EUROPE
AND
THE ALLIES OF TO-DAY.
Origin of the Ottoman Empire—Siege and Capture of Constantinople by the Turks—Mahomet—The Sultans—Abdul Medjid—His popularity and power—The Koran.The Russian Empire—Area and population—Social organization—Religious policy—Nobility—Serfs—Conscription—The Army—Progress of Russia and extension of her frontiers—Nicholas—Poland.
Origin of the Ottoman Empire—Siege and Capture of Constantinople by the Turks—Mahomet—The Sultans—Abdul Medjid—His popularity and power—The Koran.
The Russian Empire—Area and population—Social organization—Religious policy—Nobility—Serfs—Conscription—The Army—Progress of Russia and extension of her frontiers—Nicholas—Poland.
In the former half of the sixth century, Justinian was Emperor of the East. His empire nearly corresponded in geographical extent with the country which we now call Turkey in Europe. During his reign, Constantinople was visited by a company of warlike strangers, whose savage aspect filled all the people with amazement and fear. Their long hair, which hung in tresses down their backs, was gracefully bound with ribbons, but in the rest of their habit they resembled the Huns. These were the first Turks ever seen in Europe. They had come to offer the Emperor their alliance, which was accepted at a givenprice. They had travelled from the foot of Mount Caucasus, where they first heard of the splendor and weakness of the Roman Empire. Their origin was beyond that celebrated ridge, and in the midst of another no less celebrated, and which is variously known as the Caf, the Imaus, the Golden Mountains, and the Girdle of the Earth. Here lived the people called Geougen, governed by a great Khan. In the hills they inhabited were many minerals. Iron and other mines were worked for them by the most despised portion of their slaves, who were known by the name of Turks. These slaves, under Bertezena, one of their number, rebelled against the great Khan, and succeeded in possessing themselves of their native country. From freedom they proceeded to conquest, and it was in the course of their victories that they found their way to the Caucasus. Nearly a century elapsed, and Heraclius was Emperor. He formed an alliance with the Turks, and so honored their prince as to place the imperial diadem on his head, and salute him with a tender embrace as his son. In the ninth century the Turks were introduced into Arabia. The Caliph Motassem employed them as his own guards in his own capital. He educated them in the exercise of arms, and in the profession of the Mahometan faith. No less a number than 50,000 of these hardy foreigners did he thus foolishly establish in the very heart of his dominions. In due time they became masters of some portions of the country into which they had been admitted as mercenaries. For one of their princes, Mahmood or Mahmud, the title of Sultan was invented, about a thousand years after Christ. Its meaning is autocrat or lord. His conquests were very extensive, and stretchedfrom Transoxiana to Ispahan—from the shores of the Caspian to the mouth of the Indus.
Toward the close of the twelfth century, Zingis (or Genghis) Khan organized incredible hordes of Moguls and Tartars, and conquered nearly all Asia west of India. After his death, the Tartar Empire was broken up into fragments. Most of these resultant little kingdoms gradually embraced Mahometanism, and amongst them was laid the foundation of what is now called the Ottoman (or Turkish) Empire. Incited by the example and success of the terrible Tartar, Shah Soliman, prince of the town of Nera, on the Caspian Sea, spread the terror of his arms all through Asia Minor, as far as the Euphrates. He was drowned in the passage of that river. His son, Orthogrul, succeeded him. This chief was the father of Thaman, or Athman, whose Turkish name has been melted into the appellation of the Caliph Othman. He was an aspiring and clever man, and soon freed himself from the control of a superior, as the power of the Mogul Khans had become well nigh extinct. He resolved to propagate the religion of the Koran by every means in his power; and began his holy war against the infidels by making a descent into Nicomedia. This he did in July, 1299. He was entirely victorious; and for twenty-seven years he repeated similar inroads, and achieved similar conquests in other directions. Towards the close of his reign, Prusa (Boursa), the capital of Bithynia, surrendered to his son Orchan, who, after his father’s death, made it the seat of his government. This was in the year 1326, and from that time we may date the true era of the Ottoman Empire,—the name of which is plainly derived from thatof the Caliph Othman. His power rapidly increased. Many cities and districts fell into his hands,—amongst others, Ephesus, and the other six places, in which were the seven churches of Asia. Christianity in all these localities, except Philadelphia, was speedily extinguished, and supplanted by Islamism. Orchan had two sons, Soliman and Amurath. The former subdued Thrace, and possessed himself of Gallipoli, and was at last killed by a fall from his horse. The aged Emir (for no higher title had Orchan assumed) wept, and expired on the tomb of his valiant son. Amurath stept into his place, and wielded the scimitar with all his father’s energy. By the advice of his vizier, he selected for his own use the fifth part of the Christian youth in the provinces which he subjugated. His choice fell on the stoutest and most beautiful. These were named “yengi cheri,” or new soldiers. In more recent times the haughty troops, originated in this way, have gone by the name of Janissaries. At first they were courageous and zealous in the cause of their new master and new religion. For a long while they were theéliteof the Turkish forces, and in critical outbreaks have often been a source of great anxiety to the sultans themselves.
