Of the laws.
Of the laws.
It is well known, that good laws are scarce, and that the due execution of them is still more so. The greater the extent of any state, and the variety of people of which it is composed, the more difficult it is to unite them by the same body of laws. The father of czar Peter formed a digest or code under the title ofOulogenia, which was actually printed, but it by no means answered the end intended.
Peter, in the course of his travels, had collected materials for repairing this great structure, which was falling to decay in many of its parts. He gathered many useful hints from the governments of Denmark, Sweden, England, Germany, and France, selecting from each of these different nations what he thought most suitable to his own.
There was a court of boyards or great men, who determined all mattersen dernier ressort. Rank and birth alone gave a seat in this assembly; but the czar thought that knowledge was likewise requisite, and therefore this court was dissolved.
He then instituted a procurator-general, assisted by four assistors, in each of the governments of the empire. These were to overlook the conduct of the judges, whose decrees were subject to an appeal to the senate which he established. Each of those judges was furnished with a copy of theOulogenia, with additions and necessary alterations, until a complete body of laws could be formed.
It was forbid to these judges to receive any fees, which, however moderate, are always an abusive tax on the fortunes and properties of those concerned in suits of law. The czar also took care that the expenses of the court were moderate, and the decisions speedy. The judges and their clerks had salaries appointed them out of the public treasury, and were not suffered to purchase their offices.
It was in the year 1718, at the very time that he was engaged in the process against his son, that he made the chief part of these regulations. The greatest part of the laws he enacted were borrowed from those of the Swedes, and he made no difficulty to admit to places in his courts of judicature such Swedish prisoners who were well versed in the laws of their own country, and who,having learnt the Russian language, were willing to continue in that kingdom.
The governor of each province and his assistors had the cognizance of private causes within such government; from them there was an appeal to the senate; and if any one, after having been condemned by the senate, appealed to the czar himself, and such appeal was found unjust, he was punished with death: but to mitigate the rigour of this law, the czar created a master of the requests, who received the petitions of those who had affairs depending in the senate, or in the inferior courts, concerning which the laws then in force were not sufficiently explanatory.
At length, in 1722, he completed his new code, prohibiting all the judges, under pain of death, to depart therefrom in their decrees, or to set up their own private opinions in place of the general statutes. This dreadful ordonnance was publicly fixed up, and still remains in all the courts of judicature of the empire.
He erected every thing anew; there was not, even to the common affairs of society, aught but what was his work. He regulated the degrees between man and man, according to their posts and employments, from the admiral and the field-marshal to the ensign, without any regard to birth.
Having always in his own mind, and willing to imprint it on those of his subjects, that services are preferable to pedigree, a certain rank was likewise fixed for the women; and she who took a seat in a public assembly, that did not properly belong to her, was obliged to pay a fine.
By a still more useful regulation, every private soldier, on being made an officer, instantly became a gentleman; and a nobleman, if his character had been impeached in a court of justice, was degraded to a plebeian.
After the settling of these several laws and regulations, it happened that the increase of towns, wealth, and population in the empire, new undertakings, and the creation of new employs, necessarily introduced a multitude of new affairs and unforeseen cases, which were all consequences of that success which attended the czar in the general reformation of his dominions.
The empress Elizabeth completed the body of laws which her father had begun, in which she gave the most lively proofs of that mildness and clemency for which she was so justly famed.
Of Religion.
Of Religion.
At this time Peter laboured more than ever to reform the clergy. He had abolished the patriarchal office, and by this act of authority had alienated the minds of the ecclesiastics. He was determined that the imperial power should be free and absolute, and that of the church respected, but submissive. His design was, to establish a council of religion, which should always subsist, but dependent on the sovereign, and that it should give no laws to the church, but such as should be approved of by the head of the state, of which the church was a part. He was assisted in this undertaking by the archbishop of Novogorod, named Theophanes Procop, or Procopowitz, i.e. son of Procop.
This prelate was a person of great learning and sagacity: his travels through the different parts of Europe had afforded him opportunities of remarks on the several abuses which reignamongst them. The czar, who had himself been a witness of the same, had this great advantage in forming all his regulations, that he was possessed of an unlimited power to choose what was useful, and reject what was dangerous. He laboured, in concert with the archbishop, in the years 1718 and 1719, to effect his design. He established a perpetual synod, to be composed of twelve members, partly bishops, and partly archpriests, all to be chosen by the sovereign. This college was afterwards augmented to fourteen.
The motives of this establishment were explained by the czar in a preliminary discourse. The chief and most remarkable of these was, 'That under the administration of a college of priests, there was less danger of troubles and insurrections, than under the government of a single head of the church; because the common people, who are always prone to superstition, might, by seeing one head of the church, and another of the state, be led to believe that they were in fact two different powers.' And hereupon he cites as an example, the divisions which so long subsisted between the empire and the papal see, and which stained so many kingdoms with blood.
Peter thought, and openly declared, that the notion of two powers in a state, founded on the allegory of the two swords, mentioned in the apostles, was absurd and erroneous.
This court was invested with the ecclesiastical power of regulating all penances, and examining into the morals and capacity of those nominated by the court to bishoprics, to pass judgmenten dernier ressortin all causes relating to religion, in which it was the custom formerly to appeal to the patriarch, and also to take cognizance of therevenues of monasteries, and the distribution of alms.
This synod had the title ofmost holy, the same which the patriarchs were wont to assume, and in fact the czar seemed to have preserved the patriarchal dignity, but divided among fourteen members, who were all dependant on the crown, and were to take an oath of obedience, which the patriarchs never did. The members of this holy synod, when met in assembly, had the same rank as the senators; but they were like the senate, all dependant on the prince. But neither this new form of church administration, nor the ecclesiastical code, were in full vigour till four years after its institution, namely in 1722. Peter at first intended, that the synod should have the presentation of those whom they thought most worthy to fill the vacant bishoprics. These were to be nominated by the emperor, and consecrated by the synod, Peter frequently presided in person at the assembly. One day that a vacant see was to be filled, the synod observed to the emperor, that they had none but ignorant persons to present to his majesty: 'Well, then,' replied the czar, 'you have only to pitch upon the most honest man, he will be worth two learned ones.'
It is to be observed, that the Greek church has none of that motley order called secular abbots. Thepetit colletis unknown there, otherwise than by the ridiculousness of its character, but by another abuse (as every thing in this world must be subject to abuse) the bishops and prelates are all chosen from the monastic orders. The first monks were only laymen, partly devotees, and partly fanatics, who retired into the deserts, where they were at length gathered together by St. Basil, who gave them a body of rules, andthen they took vows, and were reckoned as the lower order of the church, which is the first step to be taken to arise at higher dignities. It was this that filled all Greece and Asia with monks. Russia was overrun with them. They became rich, powerful, and though excessively ignorant, they were, at the accession of Peter to the throne, almost the only persons who knew how to write. Of this knowledge they made such an abuse, when struck and confounded with the new regulations which Peter introduced in all the departments of government, that he was obliged in 1703 to issue an edict, forbidding the use of pen and ink to the monks, without an express order from the archimandrite, or prior of the convent, who in that case was responsible for the behaviour of those to whom he granted this indulgence.
