting its officers to 
 temptations of unblushing venality. "Nothing," says Alison, 
 " surprises the Russian so much as to find this venality does not 
 stain the English ermine. The one thing needful is a conscien- 
 tious spirit." But in policy and diplomacy the Russian cabinet 
 probably outstrips all others, for this cogent reason — the whole 
 talent of the country plunges, if it can, into the vortex of court 
 promotion. Without a parliament and free press, the whole 
 ambition of the educated classes is thrown into the court ser- 
 vice. The Russian, deprived of court patronage, languishes in 
 his native wilds, with no power to rise in the state. The high 
 schools, absorbing nearly 2.50,000 students destined for the 
 
IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 12 j 
 
 church, the bench, the army or the navy, present the only field 
 for Russian talent. The imperial offices drain these schools of 
 the cream of their juvenile aspirants. In this way young men 
 rise from post to post, and vast ability is concentrated on the 
 one absorbing interest — territorial expansion. In search of this 
 talent Europe is ransacked. Foreigners are attached of dis- 
 tinguished intelligence as it were d tout prix. A despotism 
 here enjoys great advantages. In monarchies no such appro- 
 priation is seen. Absolute power knows no party influence, 
 such as England displays in the elevation of mediocrity. 
 
 Like some huge sensitive machine, it weighs, examines, sifts 
 and rejects : the true coin is discriminated from the false, and 
 talent from its counterfeit. Another distinction is the pro- 
 foundly ingrained vanity and greediness for medals, decorations, 
 ribbons and appellations^ ; also the lavish distribution among 
 foreigners (chiefly diplomats and soldiers) of jewelled trifles, 
 watches, snuff-boxes, portraits, &c., and orders of merit, nicely 
 graduated to suit all tastes and occasions. One thing, however, 
 counterbalances these subtle influences and the gravitation of 
 talent to the services of the empire — the almost universal cor- 
 ruption of state functionaries^ All writers agree on this 
 point. 
 
 Another distinction is the peculiar unity and force of the 
 religious element with the emperor as its mainspring, an object 
 of worship and unquestioning faith ; this unity is one of the 
 most powerful instruments for enforcing a blind obedience to 
 all imperial edicts or ukases of a so-called " god upon earth." 
 The Eussian clergy, in whatever country they may be placed, 
 are the mouthpieces of the Holy Synod of which the emperor is 
 the infallible head. If the emperor discovers " a true cross," it 
 is moved to Moscow ; from thence to St Petersburg and other 
 places by Royal command, and enormous sums have thus been 
 gathered from the piety of the people. Relics of incalculable 
 value were once so often discovered that an emperor has for- 
 bidden any to be pronounced genuine without his holy sanction. 
 
 1 Peroffski, Nevski — distmguislimg titles for great deeds by the addition of 
 Ski. E. g. Nevski denotes a brilliant title for military glory on tbe Neva. 
 
 2 The taxes on vodki are sold by auction 1 
 
128 IMPERIAL RUSSIAX POLICY. 
 
 The plough too often revealed the bones of saiuts to the 
 delighted votaries of the church. 
 
 During the whole time that history has noted the rise of 
 Russian power springing from the ancient duchy of Mosko 
 (Moscow) her policy has excited the jealous alarm of all con- 
 terminous states. This policy is well described by the candid 
 Russian historian, Karamsin : — 
 
 " The object and character of our military policy has inva- 
 riably been to seek to be at peace with everybody, and to make 
 conquests without war ; always keeping ourselves on the defensive 
 placing no faith in the friendship of those whose interests 3,0 not 
 accord with our own, and losing no opportunity of injuring 
 them without ostensibly breaking our treaties with them." 
 
 No words could more vividly depict the Russian national 
 genius of attack. This Macchiavellian maxim out-Herods Herod. 
 In plain English, outward friendship can only, in the Russian 
 point of view, veil sinister designs. Treaties are to be cleverly 
 broken in spirit while appearing to honour the letter; injuries 
 to be perpetrated in the dark so as to escape detection or honest 
 redress. 
 
 According to Karamsin, a Russian author honoured and 
 courted beyond all precedent in Russian history — "Every other 
 nation, j udging by herself, must be suspected of scheming con- 
 quest with open war ; of harbouring secret treachery under 
 the guise of peace ; and of patiently watching for an oppor- 
 tunity of delivering an irresistible blow without the slightest 
 qualm as regards plighted honour or solemn treaties." 
 
 "It is fruitless" (says Alison) "to disguise and impossible to 
 deny that an empire of such extent and resources is in the 
 highest degree formidable to the liberties of Europe." Napoleon 
 has left us a graphic a,nd warning picture of the capabilities of 
 Russia alike to repel foreign invasion and to conduct external 
 aggression. 
 
 " Backed," said he, " by the eternal ices of the pole, which 
 must for ever render it unassailable in rear or flank, it can only 
 be attacked, even on its vulnerable front, during three or four 
 months in the year, while it has the whole twelve to render 
 
IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 129 
 
 available against us. It offers to an invader nothing but the 
 rigour, sufferings and privations of a desert soil, half dead and 
 frozen, while its inhabitants will ever precipitate themselves with 
 transport towards the delicious climates of the south. To these 
 physical advantages we must join an immense population, 
 brave, hardy, devoted, passive ; vast nomad tribes, to whom 
 destitution is habitual and wandering is nature. One cannot 
 help shuddering at the thought of such a mass, unassailable on 
 flanks and rear, being able at any time to inundate you ; while 
 if defeated it has only to retire into the midst of its snows and 
 ice, where pursuit is impossible and reparation of loss easy. It 
 is the Antaeus of the fable, which cannot be overcome but by 
 seizing it in the middle and stifling it in the arms ; but where 
 is the Hercules to be found who will attempt such an enter- 
 prise ? Shew me an emperor, brave, able and impetuous — in a 
 word a Czar — who is worthy of his situation, and Europe is at 
 his feet. He may begin his operations if only one hundred 
 leagues from the two capitals of Vienna and Berlin, the sovereigns 
 of which are the only obstacles he has to apprehend. He gains 
 the one by seduction, subdues the other by force." Another 
 saying of this remarkable man has been often quoted : "Europe 
 will one day become either all republican or Cossack." 
 
 Russian policy has various wiles, but none more potent than 
 that of instigating quarrels among nations she wishes to con- 
 quer. This plan succeeded so well in subduing barbaric tribes 
 that she is sorely tempted to try it in more civilized regions. 
 A Eussian historian quotes the following episode as " cruel but 
 indispensable ' " : 
 
 " N^plouieff found it necessary for the safety of the frontier 
 to place an irreconcileable feud between the Baskirs and the 
 Kirghiz 
 
 "He proclaimed to the Khan and Sultans of the Kirghiz 
 that, as a reward for their fidelity and devotion to Russia, the 
 Empress had conferred upon them the wives and daughters of 
 the Baskirs who had been (demanded and) sent merely as 
 hostages. The Kirghiz eagerly seized upon their prey, and the 
 
 1 Description des Hordes et des Steppes des Kirghiz Kosal:s, par Leviohini, 
 who quotes this tale from the diary of a Eussian officer. 
 
 E. 9 
 
I30 IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 Baskirs, maddened with rage and jealousy, thought only of 
 vengeance. They demanded permission to cross the Ural. He 
 refused to grant it ; hut at the same time sent secret orders not 
 to oppose the passage of the river. Taking advantage of this 
 pretended negligence, the Baskirs crossed over into the Kirghiz 
 steppes and began to massacre the men (unprepared) and to 
 carry off the women. These men, thus taken by surprise, flew 
 to arms ; mutual slaughter was carried on to such an extent as 
 Neplouieff judged necessary to exhaust these convenient com- 
 batants. He stopped the effusion of blood, which cemented a 
 permanent hatred between the two races. The proverb divide 
 et impera had here one of its most sanguinary illustrations. 
 
 The relation between the Czar and his people is unique and 
 beyond all parallel, totally different from that existing in the 
 previous history of nations. Not even the Pope in the most 
 amazing epochs of power, not even the Tartars in their devas- 
 tating deluge of torturing executioners, not even the most 
 savage of barbaric hordes of Vandalism ever presented to the 
 world the spectacle of a people so adoring, so submissive and 
 so warlike at the nod of a supreme ruler. Their own historian 
 read his grand histories of the cruel Muscovite heroes before a 
 royal but admiring audience ; never was there so much beautiful 
 simpUcity of trust, such piety of suffering recorded in the annals 
 of mankind. It is this devotion, amounting to the virtue of 
 martyrdom, which renders the Russian empire so mysterious in 
 its power, and insidious in its far-reaching designs. "The worship 
 of the Tsar has been most sedulously promulgated among the 
 heathen Nomads of the Steppes. The popes or secular priests, ' 
 themselves ignorant, drunken and venal, convert according to 
 their merits the Pagan Mordivins and the Mussulman Tartars 
 to worship a whole family of gods, a mother of god, a son and 
 even a Nicholas Paz or god Nicholas, and to the Tartars they 
 administer the sacrament of baptism, on their kneeling to a 
 picture of the Virgin and promising to abstain from horseflesh." 
 
 Russia appears for many years to have promoted disunion 
 in surrounding countries, " by which to frighten sovereigns into 
 submission to its views." " If the West were one, we should be 
 undone ; but they are two — the red republic and you — whom 
 
IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 13 I 
 
 the red republic seek to devour. For forty years we have been 
 defending you from your enemy, and now — wonderful indeed 
 are the combinations of the Almighty — it is the red republic 
 which will preserve us\" 
 
 But Russia openly avows in some cases the very policy 
 which it is fashionable here to deny. Let us quote the Eussian, 
 Ivan Golovin : 
 
 "Persia is little more than a Russian province, and one 
 cannot help smiling on hearing Klaproth say that the Russians 
 could at the utmost only threaten Hindostan ; but Lahore, the 
 Peru of precious stones, is a rich and easy prey ; and the Sikhs, 
 trained to war by the French, would become invincible were 
 they supported by the Russians. A Russian army, declaring 
 that it is not its wish to subdue the Indies, but to deliver them 
 from English domination, would probably see as many as 200,000 
 men flock to its standard, led by their different Nabobs. 
 Tartary, that nursery of invaders, which extends from the 
 Caspian Sea to China, and which (periodically) overflows with 
 inhabitants, might, if aroused by Russia, in a year of scarce 
 pasturage, throw masses of warriors into India. How could 
 the Bengal army resist such an invasion ? The English do not 
 relish the notion of having one day the Russians for their 
 neighbours. But is it in their power to prevent it^?" "How 
 is it," asks a writer on this question, " that a state which can 
 be foiled by Turkey alone, can dare to entertain (with so many 
 internal dangers of her own) such vast schemes of domination ? 
 It is because she is confident in her own diplomatic ability, for 
 she trains men to that science as we train men to medicine or 
 war; and she is equally confident in the blindness of the nations 
 of Europe, who allow the blunders or the treachery of their 
 agents to be involved in systematic and impenetrable secrecy. 
 
 " It is impossible to exaggerate the evils or the dangers of 
 that subserviency to Russia which by the aid of secret diplo- 
 macy had prevailed in the British foreign office for twenty 
 years." 
 
 ' Words actually used by a Eussian diplomatist to the King of Prussia on 
 the 14th Feb., 1854 ; see Revue des Deux Mondes, June, 1854. 
 * The Caucasus, by Ivan Golovin. 
 
 9—2 
 
132 IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 It was a curious instance, well worthy of the consideration 
 of Englishmen, that by a secret treaty, signed May 8, 1852, a 
 trap was left for successors to office, hy which, all Denmark and 
 the Duchies being united indissolubly, the succession was ex- 
 cluded from sixteen males who had stood between the Czar and 
 the throne of Denmark, giving to him before long the certainty 
 of this Key of his House as heir general. The Czar Nicholas, in 
 the Court Almanac of St Petersburg, figured as Reigning Duke 
 of Holstein and Denmark ! 
 
 The Russian policy is doubtless greatly modified by the 
 heterogeneous character of her subjugated nationalities. It has 
 been reckoned that there are twenty millions of them who 
 have only a forced allegiance, which may one day help to shiver 
 her empire into its native elements. 
 
 8,000,000 Poles and Finns. 
 2,000,000 Cossacks. 
 10,000,000 Malo Russians of Little Russia. 
 
 In case of war, she has ever to provide sufficient guardians 
 at home to keep down any rising spirit among her dis- 
 contented peoples, many of whom have been annexed at an 
 almost fabulous cost. Military law and confiscation, exile, 
 and death under torture — the memory of these things never 
 dies, but cankers the hearts of these millions. 
 
 " The terrible history of the military colonies tells what the 
 Russian peasant is when attacked in his last stronghold. To 
 carry out the plans of the liberal Alexander villages were taken 
 by assault; the exasperation of the peasants reached to such a 
 pitch that they slew their children to rescue them from odious 
 institutions forced upon them at the point of the bayonet. The 
 government, enraged at opposition, condemned these brave men 
 to die under the rod, but the bloody insurrection of the Staraia 
 Roussa, 1831, proved how indomitable was the spirit of the 
 people'." 
 
 Vamb^ry with great force and piquancy displays the great 
 distinction between England and Continental States in her 
 negligence in studying Asiatic lore. He says : " Whilst Russia, 
 
 1 Bu developpement des idees revolutionnairea en Svssie, par Alex. Herzen. 
 
IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 133 
 
 France and Austria have long had Oriental Academies for diplo- 
 matic beginners, in England, with her rich dower of colleges, 
 schools and universities, no one has ever thought of such an 
 
 institution. And so in the legislative body there are but 
 
 few men competent to discuss important relations in Asia. 
 This indifference surprises all foreigners. Still more amazed 
 are they to hear men of the Liberal party say : — What does 
 Asia concern us ; what the swarm of barbarous races that cause 
 us more trouble than profit ; what the wealth of India, whose 
 income has long ceased to cover her expenditure, to say nothing 
 about the costs of the conquest?... Those Liberals are very 
 short-sighted who deem the possession of such a colony as 
 India an indifferent and superfluous matter." He then speaks 
 of the immense number of Englishmen of all ranks, engaged 
 in military or other careers in India, of the millions of 
 capital passing through the hands of her Asiatic merchants; 
 the greatness of their Fatherland built up upon her huge 
 colonial empire. He calls to mind the amount of English 
 capital invested there, and that British commerce can only 
 succeed under British rule. " If England would avoid the 
 usual lot of commercial states, the doom of Carthage, Venice, 
 Genoa, Holland and Portugal, there is but one way left for 
 her — a policy of stern watchfulness, a swift grasp of the mea- 
 sures still at her command." 
 
 An English historian describes the Russian progress with 
 striking force — "At first creeping cautiously and gliding 
 stealthily through the dust, until the favourable moment ad- 
 mits of its taking its final spring. With smiles of peace and 
 friendship, with soft smooth words on their emissaries' part, 
 have they often averted every fear, every precaution, until the 
 certain success of their schemes made all fears profitless and 
 baffled every precaution. Blind therefore and ill advised must 
 every government be, which can go to sleep over Russian ad- 
 vances towards its frontiers, be those never so slow, or the 
 interval between the conqueror and the goal of his endeavours 
 be ever so great." 
 
 Mixing their Tartar blood with European they combine the 
 steady resolution and caution of the latter with the versatile 
 
134 IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 character of the former. According to circumstances, they as- 
 sume the manners of the Tartars to the Tartar — the hands 
 indeed are those of Esau but the voice is Jacob's ; ' Chinese, 
 PeFsian, or Iranian, to each the required style, manner and 
 tongue is made equally acceptable. The haughty Nicholas, 
 ■who could call a Louis Napoleon " Mon frfere," to a Tartar 
 prince puts on the form and manner of a Khan on the Neva.' 
 
 In all the vast absorbing processes going on before our 
 eyes, from the Chinese Amur to Khiva, there seem to be 
 the same peculiar phenomena, foretelling the Russian invasion 
 — intrigues, wiles, discords, bribery and corruption through the 
 vilest means. Trading, and alleged grievances against her 
 travelling merchants, particularly pretended violations of 
 Treaties, daring assumptions and false accusations — all these 
 form excuses for picking the desired quarrel so soon as the 
 scheme is prepared, the arsenal equipped and the invaders 
 ready for the raid. Other successful methods are "the secret 
 power of emissaries and standing Consuls ; the bribing of Chiefs 
 by presents, and the lavish use of vodki to draw them into the 
 magic circle." "A well founded cause of war and of invasion," 
 says Vamb^ry, "would nowhere be easy to discover, and cer- 
 tainly the gigantic empire of the House of Romanoff has been 
 builded up more through Asiatic wiles of its statesmen than by 
 the might of its arms. In almost all the countries she has 
 intended to absorb, she has had willing spies, trained up in 
 her own capital (a Kirghis, a Burgat, a Circassian or a Mongol), 
 whom she has loaded with favours, and whom, when Rus- 
 sianized, she has sent home to be her most valued tools of 
 Russian aggression in the lands of their birth." Besides this, 
 the cleverest and most enterprising Russians can realize large 
 sums and prizes by gathering stores of knowledge of the nu- 
 merous countries destined for her prey. "The massacres of 
 Sinope, Hango, the bayonetings of the wounded, and the 
 enormous lying authorized to explain these things, look almost 
 as frightful as if one-seventh of the world were Thugs, or 
 Atheist Caffres, civilized only for destruction, but sworn to 
 internecine war with the rest of mankind." 
 
 Similar characters are ascribed to Russian tactics by another 
 
IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 135 
 
 powerful writer — " The Imperial policy of Russia was as im- 
 moral as the practice of her courts under Catharine. There is 
 an utter want of heroism. Eome let the nations know before- 
 hand she meant to conquer them — by fair and open fighting, as 
 Virgil describes it. Russia, though imperial, is not imperious. 
 Respect and deference to foreign powers, foreign usages, foreign 
 persons, is assumed throughout. " The Tsar is an humble 
 scholar, cap in hand, waiting his time. Force is ready in the 
 background, waiting outside like the myrmidons of a domiciliary 
 
 visit The action of Russia on surrounding countries may be 
 
 compared to that frost which is literally one of her most power- 
 ful allies. Secret, cold, and insinuating, it proceeds by sapping 
 and undermining; and just as the mischief of frost is latent, 
 till the great rock or bridge or wall or embankment comes 
 down, a heap of rubbish, so is her policy latent till a nation 
 collapses and there is nothing left for her to do but to plant 
 her flag on the ruins." The same vivid writer says Alexander 
 II. appears to be a mere cipher, as far as we know, in reference 
 to the Imperial policy.... Russia appears like a locomotive that 
 has run away on a railway after throwing its engineer. The 
 policy of Russia is simply universal dominion, aimed at by 
 incessant intrigue and conquest ;...yet strangely enough some of 
 our statesmen talk and act as if aU this history were fabulous : 
 they still talk of believing the word of Russia, and binding this 
 Ishmaelite of nations by international law. The fascination of 
 Mr Gladstone and Lord John Russell, and the rest, all " honour- 
 able men," by the power of Russia would have been attributed 
 in the middle ages to magic or possession, and they would have 
 been made the subjects of exorcism. 
 
 Russia has shewn peculiar skill in inserting the thin end 
 of the steel wedge into the " safes" of her future acquisitions. 
 Feigning peace, commerce, or friendship, she has at first, on 
 various pretexts, advanced only a few, only a very few, troops 
 by way of a gentle trespass ; then, so soon as the occupation is 
 secured by a firm base of operations and supply, these friends 
 of Russia are provoked. She retaliates. A pretext is manu- 
 factured to guard "her honour and dignity." Wholesale 
 slaughter has often been the very friendly pacification of these 
 
136 IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 attacks in " the interests of Russia." Absorption, by a simple 
 ukase, is a most simple process. ExUe in her vast Siberian 
 frozen wastes is always a ready means of ensuring the speedy 
 removal, " in the interest of order" of inconvenient subjects. A 
 two years' march (after the knout or plitt) tolerably thins the 
 restive ranks of these unruly subjects. If Catholics, she com- 
 pels conversion to the Greek faith, under those terrors so de- 
 lightful and successful for the gratification of Russian piety. 
 Pacification is ensured. " Order" reigns instead of revolution. 
 The dissatisfied and rebellious simply disappear. The pro- 
 cesses of entwinement, crushing, deglutition, and assimilation, go 
 on before our very eyes. True, we have the history of a thou- 
 sand j'ears variegated with a few imperial murders, restless 
 rapine, ravage, and spoliation of all surrounding provinces, 
 clearly displayed. And, we have only to scrutinize the same 
 processes going forward in Poland, China, Khiva and Turkestan, 
 to recognize at once the same old Tartar spirit of acquisition by 
 threat or sword or treaty. We may add to this the enormous 
 power of the Holy Synod, and the crusade preached, at a beck, 
 in every Russian village, to be convinced that one mainspring 
 can actuate the nation as one man. Spontaneous loans, and 
 willing bloodshed, crown the gigantic machinery of Russian 
 domination, and religion sanctifies her deeds. 
 
 Colonization of -the Steppes is another part of Russian 
 policy. The Colonial Committee have planted in various Rus- 
 sian provinces no less than 250,000 Germans. When Alexander 
 travelled through the Molotshna country, he exclaimed, in per- 
 fect astonishment, " Children, we have no occasion to travel to 
 Germany ; we have more than Germany within our own empire." 
 The German husbandry, on the Steppes so sound and profitable, 
 far exceeds any former kind. To the Germans, the improvident 
 Russians ever look in time of famine. To them, the Russians 
 owe the cultivation of the Steppe*. 
 
 1 Khol says, " The ground is sometimes covered with millions of toads. It is 
 quite disgasting to walk among them : for in stepping on the ground a man 
 may crush forty or fifty. One man told me his stomach had fairly turned on 
 beholding a Russian run barefooted through the rmsightly mass, with the 
 crushed bodies and the mangled limbs of the dying reptiles adhering to his 
 
IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 137 
 
 That Russia has long entertained the design of occupying 
 Constantinople, whatever may be the present wishes of the 
 Autocrat of all the Russias, is a matter of history, well pre- 
 served in its records. So many advantages would accrue to her 
 prestige, commerce, and powers of dominating in Mediterranean 
 waters, and extending her flag in Western Asia — that we can 
 with difficulty believe that she, with her progressive policy, can 
 be indififerent to such a prize. 
 
 The fall of Turkey, the outwitting of England, the closing 
 of all Eastern Asia to British imports by Russian tariff's, the 
 Black Sea converted into a huge inland national sea, Poti a 
 second Liverpool, a railway thence to the Caspian (now in pro- 
 gress), the Bosphorus transformed into an impregnable passage; 
 her myriad hordes would soon overrun Syria and Egypt, and 
 possibly succeed in obstructing our water-way to India ; and, 
 possessed of all the ancient routes to that jewel in the English 
 Crown, converging from Balk, Merv, Yarkand, and oth^r places 
 in Eastern Turkestan ; and having sown disaffection to smoothe 
 her path, Russia, on the breaking out of a European war en- 
 gaging English troops, might, with a fair chance of success, 
 invade our weakest Indian points, and, step by step, secure her 
 base of operations for further conquests. 
 
 The acquisition of Constantinople and the Black Sea would 
 move practically her war materials and granaries thousands of 
 miles nearer to the southern goal of her desires. The fall of 
 India might be safely predicted to follow the fall of Islam. 
 England can do nothing with her troops in the heart of Asia. 
 Were Russia firmly possessed of what Alexander once incau- 
 tiously called "the key of his house," all Syria, Persia, and 
 perhaps Afghanistan, would ultimately be Russianized. 
 
 The extreme beauty, balmy climate, luxuriant fertility, and 
 classic glories of this old throne of both the Latin and Greek 
 Empires, combine to render this magnificent paradise in Europe 
 a worthy prize for ages of deep and subtle schemes. Russia in 
 Constantinople, backed by her Sebastopols and Potis, fed by 
 
 feet. In size they are extremely diminutive. Lizards are very numerous, 
 about 18 inches long, and the Cossack regards them with great dread." p. 480. 
 
138 IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 so many Russian rivers floating her stores to this new empire, 
 would appear oq the scene as a new Dictator to all other 
 countries of the old world. She alone would appear Mistress 
 and Queen of the East. Such a display of power and glory 
 would draw barbaric Kings to bow the knee, as by en- 
 chantment, to such mighty conquests. 
 
 Turn we now to the evidence of History, and the most di- 
 rect is found in the plots of two Imperial conspirators. 
 
 The open treaty of Tilsit between the French and Russian 
 Emperors had introduced tremendous changes in Europe; but 
 these sank into utter insignificance when compared with the 
 secret but fearful treaty settled between them. Lately exas- 
 perated with the keenest hostility, these European gentlemen 
 now aspired to divide the world between them with a cor- 
 diality which would seem to render their combined armies 
 invincible. Many records are preserved, which demonstrate 
 the ambitious designs of Russia on European Turkey. Na- 
 poleon shrewdly detected the Russian desire for the possession 
 of the Queen of the East. But he sagaciously restricted the 
 Northern appetite. It was agreed that only Wallachia and 
 Moldavia should fall to Russia's share ; but that, if Bulgafia is 
 thrown into the balance, the Emperor (Napoleon) is willing to 
 accede to the expedition to India^ The conversations, recited 
 by O'Meara (i. 382), in which Napoleon deigned to explain his 
 former policy, are particularly instructive. " All the Emperor 
 Alexander's thoughts are directed to the conquest of Turkey. 
 We have had many discussions about it, and at first I was 
 pleased with his proposals, because I thought it would benefit 
 the world to drive those brutes, the Turks, out of Europe. 
 But, when I reflected upon the consequences of this step, and 
 saw what a tremendous weight of power it would give to 
 Russia, on account of the number of Greeks in the Turkish 
 dominions, I refused to consent to it, especially as Alexander 
 wanted to get Constantinople, which I would not allow, as it 
 would have destroyed the equilibrium of power in Europe. I 
 reflected that France would gain Egypt, Syria, and the islands, 
 
 1 Thiers, Consulat et I'Empire, viii. 449, 450. Note M. Eomanzoff k 
 ' Napoleon. 
 
IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 139 
 
 ■which would have been nothing in comparison with what Russia 
 would have obtained." Napoleon had despatched Sebastian!, 
 (brought up in cloisters, but become a distinguished general,) 
 on a secret mission to Constantinople, with instructions to pro- 
 mote the Tilsit programme. "He wrote that Russia was to obtain 
 Wallachia, Moldavia, and all Bulgaria, up to the Hebrus : and 
 that Servia was to be allotted to Austria." It was this Sebas- 
 tian! that saved Constantinople from bombardment by diplo- 
 matic delays, till, under his skilful leadership, the Turks 
 mounted three hundred cannon in three days, and a thousand 
 in a week, and a hundred gun-boats defended the Golden Horn. 
 The English fleet escaped with a loss of 250 men only. Both 
 these Emperors were equally impatient for dividing the spoils. 
 Napoleon, after the war had commenced, had said to Alexander, 
 " T lay no stress on the evacuation of Wallachia and Moldavia 
 by your troops. It is impossible any longer to endure the 
 presence of the Turks in Europe : you are at liberty to chase 
 them into Asia ; but observe only, I rely upon it, that Con- 
 stantinople is not to fall into the hands of any European 
 power'." Alexander repeatedly pressed upon Napoleon the ac- 
 ceptance of the whole maritime provinces of Turkey, provided 
 Roumelia and Constantinople were ceded to Russia. But the 
 French Emperor could never be brought to yield the Queen of 
 the East to his new, apparently beloved, but secretly dreaded 
 allyl 
 
 Whilst these Imperial spoliators were thus pursuing their 
 dark schemes, it was thought necessary to bind Prussia still 
 faster in her French chains. From Prussia £20,000,000 was 
 extorted, and by six months' war a million of men had been 
 consigned to the French hospitals. Prussia, too reduced in 
 circumstances, could pay no more : and £3,000,000 being still 
 unpaid gave a pretext for occupying her fortresses, and wring- 
 ing further extortions for the next five years. The treaty of 
 Tilsit united the tremendous powers of the West and the 
 Eastern Empires: Prassia and Poland were equally crushed 
 between these forces. Sebastian! was protesting France to be 
 
 1 Alison, note, Habd. , ix. 432." 
 = Alison, Uist. Vol. vii. 80. 
 
140 IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 the sincere and faithful ally of Turkey. Napoleon, through 
 him, declared that his right hand was not more inseparable 
 from his left, than the Sultan Selim should ever be to him. 
 Turkey, thus perfidiously deceived, threw her whole strength 
 into a war with Russia. . 
 
 While these infamous deceptions were being practised on 
 Turkey, the villainous scheme for her destruction was being 
 perfected. Depending on these diplomatic lies, she had defied 
 the whole power of Russia, and the English fleet. "A more 
 shameless instance of treachery is not to be found even in the 
 dark annals of Italian perfidy." For Napoleon was as regard- 
 less of the sanctity of treaties as he was of the duty of veracity. 
 No reliance could be placed upon his feelings of gratitude, if 
 a present interest was to be served by forgetting them. Na- 
 poleon anticipated, after the completion of his preUminaiy 
 schemes, little diflSculty in dealing with the colossal strength 
 of "the Scythian Monarch," and Alexander was infatuated 
 with the belief that he was the man of destiny. " Sire," said 
 one of the Russian Counsellors at Tilsit, " I take the liberty of 
 reminding you of the fate of your father as the consequence of 
 French alliance." "Oh God!" replied the Emperor, "I know 
 it, I see it : but how can I withstand the destiny which directs 
 me'?" Alexander, when planning the seizure of Finland, and 
 sending his replies by Savary, particularly referred to the 
 Tilsit scheme in characteristic words. " Tell your master, that 
 as soon as my materials are prepared, I shall overwhelm 
 Sweden. As for myself, I promise him unlimited confidence, 
 and I expect the same on his part. Oh that I could see him 
 as I saw him at Tilsit : what converse was his ! what wit ! what 
 genius^ ! ! " A great deal is handed down to us of these aspi- 
 rations. Alexander's negotiations, through Savary and Roman- 
 zof, are highly confirmatory of these nefarious designs. Russia 
 
 wished to prolong her occupations "I must revert to what 
 
 the Emperor Napoleon said to me, not once, but ten times, at 
 Tilsit, in respect to these provinces. Why then renounce my 
 present advantages ? your master said he left me at liberty to 
 
 ' SaTary, iii. 92. = Thiers, viii. 215, 217. 
 
IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 1 41 
 
 drive the Turks into Asia. It was only on a subsequent occa- 
 sion that he went back from his word, so far as to speak of 
 leaving the Turks Constantinople, and sbme of the adjacent 
 provinces." Savary replied, "All that the Emperor Napoleon 
 said shall be religiously executed. The surest and most expe- 
 ditious mode to arrive at it is to carry into execution the 
 public treaty. Do you propose at once to write the Turks' 
 Epitaph^?" 
 
 These secret compacts between France and Russia, however, 
 becoming known to the British Cabinet, were communicated 
 to the Porte, producing a profound sensation. "Honest and 
 sincere without foresight or deceit, the Turks are as incapable 
 of betraying an ally as they are of forgetting an act of trea- 
 chery^" After a three years' war, Russia, fearing the French 
 invasion, was only too anxious to conclude peace. Turkey was, 
 on her part, equally desirous, and Russia agreed to give up 
 Wallachia and Moldavia, and removed her frontier to the 
 Pruth. England signed a treaty with the Divan. Turkey, 
 deeply wounded with the dclaircissement of this new perfidy, 
 abandoned herself without reserve to the counsels of England. 
 Such was the unforeseen result of this infamous Imperial 
 compact, aiming at the division of Europe. 
 
 The designs of Russia for the possession of the Queen of the 
 East were thus ineffaceably engraved on the heart of Turkey, 
 as upon a rock, for ever. 
 
 The Russian Path to Persia. 
 
 The gradual advance to Persia, and its dismemberment by 
 Russia, is the same oft-repeated tale. Peter the Great es- 
 tablished himself in Daghestan, on the west coast of the Cas- 
 pian Sea. Catharine II. entered into a close alliance with the 
 Czar of Georgia, Heraclius, to defend him from Persia, from 
 whom he had stolen very considerable territory. Russia made 
 him renounce all connection with Persia and become her vassal, 
 
 ' Savary's Secret despatch to Napoleon. Correspond, conf. de Napoleon, vii. 
 564, 585. 
 2 Alison. 
 
142 IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 and, on her side, guaranteed him not only all present, but 
 future lands, which he might be able to acquire. Persia de- 
 manded restitution. Heraclius replied he had no sovereign 
 but Catharine. Persia would consent to the status quo, but 
 objected to Russian encroachment. Catharine, apprized of 
 Persia's warlike intentions, seized Derbend on the Caspian Sea. 
 At length, Russian agency persuaded the Czar, George XIII., of 
 Georgia, to renounce his crown in favour of Russia. Enfeebled 
 in mind, and pusillanimous, the last king of the Bagratides, 
 who had sat on the throne for 1200 years, and who claimed 
 direct descent from Abraham and David, yielded to the insidi- 
 ous demands of a Russian resident. This act drew upon him 
 the undying hatred and curses of his country. Even his Queen, 
 when it was proposed to arrest her person and convey her to 
 Moscow, stabbed the Russian officer. The Persians, justly 
 alarmed at these wily measures, marched on Erivan ; but 
 surprised by the Russians and defeated, the treaty of Gulistan 
 was signed ; still the terms of boundary were so vague as to 
 enable Russia, at no distant period, to make fresh claims of 
 territory. The Russians, after the peace, now seized Gokeheh. 
 Persia was greatly exasperated by this new aggression, and by 
 losing so many rich provinces. Popular fury seized the Per- 
 sians : war was decided upon unless Russia would evacuate her 
 material guarantee. Defeat ensued; the Russian envoys now 
 demanded, as the price of peace, £4,000,000 sterling and a very 
 considerable tract of Persia, south of the Araxes, all the waters 
 that flowed to the Caspian to be Russia's, those in the opposite 
 direction to be Persia's, and the exclusive privilege of navi- 
 gating the Caspian to belong to Russia. Further, in case 
 the sums due to Russia should not be paid within a stated 
 time, another whole province should for ever be annexed to 
 Russia. 
 
 Russia had now brought her southern frontier to penetrate 
 like a wedge into the land of Iran, and had, with very little 
 expenditure of men and money, crept round the western shore 
 of the Caspian Sea. She had threatened to march on Teheran 
 at the time when she had but a small force, but audacity 
 served her here in exactly the same way as afterwards, when. 
 
IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLIGT. 143 
 
 with an exceedingly small remnant of her army, she dictated 
 to the Turks, under threat of occupying Constantinople, the 
 treaty which secured her hold on the provinces of Turkey, as 
 we shall see hereafter. 
 
 From Tiflis, the Russian general had brought with him 
 Archbishop Narses, to act as patriarch of the Armenian Church, 
 and under such auspices it was easy to obtain the good wishes 
 and active cooperation of the Christian inhabitants of that 
 portion of Armenia. 
 
 The Amur River. 
 
 The Amur River, with several branches, exceeds a thousand 
 miles in length, and runs through Asia to the south of Siberia, 
 and opens into the Sea of Okhotz. The adjacent inhabitants, 
 conquered by the Koreans, traded particularly in fur clothing 
 and sables. Golovin was struck with the happy thought of 
 exploring the Amur. An expedition of 123 men, trained by 
 Cossacks, was sent up the Aldan, which, after four months of 
 hardships in dragging their provisions on sledges and crossing 
 rapids, was compelled to go into winter quarters. They came, at 
 last, to a Daurian village, whose inhabitants were most friendly 
 in supplying the famishing party with their oxen and forty 
 baskets of oatmeal, giving them all the information they 
 required. Petrof, the leader of the Russians, had orders 
 to entice out the chiefs from the village, and seize them as 
 hostages. But Dozi and Kolpa, of their own accord, met the 
 Russians as friends, and offered their services without suspi- 
 cion. Petrof at once made them prisoners, and threatened 
 torture unless instant admission was given into the village. He 
 succeeded in provoking an attack. However, the Russians 
 were worsted and obliged to retire. Famine gradually thinned 
 the Russian ranks ; and it is said the bodies of the slain were 
 offered for food to the famished Russians ; and, ere the forty 
 Cossacks left behind to guard the stores could bring up the 
 provisions, fifty men fell victims to the pangs of hunger. The 
 remnant in six weeks reached the mouth of the Amur, and 
 exacted tribute, consisting of twenty-eight zorok of sable. 
 