Bajazet, his son and successor, surnamed “Ilderim,” or Lightning, was a man of fiery and energetic temperament. His territory was rapidly extended over the whole country, from Boursa to Adrianople, from the Danube to the Euphrates. He turned his arms against Hungary; and at Nicopolis defeated 100,000 Christians, who had proudly boasted that if the sky should fall they could uphold it on their lances. Bajazet boasted that he would advance to Germany and Italy, and feed his horse with a bushelof oats on the altar of St. Peter’s at Rome. A fit of the gout prevented his fulfilment of this threat. Meanwhile there rose up another great Mogul conqueror, Timour, or Tamerlane, who avenged the defeat of his ancestors upon the Turks. Bajazet (who had assumed the title of sultan) was conquered and taken captive. From the Irtysh and Volga to the Persian Gulf, and from the Ganges to Damascus and the Archipelago, Asia was in the hands of Timour; his armies were invincible, his ambition was boundless, and his zeal might have aspired to conquer and convert the Christian kingdoms of the West, which already trembled at his name. But he was not master of a single galley, with which to cross the Bosphorus or Dardanelles. This insuperable obstacle checked his career. At length he died, and the Ottoman power, like a strong tree recovering itself after a storm, began again to stand erect and flourish.
The great-grandson of Bajazet was Mahomet II. He emulated the Grecian Alexander. He laid siege to Constantinople, investing it with an army of 258,000 Turks. His navy comprised about 320 vessels, of which 18 were galleys of war. He had engaged the services of a Danish, or Hungarian, founder of cannon, who made him a field-piece capable of throwing a ball, which weighed 600 pounds, more than a mile. This could be fired only seven times in one day. Never before had the recent invention of gunpowder been employed with such terrible effect as at this siege of Constantinople. The inhabitants of that city were more than 100,000, but of those not more than 4,970, together with a body of 2,000 strangers, were capable of bearing arms. How small a garrison to defenda city of thirteen, or perhaps sixteen, miles in extent! Yet, under these doleful circumstances, the city was distracted with religious discord, just as Jerusalem was before and during its siege by Titus. An immense chain closed the mouth of the harbor, whilst the mouth of the Bosphorus was defended by a fleet which was superior to that of the Turks. The city seemed incapable of being reduced. The Turks despaired: the Christians triumphed. In this perplexity it occurred to Mahomet to transport his fleet across the land. By amazing ingenuity and toil, he accomplished this feat. The distance was ten miles, yet in a single night he thus launched eighty of his light vessels into the harbor. The success of this scheme was perfect. He found his way into the city, which was taken May 29th, 1453. The last Palæologus, Constantine XI., fell by an unknown hand, and his body was buried under a mountain of the slain. The siege had lasted fifty-three days. Besides the multitudes that fell in fight, about 60,000 of the unhappy Greeks were reduced to the condition of slaves. Most of those were soon dispersed in remote servitude through the provinces of the Ottoman empire. The church of St. Sophia was speedily stripped of all its pictures and images, and before the lapse of many hours, themuezzin, or crier, ascended the most lofty turret and proclaimed theezan, or public invitation, in the name of God and his prophet; the Imam preached; and Mahomet the Second performed thenamazof prayer and thanksgiving on the great altar, where the Christian mysteries had so lately been celebrated before the last of the Cæsars. From St. Sophia he proceeded to the august but desolate mansion of a hundred successors of the greatConstantine; but which, in a very short time, had been stripped of the pomp of royalty. A melancholy reflection on the vicissitudes of human greatness forced itself on his mind, and he repeated an elegant distich of Persian poetry—“The spider has wove his web in the imperial palace; and the owl has sung her watch-song on the towers of Afrasiab.”
ABDUL MEDJID, SULTAN OF TURKEY.
ABDUL MEDJID, SULTAN OF TURKEY.