Peter designed to make this a standing law, and at first he intended, that no one should be admitted into any order under fifty years of age; but that appeared too late an age, as the life of man being in general so limited, there was not time sufficient for such persons to acquire the necessary qualifications for being made bishops; and therefore, with the advice of his synod, he placed it at thirty years complete, but never under; at the same time expressly prohibiting any person exercising the profession of a soldier, or an husbandman, to enter into a convent, without an immediate order from the emperor, or the synod, and to admit no married man upon any account, even though divorced from his wife; unless that wife should at the same time embrace a religious life of her own pure will, and that neither of them had any children. No person in actual employ under government can take the habit, without an express order of the state for that purpose. Every monk is obliged to workwith his own hands at some trade. The nuns are never to go without the walls of their convent, and at the age of fifty are to receive the tonsure, as did the deaconesses of the primitive church; but if, before undergoing that ceremony, they have an inclination to marry, they are not only allowed, but even exhorted so to do. An admirable regulation in a country where population is of infinitely greater use than a monastic life.
Peter was desirous that those unhappy females, whom God has destined to people a kingdom, and who, by a mistaken devotion, annihilated in cloisters that race of which they would otherwise become mothers, should at least be of some service to society, which they thus injure; and therefore ordered, that they should all be employed in some handy works, suitable to their sex. The empress Catherine took upon herself the care of sending for several handicrafts over from Brabant and Holland, whom she distributed among these convents, and, in a short time, they produced several kinds of work, which the empress and her ladies always wore as a part of their dress.
There cannot perhaps be any thing conceived more prudent than these institutions; but what merits the attention of all ages, is the regulation which Peter made himself, and which he addressed to the synod in 1724. The ancient ecclesiastical institution is there very learnedly explained, and the indolence of the monkish life admirably well exposed; and he not only recommends an application to labour and industry, but even commands it; and that the principal occupation of those people should be, to assist and relieve the poor. He likewise orders, that sick and infirm soldiers shall be quartered in theconvents, and that a certain number of monks shall be set apart to take care of them, and that the most strong and healthy of these shall cultivate the lands belonging to those convents. He orders the same regulations to be observed in the monasteries for women, and that the strongest of these shall take care of the gardens, and the rest to wait on sick or infirm women, who shall be brought from the neighbouring country into the convents for that purpose. He also enters into the minutest details relating to these services; and lastly, he appoints certain monasteries of both sexes for the reception and education of orphans.
In reading this ordinance of Peter the Great, which was published the 31st January, 1724, one would imagine it to have been framed by a minister of state and a father of the church.
Almost all the customs in the Russian church are different from those of ours. As soon as a man is made a sub-deacon, we prohibit him from marrying, and he is accounted guilty of sacrilege if he proves instrumental to the population of his country. On the contrary, when any one has taken a sub-deacon's order in Russia, he is obliged likewise to take a wife, and then may rise to the rank of priest, and arch-priest, but he cannot be made a bishop, unless he is a widower and a monk.
Peter forbid all parish-priests from bringing up more than one son to the service of the church, unless it was particularly desired by the parishioners; and this he did, lest a numerous family might in time come to tyrannize over the parish. We may perceive in these little circumstances relating to church-government, that the legislator had always the good of the state in view, and that he took every precaution to make the clergyproperly respected, without being dangerous, and that they should be neither contemptible nor powerful.
In those curious memoirs, composed by an officer who was a particular favourite of Peter the Great, I find the following anecdote:—One day a person reading to the czar that number of the English Spectator, in which a parallel is drawn between him and Lewis XIV. 'I do not think,' said Peter, 'that I deserve the preference that is here given me over that monarch; but I have been fortunate enough to have the superiority over him in one essential point, namely, that of having obliged my clergy to live in peace and submission; whereas my brother Lewis has suffered himself to be ruled by his.'
A prince, whose days were almost wholly spent in the fatigues of war, and his nights in the compiling laws for the better government of so large an empire, and in directing so many great labours, through a space of two thousand leagues, must stand in need of some hours of amusement. Diversions at that time were neither so noble or elegant as they now are, and therefore we must not wonder if Peter amused himself with the entertainment of the sham conclave, of which mention has been already made, and other diversions of the same stamp, which were frequently at the expense of the Romish church, to which he had a great dislike, and which was very pardonable in a prince of the Greek communion, who was determined to be master in his own dominions. He likewise gave several entertainments of the same kind at the expense of the monks of his own country; but of the ancient monks, whose follies and bigotry he wished to ridicule, while he strove to reform the new.
We have already seen that previous to his publishing his church-laws, he created one of his fools pope, and celebrated the feast of the sham conclave. This fool, whose name was Jotof, was between eighty and ninety. The czar took it into his head to make him marry an old widow of his own age, and to have their nuptials publicly solemnized; he caused the invitation to the marriage guests to be made by four persons who were remarkable for stammering. The bride was conducted to church by decrepit old men, four of the most bulky men that could be found in Russia acted as running footmen. The music were seated in a waggon drawn by bears, whom they every now and then pricked with goads of iron, and who, by their roaring, formed a full base, perfectly agreeable to the concert in the cart. The married couple received the benediction in the cathedral from the hands of a deaf and blind priest, who, to appear more ridiculous, wore a large pair of spectacles on his nose. The procession, the wedding, the marriage-feast, the undressing and putting to bed of the bride and bridegroom, were all of a piece with the rest of this burlesque ceremony.
We may perhaps be apt to look upon this as a trivial and ridiculous entertainment for a great prince; but is it more so than our carnival? or to see five or six hundred persons with masks on their faces, and dressed in the most ridiculous manner, skipping and jumping about together, for a whole night in a large room, without speaking a word to each other?
In fine, were the ancient feasts of the fools and the ass, and the abbot of the cuckolds, which were formerly celebrated in our churches, much superior, or did our comedies of the foolish mother exhibit marks of a greater genius?
The congress of Aland or Oeland. Death of Charles XII., &c. The treaty of Nystadt.
The congress of Aland or Oeland. Death of Charles XII., &c. The treaty of Nystadt.
These immense labours, this minute review of the whole Russian empire, and the melancholy proceedings against his unhappy son, were not the only objects which demanded the attention of the czar; it was necessary to secure himself without doors, at the same time that he was settling order and tranquillity within. The war with Sweden was still carried on, though faintly, in hopes of approaching peace.