144 IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 Fresh expeditions followed. The bad conduct of the Cossacks 
 had become known, and as the Russians approached, the villages 
 were everywhere deserted. Even the forts were evacuated. At 
 length a chief, Lavkai, demanded the object of the Russians. 
 Khaborof replied that he might require a small tribute, but the 
 Tsar would take them under his protection ! Leaving a few 
 men behind who exacted tribute, Khaborof collected tribute 
 en route, and forwarded specimens of wheat grown on the 
 Amur to Moscow. Another expedition, greatly increased, again 
 appeared. No quarter was given : all were slain who were 
 found. The Daurians lost 661 males ; 243 women and young 
 girls and 118 children were made prisoners, and the booty con- 
 sisted of 137 horses, 113 head of cattle and rich stores of grain. 
 The Russians had only four killed and five slightly wounded. 
 Tolga, a Daurian prince, after severe torture, committed suicide. 
 Step by step, and ever increasing in force and number, the 
 Russians, in the midst of carnage and extorted tribute, gradually 
 won their way, established forts, encountered the Manchu, 
 fought battles with the Chinese, gained heaps of sable and piles 
 of the coveted skins of the black and red fox. Finally, after 
 years of invasive slaughter, China itself, after a great battle, 
 made a treaty of peace with the Russians. The country of the 
 Amur was absorbed. (See Russians on the Amoor, Ravenstein.) 
 
 But at length, after the victories of France and England in 
 China, the Russians, without another blow, extorted from their 
 prostrate foe a treaty so advantageous as to place all other 
 similar treaties entirely in the shade. They acquired the whole 
 tract north of the Amur; the Bay of Victoria, which they sur- 
 named the Bay of Peter the Great, and one of the ports they 
 have dignified with the name (in Russ) of " The Dominion of 
 the East" (Vladivostok). Rich in sables, timber and pasture 
 land, intersected with seams of coal and mineral wealth, the 
 region of the Amur promises an oasis to future Russian emi- 
 grants. But the difficulties and hardships attending the native 
 hunter for these precious furs are well told in the following 
 words : — 
 
 " There in the dense forest, where the sable loves nightly to 
 follow its prey, and the huntsman pursues his toil, we see a 
 
IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 145 
 
 human being stagger, panting, towards the valley, where a 
 flickering flame indicates the resting-place of all he most 
 cherishes. It is late. Five days have elapsed and he has cap- 
 tured no game, which, formerly so abundant, has quitted these 
 regions : the small store of flour has been consumed, and weeks 
 ago the last tame reindeer was killed. The muscles of his 
 enfeebled body are powerless, and the starlight shines upon a 
 visage full of cares. The savage has a father's heart too, which 
 sinks within him as he pictures grinning death hovering round 
 that fire. Anxiously the looks of the expectant ones meet 
 those of the comer : no other demonstration : no word is ex- 
 changed. The infant at the breast sucks a piece of leather, and 
 silently the mother turns her back towards the fire to sleep, 
 perchance the sleep of eternity^." 
 
 The Cossack was found to be a bad colonist. German 
 families are now sent by Russia to settle on the Amur ; and 
 Russia, by these means, having secured 160,000 square miles of 
 territory, and a sea unfrozen half the year, opening into the 
 sea of Japan, still hopes to realize her passionate desire for the 
 commerce of all nations. Nor has she stopped at these con- 
 quests. Onwards is her watchword. Her conquering arms, 
 by craft or opportunity, still open for yet more magnificent 
 embraces. 
 
 ' Lecture delivered before the Russian Academy of Sciences, Mar. 1860, by 
 Mr Badde. 
 
 E, 10 
 
CHAPTEK VIII. 
 
 RUSSIAN REVIVALS AND RUSSIAN ASPECTS. 
 
 Paralysed by the defeat of Sebastopol, Kussia, for long years 
 keenly occupied with secret schemes, apparently retired from 
 European gaze. But a great awakening of her military genius 
 gradually metamorphosed her character. The nation acquired 
 a new national sentiment. It was enfranchised; each serf 
 became an individual instead of a chattel. Each soldier could, 
 for the first time, seem to take his own part in national ex- 
 tension and enterprise. The old policies of Peter revived. 
 Russia reached a new era. Moscow arose. The cabinet of 
 St Petersburg, often compelled to make terms with that ancient 
 and still formidable seat of power, now began to remodel her 
 whole system. She was actually acquiring a little public 
 opinion. The severe restriction of the press underwent 
 spasmodic relaxations. Occasionally there were whispers of 
 a public voice and popular ideas. The people began to live 
 and to think. The grand idea now ordered was Russification. 
 Like a philosopher's stone, everything touched, handled, or 
 gotten, was now expected to turn into Russian gold. Imperial 
 ambition had secured Poland. The whole of the Empire 
 wanted welding, often at a white heat. A shower of judicious 
 blows had given the Russians a panslavic form, while still aU 
 aglow. All seems changed. The wish of the people is now 
 father to the Imperial thought. The old Russian party of 
 Moscow has got into the ascendant. The new mottoes are : — 
 Railways rule victories; Steam and the wire annihilate space; 
 Foci of conceptration will avoid the disasters of immense snow- 
 
JiUSSIAI^ REVIVALS AND RUSSIAN ASPECTS. 147 
 
 clad steppes. Her generals, with the encouragement of the 
 cabinet, proclaim aloud the strategies of war as the only object 
 of Russian being'. The vast power of the country in military 
 force is preached up as a red-hot motive to dominate not only 
 Asia to its farthest limits, but also the whole of modern Europe. 
 Such inflammatory volumes are even translated into German. 
 Germany's eyes should indeed have been opened by these 
 rampant menaces. 
 
 But Germany has many favours to repay her hitherto 
 neutral neighbour. A Russian general points out that the 
 real struggle for supremacy will not be in Turkey, but in 
 Central Europe; where Poland, like an immense bastion, flanks 
 both Germany and Austria. It may be guessed, however, that 
 by bargain and flattery, Germany will ultimately take her share 
 in the spoil of Austria, as she formerly did in Poland, whilst 
 Russia absorbs the remainder of Austria, Gallicia, &c., &c., 
 according to the old adage, History repeats itself Afterwards 
 Russia would be strong enough to take the whole, or a slice, of 
 the Germanic Empire, especially if France were promised her 
 revenge. Vcb victis! The chess-board of Europe truly is full 
 of game. 
 
 Captain Brackenbury has given very clear details of the 
 new Russian railway lines. Troops can be mobilized and 
 focussed by these lines with precision. But as Russian sailors 
 have never yet added any lustre to their trade, until she gets 
 the mouth of the Baltic, the Danube, and the Black Sea, her 
 navy will ever be in abeyance. But even Central Europe is 
 now menaced by a mighty chain of new fortresses connected, 
 by enormous expenditure, by railways (see Capt. Brackenbury's 
 work). And these are all defended on the Todleben system, 
 so celebrated at the defence of Sebastopol. Hear his language: 
 "Mbdlin is not a fortified town, but a fortress, pure and simple. 
 All people living in it are soldiers, or those who live on soldiers. 
 Hence no starving families could torture a commandant with 
 their prayers. No burghers, ill disposed to the government, 
 could rise against the garrison. Huge, silent, and grim, 
 
 1 General Fadejew, Russian STessevger, Moscow, 1867. 
 
 10—2 
 
148 RUSSIAN REVIVALS AND RUSSIAN ASPECTS. 
 
 Modlin is almost untrodden by the foot of a stranger. In the 
 ungracious exclusiveness and vast proportions, in the hetero- 
 geneous nature of her component parts, designed to threaten, 
 as well as defend, she represents, not unfaithfully, that heavy, 
 sullen Power in the north which broods over Europe, biding 
 
 her time." "Russia can expect to obtain the full mastery 
 
 over all the power to be found in her. There is but one heart 
 and oue dynasty in the Empire, and that heart beats in unison 
 with that dynasty ! Eussia has four of these first class fortresses 
 on her western frontier." A tremendous change has thus 
 occurred. 
 
 "Russia," says an able writer, "might be compared to a vast 
 creature, still, as it were, in embryonic form, a vital force of 
 wonderful character lying potential within her frame." The 
 rapidity with which she transforms all her newly acquired 
 tenitories into a Russianized form is, perhaps, the most startling 
 of all her aspects. Her motto is transformation. Her armies 
 are transformed; she conquers the hordes of thousands of 
 years with the repeating rifles of yesterday. Horsemen are as 
 nothing to these weapons, which the victims now call hellish. 
 Russification and transformation are equivalent terms. Does 
 she threaten a new eruption of barbarians upon the civilized 
 West? Every Russian aspires to a great future of conquest, 
 and his candour in this respect only equals his ardour. There 
 are no conscientious qualms at all. The end justifies any 
 means: if death, torture, forced religion, and extortion, are the 
 only means of furthering and consolidating the glory of Russia, 
 then these things are a sacred duty. Massacre, whipping, and 
 confiscation are evidently still as religious as they were in the 
 days of the Inquisitor. In no other country are general officers 
 permitted to preach wholesale war and spoliation in time of 
 peace. The Empires of Germany and Austria must surely 
 recognize the sinister significance of such lauded aggressiveness. 
 
 The Slav and Teuton are always at enmity, as also Ger- 
 man and Tartar. General Fadejew says, "The Russian press 
 teems to' overflowing with animosity towards Austria, and 
 with zeal for pansclavist agitation^" (this was Jan. 27, 1870). 
 ' Pilesian Times. 
 
RUSSIAN REVIVALS AND RUSSIAN ASPECTS. 149 
 
 Whilst the avowed and secret activity of even the govern- 
 ment organs is deeply engaged in the corroboration of similar 
 tendencies. 
 
 It is thus for years that the Eussian revival has -acquired 
 new aspects of furor, and hunger for spoil. It will be the 
 object of the following sketches to demonstrate that the 
 new revival is only the resurrection of a very ancient spirit, 
 incarnate in the Tartar blood, however strenuously con- 
 cealed. 
 
 Notwithstanding the much vaunted triple alliance, there are 
 symptoms of repulsion. The Eussian saying, "The Eastern 
 question can alone be solved at Vienna, in a Eussian sense," 
 cannot but render Austria keenly alive to her very critical state, 
 where a single act may become suicidal. Eussia, except when 
 aggressive, is nothing. A growing strength of expansion and 
 absorption forms her cardinal policy. That an attack upon the 
 Porte should be regarded, in a solemn treaty sense, as a casus 
 belli before the three contracting parties', is at the present 
 time brightly explanatory of the danger to Austrian interests, 
 threatened by Eussian tactics. Eussia openly menaces her 
 with arraying the Slav against the Austrian and Magyar, 
 and she is confident no single power dare attack her. TJiis 
 triple alliance, still in force hy treaty, can at any act of war 
 against Turkey, immediately array England and Austria in 
 alliance with the Porte, against her ancient and most deadly 
 foe. 
 
 The following is the treaty clause, which has therefore a 
 particular significance to Europe: "It is clearly understood that 
 it (the treaty) cannot in any case give to the said Powers the 
 right to interfere, either collectively or separately, in the 
 relations of his Majesty the Sultan with his subjects, nor in the 
 internal administration of his Empire." Lord Lyndhurst said 
 in the House of Lords (March 4, 18.53), "The offence of 
 endeavouring to excite revolt among the subjects of a neigh- 
 bouring State is an offence against the Law of Nations. If 
 British subjects were to conspire together and subscribe money 
 
 1 Englautl, Austria and Turkey. Treaty, April 15, 1856. 
 
I50 RUSSIAN REVIVALS AND RUSSIAN ASPECTS. 
 
 for the purpose of purchasing arms to give effect to an intended 
 enterprise, I state with confidence, that each person would be 
 guilty of a misdemeauor, and liable to suffer punishment by the 
 laws of this country." 
 
 Not the least of the difficulties in Russian progress is 
 the necessity she has felt for ordering indiscriminate con- 
 scription. This touches all parties, serf and noble. Lately, in 
 the Ural, the Cossacks rebelled against this; exemption could 
 no longer be purchased. 2500 were banished to Central Asia. 
 The exiles, driven as far as fort No. 1 (Kasala), absolutely 
 refused to stir. The commander ordered them to be tied to 
 camels by ropes, and flogged with great barbarity^ Three 
 victims died under the lash. The camels, ropes, and whips, 
 proved at last too strong for the exiles. The march was 
 resumed. 
 
 Russian life in the snowy steppes or the frozen north to the 
 military is, in time of inaction and time of poverty, a misery 
 which only a Russian roud can adequately experience. The 
 army is continually recruited with young men who first ruin 
 themselves in the gay extravagancies of the capital, and find 
 a chance of recruiting their empty coffers in pushing their 
 fortunes in the van of the Muscovite marauders. Their in- 
 satiable lust of conquest seems to allay the pangs of exhausted 
 purses and hopeless ennui. No wonder that the robe of 
 Christianity conveniently hides the prowling propensities of 
 these soldiers of fortune. The Bible and the sword are here 
 the best of companions. " That eminently christianizing weapon, 
 the mitrailleuse, mows down the enemy by thousands"," whilst 
 the American repeater slays the foe so abundantly that re- 
 sistance is useless, and numbers are of no account. 
 
 Captain Burnaby found the garrison officers bitterly envious 
 of their more fortunate brother officers on the Jaxartes ex- 
 peditions, as regards their own slowness of promotion and 
 dreary existence at Kasala. "Anything for a change, we are 
 bored to death here." "Yes," added another, " when we fight 
 you fellows in India then we shall have some promotion; as 
 
 1 Ride to Khiva, p. 95. ' Ihid. 
 
RUSSIAN REVIVALS AND RUSSIAN ASPECTS. 15 1 
 
 to fighting Kokandians, we might as well shoot pheasants; none 
 of our seniors get killed'." 
 
 The Russians as a nation are not in the least scientific, 
 they invent nothing, but imitate everything. 
 
 "Owing to the peculiar constitution of this Empire, the 
 arts and sciences, in general, are but secondary objects in the 
 minds of the nation. The nobles deem no profession honour- 
 able but that of arms. Ambition would be thought to stoop 
 if it sought any celebrity from excelling by- the chisel, the 
 pencil, or the pen; hence, the finest talents among the high 
 born are never directed towards any of these points. Military 
 gloi;y is all their aim ; and if it chances to be united with the , 
 spontaneous growth of any milder genius, it is well ; the 
 possessor is pleased, and his friends delighted; but no fame 
 accrues from classical endowments. The study of the arts and 
 sciences is left to slaves, or at best, to slaves made free ; and 
 they, unhappy men, from being descended from the contemned 
 race, can never, by any exertions of their own, assert the 
 inherent nobility of nature's gifted mind. Slavery is a taint 
 that can never be erased : and thus the generous ambition of 
 genius is cankered at the root." 
 
 Prince Dolgorouski ventured to write an account, "The 
 Truth on Russia" (Paris, 1860), in which he says "it is impossible 
 to print a book on Russia, except in a foreign country. There 
 is a common affection in the beaurocracy for official falsehood. 
 And hence a strong fear, and hatred of publicity. No Justice 
 in Russia. The suitor, purse in hand, must go through ten 
 processes before he can reach the eleventh. Formerly the 
 alpha and omega of government was only the will of a tyrant. 
 The Administration is a den of venality of the lowest kind, 
 everything is sold, and may be bought. As for the Russian 
 clergy, most of the bishops are shameless peculators." 
 
 The Emperor, armed with ukases, is above all law. The 
 admitted general falsification of Russian polity stamps out all 
 unwelcome truths before they can reach the Imperial ear. The 
 bureaucracy rules by gold alone, the only thing to which it is 
 
 1 Ride to Khiva. 
 
152 EUSSIAN- REVIVALS AND RUSSIAN ASPECTS 
 
 faithful. "An organked venality, supported by permanent 
 anarchy, disguised to the eyes of the Emperor, and Europe, by 
 a thick veil of official falsehood. A broad sheet of daily news, 
 faithfully reported, would create checks undreamed of in 
 Russia, where mystery, silence, suppression, and extortion are 
 the only safe means for an unemancipated barbaric power." 
 A story is told thus. A foreigner, desiring to be a contractor, 
 applied to the Charg^ d'affaires for advice. "Apply," said be, 
 
 " to the Count , you must give him money, and give money 
 
 also to the mistress of his father. The elder Count is head of 
 the department in question, and his son having great influence 
 at Court, your business will be safe." "Alas!" replied the 
 applicant, " I have given so much to the younger Count, and 
 so much to his father's mistress; they took my money, pro- 
 mised everything, and have done nothing." Such is the kind 
 of story of multitudes seeking justice in Russia. 
 
 Official salaries are as low as £16 per annum. Each law 
 stage (of which there are eleven) costs money. At each point 
 it is possible to discover a breach of form ; and bribes are 
 required. No open court, no proceedings, no counsel, and no 
 oral testimony. Nothing but secret justice baffled at every 
 point. A Justice once declared to the Prince "that a 'Bar' 
 would be very dangerous, as it would extend legal knowledge 
 beyond the functionaries." Their living would be sapped at 
 the foundation, and the Russian Code provides that ignorance 
 of the law is no plea. The head of the Tribunal is supreme 
 judge, without jury, and can always quash any decisions which 
 are obnoxious to his own aims and views. 
 
 But one of the most paiaful of all Russian persecutions 
 arises from her spirit laws. Her revenue is one-fifth of the 
 whole from this source. Every kind of artful intimidation is 
 carried on by the farmer of this brandy or vodki tax. The 
 lower classes, fond as they are of their beloved vodki, are 
 more oppressed on this score than perhaps any other. 
 Imagine a policeman with a thick stick belabouring the 
 peasant, because he will not get drunk ! " The police stood 
 over the peasants in the public-houses, and by force of blows 
 compelled them to drink brandy (corn brandy) : then the ex- 
 
BUSSIAN REVIVALS AND RUSSIAN ASPECTS. 1 53 
 
 asperated peasants demolished the public-houses." The govern- 
 ment ordered no notice should appear of these proceedings ! 
 In order to secure the income, a most intricate system of 
 rascality is adopted, something in the following manner : — 
 
 " The farmer lays on a great addition to the legal price of the 
 spirit ; and to secure connivance he bribes all the local officials. 
 To repay himself the expenditure of hundreds of thousands a 
 year in bribes, and to make the people drink as much brandy 
 as they would if it bore the legal price, all conceivable devices 
 of intimidation and seduction are employed to get a certain 
 "^quantity of brandy down men's throats, and up in score against 
 them. When once they are sufficiently deep in debt there is 
 no fear of their turning temperate ; and their earnings are 
 mortgaged for life to the exchequer, and to the farmer of its 
 most lucrative tax. The freeman is induced to run up a score, 
 and he is enormously over-charged. The peasant is induced to 
 do the, same, and his creditor comes down upon him with a 
 heavy bill at harvest time. Having no ready money, he is 
 compelled to give up a very undue portion of his crop. If a 
 man who has no interest among the great comes to a public- 
 house in his cart, he is soon dead drunk, and when he comes to 
 himself cart and horse have disappeared. If he comes on foot 
 his clothes have vanished, and the bill charges him with much 
 more drink than he can possibly have swallowed. Thus dupes 
 are constantly becoming thieves, getting back their losses by 
 duping others. There are no fouler nests of crime than these 
 public-houses; laws and ordinances never enter them. The 
 farmers of the brandy duty keep the police in their pay ; and 
 the police never interfere when the sale of brandy is going on. 
 At last a temperance movement spread ; but the police were 
 heavily bribed to exercise all their arts to promote intoxication. 
 Eiots broke out, and soldiery were required to punish these 
 shameful demonstrations. Brandy drinking was officially de- 
 clared to be necessary for the public health. Temperance 
 societies were actually prohibited by the highest authorities. 
 
 M. Tourgeneff states that in Queen Elizabeth's time the 
 Eussian serfs were actually free. But the Tzar Boris in 1592 
 decreed that labourers should be chained to the soil. The 
 Empress Catharine visited Little Russia. Aware what was 
 
154 iiU'SSIAN' REVIVALS AND RUSSIAN ASPECTS. 
 
 about to happen, the trap was set, certainly not in sight of any 
 bird. One courtier had two fine regiments of grenadiers en- 
 camped on his land at the critical moment. Forth came 
 Catharine's decree that labourers should be attached to the 
 soil on which they were then at work. Immediately this 
 Count, a member of the Council of State, incorporated these 
 fine regiments with his agricultural serfs ! Many instigators 
 of this act played off precisely the same device. Paul was 
 beset with petitions to authorize the sale of the serfs as mer- 
 chandise. He, however, replied, "Peasants may not be sold 
 apart from the land on which they live.'' A plaintive tale is 
 related of Alexander. A Scotch engineer had hmight a wretched 
 lot of men for his hard service. They found means to address 
 the Emperor. The council and a commission appointed so long 
 loitered over the affair that he forgot the whole thing. It so 
 happened that a woman was sold for two roubles and a half 
 (7s. 6d) within two paces of the Emperor's palace gate. In a 
 fit of enthusiasm he seized one of the sacred images on his shelf 
 and vowed to abolish serfdom. But he forgot this also. 
 
 Out of 70,000,000, about 14,000,000 were free, and about 
 120,000 were slave owners : of these about 1500 were like 
 princes, owning 6,500,000 serfs, or on an average 4,000 or 5,000 
 serfs apiece. • About 20,000 held from 100 to 1,000. The 
 bitterest enemies of emancipation were the small holders. 
 These slaves were formerly bought and sold like cattle. 
 
 Prince Dolgorouski expresses his fears for the Russian 
 future in the following remarkable passage : — 
 
 " Ten centuries ago, in 862, the Slaves of the north sent 
 ambassadors to Eurik and to his brothers to say : 'Our country 
 is vast and fertile, but anarchy spoils it ; come and deliver us 
 from this scourge!' 
 
 " After an existence of a thousand years, after having ex- 
 hausted all the modes of despotism, Russia is once more on the 
 verge of revolution, and we say to the Emperor, 'Sire, our 
 country is vast and fertile ; but absolutism and venality 
 spoil it : deliver us from these scourges ; grant us a govern- 
 ment founded on law and suitable to the needs of the time.' 
 {La Verite sur la Russie, p. 378.) 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 THE RUSSIAN PROTECTORATE. 
 
 For forty years England had been revelling in assured peace, 
 and a prodigious commerce : whilst Russia, by her traditional 
 arts, had been continually extending her frontiers. A new era 
 of international trade seemed to have dawned, with the fairy- 
 like creation of a crystal palace, the wonder of the world. 
 England, apparently abandoned to the pursuit of gain, and 
 absorbed in the extension of commerce, and the consolidation 
 of her Indian Empire, offered to, the Northern Autocrat a 
 spectacle of strange indifference to Russian schemes. In war- 
 like spirit England had visibly declined. Her marvellous 
 mechanical genius now developed, the niceties of her inven- 
 tions, and her overflowing wealth, together with the trumpet- 
 tongued declamations of the apostles of peace, seemed to the 
 Russian mind to have subdued the courage and spirit of 
 English manhood. Quakerism, and a maundering enthusiasm 
 against war, appeared to have flung over the face of English 
 prowess an expression of tame indifference and peace-loving 
 repose. True honour and glory were boldly announced to con- 
 sist in the peaceful acquisitions of the trader and the merchant. 
 
 This picture, so fantastic, and yet graphically presented in 
 the very court of the autocrat by the apostles of peace was 
 signally attractive, but was destined to cruelly deceive the 
 Russian Autocrat. 
 
 The supreme moment arrived for whispering the assassination 
 
156 IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 of the sick man of the East, and the division of his goods. 
 The scene was a Eussian " reception." The Emperor Nicholas 
 was the speaker, and Sir Hobart Seymour the astonished- 
 listener. The Autocrat's words were these: 
 
 "Stay ! we have on our hands a sick man ; a very sick man. 
 It will be, I will tell you frankly, a great misfortune, if one of 
 these days he should slip away from us ; especially before all 
 
 necessary arrangements were made K the Turkish Empire 
 
 falls, it falls to rise no more If England thinks of estabUsh- 
 
 ing herself at Constantinople, I tell you plainly I will not allow 
 it. For my own part I am equally disposed to take the 
 engagement not to establish myself there — as proprietor that 
 is to say — -for as occupier I do not say. It might happen... 
 that circumstances might place me in the position of occupying 
 Constantinople.... I repeat to you (said the Emperor) that the 
 sick man is dying, and we can never allow such an event to 
 take us by surprise. We must come to some understanding." 
 
 This was the 20th of February, 1853. The next day the 
 Autocrat having sent for the English Ambassador, said to him : 
 
 " The Principalities are in fact an independent state under 
 my protection. This might so continue. Servia might receive 
 the same form of government. So again with Bulgaria. There 
 seems no reason why this province should not form an inde- 
 pendent state. As to Egypt, I quite understand the importance 
 to England of that territory. I can then only say, that if, in 
 the event of a distribution of the Ottoman Empire, you should 
 then take possession of Egypt, I shall have no objection to 
 offer. I would then say the same thing of Candia : that island 
 might suit you : and I do not know why it should not become 
 an English possession." Our English Government concealed 
 these sinister proposals from the English people. The govern- 
 ment of the day was thoroughly pro-Eussian, and quietly 
 swallowed its indignation, if it had any. It was fully alive to 
 the Eussian designs. The diplomatic game was opened with a 
 dispute about the Holy Sepulchre and a silver star : but this 
 dispute served to rouse all the passions of the bafSed Czar. 
 Our Stratford Canning, on the Bosphorus, adroitly settled, 
 and skilfully parried, the Eussian demands for a protectorate 
 
THE RUSSIAN PROTECTORATE. 157 
 
 in Turkish dominious: and for a while stemmed the tide of 
 aggression. Eleven months passed away in the dispute- 
 Russian armies crowded to the frontier ; and Russian arsenals 
 resounded with the most active preparations for war. 
 
 The Turkish Grand Vizier intuitively divined the meaning 
 of the Russian proposal, so piously concealed under assumed 
 anxiety for the Christians. He declared "the sole object of 
 this demand was to trample under foot the rights of the Porte, 
 and the independence of the Sovereign." 
 
 Nicholas was fully aware of the extreme audacity of such 
 a pretext as " the keys and the silver star,'' for commencing a 
 war oa Turkey. But when the Emperor of the French and 
 the English moved their combined fleets up to Constantinople, 
 seeing as it were the prize slipping from his power, the Im- 
 perial wrath was ignited. But an event now happened which 
 completely changed the scene. 
 
 Mentschicoff had secretly proposed to provide Turkey with 
 400,000 troops whenever she might need assistance against the 
 Western Powers! and in return for this promise, Russia 
 demanded that the Greek Church in Turkey should be placed 
 wholly and solely under her protection, beyond recall. So 
 profoundly was the secrecy of this arrangement guarded by 
 Russia, that Turkey was threatened with the instant departure 
 of the Russian Embassy if the plan were divulged. 
 
 The Turks on their side, never deficient in astute penetra- 
 tion, thrilled with dismay and indignation at the proposal. 
 They recognized at once, in this insidious protectorate, the thin 
 end of the wedge which was destined to rive open the very 
 bulwarks of the Turkish Empire. Russia, in time of peace, 
 and without provocation, demanded a treaty which would hand 
 over fourteen millions of Turkish subjects to the entire pro- 
 tection, manipulation, and fiat of a hostile power, an ancient 
 enemy, who for ages had continually taken slice after slice of 
 her territory, and mulcted her of millions sterling by her cruel 
 exactions. It was no less than signing a "concordat" with a 
 Russian Pope. " This treaty," said Rifaat Pasha, " would be 
 abandoning the whole population of the Greek faith, their 
 clergy, and churches, to a Russian Protectorate." It was 
 
158 IMPEBIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 perfectly cleax, that at any moment, such a basis could always 
 be made the pretext for fresh extortions under the plea of 
 manufactured grievances. 
 
 Mentschicoff now urgently pressed the immediate adoption 
 of this treaty on the ground that now all distrust and all hesi- 
 tation should be laid aside by which the dignity and generous 
 sentiments of his august master would be aggrieved ! Refusing 
 this, the Sultan now completely anticipated these proposals by 
 at once promulgating a firman securing both spiritual and 
 temporal privileges to all the tributary subjects, and commu- 
 nicated this decision to the whole of Christendom. This 
 guarantee was at once pronounced by Mentschicoff a measure 
 hostile to Russia and her religion ! 
 
 Eleven weeks were thus consumed before the abrupt break- 
 ing off with the Porte by the departure of the whole of the 
 Embassy. But whilst the ambassador of Russia was thus trucu- 
 lent in bluster, the Czar was with great solemnity denouncing 
 to the English Government the practice of harassing the Porte 
 by overbearing demands ! (See Eastern papers.) 
 
 The most extraordinary feature in these transactions is the 
 utter absence on the part of Russia of any supported state- 
 ments of maltreatment of Christians or narratives of Turkish 
 atrocity. 
 
 "It is known," says the Czar in his manifesto^ "to all our 
 faithful subjects, that the defence of the orthodox religion was 
 
 from time immemorial the vow of our glorious forefathers 
 
 But to our great grief, recently, in despite of our efforts to 
 defend the inviolability of the rights and privileges of our 
 orthodox Church, various arbitrary acts of the Porte have 
 infringed these rights, and threaten at the last the complete 
 overthrow of the long perpetuated order so dear to Orthodoxy. 
 Having exhausted all persuasion, we have found it needful to 
 advance our armies into the Danubian Principalities, in order 
 to shew the Porte to what its obstinacy may lead. But even 
 now we have not the intention to commence war. By the 
 occupation of the Principalities we desire to have such a secu- 
 
 1 Eastern Papers, Part i, p. 357. 
 
THE RUSSIAN PROTECTORATE. 1 59 
 
 rity as will insure us the restitution of our rights. It is not 
 conquest we seek. Russia needs it not. We seek satisfaction 
 for a just right clearly infringed " 
 
 By this manifesto, coupled with the secret proposals to 
 Sir H. Seymour, and the known contents of the secret articles 
 of the Treaty of Tilsit, the conscience of Europe was inex- 
 pressibly shocked. The wilful breaker of the general peace, 
 without one reasonable pretext, wasleft without a single ally 
 in Europe. The writer of the French foreign office exposed 
 the hollowness of these Russian pretences with eroding sar- 
 casm and magnificent logic. But the people of the Russian 
 and Turkish dominions regarded it purely as a religious war. 
 The protectorate which now seemed to be assumed by France 
 and England by the approach of the united fleets to Besika 
 Bay had a maddening effect on Nicholas. The sudden attack 
 on a weak Turkish squadron at Sinope, in which 4,000 Turks 
 were destroyed, moved the English to a kind of warlike frenzy, 
 whose own navy was hard by, and did nothing ! It was on the 
 11th of April that the Emperor of Russia had issued his decla- 
 ration of war. To Central and Western Europe the piety of 
 Russia was thus ecstatically vaunted : — 
 
 " Russia," said he, " fights not for the things of this world, 
 
 but for the Faith. Russia will not alter her divine mission 
 
 And in this trust taking up arms for our persecuted brethren 
 professing the Christian faith, we will exclaim with the whole 
 of Russia with one heart, " Lord our Saviour, whom have we 
 to fear 1 May God arise and let his enemies be scattered." 
 
 On the 10th of April, 1854, England and France signed a 
 treaty of alliance, in which they bound themselves to renounce 
 all aim at separate advantages, and engaged to do all that in 
 them lay to prevent the return of the existing troubles, once 
 for all, and to set free the dominions of the Sultan. 
 
 The subsequent war endured for 18 months. It brought to their 
 graves a million of men, and cost the allies hundreds of millions ; 
 no indemnity was ashed. Germany extorted £400,000,000 ster- 
 ling from France as indemnity for a gratuitous war. Why was 
 not Russia compelled to pay a proportionate fine ? There is 
 perhaps this significant result — in any future defeats of Russian 
 
l6o IMPERIAL RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 armies a war fine ought to be imposed by Europe. No other 
 power is so aggressi^'e or so successful in. permanent occupa- 
 tion. Besides this, she always exacts treasure from the van- 
 quished. With what measure she metes it ought to be measured 
 to her again. But can such a war fine be exacted ? The very 
 fact of the extreme difiGiculty of compelling this power to " pay 
 damages" is a strong reason for placing her deeds under the 
 most searching scrutiny and surveillance. 
 
CHAPTEK X. 
 
 RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS 
 
 Many of the Russian occupations of the present day were 
 plotted in the olden time. Oft repeated invasions have fre- 
 quently preceded the final conquest. Those of Persia, Poland, 
 Finland, Turkey, China, the Caucasus, and Turkestan, most 
 conspicuously adorn the pages of Eussian history. 
 
 In all, the same masterly, pertinacious, and audacious 
 means have been steadily employed. No conquests have cost 
 so little war as hers, but no wars have been more ruthless and 
 incisive. Her Siberian wastes received her inconvenient sub- 
 jects; tortures compelled change of religion. Her rich mines 
 at once terrified the rebellious and enriched her cofifers. The 
 refinements of suffering were the most direct means of striking 
 terror and exacting submission. Besides all this, the boundless 
 projects of military glory, wildly surging over the obstacles in 
 the path, like some huge tidal wave, ignored the woes entailed. 
 
 In pursuing that splendid Russian policy — the heirloom of 
 Peter the Great — a large part of Europe, and at least a huge 
 part of Asia, had to be won. Russia has aggrandized her vast 
 territories, north, east, and south, and even largely to the west, 
 where most resistance was to be met, with almost miraculous 
 ease. But the grand consummation of her proudest aspirations, 
 is to be mistress of the lovely Queen of the East. Already, 
 having been once dominant in the Bosphorus, imagination fails 
 to appreciate the jealous pangs which torment her dreams, by 
 the spectacle of other supremacy there. The prize so long 
 coveted by sons of Rurik, and the Romanoffs, has ever slipped 
 from their grasp. 
 
 R. 11 
 
i62. RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 Constantinople, in every age, has been the grand guerdon 
 of mighty conquerors. In all ages, civilized peoples have been 
 fascinated by the seductive beauties of its situation, the delights 
 of its climate, and the varieties of its busy visitants. Besides 
 being the seat of the Arabic Pontiff, the sublime Head of the 
 faithful, numbering the countless millions of Araby, of Central 
 Asia, the far East, and Hindostan ; placed too, at the -midway 
 water-course of the world, where the boundless treasure of a 
 world-wide commerce, the grain of eastern Europe, the loads 
 of the camels of the deserts, and the vast productions of a new 
 and old world united, Constantinople is the only capital in the 
 world whose traffic "can never decline so long as the human 
 race endures." And the more that Asia revives and Russia 
 advances, the more splendid must be the wealth poured into 
 its bosom, by the vast arteries which coUect from their plains 
 the innumerable streams of their cultivation. " Its incomparable 
 excellence made the Romans forget the sanctity of their Capitol 
 and transfer their metropolis of the world to the shores of 
 the Bosphorus." This eastern diadem of beauty, basking in 
 the sunny south, has long formed the one devouring passion 
 of the frozen Russians, imprisoned in their ice-bound deserts. 
 Amid the jealous watchfulness of surrounding powers, Russia 
 has never yet been able to bribe high enough to secure this 
 mighty prize. But whether she flashes her sword to the four 
 quarters of the globe, or raises the standard of the Cross in the 
 outlying bulwarks of the Eastern throne, by whatever conquests 
 by sea or by land, still Constantinople, and perhaps Jerusalem, 
 are supreme centres of an irresistible gravitation or attraction; 
 thither she flings herself, and thither again and again wiU her 
 legions repair. " The extension of Russia is nqt destined to be 
 arrested till it has subjected all Central Asia to its rule, and 
 established the Cross in undisturbed sovereignty on the dome of 
 Sophia and the minarets of Jerusalem." Such was the old 
 verdict of one of England's proudest historians. The meanest 
 soldier is penetrated with the idea that Russia will conquer 
 and unfurl the standard of the Cross throughout the world. 
 Inspired with this belief, he subsists on eight and sixpence a 
 year, bivouacks without tents in the snow, in the coldest 
 
POLAND. 163 
 
 weather, and all this without a murmur. _ Thus they obey the 
 behests of their king. They march to rescue mankind from 
 the empire of the devil, in the person of the Grand Turk. 
 From childhood their priests inculcate hatred to the infidel 
 and the piety of exterminating their hereditary foes. Religion 
 is used as the mask of conquest, and pious purposes hide 
 sanguinary ambition. 
 