Mahomet removed the seat of his government to Constantinople; a city so obviously marked out by nature for the metropolis of a vast empire. The population was speedily renewed. Before the end of September, five thousand families of Anatolia and Romania had obeyed the royal mandate, which enjoined them, under pain of death, to occupy their new habitations in the capital. The Sultan’s throne was guarded by the numbers and fidelity of his Moslem subjects; but he strove by a rational policy to collect the scattered remnant of the Greeks. These returned in crowds as soon as they were assured of their lives, their liberties, and the free exercise of their religion. The churches were shared between the two religions; their limits were marked; and, till it was infringed by Selim, the grandson of Mahomet, the Greeks enjoyed above sixty years the benefit of this equal partition. After effecting many other triumphs of his arms, Mahomet died in 1480, in the midst of great projects he was devising against Rome and Persia. His grandson soon dethroned and murdered his own father, and commenced a vigorous reign under the title of Selim I. He defeated the Mamelukes, and in 1517 conquered Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. During fifty years the arms of the Ottomans, both by sea and land, were the terror of Europe and Asia. Especiallywas this the case during the government of Selim’s son, Soliman I., surnamed the Magnificent. His term of power extended from 1519 to 1566. This energetic tyrant took Belgrade, the island of Rhodes (from the knights of St. John), and Buda. He also subdued half of Hungary. He exacted a tribute from Moldavia, and so far mastered the Persians as to make Bagdad, Mesopotamia, and Georgia subject to him. Under this monarch the Ottoman empire reached its climax of renown and power. Before his death, symptoms of decline began to manifest themselves. Though extending his authority over an immense tract of country, he had failed to develop the internal strength, and consolidate the internal union, of his kingdom. The conquered nations were not properly incorporated, so as to constitute an integral part of Turkey. Hence, the frequency of the revolts, which, with varying success, for a long time after the death of Soliman, alike disturbed the peace and exhausted the strength of the Byzantine government. Ever since 1566, the Ottoman sovereigns have, in most instances, ascended the throne from a prison, and then surrendered themselves to the effeminate luxuries of the seraglio, until their despicable reign terminated either by assassination, or by deposition and another imprisonment. Several grand viziers, or prime ministers, have at different periods supplied their masters’ deficiencies and screened their vices. Through the zeal and talents of these active servants of the State, it has been retarded in its declension and preserved from utter disintegration. The people continued for many years to sink deeper and deeper into ignorance, poverty, and helplessness, whilst in the provincesrapacious Pashas exceeded the cupidity and emulated the voluptuousness of the Sultan in the capital. The Sublime Porte, as the Ottoman government is often called, became an object of contempt and ridicule to all European nations. It remained inactive and unprogressive, whilst each of these was rapidly striving on towards the goal of intelligence and freedom, which still waits to be fully attained. Blindly attached to their fatalistic doctrines, and elated by their past military glory, the Turks looked upon foreigners with proud scorn, and despised them as dogs and infidels. Without any settled place, but incited by hatred of the Christians and a thirst for conquest, they carried on wars with Persia, Venice, Hungary, and Poland. The mutinies of the janissaries and the rebellions of subordinate governors often became dangerous in the extreme: but the ruling despot contrived from time to time to exterminate the enemies he feared, by the dagger or the bowstring; and the ablest men were not unfrequently sacrificed to the hatred of the soldiery or of the sacred college. The successor to the throne commonly put all his brothers to death, whilst the people regarded with apathy either the murder of a cruel Sultan whom they hated, or of a weak one, whom they could not fear.
The present Sultan Abdul Medjid Khan, born the 6th of May, 1822, thirty-first sovereign of the family of Osman, and twenty-eighth since the taking of Constantinople, succeeded his father, Sultan Mahmoud Khan, on the 1st of July, 1839. He was commencing his seventeenth year when he ascended the throne. He looked a little older than he really was, although his appearance was far fromannouncing a robust constitution. Some months previously an inflammation of the lungs had endangered his life. He had been saved by the care of an Armenian Roman Catholic, who was renowned for his cures. Slender and tall, he had the same long, pale face as his father; his black eyebrows, less arched than those of Mahmoud, announced a mind of less haughtiness and of less energy. His lips are rather thick, and he is slightly marked with the small-pox. At this epoch of his life, his features did not present a very marked expression, as if no strong passion had yet agitated the young breast. But his eyes, large and very beautiful, sometimes became animated with a most lively expression, and glistened with the fire of intelligence. Although Abdul Medjid had not been subjected to the captivity usually reserved for the heirs to the throne, his education, which had been directed according to the custom of the seraglio, had been very superficial, and had not prepared him for the heavy responsibility which was hanging over him.
Abdul Medjid was much indebted to nature: he afterwards perfected his education, and has become a most accomplished prince, remarkable above all for his passionate love of literature and the arts.