It is a known fact, that in the year 1717, cardinal Alberoni, prime minister to Philip V. of Spain, and baron Gortz, who had gained an entire ascendant over the mind of Charles XII. had concerted a project to change the face of affairs in Europe, by effecting a reconciliation between this last prince and the czar, driving George I. from the English throne, and replacing Stanislaus on that of Poland, while cardinal Alberoni was to procure the regency of France for his master Philip. Gortz, as has been already observed, had opened his mind on this head to the czar himself. Alberoni had begun a negotiation with prince Kourakin, the czar's ambassador at the Hague, by means of the Spanish ambassador, Baretti Landi, a native of Mantua, who had, like the cardinal, quitted his own country to live in Spain.
Thus a set of foreigners were about to overturn the general system, for masters under whose dominion they were not born, or rather for themselves. Charles XII. gave into all these projects, and the czar contented himself with examining them in private. Since the year 1716 he hadmade only feeble efforts against Sweden, and those rather with a view to oblige that kingdom to purchase peace by restoring those places it had taken in the course of the war, than with an intent to crush it altogether.
The baron Gortz, ever active and indefatigable in his projects, had prevailed on the czar to send plenipotentiaries to the island of Oeland to set on foot a treaty of peace. Bruce, a Scotchman, and grand master of the ordnance in Russia, and the famous Osterman, who was afterwards at the head of affairs, arrived at the place appointed for the congress exactly at the time that the czarowitz was put under arrest at Moscow. Gortz and Gillembourg were already there on the part of Charles XII. both impatient to bring about a reconciliation between that prince and Peter, and to revenge themselves on the king of England. It was an extraordinary circumstance that there should be a congress, and no cessation of arms. The czar's fleet still continued cruising on the coasts of Sweden, and taking the ships of that nation. Peter thought by keeping up hostilities to hasten the conclusion of a peace, of which he knew the Swedes stood greatly in need, and which must prove highly glorious to the conqueror.
Notwithstanding the little hostilities which still continued, every thing bespoke the speedy approach of peace. The preliminaries began by mutual acts of generosity, which produce stronger effects than many hand-writings. The czar sent back without ransom marshal Erenschild, whom he had taken prisoner with his own hands, and Charles in return did the same by Trubetskoy and Gallowin, who had continued prisoners in Sweden ever since the battle of Narva.
The negotiations now advanced apace, and atotal change was going to be made in the affairs of the North. Gortz proposed to the czar to put the duchy of Mecklenburg into his hands. Duke Charles, its sovereign, who had married a daughter of czar John, Peter's elder brother, was at variance with the nobility of the country, who had taken arms against him. And Peter, who looked upon that prince as his brother-in-law, had an army in Mecklenburg ready to espouse his cause. The king of England, elector of Hanover, declared on the side of the nobles. Here was another opportunity of mortifying the king of England, by putting Peter in possession of Mecklenburg, who, being already master of Livonia, would by this means, in a short time, become more powerful in Germany than any of its electors. The duchy of Courland was to be given to the duke of Mecklenburg, as an equivalent for his own, together with a part of Prussia at the expense of Poland, who was to have Stanislaus again for her king. Bremen and Verden were to revert to Sweden; but these provinces could not be wrested out of the hands of the king of England but by force of arms; accordingly Gortz's project was (as we have already said) to effect a firm union between Peter and Charles XII., and that not only by the bands of peace, but by an offensive alliance, in which case they were jointly to send an army into Scotland. Charles XII. after having made himself master of Norway, was to make a descent on Great Britain, and he fondly imagined he should be able to set a new sovereign on the throne of those kingdoms, after having replaced one of his own choosing on that of Poland. Cardinal Alberoni promised both Peter and Charles to furnish them with subsidies. The fall of the king of England would, it was supposed, draw with it that of his ally, the regent of France,who being thus deprived of all support, was to fall a victim to the victorious arms of Spain, and the discontent of the French nation.
Alberoni and Gortz now thought themselves secure of totally overturning the system of Europe, when a cannon ball from the bastions of Frederickshal in Norway confounded all their mighty projects. Charles XII. was killed, the Spanish fleet was beaten by that of England, the conspiracy which had been formed in France was discovered and quelled, Alberoni was driven out of Spain, and Gortz was beheaded at Stockholm; and of all this formidable league, so lately made, the czar alone retained his credit, who by not having put himself in the power of any one, gave law to all his neighbours.
At the death of Charles XII. there was a total change of measures in Sweden. Charles had governed with a despotic power, and his sister Ulrica was elected Queen on express condition of renouncing arbitrary government. Charles intended to form an alliance with the czar against England and its allies, and the new government of Sweden now joined those allies against the czar.
The congress at Oeland, however, was not broken up; but the Swedes, now in league with the English, flattered themselves that the fleets of that nation sent into the Baltic would procure them a more advantageous peace. A body of Hanoverian troops entered the dominions of the duke of Mecklenburg (Feb. 1716.), but were soon driven from thence by the czar's forces.
Peter likewise had a body of troops in Poland, which kept in awe both the party of Augustus, and that of Stanislaus; and as to Sweden, he had a fleet always ready, either to make a descent on their coasts, or to oblige the Swedishgovernment to hasten matters in the congress. This fleet consisted of twelve large ships of the line, and several lesser ones, besides frigates and galleys. The czar served on board this fleet as vice-admiral, under the command of admiral Apraxin.
A part of this fleet signalized itself in the beginning against a Swedish squadron, and, after an obstinate engagement, took one ship of the line, and two frigates. Peter, who constantly endeavoured, by every possible means, to encourage and improve the navy he had been at so much pains to establish, gave, on this occasion, sixty thousand French livres[111]in money among the officers of this squadron, with several gold medals, besides conferring marks of honour on those who principally distinguished themselves.
About this time also the English fleet under admiral Norris came up the Baltic, in order to favour the Swedes. Peter, who well knew how far he could depend on his new navy, was not to be frightened by the English, but boldly kept the sea, and sent to know of the English admiral if he was come only as a friend to the Swedes, or as an enemy to Russia? The admiral returned for answer, that he had not as yet any positive orders from his court on that head: however Peter, notwithstanding this equivocal reply, continued to keep the sea with his fleet.
The English fleet, which in fact was come thither only to shew itself, and thereby induce the czar to grant more favourable conditions of peace to the Swedes, went to Copenhagen, and the Russians made some descents on the Swedish coast, and even in the neighbourhood of Copenhagen, (July 1719.) where they destroyed some copper mines, burnt about fifteen thousand houses,and did mischief enough to make the Swedes heartily wish for a speedy conclusion of the peace.
Accordingly the new queen of Sweden pressed a renewal of the negotiations; Osterman himself was sent to Stockholm, and matters continued in this situation during the whole of the year 1719.
The following year the prince of Hesse, husband to the queen of Sweden, and now become king, in virtue of her having yielded up the sovereign power in his favour, began his reign by sending a minister to the court of Petersburg, in order to hasten the so much desired peace; but the war was still carried on in the midst of these negotiations.
