264CHARACTER OF THE SERFS.
accomplished, we arrive at the end of the stage, when it is invariably found that either in putting to or detaching the horses, the adroit, pious, polite rogue has abstracted something, perhaps a leather pouch, a strap, or a wrapper; perhaps only a nail, a screw, or a wax candle from the lamps : in short, he never leaves with altogether clean hands.
These men are extremely greedy of money; but they dare not complain when ill paid, which has often been the case with those who have driven us the last few days, for my fekljägcr retains for himself a portion of the postillion's fees, which, together with the hire of the horses for the entire journey, I paid him in advance at Petersburg. Having once observed this trick, I compensated out of my own pocket the unfortunate postillion, thus deprived of a part of the wages which, according to the ordinary custom of travellers, he had a right to expect from me ; but the knavish feldjäger, having perceived my generosity (for this was the name he gave to my justice), had the audacity to complain to me openly,— saying that he could no longer act for me on the journey if I continued to thwart him in the legitimate exercise of his power.
But how can we be surprised at the want of proper feelings among the common people, in a country where the great regard the most simple rules of probity as laws proper for plebeians, but which cannot extend to persons of their rank ? Let it not be supposed that I exaggerate, I state what I perceive : an aristocratic pride, degenerated in its character, and at variance with the true sentiment of honour, reiens in liussia among the greater number of influential families. Recently a great lady made to me, little knowing
WANT OF PRINCIPLE IN THE NOBLES. 265
it, an ingenuous confession: it the more siirprised me, because such sentiments, sufficiently common here among the men, are less so among the women, who have generally preserved better than their husbands and brothers the traditions of just and noble feelings. " It is impossible for us," she said, " to form any clear idea of a social state like that of yours. They tell me that in France, at present, the highest noble can be put in prison for a debt of two hundred francs ; this is revolting: how different from oiir country ! There is not in all Russia a tradesman who would dare to refuse us credit for an unlimited period. With your aristocratic notions," she added, "you must surely find yourself more at home with us. There is greater similarity between the French of the old regime and us, than between any other of the European nations."
I cannot describe the effort of self-command that it required on my part to prevent myself from suddenly and loudly protesting against the affinity of which this lady boasted. Notwithstanding my obligatory prudence, I could not help saying, that a man who would полу pass among ourselves for an ultra-aristocrat, might be easily classed at Petersburg with the violent liberals; and I concluded by observing, " When you assure me that, among your families, people do not think it necessary to pay their debts, I must not take you at your word."
" You are wrong: many of us have enormous fortunes, but they would be rained if they were to pay all they owed."
In order to explain to me the extent to which the fashionable world is imbued with the French genius
VOL. II.N
266
FEMALE POLITICIANS.
and spirit, the same lady related to me instances of impromptu answers in verse, made in a game at the house of one of her relatives. " You see how completely French we are," she added, with a pride that awoke my inward risibility. " Yes, more so than we ourselves," I replied; and we changed the subject of discourse. I can picture to myself the astonishment of this Franco-Russian lady entering the salons* of
Madame, in Paris, and inquiring of our actual
France what has become of the France of Louis XV. ?
Under the Empress Catherine, the conversation of the palace, and of some of the nobility, resembled that of the saloons of Paris. In the present day our discourse is more serious, or, at least, more bold than that of any of the other European people; and, in this respect, our modern Frenchmen are far from resembling the Russians, for we talk of every thing, and the Russians speak of nothing.
The reign of Catherine is profoundly impressed on the memories of several Russian ladies. These fair aspìrantes to the title of female statesmen have a talent for polities; and, as some of them add to that «rift manners which altogether remind us of the eighteenth century, they are so many travelling empresses, filling Europe with the sound of their profligacy, but who, under this unfeminine conduct, conceal a commanding and profoundly observing mind. By virtue of the spirit of intrigue that distinguishes these Aspasias of the North, there is scarcely a capital in Europe without two or three Russian ambassadors:
* The salons of a lady, an expression newly borrowed from the restaurateurs by tbe people of the fashionable world.
FEMALE POLITICIANS.267
the one, public, accredited, recognised, and clothed with all the insignia of office; the others, secret, irresponsible, and playing, in bonnet and petticoat, the double part of independent ambassador, and spy upon the official envoy.
In all ages, women have been employed with success in political negotiations. Many of our modern revolutionists have availed themselves of female aid to conspire more skilfully, more secretly, and more safely. Spain has seen these unfortunate women become heroines in the courage with which they have submitted to the punishment entailed by their tender devotion — for love always forms a great part of the courage of a Spanish woman.
Among the Russian women love is only the accessory. Russia possesses a completely organised female diplomacy; and Europe is not, perhaps, sufficiently attentive to so singular a means of influence. With its concealed army of amphibious agents, its political Amazons with acute masculine minds and feminine laniruase, the Russian court collects information, ob-tains reports, and even receives advice, which, if better known, would explain many mysteries, furnish a key to many inconsistencies, and reveal many littlenesses.