The first time the young Sultan presented himself to the eyes of his subjects he was dressed in an European trousers and coat, over which was thrown the imperial cloak, fastened by a diamond aigrette. On his breast he wore the decoration of the Nicham Iflichar; his head was covered with the fez, surmounted by a diamond aigrette. The new king, while thus continuing the costume of his father, nevertheless presented only a pale resemblance tohim. Simple without affectation, he cast around him glances full of softness and benevolence. Everything announced in him thedebonnairesuccessor of an inflexible ruler; nothing hitherto had indicated what great and precious qualities were concealed beneath the modest and tranquil exterior. He was received favorably by his people, but without any demonstration of enthusiasm. It was feared that this delicate youth could scarcely be equal to the importance of his duties. People pitied him, and, at the same time, trembled for the future prospects of the country. The women alone, touched by his youth and his appearance of kindness, manifested their sympathy for him openly. When he went through Constantinople to the Mosque of Baiezid, they ran towards him from all parts: “Is not our son handsome?” they cried, adopting him with affection. When he was only seventeen years of age, the official cry was heard in the streets of Constantinople, “His Highness, our most magnificent lord, Abdul Medjid, has risen to the throne! God will that his reign make the happiness of his people!” The new monarch soon began to play the part of a reformer. He assured to all his subjects, without exception, perfect security for their lives and fortunes, a regular mode of taxation, as also of recruiting the army; he abolished the monopoly and venality of the public offices; insured the public administration of justice and the free transmission of property; and founded all the public institutions and administrations upon the systems of Europe, particularly of France, yet with every attention to the peculiar customs and prejudices of his own people. Abdul Medjid speedily became the idol with all classes. Their esteemwas increased by his extreme amiability of temper, and heightened almost to infatuation by the taste for literature which he displayed, and for his ardent endeavors to raise the educational character of his subjects. The reign of Abdul has been sullied by no execution, by no act of cruelty. None of his ministers have ever lost their lives along with their office and power. He has been very kind to his brother, Abdul Aziz Effendi, allowing him both life and liberty, and making him a frequent companion. In the troubles which agitated Western Europe in 1848 and 1849, the Sultan acted a noble part in refusing to deliver up, at the dictation of Russia, certain Hungarian and other refugees, who had fled to him for shelter. In this firm course he was supported, both by his own people, and also by France and England.
In Turkey, the Sultan is the supreme and absolute ruler; there exists no one but himself who can be said to possess any power. He issues his edicts, which have the force of laws. He commands the whole naval and military power of the country. He sometimes, though in violation of the Koran, which is the very ground-work of his authority, imposes taxes on the people, and levies them as he likes, either generally, or locally, or partially, making one place, or one set of persons, or one individual, pay, and not the rest of his subjects. And, with few exceptions, the whole nation is subject to his absolute will and caprices, and there is no one who does not derive from him all the authority and weight he possesses in any employment, or in any station.
As, however, the Sultan cannot do all the business of the country, but, on the contrary, from the indolent habitsof the East, and the worse and more effeminate habits contracted by the bad education of despotic princes, passes his time inactive and averse to employment of any kind, he is obliged to delegate his power to ministers and officers of different kinds,—yet all of these are named and removed by him, and are absolutely dependent on his pleasure or caprice. His prime minister is called the Grand Vizier; the minister of foreign affairs is the Reis Effendi; the governors of provinces are called bashaws or pashas; the admiral is called the capitan (captain) pasha, and so forth; the judges are called cadis; and all these act in the Sultan’s name, and obey, absolutely, whatever orders he gives them; so that, if he pleases to order that a cause be decided in a particular way, the judges must obey; and applications to the Sultan, or the bashaw, or governor of a province, to interfere for this purpose, are very frequent. Thus there is no possibility of resisting his superior authority, or controlling his universally prevailing influence, unless it be that some kind of limits are fixed by the Koran, and by the bodies of priests and lawyers who interpret it, and administer the laws founded upon it, and whom it is not the practice of the Sultan to interfere with, although he appoints all their chiefs, either directly, or through his governors. The chief priest, or primate, or archbishop, is called the Grand Mufti, and owes his promotion to office to the Sultan entirely, at whose pleasure he continues to hold it till he is removed.