The English fleet joined that of the Swedes, but did not yet commit any hostilities, as there was no open rupture between the courts of Russia and England, and admiral Norris even offered his master's mediation towards bringing about a peace; but as this offer was made with arms in hand, it rather retarded than facilitated the negotiations. The coasts of Sweden, and those of the new Russian provinces in the Baltic, are so situated, that the former lay open to every insult, while the latter are secured by their difficult access. This was clearly seen when admiral Norris, after having thrown off the mask, (June 1720.) made a descent in conjunction with the Swedish fleet on a little island in the province of Esthonia, called Narguen, which belonged to the czar, where they only burnt a peasant's house; but the Russians at the same time made a descent near Wasa, and burnt forty-one villages, and upwards of one thousand houses, and did an infinite deal of damage to the country round about. Prince Galitzin boarded and took four Swedish frigates, and the English admiral seemed to have come only to be spectator of that pitch of gloryto which the czar had raised his infant navy; for he had but just shewn himself in those seas, when the Swedish frigates were carried in triumph into the harbour of Cronslot before Petersburg.[112]On this occasions methinks the English did too much if they came only as mediators, and too little if as enemies.
Nov. 1720.] At length, the new king of Sweden demanded a cessation of arms; and as he found the menaces of the English had stood him in no stead, he had recourse to the duke of Orleans, the French regent; and this prince, at once an ally of Russia and Sweden, had the honour of effecting a reconciliation between them. (Feb. 1721.) He sent Campredon, his plenipotentiary, to the court of Petersburg, and from thence to that of Stockholm. A congress was opened at Nystadt,[113]but the czar would not agree to a cessation of arms till matters were on the point of being concluded and the plenipotentiaries ready to sign. He had an army in Finland ready to subdue the rest of that province, and his fleets were continually threatening the Swedish coasts, so that he seemed absolute master of dictating the terms of peace; accordingly they subscribed to whatever he thought fit to demand. By this treaty he was to remain in perpetual possession of all that his arms had conquered, from the borders of Courland to the extremity of the gulf of Finland, and from thence again of the whole extent of the country of Kexholm, and that narrow slip of Finland which stretches out to the northward of the neighbourhood of Kexholm; so that he remained master of all Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, Carelia, with the country of Wybourg, and the neighbouring isles, which secured to him the sovereignty of the sea, as likewise of the isles of Oessel, Dago, Mona, and several others: the whole forming an extent of three thousand leagues of country, of unequal breadth, and which altogether made a large kingdom, that proved the reward of twenty years' immense pains and labour.
The peace was signed at Nystadt the 10th September, 1721, N. S. by the Russian minister Osterman, and general Bruce.
Peter was the more rejoiced at that event, as it freed him from the necessity of keeping such large armies on the frontiers of Sweden, as also from any apprehensions on the part of England, or of the neighbouring states, and left him at full liberty to exert his whole attention to the modelling of his empire, in which he had already made so successful a beginning, and to cherish arts and commerce, which he had introduced among his subjects, at the expense of infinite labour and industry.
In the first transports of his satisfaction, we find him writing in these terms to his plenipotentiaries; 'You have drawn up the treaty as if we ourself had dictated and sent it to you to offer the Swedes to sign. This glorious event shall be ever present to our remembrance.'
All degrees of people, throughout the Russian empire, gave proofs of their satisfaction, by the most extraordinary rejoicings of all kinds, and particularly at Petersburg. The triumphal festivals, with which the czar had entertained his people during the course of the war, were nothing to compare to these rejoicings for the peace, which every one hailed with unutterable satisfaction. The peace itself was the most glorious of all his triumphs; and what pleased more than all the pompous shows on the occasion, was a free pardon and general release granted to all prisoners, and a general remission of all sums due to the royal treasury for taxes throughout the whole empire, to the day of the publication of the peace. In consequence of which a multitude of unhappy wretches, who had been confined in prison, were set at liberty, excepting only those guilty of highway-robbery, murder, or treason.[114]
It was at this time that the senate decreed Peter the titles ofGreat,Emperor, andFather of his Country. Count Golofkin, the high chancellor, made a speech to the czar in the great cathedral, in the name of all the orders of the state, the senators crying aloud,Long live our emperor and father!in which acclamations they were joined by the united voice of all the people present. The ministers of France, Germany, Poland, Denmark, and the states-general, waited on him, with their congratulations, on the titles lately bestowed on him, and formally acknowledged for emperor him who had been always publicly known in Holland by that title, ever since the battle of Pultowa. The names ofFather, and ofGreat, were glorious epithets, which no one in Europe could dispute him; that ofEmperorwas only a honorary title, given by custom to the sovereigns of Germany, as titular kings of the Romans; and it requires time before such appellations come to be formally adopted by those courts where forms of state and real glory are different things. But Peter was in a short time after acknowledged emperor by all the states of Europe, excepting only that of Poland, which was still divided by factions, and the pope, whose suffrage was become of very little significance, since the court of Rome had lost its credit in proportion as other nations became more enlightened.
Conquests in Persia.
Conquests in Persia.
The situation of Russia is such, as necessarily obliges her to keep up certain connexions with all the nations that lie in the fifth degree of north latitude. When under a bad administration, she was a prey by turns to the Tartars, the Swedes, and the Poles; but when governed by a resolute and vigorous prince, she became formidable to all her neighbours. Peter began his reign by an advantageous treaty with the Chinese. He had waged war at one and the same time against the Swedes and the Turks, and now prepared to lead his victorious armies into Persia.
At this time Persia began to fall into that deplorable state, in which we now behold her. Let us figure to ourselves the thirty years' war in Germany, the times of the league, those of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and the reigns of Charles VI. and of king John in France, the civil wars in England, the long and horrible ravages of the whole Russian empire by the Tartars, or their invasion of China; and then we shall have some slight conception of the miseries under which the Persian empire has so long groaned.
A weak and indolent prince, and a powerful and enterprising subject, are sufficient to plunge a whole nation into such an abyss of disasters. Hussein, sha, shaic, or sophi of Persia, a descendant of the great sha Abbas, who sat at this time on the throne of Persia, had given himself wholly up to luxury and effeminacy: his prime minister committed acts of the greatest violence and injustice, which this great prince winked at, and this gave rise to forty years' desolation and bloodshed.
Persia, like Turkey, has several provinces, all governed in a different manner; she has subjects immediately under her dominion, vassals, tributary princes, and even nations, to whom the court was wont to pay a tribute, under the name of subsidies; for instance, the people of Daghestan, who inhabit the branches of mount Caucasus, to the westward of the Caspian Sea, which was formerly a part of the ancient Albania; for all nations have changed their appellation and their limits. These are now called Lesgians, and are mountaineers, who are rather under the protection, than the dominion, of Persia; to these the government paid subsidies for defending the frontiers.