 It is the peculiar combination of the subtle chords of 
 religious enthusiasm with the secret wires of cabinet intrigue 
 that give the dangerous and envenomed point to all Russia's 
 maturing designs. In nothing is this seen better than in her 
 pious pretences of solicitude for the Christians in her neighbours' 
 vineyards ; and never so brightly shining in robes of illustrious 
 goodness, as when the left hand holds a church, and the right 
 hand the yataghan. (Saint Nicholas is so represented.) 
 
 In the following remarks, as brief as possible, we shall trace 
 the thrusts of this two-edged sword of conquest, this adroit use 
 of the cross and the dagger, the! priest and the Cossack, tribute 
 and the sword, the creed or the mines. 
 
 Poland. 
 
 Thus wrote Helen, the wife of Poland's king, to the Grand 
 Duke of Muscovy, her father, Ivan III., in 1502, from Wilna. 
 
 "By the permission of God, and the audacity of wicked men, 
 much blood has already been shed, and continues to ' flow. 
 Women and children are dragged into slavery; the holy faith 
 decays, our churches are deserted ; and all this notwithstanding 
 your treaties, your oaths, and alliances. 
 
 "Is this your love for me, my lord and father? I, who am 
 your servant and daughter ? I should prefer to die in your 
 country at your feet rather than to hear it said, 'he has sent his 
 daughter to Lithuania the more easily to ensnare and enslave 
 the country! 
 
 "Think only, my lord, how impossible it is to place any 
 confidence in these modern Cains, who do not hesitate to 
 massacre their own brothers, and are also plunged up to the 
 neck in blood. 
 
 11—2 
 
1 64 RUSSIAX OCCUPATIOXS. 
 
 " You will learn from the ambassadors sent to you that the 
 king of Poland has in no way infringed the treaties. Do not 
 refuse him your former love, as to a brother and son-iu-law, 
 so that my bitter tears may be changed to joy." 
 
 Hear the Russian historian' : " We admit that Ivan violated 
 
 the clauses of the treaty of peace, but he found an excuse 
 
 sufficiently weighty in the necessities of protecting his brothers 
 
 in religion." 
 
 ***** 
 
 Catharine II., that impersonation of duplicity, treachery, and 
 vice, approached her future victim with blandishments and 
 religious zeal. The prime lever of the Russian power has ever 
 been apparently a sweet solicitude for suffering humanity 
 around her, the relief of their troubles, anxiety for their out- 
 raged rights, tenderness for their wrongs. It was thus she 
 addressed the Poland which had been gradually disturbed by 
 her machinations, so as to require a fine consolatory influence : 
 
 "Unity of religion, and the glory of contributiug to human 
 happiness, are not the only motives which iaduce her Imperial 
 Highness to renew at this present time in the most pressing 
 manner, her intervention in favour of the Greek Church, and 
 of the other dissenting bodies, subjects of Poland, in order to 
 put an end to the oppression under which they groan, and to 
 
 re-establish them in their rights Russia, in virtue of the 
 
 treaty of 1686, and the other powers in concert with her, in 
 virtue of the Treaty of Oliva, with one accord consider it their 
 duty to watch over the security of each party of the state ; to pre- 
 vent all discord between them, to procure for them a strict dis- 
 tribution of justice, and the enjoyment for each and aU of that 
 which constitutes reciprocal and general rights. It is therefore to 
 he faithful to treaties that the Empress desires to regain for the 
 Greek subjects and the other Dissenters all their rights, and to 
 secure to them their continuation. 
 
 " She is rejoiced to see the Polish nation confederated, the 
 re-establishment of her tranquillity, the consolidation of her 
 liberties, and the freedom of electing her king from amongst 
 her ancient nobility." 
 
 • Earamsin. 
 
POLAND. 165 
 
 In Six Articles she then regulated the ecclesiastical affairs of 
 the Greek Church ; gave full protection to the Greek service and 
 hierarchy; and conferred on them all means requisite for the 
 support of their dignity. Liberty of conscience as a divine right. 
 Tribute to Catholic clergy she denounced as an abuse and per- 
 nicious. Power to erect schools and bishoprics in perpetuity. 
 Her Imperial Majesty also requested negotiations respecting 
 subjects who do not follow the Greek religion, in order to 
 determine their share in state administration, and their con- 
 nection wjth the Crown. The aid also which she accorded to 
 the whole nation for her common good she owes likewise, and 
 cannot refuse to the Greek and Nonconformist communities. 
 
 "Eeligion, and the duties of friendship and social inter- 
 course, the obligations of treaties, and the honour of their 
 accomplishment, the desire to answer the hopes of a whole na- 
 tion, enjoin -on her Majesty the absolute necessity to continue 
 these efforts, in order to bring about the re-establishment of 
 the Greeks and Nonconformists in the eojoyment of the rights, 
 as well spiritual as temporal, which are their due as members 
 of a Free State. 
 
 "She considers it her duty to 'employ every means likely 
 to effect the restoration of the general tranquillity, and believes 
 she could not employ them more worthily \" 
 
 In 1790, a report, unmasking Eussia, was presented to the 
 same Diet concerning the insurrections in Poland, which oc- 
 curred in the spring of the year 1789. 
 
 " The Republic is threatened with new dangers, and with a 
 new and permanent disease in Poland, whose poison is per- 
 petually infecting it, and it proceeds from a permanent system 
 adopted by a foreign Power. All the revolts in Poland origi- 
 nated among the fierce and unruly Cossacks, the inhabitants of 
 Southern Poland. Those of the present day are produced by 
 the deep-laid schemes of a dangerous neighbour. Means and 
 precautions were employed to enlist favourable accidents as in- 
 struments of foreign intrigue, and to transform domestic riots 
 into political conspiracy. 
 
 ' Dated 20 AprU, 1766, sent to the Diet of the Kingdom of Poland, Piince 
 Eepnin being then Amhassador at the Court of Warsaw. 
 
1 66 RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 " The Cossacks, a vagabond people without morals or police, 
 steeped in ignorance, and restive under all authority, first made 
 the Polish nation acquainted with the name of revolt, and its 
 accompanying calamities. They were inspired with fanaticism 
 and wrath, stimulated with the hope of plunder by. an arch 
 conspirator^ who first joined the Tartars to the plot. The 
 murderous war that followed this alliance with the Muscovites, 
 gave the long desired opportunity for encroachments on the 
 Polish kingdom." 
 
 The Court of Russia obtained possession of the provinces 
 whose inhabitants were chiefly of the Greek faith, in defiance of 
 the Treaty of Andruszow, which had guaranteed its reversion 
 to Poland after two years' occupation. 
 
 Peter the First thought his various vassal provinces insecure, 
 while separated from him by the spiritual power. He then de- 
 cided, once for all, to unite both political and religious power 
 in his own person. Henceforth, the decisions of the Greek 
 Synod became the Absolute decree of the Sovereign. Political 
 subjection was confounded with religious submission. By the 
 most artful blandishments, Russia, in her new character, sought 
 to alienate the affections and inclinations of the Polish Greeks, 
 so as to detach them from their national governors. Hence- 
 forward the Polish insurrections, at the bidding of a Russian 
 Pope, escaped the ken of the government. Russia secured 
 moral ties more binding than national patriotism. The Russian 
 Synod or Sovereign, by means of rights adroitly acquired, filled 
 the Polish livings with Russian monks and priests through its 
 Bishop, Koninski. She progressed daily. The multiplied out- 
 rages upon the national dignity of Poland culminated in the 
 Treaty which followed the Conference of Sluck, when intrigues, 
 cabals, and intimidations, combined to heap upon the doomed 
 state the crowning insults of a triumphant diplomacy. The 
 ingenuity of this treaty demands a passing note. 
 
 Romish Apostates to he exiled from Poland. This decree, 
 apparently favourable to the dominant Creed, was the astute 
 
 ' General Eoniecpolski, disappointed with the deprivation of the Government 
 of Czechryn. 
 
POLAND. 167 
 
 means of enriching Eussia with refugees, who left the crime 
 unpunished, and thus encouraged the exodus, whilst her pa^'ti- 
 sans in the heart of Poland were increased. 
 
 St Petersburg alone was to act through its Synod in the 
 affairs of all Dissenters and non-united Greeks. 
 
 Against the woes of Poland, continually intensifying, England 
 and France protested in vain : they were met by Gortschakotif's 
 haughty dispatches forsooth about the honour and integrity of 
 Russia, and the readiness of the nation to rise as one man for 
 the vindication of her independence ! Austria, scared by the 
 threat of a Gallician revolt, dared not unsheath her sword. 
 The Russian Bear closed still tighter its suffocating grip. 
 The Polish Victim, bleeding, torn, and exhausted, was relin- 
 quished by Europe to its fatal jaws. 
 
 The time soon arrived when the Russian mask, worn out 
 and useless, dropped from the actors. All the professions of 
 moderation, solicitude, and tenderness for a nation's welfare, 
 melted away like a summer cloud. Victorious, elate, and 
 confident, the Emperor could now, at his leisure, silently 
 contemplate the last ebbing palpitations of a nation despotic- 
 ally crushed. 
 
 The final catastrophe at Warsaw is thus described. "Its 
 citizens, with unavailing anguish, beheld their defenders on 
 the other side of the Vistula perishing in the flames (of the 
 suburbs) or by the sword of the conquerors. Ten thousand 
 soldiers fell on the spot ; nine thousand were made prisoners, 
 and above twelve thousand citizens of every age and sex were 
 put to the sword : a dreadful instance of carnage which has 
 left a lasting stain which Russia expiated at the conflagration 
 of Moscow. This was the first instance of the destruction of 
 a member of the European family by ambitious rivals : as 
 such, it excited a profound sensation in Europe. To behold a 
 people so ancient, so gallant, whose deeds were associated 
 with such heart-stirring recollections, fall a victim to imperial 
 ingratitude, Prussian cupidity, and Muscovite ambition, was 
 a spectacle which naturally excited the utmost indignation. 
 The Christian world was penetrated with grief akin to that 
 felt by the civilized nations at the fall of Jerusalem. The 
 
1 68 RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 poet, says Alison, has celebrated these events in the immortal 
 lines : — 
 
 " Oh bloodiest picture in the book of time ! 
 
 Sannatia fell unwept, without a crime; 
 
 Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe, 
 
 Strength in her arms nor mercy in her woe. 
 
 Dropped from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear. 
 
 Closed her bright eye and curb'd her high career: 
 
 Hope for a season bade the world farewell, 
 
 An d freedom shrieked as Kosciusko feU." 
 
 The spoils of Poland fatally attracted those armies of 
 Austria, Russia and Prussia which should have stopped the 
 career of the avenging Nemesis of France. Six years of bondage 
 and an enormous tribute, the complete humiliation of Austria 
 and Eussia on the very exact territories of Poland, remind 
 one of the vineyard of Naboth and the blood of Ahab's race. 
 Twice passed the victorious French armies through the city 
 of Vienna. "History," says the historian of these times, 
 " v?ould be worse than useless if it did not signalize this 
 memorable instance of a just retribution, for the eternal warning 
 of mankind." Prussia had stood by, the willing spectator 
 for ten long years, in selfish neutrality, anxious only to secure 
 her share in these ill-gotten gains of infamy. Russia was 
 compelled to sue for peace in the field of Naboth. It was the 
 Imperial trio who had laughed, made merry; and divided the 
 spoil, upon whom the thunderbolt of France fell with fury. 
 
 It was all in vain that the cry of Poland had been echoed 
 through the civilized world. Isolated and hemmed in by 
 devouring wolves, no help could then reach her. She could 
 only be avenged. And what a cry ! 
 
 "Muscovite despotism in the middle of the nineteenth 
 century presents a spectacle of atrocity unknown in the annals 
 of barbarous times. The deceitful mask which covered Russia 
 has fallen off, and the barbarous Mongol re-appears in his 
 hideous nakednessw The cruelties of Tamerlane and Ivan the 
 Terrible pale before those of Eussia, who has launched her 
 most savage hordes against Poland. The war is now a horrible 
 carnage, pillage and burnings. Priests in their sacred robes 
 are delivered to the hangman. Neither age nor sex is spared. 
 
FINLAND. 1 69 
 
 The Muscovite tramples down divine and human laws under 
 his feet, and henceforward there is an abyss of blood. Will 
 Europe suffer that humanity shall thus be insolently outraged, 
 and a war of extermination prolonged, to the shame of the 
 present century ? 
 
 "People of the West hear the cry of alarm which this 
 martyred nation raises. It is over its body that despotism 
 hopes to force its way to the heart of civilization." 
 
 EnormoXis numbers of prisoners were knouted, and sent 
 to die in frozen Siberia, where the thermometer reaches 100° 
 below freezing point. Many were sent to Kronstadt ; and 
 about ^ one hundred and thirty, refusing to take the oath of 
 allegiance, were obliged to run the gauntlet and receive 6000 
 strokes with the rods of the soldiers placed in rank and file 
 so as to form a lane of torture mitigated only by the final 
 insensibility of the reeking victims. The victim was tied to the 
 back of a marching soldier. 
 
 Fi7iland. 
 
 The secret treaty of Tilsit, between Napoleon and Alex- 
 ander in 1807S enabled these august personages to confer 
 amicably together. Among other things. Napoleon said, " Take 
 you Finland as a compensation for the expense of the war. 
 It won't do to let your Russian beauties hear the sound of 
 Swedish cannon ; Sweden may be an ally ; but it is geographi- 
 cally your enemy. If the Turks resist we must divide their 
 dominions, but how ? You may keep besides Bessarabia, 
 Moldavia, Wallachia and Bulgaria to the foot of the Balkan. 
 France should have the maritime provinces. The consent 
 of Austria will be easily obtained by giving her Bosnia and 
 Servia." 
 
 By this treaty these imperial robbers had agreed upon the 
 exact share of each in the spoliation and the mode of bribing 
 a consenting spectator. In return for these compliments, 
 France had engaged to permit Eussia at once to begin with 
 
 1 Fully authenticated by M. Thiers {Mist, dit Consulat) as taken from the 
 will of Napoleon. 
 
IJO RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 Finland. Alexander, encouraged with this carte blanche, imme- 
 diately put his nefarious design into execution. " The cabinet 
 of St Petersburg had long beheld with covetous eyes this 
 Finland, and Sveaborg, its noble fortress, the northern key 
 of the Baltic (within a short distance)." Russia lost no time. 
 On the 11th of March, 1808, she declared war against Sweden, 
 and on the 28th, within little more than a fortnight, an Impe- 
 rial Ukase was issued at St Petersburg — (of great simplicity) — ■ 
 
 " AVe unite Finland, conquered by our arms," for ever to 
 our empire, and command its inhabitants forthwith to take the 
 oath of allegiance to our throne." 
 
 Such was the audacious and unblushing effrontery with 
 which Sweden was dismembered, before any treaty had been 
 signed. In 1809, the severe frost enabled the Russians to 
 gain the advantage of crossing the Gulf of Bothnia on the 
 thick ice and complete this shameless annexation, which ex- 
 tended from this Gulf almost to the frozen ocean by the river 
 Joki. 
 
 Now it should be particularly pointed out that the Swedish 
 Government had scrupulously abstained from giving offence 
 to their gigantic foe. Yet during the whole winter, troops were 
 continually passed forward towards Finland. At last, when 
 the Autocrat of all the Russias was compelled to assign a reason 
 for this infamous war, the fatal fruit of Tilsit secrecy, he could 
 affirm nothing better than that the Swedish monarch had not 
 acceded to his proposal to join his forces to those of Russia, 
 and was desirous of preserving his neutrality in the coming 
 war ! ! 
 
 But worse than this, the Russians, without declaring war, 
 entered Finland, with proclamations to the effect that the ter- 
 ritory was entered with no intention of hostility, hut solely to 
 ■preserve them from the horrors of war ! ! a promise instantly 
 dishonoured by the occupation of the whole provinces and uni- 
 versal establishment of Russian administration. The King of 
 Sweden bitterly complained of this invasion without a decla- 
 ration of war as no better than a huge burglary; and also he 
 complained of Russia perseveringly instigating his subjects to 
 revolt. 
 
FINLAND. 1 7 1 
 
 It is quite plain that Kussia practises precisely the same 
 arts to-day as she did then. She steals into possession under 
 the guise of friendship. What is the correct expression where- 
 with to brand such transactions ? 
 
 No sooner, however, did the Emperor Napoleon apply the 
 same system of spoliation to Germany which he had recom- 
 mended to Alexander in the case of Finland, than Alexander 
 experienced an indignant reaction of the most poignant kind. 
 From that moment all intimacy between these well-matched 
 monarchs wholly ceased. The one had seized the enormous 
 eastern tracts of Sweden, the other had subjected a neighbour, 
 too near to be pleasant. 
 
CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS. THE CAUCASUS. 
 
 The flight of a nation, driven at the point of the bayonet into 
 the sea, or rather into the valleys leading to the sea, is a 
 spectacle with which Eussia alone has favoured the wondering 
 world, and this in recent times. She knows that destruction 
 or displacement of the dwellers in the land is the surest way 
 to find homes and homesteads, estates and granaries for her 
 starving hordes. The invaders must live : the natives must go 
 or perish." 
 
 " It is apparent," says Lord Napier, writing on the 23rd of 
 May, 1864, "that the Russian Government have long taken 
 an absolute resolution, at any risk, to remove the whole of the 
 mountaineers still in arms from their native places. The system 
 pursued has been for two years past to move the troops and 
 the Cossack forts and settlements slowly but surely up the 
 valleys which pour their waters northwards to the basin of the 
 Kouban, dispossessing the indigenous inhabitants at every step, 
 until at length the highest fastnesses have been reached, and 
 the people inhabiting the watershed have been pushed over the 
 valleys sloping southward to the Black Sea, and have carried 
 the sequestered people of those regions in masses to the coast." 
 From this coast they flew by tens of thousands across the sea, 
 to perish by famine and disease under the kind yet clumsy help 
 of Turkey. 
 
 But next came the turn of the Crimean natives. Immedi- 
 ately after the peace they were forced to depart wholesale. The 
 estates were thus easily appropriated without proper payment, 
 and now Russia enjoys a sunny southern court ! 
 
 In 1861 — 62 the Kouban Tartars, in the line of the Indian 
 
THE CAUCASUS. 173 
 
 route be it observed, were ordered to leave at an early fixed 
 date, no time being given tbem to sell their lands, houses, 
 or homesteads. No price could be obtained. They landed in 
 the midst of sleet, snow, and rain ; and soon it was not possible 
 to walk in Constantinople without meeting numerous little 
 coffins containing the perished victims of this sympathising 
 champion of suffering Christianity. 
 
 The true and clear object, however, of this gigantic and 
 compulsory exodus of a people in the midst of winter was 
 really to clear a road to central Asia, Khiva, Turkestan, and 
 secure a station one stage nearer to our Indian frontier. The 
 brave Caucasians for ages had proved an insurmountable ob- 
 stacle in their mountain passes to all the strength of Russian 
 armies. We must measure the importance of this step by its 
 cost, which was enormous. 
 
 But there is nothing new in all this. Catharine expelled 
 the Kalmucks from the Volga, their native seat, to seek refuge 
 in the far East. Consisting of about 28,000 tents, or 140,000 
 souls, they reached at last the confines of China, the shattered 
 remnant now only numbering one-fourth of their number. 
 More than 100,000 had perished on the tremendous route to 
 the East. 
 
 The Government could hardly plead an excuse for these 
 Caucasian barbarities. Humanity is in general credited for 
 some care and solicitude even for a conquered nation, at least 
 in modern times. But here the deportation of a whole nation 
 was no longer a specious plea for introducing civilization and 
 Christianity. It was merely a new application of the old 
 Russian principle of exile, with this difference, that it drove 
 them down to the sea; where a pitying power, though an enemy 
 to Russia, harboured the scattered nation. Spain did the same 
 thing with her Jews ; and Russia had done it before with the 
 Poles 
 
 Russia, the new claimant for the Tartar Steppes and the 
 Circassian strongholds, was now emboldened to finish the 
 absorption of Poland. An exasperating conscription at Warsaw, 
 a well planned and forced insurrection, and in consequence a 
 wholesale driving of herds of vanquished Poles on their long 
 
174 RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 march to the Siberian miaes or wastes, completed her Christian 
 mission. Europe stood still. And for this witnessing attitude, 
 and for this cold-blooded acquiescence in a nation's wrongs, she 
 may yet receive her due. 
 
 It was quite impossible at this time to divine the ulterior 
 reasons why, after the peace of 1856, Russia should so long 
 persist in her extravagant expenditure of men and treasure 
 for the apparent conquest of barren mountains, and of such 
 impoverished inhabitants, who possessed no power whatever of 
 attacking her in her own dominions. But brought now into 
 the light of modern history, Russia was pursuing her darkling 
 policy, now as clear as the day — Eastern annexation and 
 appropriation of England's Eastern commerce. Russia had 
 obtained Georgia by fraud. The queen-mother and her son- 
 king, George XIII., were induced to visit St Petersbui'g. The 
 Tsar, Paul, surrounding them with the promises, representa- 
 tions, and blandishments of the court, seduced King George to 
 surrender the sacred inheritance of a long line of kings, and 
 the independence of his country. In 1801 Georgia was thus 
 annexed. But the picture of Russian life, as given by 
 Sermouloff's Life in the Caucasus, is not very flattering to 
 the divine mission of Russia. This life " equals in iniquity 
 the worst cf French novels." The road to India could not be 
 opened till all these nations were swept away by the tramp of 
 Russia's advancing hosts. The passes of the Caucasus were 
 necessary for the security of the Russian bases of operation. 
 It was by these surprising substitutions of her own people 
 for the expelled Caucasians that Russia has now been able to 
 open another road to the Garden of the East. The treaty of 
 Paris ignored the Circassians, while protecting the princi- 
 palities. Russia had an open path to victory, for England's 
 Cabinet had closed its ears to the last despairing cry of a 
 perishing people. These people addressed a petition to the 
 Queen. But it was disregarded ; Russia had too many friends. 
 Numbering a million of souls, they prayed for protection 
 against extermination. These Caucasians said -in their petition 
 to the Queen :— 
 
THE CAUCASUS. I 75 
 
 " The tyranny of the Russians was not confined to capturing 
 our cattle, burning our dwellings and temples, and other un- 
 heard of atrocities, but in order to starve us on the mountains 
 they destroyed all our growing crops on the plain, and 
 captured our land " 
 
 The policy of Russia is exploited just the same — in Poland, 
 and in Circassia : she gets rid of the rightful owners of the soil. 
 It is recorded that a Russian Consul remarked to Said Pasha 
 when talking of these Circassians : " If a man steals a horse, 
 or a cow, we call him a Tcherkess." The Pasha instantly re- 
 joined, "Yes, and if he seizes a whole province, then he is 
 called a Tsar!" Had Schamyl indeed been victorious, his 
 unsullied fame would have ranked him with a patriot, "William 
 Tell, the saviour of his country. But, alas, languishing a pen- 
 sioned prisoner in the hands of his bitterest foes, he perished 
 in Russian obscurity. Smarting with the defeat of her plottings 
 against Turkey, Russia turned again to her Indian war path. 
 Nor has she forsaken the trail. 
 
 Heat, cold, thirst, and sandy deserts, myriads of hovering 
 hordes, and physical exhaustion, were disregarded, and alike 
 deterred her not. The hunted Circassians, hunted from home 
 and country, have already been reckoning with Russia, but 
 the account is not yet closed. 
 
 Schamyl's followers are thus described by a German- 
 Russian officer, of the invading force, present at the exchange 
 of ransomed prisoners, who therefore cannot be suspected of 
 flattery. "Behind him appeared Mlirids splendidly mounted, 
 equipped and armed. There was a grace in their proud and 
 military bearing, which was enhanced by a dash of half-savage 
 wildness. They carried their long guns cocked, and resting on 
 the thigh. Their stern dark faces, and wiry forms, the richness 
 of their arms glittering with gold and silver, the beautj'' of their 
 fiery little horses, combined with the background of the sur- 
 rounding landscape, offered a coup d'oeil, the like of which I never 
 remember to have witnessed'." He describes Schamyl. "His pale 
 
 1 Written by a Prussian officer (Berlin, 1855) serving in a crack Bussiau 
 Regiment de chasseurs de S.A. le Prince Woronzow. 
 
176 RUS!iIAN OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 regular handsome face is bordered by a carefully tended black 
 beard. Mind and feeling beam from his large dark eyes. There 
 is a stamp of deep melancholy upon his features, and in his 
 expressive eyes, proceeding possibly from the consciousness of 
 the hopelessness of all his endeavours to assure their inde- 
 pendence After the defeats of various Russian corps, — to 
 
 any one who has beheld the formidable defile of Dariel, a 
 bold stroke against the Russians, conducted by a master head 
 
 and hand like Schamyl's, w-ould seem no impossibility. 
 
 He rose at six, his prayers and ablutions lasted till seven, 
 when Shoanette, his second wife, brought him a cup of tea, 
 mixed with milk. His entire morning was then devoted to 
 writing, giving audiences, and general business. At one he 
 dined, in the afternoon resumed business, supped at nine, and 
 
 invariably retired to bed at eleven." "His title was, Imam 
 
 of Daghistan." 
 
 "It was in the natural fortress of Guinib that Schamyl, in 
 1859, made his last stand against the Russian forces. For 
 thirty years Schamyl, at the head of the Circassian tribes, 
 successfully defied the whole strength and power of Russia. 
 But in her obstinate determination she kept during these 
 thirty years in Circassia two hundred and fifty thousand 
 soldiers, on the average. Only thirty or forty thousand were 
 employed on the frontiers of Turkey and Persia; the services of 
 more than two hundred thousand being devoted exclusively 
 to subjugating the mountain tribes, under the leadership of 
 Schamyl. It would be difficult to see the exact reason why 
 Russia should expend such enormous sums of money and so 
 many valuable lives, year after year, for a conquest which could 
 prove only a barren acquisition. For thirty years Schamyl 
 managed to keep open his communications... Prince Baryatinski 
 surrounded the mountain with an enormous force... The 
 Russians climbed up the mountain 2000 feet... The Mussulmans 
 preferred death, with paradise, to surrender." Travels in the 
 Eastern Caucasus, by Lt.-Gen. Sir A. Thurlow Cunynghame, 
 1872, p. 193. 
 
CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 THE PRINCIPALITIES, SERVIA, BOSNIA, AND 
 BULGARIA. 
 
 The Principalities, instead of being benefited by Russian pro- 
 tection, have ■withered under its shadow. When a Chief Prince 
 is once Russianized, subserviency to Russian interests is the 
 only rule of promotion. From the highest to the lowest, Rus- 
 sian dictation, through its Consul, is paramount. All liberal 
 reforms of known evils, desired by the thinking classes, are 
 strangled in their birth. Serfdom continues. Trade and de- 
 velopment languish. With vineyards producing a thousand 
 tuns of wine, with granaries for the whole Turkish Empire, 
 ruled by nobles magnificent in wealth and luxury, the people 
 sunk in abject wretchedness — such are some of the peculiar 
 combinations which, nevertheless, subsist under a hopeless 
 Russian Protectorate. 
 
 It was Peter the Great that first seduced these Princi- 
 palities. The Treaty was most attractively worded. 
 
 ' The Prince of Moldavia was to pay no tribute. 
 
 ' To keep 10,000 soldiers paid for by Russia. 
 
 ' Russians shall never interfere in the affairs of the country, 
 and no Russian shall marry and purchase lands there.' 
 
 A similar method detached the Prince of Wallachia. It 
 was thus Peter, with his usual wiliness, commenced his attack 
 on Turkey. 
 
 In 1774 an article was surreptitiously introduced into the 
 Treaty of Kainardji of a most subtle and dangerous import. 
 
 The Porte consents, that according to the circumstances of the 
 R. 12 
 
178 SERVIA. 
 
 two Principalities, the Ministers of the Imperial Court of Russia 
 may speak in their favour : and promises to take into considera- 
 tirni such representations conformably to the amity and respect 
 which it has for the Powers^. 
 
 Here we witness the unmasting of Russian intrigue. Sub- 
 sequently, Russia got by treaty one half of Moldavia and the 
 whole of Bessarabia^ 1812. 
 
 Russia considers a Protectorate of immense importance : for 
 this she supremely laboured. The very document in which the 
 acknowledgment of this appears is the work of her own agents^. 
 But this gives no sovereign rights. 
 
 Servia. 
 
 The history of Servia is full of a keen and touching interest. 
 Its second Tsar was Stephen Dushan, whose wildest dream 
 embraced the Constantinopolitan Crown. To defeat this a 
 Greek Emperor had the fatal imprudence to call in the aid 
 of the Ottoman hosts. 
 
 Dushan, however, died of fever in 1355; and, on the sum- 
 mit of a mountain looking towards the Servian and Turkish 
 realms, with his expiring breath exclaimed, "T weep not be- 
 cause I am about to leave the countries where I have made 
 good roads, and builded good bridges, but because I must leave 
 them without taking the City of Empire. I see the gate open 
 by which the enemy of the land will enter." Then they wrote 
 the words of the Tsar, that his son Urosh and the Servian 
 nation might remember. 
 
 It is said that Urosh was murdered by the Regent, who, 
 beaten back by the Turks, fled to a place of security, and 
 there, when quenching his thu-st at a spring of water, acci- 
 'dentally displayed his guilt. The insignia of the Golden double 
 Eagle worn by the murdered Urosh fell from his vest. His 
 standardbearer in wrath slew him on the spot. They elected 
 Lazar as their Tsar : and in the battle of Kossovo, in 1339, both 
 
 ■' Marten's Becueil de Traites, torn. 11. 304. 
 " Marten's Nouveau Eecueil de Traites, torn. iii. 397. 
 ' Vattel, Droit des Gens, Liv. i. chap. 16. § 192. 
 
SER71A. 179 
 
 Tsars died upon the tattle-field. The sons of each prosecuted 
 the war. One was Bajazet, named the Lightning, and proved 
 too mighty an antagonist. The Serbs, deserted by their nobles, 
 who sought refuge in Croatia and Dalmatia and the rocks of 
 Montenegro, and crossed the Danube, paid tribute thenceforth 
 to the Porte. 
 
 For the last hundred years most of the religious books 
 have been printed in Kussia. She had indefatigably insinuated 
 Russian priests and monks. Servian language is distinct from 
 Slave. Servia has her literati, and these have strenuously op- 
 posed the Panslavic fusion, and exposed the shallow pretence 
 that Serbian is similar to Russian. The Sei-vians have their 
 own distinct national language, in which their religion is em- 
 balmed : their laws, their poetry, and their church-services, 
 are all in this ancient tongue. It is true that a Servian abbot 
 was made Archbishop of Kieff, and transported thither a store 
 of Servian manuscripts for northern libraries, which Russia 
 would be imprudent to resuscitate, lest the Russian claim of 
 brotherhood should lose its principal force. The Monumenta 
 Serbica, lately published, presents a store however of such do- 
 cuments chronologically arranged, which completely exposes 
 the modern Russian sham of the Russo-Slavic sympathies with 
 Servia as Slavic. 
 
 The laws of Dushan finely exhibit the stem character of 
 the man. The following are some of them : 
 
 The Church alone was to decide in Church-matters. 
 
 Converts to the Latin faith from the Greek Church were to 
 be punished with death. 
 
 A nobleman who violated a married woman was punished 
 by the loss of his hands and nose. 
 
 A married woman was similarly punished for the offence 
 with loss of nose and ears. 
 
 Drunkards who made a riot, or committed an assault, were 
 to have their eyes torn out, and one hand cut off. 
 
 Church-property was not to be alienated. 
 
 Belgrade, occupied by the Austrians in 1739, was by treaty 
 restored to the Porte, whose limits were to be defined by the 
 Danube and the Save. But in 1788, Russia and Austria com- 
 
 12—2 
 
l8o SERVIA. 
 
 bined in a war, in which Servia did good service against the 
 Porte. Servia was, in fact, delivered from the Turks ; but the 
 old jealousies, about the jJartition of Turkey, were fatal to the 
 cause of Servia once more. 
 
 At last, after many vicissitudes of peaee and war, the Porte 
 consented to make Milosch a Prince of Servia, on the condition 
 " that the Servian nation shall never act in any manner contrary 
 to the duties of faithful subjects, nor contrary to the submission 
 you owe to the Sublime Porte'." 
 
 Black George, or Kara George, had been murdered whilst 
 asleep, by the orders of Milosch. This Milosch was deposed in 
 1843, and a son of Kara George elected Prince — Georgevich. 
 During the Crimean War this Prince exercised a strict neu- 
 trality. But Milosch was recalled, and restored. He was suc- 
 ceeded by his son Michael Obrenovich III. in 1860. Turkey 
 having bombarded Belgrade to avenge a quarrel, a long diplo- 
 matic game was played out between England and Austria with 
 Turkey and France against Russia and Prussia siding with- 
 Servi^. At last Turkey agreed to evacuate the Servian for- 
 tresses. Michael armed his nation. He obtained muskets from 
 Russia. He was assassinated at Belgrade, June 1868. The 
 Sublime Porte permitted the Servians to elect a Servian 
 Prince. 
 
 In Servia the Mussulmans say their prayers in an unknown 
 tongue — Arabic. But the bulk of the Christians in Turkey 
 iise one and the same liturgy and Bible, in the ancient dialect 
 of Servia. 
 
 Austria by her sharp lessons in war has often proved the 
 best of friends in Servia's distress. From her it learned war. 
 Austria always restored to Turkey the possessions acquired, 
 giving back both land and people. 
 
 Russia however, with her never-failing astuteness, had 
 forced, by the occupation of the Danubian Principalities, a 
 solemn promise, that none of their princes should be removed 
 without her consent: and she, like Peter, also reduced the 
 Turkish tribute. In 1804, the first Russian cannon presented 
 
 ' Herstlet's SIaj> ofEurope hy Treaty, 1814—1875, Vol. n. p. 933. 
 
SERVIA. l8l 
 
 by the Tsar drew forth the grateful tears of the Servians : 
 aod forthwith these worthies succumbed to Russian blandish- 
 ments. The Porte, alarmed at the prospect of a Russo-Servian 
 Alliance, at once mitigated the condition of these subjects, 
 and agreed to a tribute of £60,000 per annum; conceded 
 native government and native garrisons, but placed 150 Turks 
 at Belgrade. Under this fear the Porte conceded everything 
 asked by Servia. In this game of war, however, Russia found 
 it necessary to paralyze Austria by sending the army into these 
 Principalities. Austria now refused to join Prussia and Russia 
 in their alliance against victorious France. Servia was now 
 again aided by Russia. Kara George, the Servian hero, bears 
 witness to the valour of the Russians in their cause. In 1809, 
 drawn closer than ever by the Russians who had crossed the 
 Danube, they feared desertion by Russia, and would fain seek 
 Austrian assistance. Russia, in her own masterly style, at 
 once checkmated this move by proclaiming the Servians to be 
 children of one family and of one creed, and promising them 
 support. 
 