The Eastern tyrant orders any individual to be seized and put to death for a look, much more for a mutinous word. He walks through his capital, perhaps in disguise, and settles some dispute between his subjects by orderingone to give up his property to another, because he thinks, upon a moment’s inquiry, that the latter has a right to it, or merely because his caprice makes him lean to one rather than the other. He hears a charge against a man, and at once strangles him on the spot; or he takes a dislike, and, without any pretext at all, kills him, and sells his family for slaves. He covets some one’s house, or garden, or jewel, or wife, and instantly seizes it, or kills the owner that he may take it. Even this is not the worst that the people suffer; for, were this all, men might be safe by keeping at a distance, and the despot cannot be everywhere. But where he himself is not, his deputies, his bashaws, or, as in some countries they are called, his beglerbegs, are, and their subaltern oppressors. Each has all the sovereign’s prerogatives in his own person; and though they are all liable to be summarily punished, not only by removal, but by being strangled with the bowstring sent to be inflicted upon them, and although the prince does now and then so punish wicked governors, yet he has a direct interest in their exactions; for one of his largest revenues is the succeeding as heir to all persons in his service; and in case they should conceal, or secretly make over to their family the gains they have made in the public service, the Sultan, during their life, squeezes the money from them, and puts them to the tortures by the bastinado—severe strokes on the soles of the feet—and by other torments, in order to discover their property. The bowstring is used in a way quite characteristic of the Turkish despotism. The Sultan, or his vizier, if he be the person ordering the punishment, sends an officer, generally one of very inferior rank, to the bashaw who has beencomplained of, and whose conduct has, behind his back, been examined by the government at Constantinople. He carries a bowstring with him, and the order of the Sultan in writing, sealed with the imperial signet, dipped into black ink, and signed with the Sultan’s cipher of toghra. The bashaw, if he has a power in his hands which enables him to set the sovereign at defiance, and to rebel against his authority, avoids seeing the messenger, and puts him to death on some pretext, as having him waylaid, and representing him as killed by banditti. But if not, he at once, on receiving the messenger’s communication, kisses the sealed paper and the bowstring, bares his neck, and allows the man to strangle him, when his body is either buried privately, or thrown to be devoured by dogs, according as the people, or the troops, at the seat of his government, are well or ill disposed towards his person.
The foundation of the whole Turkish law is laid in the Koran, or Mohammedan scriptures; and here the absolute power of the sovereign is distinctly pronounced, and the duty of passive submission to his will inculcated upon all, as a duty to God immediately rendered.
The aspect of affairs in Europe gives the public a strong interest in measuring the forces and the energy of the great antagonist whose aggression has called forth thefleets and armies of England and France to battle after an unbroken peace of forty years. It has seldom happened to any nation to engage in hostilities with a foreign power whose real strength and resources are so imperfectly known. No other empire but that of Russia ever succeeded in keeping so vast a portion of the globe a secret and a mystery from the rest of mankind. We know that she possesses territories wider than the realms of Tamerlane; and that the troops under her banners are as countless as the hosts that followed Napoleon when he was the master of Europe.
Russia, taking its whole extent, is by much the largest empire of which there is any record in the annals of the world; and vast as it is, it may be said to be compact and continuous, without the intervention of land belonging to any other power. In this great empire every variety of climate is to be found, and every vegetable production, from those of the climate of southern Europe to the icy regions of the north, where vegetation fails, and nature is for ever bound in unproductive fetters—may, in one district or another, be brought to maturity. Nor are the mineral riches less copious; for there is scarcely a valued product of the mine which may not be obtained in some part of Russia, and several of the most useful ones, in great abundance, and of excellent quality. We insert a correct table[3]of the population and extent of the empire.
More than a hundred peoples, speaking a hundred different idioms, inhabit the surface of the empire. But almost all these peoples are scattered along its frontiers. The whole interior is inhabited by one sole race, that of the Russians proper. The Russian race alone consists of about 50,000,000 souls, whilst all the other tribes of the empire put together do not exceed 15,000,000.
AREA AND POPULATION OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.
Natural DivisionsArea in EnglishSquare Miles.Population inMean Populationin 1852, per Sq. Mile.1846.1852.Great Russia,328,78119,220,90020,403,37162·Little Russia,150,14111,093,40011,775,86578·4New Russia,96,6363,070,7003,259,61233·7White Russia,70,3992,767,2002,937,43641·7Western Provinces,47,0762,704,3002,870,66760·9Baltic Provinces,36,6161,659,8001,761,90748·1Northern Provinces,536,2261,338,3001,420,6292·6Ural Provinces,447,78810,146,00010,770,18124·Cossack Districts,123,7761,089,7001,156,7369·3Poland,49,2304,857,7005,156,543104·7Finland,135,8081,412,3151,499,19911·Total in Europe,2,022,47759,360,31563,012,14631·1Caucasian Provinces,86,5782,850,0002,850,00032·8West Siberia,2,681,1473,500,0003,500,0001·3East Siberia,2,122,000237,000237,000·11American Possessions,371,35061,00061,000·16Total Extra European,5,261,0756,648,0006,648,0001·26Totals,7,283,55266,208,31569,660,1469·5
In respect to Race, the population of the Russian Empire may be classed approximately, as follows;—
Sarmatian Race.{Lithuanic Branch{Lithuanians and Letts,2,000,000{Slavonic Branch{Russians49,000,000}Bulgarians and Illyrians,5,000,00056,000,000Poles,6,500,000—————58,000,000Germans,650,000Dacian Romans,750,000Tshúds,3,400,000Tartars,2,150,000Mongols,250,000Munshús,100,000Hyperborean Races,200,000Caucasian Tribes,2,750,000Greeks,70,000Jews,1,600,000Gipsies,30,800Miscellaneous,50,000————12,000,000—————Total,70,000,000
In respect to religion, there are probably in the Russian Empire 50,000,000 belonging to the so-calledGreekChurch (i. e.ByzantineCatholics); about 7,000,000RomanCatholics (chiefly Poles); and upwards of 3,000,000 Protestants (Germans and Tshúds).