At the other extremity of the empire, towards the Indies, was the prince of Candahar, who commanded a kind of martial militia, called Aghwans. This prince of Candahar was a vassal of the Persian, as the hospodars of Walachia and Moldavia are of the Turkish empire: this vassalage was not hereditary, but exactly the same with the ancient feudal tenures established throughout Europe, by that race of Tartars who overthrew the Roman empire. The Aghwan militia, of which the prince of Candahar was the head, was the same with the Albanians on the coasts of the Caspian Sea, in the neighbourhood of Daghestan, and a mixture of Circassians and Georgians, like the ancient Mamelucks who enslaved Egypt. The name of Aghwans is a corruption; Timur, whom we call Tamerlane, had led these people into India, and they remained settled in the province of Candahar, which sometimes belonged to the Mogul empire, and sometimes to that of Persia. It was these Aghwans and Lesgians who began the revolution.
Mir-Weis, or Meriwitz, intendant of the province, whose office was only to collect the tributes, assassinated the prince of Candahar, armed the militia, and continued master of the province till his death, which happened in 1717. His brother came quietly to the succession, by paying a slight tribute to the Persian court. But the son of Mir-Weis, who inherited the ambition of his father, assassinated his uncle, and began to erect himself into a conqueror. This young man was called Mir-Mahmoud, but he was known in Europe only by the name of his father, who had begun the rebellion. Mahmoud reinforced his Aghwans, by adding to them all the Guebres he could get together. These Guebres were an ancient race of Persians, who had been dispersed by the caliph Omar, and who still continued attached to the religion of the Magi (formerly flourished in the reign of Cyrus), and were always secret enemies to the new Persians. Having assembled his forces, Mahmoud marched into the heart of Persia, at the head of a hundred thousand men.
At the same time the Lesgians or Albanians, who, on account of the troublesome times, had not received their subsidies from the court of Persia, came down from their mountains with an armed force, so that the flames of civil war were lighted up at both ends of the empire, and extended themselves even to the capital.
These Lesgians ravaged all that country which stretches along the western borders of the Caspian Sea, as far as Derbent, or the Iron Gate. In this country is situated the city of Shamache, about fifteen leagues distant from the sea, and is said to have been the ancient residence of Cyrus, and by the Greeks called Cyropolis, for we know nothing of the situation or names of these countries, but what we have from the Greeks; but as the Persians never had a prince called Cyrus,much less had they any city called Cyropolis. It is much in the same manner that the Jews, who commenced authors when they were settled in Alexandria, framed a notion of a city called Scythopolis, which, said they, was built by the Scythians in the neighbourhood of Judea, as if either Scythians or ancient Jews could have given Greek names to their towns.
The city of Shamache was very rich. The Armenians, who inhabit in the neighbourhood of this part of the Persian empire, carried on an immense traffic there, and Peter had lately established a company of Russian merchants at his own expense, which company became very flourishing. The Lesgians made themselves masters of this city by surprise, plundered it, and put to death all the Russians who traded there under the protection of shah Hussein, after having stripped all their warehouses. The loss on this occasion was said to amount to four millions of rubles.
Peter upon this sent to demand satisfaction of the emperor Hussein, who was then disputing the throne with the rebel Mahmoud, who had usurped it, and likewise of Mahmoud himself. The former of these was willing to do the czar justice, the other refused it; Peter therefore resolved to right himself, and take advantage of the distractions in the Persian empire.
Mir-Mahmoud still pushed his conquests in Persia. The sophi hearing that the emperor of Russia was preparing to enter the Caspian Sea, in order to revenge the murder of his subjects at Shamache, made private application to him, by means of an Armenian, to take upon him at the same time the defence of Persia.
Peter had for a considerable time formed a project to make himself master of the CaspianSea, by means of a powerful naval force, and to turn the tide of commerce from Persia and a part of India through his own dominions. He had caused several parts of this sea to be sounded, the coasts to be surveyed, and exact charts made of the whole. He then set sail for the coast of Persia the 15th day of May, 1722. Catherine accompanied him in this voyage, as she had done in the former. They sailed down the Wolga as far as the city of Astracan. From thence he hastened to forward the canals which were to join the Caspian, the Baltic, and the Euxine seas, a work which has been since executed in part under the reign of his grandson.
While he was directing these works, the necessary provisions for his expedition were arrived in the Caspian Sea. He was to take with him twenty-two thousand foot, nine thousand dragoons, fifteen thousand Cossacks, and three thousand seamen, who were to work the ships, and occasionally assist the soldiery in making descents on the coast. The horse were to march over land through deserts where there was frequently no water to be had, and afterwards to pass over the mountains of Caucasus, where three hundred men are sufficient to stop the progress of a whole army; but the distracted condition in which Persia then was, warranted the most hazardous enterprises.
The czar sailed about a hundred leagues to the southward of Astracan, till he came to the little town of Andrewhoff. It may appear extraordinary to hear of the name of Andrew on the coasts of the Hyrcanian Sea; but some Georgians, who were formerly a sect of Christians, had built this town, which the Persians afterwards fortified; but it fell an easy prey to the czar's arms. From thence he continued advancing by land into theprovince of Daghestan, and caused manifestoes to be circulated in the Turkish and Persian languages.[115]It was necessary to keep fair with the Ottoman Porte, who reckoned among its subjects, not only the Circassians and Georgians, who border upon this country, but also several powerful vassals, who had of late put themselves under the protection of the grand seignior.
Among others there was one very powerful, named Mahmoud d'Utmich, who took the title of sultan, and had the courage to attack the czar's troops, by which he was totally defeated, and the story says, that his whole country was made a bonfire on the occasion.
Sept. 14, 1722.] In a short time afterwards Peter arrived at the city of Derbent, by the Persians and Turks called Demir Capi, that is, the Iron Gate, and so named from having formerly had an iron gate at the south entrance. The city is long and narrow, its upper part joins to a rocky branch of Mount Caucasus, and the walls of the lower part are washed by the sea, which in violent storms make a breach over them. These walls might pass for one of the wonders of antiquity, being forty feet in height, and six in breadth, defended with square towers at the distance of every fifty feet. The whole work seems one uniform piece, and is built of a sort of brown free-stone mixed with pounded shells, whichserved as mortar, so that the whole forms a mass harder than marble. The city lies open from the sea, but part of it next the land appears impregnable. There are still some ruins of an old wall like that of China, which must have been built in the earliest times of antiquity, and stretched from the borders of the Caspian Sea to the Pontus Euxinus; and this was probably a rampart raised by the ancient kings of Persia against those swarms of barbarians which dwelt between those two seas.
According to the Persian tradition, the city of Derbent was partly repaired and fortified by Alexander the Great. Arrian and Quintus Curtius tell us, that Alexander absolutely rebuilt this city. They say indeed that it was on the banks of the Tanais or Don, but then in their time the Greeks gave the name of Tanais to the river Cyrus, which runs by the city. It would be a contradiction to suppose that Alexander should build a harbour in the Caspian Sea, on a river that opens into the Black Sea.