 To trace the course of Servia' would be too great a task. 
 But to be brief — Servia, the 'sport of Austrians, Russians and 
 Turks, has been, as it were, the football of Europe. Her 
 Greek religion has been the sheet-anchor in every Russian 
 manoeuvre. Flattered with the idea of resuscitating the grand 
 old Serbian Rule, and the championship of the Slave, she 
 has been led, through disaster and defeat, ever to lean upon 
 her great Northern Patron. A convenient arsenal for Russia, 
 almost impregnable, like Russia, when her passes are blocked 
 with the snowdrift, itself mountainous and teeming with 
 choice positions of defence, this power once established there, 
 with the Danube to bring supplies, could defy all the power 
 of Asia to oust her from her eyrie. Forming a huge semi- 
 circular redoubt abutting into Turkey, the military situation 
 for establishing her troops is of surpassing advantage. Well 
 might the Powers forbid Russia trespassing openly on these 
 domains. Well might Russia again seize the waters of the 
 
 ' SeeRanke's.7/!s(orj/ oj Servia. 
 
1 82 SEE VIA. 
 
 Black Sea, and set the English ministry at defiance for this 
 daring outrage of the Treaty of Paris. It was the closing of 
 the Black Sea to armed Russian vessels that was the crowning 
 result of the siege of Sebastopol. Next the safety of the 
 mouths of the Danube, by removing northwards the boundaries 
 of Russian ambition. But alas ! the novel experiment of 
 thousands of Russian troops kindly despatched with the 
 knowledge and consent of Russia, with passports in order and 
 armed to the teeth, whilst she herself was negotiating peace ! 
 formed a spectacle which violated the conscience of Europe. 
 Freebooting on principle has become a profession in arms. 
 The desolation of a nation forced to die in the front, against 
 its will, seduced by pious frauds, to civilized Europe is a stain 
 on the century in which we live. The spectacle of the friendly 
 invaders, filling all the posts of honour and defying the prince 
 of the soU, is one of the manifold phases of unprincipled 
 ambition. "Woe to a nation whose prince is a child, and 
 whose servant bears rule." Should Russia quite overwhelm 
 Servia with her troops, she would acquire a base of operations 
 exceedingly strong, and practically be a thousand miles nearer 
 to her realized dream. 
 
 The population in 1872 was 1,100,000 souls. At the next 
 census we shall probably be able to ascertain the slaughter 
 unnecessarily accomplished by the atrocity-mongers and hys- 
 terical politicians of gullible crowds, who have filled Europe 
 with sardonic smiles. 
 
 There can be no doubt that both Axistria and Russia 
 equally dread in Servia a well-established, progressive and 
 liberal government. "The Servian nation has so decided 
 a mistrust, if not hatred of Austria, that the entrance of the 
 Austrians into Servia would be considered by every one as 
 so imminent a danger, so great a misfortune, that all the 
 proceedings of the Servians would be directed against Austrian 
 
 troops They saw," the Servians declared, "in the threatened 
 
 occupation (by Austria) of the Servian territory, who under 
 pretext, &c. . . . created for herself the means of invading Servia 
 and causing by her unjust and oppressive behaviour, that very 
 
BOSNIA AND BULGARIA. 1 83 
 
 disftrder and confusion, that very desolation, which it is the 
 interest of the Ottoman empire to prevent." 
 
 How poignantly this protest, now twenty years old, 
 describes the very situation to which Servia has been brought 
 by t-he recent sympathies of Russia ! Servia has been com- 
 pletely exhausted by her friendship. 
 
 Bosnia. 
 
 Population, about 1,200,000. 
 Bosnian Mussulmans, 442,050. 
 Christians of Greek Church, 576,756. 
 Austrian subjects, 5,000. 
 
 La Bosnie est de toutes les provinces turques celle oil 
 la civilisation a fait le moins de progrfes. 
 
 "The most barbaroiis of the provinces of Turkey in 
 Europe ; . . . the mass of the people are ground to the dust 
 under the present regime. . . . There is no development of the 
 immense material resources of the country, no means of 
 employment which might enable the poor to meet the ever- 
 increasing taxation, the extortions of the officials and the 
 heavy exactions of their own clergy. The chief town, Serajevo, 
 does not possess a single bookseller's shop '." 
 
 Bulgarians. 
 
 That the Bulgarians are not Slaves is strongly asserted by 
 another writer^ 
 
 The Bulgarians, a people whose origin, according to 
 ethnologists, is Turanian, according to Russian authorities 
 number 1,800,000 souls. They live in a compact mass in 
 the countries enclosed between the Danube and the Balkans. 
 They also occur in scattered groups in the northern parts 
 of Thrace and Macedonia. They are thus, as it were, astride 
 across the Balkan mountain range. 
 
 ' Provinces Danubiennes, par MM. Chopin et Ubieini, p. 239. 
 " The Bulgarians migrated from Boulgar on the Volga or Boulgar, the 
 «apital of which was destroyed by the Tartars. 
 
1 84 BULGARIA. 
 
 Eusslan policy has long been at work to lay a broad 
 foundation for the creation of a huge Slavic Principality 
 embracing both sides of the Balkans, and thus place this 
 magnificent barrier to Eussian ambition in the hands of a race, 
 already persuaded, by Eussian priests, consuls, and emissaries, 
 to join their hearts and hands to "the protector" of their rights. 
 Since 1830 she has incessantly plotted this result: her 
 campaign in 1829 had already shewed her the position of the 
 true gate to Constantinople. 
 
 The means which, during the time from 1830 to 1876, 
 have been somewhat complicated, though veiled in that astute 
 secrecy, so perfectly elaborated in the Frozen North, are as 
 follows : 
 
 (1) Extension of Panslavism in these districts. 
 
 (2) Inoculation of the Bulgarians with Panslavic ideas 
 
 by incessant excitement. 
 
 (3) The enormous spread of maps, contrived in Eussia, 
 
 but introduced innocently by the European pub- 
 lishers into every possible market, displaying the 
 Panslavic kingdom completed. 
 
 It was M. Schafarik, a Panslavist of note, who first drew 
 up this map, and artfully got German map-sellers to scatter it. 
 Moscow and St Petersburg are the great Slavic centres, and 
 here the learned authorities reside. Here emanate the fictitious 
 histories unquestioned by Europe, who knows nothing of these 
 matters except as manufactured for them. 
 
 Adroitly have the Panslavic committees engrafted their all- 
 powerful idea upon an ignorant public : who unwittingly publish 
 these things, so equal in boldness to the forged decretals of the 
 Catholic Church. The Bulgarian mind had also long been 
 worked by paid Eussian ecclesiastical emissaries. Fawning 
 upon these ignorant Bulgarians, and dallying their children 
 upon the Eussian knee, in time these little darlings, when full- 
 grown, return home, the most efficient tools for seducing the 
 Bulgarian mind to Eussian policy. They return, some as 
 monks, others as consuls. 'In 1862 she created a hundred 
 bursaries, and ordered its consuls to discover a great number of 
 
BULGARIA. 185 
 
 children of promise and ability, and forthwith to send them to 
 Russia to be educated in her spirit and aspirations. They 
 returned as schoolmasters and priests. Under these new- 
 pioneers Bulgaria put on a new appearance. This was the 
 very time when the Emperor Nicholas conceived the plan of 
 becoming Religious Protector of the Eastern Church, with a 
 view of erecting a Panslavist hierarchy which should be wholly 
 independent of the Patriarchate at Constantinople, and even 
 form a fulcrum for exerting irresistible pressure on the Sultan. 
 Almost immediately after Russia's defeat in the Crimea, she 
 set to work with her secret committees at her two principal 
 centres to mysteriously propagate the spirit of Panslavic 
 unity amongst not only Russian, but Austrian and Turkish 
 subjects. These soon were increased by other secret boards at 
 Kazan, Kieff, and principal cities in Austria. A grand Slavic 
 empire was a bold idea ; but after what a deluge of blood only 
 could such an idea be realized ! ' Doubtless the Emperor dreamed 
 a dream of Slavic might, wearing himself the mighty crown. 
 But having raised this war demon, it now threatens to devour 
 its master. 
 
 Passing already beyond Russian control, the wide ramifi- 
 cations of this secret conspiracy penetrate too deeply the Russian 
 soil to be now eradicated. If the Emperor is Panslavic to the 
 full, he may perhaps guide the bark of the state sweltering 
 in these billows of national furor : if not, who knows what 
 victims may be cast upon the raging waters ? 
 
 But in Bulgaria, notwithstanding at this time the low ebb 
 of Russian influence at Stamboul, the extraordinary sagacity of 
 Ignatieff^ hit upon a masterly expedient of profiting by the 
 
 ^ Distinguished Persons in, Russian Society, translated by F. E. Bunnett, 
 Smith, Elder and Co. " Nothing can be more melancholy and hopeless than 
 the impression which this sketch of General Ignatieff leaves upon ns of the 
 aims and methods of Russian diplomacy in the Bast — so utterly selfish, 
 unprincipled, and wicked it is — dehberately and systematically perpetrating 
 any fraud, and sacrificing any national interest for the promotion of his own 
 ■venal lust of conquest. If ever a man justified Johnson's definition of an 
 ambassador, ' a person who goes abroad to lie for the good of his country, ' it is 
 General Ignatieff ; who by his unblushing mendacity has earned for himself 
 in Constantinople the sobriijuet of ' father of lies.' The history of his 
 
1 86 BULGARIA. 
 
 hostility of the Porte to ^his country. The Bulgarians were 
 struggling against the voracity of the Greek priests and Greek 
 supremacy. He took care not to encourage the latter. He 
 warmly embraced the opposite side. The Porte took the bait. 
 Indignant at this interference in her affairs (in spite of the 
 treaty of 1856), and this Russian attempt at assuming the pro- 
 tectorate, once for all she established a Bulgarian Church inde- 
 pendent of the Patriarchate. This adroit move has given Russia 
 a new footing, who now claims to occupy that Bulgaria, which is 
 defined by having a purely independent Bulgarian Church. 
 
 The Porte crowned the joy of Russian policy by creating a 
 Bulgarian nationality, consisting of mixed populations, on both 
 slopes of the Balkans, the glorious dream of Russia for forty 
 years. The commission for this grand change was wholly 
 inspired by Ignatieff, the trusty agent of the Tsar. Russia had 
 obtained well defined territorial limits for the Greek Church. In 
 the clear light of this fine transaction we now see the tremen- 
 dous meaning of a military Bulgarian occupation. Wherever 
 the Bulgarian Church could be shewn to exist, there would 
 Russia plant her hoof. At one swoop nearly the whole of 
 Northern Turkey would be absorbed. 
 
 Now when it is considered that the population in Bulgaria 
 is purely a peasantry, without literature, history, or even a 
 pure language — for the Russians are busy at Moscow making 
 them one — ^with traditions devoid of interest, with no chiefs 
 except those of legends, whom northern friends are transforming 
 into kings, with no deeds of arms' in the past and no hope in 
 the future, except the meteoric splendour of Russian Slavism 
 before them; .entirely ignorant, and betaught and beschooled 
 in a Russian sense, and enjoying no middle class ; how is it 
 possible these simple beings can resist the blandishments of 
 their only supposed benefactor? 
 
 The grand idea of union with Russia as Slaves, and be- 
 coming the children of the Tsar, the universal father, their 
 god upon earth, are the principal articles of faith dunned 
 
 successes and methods as here detailed is as humiliating as it is portentous." 
 (British Quarterly Review, 1874. ) 
 
BULGARIA. 187 
 
 into their ears from childhood. The pupils of the Moscow 
 schools are distinguished with an "oglori," a "vitch," or an 
 "off," at the end of their Bulgarian names. The name of Slave 
 to these young aspirants is music and magic combined. The 
 Greeks have long dismissed the fond idea of Russia's love for 
 them in the name of a common religion. No, it is the Tsar 
 who is the head of the Church; that Church which, more than 
 any other spell, has enslaved so many nationalities. To this 
 worship do the Bulgarians, by every religious feeling, un- 
 hesitatingly turn. Bulgaria, once occupied, would soon, like 
 so many other states, melt into the all-devouring mouth of one 
 Holy Russia. Mr Forsyth, M.P., says in his most interesting 
 work. The Slavonic Provinces, that this country reminds him of 
 the Sussex downs without their smiling villages. 
 
 Schafarik' declares that the unquestionable evidence of 
 language proves that the Bulgarians were originally altogether 
 different from the Slaves. The Bulgarian proper is particularly 
 distinguished for honesty, and may be trusted with large sums 
 of money with perfect security. Dr Walsh says, " Of all the 
 peasantry I have ever met with, the Bulgarians seem the most 
 simple, kind, and affectionate. They are still more distinguished 
 by their countenance and demeanour; the first is open, artless, 
 and benevolent, and the second is so kind and cordial that every 
 one we met seemed to welcome us as friends. Turkish women 
 we never saw; the Bulgarian women mixed freely with 
 us in the domestic way, and treated us with the unsuspecting 
 cordiality they would shew to brothers. Their houses are built 
 of wickerwork plastered, and are clean and comfortable in the 
 inside.'' M. Robert, who travelled much, greatly praises the 
 Bulgarian virtues. "They are industrious, persevering, and 
 temperate, and although the most oppressed of all the subject 
 races, misery has not debased them." The fertility of Bulgaria 
 in producing corn makes it the chief granary of the Ottoman 
 Empire. What a prize this would be to Russia, whose vast 
 dominions are mostly incapable of growing cereals, a military 
 "occupation" very intelligibly declares. 
 
 1 A Panslavist of note, and the designer of the new Bussian Map of Europe. 
 
1 88 BULGARIA. 
 
 The Bulgarians througli long centuries had various fortunes. In 967, Peter 
 their king fell under the displeasure of the Eusaian Sviatoslaf for not pre- 
 venting the incursions of the Hungarians into Greece, who appeared on the 
 Danuhe with a fleet of 60,000 men, vanquished them, and besides taking im- 
 mense spoil, demanded rewards from the Greek Emperor Phocas. But this 
 expedition nearly cost him the loss of his capital at Eieff, and of his mother 
 Olga. Later he brought a new army, including Hungarians, Bulgarians and 
 others, and ravaged the country right through to Adrianople. The Greeks and 
 Eussiau allies mutually exhausted each other with surprising valour : and 
 at last agreed to «, treaty of peace. The treaty was ratified with invocation 
 of the curses of the gods they adored : 
 
 " Puissons-nous devenir I'objet de la malediction des dieux que nous 
 adorons, de Peroune et de Volosse. Que nous soyons alors jaunes comme de 
 Vor et que nous pgrissions par nos propres armes." (Karamsin.) 
 
 The ancient Eastern Bulgaria lay west of the city of Moscow and of the 
 Volga ; through it ran the White river, and on its eastern side it touched the 
 Ural mountains. Modem Bulgaria, as most people know, lies to the south of the 
 Danube, on both sides of the Balkan range, and faces the Black Sea towards the 
 east. But even so early as 559 a. d. , the Bulgarians established to the south of 
 the Danube made so many incursions against the Greek Empire, that Anastasius 
 built a wall between Servia and the Black Sea to stop their inroads. United 
 with the Slaves, the Bulgarians threatened Constantinople so fearfully that 
 Justinian and his grand Senators took up arms to defend the wall of Theo- 
 dosius, the last rampart of the Capitol. A prince of the Bulgarians, a friend 
 of the Eomana, in 655 broke the Tartar yoke of the Avars. And in 679 was 
 founded a royal Bulgarian kingdom. The Slaves were chased from this 
 kingdom and a good many of them passed over into Eussia, Hungary and 
 Poland. The Byzantine writers shew that the Slaves in the Sixth Century 
 were living near the Danube. 
 
 The origin of the Bulgarians seems to have been Turc. The ancient names 
 of their kings were Turc, and even that of their costumes. According to the 
 olden eastern chronicles, they dwelt anciently on the banks of the Volga, i. e. in 
 the sixth century : between that river and the Don, and one historian declares 
 they were called Bulgarians or Volgariens, from their ancient seat upon the 
 Volga. And the old Ai-abic writers caU the Volga the Boulgar. This ancient 
 people were driven from their country by the Sabires, who soon spread over the 
 Caucasus. 
 
 One point is worthy of notice. The Grand Eussian prince was so charmed 
 with the position, fertility and advanced civilization of Bulgaria as compared 
 with the infant Eussia or the province of Kieif , that he erected a city there, and 
 nearly lost his Eussian seat by this attachment. 
 
 The desire of Eussia for Bulgaria is thus attested by Nestor, as early as 967, 
 the date of its conquest by Sviatoslaf. There is no part of Eussian history more 
 romantic and audacious in daring than this very conquest displays, 
 
 Some idea of the appearance of an ancient Eussian Prince 900 years ago 
 may be formed by the following description here translated from Karamsin. 
 
 " Sviatoslaf was of middle height, his countenance sombre and ferocious : 
 he had a broad chest, thick neck,- long moustaches, a light beard, on hia head 
 
BULGARIA. 1 89 
 
 the tail of a horse as a mark of nobility, and one of his ears was ornamented 
 ■with a ring of gold set with ~two pearls and a, ruhy. He was the first prince 
 who tools the Russian name. When his mother urged him also to become 
 a Christian, he had rephed, ' Must I then alone adopt a rehgion in order to 
 become a laughingstock to all my companions in arms ? ' The Eivers of the 
 Don, the Volga, and the Oka were the first scenes of his triumphs. The sons of 
 his wives, after his death, by their mutual wars and jealousies dellYCred over 
 Russia to the attack of her external foes." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 TURKESTAN TEE GARDEN OF TEE EAST. 
 
 The enormous stretch of country reaching from the Caspian 
 Sea eastwards to Mongolia in China, enclosing the celebrated 
 Khanates of Blhiva, Bokhara, and Khotan, dotted on the map 
 with the famous cities of Kashgar, Samarcand, and Yarkand, 
 and the strategical points Merv, Balk, Kunduz, &c. — some of 
 them within 250 miles of British Indian possessions — ^is called 
 Turkestan. To this bourne have Russian footsteps been per- 
 severingly bent for centuries. Along the Black Sea, and skirting 
 the Caucasian mountains, crossing the Caspian, and wending 
 along the deserts, the old caravan routes to the East, and 
 particularly to India, took this course. Communications be- 
 tween Russia and the far east and the south east, have been 
 carried on from the olden time. But no very ancient accounts 
 are preserved of Russian expeditions to Khiva. Mr MicheU 
 of the Indian office, however, kindly furnished Mr MacGahan 
 with translations from the Russian, describing them, and are 
 given at page 237 6f his interesting work\ and he mentions 
 several. The Ural Cossacks undertook an expedition to Khiva. 
 Their chief seized and married the favourite wife of the 
 Khan, converted her to Christianity, was overtaken, routed, 
 and having slain, rather than surrender her, died sword in 
 hand amidst a heap of Mussulmans slain around him. 
 
 Another expedition succeeded in carrying off a thousand 
 women for wives, but these also were overtaken by the Turko- 
 man horse, and nearly all slaughtered to a man. 
 
 1 Campaigning on the Oxus, by J. A. MacGahan, correspondent of the New 
 York Herald. 
 
TURKESTAN THE GARDEN OF THE EAST. 19 1 
 
 Again, a fresh expedition was equally unfortunate. They 
 were arrested half way, and perished in the desert by the 
 attacks of the Khivese horse. 
 
 Peter the Great, in 1714, was informed that the country 
 of the Amu Kiver, Turkestan, abounded with gold sand ; that 
 this river had been diverted from its old bed by the Khivans 
 from running into the Caspian, to discharge itself into the 
 Aral sea. But that a dam being destroyed, the river would 
 return into its old bed, which would then be a ready means 
 of reaching Khiva. 
 
 The primitive ideas of the inhabitants of this garden of 
 the East is well told in the Bide to Khiva. 
 
 "Which do you like best, your horse or your wife?" '• That 
 
 depends on the woman," I replied; "in my country the 
 
 women are never locked up." " What a marvel," said the man ; 
 "but if one of them is unfaithful to her husband, what does he 
 do?" "He goes to our Moullah, whom we call a judge, and 
 obtains a divorce and marries some one else." "What, you 
 mean to say he does not cut the woman's throat?" "No, he 
 would be hanged himself if he did." "What a country! we 
 manage things better in Khiva." Later on I took out my 
 breechloader. "Ah!" he said with a sigh, "if we only had been 
 armed with some of your guns, the Russians never would have 
 got here." The Khan's arms were useless in comparison. 
 "Mine," he said, "takes five minutes to load, and a minute to 
 fire. Indeed, before I can shoot once, the Russians, with their 
 rifles, can kill twenty men." Alas! for Khiva! 
 
 Mr Schuyler says, "A short time before we were at Kasala 
 the Khivan embassy arrived, bringing the Russian prisoners 
 who had been enslaved there, and for whose delivery the war 
 was nominally begun. There were twenty-one. At Khiva 
 they had been placed in the Khan's gardens for his private use 
 as gardeners, and he treated them kindly." 
 
 The object of the war was the release of these prisoners 
 ostensibly. How far it was justified by the massacre at Khiva 
 we shall leave to the judgment of our readers. 
 
 The fatal words of Peter had long been stamped upon the 
 hearts of the Russian explorers. Astrakan had fallen. Peter, 
 
192 RUSSIAN' OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 OD a visit, exclaimed, "Although these Kerghizes are a roaming, 
 fickle people, their steppe is the key and gate to all the 
 countries of Central Asia." The opportunity was not lost. It 
 occurred in this way: a khan of "the smaller horde" sought the 
 protection of Anne of Russia*. Slie immediately advanced the 
 -frontier southwards. Every resistance furthered these suc- 
 cessive enroachments. In a hundred years Russia had reached 
 the sea of Aral ! The story of the possession of this sea and the 
 surrounding countries is too long to be attempted here. In 
 the list of works to be consulted the conscientious reader may 
 probably gratify his curiosity; but a sketch is inserted here for 
 the convenience of the reader. 
 
 But to return from this digression. Peter, desirous of con- 
 firming this intelligence from Turkestan, sent Prince Bekovitch 
 to explore the Caspian, and the ancient bed of the Oxus, as 
 also to build forts on suitable points. Bekovitch^ spent three 
 years in these surveys, and reported favourably. It is only 
 fair to Peter, to state, that in 1700 he had received from Shah- 
 Niaz, the Khan of Khiva, an envoy asking Russian aid against 
 his rebellious subjects, and Peter, incessantly occupied with ex- 
 tending Russian commerce with Asia, accepted the invitation 
 seventeen years later. A force of 4000 men was organized by the 
 prince, which left Gurieff, on the mouth of the Ural, early in June, 
 wound round the northern shore of the Caspian, struck the old 
 caravan foute, and started across the Desert. But this time, 
 the season of the year chosen proved a fatal mistake. They 
 travelled over 900 miles of this barren, superheated, waterless 
 desert, in sixty-five days, and reached the delta of the Oxus in 
 August, 100 miles below Khiva; three-fourths died on the 
 route. Prince Bekovitch sent forward a letter, assuring the 
 Khan he had not come to make war, but only on a friendly 
 mission from the Russian Tsar. But in the interim, since 1700 
 the old Khan had died, and there was a new Pharaoh, who 
 knew not Joseph. He imprisoned the messengers, hastened 
 with a numerous army to attack the Russians, who had just 
 
 1 Began to reign 1730. 
 
 ' His full title, Prince Bekovitch Tclierkassky, shews that he had been 
 employed successfully in the Caucasus. 
 
THE GARDEX OF THE EAST. 193 
 
 reached the oasis where life was possible. The Khivans, after 
 two days' attack, were unable to drive back these brave Russians. 
 The Khan resorted to subtilty; he negociated. The Prince 
 kissed the cross, and the Khan the koran, who then invited the 
 Russian leader and his men to Khiva. Bekovitch, prostrated 
 with the anxieties and fatigues of the desert, besides the loss 
 of his wife and two daughters drowned, his mind becoming 
 weakened, fell into the snare. Devoid of proper suspicion, his 
 troops were quartered in five different places, keeping a small 
 escort for himself Thus divided, the Khivans suddenly rose 
 en masse and slaughtered the whole force at a given signal, 
 except forty, among whom were the Prince's brothers, all of 
 whom after a long time, were ransomed at a huge price. 
 
 Russian aspirations appeared to slumber for a century. But 
 the Cossacks and Khivans kept up their ancestral game of 
 mutual plunder. And the latter got the upper hand, plundered 
 the caravans, their lawful prey in the desert, as they always 
 believed, and carried off Cossacks and Russians prisoners into 
 slavery. This commerce was almost annihilated. This was 
 too much. In 1839 these forays became intolerable. Russia 
 organized, under the command of Perovski, an expedition of 
 5000 men, 20 cannon, and 10,000 camels. Profiting by the 
 dreadful experience already gained, she decreed the start for 
 December. The mercury was frozen in the thermometer; a 
 deep snow and exhaustion, in the steppe, destroyed the 
 camels daily, half died quickly. The soldiers, four abreast, 
 marched and remarched to beat out a track, both cavalry and 
 infantry, who shovelled the snow. Terrible hurans or snow- 
 storms caused perpetual halts, when 19000 packages had to be 
 unloaded from the camels, aad fires lit from roots dug out of 
 the frozen snow. At two in the morning the march re- 
 commenced; the men's clothes remained unchanged for the 
 most part. Covered with vermin and dirt, the force was 
 reduced to 2000 effective men. Five hundred miles still 
 remained to be done. The camels died, 100 daily. 
 
 This expedition under General Perovski was forced to beat 
 a retreat. Haggard, dispirited, and utterly broken down, the 
 miserable remnant reached Fort Emba on the 20th February, 
 R. 13 
 
194 BUSSIAN' OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 and there awaited the return of spring. Thus ended the fifth 
 expedition to Khiva. 
 
 In all these expeditions Russia had failed for want of 
 sufficient geographical knowledge, and the astronomical de- 
 termination of distances and positions. It may be as well 
 here to state, to assist the general reader, that two great rivers 
 now run into the Aral or Blue sea, situated in the midst of a 
 sandy desert. The one, the ancient Jaxartes, fed by numerous 
 branches from the mountains of Turkestan, runs in a very ir- 
 regular course westwards, to the northern coast of the Aral ; the 
 other river, the Oxus, passes from Faizabad by an immense 
 course, to the Ai-al at its southern shore, passing near Balk, 
 Bokhara, and Khiva and Kungead. These water-ways have 
 been high roads of Russian enterprise, and by these have her 
 conquests been now effected. 
 
 1841. Notwithstanding the failure of Perovski's un- 
 fortunate expedition. Captain Nikiforof was sent on a mission 
 to Khiva immediately afterwards, with only an escort of a dozen 
 Cossacks. By adopting a bold bullying bearing, browbeating 
 the Khivan officials, and treating them in a rude and brutal 
 manner, he succeeded in inspiring them with respect. He 
 simply declared, in face of their prolonged negociations, what 
 the Russian government would henceforth consider as her 
 frontier, and that every person found trespassing on the other 
 side of it would be put to death. This, says Mr Schuyler, 
 occurred immediately after the murder of two pliant English 
 envoys in Bukhara (Bokhara). 
 
 The Jaxartes, or Syr Daria river, opened the treacherous 
 gate into the Paradise of the East. The Russians forced this 
 gate by building from time to time a series of forts. At its 
 opening into the blue sea of Aral, Fort No. 1 (Kasala) was 
 built. This was succeeded by a series in order, properly 
 ticketed and labelled in the Russian Chancellerie. " Watering 
 with its numerous affluents in the upper parts of its basin, 
 one of the most fertile and delightful countries in the world, 
 and fringed throughout its course with the richest cultivation, 
 it debouches below the town of Turkestan upon a saline steppe." 
 In all history the lower basin is totally unreclaimable from the 
 
THE GARDEN OF THE EAST. 195 
 
 desert: and the town of Otrav, the scene of the great Timour's 
 death, is close by. Russia with the perfected practice of many 
 a century of Asiatic conquest, was at no loss for means of pene- 
 trating the vast solitudes which barred her pathway to the 
 south. 
 
 A chain of forts well supported behind, the hostile races 
 entirely crushed into a trembling subjection, aline of continuous 
 supply, established security for men and war material — such 
 have ever been the simple but effective means of advance. 
 By wholesale massacre, deportation, fire and pillage, she has 
 made her name a terror and a scare. 
 
 But in order to accomplish the gigantic feat of taking a 
 slice of two thousand miles of country, proportionately vigorous 
 measures were for a very long time employed. It required an 
 army of 200,000 men to conquer the heroic Schamyl, the 
 guardian of the Caucasus. 
 
 Another motive with Eussia was founded on the extrava- 
 gant notion, that she, and she alone, had a right, from her 
 position, to the exclusive trade of central Asia. Her caravanic 
 bales always preceded exploding bombs. The almost super- 
 human energy and toil by which she had at length planted 
 one foot on the Crimea, and the other on the Jaxartes, seemed 
 in her view to have confided to her the sole right to the 
 markets of Bokhara, and the commerce of Khiva, Samarcand 
 and Yarkand. She desired for the present, at least, merely 
 to establish her merchants safely in the oases of the desert, 
 right up to the northern base of the snow-capped Tian-shan 
 range. England forty years ago justly dreaded Eussia's ab- 
 sorption, by treaties or war, of those historic countries extend- 
 ing from the Caspian Sea to the Indus, and England, with 
 this object, defended Herat against Persia. Lord Keane's 
 expedition " was to establish a permanent barrier against 
 schemes of aggression on our north-west frontier." Orders 
 were given, in case Fort No. 2 could be erected, for the com- 
 mander (afterwards displaced by General Ignatieff) to rule 
 the country only through a Kirghee nominated by Eussia. 
 A lineal "White bone" descendant of the great Zenghis Khan 
 would have exactly answered this purpose. Some of the pe- 
 
 13—2 
 
196 RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 culiar tactics of driving the wedge, blow after blow, into the 
 heart of Turkestan came clearly forth with touching distinct- 
 ness from the following programme recently published : — 
 
 To conceal the real object of the expedition, and to give 
 out that it is merely a scientific one for the Sea of Aral. 
 
 To postpone the expedition till English affairs in Afgha- 
 nistan are settled. England being then satisfied with her 
 campaign. 
 
 To replace the Khan of Khiva by a trustworthy Kazzak 
 Sultan. 
 
 To assign 425,000 silver roubles for the Expedition. 
 
 That Khiva and Turkestan, of which it is the capital, has, 
 for a long period, been the premeditated prize and gate to 
 India, is almost demonstrated from the particulars just stated. 
 But we add to this, that when Russia coolly violated the 
 Treaty of Paris, which forbade the navigation of the Black Sea 
 to her war vessels. Lord Granville demanded explanations re- 
 garding Khiva. The Emperor sent a special agent direct. 
 Count Schouvaloff, assuring the English Cabinet, ON HIS WOED 
 OF HONOUE, no annexation was contemplated. The fall of 
 Khiva, and the massacre of the Yomuds, attest how irresistible 
 was the attraction of this prize to Russian greed — that even 
 the plighted honour of an Emperor could not restrain him 
 from the possession of a country — so long mined and sapped, 
 and so long secretly plotted for. The Russians can now well 
 laugh at our simplicity. The Sea of Aral, or Blue Sea, is an 
 immense inland lake or harbour for Russian ships. At extra- 
 vagant cost they transported materials of war overland, even 
 bringing coal. Nothing prevents any amount of stores being 
 accumulated. The Syr Daria conveys them up the interior 
 some hundreds of miles. Captain Terentyeff, an officer of the 
 Russian service, makes no secret in his book of the ulterior 
 aspirations for India. He says these Central Asian provinces 
 are of no use whatever, except as stages for further advances — 
 an itape where we can rest and gather fresh strength. " Merv, 
 Bulkh, and Kashgar, are splendid bases for operations against 
 Hindostan." Captain Burnaby's Ride to Khiva has given us 
 some pleasant news. The Russian Cabinet resisted his visit. 
 
THE GARDEN OF THE EAST. 197 
 
 The English Embassy said, "Go TO Khiva!! You might as 
 well try to get to the moon ! ! The Russians will put the 
 screw on our Foreign Office. They will stop you : they are as 
 suspicious as Orientals." At St Petersburg the Captain was 
 refused an interview, but permission was accorded to him to 
 pass through Central Asia only. Throughout his whole journey, 
 he says, war with the English in India was ever the uppermost 
 topic. He shews how carefully Russia has provided for such a 
 move. Everything is buried in secrecy. No English are al- 
 lowed to travel to Khiva. No paper reveals the facts : what 
 transpires is intended to mislead. A base of operations is being 
 formed within 250 miles of our frontier. Depdts in Samarcand, 
 Khiva, and Merv, would render invasion easy. If it were not 
 for the Emperor, he declares, the Russians would already be 
 on our Indian Frontier. In the "mutiny" it is difficult to see 
 what would have prevented Russia, with such a base, siding 
 with the mutineers. If Central Asia does not pay the expenses 
 of occupation, why does Russia so energetically push onwards 
 towards India? Russia, by the difficulties thrown in Captain 
 Burnaby's path, is evidently not desirous the English should 
 know too much of her doings on her Indian Route. 
 ' Fortunately for the Russians (who had ascertained the fact) 
 the whole route of the Black Sand Desert, about 200 miles in 
 length, along the north-east portion of the Blue Sea, was well 
 supplied with water for considerable parties of men and camels : 
 and the road hard enough for the boilers, steam engines, and 
 heavy armaments of war steamers. All were put together at 
 Fort No. 1^ — Fort Aralsk. A flotilla was organized. Two 
 Swedish steamers came vii, Petersburg and Samara on the 
 Volga to this fort : they were launched in 1852 and com- 
 pletely equipped for £7,200. The Kirghiz, in consternation at 
 these preparations, exclaimed, " If the Russians were to drink 
 the waters of the Syr Daria (Jaxartes) with them they could 
 no longer exist." 
 
 It was only in 1840 that this sea had been mapped and 
 surveyed : and it then became known that it contained an area 
 
 ' Forts No. 2 and No. 3 were built afterwards. Port No. 3 was abandoned 
 in 1855. Port No. 1 was removed to the head waters of the Kassala. 
 
198 JiVSSIASr OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 of 23,000 square miles : whence also it was discovered that boats 
 could ascend the Jaxartes for hundreds of miles. The Russian 
 Geographical Society had enthusiastically explored the region, 
 and Colonel Blaramberg was now instructed to ascend the river 
 from the first Russian fortress No. 1, on the Blue Sea, right up 
 to the native fortress Ak Mechet, built by the natives to arrest 
 the Russian invaders. Accompanied by a small force, his 
 Orders were, '' If it lies within the Russian limits, to rase it." 
 What these limits could mean to the Russian invaders is best 
 known to themselves. This expedition being repulsed, after 
 some success, a fresh one was organized and sent the next year, 
 with increased confidence and experience. It was now easy, 
 with this flotilla, to ascend the river 400 miles, right up to the 
 native fort Ak Mechet. The Chief of the Russians now 
 despatched the following summons to the Khokan defenders : — 
 
 " By order of my Sovereign, the Emperor of all the Russias, 
 I am come to take Ak Mechet, erected on Russian territory ! ! " 
 (Was this so ?) 
 
 " The Russians have come hithee not foe a day, 
 noe yet foe a yeae, but foe eyee. they will not 
 eetiee' ! !" 
 
 In less than a month the fort was mined, women and 
 children blown up into the air, and the whole of the inmates of 
 the fort massacred. " All were killed to a man." August 8th, 
 1853. 
 