Relative proportion of the dominant race to the other races in the Russian dominions:—Slávs to non Slávs, as 29 to 6, or 4·8 to 1: Russians to non-Russians, as 7 to 3, or 2·3 to 1.
No other state in Europe possesses so numerous a population belonging to one nation. Even France contains but 32,000,000 of Frenchmen out of 35,000,000 or 36,000,000 of inhabitants; and Great Britain about 19,000,000 of Englishmen out of 30,000,000 of inhabitants. The 36,000,000 inhabitants of Great Russia speak identically the same language, from the highest classes to the lowest, from the Emperor to the peasant. The dialects of the White Russians and of 7,000,000 of Little Russians are slightly different, but still comprehensible. To this complete unity of language must be added, among the Great Russians, the most surprising uniformity of manners and customs.
Another still more important element of political strength is the unity of the Russian Church. This unity is complete amongst the Little Russians and Ruthenians, a few of the latter only being in communion with the Church of Rome. The Great Russians are divided by a schism, but the Staroverzi (or members of the old faith) have seceded from the Established Church, not on the grounds of doctrine, but of ceremonial usages.
Although the first Russian empire, which was governed by Rurik, was founded by Normans (the Varangians), who must have introduced into Russia the fundamental Germanic institutions and the principles of the feudal system, this system never took root amongst the Sclavonian population. On the contrary, all the popular institutionsof Russia assumed the patriarchal character, which is peculiarly adapted to the Sclavonian race, and especially to the Russian people, which in this respectclosely resembles the ancient nations of the East. The social organization of Russia forms in all its relations and degrees an uninterrupted scale of hierarchy, every step of which rests on some patriarchal power. The father is the absolute sovereign of the family, which cannot exist without him. If the father dies, the eldest son takes his place and exercises the full paternal authority. The property of the family is common to all the males belonging to it, but the father or his representative can alone dispose of it. Next comes the village or township, which is like an enlarged family, governed by an elected father or starost. This starost is elected for three years. His power is absolute, and he is obeyed without restriction. All the inhabited and cultivated lands of the village are held in common as undivided property. No portion is ceded as private property. The starost divides the fruits or profits of the whole amongst them. So, again, all these villages or townships form the nation; a nation of men equal among themselves, and equally subject to the chief of the empire and the race—the Czar. The authority of the Czar is absolute, like the obedience of his subjects. Any restriction on the authority of the Czar appears to a true Russian as a monstrous contradiction. “Who can limit the power or the rights of a father?” says the Russian; “he holds them, not from us, who are his children, nor from any man, but from God, to whom he will one day answer for them.” The mere form of words, “It is ordered,” has a magical effect on the Russians. They paythe same respect to the agents of the government, whom they regard as the servants of the Czar, and to all their superiors. A Russian callsbatiouschka—little papa—not only his father or an old man, but the starost, or any of his superiors. The Emperor himself is never addressed by the people by any other name. An old serf will call his master “little papa,” even though he should be a child of ten years old.
In Russia there is no national or domestic association which has not its centre, its unity, its chief, its father, its master. A chief is absolutely indispensable to the existence of Russians. They choose another father when they lose their own. The starost is elected to be unconditionally obeyed. This must be well understood in order to comprehend the true position of the Czar. The Russian nation is like a hive of bees, which absolutely require a queen-bee. In Russia the Czar is not the delegate of the people, nor the first servant of the state, nor the legal owner of the soil, nor even a sovereign by the grace of God. He is at once the unity, the chief, and the father of his people. He does not govern by right of office, but, as it were, by the ties of blood, recognised by the whole nation. This feeling is as natural to the whole population as that of their own existence, insomuch that the Czar can never do wrong. Whatever happens, the people always think him right. Any restriction on his power, even to the extent of one of the German Diets, would be considered in Russia an absurd chimera. The Czar Ivan IV. committed the most cruel actions, but the people remained faithful to him, and loved him all the more. To this day he is the hero of the popular balladsand legends of the country. When the Czar Ivan the Terrible, weary of governing, sought to abdicate, the Russians flung themselves at his feet to entreat him to remain on the throne.