There were formerly three or four other ports in different parts of the Caspian Sea, all which were probably built with the same view; for the several nations inhabiting to the west, east, and north of that sea, have in all times been barbarians, who had rendered themselves formidable to the rest of the world, and from hence principally issued those swarms of conquerors who subjugated Asia and Europe.
And here I must beg leave to remark, how much pleasure authors in all ages have taken to impose upon mankind, and how much they have preferred a vain show of eloquence to matter of fact. Quintus Curtius puts into the mouths of Scythians an admirable speech full of moderation and philosophy, as if the Tartars of those regionshad been all so many sages, and that Alexander had not been the general nominated by the Greeks against the king of Persia, sovereign of the greatest part of southern Scythia and the Indies. Other rhetoricians, thinking to imitate Quintus Curtius, have studied to make us look upon those savages of Caucacus and its dreary deserts, who lived wholly upon rapine and bloodshed, as the people in the world most remarkable for austere virtue and justice, and have painted Alexander, the avenger of Greece, and the conqueror of those who would have enslaved him and his country, as a public robber, who had ravaged the world without justice or reason.
Such writers do not consider, that these Tartars were never other than destroyers, and that Alexander built towns in the very country which they inhabited; and in this respect I may venture to compare Peter the Great to Alexander; like him he was assiduous and indefatigable in his pursuits, a lover and friend of the useful arts; he surpassed him as a lawgiver, and like him endeavoured to change the tide of commerce in the world, and built and repaired at least as many towns as that celebrated hero of antiquity.
On the approach of the Russian army, the governor of Derbent resolved not to sustain a siege, whether he thought he was not able to defend the place, or that he preferred the czar's protection to that of the tyrant Mahmoud; brought the keys of the town and citadel (which were silver) and presented them to Peter, whose army peaceably entered the city, and then encamped on the sea-shore.
The usurper, Mahmoud, already master of great part of Persia, in vain endeavoured to prevent the czar from taking possession of Derbent: he stirred up the neighbouring Tartars, andmarched into Persia to the relief of the place; but, too late, for Derbent was already in the hands of the conqueror.
Peter however was not in a condition to push his successes any further at this time. The vessels which were bringing him a fresh supply of provisions, horses, and recruits, had been cast away near Astracan, and the season was far spent. He therefore returned to Moscow, Jan. 5. which he entered in triumph; and after his arrival (according to custom) gave a strict account of his expedition to the vice-czar Romadanowski, thus keeping up this extraordinary farce, which, says his eulogium, pronounced in the academy of sciences at Paris, ought to have been performed before all the monarchs of the earth.
The empire of Persia continued to be divided between Hussein and the usurper Mahmoud. The first of these thought to find a protector in the czar, and the other dreaded him as an avenger, who was come to snatch the fruits of his rebellion out of his hands. Mahmoud exerted all his endeavours to stir up the Ottoman Porte against Peter, and for this purpose sent an embassy to Constantinople, while the princes of Daghestan, who were under the protection of the grand seignior, and had been stript of their territories by the victorious army of Peter, cried aloud for vengeance. The divan was now alarmed for the safety of Georgia, which the Turks reckon in the number of their dominions.
The grand seignior was on the point of declaring war against the czar, but was prevented by the courts of Vienna and Paris. The emperor of Germany at the same time declared, that if Russia should be attacked by the Turks, he must be obliged to defend it. The marquis de Bonac, the French ambassador at Constantinople,made a dextrous use of the menaces of the imperial court, and at the same time insinuated, that it was contrary to the true interest of the Turkish empire, to suffer a rebel and an usurper to set the example of dethroning sovereigns, and that the czar had done no more than what the grand seignior himself ought to have done.
During these delicate negotiations, Mir Mahmoud was advanced to the gates of Derbent, and had laid waste all the neighbouring country in order to cut off all means of subsistence from the Russian army. That part of ancient Hyrcania, now called Ghilan, was reduced to a desert, and the inhabitants threw themselves under the protection of the Russians, whom they looked upon as their deliverers.
In this they followed the example of the sophi himself. That unfortunate prince sent a formal embassy to Peter the Great, to request his assistance; but the ambassador was hardly departed, when the rebel, Mir Mahmoud, seized on Ispahan and the person of his master.
Thamaseb, the son of the dethroned sophi, who was taken prisoner, found means to escape out of the tyrant's hands, and got together a body of troops, with which he gave the usurper battle. He seconded his father's entreaties to Peter the Great for his protection, and sent to the ambassador the same instructions which Shah Hussein had given him.
This ambassador, whose name was Ishmael Beg, found that his negotiations had proved successful, even before he arrived in person; for, on landing at Astracan, he learnt that general Matufkin was going to set out with fresh recruits to reinforce the army in Daghestan. The dey of Baku or Bachu, which with the Persians gives to the Caspian Sea the name of the Sea of Bacou,was not yet taken. The ambassador therefore gave the Russian general a letter for the inhabitants, in which he exhorted them in his master's name to submit to the emperor of Russia. The ambassador then proceeded to Petersburg, and general Matufkin departed to lay siege to the city of Bachu. (Aug. 1723.) The Persian ambassador arrived at the czar's court the very day that tidings were brought of the reduction of that city.
Baku is situate near Shamache, but is neither so well peopled, nor so rich as the latter. It is chiefly remarkable for the naptha, with which it furnishes all Persia. Never was treaty so speedily concluded as that of Ishmael Beg. (Sept. 1723.) Czar Peter promised to march with his forces into Persia, in order to revenge the death of his subjects, and to succour Thamaseb against the usurper of his crown, and the new sophi in return was to cede to him, not only the towns of Bachu and Derbent, but likewise the provinces of Ghilan, Mazanderan, and Asterabath.
Ghilan is, as we have already observed, the ancient South Hyrcania; Mazanderan, which joins to it, is the country of the Mardi, or Mardians; and Asterabath borders upon Mazanderan. These were the three principal provinces of the ancient Median kings; so that Peter beheld himself, by the means of arms and treaties, in possession of the original kingdom of Cyrus.
It may not be foreign to our subject to observe, that by the articles of this convention, the prices of necessaries to be furnished to the army were settled. A camel was to cost only sixty franks (about twelve rubles) a pound of bread no more than five farthings, the same weight of beef about six. These prices furnish a convincing proof ofthe plenty he found in these countries, that possessions in land are of the most intrinsic value, and that money, which is only of nominal worth, was at that time very scarce.
Such was the deplorable state to which Persia was then reduced, that the unfortunate sophi Thamaseb, a wanderer in his own kingdom, and flying before the face of the rebel, Mahmoud, who had dipt his hands in the blood of his father and his brothers, was necessitated to entreat the court of Russia and the Turkish divan to accept of one part of his dominions to preserve for him the rest.