 The Russian historian, with a very pretty naivety inno- 
 cently remarks : " Meanwhile the Ehokanians could not look 
 with indifference on the establishment of the Russians on the 
 right bank of the Syr Daria, and determined at all hazards to 
 recapture Ak Mechet." The pretext of building a fort on 
 Russian territory no doubt must have been highly satisfactory 
 to the natives. It was 400 miles up the valley, away from the 
 Sea of Aral and Fort No. 1. How therefore the natives could 
 have built a fort on Russian territory must have greatly puzzled 
 the patriotism of the native defenders of their soil. Now this 
 very fort had been constructed by them and named the White 
 
 1 The Russians in Central Asia, translated from the Eussian by John and 
 Bobert Michell, Lond. 1865, p. 338. 
 
THE GARDEN OF TEE EAST. 199 
 
 Mosque in 1817!! Her old frontier of the River Chu we 
 suppose was moved by Ukase to a more advantageous base : a 
 most ingenious mode of decreeing absorption — which, like the 
 law of the Medes and Persians, we very much fear altereth not : 
 the Russian Bear never having been known to relax the hold of 
 her claws once firmly fixed. It was not till 1853 that the capture 
 of the fort was accomplished : — 230 bodies were counted in the 
 ditch and the same number in the breach. A small force, 
 detached from the Russian main body, ascended the Jaxartes 
 1 00 versts, about 66 miles, and the fort of Julek was destroyed. 
 On Dec. 14, 1853, the natives lost 2,000 men in a battle before 
 Ak Mechet. However for eight years no further advance was 
 made. Turning eastward, the Russian forces captured Fort 
 Verno4 on the site of an old Mongolian city, and by 1854 a 
 . chain of fortresses was estabhshed westward from this point, 
 and -four or five thousand Russian colonists introduced and 
 protected. Russia shortly hoped to extend her empire, proudly 
 to look down from the Celestial Mountains on one hand and 
 upon China and Turkestan — the celebrated Paradise of the 
 East — on the other. She thus constructed a continuous line 
 of outposts to the south of the great Steppe. The Russians, if 
 ever they had any scruples at all, now openly laid them aside 
 and pursued their conquest of Turkestan to satiation and 
 ennui. 
 
 This invasion, so grave a violation of her principles solemnly 
 professed, excited the serious consideration of England. The 
 Emperor of Russia had declared, that her imperious necessities 
 had reached their limit. The Khokand and Bokhara measures 
 have, however, given particular force and poignancy to the 
 solemn Russian assurances of a finality in conquest. 
 
 "Such are, Monsieur, the interests of our August 
 
 Master in Central Asia, such is the final end that the orders of 
 his Imperial Majesty have traced for the action of his Cabinet." 
 (Gortschakoff's despatch.) 
 
 Now the ink was hardly dry with which this manifesto was 
 written, when hostilities had been resumed on the Jaxartes 
 with greater bitterness than ever. The Petro-Alexandrovsk 
 Russian fort, built on Khivan soil, is the crowning proof of 
 
200 RUSSIAF OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 Russian duplicity. It is within 35 miles of the City of Khiva, 
 and on the right bank of the Oxus. The Territory of Khiva 
 is really a part of Turkestan, and adjoins that of Bokhara. The 
 fort is in the shape of a semi-star, and garrisoned by about 
 1,500 men. It has a parapet twelve feet thick, eight feet high; 
 a dry ditch is thirty broad and twelve deep. This is the terri- 
 tory on which the Emperor of Russia pledged his honour by a 
 special messenger, Count SchouvalofP, that he would not annex. 
 The treaty sealed Sept. 28 (0. S.), 1873, contained these right 
 honourable words : 
 
 Art. 1. All the Khivan Territory cm the right bank of the 
 Amu Barya being now annexed to the Russian Dominions, the 
 former frontier is abolished. 
 
 In contrast with this the despatch of Earl Granville, dated 
 Jan. 8th, 1873, after the interview with Count Schouvaloff 
 contained these AssuKANCES sent direct by Alexander from 
 St Petersburg : 
 
 "Not only was it fae from the intention of the 
 Emperor to take possession of Khiva, but positive 
 
 ORDERS HAD BEEN PREPARED TO PREVENT IT, and directions 
 
 given that the conditions imposed should be such as could 
 not in any way lead to a prolonged occupation of 
 Khiva." 
 
 The peculiar correspondence of the promise with its per- 
 formance has formed the theme of English journalism for 
 several years. In the following accounts we shall see how pro- 
 mises of peaceful intentions culminated in some of the most 
 unprovoked and horrible massacres on record. 
 
 The Russians evidently enjoy a very keen sense of the 
 gullibility of John BuU. The Khan, knowing what elaborate 
 preparations Russia had year after year been making, and bear- 
 ing in mind the many expeditions undertaken for the conquest 
 of Khiva and the chain of forts constantly encroaching on his 
 territory, at last in deSpair sent a mission to India beseeching 
 help. Nothing could be more clear and honest than the declara- 
 tion of the Khan. He complained that from the beginning of the 
 world there never has been an instance of one sovereign re- 
 assuring another sovereign, and for the well-being of the sub- 
 
THE GARDEN OF THE EAST. 20I 
 
 jects of a foreign power, to erect a fort on his territory and 
 advance his troops. The fine irony of this declaration no doubt 
 must have pierced the mailed Russian conscience, but only like 
 a spur to a willing steed to accelerate his pace. Beyond the 
 faintest suspicion of a doubt everything had long been ready 
 except a pretext for the advance on Khiva. Matters were 
 brought to a crisis by the old, old story, extortion of a forced 
 Russian tribute of 150 kopecks on each nomadic tent. But 
 the Kirghiz having hitherto paid taxes to the Khan at the 
 rate of only fifty kopecks, great dissatisfaction prevailed. The 
 Russians had just the same right of levying this exorbitant tax 
 there as upon the Chinese. This was in 1869. The Khan 
 naturally backed up his tributaries against this shameful de- 
 mand. A Kirghiz tribe now destroyed a Russian convoy. The 
 pretext was complete. In the beginning of 1872 the Khan of 
 Khokand despatched two embassies, the one to St Petersburg, 
 the other to Calcutta. The first was arrested at the Caucasus. 
 In the meanwhile, the Imperial word having been pledged to 
 the English pro-Russian Cabinet (Gladstone and Granville) that 
 no permanent occupation of Khiva was intended, the English 
 nation was so completely befooled and hoodwinked as to believe 
 this Imperial Russian solemn assurance, and in consequence to 
 refuse aid to the Khan. The Tsar, now absolutely certified that 
 England, having swallowed the opiate, was tranquillized, knew 
 that the Khan must now of course succumb to the forces long 
 prepared against him. The words of the Khan's appeal for 
 English aid are so forcibly descriptive of the " situation" (1872), 
 that no excuse is needed for the following extract from his 
 Letter to the Viceroy of the Caucasus : 
 
 " Harmony has existed between the two Governments. How 
 then has it happened that during the last year your troops have 
 landed at Chelekin on the shores of the Bay of Khaurism, under 
 the pretext of commercial objects, and that recently a small 
 
 detachment of these troops was advancing? Besides this, 
 
 Russian troops have advanced from Tashkent and Ak Mechet 
 (Perovski) as far as the well of Min Bulak, which is situated 
 within our hereditary dominion." 
 
 Relying upon Russian faith, our Russ-loving Government 
 
202 RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 thus allowed this splendid country (Turkestan) to be annexed. 
 Of course Eussia, feeling her way by the violation of the Black 
 Sea, against which the English Cabinet raised not a finger in 
 protest, foresaw at once that she could annex Turkestan by any 
 plausible representation, however hollow and absurd. She has 
 annexed it. She conquered Khiva by three expeditions starting 
 from three different points. So soon as Balk, Merv and Bokha- 
 ra are engulphed, Samarcand being also annexed, as well as 
 Kashgar, Eussia wiU be at -easy invading distance from British 
 India from three different routes for concentrating her forces. 
 At Yarkand she would be only 250 miles from British territory. 
 
 Forces employed for the annexation of Khiva : 
 
 Camels, 19,200 : guns, 54 : mortars, 6 : Cossacks, 3,750 : 
 mitrailleuses, 2 : rocket divisions, 5. 
 
 " Indeed," says Capt. Burnaby, from whose pages this list is 
 taken, " it would appear that the Eussian commander-in-chief 
 had borrowed a leaf out of the book of a sick patient. The 
 latter, when desired by his doctor to limit himself to three 
 glasses of wine a day, had some glasses constructed which would 
 each contain a bottle. He thus kept within the exact letter of 
 his promise to the medical gentleman. Schouvaloff declared 
 that only ^\ battalions would be employed, its object being 
 only to punish brigandage and release certain prisoners. A 
 battalion comprises 900 men ; four and a half battalions would 
 be 4,050 men. Compare this pretended strength with the 
 foregoing table and we have a beautiful illustration of the 
 Russian inner consciousness ^" 
 
 In the end a war indemnity of 2,200,000 roubles' was im- 
 posed on the Khan. This episode is particularly suggestive of 
 the parable, "Pay me that thou owest." We had forgiven 
 Eussia about £100,000,000 as war indemnity justly our due, 
 for the result of the Crimean war. Behold Eussia with her 
 hand on the throat, "Pay me that thou owest (not)." We 
 cannot certainly accuse her of excess in those bowels of com- 
 passion usually ascribed to the best side of human nature. 
 
 It seems the Tashkent division of the Eussian hunt were not 
 
 1 Ride to Khiva, by Captain Burnaby. ' £40,000. 
 
THE GARDEN OF THE EAST. 2Q3 
 
 able to be in at "the death." The Orenburg column had alone 
 gathered the "brushes" of the day. However, Kaufman no 
 doubt felt extremely well fortified with the noble sentiments 
 expressed in a despatch from Gortschakoff — 
 
 " You express your conviction, produced by experience, that 
 in an intercourse with Asiatics the grand secret of success con- 
 sists in unchanging veracity and firmness, combined with a 
 decided attitude of peace. I too am the more firmly convinced 
 of the correctness of this view, since it has invariably served as 
 a guide in my political action and intercourse both east and 
 west.'' 
 
 Noble sentiments. These fluent moralities form an ex- 
 quisite text for the Kaufman atrocities so soon to be committed 
 in the name of unchanging veracity and unshaken firmness 
 (voracity, by a slight orthographical mistake, might be readily 
 inserted here). 
 
 Tchernaiefif, immediately after the capture of Chemkent in 
 Turkestan in 1864, had seized a favourable occasion, when its 
 garrison was weakened and its ruler dead, to attack this city, 
 sixteen miles in circumference, with 2,000 Russian troops and 
 ten cannon. The city enclosed a population of 100,000. By 
 treachery and panic on the part of the inhabitants Tchemaieff 
 succeeded in capturing this city with only a loss of 25 killed 
 and 117 wounded. This remarkable general made a most 
 favourable impression on the natives. On the very evening of 
 the surrender of the town he rode through it, attended by only 
 two Cossacks, took a native bath and drank a native bowl of 
 tea! 
 
 Kaufman was already established at Tashkent when the 
 scheme of taking Khiva was developed, and formed a line of 
 attack thought essential to success. 
 
 General Kaufman having spent two years in preparing for 
 the attack on Khiva, went to St Petersburg and obtained the 
 Emperor's permission. Kaufman had already been in posses- 
 sion of Tashkent as early as 1864. Several generals were only 
 too ready to claim the honours of conquest; and after all 
 Kaufman was the last to reach the long coveted prize : this 
 disappointment may, perhaps, hereafter, afford some clue to the 
 
204 RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 ferocious massacres in Khiva which have acquired • so much 
 notoriety. 
 
 Four leaders were appointed for a service which had 
 defied for ages all the powers of Russia. No one could say 
 which route would be most successful. For this reason three 
 converging lines of march were chosen : 
 
 From Tashkent — General Kaufman. 
 From the Caucasus — Colonel MarkasofF. 
 From Orenburg— General Verevkin. 
 From Kinderly Bay — Colonel Lamakin. 
 
 It was the two latter who really conquered Khiva. The 
 second never reached Khiva at all. Thermometer rose to 149° F. ; 
 the men were dying of thirst; also the animals. The column 
 got within 120 miles of Khiva, and then was forced to retreat 
 just as Markasoff had reached the eastern shore of the Aral 
 Sea. The Orenburg and Kinderly detachments arrived before 
 Khiva, while Kaufman was some ten miles distant. But such 
 a concentration along converging lines through such difficulties 
 as we shall now describe casts a halo of military glory upon 
 these bold adventurers. 
 
 The Kinderly column was intended to meet the Orenburg 
 column at Lake Aibugir consisting of 1800 men, ten cannon 
 and a rocket battery. The major succeeded in capturing in 
 the Kirghiz Steppe 
 
 380 camels, 
 
 110 horses, 
 3000 sheep and goats. 
 
 In the journey through a waterless desert in a blasting tempera- 
 ture burning like a furnace, the camels and horses died by the 
 hundred : the sand was scorching and blinding in the extreme. 
 On the 24th of April, they reached Kaundy. Another sixty 
 miles brought them to Senek, where the water was as black as 
 ink, nauseous and fcBtid. In one afternoon 150 camels died. 
 Sunstroke, dysentery and prostration, and almost general fever, 
 attacked the troops. They built a small fort to surround six 
 wells. On the 10th of May, it seemed as if the whole party 
 must die of thirst: the soldiers began to sink and hung on 
 
THE GARDEN OF THE EAST. 205 
 
 to the horses; all sunk hopelessly down on the burning sand. 
 One well was discovered which saved them from death. Gene- 
 rally, all wells had been poisoned by putrefying corpses 
 thrown into them by the Turkomans. For three days there 
 was no water to be had. On the 22nd Kungrad was reached. 
 A part had been left behind, utterly exhausted, lying on the 
 sand. 
 
 About ten o'clock they came in sight of the fortress — not 
 unlike Windsor Castle. The Khivans admitted them. Kauf- 
 man told the chief dignitaries and Mullahs, that if they sub- 
 mitted quietly their lives, property, and women, would be 
 respected, that he had not come to conquer Khiva, but only to 
 punish the Khan. They received this information with marked 
 satisfaction. Thus Hazar-Asp, a place really stronger than 
 Khiva, submitted without a blow'. The reason for this doubt- 
 less was the knowledge that the Orenburg and Kinderly expe- 
 ditions were already on their territory ; and these, indeed, ulti- 
 mately, did all the chief fighting for the fall of Khiva. 
 
 The Orenburg column started from that place on the 27th 
 February, and consisted _^ of three divisions which were to unite 
 at the foot of Emba, 400 miles deep in the Kirghiz Steppe. 
 The cold was intense. 
 
 5000 camels, 
 1600 infantry, 
 1200 Cossacks, 
 4 mortars, 
 8 cannon. 
 
 But while these land forces were converging through these 
 tremendous difficulties, the flotilla of the Sea of Aral, under 
 Admiral Sitnikoff, was sent from Kassala down to the mouth of 
 the Oxus. In May 1853, it attacked and destroyed the Khivan 
 fort A.k-Kala. The Khivans, however, had so obstructed the 
 river that it could ascend no higher, and was of no use in the 
 campaign further than conveying stores and securing the forts. 
 
 The Grand Duke Nicholas marched with the troops from 
 Kassala. In skirmishes a few rockets and live grenades scat- 
 
 1 Campaigning on the Oxus, by J. A. MacGahan, p. 197. 
 
206 RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 tered small bodies of Turkoman horse. Arrived at Khojuli, the 
 inhahitants sued for mercy. The troops remained peaceably 
 there two days refreshing themselves. Nearer Manghit, the 
 Khivan horse spread themselves out eight miles and attacked 
 the Euasians on all sides in vain. They retired behind the 
 town. The Russians advanced through it. A few on the roofs 
 shot at the Russians: enraged at this the soldiers reduced the 
 town to ashes, and slaughtered every man, woman, or child 
 they could lay their hands upon. The Russian losses were nine 
 killed and ten woimded'. 
 
 General Kaufman could not reach Tashkent in time to be 
 present at the bombardment of Khiva. Kaufman marched 
 from Tashkent, but the difficulties of the road continually in- 
 creased. In a single "day they passed from confidence to utter 
 desperation, their situation was hopeless. The thermometer 
 was 100° F. The men, horses, and camels were without water — 
 all were utterly exhausted. Kaufman offered 300 roubles for a 
 flask of water. A guide galloped off, found a few wells, and 
 the column was saved. One failure or one mistake, and the 
 Russians would, have been destroyed. Their prestige saved 
 them from attack. " They were believed to be infallible, and 
 they had been found to be invincible." The Russian discipline 
 was excellent, many of the men were mad with thirst, but when 
 the Oxus was reached not a man broke rank without permis- 
 sion. Kaufman declared there were no other soldiers in the 
 world capable of doing what they had done. As the men were 
 splashing about in the river, dragging the artillery and shouting 
 madly to each other, tumbling the baggage into boats, Kaufman 
 sat on a camp-stool encouraging them with "Molodsti" (brave 
 fellows). The Russians proclaimed on reaching Khiva, (pro- 
 mising payment for supplies brought,) the people would not be 
 molested if they stayed quietly at home; but, that if supplies 
 were not brought the Russians would forage, pillage, and burn 
 every empty house they should find. The Khivans at first 
 refused Russian paper-money which they did not understand. 
 The colunm moved forwards unopposed, For three miles the 
 
 ^Campaigning on the Oxiis, p. 219. 
 
THE GARDEN OF TUE EAST. 207 
 
 skirmish was maintained by Turkoman cavalry. " I think, said 
 the Grand Duke, turning to me laughing as we rode along, I 
 would like to forage a little. The orders are to bring in every- 
 thing in the way of sheep and cattle for which there are no 
 owners. Will you come along ? There were plenty of cows, 
 sheep and horses, but the moment we seized any an ill-advised 
 owner put in an appearance. We therefore delivered up our 
 captured prey." Once the Grand Duke seized the most hide- 
 ously ugly donkey I ever saw, over which he went into ecstasies. 
 "Quelles oreilles, mon Dieu, regardez done! my arms are nothing 
 to them (his ears) and his eyes! what an expression. It's 
 enough to put. us all out of countenance — ^the very impersona- 
 tion of obstinacy and entStement. He must be 500 years old. 
 Charmant, charniant ! If he only let me hear his voice !. . . The 
 Grand Duke Nicholas and the Prince Eugene of Leuchtenberg 
 were both very simple and unassuming in their manner." The 
 Turkomans were the most useful of the Khan of Khiva's 
 warriors, and with Eastern ingratitude he denounced them 
 to Kaufman as robbers, yet they had even been his best allies. 
 The Turkomans among all the Eastern nations are the only 
 people who can be relied upon to keep their promises : are far 
 better, braver and nobler than the Uzbegs. But Kaufman de- 
 termined to exact the war indemnity from these Turkomans who 
 are quite a different people to the Tekki Turkomans denounced 
 so graphically by Vambdry. These people had never paid any 
 taxes at all. Kaufman seized twelve Yomuds of this race 
 who had been sent to negotiate, and determined to take the 
 collection of the war indemnity into his own hands, and insisted 
 upon immediate payment which was evidently impossible to a 
 nomadic tribe : and made preparations for attacking them with- 
 out giving them the time. ' What he did he did with a full 
 knowledge of the case, and upon his own judgment. " They 
 could not," he said, "be relied upon to keep the peace, until they 
 should be completely crushed." Beside this he wished to con- 
 ciliate the Uzbegs, who would only be too rejoiced to see their 
 turbulent neighbours conquered, and reduced to submission. 
 In addition to all this, they were an independent people who 
 flouted all authority — the unpardonable sin in the eyes of the 
 
208 RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 Russian Government. It was necessary to make an example of 
 them.' (MacGahan.) 
 
 " He was severely criticised for adopting this course by some 
 of his officers. He knew very well, they said, it was not possible 
 for tbe Turkomans to pay in the specified time." 
 
 Five weeks after the fall of Khiva an army with mitrail- 
 leurs, cannon and rockets advanced to the Yomud territory at 
 Hazavat. General Golovatchoff rested his troops there a day, it 
 was thought, to give the Yomud s more time for escaping. The 
 Cossacks separated and scoured the country, while the infantry 
 marched forward. In an incredibly short time these Cossacks 
 had fired every roof they could find, which, made of dry straw, 
 flashed up like powder. New wheat ricks nicely thatched 
 equally blazed. " It was a strange, wild spectacle. I spurred 
 my horse to the top of a little eminence and gazed about me. 
 In an incredibly short space of time flames and smoke had 
 spread on either side of the horizon, and advancing steadily 
 forwards in the direction of our course, slowly enveloped every- 
 thing. Through this scene moved the Cossacks like spectres. 
 Torch in hand, they dashed swiftly across the country, leaping 
 , ditches and flying over walls like very demons, and leaving 
 behind them a trail of fire and smoke. They rarely dis- 
 mounted, but simply rode up to the houses, applied their blazing 
 torches to the projecting eaves of thatch, and the stacks of un- 
 threshed grain, and then galloped on. Five minutes afterwards 
 sheets of seething flame, and darkling smoke showed how well 
 they had done their work. The entire country was on fire. In 
 half an hour the sun was hidden and the sky grew dark." 
 A drizzling rain rare in Khiva had set in, driving down the 
 smoke, causing it to hang in sullen masses over the trees, 
 forming a lowering background to the blood-coloured flames. 
 " This was war such as I had never before seen, and such as is 
 rarely seen in modem days. It was a sad, sad sight — a terrible 
 spectacle of war at its destructive work, strangely in keeping 
 with this strange wild land." 
 
 Some horsemen appeared and halted to parley. "He 
 wished to know why the Russians were invading their country. 
 They had never made war on the Russians, why were the 
 
THE GARDEN OF THE EAST. 209 
 
 Kussians making war on them? Several times the officer 
 
 in command of the advanced guard sent back a messenger, 
 asking for permission to begin the attack. General Golovatchoff 
 (greatly to the honour of his humanity) hesitated a long time. 
 Among the people in front were women and children in great 
 numbers." 
 
 " About two miles away to the south was an undistinguish- 
 able mass of men, women, and children, horses, camels, sheep, 
 goats, and cattle, all rushing forward in wild, frightened con- 
 fusion. There were two or three thousand, perhaps in all — 
 merely a detachment of the laggards from the main body, 
 which is a few miles farther on. In two or three minutes they 
 had disappeared over the brow of the hill and were lost to view." 
 
 " I follow down the marsh. Twenty or thirty women and 
 children up to their necks in water, trying to hide among the 
 weeds and grass.... A few yards further on are four Cossacks 
 hacking at him, with their sabres. Weapon he has none. 
 A woman sitting by the water, weeping over the dead body of 
 her baby. Suddenly my ears are stunned with a sharp, shriek- 
 ing, rushing noise.... It is only a rocket. Another and another: 
 and mingled with the shrieks of the women and children, the 
 hoarse shout of the Cossacks, bleating of sheep and goats and 
 howling of cattle running wildly over the plain, made up a 
 very pandemonium of terror." 
 
 "As we had left the infantry far behind, and were conse- 
 quently in no hurry, we stretched ourselves on the grass under 
 the trees, some to sleep, some to watch the flames, whose 
 hot breath scorched and withered the trees and sometimes 
 reached us in hot angry puffs. The heavy black smoke hung 
 in thick columns, and settled down over the trees, half hiding 
 the Cossacks, gleefully making their tea, and the horses 
 picketed in line and feeding luxuriantly on the rich wheat of 
 the Turkomans. Above all rose the Banner of Russia, seen 
 indistinctly in the smoke, flapping lazily like some vulture 
 gloating over the sinister scene." 
 
 But a night attack on the Russians by swarms of Turkoman 
 horse nearly took a deep revenge. For the graphic details 
 E. 14 
 
2 1 RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 of this night hattle, the reader is referred to the singularly 
 interesting account of the Oxus campaign by its talented 
 author. 
 
 The principal part of the war extortion was paid by the 
 women in ornaments of pure silver, heir-looms of mothers, 
 grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. Kaufman had it all 
 weighed : twenty-five roubles were the standard for a pound of 
 silver. The poor women's bracelets were often very wide and 
 thick, and shaped like a letter C. Ten days took up the 
 weighing. The commission got £20,000 booty. Kaufman 
 found it impossible to extort more. Another year was granted 
 for the remaining £20,000 ! ! 
 
 Schuyler's account of the Russian massacre in Khiva may 
 be abridged as follows (p. 356, Vol. ii.) : 
 
 After demanding the 300,000 roubles from the seventeen 
 elders, to be paid within fifteen days, General Kaufman was 
 guilty of the first breach of faith in retaining 12 elders as 
 hostages. 
 
 The very next day Kaufman despatched orders to Golov- 
 atchoff to march and attack the Turkomans in the following 
 words : 
 
 "Give over the settlements of the Tomuds and 
 their fashlies to complete destruction, and their 
 herds and property to confiscation. 
 
 "At the least attempt to migrate, carry out 'my order fmr 
 the final extermination of the disobedient tribe." 
 
 Mr MacGahan was present, and states he heard the 
 general give the orders when they were about 25 miles from 
 Khiva, viz. : — 
 
 " This expedition does not spare age nor sex. Kill them all." 
 The old Colonel — -from the Caucasian triumphs — said, " Cer- . 
 tainly, we wiU do exactly as you say." 
 
 "We burned grain, houses, everything we met; cut down, 
 every person, man, woman and chUd. They were generally 
 women and children whom we met." 
 
 Now, as the Yomuds had agreed to pay this enormous ex- 
 action, or submit to this unpretending robbery — for it was 
 nothing else — within the fourteen days, they had no suspicion 
 
THE GARDEN OF THE EAST. 211 
 
 that the very next day the troops had orders to murder them 
 all. They therefore could not be migrating : to stay was 
 death ; what could the women and children do ? So soon as 
 the troops charged they fled in despair. "But the Cossack had 
 his blood up and seemed to revel in the bloody shambles he 
 had created. They seemed inspired with demoniacal fury," said 
 this eyewitness. 
 
 For these cold-calculating murders of the women and 
 children of a whole tribe, without giving them time to collect 
 the extortions, according to solemn agreement, what punish- 
 ment did Kaufman receive from his Tsar ? The decoration of 
 the Cross of St George of the Second Class. This expedition 
 cost about 7,000,000 roubles. 
 
 A fitting episode in this infamous cruelty and treachery, 
 worthy alone of pure Tartar blood, was the affair of 8,800 
 camels, which were bought by the Eussians with promises of 
 payment. It so happened these nearly all died. They repu- 
 diated payment by the following exquisite piece of chicanery. 
 The former owners were forced by threats and violence to sign 
 a petition begging to be allowed to present this magnificent 
 present to their insidious invader, the Prefect of Perovsky ! 
 Polite robbery indeed. 
 
 After the attack and bombardment of Khiva, Said Emir 
 was selected to negotiate the submission. He was an opium 
 eater, whose open mouth and hanging jaw consequent upon 
 the practice, gave him an idiotic appearance. Through such a 
 thick dust that the rider could not see his horse's head, they 
 Inarched into Khiva to meet General Kaufman, who had 
 entered on the other side of the city. He soon rode into the 
 grand square, followed by the Grand Duke Nicholas, Prince 
 Eugene, and the staff, where he was greeted with cheers. They 
 all mounted the steps of the grand hall of justice, where the 
 Khan had administered it to his subjects — Kaufman, Golovat- 
 choff, the Grand Duke Nicholas, Prince Leuchtenberg, staff 
 officers and all, and threw themselves down to rest. "One of 
 the Khan's ministers brought ice water, cakes, apricots and 
 cherries, with which we merrily proceeded to refresh ourselves. 
 So fell Khiva, the great stronghold of Islamism in Central 
 
212 RUSSIAN OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 Asia, after a succession of disastrous expeditions extending 
 over a period of 200 years " (page 236). 
 
 In this modern and deeply concealed invasion, so well de- 
 vised and pushed fonvards to such gigantic results, one episode 
 which rather wickedly exposes the Kussian policy is worth 
 describing : — 
 
 Kasimof had instigated, with daring infamy, the Russianized 
 Kirghizes to revolt. Beaten and driven to the south, he was 
 at last taken by the Russian Kirghizes who remained faithful (!). 
 Flayed and then boiled alive in a caldron, this patriot was 
 thus put to death. Noman, the leader of the victorious Kirghizes, 
 and who had seized him at last, was made a Lieutenant-Colonel, 
 and twelve others, presented with twelve gold medals, were thus 
 rewarded by the Russian Government, as a striking proof of 
 their disapproval of such atrocity. 
 
 Mr Schuyler's book has recently been passed by the Censor 
 of the Russian press without alteration for Russian perusal. 
 
 The loss of Tashkend gave a final blow to Khokand inde- 
 pendence. The Khanate of Khokand stretches like a noble 
 principality north and south from the Kirghiz steppe to the 
 mountains of Badakshan, and west from the Blue Sea of Aral 
 to the border of Kashgar, the northern capital of Chinese 
 Turkestan. It was in this highly favoured region of Turkestan 
 that the tremendous hordes of the conquering Zenghis, Timour 
 and Baber, nursed their nascent powers. From these regions 
 burst the mighty avalanches of armed horsemen, who marked 
 their devastating progress in streaks of ashes, blood and horror. 
 It may be, hence in future times, that the swarming colonies of 
 Russia, accumulating strength and courage, may once more 
 break the barriers of the mighty steppe and pierce the ancient 
 passes, to carry war on a new scale into the heart of the supine 
 nations which surround their gigantic foe in the fancied security 
 of repose. 
 
 The Ox us formerly flowed into the Caspian. By the embank- 
 ments formed on the mouths of the Volga, and the conquests 
 of the territory between the Caspian and Black Sea, Russia 
 
TEE GARDEN OF THE EAST. 213 
 
 was brought 2,000 miles nearer to India. A railway is formed 
 from Moscow to Theodosia on the Black Sea ; another is being 
 formed from Poti on the south-east corner of that sea to Tiflis, 
 and from thence to Baku on the Caspian, about 300 miles; 
 from thence a steam flotilla on the Caspian can convey the 
 material of war to the naphtha island so anciently celebrated. 
 The Oxus near this place in former times used to debouch 
 upon the Caspian. The new Russian railway connecting the 
 Black Sea with the Caspian will open out the ancient caravan 
 routes from the East. Pliny tells that the merchandise in 
 ancient times used to come to Balk, descended the Icarus 
 as far as the Oxus, and thence went down to the Caspian. It 
 then crossed that sea to the mouth of the Cyrus, ascended that 
 river, and was then transported by land five days to the lianks 
 of the Eion, where it embarked once more and was conveyed 
 down the Euxine (Black Sea). Nicator 2000 years ago pro- 
 jected a canal between these seas. Even now the greater part 
 of the walnut- wood used for furniture goes from Mingrelia and 
 Imeritia in the Caucasus to the Caspian, then up the Volga 
 and by a cross railway to the Don, and down to the Black Sea 
 by that river. This wood is no longer to be found in- Europe 
 for the Paris cabinet-makers. At Poti Mr Mounsey saw in 
 1865 as many as 750 soldiers working at this new railway, 
 which was expected to be open to the Caspian in six years. 
 Should Russia turn the Oxus into its ancient bed, the old war 
 path of ancient times would be reopened to her regiments. 
 
 The conquest of India by Russia could never be attempted 
 until the latter had secured not only an impregnable base of 
 operations but a line of march fully protected from a flank 
 attack. Afghanistan and Persia would undoubtedly form the 
 most direct route. The facility with which ancient armies 
 passed from Turkestan to India is no strong argument for 
 modern times. These armies were chiefly horsemen who carried 
 their simple wants upon the saddle. A cumbrous artillery and 
 commissariat are now indispensable. It would only be at- 
 tempted when England should be already hard pressed else- 
 where. Besides this, the deadly antagonism between the Muslim 
 and Russian Christian would form a stern obstacle to Russian 
 
2 14 MnSSIAN OGCUPATIONS. 
 
 intrigue. In addition to this the Russian rule in Central 
 Asia cannot compare favourably with the benign and almost 
 maternal rule of the English Empress Queen. It is true that 
 Paul excited the ridicule of Napoleon when he proposed to him 
 the invasion of India by concentrating 25,000 regular troops 
 and 2,000 Cossacks in Astrakan, France on her part sending 
 35,000 men down the Danube to the Black Sea, thence by 
 ships to Taganrog, whence they were to march to the Volga and 
 sail to Astrakan en route for Astrabad. Paul imagined that 
 the combined armies could march from Astrakan to the Indus 
 in forty-five days; and indeed that the Don Cossacks alone 
 could accompKsh the feat. To them Ataman (o-r General) Paul 
 wrote : " AU the wealth of India will be your reward iai this 
 expedition." The route selected for them was a different one — 
 from Orenburg to Khiva and Bokhara, and thence by easy 
 marches to the Indus. The Cossacks, actually prepared for the 
 attempt, were to start in May, but Paul died the previous 
 March. 
 
 The Court of St Petersburg must, it would seem, in their far- 
 reaching schemes towards the Hindu-Kush with so much toil, 
 at so heavy a cost, seek some richer recompense than is to be 
 found on the shores of the Jaxartes and the Oxus. Russia's 
 policy does not confine itself to the possession of the plains of 
 Bokhara, Khokand and Khiva. « 
 
 "The conquest of Khiva or Bokhara would," says the 
 Quarterly Review, "doubtless very sensibly affect us in India 
 by creating a vague impression in the. native mind that our 
 Asiatic supremacy was about to be challenged." (Vol. 113, p. 579, 
 1865.) 
 
 At present the Russians have sufficient occupation in keep- 
 ing the Central Asia populations in subjection. But when a 
 railroad is laid from Samara to Samarcand the question will 
 assume a very different aspect. Suppose stores to have been 
 collected at Samarcand, in advance, an army of 100,000 might 
 by means of a railroad be concentrated at Keoki in thirty days. 
 From Keoki to Kunduz, along the valley of the Oxus, is only 
 250 miles; and from Kundu^ to the summit of the Hindu- 
 Kush only 100 miles ; and an army might make this distance 
 
TEE GARDEN OF THE EAST. 2 1 5 
 
 easily in twenty days. The annexation of Bokhara and the 
 occupation of Keoki would be the next step in the advance of 
 Russia on India. Bokhara is completely under Russian tutelage ; 
 and I believe no existing agreements between them and the 
 English Government prevent tbem from occuping that country. 
 And Bokhara occupied, the Russian frontier would be 150 miles 
 from CabuP. 
 
 Before leaving Khiva Kaufman constructed a fort 25 miles 
 from Khiva on the rigbt bank of the Oxus and in the midst of 
 a fertile country, where the heat and cold are not extreme. It 
 was thought WOO infantry and 200 Cossacks were suflScient to 
 leave in the country ; the remainder of the troops marched 
 honlewards by the same routes by which they had arrived. 
 Mr MacGahan, on his return route, reached with fresh horses 
 Orenburg in 14 days, which had taken six weeks previously for 
 the opposite journey. 
 
 > Campaigning on the Oxus, and the Fall of Khiva, by Mr MacGahan, 
 p. 426. 
 
LIST OF SOME OF THE WORKS CONSULTED. 
 
 Bussian Government in Poland; by 
 
 W. A. Day. 
 Eanke's Hist, of Prussia. 
 The Turks, the Greeks and the Sla- 
 
 vons; by G. Mnir Mackenzie and 
 
 A. P. Irby. 
 Secret and inedited Documents. 
 Enssia; by John Eeynell MorelL 
 History of Servia ; by Banke. 
 Kinglake's InTasion of the Crimea. 
 The Bussians in Central Asia; by 
 
 Michell. 
 Bussian Discovery; by Coxe. 
 The Anstro-Hungarian Empire and the 
 
 PoKcy of Count Benst. 
 The Bussians on the Amur; by Baven- 
 
 stein. 
 Travels of Marco Polo; by CoL Xule, 
 
 C.B. 
 La Eussie en 1839; par Le Marquis de 
 
 Custine. 
 Impressions de Voyage en Eussie; par 
 
 Alex. Dumas. 
 The Slavonian Provinces. 
 A Brief Hist, of the Great Duke of 
 
 Moscouviahis genealogy, being taken 
 
 out of the Muscovite Manuscript 
 
 Chronicles written by a Polacke; 
 
 translated by Eobert Thome, 1527. 
 Hist, of the Mongols; by H. H. Ho- 
 
 worth, F.B.G.S.,1876. 
 The Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy; 
 
 by Prof. Bawliuson, M.A., 1876. 
 An account of Eussia; by the Earl of 
 
 Macartney. 
 Histoire de Bussie; par Xaramsin. 
 
 Paris, 1823. 
 Encycl. Brit. Art. Bussia. 
 Hakluyt's Voyages and Travels, 1600. 
 
 Bites and Ceremonies of the Greek 
 Church in Bussia; by John King, 
 D.D.,F.E.S.,F.A.S. 
 
 Alison's History of Europe. 
 
 Latin Christianity ; by Dean Milman. 
 
 The demeanors of the Tartars ; Tuo de 
 Nabona to the Archbishop of Bonr- 
 deauz, 1243. 
 