The feeling of the Russians is not so much one of deep attachment to their country as of ardent patriotism. Their country, the country of their ancestors, the Holy Russia, the people fraternally united under the sceptre of the Czar, the communion of faith, the ancient and sacred monuments of the realm, the tombs of their forefathers—all form a whole which excites and enraptures the mind of the Russians. They consider their country as a sort of kinsmanship to which they address the terms of familiar endearment. God, the Czar, and the priest, are all called “Father,”—the Church is their “Mother,” and the empire is always called “Holy Mother Russia.” The capital of the empire is “Holy Mother Moscow,” and the Volga “Mother Volga.” Even the high road from Moscow to Vladimir is called “our dear mother the high road to Vladimir.” But above all, Moscow, the holy mother of the land, is the centre of Russian history and tradition, to which all the inhabitants of the empire devote their love and veneration. Every Russian entertains all his life long the desire to visit one day the great city, to see the towers of its holy churches, and to pray on the tombs of the patron saints of Russia. “Mother Moscow” has already suffered and given her blood for Russia, as all the Russian people are ready to do for her.
There is not in Europe any nobility which possesses such large fortunes, (?) such vast personal privileges, suchliberties, (??) such political rights in the internal administrationof the empire, (???) or so much physical power as the Russian aristocracy. The nobles possess in absolute property more than one-half of the lands under tillage. More than half the population of Russia Proper, that is, more than 12,000,000 of souls, which means more than 24,000,000 of heads, are not only their subjects, but their serfs.
It must be understood that in Russian rent-rolls the term “souls” means exclusively the males on an estate. In every valuation of the agricultural population, however, the unity taken is the Tiéglo of two souls, or, more exactly, five persons; the women and younger children being included.
The class of Russian serfs, ormougiks, represents, according to M. Leouzon le Duc, no less than one-twentieth part of mankind. It exceeds the whole population of France or Austria, and is computed to amount to no less than forty millions of human beings. The condition of these serfs differs in no material respect from that of the negro slaves of the United States, for the law holds them to be absolutely disqualified from possessing property; all they may earn or hold is really the property of their lord, and at his mercy. The Russian landlord is armed with a power which even the American planter does not possess. He is bound to feed the terrible conscription of the army, year by year, with an aliquot part of his own peasants. The rule of the Russian army is twenty-five years’ duty. The power of drafting off particular men into the army amounts to an absolute control over their existence. The body of the serf is equally subject to every caprice of the master, and the use of the whip is universal. The virtueof the female serf is in his power, and it is considered an honor among the Russian peasantry to reckon the adulterous offspring of their master amongst their own. The law itself precludes all redress, for theSwodexpressly enacts that, “if any serf, forgetting the obedience he owes to his lord, presents a denunciation against him, and especially if he presents such a denunciation to the Emperor, he shall be handed over to justice, and treated with all the rigor of the laws—he, and the scribe who may have drawn up his memorial.” We cannot conceive in any country or any age a more complete annihilation of human independence, or a more total degradation of human society.
The pay of the Russian army in all ranks is wretchedly small. The common soldier receives about $7 50 a year; a lieutenant-general about $850; a colonel, $500; a captain from $250 to $300.
There is something really grand and imposing in the steady march of Russian dominion, since Peter the Great first consolidated his empire into a substantive state.
On his accession, in 1689, its western boundary was in longitude 30 degrees, and its southern in latitude 42 degrees; these have now been pushed to longitude 18 degrees and latitude 39 degrees respectively. Russia had then no access to any European sea; her only ports were Archangel in the Frozen Ocean, and Astrakhan on the Caspian: she has now access both to the Baltic and theEuxine. Her population, mainly arising from increase of territory, has augmented thus:—
At the accession of Peter the Great, in 1689, it was 15,000,000; at the accession of Catharine the Second, in 1752, it was 25,000,000; at the accession of Paul, in 1796, it was 36,000,000; at the accession of Nicholas, in 1825, it was 58,000,000.
By the treaty of Neustadt in 1721, and by a subsequent treaty in 1809, she acquired more than the kingdom of Sweden, and the command of the Gulf of Finland, from which before she was excluded.