It was agreed then, between czar Peter, sultan Achmet III. and the sophi Thamaseb, that the first of these should keep the three provinces above-named, and that the Porte should have Casbin, Tauris, and Erivan, besides what she had already taken from the usurper. Thus was this noble kingdom dismembered at once by the Russians, the Turks, and the Persians themselves.
And now the emperor Peter might be said to extend his dominions from the furthest part of the Baltic Sea, beyond the southern limits of the Caspian. Persia still continued a prey to violations and devastations, and its natives, till then opulent and polite, were now sunk in poverty and barbarism, while the Russian people had arisen from indigence and ignorance to a state of riches and learning. One single man, by a resolute and enterprising genius, had brought his country out of obscurity; and another, by his weakness and indolence, had brought destruction upon his.
Hitherto we know very little of the private calamities which for so long a time spread desolation over the face of the Persian empire. It is said, that shah Hussein was so pusillanimous as to placewith his own hands the tiara or crown of Persia on the head of the usurper Mahmoud, and also that this Mahmoud afterwards went mad. Thus the lives of so many thousands of men depend on the caprice of a madman or a fool. They add furthermore, that Mahmoud, in one of his fits of frenzy, put to death with his own hand all the sons and nephews of the shah Hussein to the number of a hundred; and that he caused the gospel of St. John to be read upon his head, in order to purify himself, and to receive a cure for his disorder. These and such like Persian fables have been circulated by our monks, and afterwards printed in Paris.
The tyrant, after having murdered his uncle, was in his turn put to death by his nephew Eshreff, who was as cruel and bloody a tyrant as Mahmoud himself.
Shah Thamaseb still continued imploring the assistance of Russia. This Thamaseb or shah Thomas, was assisted and afterwards replaced on the throne by the famous Kouli Khan, and was again dethroned by the same Kouli Khan.
The revolutions and wars which Russia had afterwards to encounter against the Turks, and in which she proved victorious, the evacuating the three provinces in Persia, which cost Russia more to keep than they were worth, are events which do not concern Peter the Great, as they did not happen till several years after his death; it may suffice to observe, that he finished his military career by adding three provinces to his empire on the part next to Persia, after having just before added the same number on that side next to Sweden.
Of the Coronation of the Empress Catherine I. and the Death of Peter the Great.
Of the Coronation of the Empress Catherine I. and the Death of Peter the Great.
Peter, at his return from his Persian expedition, found himself in a better condition than ever to be the arbiter of the North. He now openly declared himself the protector of Charles XII. whose professed enemy he had been for eighteen years. He sent for the duke of Holstein, nephew to that monarch, to his court, promised him his eldest daughter in marriage, and began to make preparations for supporting him in his claims on the duchy of Holstein Sleswick, and even engaged himself so to do by a treaty of alliance, (Feb. 1724.) which he concluded with the crown of Sweden.
He continued the works he had begun all over his empire, to the further extremity of Kamtshatka, and for the better direction of them, established an academy of sciences at Petersburg. The arts began now to flourish on every side: manufactures were encouraged, the navy was augmented, the army well provided, and the laws properly enforced. He now enjoyed his glory in full repose; but was desirous of sharing it in a new manner with her who, according to his own declaration, by remedying the disaster of the campaign of Pruth, had been in some measure the instrument of his acquiring that glory.
Accordingly, the coronation of his consort Catherine was performed at Moscow, in presence of the duchess of Courland, his eldest brother's daughter, and the duke of Holstein, his intended son-in-law. (May 28, 1724.) The declaration which he published on this occasion merits attention: he therein cites the examples of several Christian princes who had placed the crown on the heads of their consorts, as likewise those of the heathen emperors, Basilides, Justinian, Heraclius, and Leo, the philosopher. He enumerates the services Catherine had done to the state, and in particular in the war against the Turks,—'Where my army,' says he, 'which had been reduced to 22,000 men, had to encounter an army above 200,000 strong.' He does not say, in this declaration, that the empress was to succeed to the crown after his death; but this ceremony, which was altogether new and unusual in the Russian empire, was one of those means by which he prepared the minds of his subjects for such an event. Another circumstance that might perhaps furnish a stronger reason to believe that he destined Catherine to succeed him on the throne, was, that he himself marched on foot before her the day of her coronation, as captain of a new company, which he had created under the name of theknights of the empress.
When they arrived at the cathedral, Peter himself placed the crown on her head; and when she would have fallen down and embraced his knees, he prevented her; and, at their return from the church, caused the sceptre and globe to be carried before her. The ceremony was altogether worthy an emperor; for on every public occasion Peter shewed as much pomp and magnificence as he did plainness and simplicity in his private manner of living.
Having thus crowned his spouse, he at length determined to give his eldest daughter, Anna Petrowna, in marriage to the duke of Holstein. This princess greatly resembled her father in the face, was very majestic, and of a singular beauty.She was betrothed to the duke of Holstein on the 24th of November, 1724, but with very little ceremony. Peter having for some time past found his health greatly impaired, and this, together with some family uneasiness, that perhaps rather increased his disorder, which in a short time proved fatal, permitted him to have but very little relish for feasts or public diversions in this latter part of his life.[116]The empress Catherine had at that time a young man for the chamberlain of her household, whose name was Moens de la Croix, a native of Russia, but of Flemish parents, remarkably handsome and genteel. His sister, madame de Balc, was bed-chamber-woman to the empress, and these two had entirely the management of her household. Being both accused of having taken presents, they were sent to prison, and afterwards brought to their trial by express order of the czar; who, by an edict in the year 1714, had forbidden any one holding a place about court to receive any present or other gratuity, on pain of being declared infamous, and suffering death; and this prohibition had been several times renewed.
The brother and sister were found guilty, and received sentence, and all those who had either purchased their services or given them any gratuity in return for the same, were included therein, except the duke of Holstein and his minister count Bassewitz: as it is probable that the presents made by that prince, to those who had a share in bringing about his marriage with the czar's daughter, were not looked upon in a criminal light.
Moens was condemned to be beheaded, and his sister (who was the empress's favourite) to receive eleven strokes of the knout. The two sonsof this lady, one of whom was an officer in the household, and the other a page, were degraded, and sent to serve as private soldiers in the army in Persia.
These severities, though they shock our manners, were perhaps necessary in a country where the observance of the laws is to be enforced only by the most terrifying rigour. The empress solicited her favourite's pardon; but the czar, offended at her application, peremptorily refused her, and, in the heat of his passion, seeing a fine looking-glass in the apartment, he, with one blow of his fist, broke it into a thousand pieces; and, turning to the empress, 'Thus,' said he, 'thou seest I can, with one stroke of my hand, reduce this glass to its original dust.' Catherine, in a melting accent, replied, 'It is true, you have destroyed one of the greatest ornaments of your palace, but do you think that palace is the more charming for its loss?' This answer appeased the emperor's wrath; but all the favour that Catherine could obtain for her bed-chamber-woman was, that she should receive only five strokes of the knout instead of eleven.