The political preoccupation of mind of the greater number of Russian women renders their conversation, interesting as it might be, insipid. This is more especially the ease with the most distinguished women, who are naturally the most absent when the conversation does not turn upon important subjects. There is a world between their thoughts and their discourse, from whence there results a want of accord, an absence of natural manner in short, a duplicity, that is
N 2
268
DOMESTIC HAPPINESS
disagreeable in the ordinary relations of social life-Polities are, from their nature, but poor amusement; their tediousness is supported by a sense of duty, and sometimes, when statesmen speak, by flashes of mind which animate conversation; but the politics of the amateur are the curses of conversation.
I have been assured that the moral sentiment is scarcely developed among the Russian peasants, and my daily experience confirms the accounts that I have received.
A nobleman has related to me, that a man belonging to him, and skilful in some particular handicraft, had permission to remain in Petersburg, in order to exercise his talent there. After the expiration of two years, he was allowed to return for a few weeks to his native village to visit his wife. He came back to Petersburg on the day appointed.
" Are you satisfied with having seen your family?" asked his master. " Perfectly so," answered the workman, with great simplicity ; " my wife has presented me with two more children in my absence, and the sight of them gave me great pleasure."
These poor people have nothing of their own; neither their cottages, their wives, their children, nor even their own hearts ; they have, therefore, no jealousy. Of what could they be jealous ?—Of an accident ? Love among them is nothing better. Such, however, is the existence of the happiest men in Russia—the serfs! I have often heard the great express envy of their lot, and perhaps with good reason,
They have no cares, they say; we take all the charge of them and their families (God knows how this charge is acquitted when the peasants b
ecome old
OF THE SERFS.
269
and useless). Assured of the necessaries of life for themselves and their children, they are a hundred times less to be pitied than the free peasants are among you.
I did not reply to this panegyric on servitude; but I thought, if they have no cares, they have also no families, and therefore no affections, no pleasures, no moral sentiment, no compensation for the physical evils of life. They possess nothing; though it is individual property which makes the social man, because it alone constitutes the divisions of family.
Moral truth is the only principle that merits our devotion : to grasp it, aÚ the efforts of the human mind tend, whatever may be their sphere of action. If, in my journeys, I take every pains to describe the world as it is, my object is to excite in the breasts of others, and in my own, regret that it is not as it should be, to arouse in human minds the sentiment of immortality, by recalling, at the sight of every injustice, every abuse inherent in the things of earth, the words of Jesus Christ, " My kingdom is not of this world."
Never have I had so frequent occasion to apply these words as since my sojourn in Russia; they occur to me at every moment. Under a despotism, all the laws are calculated to assist oppression ; that is to say, the more the oppressed has reason to complain, the less has he the legal right or the temerity. Surely, before God, the evil actions of a free citizen are more criminal than the evil actions of a serf. He who sees every tiling, takes into account the insensibility of conscience in the man debased by the spectacle of iniquity always triumphant.
N 3
270CASUISTICAL REFLECTIONS.
It will be said that evil is evil, wherever committed; and that the man who steals at Moscow, is just as much a thief as the pickpocket in Paris. It is precisely this which I deny. On the general education that a people receives, depends in a great measure the morality of each individual; from whence it follows that a fearful and mysterious relativeness of merits and of demerits has been established by Providence between governments and subjects, and that moments arrive in the history of communities when the State is judged, condemned, and destroyed, as though it were a single individual.
The virtues, the faults, and the crimes of slaves have not the same signification as those of freemen; therefore, when I examine the character of the Russian people, I can assert as a fact which does not imply the same blame as it would with us, that in general they are deficient in spirit, delicacy, and elevation of sentiment, and that they supply the want of these qualities by patience and artifice.
" The Russian people are gentle," is often said to me. To this I answer, "I cannot give them any credit for being so : it is their habit of submission." Others say, " The Russian people are only gentle because they dare not show what is in their hearts; their fundamental sentiments are superstition and ferocity." To this I reply, " Poor creatures ! they are so ill educated!"
From all that I see in this world, and especially in this country, I conclude that happiness is not the real object for which man was placed here upon earth. That object is purely religious in its character: it is moral improvement—the struggle and the victory.
ABOLITION OF THE PATRIARCHATE. 271
But since the usurpations of the temporal authority., the Christian religion in Russia has lost its virtue; it is stationary, or at least moves as one of the wheel-works of despotism, and nothing more. In this country, where nothing is clearly defined, it it-difficult to understand the actual relations of the church with the head of the state, who has made himself the arbiter of the faith, though without actually proclaiming such prerogative. He exercises it de facto, but he dares not claim it as a right; he has therefore preserved a synod, which is the last homage rendered by tyranny to the King of kings, and to His ruined church. The following is the account of this religious revolution in Evesque, whose History of Russia I have just been reading, while waiting for a blacksmith to repair another misfortune that has happened to my calèche.