 The Voyage of frier WiUiam de Eu- 
 bruguis unto the East part of the 
 Worlde, 1253. 
 
 Blackwood Edin. Mag., 1855. 
 
 Hist, of Persia; by Watson. 
 
 Hist, of Bokhara ; by Vamb^ry. 
 
 Travels in Central Asia ; Vamb^ry. 
 
 Character of the Bussians ; by Dr Lyall. 
 
 Eussia ; by KhoL 
 
 Hist, of Charles XEt. of Sweden; Vol- 
 taire. 
 
 Travels in the Eastern Caucasus; by 
 Lt.-Gen. Sir A. P. Cunynghame, 
 KC.B., F.E.G.S. 
 
 The Caucasus and Persia ; by Mounsey. 
 
 Memoirs of Travels in Bussia; by 
 Peter Bruce, officer. 
 
 Free Bussia. 
 
 Campaigning on the Oxus; by J. A. 
 MacGaian, New York Correspond- 
 ent. 
 
 Turkestan ; by Schuyler. 
 
 Bide to Khiva; by Captain Bumaby. 
 
 Levesque ; Hist, des Peuples diSerentes 
 soumis k la domination des Busses. 
 
 Memoires de I'Empire Bussien ; par 
 un Ministre §trang6re. 
 
 Eussie et les Busses. 
 
 British Quarterly Beview. 
 
 British and Foreign Quarterly Be- 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : PBISTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AT THE CSrvEESHY PRESS. 
 
39 Paternoster Row,- K.C. 
 London, September 1878. 
 
 GENERAL LIST OF WORKS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. 
 
 »oXKo« 
 
 HISTORY, POLITICS, HISTORICAL 
 MEMOIRS, &c. 
 
 A History of England 
 
 from the Conclusion of the Great 
 War in 1815. By Spencer Walpole, 
 Author of ' Life of the Rt. Hon. Spencer 
 Perceval.' Vols. I. & II. Svo. 361. 
 
 History of England in 
 
 the i8th Century. By W. E. H. 
 LeCky, M.A, Vols. I. & II. 1700- 
 1760. 2 vols. Svo. 36^-. 
 
 The History of England 
 
 from the Accession of James II. 
 
 By the Right Hon. Lord Macaulay. 
 
 Student's Edition, 2 vols. cr. Svo. i2j. 
 People's Edition, 4 vols. cr. Svo. \(>s. 
 -Cabinet Edition, S vols, post Svo. 48^-. 
 Library Edition, 5 vols. Svo. £/s,. 
 
 Critical and Historical 
 
 Essays contributed to the Edin- 
 burgh Review. By the Right Hon. 
 Lord Macaulay. 
 
 Cheap Edition, crown Svo. 3J-. dd. 
 Student's Edition, crown Svo. 6j. 
 People's Edition, 2 vols, crown Svo. is. 
 Cabinet Edition, 4 vols. 24?. 
 Library Edition, 3 vols. Svo. ■^ds. 
 
 Lord Macaulay's Works. 
 
 Complete and vmiform Library Edition. 
 Edited by his Sister, Lady Trevelyan. 
 8 vols.. Svo. with Portrait, ;^5. 55-. 
 
 The History of England 
 
 from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat 
 of the Spanish Armada. By J. A. 
 Froude, M.A. 
 
 Cabinet Edition, 12 vols. cr. Svo. ;^3. \2s. 
 
 Library Edition, 12 vols. Svo. £%. iSj-. 
 
 The English in Ireland 
 
 in the Eighteenth Century. By J. A. 
 Froude, M.A. 3 vols. Svo. £2. %s. 
 
 Journal of the Reigns of 
 
 King George IV. and King William 
 
 IV. By the late C. C. F. Greville, 
 Esq. Edited by H. Reeve, Esq. 
 Fifth Edition. 3 vols. Svo. price 36^. 
 
 The Life of Napoleon HL 
 
 derived from State Records, Unpub- 
 lished Family Correspondence, and 
 Personal Testimony. By Blanchard 
 Jerrold. In Four Volumes, Svo. with 
 numerous Portraits and Facsimiles, 
 Vols. I. to III. price iS.;. each. 
 
 The Constitutional His- 
 tory of England since the Accession 
 of George III. 1760-1870. By Sir 
 
 Thomas Erskine May, K.C.B. D.C.L. 
 Fifth Edition. 3 vols, crown Svo. iSj-. 
 
 Democracy in Europe ; 
 
 a History. By Sir Thomas Erskine 
 May, K.C.B. D.C.L. 2 vols. Svo, 32^-, 
 
WOUXS publishea by 'LONGMANS 6- CO. 
 
 Introductory Lectures on 
 
 Modem History delivered in 1841 
 and 1842. By the late Rev. T. Arnold, 
 D.D. 8vo. price "js. td. 
 
 On Parliamentary Go- 
 vernment in England ; its Origin, 
 
 Development, and Practical Operation. 
 By Alpheus Todd. 2 vols. 8vo. 
 price £1. ijs. 
 
 History of Civilisation in 
 
 England and France, Spain and 
 Scotland. By Henry Thomas 
 Buckle. 3 vols, crown 8vo. t^. 
 
 Lectures on the History 
 
 of England from the Earliest Times 
 to the Death of King Edward II. 
 By W. Longman, F.S.A. Maps and 
 Illustrations. 8vo. 15J. 
 
 History of the Life & 
 
 Times of Edward III. By W. Long- 
 man, F.S.A. With 9 Maps, 8 Plates, 
 and 16 Woodcuts. 2 vols. 8vo. 28^. 
 
 History of the Life and 
 
 Reign of Richard IIL To which is 
 added the Story of Perkin Warbeck, 
 from Original Documents. By James 
 Gairdner. With Portrait and Map. 
 CJrown 8vo. lOj-. id. 
 
 The Life of Simon de 
 
 Montfort, Earl of Leicester, with 
 special reference to the Parliamentary 
 History of his time. By G. W. 
 Prothero. Crown 8vo. Maps, 9/. 
 
 History of England un- 
 der the Duke of Buckingham and 
 Charles L 1624-1628. By S. R. 
 
 Gardiner. 2 vols. 8to. Maps, 24?. 
 
 The Personal Govern- 
 ment of Charles I. from the Death of 
 Buckingham to the Declaration in favour 
 of Ship Money, 1628-1637. By S. R. 
 Gardiner. 2 vols. 8vo. 24?. 
 
 Popular History of 
 
 France, from the Earliest Times to 
 the Death of Louis XIV. By Eliza- 
 beth M. Sewell. With 8 Afeps. 
 Crown Syo. "JS: (>d. 
 
 The Famine Campaign in 
 
 Southern India, (Madras, Bombay, 
 and Mysore,) in 1876-78. By Wil- 
 liam DiGBY, Secretary of the Madras 
 Famine Committee. With Maps and 
 many Illustrations. 2 vols. 8vo. 32J, 
 
 A Student's Manual of 
 
 the History of India from the Earliest 
 Period to the Present. By Col. 
 Meadows Taylor, M. R. A. S. Third 
 Thousand. Crown 8vo. Maps, ^s. 6d. 
 
 Indian Polity ; a View of 
 
 the System of Administration in India. 
 By Lieut. -Col. G. Chesney. 8vo. 2ij-, 
 
 Waterloo Lectures ; a 
 
 Study of the Campaign of 1815. By 
 Colonel C. C. Chesney, R.E. 
 8vo. ichf. ()d. 
 
 The Oxford Reformers— 
 
 John Colet, Erasmus, and Thomas 
 More ; a History of their Fellow- Work. 
 By F. Seebohm. 8vo. 14?. 
 
 General History of Rome 
 
 from B.C. 753 to A.D. 476. By Dean 
 Merivale, D.D. Crown 8vo. Maps, 
 price Is. 6d. 
 
 The Fall of the Roman 
 
 Republic ; a Short History of the Last 
 Century of the Commonwealth. By 
 Dean Merivale, D.D. i2mo. 7^. 6d, 
 
 Carthage and the Cartha- 
 ginians. By R. Bosvt'ORTH Smith, 
 
 M.A. With II Maps, Plans & Illus- 
 trations. Crown 8vo. 10s, dd. 
 
 History of the Romans 
 
 under fte Empire. By Dean Meri- 
 vale, D.D. 8 vols." post 8vo. 48^-. 
 
 The History of Rome. 
 
 By Wilhelm Ihne. Vols. I. to III. 
 8vo. price 45X. 
 
 History of the Mongols 
 
 from the Ninth to the Nineteenth 
 Century. By Henry H. Howorth, 
 F.S.A. Vol. L Royal 8to. 28j. 
 
WORKS published by LONGMANS 6- CO. 
 
 The Sixth Oriental Mo- 
 
 narchy ; or, the Geography, History, 
 and Antiquities of Parthia. By G. 
 Rawlinson, M.A. With Maps and 
 Illustrations. 8vo. l&s. 
 
 The Seventh Great Ori- 
 ental Monarchy ; or, a History of 
 the Sassanians. By G. Rawlinson, 
 M.A. With Map and 95 Illustrations. 
 8vo. 28j. 
 
 The History of European 
 
 Morals froni Augustus to Charle- 
 magne. By W. E. H. Lecky, M.A. 
 2 vols, crown 8vo. i6j. 
 
 History of the Rise and 
 
 Influence of the Spirit of Rational- 
 ism in Europe. By W. E. H. Lecky, 
 M.A. 2 vols, crown 8vo. its. 
 
 The Childhood of the 
 
 Eng-lish Nation ; or, the Beginnings 
 of English History. By Ella S. 
 Armitage. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Sketch of the History of 
 
 the Church of England to the Revo- 
 lution of 1688. By T. V. Short, 
 D.D. Crown 8vo. "js. 6d, 
 
 The History of Philo- 
 
 Sophy, from Thales to Comte. By 
 George Henry Lewes. Fourth 
 Edition 2 vols. 8vo. 32J-. 
 
 Introduction to the Sci- 
 ence of Religion, Four Lectures de- 
 livered at the Royal Institution ; with 
 Two Essays on False Analogies and the 
 Philosophy of Mythology. By Max 
 MiJLLER, M.A. Crown 8vo. loj-. 6d. 
 
 Zeller's Stoics, Epicu- 
 reans, andSceptics. Translated by the 
 Rev. 0. J. Reichel, M.A. Cr. 8vo. 1^. 
 
 Zeller's Socrates & the 
 
 Socratic Schools. Translated by the 
 Rev. O. J. Reichel, M.A. Second 
 Edition. Crown 8vQ. loj-. 6d. 
 
 Zeller's Plato & the Older 
 
 Academy. Translated by S. Frances 
 Alleyne and Alfred Goodwin, 
 B.A. Crown 8vo. iZs. 
 
 Epochs of Modern HiS" 
 
 tory. Edited by C. Colbeck, M.A. 
 
 Church's Beginning of the Middle 
 Ages, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Cox's Crusades, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Creighton's Age of Elizabeth, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Gairdner's Houses of Lancaster and 
 York, 2J-. 6d. 
 
 Gardiner's Puritan Revolution, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Thirty Years' War, 2s. 6d, 
 
 Hale's Fall of the Stuarts, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Johnson's Normans in Europe, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Ludlow's War of American Indepen- 
 dence, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Morris's Age of Anne, 23. 6d. 
 
 Seebohm's Protestant Revolution, 
 price 2s. 6d. 
 
 Stubbs's Early Plantagenets, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Warburton's Edward III. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Epochs of Ancient His- 
 tory. Edited by the Rev. Sir G. W. 
 Cox, Bart. M.A. & C. Sankey, M.A. 
 
 Beesly's Gracchi, Marius & Sulla, 2s.6d. 
 
 Capes's Age of the Antonines, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Early Roman Empire, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Cox's Athenian Empire, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Greeks & Persians, 2^-. 6d. 
 
 Curteis's Macedonian Empire, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Ihne's Rome to its Capture by the 
 Gauls, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Merivale's Roman Triumvirates, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Sankey's Spartan & Theban Supre- 
 macies, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Epochs of English His- 
 tory. Edited by the Rev. Mandell 
 Creighton, M.A. 
 
 Browning's Modern England, 1820- 
 1874, gd. 
 
 Cordery's Struggle against Absolute 
 Monarchy, 1603-1688, gd. 
 
 Creighton's (Mrs.) England a Conti- 
 nental Power, 1066-1216, gd. 
 
 Creighton's (Rev. M.) Tudors and the 
 Reformation, 1485-1603, gd. 
 
 Rowley's Rise of the People, 1215-1485, 
 gd. 
 
 Rowley's Settlement of the Constitu- 
 tion, 1688-1778, gd. 
 
 Tancock's England during the Ameri- 
 can & European Wars, 1778-1820, gd. 
 
 York-Powell's Early England to the 
 Conquest, ij-, 
 
WOMKS published By LONGMANS 6- CO. 
 
 The Student's Manual of 
 
 Modern Histoty ; the Rise and Pro- 
 gress of the Principal European Nations. 
 ByW. Cooke Taylor, LL.D. Crown 
 8vo. fs. bd. 
 
 The Student's Manual of 
 
 Ancient History; the Political History, 
 Geography and Social State of the 
 Principal Nations of Antiquity. By W. 
 Cooke Taylor, LL.D, Cr, 8vo. Ts.dd. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL ^VORKS. 
 
 Memoirs of the Life of 
 
 Anna Jameson, Author of 'Sacred and 
 Legendary Art' &c. By her Niece, 
 Gerardine Macpherson. 8vo. with 
 Portrait, price \2s. td. 
 
 Memorials of Charlotte 
 
 Williams-Wynn. Edited by her 
 Sister. Crown Svo. mth Portrait, 
 price \os. 6d. 
 
 The Life and Letters of 
 
 Lord Macaulay. By his Nephew, 
 
 G. Otto Trevel van, M.P. 
 Cabinet Edition, 2 vols, crown Svo. 12s. 
 Library Edition, 2 vols. Svo. 36^. 
 
 The Life of Sir William 
 
 Fairbairn, Bart. F.R.S. Crown 
 Svo. 2s. td. demy Svo. iBj. 
 
 The Life of Sir Martin 
 
 Frobisher, Knt. containing a Narra- 
 tive of the Spanish Armada. By the 
 Rev. Frank Jones, B,A. ' Portrait, 
 Maps, and Facsimile. Crown Svo. ts. 
 
 Arthur Schopenhauer, his 
 
 Life and his Philosophy. By Helen 
 Zimmern. Post Svo. Portrait, 7j. i>d. 
 
 Gotthold Ephraim Les- 
 
 singf, his Life and Works. By Helen 
 Zimmern. Crown Svo. ioj. (td. 
 
 The Life, Works, and 
 
 Opinions of Heinrich Heine. By 
 
 William Stigand. 2 vols. Svo. 
 Portrait, 28^. 
 
 The Life of Mozart. 
 
 Translated from the German Work of 
 Dr. LudwigNohl by Lady Wallace. 
 2 vols, crown Svo. 2\s, 
 
 Life of Robert Frampton, 
 
 D. D. Bishop of Gloucester, deprived as 
 a Non-Juror in 1689. Edited by T. S. 
 Evans, M.A. Crown Svo. \os. 6d. 
 
 Felix Mendelssohn'sLet- 
 
 ters, translated by Lady Wallace. 
 2 vols, crown Svo. 5^. each. 
 
 Autobiography. By John 
 
 Stuart Mill. Svo. "js. 6d. 
 
 Apologia pro Vita Sua ; 
 
 Being a History of his Religious 
 Opinions by John Henry Newman, 
 D.D. of the Oratory of St. Philip 
 Neri. New Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 Pope Pius IX. By the 
 
 late J. F. Maguire, M.P. Revised 
 and brought down to the Accession of 
 Pope Leo the Thirteenth by the Right 
 Rev. Monsignor Patterson. Crown 
 Svo. Portraits, 6s. post Svo. 25. 6d. 
 
 Isaac Casaubon, i559- 
 
 1614. By Mark Pattison, Rector 
 of Lincoln College, Oxford. Svo. i8j. 
 
 Leaders of Public Opi- 
 nion in Ireland ; Swift, Flood, 
 Grattan, O'Connell. By W. E. H. 
 Lecky, M.A. Crown Svo. "Js. 6d. 
 
 Essays in Ecclesiastical 
 
 Biography. By the Right Hon. Sir J. 
 Stephen, LL.D. Crown Svo. "js. 6d. 
 
 Dictionary of General 
 
 Biography ; containing Concise Me- 
 moirs and Notices of the most Eminent 
 Persons of all Ages and Countries. 
 By W. L. R. Gates. Svo. 25^. 
 
 Life of the Duke of Wei- 
 
 lington. By the Rev. G. R. Gleig, 
 M.A. Crown Svo. Portrait, 6s. 
 
 Memoirs of Sir Henry 
 
 Havelock, K.C.B. By John Clark 
 Marshman. Crown Svo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 Vicissitudes of Families. 
 
 By Sir Bernard Burke, C.B, Two 
 vols, crown Svo. 21s. 
 
WORKS ^published by LONGMANS- &>: CO. 
 
 MENTAL and POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Comte's System of Posi- 
 tive Polity, or' Treatise upon Socio- 
 logy :— 
 Vol. I. General View of Positivism and 
 
 Introductory Principles. Translated by 
 J. H. Bridges, M.B. 8vo. 21s. 
 
 Vol. II. The Social Statics, or the 
 
 Abstract Laws of Human Order. Trans- 
 lated by F. Harrison, M.A. 8vo. 14-!-. 
 
 Vol. III. The Social Dynamics, or 
 the General Laws of Human Progress (the 
 Philosophy of History). Translated by 
 E. S. Beesly, M.A. Svo. 2U. 
 
 Vol. IV. The Theory of the Future 
 of Man ; with Comte's Early Essays on 
 Social Philosophy. Translated by R. CoN- 
 GREVE, M.D. and H. D. Hutton, B.A. 
 Svo. 24?. 
 
 De Tocqueville's Demo- 
 cracy in America, translated by H. 
 Reeve. 2 vols, crown Svo. i6s. 
 
 Analysis of the Pheno- 
 mena of the Human Mind. By 
 
 James Mill. With Notes, Illustra- 
 tive and Critical. 2 vols. Svo. 28^-. 
 
 On Representative Go- 
 vernment. By John Stuart Mill. 
 
 Crown Svo. 2s, 
 
 On Liberty. By John 
 
 Stuart Mill. Post Svo. "js. 6cl. 
 crown Svo. is. 41/. 
 
 Principles of Political 
 
 Economy. By John Stuart Mill. 
 2 vols. Svo. 30J-. or l vol. crown Svo. 5^. 
 
 Essays on some Unset- 
 tied Questions of Political Economy. 
 
 By John Stuart Mill. Svo. 6s. 6d. 
 
 Utilitarianism. By John 
 
 Stuart Mill. Svo. Sx. 
 
 The Subjection of Wo- 
 men. ByJOHN Stuart Mill. Fourth 
 Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 Examination of Sir Wil- 
 liam Hamilton's Philosophy. By 
 
 John Stuart Mill. Svo. 16^. 
 
 A System of Logic, Ra- 
 
 tiocinative. and Inductive; - By John 
 Stuart Mill. 2 vols. Svo. 25^. 
 
 Dissertations and Dis- 
 cussions. By John Stuart Mill. 
 
 4 vols. Svo. price ^f 2. 6s. 6ci. 
 
 The Philosophy of Re- 
 flection. By Shadworth H. Hodg- 
 son, Hon. LL.D. Edin. Author of 
 ' Time and Space, ' and * The Theoiy of 
 Practice.' 2 vols. Svo. 21s. 
 
 The Law of Nations con- 
 sidered as Independent Political 
 Communities. By Sir Travers 
 Twiss, D.C.L. 2 vols. Svo. £1. 13^-. 
 
 A Systematic View of the 
 
 Science of Jurisprudence. By Shel- 
 don Amos, M.A. Svo. iSj-. 
 
 A Primer of the English 
 
 Constitution and Government. 'By 
 
 S. Amos, M.A. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 A Sketch of the Hfstory 
 
 of Taxes in England from -the 
 Earliest Times to the Present Day. 
 By Stephen Dowell. Vol. I. to 
 the Civil War 1642. Svo. loj-. 6d. 
 
 Principles of Economical 
 
 Philosophy. By H. D. Macleod, 
 M.A. Second Edition in 2 vols. Vol. 
 I. Svo. 15^. Vol. II. Part i. 12s. 
 
 The Institutes of Jus- 
 tinian ; with English Introduction, 
 Translation, and Notes. By T. C. 
 Sandars, M.A. Svo. iSj. 
 
 Lord Bacon's Works, col- 
 lected & edited by R. L. Ellis, M.A. 
 J. Spedding, M.A. and D. D. PIeath. 
 7 vols. Svo. £-3,. ly. 6d. 
 
 Letters and Life of Fran- 
 cis Bacon, including all his Occasional 
 Works. Collected and edited, with a 
 Commentary, by J. Spedding. 7 vols. 
 Svo. £\. 4J-. 
 
 The Nicomachean Ethics 
 
 of Aristotle, translated into English 
 by R. Williams, B.A. Crown Svo. 
 price yj'. 6d. 
 
WORKS published by LONGMANS dv CO. 
 
 Aristotle's Politics, Books 
 
 I. III. IV. (VII.) Greek Text, with 
 an English Translation by W. E. BoL- 
 LAND, M.A. and Short Essays by A. 
 Lang, M. A. Crown 8vo. "Js. 6d. 
 
 The Politics of Aristotle ; 
 
 Greek Text, with English Notes. By 
 
 KiCHARD CONGREVE, M.A. 8vo. l8j. 
 
 The Ethics of Aristotle ; 
 
 with Essays and Notes. By Sir A. 
 Grant, Bart. LL.D. 2 vols. 8vo, 2i2s. 
 
 Bacon's Essays, with An- 
 notations. By R. Whately, D.D. 
 8vo. 10s. dd. 
 
 Picture Logic ; an Attempt 
 
 to Popularise the Science of Reasoning. 
 By A. SwiNBOURNE, B.A. Post 8vo. <,s. 
 
 Elements of Logic. By 
 
 R. Whately, D.D. 8vo. loj-. dd. 
 Crown 8vo. 4J-. dd. 
 
 Elements of Rhetoric. 
 
 J3y R. Whately, D.D. 8vo. 10s. 6d. 
 Crown 8vo. 4-r. 6d. 
 
 On the Influence of Au- 
 thority in Matters of Opinion. By 
 
 thelateSir. G. C.Lewis, Bart. 8vo. 14J. 
 
 The Senses and the In- 
 tellect. By A. Bain, LL.D. 8vo. 15J. 
 
 The Emotions and the 
 
 Will. By A. Bain, LL.D. 8vo. iSj. 
 
 Mental and Moral Sci- 
 
 ence ; a Compendium of Psychology 
 and Ethics. By A. Bain, LL.D. 
 Crown 8vo. loj'. dd. Or separately, 
 Part I. Mental Science, 6s. 6d. Part 
 II. Moral Science, 4?. 6d. 
 
 An Outline of the Neces- 
 sary Laws of Thought ; a Treatise 
 on Pure and Applied Logic. By W. 
 Thompson, D.D. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Hume's Philosophical 
 
 Works. Edited, with Notes, &c. by 
 T. H. Green, M.A. and the Rev. 
 T. H. Grose, M.A. 4 vols. 8vo. 56^. 
 Or separately. Essays, 2 vols. 28^. 
 Treatise on Human Nature, 2 vols. 28j. 
 
 The Schools of Charles 
 
 the Great, and the Restoration of 
 Education in the Ninth Century.- By 
 J. Bass Mullinger, M.A.- 8vo, 
 price "js. (>d. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS & CRITICAL WORKS. 
 
 The London Series of 
 
 English Classics. Edited by John 
 W. Hales, M.A. and by Charles S. 
 Jerram, M.A. Fcp. Svo. 
 
 Bacon's Essays, annotated by E. A. 
 Abbot, D.D. 2 vols. 6.f. 
 
 Ben Jonson's Every Man in His 
 Humour, by H. B. Wheatley, F.S.A. 
 Price 2j. dd. 
 
 Macaulay's Clive, by H. C. Bowen, 
 M.A. 2J-. (id. 
 
 Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, by W. 
 Wagner, Ph.D. 2s. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Regained, by C. S. 
 
 Jerram, M.A. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Pope's Select Poems, by T. Arnold, 
 M.A. 2s. 6d, 
 
 Miscellaneous Writings 
 
 of J. Conington, M.A. Edited by 
 J. A. Symonds, M. a. 2 vols. Svo. 28j. 
 
 Mesmerism, Spiritualism 
 
 &c. Historically and Scientifically 
 Considered. By W. B. Carpenter, 
 F.R.S. &c. Crovra Svo. 5^. 
 
 Evenings with the Skep- 
 tics ; or, Free Discussion on Free 
 Thinkers. By John Owen, Rector 
 of East Anstey, Devon. Crown Svo. 
 [yast ready. 
 
 Short Studies on Great 
 
 Subjects. By J. A. Froude, M,A. 
 3 vols, crown 8vo. \%s. 
 
 Manual of English Lite- 
 rature, Historical and Critical. By 
 
 T. Arnold, M.A. Crown Svo. yj. 6;/. 
 
WOUKS j>ublished by LONGMANS 6- CO. 
 
 Lord Macaulay's Miscel- 
 laneous Writings : — 
 
 Library Edition, 2 vols. 8vo. 21s. 
 People's Edition, i vol. cr. 8vo. 4J-. 6d. 
 
 Lord Macaulay's Miscel- 
 laneous Writings and Speeches. 
 
 Student's Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Speeches of the Right 
 
 Hon. Lord Macaulay, corrected by 
 Himself. Crown Svo. 3J-. 6d. 
 
 Selections from the Wri- 
 tings of Lord Macaulay. Edited, 
 with Notes, by G. O. Trevelyan, 
 M.P. Crown. Svo. 6j-. 
 
 The Rev. Sydney Smith's 
 
 Essays. Crown Svo. 3^. 6cl. cloth. 
 
 The Wit and Wisdom of 
 
 the Rev. Sydney Smith. Crown 
 Svo, 3J-. dd. 
 
 Miscellaneous and Post- 
 humous Works of the late Henry 
 Thomas Buckle. Edited by Helen 
 Taylor. 3 vols. Svo. $25. 6d. 
 
 Miscellaneous Works of 
 
 Thomas Arnold, D.D. late Head 
 Master of Rugby School. Svo. 7^. 6d. 
 
 German Home Life ; a 
 
 Series of Essays on the Domestic Life 
 of Germany. Crown Svo. 6^. 
 
 Realities of Irish Life. 
 
 By W. Steuart Trench. Crown 
 Svo. 2s, 6d. sewed, or y. 6d. cloth. 
 
 Church and State ; their 
 
 Relations Historically Developed. By 
 H. Geffcken, Prof, of International 
 Law, Univ. of Strasburg. Translated 
 by E. F. Taylor. 2 vols. Svo. 42s. 
 
 Lectures on the Science 
 
 of Language. By F. Max Muller, 
 M.A. 2 vols, crown Svo. i6s. 
 
 Chips from a German 
 
 Workshop ; Essays on the Science of 
 Religion, and on Mythology, Traditions 
 & Customs. By F. Max Muller, 
 M.A. 4 vols. Svo. £2. i8s. 
 
 Language & Languages. 
 
 A Revised Edition of Chapters on Lan- 
 guage and Families of Speech. By 
 F. W. Farrar, D.D. F.R.S. Crown 
 Svo. 6s. 
 
 The Essays and Contri- 
 butions of A. K. H. B. Uniform 
 
 Cabinet Editions in crown Svo. 
 
 Recreations of a Country Parson, Three 
 Series, 3J. 6d. each. 
 
 Landscapes, Churches, and Moralities, 
 price 3^. 6d, 
 
 Seaside Musings, 3^. 6d. 
 
 Changed Aspects of Unchanged 
 
 Truths, 3^. 6d. 
 Counsel and Comfort from a City 
 
 Pulpit, 3^. 6d. 
 Lessons of Middle Age, 3^-. 6d. 
 Leisure Hours in Tovra, 3^-. 6d. 
 
 Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson, 
 
 price 3^. 6d. 
 
 Sunday Afternoons at the Parish 
 Church of a University City, 3^. 6d. 
 
 The Commonplace Philosopher in 
 Town and Country, 3^. 6d. 
 
 Present-Day Thoughts, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Critical Essays of a Country Parson, 
 
 price 3^. 6d, 
 
 The Graver Thoughts of a Country 
 Parson, Three Series, 3^. 6d. each. 
 
 DICTIONARIES and OTHER BOOKS of 
 
 REFERENCE. 
 
 dictionary of the English 
 
 Language. By R. G. Latham, 
 M.A. M.D. Abridged from Dr. 
 Latham's Edition of Johnson's English 
 Dictionary. Medium Svo. 24^. 
 
 A Dictionary of the Eng- 
 lish Language. By R. G. Latham, 
 M.A. M.D. Founded on Johilson's 
 English Dictionary as edited by the Rev. 
 H. J. Todd. 4 vols. 4to, £7. 
 
WORKS piMisKed by LONGMANS &-• CO. 
 
 Thesaurus of English 
 
 Words' and Phrases, classified and 
 arranged so as to facilitate the expres- 
 sion of -Ideas, and assist in Literary 
 Composition. By P.' M. RoGET, 
 M.D. -Crown Svo.. \os. 6d.. 
 
 Effglish Synonymes. By 
 
 E. J. Whately. Edited by R. 
 WiiATELY, D.D. Fcp. 8vo. 3j. 
 
 Handbook of the English 
 
 Language. By R. G. Latham, M.A. 
 M.D. Crown 8vo. ds. 
 
 Contanseau's Practical 
 
 Dictionary of the French and English 
 Langfuages. Post 8vo. price "js. 6d. 
 
 Contanseau's Pocket 
 
 Dictionary, French and English, 
 abridged from the Practical Dictionary 
 by the Author. Square l8mo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 A New Pocket Diction- 
 ary of the German and English 
 Languages. By F. W. Longman, 
 Ball. Coll. Oxford. Square l8mo. (,5, 
 
 A Practical Dictionary 
 
 of the German and English Lan- 
 guages. By Rev. W. L. Blackley, 
 M.A. & Dr. C. M. Friedlander. 
 Post 8vo. "JS. i>d. 
 
 A Dictionary of Roman 
 
 and Greek Antiquities. With 2,000 
 Woodcuts illustrative of the Arts and 
 Life of the Greeks and Romans. By 
 A. Rich, B.A. Crown 8vo. 7^-. bd. 
 
 The Critical Lexicon and 
 
 Concordance to the English and 
 Greek New Testament. By the Rev. 
 E. W. Bullixger. Medium 8vo. 30^-. 
 
 A Greek-English Lexi- 
 con. By PI. G. LiDDELL, D.D. Dean 
 of Christchurch, and R. Scott, D.D. 
 Dean of Rochester. Crown 410. 36^. 
 
 Liddell & Scott's Lexi- 
 
 con, Greek and English, abridged for 
 Schools. Square i2mo. 'js. 6d. 
 
 An English-Greek Lexi- 
 con, containing all ■ the Greek Words 
 used by Writers of good authority. By 
 C. D. YoNGE, M.A. 4to. 2ir. 
 
 Mr, Yonge's Lexicon, 
 
 English and Greek, abridged' from his 
 larger Lexicon. Square l2mo. Zs. 6d. 
 
 A Latin-English Diction- 
 ary. By John T. WhIte, D.D. 
 Oxon. and J. E. Riddle, M.A. Oxon. 
 Sixth Edition, revised, i vol. 4to. 28s. 
 
 White's College Latin- 
 
 English Dictionary, for the use of 
 
 University Students. Medium 8vo. 15J. 
 
 A Latin-English Diction- 
 
 . aryforthe use of Middle-Class Schools. 
 By John T. White, D.D. Oxon. 
 Square fcp. 8vo. 35-. 
 
 White's Junior Student's 
 
 Latin-English and English-Latin 
 Dictionary. Square i2mo. 
 
 English-Latin Dictionary, ss.6d. 
 Latin-English Dictionary, 7J-. 6^. 
 Complete, i2j-. 
 
 M'CuUoch's Dictionary 
 
 of Commerce and Commercial Navi- 
 gation. Re-edited by Hugh G. Reid, 
 Assistant-Comptroller H.H. Stationery 
 Office. With II Maps and 30 Charts. 
 8vo. 63s. 
 
 Keith Johnston's General 
 
 Dictionary of Geography,Descriptive, 
 Physical, Statistical, and Historical ; 
 a complete Gazetteer of the World. 
 Medium 8vo. 42J-. 
 
 The Public Schools Atlas 
 
 of Ancient Geography, in 28 entirely 
 new Coloured Maps. Edited by the 
 Rev. G. Butler, M.A. Imperial 8vo. 
 or imperial 4to. 'js. 6d. 
 
 The Public Schools Atlas 
 
 of Modern Geography, in 31 entirely 
 new Coloured Maps. Edited by the 
 Rev. G. Butler, M.A. Imperial Svo. 
 or imperial 4to. 5j-. 
 
WORKS published by LONGMANS (S^• CO. 
 
 ASTRONOMY and METEOROLOGY. 
 
 Outlines of Astronomy. 
 
 By Sir J. F. W. Herschel, Bart. M.A. 
 Latest Edition, with Plates and Dia- 
 grams. Square crown 8vo. \2s. 
 
 Essays on Astronomy. 
 
 A Series of Papers on Planets and 
 Meteors, the Sun and Sun-surrounding 
 Space, Star and Star Cloudlets. By 
 R. A. Proctor, B. A. With lo Plates 
 and 24 Woodcuts. 8vo. \is. 
 
 The Moon ; her Motions, 
 
 Aspects, Scenery, and Physical Con- 
 dition. By R. A. Proctor, B.A. 
 With Plates, Charts, Woodcuts, and 
 Lunar Photographs. Crown 8vo. los.td. 
 
 The Sun ; Ruler, Light, Fire, 
 
 and Life of the Planetary System. By 
 R. A. Proctor, B.A. With Plates & 
 Woodcuts. Crown 8vo. 14J. 
 
 The Orbs Around Us ; 
 
 a Series of Essays on the Moon & 
 Planets, Meteors & Comets, the Sun & 
 Coloured Pairs of Suns. By R. A. 
 Proctor, B.A. With Chart and Dia- 
 grams. Crown 8vo. 7^-. iid. 
 
 Other Worlds than Ours ; 
 
 The Plurality of Worlds Studied under 
 the Light of Recent Scientific Re- 
 searches. By R. A. Proctor, B.A. 
 With 14 Illustrations. Cr. 8vo. 10s. dd. 
 
 The Universe of Stars ; 
 
 Presenting Researches into and New 
 Views respecting the Constitution of 
 the Heavens. By R. A. Proctor, 
 B.A. Second Edition, with 22 Charts 
 (4 Coloured) and 22 Diagrams. 8vo. 
 price loj. dd. 
 
 The Transits of Venus ; 
 
 A Popular Account of Past and Coming 
 Transits. By R. A. Proctor, B.A. 
 20 Plates (12 Coloured) and 27 Wood- 
 cuts. Crown 8vo. 8j. 6d. 
 
 Saturn and its System. 
 
 By R. A. Proctor, B.A. 8vo. with 
 14 Plates, 14?. 
 
 The Moon, and the Con- 
 dition and Configurations of its Surface. 
 By E. Neison, F.R.A.S. With 26 
 Maps & 5 Plates. Medium 8vo. 31J. dd. 
 
 Celestial Objects for 
 
 Common Telfescopes. By T. W. 
 
 Webb, M.A. With Chart and Wood- 
 cuts. New Edition in the press. 
 
 A New Star Atlas, for the 
 
 Library, the School, and the Obser- 
 vatory, in 12 Circular Maps (with 2 
 Index Plates). By R. A, Proctor, 
 B. A. Crown 8vo. <^s. 
 
 Larger Star Atlas, for the 
 
 Library, in Twelve Circular Maps, 
 with Introduction and 2 Index Plates. 
 By R. A. Proctor, B.A. Folio, 15^. 
 or Maps only, lis. 6d. 
 