I should not have related this anecdote, had it not been attested by a public minister, who was eye-witness of the whole transaction, and who, by having made presents to the unfortunate brother and sister, was perhaps himself one of the principal causes of their disgrace and sufferings. It was this affair that emboldened those who judge of every thing in the worst light, to spread the report that Catherine hastened the death of her husband, whose choleric disposition filled her with apprehensions that overweighed the gratitude she owed him for the many favours he had heaped upon her.
These cruel suspicions were confirmed byCatherine's recalling to court her woman of the bed-chamber immediately upon the death of the czar, and reinstating her in her former influence. It is the duty of an historian to relate the public reports which have been circulated in all times in states, on the decease of princes who have been snatched away by a premature death, as if nature was not alone sufficient to put a period to the existence of a crowned head as well as that of a beggar; but it is likewise the duty of an historian to shew how far such reports were rashly or unjustly formed.
There is an immense distance between the momentary discontent which may arise from the morose or harsh behaviour of a husband, and the desperate resolution of poisoning that husband, who is at the same time our sovereign and benefactor in the highest degree. The danger attending such a design would have been as great as it was criminal. Catherine had at that time a powerful party against her, who epoused the cause of the son of the deceased czarowitz. Nevertheless, neither that faction, nor any one person about the court, once suspected the czarina; and the vague rumours which were spread on this head were founded only on the mistaken notions of foreigners, who were very imperfectly acquainted with the affair, and who chose to indulge the wretched pleasure of accusing of heinous crimes those whom they thought interested to commit them. But it was even very doubtful whether this was at all the case with Catherine. It was far from being certain that she was to succeed her husband. She had been crowned indeed, but only in the character of wife to the reigning sovereign, and not as one who was to enjoy the sovereign authority after his death.
Peter, in his declaration, had only ordered thiscoronation as a matter of ceremony, and not as conferring a right of governing. He therein only cited the examples of emperors, who had caused their consorts to be crowned, but not of those who had conferred on them the royal authority. In fine, at the very time of Peter's illness, several persons believed that the princess Anna Petrowna would succeed him jointly with her husband the duke of Holstein, or that the czar would nominate his grandson for his successor; therefore, so far from Catherine's being interested in the death of the emperor, she rather seemed concerned in the preservation of his life.
It is undeniable, that Peter had, for a considerable time, been troubled with an abscess in the bladder, and a stoppage of urine. The mineral waters of Olnitz, and some others, which he had been advised to use, had proved of very little service to him, and he had found himself growing sensibly weaker, ever since the beginning of the year 1724. His labours, from which he would not allow himself any respite, increased his disorder, and hastened his end: (Jan. 1723.) his malady became now more and more desperate, he felt burning pains, which threw him into an almost constant delirium,[117]whenever he had a moment's interval, he endeavoured to write, but he could only scrawl a few lines that were wholly unintelligible; and it was with the greatest difficulty that the following words, in the Russian language, could be distinguished:—'Let every thing be given to ——'
He then called for the princess Anna Petrowna, in order to dictate to her, but by that time she could come to his bed-side, he had lost his speech, and fell into a fit, which lasted sixteen hours. The empress Catherine did not quit his bed-sidefor three nights together. At length, he breathed his last in her arms, on the 28th of Jan. 1725. about four o'clock in the morning.
His body was conveyed into the great hall of the palace, accompanied by all the imperial family, the senate, all the principal personages of state, and an innumerable concourse of people. It was there exposed on a bed of state, and every one was permitted to approach and kiss his hand, till the day of his interment, which was on the 10-21st of March, 1725.[118]
It has been thought, and it has been asserted in print, that he had appointed his wife Catherine to succeed him in the empire, by his last will, but the truth is, that he never made any will, or at least none that ever appeared; a most astonishing negligence in so great a legislator, and a proof that he did not think his disorder mortal.
No one knew, at the time of his death, who was to succeed him: he left behind him his grandson Peter, son of the unfortunate Alexis, and his eldest daughter Anna, married to the duke of Holstein. There was a considerable faction in favour of young Peter; but prince Menzikoff, who had never had any other interests than those of the empress Catherine, took care to be beforehand with all parties, and their designs; and accordingly, when the czar was upon the point of giving up the ghost, he caused the empress to remove into another apartment of the palace, where all their friends were assembled ready: he had the royal treasures conveyed into the citadel, and secured the guards in his interest, as likewise the archbishop of Novogorod; and then they held a private council, in presence of the empress Catherine, and one Macarof, a secretary, in whom they could confide, at which the duke of Holstein's minister assisted.
At the breaking up of this council, the empress returned to the czar's bed-side, who soon after yielded up the ghost in her arms. As soon as his death was made known, the principal senators and general officers repaired to the palace, where the empress made a speech to them, which prince Menzikoff answered in the name of all present. The empress being withdrawn, they proceeded to consider the proper forms to be observed on the occasion, when Theophanes, archbishop of Pleskow, told the assembly, that, onthe eve of the coronation of the empress Catherine, the deceased czar had declared to him, that his sole reason for placing the crown on her head, was, that she might wear it after his death; upon which the assembly unanimously signed the proclamation, and Catherine succeeded her husband on the throne the very day of his death.
Peter the Great was regretted by all those whom he had formed, and the descendants of those who had been sticklers for the ancient customs soon began to look on him as their father: foreign nations, who have beheld the duration of his establishments, have always expressed the highest admiration for his memory, acknowledging that he was actuated by a more than common prudence and wisdom, and not by a vain desire of doing extraordinary things. All Europe knows that though he was fond of fame, he coveted it only for noble principles; that though he had faults, they never obscured his noble qualities, and that, though, as a man, he was liable to errors, as a monarch he was always great: he every way forced nature, in his subjects, in himself, by sea and land: but he forced her only to render her more pleasing and noble. The arts, which he transplanted with his own hands, into countries, till then in a manner savage, have flourished, and produced fruits which are lasting testimonies of his genius, and will render his memory immortal, since they now appear as natives of those places to which he introduced them. The civil, political, and military government, trade, manufactures, the arts and the sciences, have all been carried on, according to his plan, and by an event not to be paralleled in history: we have seen four women successively ascend the throne after him, who have maintained, in full vigour, all the great designshe accomplished, and have completed those which he had begun.
The court has undergone some revolutions since his death, but the empire has not suffered one. Its splendour was increased by Catherine I. It triumphed over the Turks and the Swedes under Anna Petrowna; and under Elizabeth it conquered Prussia, and a part of Pomerania; and lastly, it has tasted the sweets of peace, and has seen the arts flourish in fulness and security in the reign of Catherine the Second.[119]