"1721. Since the death of Adrian*, Peter had constantly deferred lending himself to the election of a new partriarch. Under a twenty-years' delay, the religious veneration of the people for this head of the church had insensibly cooled. The emperor at length believed that he might venture to declare the dignity abolished for ever. He divided the ecclesiastical power, formerly invested exclusively in the person of a chief pontiff, and caused all matters concerning religion to be brought under the jurisdiction of a new tribunal, called the Holy Synod.
" He did not declare himself head of the church, but he virtually became so, by means of the oath which the members of the new ecclesiastical college
* The last patriarch of Moscow.—Note of the Traveller. N 4
272DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SECTS
took. It was to this effect: ¢ I swear to be a faith-fid and obedient servant and subject of my natural and true sovereign. . . . I acknowledge him to be the supreme judge of this spiritual college? The synod is composed of a president, two vice-presidents, and four assistants. These removable ecclesiastical judges are far from possessing, united, the power formerly enjoyed by the patriarch alone. They do not attend the councils, their names do not appear in the acts of the monarchy, they have not, even in the matters submitted to them, more than an authority subordinate to that of the sovereign. As no exterior signs distinguish them from the other prelates, and as their authority ceases as soon as they leave their tribunal, finally, as that tribunal itself presents nothing very imposing, they do not inspire the people with any particular veneration."
The Eussian people are in our days the most believing among all the Christian nations: the chief cause of the little efficacy of their faith is easily seen. When the church abdicates its liberty, it loses its moral virtuality :—a slave, it can only give birth to slavery. It cannot be too often repeated that the only church really independent, is the Catholic church, which has alone preserved the trust of true charity. All the other churches form constituent parts of the state, which uses them as political instruments for maintaining its power. These churches are excellent auxiliaries of the government; eom·> plaisant towards the princes or magistrates who are the depositaries of the temporal power, hard upon the subjects, they call in Deity to aid the police. The immediate result is sure; it is good order in
AND A MOTHER CHUECH.273
society: but the Catholic church, quite as'powerful politically, looks higher and reaches farther. The national churches make citizens; the church universal makes men. Among the sectarians, a respect for the church is confounded with a love of country; among the Catholics, the church and regenerated humanity are one and the same thing. In Russia, respect for authority continues still the only spring of the social machine. This respect is necessary, no doubt; but, in order radically to civilise the human heart, it is necessary to teach it something more than blind obedience.
The day when the son of the Emperor Nicholas — I say the son, for this noble task does not belong to the father, obliged as he is to spend his laborious reign in drawing closer the bonds of the old military discipline which constitutes the Muscovite government, — the day when the son of the Emperor shall have taught all the classes of this nation that he who com-mands owes respect to him who obeys, a moral revolution will be effected in Russia; and the instrument of that revolution will be the gospel.
The longer I stay in this country the more am I impressed with the fact that contempt for the weak is contagious. This sentiment is so natural here, that those who most severely blame it come finally to partake of it. I am myself a proof in question.
In Russia the desire of travelling fast becomes a passion, and this passion serves as a pretext for every species of inhumanity. My courier has communicated it to me, and I often render myself, without at the time perceiving it, an accomplice in his acts of injustice. He is exceedingly angry whenever the N 5
274
HISTORY OF A FOAL.
coachman leaves his seat to readjust any portion of the harness, or when
he stops on the road under any other pretext.
Yesterday evening, at the commencement of a stage, a child who drove us had been several times threatened with blows by the feldjäger for a fault of the kind, and I participated in the impatience and wrath of this man. Suddenly, a foal, not many days old, and well known by the boy, escaped from an inclosure bordering upon the road, and began neighing and galloping after my carriage, for he took one of the mares that drew us for his mother. The young coachman, already guilty of delay, wanted once again to stop and go to the aid of the colt, which he saw every moment in danger of being crushed under the wheels of the carriage. My courier angrily forbade him to leave his seat: the child obeyed like a good Russian, and continued to drive us at a gallop without proffering a complaint. I supported the severity of the feldjäger. I thought to myself, " It is necessary to sustain authority even when it is in fault; this is the spirit of the Russian government: my feldjäger is not over zealous ; if I discourage him when he exhibits energy in performing his duty, he will leave every thing to come and go as it pleases, and be of no use to me at all: besides, it is the custom of the country; why should I be less in haste than another ? my dignity as a traveller is involved ; to have time to spare would be to lose my consequence in this country : here, to be important we must be impatient." While I was thus reasoning, night had come on. I accuse myself with having been more hard-hearted even than the Russians, (for I have not,
Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia Page 54