 Dove's Law of Storms, 
 
 considered in connexion with the 
 Ordinary Movements of the Atmo- 
 sphere. Translated by R. H. Scott, 
 M.A. 8vo. 10s. dd. 
 
 Air and Rain ; the Begin- 
 nings of a Chemical Climatology. By 
 R. A. Smith, F.R.S. 8vo. 24?. 
 
 Air and its Relations to 
 
 Life, 1774-1874; a Course of Lec- 
 tures delivered at the Royal Institution. 
 By W. N. Hartley, F. C. S. With 66 
 Woodcuts. Small 8vo. ds. 
 
 Schellen's Spectrum 
 
 Analysis, in its Application to Terres- 
 trial Substances and the Physical 
 Constitution of the Heavenly Bodies. 
 Translated by JANE and C. Lassell, 
 with Notes by W. HUGGINS, LL.D. 
 F.R.S. 8vo. Plates and Woodcuts, 28.;. 
 
 A Treatise on the Cy- 
 cloid, and on all forms of Qycloidal 
 Curves, and on the use of Cycloidal 
 Curves in dealing with the Motions of 
 Planets, Comets, &c. and of Matter 
 projected from the Sun. By R. A. 
 Proctor, B.A. With 161 Diagrams. 
 Crown 8vo. i&r. dd. 
 
WORKS published by LONGMANS &• CO. 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY and PHYSICAL 
 SCIENCE. 
 
 Professor Helmholtz' 
 
 Popular Lectures on Scientific Sub- 
 jects. Translated by E. Atkinson, 
 F.C.S. With numerous Wood Engrav- 
 ings. 8vo. I2s. dd. 
 
 Professor Helmholtz on 
 
 the Sensations of Tone, as a Physio- 
 logical Basis for the Theory of Music. 
 Translated by A. J. Ellis, F.R.S. 
 8vo. 36j-. 
 
 Ganot's Natural Philo- 
 sophy for General Readers and 
 Young Persons ; a Course of Physics 
 divested of Mathematical Fonnulse and 
 expressed in the language of daily life. 
 Translated by E. Atkinson, F.C.S. 
 Third Edition. Plates and Woodcuts. 
 Crown 8vo. Is. 6d. 
 
 Ganot's Elementary 
 
 Treatise on Physics, Experimental 
 and Applied, for the use of Colleges 
 and Schools. Translated and edited 
 by E. Atkinson, F.C.S. Eighth 
 Edition. Plates and Woodcuts. Post 
 8vo. 15^. 
 
 Arnott's Elements of Phy- 
 sics or Natural Philosophy. Seventh 
 Edition, edited by A. Bain, LL.D. 
 and A. S. Taylor, M.D. F.R.S. 
 Cro\vn 8vo. Woodcuts, 12s. 6d. 
 
 The Correlation of Phy- 
 sical Forces. By the Hon. Sir W. 
 R. Grove, F.R.S. &c. Sbith Edition, 
 revised and augmented. 8vo. 15^. 
 
 Weinhold's Introduction 
 
 to Experimental Physics ; including 
 Directions for Constructing Physical 
 Apparatus and for Making Experiments. 
 Translated by B. Loe^vy, F.R.A.S. 
 WithaPreface by G. C. Foster, F. R. S. 
 8vo. Plates & Woodcuts 31J. 6d. 
 
 A Treatise on Magnet- 
 ism, General and Terrestrial. By H. 
 Lloyd, D.D. D.C.L. 8vo. 10s. dd. 
 
 Elementary Treatise on 
 
 the Wave-Theory of Light By 
 H. Lloyd, D.D. D.C.L. 8vo. iw. 6rf. 
 
 Fragments of Science. 
 
 By John Tyndall, F.R.S. Latest 
 EditioiL Crown 8vo. los. 6d. 
 
 Heat a Mode of Motion. 
 
 By John Tyndall, F.R.S. Fifth 
 Edition nearly ready. 
 
 Sound. By John Tyndall, 
 
 F.R.S. Third Edition, including 
 Recent Researches oii Fog-SignalBng. 
 Crown 8vo. price loj-. 6d. 
 
 Researches on Diamag- 
 
 netismand Mag^ne-CrystallicAction; 
 including Diamagnetic Polarity. By 
 John Tyndall, F.R.S. With 6 
 Plates and many Woodcuts. 8vo. I4r. 
 
 Contributions to Mole- 
 cular Physics in the domain of Ra- 
 diant Heat. By John Tyndall, 
 F.R.S. Plates and Woodcuts. 8vo. 16s. 
 
 Six Lectures on Light, 
 
 delivered in America in 1872 and 1873. 
 By John Tyndall, F.R.S. Second 
 Edition. Portrait, Plate, and Diagrams. 
 Crown 8vo. Js. 6d. 
 
 Lessons in Electricity at 
 
 the Royal Institution, 1875-6. By 
 
 John Tyndall, F.R.S. With 58 
 Woodcuts. Crown 8vo. zs, 6d, 
 
 Notes of a Course of 
 
 Seven Lectures on Electrical Phe- 
 nomena and Theories, delivered at 
 the Royal Institution. By John Tyn- 
 dall, F.R.S. Crown 8vo. is. sewed, 
 or IS. 6d. cloth. 
 
 Notes of a Course of Nine 
 
 Lectures on Light, delivered at the 
 Royal Institution. By John Tyndall, 
 F.R.S. Crown 8vo. is. sewed, or 
 IS. 6d. cloth. 
 
 Principles of Animal Me- 
 chanics. By the Rev. S. Haughton, 
 F.R.S. Second Edition. 8vo. 2Js. 
 
WOUKS puUisJied by LONGMANS dv CO. 
 
 Text-Books of Science, 
 
 Mechanical and Physical, adapted for 
 the use of Artisans and of Students in 
 Public and Science Schools. Small 
 8vo. with Woodcuts, &c. 
 
 Abney's Photography, Jj. dd. 
 Anderson's Strength of Materials, 3j. dd. 
 Armstrong's Organic Chemistry, 3j. dd. 
 Barry's Railway Appliances, y. dd. 
 Bloxam's Metals, 3^-. 6d. 
 Goodeve's Mechanics, 3^. (>d. 
 
 Mechanism, y. 6d. 
 
 Gore's Electro-Metallurgy, 6s. 
 Grifgn's Algebra & Trigonometry, 3/6. 
 Jenkin's Electricity & Magnetism, 3/6. 
 Maxwell's Theory of Heat, 3J-. 6d. 
 Merrifield's Technical Arithmetic, 3^. 6d. 
 Miller's Inorganic Chemistry, zs. 6d. 
 Preece & Sivewright's Telegraphy, 3/6. 
 Shelley's Workshop Appliances, 3^. 6d. 
 
 ThomS's Structural and Physiological 
 
 Botany, 6s. 
 Thorpe's Quantitative Analysis, 4?. 6d. 
 
 Thorpe & Muir's Qualitative Analysis, 
 price y. 6d. 
 
 Tilden's Systematic Chemistry, 3J-. 6d. 
 
 Unwin's Machine Design, 3^-. 6d. 
 
 Watson's Plane & Solid Geometry, 3/6. 
 
 Light Science for Leisure 
 
 Hours ; Familiar Essays on Scientific 
 Subjects, Natural Phenomena, &c. 
 By R. A. Proctor, B.A. 2 vols, 
 crown 8vo. Js. 6d. each. 
 
 The Comparative Ana- 
 tomy and Physiology of the Verte- 
 brate Animals. By Richard Owen, 
 F.R.S. With 1,472 Woodcuts. 3 
 vols. 8vo, £t,. ^y. 6d. 
 
 Kirby and Spence's In- 
 troduction to Entomology, or Ele- 
 ments of the Natural History of Insects. 
 Cro^vn Svo. S^. 
 
 A Familiar History of 
 
 Birds. By E. Stanley, D.D. Fcp. 
 Svo. with Woodcuts, 3^-. 6d. 
 
 Homes without Hands ; 
 
 a Description of the Habitations of 
 Animals, classed according to their 
 Principle of Construction. By.the Rev. 
 J. G. Wood, M.A. With about 140 
 Vignettes on Wood. Svo. I4r. 
 
 Wood's Strange Dwell- 
 ings ; a Description of the Habitations 
 of Animals, abridged from 'Homes 
 without Hands.' With Frontispiece 
 and 60 Woodcuts. Crown Svo. Is. 6d. 
 
 Wood's Insects at Home; 
 
 a, .Popular Account of British Insects, 
 their Structure, Habits, and Trans- 
 formations. With 700 Woodcuts. 
 Svo. 14J. 
 
 Wood's Insects Abroad ; 
 
 a Popular Account of Foreign Insects, 
 their Structure, Habits, and Trans- 
 formations. With 700 Woodcuts. 
 Svo. I4r. 
 
 Wood's Out of Doors ; a 
 
 Selection of Original Articles on 
 Practical Natural History. With 6 
 Illustrations. Crown Svo. "Js. 6d. 
 
 Wood's Bible Animals ; a 
 
 description of every Living Creature 
 mentioned in the Scriptures, from the 
 Ape to the Coral. With 1 12 Vignettes. 
 Svo. 14!-. 
 
 The Sea and its Living 
 
 Wonders. By Dr. G. Hartwig. 
 Svo. with numerous Illustrations, price 
 loj. 6d. 
 
 Hartwig's Tropical 
 
 World. With about 200 Illustrations. 
 Svo. los. 6d. 
 
 Hartwig's Polar World ; 
 
 a Description of Man and Nature in the 
 Arctic and Antarctic Regions of the 
 Globe. Chromoxylogi-aphs, Maps, and 
 Woodcuts. Svo. \os. 6d. 
 
 Hartwig's Subterranean 
 
 World. With Maps and Woodcuts. 
 Svo. 10s. 6d. 
 
 Hartwig's Aerial World; 
 
 a Popular Account of the Phenomena 
 and Life' of the Atmosphere. Map, 
 Chromoxylographs, Woodcuts. Svo. 
 price los. 6d, 
 
WORKS published by LONGMANS &^ CO. 
 
 Rocks Classified and De- 
 scribed. By Bernhard Von Cotta. 
 An English Translation, by P. H. 
 Lawrence (with English, German, and 
 French Synonymes), revised by the 
 Author. Post 8vo. 14J. 
 
 The Geology of England 
 
 aiid Wales ; a Concise Account of 
 the Lithological Characters, Leading 
 Fossils, and Economic Products of the 
 Rocks. By H. B. Woodward, F.G. S. 
 Crown 8vo. Map & Woodcuts, 14J. 
 
 Keller's Lake Dwellings 
 
 of Switzeriand, and other Parts of 
 Europe. Translated by John E. Lee, 
 F.S.A. F.G.S. New Edition, en- 
 larged, with 206 Illustrations. 2 vols, 
 royal 8vo. 42^. 
 
 The Primaeval World of 
 
 Switzerland. By Professor Oswal 
 Heer, of the University of Zurich. 
 Edited by James Heywood, M.A. 
 F.R.S. With Map, 19 Plates, & 372 
 Woodcuts. 2 vols. 8vo. 28j-. 
 
 The Puzzle of Life and 
 
 How it Has Been Put Togfether ; a 
 
 Short History of Praehistoric Vegetable 
 and Animal Life on the Earth. By A. 
 NICOLS, F.R.G S. With 12 Illustra- 
 tions. Crown 8vo. 3^. (>d. 
 
 The Origin of Civilisa- 
 tion, and the Primitive Condition of 
 
 Man ; Mental and Social Condition of 
 Savages. By Sir J. Lubbock, Bart. 
 M.P. F.R.S. 8vo. Woodcuts, lis. 
 
 The Ancient Stone Im- 
 plements, Weapons, and Ornaments 
 of Great Britain. By John Evans, 
 F. R. S. With 2 Plates and 476 Wood- 
 cuts. 8vo. 2%S. 
 
 A Dictionary of Science, 
 
 Literature, and Art. Re-edited by 
 the late W. T. Brande (the Author) 
 and the Rev. SirG.W. Cox, Bart., M.A. 
 3 vols, medium 8vo. 63^. 
 
 The History of Modern 
 
 Music, a Course of Lectures delivered 
 at the Royal Institution of Great 
 Britain. By John HullAH, LL.D, 
 8vo. price Zs. (>d. 
 
 Dr. Hullah's 2d Course 
 
 of Lectures on the Transition Period 
 of Musical History, from the Beginning 
 of the 17th to the Middle of the i8lh 
 Century. Svo. los. 6d. 
 
 Loudon's Encyclopsedia 
 
 of Plants ; comprising the Specific 
 Character, Description, Culture, His- 
 tory, &c. of all the Plants found in 
 Great Britain. With upwards of 
 13,000 Woodcuts. Svo. 42J-. 
 
 De Caisne & Le Maout's 
 
 System of Descriptive and Analy- 
 tical Botany. Translated by Mrs. 
 Hooker ; edited and arranged accord- 
 ing to the English Botanical System, by 
 J. D. Hooker, M.D. With 5,500 
 Woodcuts. Imperial 8vo. 3IJ. 6d. 
 
 Hand-Book of Hardy 
 
 Trees, Shrubs, and Herbaceous 
 Plants; containing Descriptions &c. 
 of the Best Species in Cultivation. 
 With 720 Original Woodcut Illustra- 
 tions. By W. B. Hemsley. Medium 
 8vo. 12s. 
 
 The Rose Amateur's 
 
 Guide. By Thomas Rivers. Latest 
 Edition. Fcp. Svo. 4J. 6d. 
 
 CHEMISTRY and PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 Miller's Elements of Che- 
 mistry, Theoretical and Practical. 
 Re-edited, with Additions, by H. 
 MACLEOD, F.C.S. 3 vols. Svo. 
 
 Part I. Chemical Physics. 16^. 
 
 Part II. Inorganic Chemistry, 24?. 
 
 Part III. Organic Chemistry, New 
 Edition in the press. 
 
 Animal Chemistry ; or, 
 
 the Relations of Chemistry to Physiology 
 and Pathology : a Manual for Medical 
 Men and Scientific Chemists. By 
 CharlesT.Kingzett, F.C.S. Svo. 
 price iSj-. 
 
WORKS published by LONGMANS 6- CO. 
 
 13 
 
 A Dictionary of Chemis- 
 try and the Allied Branches of other 
 Sciences. By Henry Watts, F.C.S. 
 assisted by eminent Scientific and 
 Practical Chemists. 7 vols, medium 
 8vo. ^10. i6j. 6d. 
 
 Supplementary Volume, completing the 
 Record of Chemical Discovery to the 
 year 1877. [/« the press. 
 
 Select Methods in Che- 
 mical Analysis, chiefly Inorganic. By 
 Wm. Crookes, r.R.S, With 23 
 Woodcuts. Crown 8vo. 12s. i>d. 
 
 The History, Products, 
 
 and Processes of the Alkali Trade, 
 including the most recent Iinprove- 
 ments. By Charles T. Kingzett, 
 F.C.S. With 32 Woodcuts. Svo. 12s. 
 
 Health in the House : 
 
 Twenty-five Lectures on Elementary 
 Physiology in its Application to the 
 Daily Wants of Man and Animals. 
 By Mrs. BucKTON. Crown Svo. 
 Woodcuts, IS. 
 
 The FINE ARTS and ILLUSTRATED 
 EDITIONS. 
 
 In Fairyland ; Pictures 
 
 from the Elf-World. By Richard 
 Doyle. With a Poem by W. Al- 
 LINGHAM. With 16 coloured Plates, 
 containing 36 Designs. Folio, \<,s. 
 
 Lord Macaulay's Lays of 
 
 Ancient Rome. With Ninety Illustra- 
 tions on Wood from Drawings by G. 
 SCHARF. Fcp. 4to. 21J. 
 
 Miniature Edition of 
 
 Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome, 
 
 with Scharf's 90 Illustrations reduced 
 in Lithography. Imp. i6mo. IQS. dd. 
 
 Moore's Lalla Rookh. 
 
 Tenniel's Edition, with 68 Woodcut 
 Illustrations. Fcp. 4to. z\s. 
 
 Moore's Irish Melodies, 
 
 Maclise's Edition, with i6l Steel 
 Plates. Super- royal 8vo. lis. 
 
 Lectures on Harmony, 
 
 delivered at the Royal Institution. By 
 G. A. Macfarren. 8vo. \2s. 
 
 Sacred and Legendary 
 
 Art. By Mrs. Jameson. 6 vols, 
 square crown Svo. price £(,. \^s. 6d. 
 
 Jameson's Legends of the 
 
 Saints and Martyrs. With 19 Etch- 
 ings and 187 Woodcuts. 2 vols. 3ij-. (>d. 
 
 Jameson's Legends of the 
 
 Monastic Orders. With 11 Etchings 
 and 88 Woodcuts. I vol. 21s. 
 
 Jameson's Legends of the 
 
 Madonna. With 27 Etchings and 165 
 Woodcuts. I vol. 2is. 
 
 Jameson's History of the 
 
 Saviour, His Types and Precursors. 
 Completed by Lady Easti.ake. With 
 13 Etchings and 281 Woodcuts. 
 2 vols. 42J. 
 
 The Three Cathedrals 
 
 dedicated to St. Paul in London. 
 
 By W. Longman, F.S.A. With 
 numerous Illustrations. Square crown 
 Svo. 2ls. 
 
 The USEFUL ARTS, 
 The Art of Scientific 
 
 Discovery. By G. Gore, LL.D. 
 F.R.S. Author of ' The Art of Electro- 
 Metallurgy.' Crown Svo. price 15^. 
 
 MANUFACTURES, &e. 
 The Amateur Mechanics' 
 
 Practical Handbook ; describing the 
 diff'erent Tools required in the Work- 
 shop. By A. H. G. Hobson. With 
 33 Woodcuts. Crown Svo. 2s. 6d. 
 
14 
 
 WORKS published by LONGMANS 6^ CO. 
 
 The Engineer's Valuing 
 
 Assistant By H. D. IIoskold, 
 Civil and Mining Engineer, 1 6 years 
 Mining Engineer to the Dean Forest 
 Iron Company. 8vo. 3 1 j. 6d. 
 
 Industrial Chemistry; a 
 
 Manual for Manufacturers and for Col- 
 leges or Technical Schools ; a Transla- 
 tion (by Dr. T. H. Barry) of Stoh- 
 mann and Engler's German Edition of 
 Payen's ' Precis deChimielndustrielle;' 
 with Chapters on the Chemistry of the 
 Metals,&c.byB. H.Paul, Ph.D. With 
 698 Woodcuts. Medium 8vo. 42^. 
 
 Gwilt's Encyclopaedia of 
 
 Architecture, with above i, 600 Wood- 
 cuts. Revised and extended by W. 
 Papworth. 8vo. 52J. dd. 
 
 Lathes and Turning, Sim- 
 pie, Mechanical, and Ornamental. By 
 W. H. NoRTHCOTT. Second Edition, 
 with 338 IUusJ*ations. 8vo. iZs. 
 
 Hints on Household 
 
 Taste in Furniture, Upholstery, 
 and other Details. By C. L. East- 
 lake. Fourth Edition, with 100 Illus- 
 trations. Square crown 8vo. 14J. 
 
 Handbook of Practical 
 
 Telegraphy. By R. S. Culley, 
 Memb. Inst. C.E. Seventh Edition. 
 Plates & Woodcuts. 8vo. price 16s. 
 
 A Treatise on the Steam 
 
 Engine, in its various applications to 
 Mines, Mills, Steam Navigation, Rail- 
 ways and Agriculture. By J. Bourne, 
 C.E. With Portrait, 37 Plates, and 
 546 Woodcuts. 4to. 42J. 
 
 Recent Improvements in 
 
 the Steam Engine. By J. Bourne, 
 C.E. Fcp. 8vo. Woodcuts, 6s. 
 
 Catechism of the Steam 
 
 Engine, in its various Applications. 
 By John Bourne, C.E. Fcp. 8vo. 
 Woodcuts, 6s. 
 
 Handbook of the Steam 
 
 Engine, a Key to the Author's Cate- 
 chism of the Steam Engine. By J. 
 Bourne, C.E. Fcp. 8vo. Woodcuts, gj. 
 
 Encyclopaedia of Civil 
 
 Engineering, Historical, Theoretical, 
 and Practical. By E. Cresy,' C.E. 
 With above 3,000 Woodcuts. 8vo. ^2s, 
 
 Ure's Dictionary of Arts, 
 
 Manufactures, and Mines. Seventh 
 Edition, re-written and enlarged by R. 
 Hunt, F.R.S. assisted by numerous 
 contributors. With 2,604 Woodcuts. 
 4 vols, medium 8vo. £j. ^s. 
 
 Practical Treatise on Me- 
 tallurgy. Adapted from the last 
 
 German Edition of Professor Kerl's 
 Metallurgy by W. Crookes, F.R.S. 
 &c. and E. RoHRiG, Ph.D. 3 vols. 
 8vo. with 625 Woodcuts. £^ l^s. 
 
 The Theory of Strains in 
 
 Girders and similar Structures, with 
 Observations on the application of 
 Theory to Practice, and Tables of the 
 Strength and other Properties of Ma- 
 terials. By B. B. Stoney, M.A. 
 M. Inst. C.E. Royal 8vo. with 5 
 Plates and 123 Woodcuts, 36J. 
 
 Railways and Locomo- 
 tives ; a Series of Lectures delivered 
 at the School of Military Engineering, 
 Chatham, in the year 1877. Railways, 
 by John Wolfe Barry, M. Inst. C.E. 
 Locomotives, by F. ,J. Bramwell, 
 F.R.S. M. Inst. C.E. [/« the press. 
 
 A Treatise on Mills and 
 
 Millwork. By the late Sir W. Fair- 
 BAIRN, Bart. C.E. Fourth Edition, 
 with 18 Plates and 333 Woodcuts. 
 I vol. 8vo. 25J. 
 
 Useful Information for 
 
 Eng^eers. By the late Sir W. 
 Fairbairn, Bart. C.E. With many 
 Plates and Woodcuts. 3 vols, crown 
 8vo. 3IJ-. 6d. 
 
 The Application of Cast 
 
 and Wrought Iron to Building 
 Purposes. By the late Sir W. Fair- 
 bairn, Bart. C.E. With 6 Plates and 
 118 Woodcuts. 8vo. \6s. 
 
 Anthracen ; its Constitution, 
 
 Properties, Manufacture, -and Deriva- 
 tives, including Artificial Alizarin, An- 
 thrapurpurin, &c. with their Applica- 
 tions in Dyeing and Printing. By G. 
 AuERBACH. Translated by W. 
 CrookeSj F.R.S, 8vo. izf. 
 
WORKS published by LONGMANS 6- CO. 
 
 IS 
 
 Practical Handbook of 
 
 Dyeing and Calico-Printing-. By 
 
 W. Crookes, F.R.S. &c. With 
 numerous Illustrations and specimens 
 of Dyed Textile Fabrics. 8vo. 42^. 
 
 Mitchell's Manual of 
 
 Practical Assaying. Fourth Edition, 
 revised, with the Recent Discoveries 
 incorporated, by W. Crookes, F.R.S. 
 Crown 8vo. Woodcuts, 2,^5. 6d. 
 
 Loudon's Encyclopaedia 
 
 of Gardening ; the Theory and Prac- 
 tice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arbori- 
 culture & Landscape Gardening. With 
 1,000 Woodcuts. 8vo. 2is. 
 
 Loudon's Encyclopaedia 
 
 of Agriculture ; the Laying-out, Im- 
 provement, and Management of Landed 
 Property ; the Cultivation and Economy 
 of the Productions of Agriculture. With 
 1, 100 Woodcuts. 8vo. 2IJ. 
 
 RELIGIOUS and MORAL WORKS. 
 
 An Exposition of the 39 
 
 Articles, Historical and Doctrinal. By 
 E. H. Brovjtne, D.D. Bishop of Win- 
 chester. Eleventh Edition. 8vo. i6s. 
 
 A Commentary on the 
 
 39 Articles, foiming an Introduction to 
 the Theology of the Church of England, 
 By the Rev. T. P. BouLTBEE, LL.D. 
 New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Historical Lectures on 
 
 the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 By C. J. Ellicott, D.D. 8vo. 12s. 
 
 Sermons preached most- 
 ly in the Chapel of Rugby School 
 
 by the late T. Arnold, D.D. Collective 
 Edition, revised by the Author's 
 Daughter, Mrs.W. E. Forster. 6 vols, 
 crown 8vo. 30J. or separately, 5^. each. 
 
 The Eclipse of Faith ; or 
 
 a Visit to a Religious Sceptic. By 
 Henry Rogers. Fcp. 8vo. 5^. 
 
 Defence of the Eclipse of 
 
 Faith. By H. Rogers. Fcp. 8vo. y. dd. 
 
 Nature, the Utility of 
 
 Religion and Theism. Three Essays 
 by John Stuart Mill. Svo. ioj. dd. 
 
 A Critical and Gram- 
 matical Commentary on St. Paul's 
 Epistles. By C. J. Ellicott, D.D. 
 Svo. Galatians, %s. dd. Ephesians, 
 %s. dd. Pastoral Epistles, loj. dd. 
 Philippians, Colossians, & Philemon, 
 \os. dd. Thessalonians, "Js. dd. 
 
 Conybeare & Howson's 
 
 Life and Epistles of St. Paul. 
 
 Three Editions, copiously illustrated. 
 
 Library Edition, with all the Original 
 Illustrations, Maps, Landscapes on 
 Steel, Woodcuts, &c. 2 vols. 4to. 42^. 
 
 Intermediate Edition, with a Selection 
 of Maps, Plates, and Woodcuts. 2 vols, 
 square crown 8vo. 2ij. 
 
 student's Edition, revised and con- 
 densed, with 46 Illustrations and Maps. 
 I vol. crown 8vo. <js. 
 
 The Jewish Messiah ; 
 
 Critical History of the Messianic Idea 
 among the Jews, from the Rise of the 
 Maccabees to the Closing of the Tal- 
 mud. By James Drummond, B.A. 
 Svo. 15^. 
 
 Evidence of the Truth of 
 
 the Christian Religion derived firom 
 the Literal Fulfilment of Prophecy. By 
 A. Keith, D.D. 40th Edition, with 
 numerous Plates. Square Svo. 12^, dd, 
 or post Svo. with 5 Plates, ds. 
 
 The Prophets and Pro- 
 phecy in Israel ; an Historical and 
 Critical Inquiry. By Prof. A. Kuenen, 
 Translated from the Dutch by the Rev. 
 A. MiLROY, M.A. with an Introduc- 
 tion by J. MniR, D.C.L. Svo. 21 J. 
 
 The History and Litera- 
 ture of the Israelites, according to 
 the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. 
 By C. De Rothschild & A. De 
 Rothschild. 2 vols, crown Svo. 
 13.!. dd, I vol. fcp. Svo. 3 J. dd. 
 
i6 
 
 WORKS published by LONGMANS &• CO. 
 
 Mythology among the 
 
 Hebrews and its Historical Develop- 
 ment. By IGXAZ GOLDZIHER, Ph.D. 
 Translated by RusSELL Martineau, 
 M.A. 8vo. i6s. 
 
 Bible Studies. By M. M. 
 
 Kalisch, Ph.D. Part I. The Pro- 
 phecies of Balaam. 8vo. ids. 6d. 
 Part II. The Book of Jonah. 8vo. 
 IOJ-. 6d. 
 
 Historical and Critical 
 
 Commentary on the Old Testament ; 
 
 with a New Translation. By M. M. 
 Kalisch, Ph.D. Vol. I. Genesis, 
 8vo. i8j. or adapted for the General 
 Reader, I2s. Vol. II. Exodus, l^s. or 
 adapted for the General Reader, I2s. 
 Vol. III. Leviticus, Part I. 15^. or 
 adapted for the General Reader, 8j. 
 Vol. IV. Leviticus, Part II. l^s. or 
 adapted for the General Reader, Zs. 
 
 Ewald's History of Israel. 
 
 Translated from the German by J. E. 
 Carpenter, M.A. with Preface by R. 
 Martineau, M.A. S vols. 8vo. 63^. 
 
 Ewald's Antiquities of 
 
 Israel. Translated from the German 
 byH. S. Solly, M.A. 8vo. 12s. 6d. 
 
 The Trident, the Cres- 
 cent & the Cross ; a View of the 
 Religious History of India during the 
 Hindu, Buddhist, Mohammedan, and 
 Christian Periods. By the Rev. J. 
 Vaughan. 8vo. gj. 6d. 
 
 The Types of Genesis, 
 
 briefly considered as revealing the 
 Development of Human Nature. By 
 A. Jukes. Crown 8vo. "js. 6d. 
 
 The Second Death and 
 
 the Restitution of all Things ; with 
 some Preliminary Remarks on the 
 Nature and Inspiration of Holy Scrip- 
 ture. By A. Jukes. Crown 8vo. 3J-. 6d. 
 
 History of the Reforma- 
 tion in Europe in the time of Calvin. 
 By the Rev. J. H. Merle D'Au- 
 BiGN^, D.D. Translated by W. L. 
 R. Gates. 8 vols. 8vo. price ^6. J2s. 
 
 Commentaries, by the Rev. 
 
 W. A. O'CONOR, B.A. Rector of St. 
 
 Simon and St. Jude, Manchester. 
 
 Epistle to the Romans, crown 8vo."3J'. 6d. 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, 4s. 6d. 
 St John's Gospel, 10s. 6d. 
 
 Supernatural Religion ; 
 
 an Inquiry into the Reality of Divine 
 Revelation. 3 vols. 8vo. 38j-. 
 
 The Four Gospels in 
 
 Greek, with Greek-English Lexicon. 
 By John T. White, D.D. Oxon. 
 Square 32mo. ^s. 
 
 Passing Thoughts on 
 
 Religion. By Elizabeth M. Sbwell. 
 Fcp. 8vo. y. 6d. 
 
 Thoughts for the Age. 
 
 by Elizabeth M. Sewell. New 
 Edition. Fcp. 8vo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 Preparation for the Holy 
 
 Communion ; the Devotions chiefly 
 from the works of Jeremy Taylor. By 
 Elizabeth M. Sewell. 32mo. 3J-. 
 
 The Ritual of the Altar, 
 
 or Order of the Holy Communion 
 according to the Church of England. 
 Edited bythe Rev. O. Shipley, M.A. 
 Second Edition, revised and enlarged, 
 with Frontispiece and 70 Woodcuts. 
 Small folio, 42s. 
 
 Bishop Jeremy Taylor's 
 
 Entire Works ; with Life by Bishop 
 Heber. Revised and corrected by the 
 Rev. C. P. Eden, id vols. £5. Ss. 
 
 Hymns of Praise and 
 
 Prayer. Corrected and edited by 
 Rev. John Martineau, LL.D. 
 Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. 32mo. is. 6d. 
 
 OneHundredHolySongs, 
 
 Carols and Sacred Ballads, Original 
 and Suitable for Music. Square fcp. 
 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Spiritual Songs for the 
 
 Sundays and Holidays throughout 
 the Year. By J. S. B. Monsell, 
 LL.D. Fcp. 8vo. S-f- i8mo. 2s. 
 
WORKS published by LONGMANS 6- CO. 
 
 17 
 
 Lyra Germanica; Hymns 
 
 translated from the German by Miss C. 
 WiNKWORTH. Fcp. 8vo. 5^-. 
 
 The Temporal Mission 
 
 of the Holy Ghost ; or, Reason and 
 Revelation. By Henry Edward 
 Manning, D.D. Crown 8vo. 8j. 6(/. 
 
 Hours of Thought on 
 
 Sacred Things ; a Volume of Ser- 
 mons. By James Martineau, D.D. 
 LL.D. Crown 8yo. Price "js. dd. 
 
 Endeavours after the 
 
 Christian Life ; Discourses. By 
 James Martineau, D.D. LL.D. 
 Fifth Edition. Crown Svo. 7^. i>d. 
 
 The Pentateuch & Book 
 
 of Joshua Critically Examined. 
 By J. W. COLENSO, D.D. Bishop of 
 Natal. Crown Svo. 6j-. 
 
 Lectures on the Penta- 
 teuch and the Moabite Stone ; with 
 
 Appendices. By J. W. Colenso, 
 D.D. Bishop of Natal. Svo. 12s. 
 
 TRAVELS, VOYAGES, &e. 
 
 A Voyage in the 'Sun- 
 beam,' our Home on the Ocean for 
 Eleven Months. By Mrs. Brassey. 
 Sixth Edition, with 8 Maps and Charts 
 and 118 Wood Engravings. Svo. lis. 
 
 A Year in Western 
 
 France. By M. Bethaji-Edwards. 
 Crown Svo. Frontispiece, los.'dd. 
 
 One Thousand Miles up 
 
 the Nile ; a Journey through Egypt 
 and Nubia to the Second Cataract. 
 By Amelia B. Edwards. "With Plans, 
 Maps & Illustrations. Imperial Svo. 42^-. 
 
 The Indian Alps, and How 
 
 we Crossed them ; Two Years' 
 Residence in the Eastern Himalayas, 
 and Two Months' Tour into the Interior. 
 By a Lady Pioneer. With Illustra- 
 tions. Imperial Svo. ifls. 
 
 Discoveries at Ephesus, 
 
 Including the Site and Remains of the 
 Great Temple of Diana. By J. T. 
 Wood, F.S.A. With 27 Lithographic 
 Plates and 42 Wood Engi-avings. Me- 
 dium Svo. 63^. 
 
 Through Bosnia and the 
 
 Herzegovina on Foot during the 
 Insurrection, August and September 
 1S75. By Arthur J. Evans, B.A. 
 F.S.A. Map & Woodcuts. Svo. iSj-. 
 
 Illyrian Letters, from the 
 
 Provinces of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Mon- 
 tenegro, Albania, Dalmatia, Croatia & 
 Slavonia, during the year 1877. By A. 
 J. Evans, B.A. F.S.A. Post Svo. 
 Maps, "js, dd. 
 
 Over the Sea and Far 
 
 Away ; a Narrative of a Ramble 
 round the Worid. By T. W. HlNCH- 
 LIFF, M.A. With 14 full-page Illustra- 
 tions. Medium Svo. 21s. 
 
 Guide to the Pyrenees, 
 
 for the use of Mountaineers. By 
 Charles Packe. Crown Svo. Is. 6d. 
 
 The Alpine Club Map of 
 
 Switzerland, with parts of the Neigh- 
 bouring Countries, on the scale of Four 
 Miles to an Inch. Edited by R. C. 
 Nichols, F.R.G.S. 4 Sheets in Port- 
 folio, 42J'. coloured, or 34r. uncoloured. 
 
 The Alpine Guide, By 
 
 John Ball, M.R.I. A. Post Svo. with 
 Maps and other Illustrations. 
 
 The Eastern Alps, los. 6d, 
 Central Alps, including all 
 
 the Oberland District, "js. 6d. 
 
 Western Alps, including 
 
 Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, Zerniatt, &c. 
 Price 6s. 6d. 
 
 On Alpine Travelling and 
 
 the Geology of the Alps. Price is. 
 Either of the 3 Volumes or Parts of the 
 ' Alpine Guide ' may be had with this 
 Introduction prefixed, i.f. extra. ' The 
 Alpine Guide ' may also be had in 10 
 separate Parts, or districts, 2s. 6d. each. 
 
 How to see Norway. By 
 
 J. R. Campbell. Fcp. Svo. Map & 
 Woodcuts, 5J-. 
 
18 
 
 JVOJiJ?:S published by LONGMANS d- CO. 
 
 Memorials of the Dis- 
 covery and Early Settlement of the 
 Bermudas or Somers Islands, from 
 1615 to 1685. By Major-General Sir 
 J. H. Lefroy, R.A. Vol. I. imperial 
 8vo. \yith 2 Maps, 30/. 
 
 Eight Years in Ceylon. 
 
 By Sir SAMUEL W. BAKER, M.A. 
 Crown 8vo. Woodcuts, 7^'. td. 
 
 The Rifle and the Hound 
 
 in Ceylon. By Sir Samuel W. Baker, 
 M.A. Crown 8vo. Woodcuts, 7j. dd. 
 