By the three partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795, and by the arrangements of 1815, she acquired territory nearly equal in extent to the whole Austrian Empire. By various wars and treaties with Turkey, in 1794, 1783, and 1812, she robbed her of territories equal in extent to all that remains of her European dominions, and acquired the command of the Black Sea.
Between 1800 and 1814, she acquired from Persia districts at least as large as the whole of England; from Tartary, a territory which ranges over thirty degrees of longitude. During this period of 150 years, she has advanced her frontier 500 miles towards Constantinople, 630 miles towards Stockholm, 700 miles towards Berlin and Vienna, and 1000 miles towards Teheran, Cabool, and Calcutta. One only acquisition she has not yet made, though steadily pushing towards it, earnestly desiring it, and feeling it to be essential to the completion of her vast designs and the satisfaction of her natural and consistent ambition, namely,—the possession of Constantinople and Roumelia,—which would give her the mostadmirable harbors and the command of the Levant, and would enable her to overlap, surround, menace, and embarrass all the rest of Europe.
Nicholas Paulovitch, the son of Paul the First and Maria Feodorowna, is the fifteenth sovereign of the Romanoff dynasty. He is of a great height, and is very proud of it. His air is serious, his glance wild, even a little savage; his entire physiognomy has something hard and stern in it. The Emperor never shows himself but in the military costume, the stiffness of which is in perfect keeping with his tastes, and which makes his great height still more conspicuous. His face and whole deportment are noble and commanding. He speaks with vivacity, with simplicity, and the most perfect propriety; all he says is full of point and meaning,—no idle pleasantry, not a word out of its place. There is nothing in the tone of his voice or the arrangement of his phrases that indicates haughtiness or dissimulation, and yet every one feels that his heart is closed, and its deep secrets studiously concealed.
Nicholas has a boundless delight in seeing his soldiers, and in reviewing them. He is unsurpassed for the skill and despatch with which he passes numerous regiments in review, in the Place of Arms, at St. Petersburg. Woe to the poor soldier who shall be convicted of a button badly fastened, or a buckle out of its place! The eagleeye of the Emperor will search in the very thickest part of the ranks for infractions of this description, and his inflexibility is known. He is, nevertheless, a timid rider, and travels by drosky or sledge, in preference to horseback.
The Emperor leads a life of restless and incessant activity. Morning, noon, and night, he is engaged in the public business brought beneath his notice from the different sections of the various departments. In private life he is free from immoralities, and sets a worthy example of conjugal fidelity to all his subjects.
The Emperor has a Grecian profile, the forehead high, but receding; the nose straight, and perfectly formed; the mouth very finely cut; the face, which in shape is rather a long oval, is noble: the whole air military, and rather German than Sclavonic. His carriage and his attitude are naturally imposing. He expects always to be gazed at, and never for a moment forgets that he is so.
In Poland, as well as Siberia, incredible cruelties have been committed in the name of Nicholas and his command. The way in which he is striving to Russianize that once free country, will appear from the following extract from the “Russian Catechism of Poland,” taught to Polish children.
“Question 1.—How is the authority of the Emperor to be considered, in reference to the spirit of Christianity?
“Answer.—As proceeding immediately from God.
“Question 17.—What are the supernaturally revealed motives for this worship (i. e.of the Emperor)?
“Answer.—The supernaturally revealed motives are, that the Emperoris the vice-regentand minister of God to execute the divine commands, and, consequently,disobedience to the Emperor is identical with disobedience to God himself; that God will reward us in the world to come, for the worship and obedience we render the Emperor, and punish us severely to all eternity should we disobey or neglect to worship him. Moreover, God commands us to love and obey from the inmost recesses of the heart every authority, and particularly the Emperor, not from worldly considerations, but from apprehensions of the final judgment.”
The Empress of Russia, Alexandra, is the daughter of Louisa, the queen of Prussia, and sister to the now reigning King of Prussia. She was born July 13th, 1798. Ever since the accession of Nicholas she has been suffering from an ill state of health, necessitating frequent travelling and change of air. She is said to have always exercised a beneficial influence over her husband, by tempering his passion and his excesses. Though she does not possess any superior qualities, the atmosphere in which she lives has not been able to efface the good principles which she imbibed in the Court of Prussia. The countenance of the Empress is represented to be mild, radiant, and benignant, resembling in its sweetness of expression that of a ministering angel. The late Marquis of Londonderry, in his “Tour in the North of Europe,” says—“The indescribable majesty of deportment and fascinating grace that mark this illustrious personage are very peculiar. Celebrated as are all the females connected with the lamented and beautiful Queen of Prussia, there is none of them more bewitching in manner than the Empress of Russia; nor is there existing, according to all reports, so excellent and perfect a being.”