 WORKS of FICTION. 
 
 Novels and Tales. By the 
 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Beacons- 
 field, K.G. Cabinet Editions, complete 
 in Ten Volumes, crown 8vo. (>s. each. 
 
 Lothair, ()s. 
 Coningsby, 6s. 
 Sybil, ds. 
 Tancred, ds. 
 
 Venetia, ds. 
 
 Alroy, Ixion, &c. ds. 
 
 Young Duke &c. 6j. 
 
 Vivian Grey, ds. 
 Henrietta Temple, ds. 
 Contarini Fleming, &c. ds. 
 
 The Atelier du Lys ; or an 
 
 Art-Student in the Reign of Terror. 
 By the author of ' Mademoiselle Mori.' 
 Third Edition. Crown 8vo. ds. 
 
 Whispers from Fairy- 
 land. By the Right Hon. E. H. 
 Knatchbull-Hugessen, M.P. With 
 9 Illustrations. Crown Svo. 3^. dd. 
 
 Higgledy-piggledy; or, 
 
 Stories for Everybody and Every- 
 body's Children. By the Right Hon. 
 E. H. Knatchbull-Hugessen, M.P. 
 With 9 Illustrations. Cr. 8vo. 3^. dd. 
 
 Stories and Tales. By 
 
 Elizabeth M. Sewell. Cabinet 
 Edition, in Ten Volumes, each contain- 
 ing a complete Tale or Story :— 
 
 Amy Herbert, 2s. dd. Gertrude, 2s. dd. 
 The Earl's Daughter, zr. dd. The 
 Experience of Life, zs. dd. Cleve 
 Hall, IS. dd. Ivors, 2s. dd. Katharine 
 Ashton, 2.S. dd. Margaret Percival, 
 3J. dd. Laneton Parsonage, 3^. dd. 
 Ursula, y. dd. 
 
 The Modern Novelist's 
 
 Library. Each work complete in itself, 
 price Zf. boards, or 2s. dd. cloth. 
 
 By Lord Beaconsfield. 
 
 Lothair. 
 
 Coningsby. 
 
 Sybil. 
 
 Tancred. 
 
 Venetia. 
 
 Henrietta Temple. 
 
 Contarini Fleming. 
 
 Alroy, Ixion, &c. 
 
 The Young Duke, &c. 
 
 Vivian Grey. 
 By Anthony Trollope. 
 
 Barchester Towers. 
 
 The Warden. 
 By the Author of ' The Rose Garden.' 
 
 Unavyares. 
 By Major WiiYTE-ilELViLLE. 
 
 Digby Grand. 
 
 General Bounce. 
 
 Kate Coventry. 
 
 The Gladiators. 
 
 Good for Nothing. 
 
 Holmby House. 
 
 The Interpreter. 
 
 The Queen's Maries. 
 By the Author of ' The Atelier du Lys.' 
 
 Mademoiselle Mori. 
 By Various Writers. 
 
 Atherstone Priory. 
 
 The Burgomaster's Family. 
 
 Elsa and her Vulture. 
 
 "the Six Sisters of the ValleyS. 
 
 The Novels and Tales of the Right Honourable 
 
 the Earl of Beaconsfield, K.G. Complete in Ten Volumes, crown Svo. cloth 
 extra, gilt edges, price 30J. 
 
WOJiKS published by LONGMANS cv CO. 
 
 19 
 
 POETRY and THE DRAMA. 
 
 Lays of Ancient Rome; 
 
 with Ivry and the Armada. By Lord 
 Macaulay. i6mo. y. dd, 
 
 Horatii Opera. Library 
 
 Edition, with English Notes, Marginal 
 References & various Readings. Edited 
 by Rev. J. E. YoNGE, M.A. 8vo. z\s. 
 
 Poems by Jean Ingelow. 
 
 2 vols. fcp. 8vo. loj. 
 
 First Series, containing 'Divided,' ' The 
 Star's Monument,' &c. Fcp. 8vo. 5^-. 
 
 Second Series, 'A Story of Doom,' 
 ' Gladys and her Island,' &c. ^s. 
 
 Poems by Jean Ingelow. 
 
 First Series, with nearly 100 Woodcut 
 Illustrations. Fcp. 4to. lis. 
 
 Festus, a Poem. By 
 
 Philip James Bailey. loth Edition, 
 enlarged & revised. Crown 8vo. 1 2s. i>d. 
 
 The Iliad of Homer, Ho- 
 
 mometrically translated by C. B. 
 Cayley, Translator of Dante's Comedy, 
 &c. 8vo. \zs. 6d. 
 
 The ^neid of Virgil. 
 
 Translated into English Verse. By J. 
 CONiNGTON, M.A. Crown 8vo. gj. 
 
 Bowdler's Family Shak- 
 
 speare. Genuine Edition, in i vol. 
 medium 8vo. large type, with 36 Wood- 
 cuts, 14^. or in 6 vols. fcp. 8vo. 21s. 
 
 Southey's Poetical 
 
 Works, with the Author's last Cor- 
 rections and Additions. Medium 8vo. 
 with Portrait, 14^. 
 
 RURAL SPORTS, HORSE and CATTLE 
 MANAGEMENT, &c. 
 
 Annals of the Road ; or, 
 
 Notes on Mail and Stage-Coaching in 
 Great Britain. By Captain Malet. 
 With 3 Woodcuts and 10 Coloured 
 Illustrations. Medium 8vo. 21s. 
 
 Down the Road ; or, Re- 
 miniscences of a Gentleman Coachman. 
 By C. T. S. Birch Reynardson. 
 Second Edition, with 12 Coloured 
 Illustrations. Medium 8vo. 21^. 
 
 Blaine's Encyclopaedia of 
 
 Rural Sports ; Complete Accounts, 
 Historical, Practical, and Descriptive, 
 of Hunting, Shooting, Fishing, Racing, 
 &c. With 600 Woodcuts. 8vo. 2ij-. 
 
 A Book on Angling ; or, 
 
 Treatise on the Art of Fishing in every 
 branch ; including full Illustrated Lists 
 of Salmon Flies. By Francis Francis. 
 Post 8vo. Portrait and Plates, 1 5 J. 
 
 Wilcocks's Sea-Fisher- 
 man : comprising the Chief Methods 
 of Hook and Line Fishing, a glance at 
 Nets, and remarks on Boats and Boat- 
 ing. Post 8vo. Woodcuts, 12s. 6d. 
 
 The Fly-Fisher's Ento- 
 mology. By Alfred Ronalds. 
 
 With 20 Coloured Plates. 8vo. i+f. 
 
 Horses and Riding. By 
 
 George Nevile, M.A. With 31 Illus- 
 trations. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Horses and Stables. By 
 
 Colonel F. Fitzwygram, XV. the 
 King's Hussars. With 24 Plates of 
 Illustrations. 8vo. ioj-. 6d. 
 
 Youatt on the Horse. 
 
 Revised and enlarged by W. Watson, 
 M.R.C.V.S. 8vo. Woodcuts, 12s. (,d. 
 
 Youatt's Work on the 
 
 Dog. Revised and enlarged. 8vo. 
 Woodcuts, 6s. 
 
 The Dog in Health and 
 
 Disease. By Stonehenge. With 
 73 Wood Engravings. Square crown 
 8vo. "Js. (>d. 
 
 The Greyhound. By 
 
 Stonehenge. Revised Edition, with 
 25 Portraits of Greyhounds, &c. 
 Square crown 8vo. 15^. 
 
WORKS published by LONGMANS & CO. 
 
 Stables and Stable Fit- 
 tings. By W. Miles. Imp. 8vo. 
 
 with 13 Plates, 15^. 
 
 The Horse's Foot, and 
 
 How to keep it Sound. By W. 
 
 Miles. Imp. 8vo. Woodcuts, I2s. 6d. 
 
 A Plain Treatise on 
 
 Horse-shoeing. By W. Miles. Post 
 8vo. Woodcuts, 2s. td. 
 
 Remarks on Horses' 
 
 Teeth, addressed to Purchasers. By 
 W. Miles. Post 8vo. i.r. &f. 
 
 The Ox, his Diseases and 
 
 their Treatment ; with an Essay on 
 Parturition in the Cow. By J. R. 
 DoBSON, M.R.C.V.S. Crown 8vo. 
 Illustrations, "Js. 6d. 
 
 WORKS of UTILITY and GENERAL 
 INFORMATION. 
 
 Maunder's Treasury of 
 
 Knowledge and Library of Refer- 
 ence ; comprising an English Diction- 
 ary and Grammar, Universal Gazetteer, 
 Classical Dictionary, Chronology, Law 
 Dictionary, Synopsis of the Peerage, 
 Useful Tables, &c. Fcp. 8vo. 6s, 
 
 Maunder's Biographical 
 
 Treasury. Latest Edition, recon- 
 structed and partly re-written, with 
 above 1,600 additional Memoirs, by 
 W. L. R. Gates. Fcp. 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Maunder's Scientific and 
 
 Literary Treasury ; a Popular En- 
 cyclopaedia of Science, Literature, and 
 Art. Latest Edition, partly re-^vritten, 
 with above 1,000 New Articles, by J. 
 Y. JoHXSDX. Fcp. 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Maunder's Treasury of 
 
 Geography, Physical, Historical, 
 Descriptive, and Political. Edited by 
 W. Hughes, F.R. G. S. With 7 Maps 
 and 16 Plates. Fcp. 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Maunder's Historical 
 
 Treasury ; Introductory Outlines of 
 Universal History, and Separate His- 
 tories of all Xations. Revised by the 
 Rev. Sir G. W. ^Cox, Bart. M.A. 
 Fcp. 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Maunder's Treasury of 
 
 Natural History ; or. Popular Dic- 
 tionary of Zoology. Revised and 
 corrected Edition. Fcp. 8vo. with 
 900 Woodcuts, 6s. 
 
 The Treasury of Botany, 
 
 or Popular Dictionary of the Vegetable 
 Kingdom ; with which is incorporated 
 a Glossary of Botanical Terms. Edited 
 by J. LiNDLEY, F.R.S. and T. Moore, 
 F.L.S. With 274 Woodcuts and 20 
 Steel Plates. Two Parts, fcp. 8vo. I2J-. 
 
 The Treasury of Bible 
 
 Knowledge ; being a Dictionary of 
 the Books, Persons, Places, Events, 
 and other Matters of which mention is 
 made in Holy Scripture. By the Rev. 
 J. ;Ayre, M. a. Maps, Plates & Wood- 
 cuts. Fcp. 8vo. 6s. 
 
 A Practical Treatise on 
 
 Brewring ; with Formulfe for Public 
 Brewers & Instructions for Private Fam- 
 ilies. By W. Black. 8%'o. ioj-. 6d. 
 
 The Theory of the Mo- 
 
 dem Scientific Game of Whist. 
 By W. Pole, F.R. S. Tenth Edition. 
 Fcp. 8vo. 2J-. 6d. 
 
 The Correct Card ; or, 
 
 How to Play at ^\^list ; a Whist 
 Catechism. By Captain A. Ca3IPBELL- 
 Walker, F.R.G.S. New Edition. 
 Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 The Cabinet Lawyer; a 
 
 Popular Digest of the Laws of England, 
 Civil, Criminal, and Constitutional. 
 Twenty-Fifth Fidition, corrected and 
 extended. Fcp. 8vo. gs. 
 
 Chess Openings. ByF.W. 
 
 Longman, Balliol College, Oxford. 
 Second Edition. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 English Chess Problems. 
 
 Edited by J. Pierce, M.A. and W. 
 T. Pierce. With 608 Diagrams. 
 Crown 8vo. \2s. 6d. 
 
 Pewtner's Compre- 
 hensive Specifier; a Guide to the 
 
 Practical Specification of every kind of 
 Building- Artificer's Work. Edited by 
 W. Yon.NG. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
WORKS piMisJied by LONGMANS':'^' CO. 
 
 A Handbook on Gold 
 
 and Silver. By an Indian Officer. 
 .8vo. I2s. dd. 
 
 The English Manual of 
 
 Banking-. By Arthur Crump. 
 Second Edition, revised and enlarged. 
 ,8vo. 1 5 J-. 
 
 Modern Cookery for Pri- 
 vate Families, reduced to a System 
 of Easy Practice in a Series of carefully- 
 tested Receipts. By Eliza Acton. 
 With 8 Plates and 150 Woodcuts. Fcp. 
 8vo. ds. 
 
 Hints to Mothers on the 
 
 Management of their Health during 
 the Period of Pregnancy and in the 
 Lying-in Room. By Thomas. Bull, 
 M.D. Fcp. 8vo, 2s. 6d. 
 
 The Maternal Manage- 
 ment of Children in Health and 
 Disease. By Thomas Bull, M.D. 
 Fcp. 8vo. 2j. 6d. 
 
 Economics for.Beginners 
 
 By H. D. MACLEOD, M.A. Small 
 croM'n 8vo. 2.f. 60?: 
 
 The Elements of Bank- 
 
 ing. By H. 
 
 Third Edition. 
 
 D. MACLEOD, M.A, 
 Crown 8vo, "js. dd. 
 
 The Theory and Practice 
 
 of Banking. By H. D. Macleod, 
 M.A. 2 vols. 8vo. 26j. 
 
 The Resources of Mod- 
 em Countries ; Essays towards an 
 Estitnate of the Economic Position of 
 Nations and British Trade Prospects. 
 By Alex. Wilson. 2 vols. Svo, z\s. 
 
 Willich's Popular Tables 
 
 for ascertaining, according to the Carlisle 
 Table of Mortality, the value of Life- 
 hold, Leasehold, and Church Property, 
 Renewal Fines, Reversions, &c. Also 
 Interest, Legacy, Succession Duty, and 
 various other useful tables> Eighth 
 Edition. Post 8vo. loj. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ainey's Photography 11 
 
 Acton's Modem Cookery at 
 
 Alpine Club Map of Switzerland 17 
 
 Alpine Guide (The) 17 
 
 .^ mo/ J Jurisprudence 5 
 
 — Primer of the Constitution 5 
 
 Anderson's Strength of Materials 11 
 
 Armitages Childhood of the English 
 
 Nation 3 
 
 v4?-OTrfroM^'j Organic Chemistry .v 11 
 
 Arnold's (Dr. ) Lectures on Modem History 2 
 
 Miscellaneous Works 7 
 
 ■ Sermons 15 
 
 ' . (T.) Manual of English Litera- 
 ture ; 6 
 
 Arnott's Elements of Physics 10 
 
 Atelier (The) du Lys 18 
 
 Atherstone Priory 18 
 
 Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson ... 7 
 
 Ayre's Treasury of Bible Knowledge 20 
 
 .BacoM'j Essays, hy Abbott ^ 6 
 
 '■ ^ by Whaiely 6 
 
 Life and Letters, by S/<;<;(i/Kf ... 5 
 
 ■ -Works ...........r. 5 
 
 Bailey's Festus, a Poem 19 
 
 Baiti's Mental and Moral Science 6 
 
 on the Senses and Intellect 6 
 
 Emotions and Will 6 
 
 Baker's Two Works on Ceylon 18 
 
 5a//' J- Guide to the Central Alps 17 
 
 Guide to the Westem Alps;.^: :.. 17 
 
 Guide to the Eastern Alps 17 
 
 Barry on Railway Appliances ir 
 
 Barry &f Bramwell s Lectures on Railways 
 
 and Locomotives'. ........ ^... '.....-. .;. 14 
 
 Bcaconsfield' s (Lord) Novels and Tales- .,.' 18 
 
 Beesly's Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla..; 3 
 
 Black's Treatise on Brewing. 26 
 
 Blackley's German-English Dictionary 8 
 
 Blaine's Rural Sports : r9 
 
 Bloxam's Metals 11 
 
 Bolland and Lang's Aristdtle'sPolitics...-;;. 6 
 
 Boultbee on 39 Articles ; 15 
 
 Bournes Catechism of the Steam Engine .14 
 
 Handbook of Steam Engine....... -14 
 
 Treatise on the Steam Engine ... 14 
 
 Improvements in the same 14 
 
 Bowdler's Family Shakespeare i^ 
 
 Bramley-Moore s Six Sisters of the Valleys-.- 18 
 Brande's Dictionary of Science, Litei-ature, 
 
 and Art ■■.. 12 
 
 Brassey's Voyage of the Sunbeam 17 
 
 Browne's Exposition of the 39 Articles 15 
 
 Brown ing's jVIodern England .-. i . .. . . 3 
 
 Stickle' s History of Civilisation .- 2 
 
 . Posthumous Remains 7. 
 
 5wf:.i'/oK'j Health in the House 13 
 
 Bull's Hints to Mothers 2r 
 
WORKS puUished by LONGMANS 6- CO. 
 
 Bull's Maternal Management of Children . 21 
 
 Bnllingcr's Lexicon to the Greek Testament 8 
 
 Burgomaster's Family (The) 18 
 
 5k?-&'j Vicissitudes of Families 4 
 
 Cabinet Lawyer 20 
 
 CamfbelV s Norvis.y 17, 
 
 Cfl/rfj Age of the Antonines 3 
 
 Early Roman Empire 3 
 
 Carpenter on Mesmerism, Spiritualism, &c. 6 
 
 Gates' s Biographical Dictionary 4 
 
 Cajfeyj Iliad of Homer , 19 
 
 Changed Aspects of Unchanged Truths ... 7 
 
 C^«jK«yi Indian Polity 2 
 
 C/2«K«v'j Waterloo Campaign 2 
 
 Churdis Beginning of the Middle Ages ... 3 
 
 Colenso on Moabite Stone &c 17 
 
 's Pentateuch and Book of Joshua. 17 
 
 Commonplace Philosopher in Town and 
 
 Country 7 
 
 Co»«fe'j Positive Polity S 
 
 CoK^?-»e'j Politics of Aristotle 6 
 
 Coningtoris Translation of Virgil's ^neid 19 
 
 Miscellaneous Writings 6 
 
 Co«feK«aa'j Two French Dictionaries ... 8 
 Conybeare and Howson s Life and Epistles 
 
 of St. Paul IS 
 
 Corderys Struggle against Absolute Mon- 
 archy 3 
 
 Cotta on Rocks, by Lawrence 12 
 
 Counsel and Comfort from a City Pulpit... 7 
 
 Coj;'j (G. W.) Athenian Empire 3 
 
 Crusades 3 
 
 » Greeks and Persians 3 
 
 Creigktons Age of Elizabeth 3 
 
 England a Continental Power 3 
 
 Tudors and the Reformation 3 
 
 Cresy's Encyclopiasdia of Civil Engineering 14 
 
 Critical Essays of a Country Parson 7 
 
 Crookes's Anthracen 14 
 
 Chemical Analyses 13 
 
 Dyeing and Calico-printing 15 
 
 C/-KM/V Manual of Banking 21 
 
 Culhy's Handbook of Telegraphy 14 
 
 CKr<«j'j Macedonian Empire 3 
 
 D'Aubigni'sReio-cmoAwn 16 
 
 De CaisneauALe Mami'sBois-ny 12 
 
 Ve Tocqueville s Democracy in America... 5 
 
 JD;;f,5yj Indian Famine Campaign 2 
 
 Dobson on the Ox 20 
 
 Dove's Law of Storms .•• 9 
 
 £)oioc//'j History of Taxes S 
 
 Doyle's (R.) Fairyland 13 
 
 i9?-KOT»2072(i'j Jewish Messiah 15 
 
 Eastlake's Hints on Household Taste 14 
 
 Edwards's Nile 17 
 
 Year in Western France 17 
 
 jE//«'««'j Scripture Commentaries 15 
 
 Lectures on Life of Christ 15 
 
 Elsa and her Vulture 18 
 
 Epochs of Ancient History 3 
 
 English History 3 
 
 Modem History 3 
 
 Evans' (J.) Ancient Stone Implements ... 12 
 
 (A. J.) Bosnia & lUyrian Letters ... 17 
 
 £Kia/i^.i History of Israel 16 
 
 Antiquities of Israel i5 
 
 FazVteVw'i Applications of Iron 14 
 
 Information for Engineers 14 
 
 -~. Life 4 
 
 Fairbairn's Mills and Millwork 14 
 
 Farrar's Language and Languages 7 
 
 Fitzwygram on Horses and Stables 19 
 
 Frampton's [Bishop) Liile 4 
 
 Francis' s Fishing Book 19 
 
 Frobisher s Hi&hy Jones , 4 
 
 /^raarfc'j English in Ireland i 
 
 History of England i 
 
 Short Studies 6 
 
 Gairdner's Houses of Lancaster and York 3 
 
 Richard III. & Perkin Warbeck 3 
 
 (7£7«f7/'j Elementary Physics 10 
 
 ■ Natural Philosophy 10 
 
 Gfxrifz^^r'j Buckingham and Charles 3 
 
 Personal Government of Charles I. 3 
 
 First Two Stuarts 3 
 
 Thirty Years' War 3 
 
 Geffcken on Church and State 7 
 
 German Home Life 7 
 
 Goldziker s Hebrew Mythology 16 
 
 Goodeve's Mechanics 11 
 
 Mechanism 11 
 
 Gore's Art of Scientific Discovery 13 
 
 Electro-Metallurgy 11 
 
 Grant's Ethics of Aristotle 6 
 
 Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson 7 
 
 Greville' s ]oMTU^\ i 
 
 Griffin' s Algebra and Trigonometry 11 
 
 Grove (Sir W. R.) on Correlation of Physi- 
 cal Forces lo 
 
 Gwili's Encyclopaedia of Architecture 14 
 
 ^iz/i?'j Fall of the Stuarts 3 
 
 Handbook on Gold and Silver 21 
 
 //(2r//iy/ on the Air 9 
 
 Hartwig's Aerial World 11 
 
 Polar World 11 
 
 Sea and its Living Wonders ... 11 
 
 Subterranean World 11 
 
 Tropical World 11 
 
 Hanghton s Animal Mechanics 10 
 
 Heer's Primeval World of Switzerland 12 
 
 //(?/«e'^ Life and Works, by Stigand 4 
 
 Helmiioltz onTori^ 10 
 
 HehnlioUz's Scientific Lectures 10 
 
 //tfffzj/ify'j Trees and Shrubs 12 
 
 Herschel's Outlines of Astronomy g 
 
 Hinchliff's Over the Sea and Far Away ... 17 
 
 Hobson's Amateur Mechanic 13 
 
 Hodgson s VhWosophy oi Reflection 5 
 
 .^<7y^(3/i^'j Engineer's Valuing Assistant ... 14 
 
 Haworth s Mongols 2 
 
 HullaJi s History of Modern Music 12 
 
 Transition Period 12 
 
 Hume's'Kss^.ys 6 
 
 Treatise on Human Nature 6 
 
 Ihne's Rome to its (Capture 3 
 
 History of Rome 2 
 
 Indian Alps 17 
 
 Ingelow's Poems 19 
 
 yameson's Legends of the Saints & Martyrs 13 
 
 Legends of the Madonna 13 
 
 Legends of the Monastic Orders 13 
 
 Legends of the Saviour 13 
 
 Memoirs 4 
 
 JenMn's Electricity and Magnetism 11 
 
 Jerrold's Life of Napoleon i 
 
 Johnson's Normans in Europe 3 
 
 Johnston s Geographical Dictionary 8 
 
 Jonson's (Ben) Every Man in his Humour 6 
 
tVORKS ptMshed by LONGMANS &- CO. 
 
 23 
 
 yukes's Types of Genesis 16 
 
 on Second Death 16 
 
 KaliscKs Bible Studies 16 
 
 Commentary on the Bible 16 
 
 ^iJzVA'j' Evidence of Prophecy 15 
 
 Keller's Lake Dwellings of Switzerland.... 12 
 
 KerTs Metalltu-gy, by Crookes and Rokrig. 14 
 
 Kingzett's Alkali Trade 13 
 
 Animal Chemistry 12 
 
 ■ Kirby 2.n6. Spence' s 'E'oXovsiQiogY 11 
 
 Knatchbull'Hugessen's Fairy-Land 18 
 
 Higgledy-piggledy 18 
 
 Kuenen's Prophets and Prophecy in Israel 15 
 
 Landscapes, Churches, &c 7 
 
 Latham's EngUsh Dictionaries 7 
 
 Handbook of English Language 8 
 
 Lecky's History of England i 
 
 European Morals 3 
 
 Rationalism 3 
 
 Leaders of Public Opinion 4 
 
 Lefroys Bermudas 18 
 
 Leisure Hours in Town 7 
 
 Lessons of Middle Age 7 
 
 Lewes' s Biographical History of Philosophy 3 
 
 Lewis on Authority 6 
 
 Liddellajid Scott's Greek-English Lexicons 8 
 
 Lindley and Moore s Treasury of Botany ... 20 
 
 Lloyd's Magnetism 10 
 
 Wave-Theory of Light 10 
 
 London Series of English Classics 6 
 
 Longman's (F. W.) Chess Openings 20 
 
 . German Dictionary ... 8 
 
 (W.) Edward the Third 2 
 
 ' ' Lectures on History of 
 
 England 2 
 
 ■ ' Old and New St. Paul's 13 
 
 Loudon's EncyclopEedia of Agriculture ... 15 
 
 « — , ,. , .i Gardening 15 
 
 • — ' Plants 12 
 
 Lubbock's Origin of Civilisation 12 
 
 Ludlow's hraencsji War 3 
 
 Lyra Germanica 17 
 
 Macaulays (Lord) Clive, hy'Boweit 6 
 
 ^ ^ — ^ — ^ Essays i 
 
 History of England ... i 
 
 ' Lays of Ancient Rome 13 
 
 „; Life 2ji6L Letters 4 
 
 ■ , , Miscellaneous Writings 7 
 
 - — —*— ■ Speeches 7 
 
 — Works I 
 
 ^ — , ^^^.i. Writings, Selections from 7 
 
 McCuUocJis Dictionary of Commerce 8 
 
 Macfarren on Musical Harmony 13 
 
 Macleo(£s Economical Philosophy 5 
 
 — — Economics for Beginners 2t 
 
 ■ — — Theory and Practice of Banking 2e 
 
 ' Elements of Banking 21 
 
 Mademoiselle Mori 18 
 
 Maguires Pope Pius IX 4 
 
 i^/a/c^' J Annals of the Road I9 
 
 Mannings Mission of the Holy Spirit 17 
 
 il/fzr/i'Zi'.;'^ Doctor Faustus, by Wagner ... 6 
 
 Marskman's Life of Havelock 4 
 
 Martineau s Christian Life 17 
 
 Hours of Thought 17 
 
 Hymns 16 
 
 Maunder's Biographical Treasury 20 
 
 - — Geographical Treasury 20 
 
 ■ Historical Treasury 20 
 
 Maunder's Scientific and Literary Treasury 20 
 
 Treasury of Knowledge 20 
 
 Treasury of Natural History ... 20 
 
 Maxwells Theory of Heat n 
 
 May's History of Democracy i 
 
 History of England i 
 
 Melville's Digby Grand 18 
 
 General Bounce 18 
 
 Gladiators 18 
 
 Good for Nothing i3 
 
 Holmby House 18 
 
 Interpreter 1 3 
 
 Kate Coventry 18 
 
 Queen's Maries 18 
 
 Memorials of Charlotte Williams- Wynn 4 
 
 Mendelssohn s Letters 4 
 
 j^iJrz'z'a/is'j Fall of the Roman Republic ... 2 
 General History of Rome 2 
 
 Roman Triumvirates 3 
 
 Romans under the Empire 2 
 
 Merrifield^s Arithmetic and Mensuration-., 11 
 
 Miles on Horse's Foot and Horse Shoeing 20 
 
 on Horse's Teeth and Stables 20 
 
 Mill[].) on the Mind 5 
 
 Mills (^. S.) Autobiography 4 
 
 Dissertations & Discussions 5 
 
 Essays on Religion 15 
 
 ■ Hamilton's Philosophy 5 
 
 Liberty 5 
 
 Pohtical Economy 5 
 
 Representative Government 5 
 
 Subjection of Women 5 
 
 System of Logic 5 
 
 ■ Unsettled Questions 5 
 
 . Utilitarianism , 5 
 
 Miller s Elements of Chemistry 12 
 
 — Inorganic Chemistry ±1 
 
 Mitchell's Manual of Assaying 15 
 
 Milton's Paradise Regained, by Jerram ... 6 
 
 Modem Novelist's Library 18 
 
 Monsell's Spiritual Songs i5 
 
 Moore's Irish Melodies, Illustrated Edition 13 
 
 Lalla Rookh, Illustrated Edition.. 13 
 
 Morris's Age of Anne 3 
 
 Mozart's Life, by Nohl 4 
 
 Mailer's Chips from a German Workshop. 7 
 
 Science of Language 7 
 
 Science of Religion 3 
 
 Mullinger's Schools of Charles the Great ... 6 
 
 Nelson on the Moon 9 
 
 Nevile s Worsts and Riding 19 
 
 Newman's Apologia pro Vit^ SusL 4 
 
 Nicols's Puzzle of Life 12 
 
 Northcott's Lathes & Turning 14 
 
 O' Conor s Scripture Commentary i5 
 
 One Hundred Holy Songs, &c 16 
 
 Otci^^'j" Evenings with the Skeptics.'. 6 
 
 (Prof.) Comparative Anatomy and 
 
 Physiology of Vertebrate Animals li 
 
 Packe's Guide to the Pyrenees 17 
 
 Pattiso7is Casaubon 4 
 
 Payen's Industrial Chemistry 14 
 
 /"^zc/^^r J Comprehensive Specifier 20 
 
 Pierce'^ Chess Problems 20 
 
 Pole's Game of Whist 20 
 
 /'i?/^' J' Select Poems, hy Arnold 6 
 
 Powell's Early England 3 
 
 Preece & Sivewright'sT€i.^gx?ip\iy 11 
 
 Present-Day Thoughts 
 
24 
 
 WORKS published by LONGMANS. 6- CO. 
 
 /*ro^^i?/''j Astronomical Essays 9 
 
 ■■ Cycloid 9 
 
 Moon ..' 9 
 
 ^ Orbs aroiind Us , 9 
 
 Other Worlds than Ours. „ 9 
 
 -^.^ Saturn 9 
 
 Scientific Essays (Two Series) ... 19 
 
 '■ — Sun ., 9 
 
 Transits of Venus 9 
 
 -Two Star Atlases 9 
 
 Universe of Stars 9 
 
 /"ro^Aera'j De Montfort 2 
 
 Public Schools Atlas of Ancient Geography 8 
 
 Atlas of Modern Geography 8 
 
 RawtinsotCs Parthia 3 
 
 Sassanians 3 
 
 Recreations of a Country Parson 7 
 
 Reykardson's Down the Road 19 
 
 .ffjcA'j Dictionary of Antiquities 8 
 
 Rivers'i Rose Amateur's Guide 12 
 
 Rogers's Eclipse of Faith 15 
 
 Defence of , Eclipse of Faith 15 
 
 Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and 
 
 Phrases '...... 8 
 
 Ronald's Fly-Fisher's En'toniology 12 
 
 Rothschild s \%x&sXxVts t IS 
 
 ^(Kw/^'j Rise of the People ^ 3 
 
 '- — Settlement of the Constitution ... 3 
 
 5a«(farj'i Justinian's Institutes 5 
 
 Sankey's Spart^ and Thebes , , . 3 
 
 Schellen's Spectniih Analysis 9 
 
 Seaside Musing 7 
 
 Seebohm's Oxford Reformers of 1498 2 
 
 Protestant Revolution 3 
 
 ,S«£/^//'j History of'Erancc 2 
 
 r Passing Thoughts on Religion ... 16 
 
 Preparation for Communion 16 
 
 ■ ^ Stories and Tales 18 
 
 ■ Thoughts for tlip Age ., , 16 
 
 Shelley's Workshbjj Appliances ir 
 
 Shipley's Ritual of the Altar 16 
 
 5Aw<'i Church History 3 
 
 Smith's {Sydney] Essays 7 
 
 Wit and Wisdom 7 
 
 (Dr. R. A.) Air and Rain ....; , g 
 
 '■ — (R.' E. )Carthage & the Carthaginians 2 
 
 ;SoaM«)''jToetical Works.... ....' 19 
 
 Stanley's History of British Birds 11 
 
 .Sfe/^K'j Ecclesiastical Biography 4 
 
 Sfo»e/4««f« on the Dog. ig 
 
 ~ — — on the Greyhound 19 
 
 Stoney on Strains ....-....'. 14 
 
 .S/aWj'j Early Plantagehets .....". 3 
 
 Sunday Afternoons, by A. K. H.B 7 
 
 Supernatural Religion 16 
 
 Swinbourne's Picture Logic 6 
 
 Tancock's England during the Wars, 
 
 1778-1820 3 
 
 T'izy/t^r'j History of India 2 
 
 r— ^ ^^ Ancient and Modern History ... 4 
 
 Taylor's' [Jeremy) Works, edited by Eden 16 
 
 Text-Books of Science ji 
 
 Thomi's Botany ; 11 
 
 Thomsons Laws of Thought 6 
 
 yfer/c'j Quantitative Analysis ix 
 
 Thorpe and Af«j>'j Qualitative Analysis ... n 
 
 7'2/rfe«'j Chemical Philosophy 11 
 
 Todd on Parliamentary Government 2 
 
 Trench's ReaUties of Irish Life 7 
 
 Trollope's Barchester Towers i8. 
 
 —Warden' ;. 18 
 
 Twiss's Law of Nations 5 
 
 Tyndalts American Lectures on Light ... 10 
 
 Diamagnetism 10 
 
 Fragments of Science 10 
 
 Heat a Mode of Motion 10 
 
 Tyndall's Lectures on Electricity 10 
 
 Lectures on Light 10 
 
 Lectures on Sound 10 
 
 Lessons in Electricity 10 
 
 -Molecular Physics. 10 
 
 Unawares 18 
 
 Unioin's Machine Design 11 
 
 Ure's Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, 
 
 and Mines ..,..■. 14 
 
 Vaugharis Trident, Crescent, and Cross... 16 
 
 Walker on Whist -. 20 
 
 l-Ka^c//j History of England i 
 
 Warburton s Edward the Third 3 
 
 Watson s Qtf^GvaeX^xy u 
 
 Watts' s Dictionary of Chemistry 13 
 
 V/ebVs Objects for Common Telescopes ...- 9 
 
 Weinhold's Experimntal Physics 10 
 
 Wellington slAi^^hy Glelg 4 
 
 ^F/^a^^yj English Synonymes 8 
 
 '■ Logic 6 
 
 Rhetoric , 6 
 
 H^/;2^«'j Four Gospels in Greek .,... 16 
 
 and Riddle's Latin. Dictionaries ... 8 
 
 W^z/r(7c,6j'j Sea-Fisherman ig 
 
 Williams' s Ktvs,\.o\.\&!, Ethics 5 
 
 H^////ir/j'j Popular Tables , 21 
 
 Wilsons Resources of Modern Countries... 21 
 
 W.jO(i' J (J. G.) Bible Animals. 11 
 
 Homes without Hands ... Ji 
 
 Insects at Home 11 
 
 • Insects Abroad., 11 
 
 Out of Doors II 
 
 Strange Dwellings 11 
 
 (J. T.) Ephesus , 17 
 
 Woodward' s G&o\ozy 13 
 
 Fot^c'j English-Greek Lexicons 8 
 
 Horace iq 
 
 KffKa^^ on the Dog ; , ig 
 
 on the Horse ig 
 
 Zellei's Plato 3 
 
 Socrates q 
 
 — I Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics... 3 
 
 Zimjnem's l..essing a 
 
 Schopenliauer 4 
 
 LONDON : PRINTED BY 
 
 rrOTTlSWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 
 AND PARLIAMENT STREHT 
 

 
 '.X.^ 
 
 
 -Zc^^'t^ ii'^'^y' y^r.'. ' 'y' 
 
 ^^«^.d»>{0' y y^ y y y^ y 
 
 V'/-Jfp yyCiyy '. 
 
 y i^yJ/y /y yy^ 
 
 / 
 -<^ 
 
 /- • / 
 
 ;^-*'