claiming them, which was by letting them live in peace.

But to conclude, in all this vast empire there are but twenty-eight episcopal sees; and in Peter's time there were but twenty-two. This small number was, perhaps, one of the causes to which the Russian church owes its tranquillity. So very circumscribed was the knowledge of the clergy, that czar Theodore, brother to Peter the Great, was the first who introduced the custom of singing Psalms in churches.

Theodore and Peter, especially the latter, admitted indifferently, into their councils and their armies, those of the Greek, the Latin, the Lutheran, and the Calvinist communion, leaving every one at liberty to serve God after his own conscience, provided he did his duty to the state. At that time there was not one Latin church in this great empire of two thousand leagues, till Peter established some new manufactures at Astracan, when there were about sixty Roman catholic families, under the direction of the capuchins; but the jesuits endeavouring to establish themselves in his dominions, he drove them out by an edict, published in the month of April 1718. He tolerated the capuchins as an insignificant set of monks, but considered the jesuits as dangerous politicians.

The Greek church has at once the honour and satisfaction to see its communion extended throughout an empire of two thousand leagues in length, while that of Rome is not in possession of half that tract in Europe. Those of the Greek communion have, at all times, been particularly attentive to maintain an equality between theirs and the Latin church; and always upon their guard against the zeal of the see of Rome, which they look upon as ambition; because, in fact, that church, whose power is very much circumscribed in our hemisphere, and yet assumes the title of universal, has always endeavoured to act up to that title.

The Jews never made any settlements in Russia, as they have done in most of the other states of Europe, from Constantinople to Rome. The Russians have carried on their trade by themselves, or by the help of the nations settled amongst them. Theirs is the only country of the Greek communion where synagogues are not seen by the side of Christian temples.

CONCLUSION OF THE STATE OF RUSSIA BEFORE PETER THE GREAT.

Russia is indebted solely to czar Peter for its great influence in the affairs of Europe; being of no consideration in any other reign since it embraced Christianity. Before this period, the Russians made the same figure on the Black Sea that the Normans did afterwards on the coasts of the ocean. In the reign of the emperor Heraclius, they fitted out an armament of forty thousand

small barks; appeared before Constantinople, which they besieged, and imposd a tribute on the Greek emperors; but the grand knez Wolodimar, being wholly taken up with the care of establishing Christianity in his dominions, and wearied out with intestine broils in his own family, weakened his dominions by dividing them between his children. They almost all fell a prey to the Tartars, who held Russia in subjection near two hundred years. At length John Basilides freed it from slavery, and enlarged its boundaries: but, after his time, it was ruined again by civil wars.

Before the time of Peter the Great, Russia was neither so powerful, so well cultivated, so populous, nor so rich as at present. It had no possessions in Finland nor in Livonia; and this latter alone had been long worth more than all Siberia. The Cossacs were still unsubjected, nor were the people of Astracan reduced to obedience; what little trade was carried on, was rather to their disadvantage. The White Sea, the Baltic, the Pontus Euxinus, the sea of Asoph, and the Caspian Sea, were entirely useless to a nation that had not a single ship, nor even a term in their language to express a fleet. If nothing more had been wanting but to be superior to the Tartars, and the other nations of the north, as far as China, the Russians undoubtedly had that advantage, but they were to be brought upon an equality with civilized nations, and to be in a condition, one day, of even surpassing several of them. Such an undertaking appeared altogether impracticable, inasmuch as they had not a single ship at sea, and were absolutely ignorant of military discipline by land: nay, the most common manufactures were hardly encouraged, and that agriculture itself, the primum mobile of trade, was neglected. This requires the utmost attention and encouragement on the part of a government; and it is to this that the English are indebted for finding in their corn a treasure far superior to their woollen manufacture.

This gross neglect of the necessary arts, sufficiently shows that the people of Russia had no idea of the polite arts, which become necessary, in their turn, when we have cultivated the others. They might, indeed, have sent some of the natives to gain instruction among foreigners, but the difference of languages, manners, and religion, opposed it. Besides, there was a law of state and religion, equally sacred and pernicious, which prohibited any Russian from going out of his country, and thus seemed to devote this people to eternal ignorance. They were in possession of the most extensive dominions in the universe, and yet every thing was wanted amongst them. At length Peter was born, and Russia became a civilized state.

Happily, of all the great lawgivers who have lived in the world, Peter is the only one whose history is well known. Those of Theseus and Romulus, who did far less than him, and of the founders of all well-governed states, are blended

with the most absurd fictions: whereas here, we have the advantage of written truths, which would pass for fictions were they not so well attested.

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CHAPTER III.

The Ancestors of Peter the Great.

THE family of Peter the Great have been in possession of the throne ever since the year 1613. Before that time Russia had undergone revolutions, which had retarded the reformation of her police, and the introduction of the liberal arts. This has been the fate of all human societies. No kingdom ever experienced more cruel troubles. In the year 1597, the tyrant Boris Godonow assassinated Demetrius, (or Demetri, as he was called) the lawful heir, and usurped the empire. A young monk took the name of Demetrius, pretending to be that prince who had escaped from his murderers; and, with the assistance of the Poles, and a considerable party, (which every tyrant has against him) he drove out the usurper, and seized the crown himself. The imposture was discovered as soon as he came to the sovereignty, because the people were not pleased with him; and he was murdered. Three other false Demetrius's started up one after another. Such a succession of impostors supposes a country in the utmost distraction. The less men are civilized, the more easily they are imposed on. It may readily be conceived, how much these frauds augmented the public contusion and misfortunes. The Poles, who had begun the revolutions, by setting up the first false Demetrius, were on the point of being masters of Russia. The Swedes shared in the spoils on the coast of Finland, and laid claim to the crown. The state seemed on the verge of utter destruction.

In the midst of these calamities, an assembly, composed of the principal boyards, chose for their sovereign a young man, of fifteen years of age: this happened in 1613, and did not seem a very likely method of putting an end to these troubles. This young man was Michael Romanow,* grandfather to czar Peter, and son to the archbishop of Rotow, surnamed Philaretes, and of a nun, and related by the mother's side to the ancient

czars.

It must be observed, that this archbishop was a powerful nobleman, whom the tyrant Boris had obliged to become priest. His wife, Scheremetow, was likewise compelled to take the veil; this was the ancient custom of the western tyrants of the Latin church, as that of putting out the eye was with the Greek Christians. The tyrant Deme

*Thus the Russians call this young man ; but in all French authors we find Romano, that language having no such letter as the W; others again call him Romanoff.

trius made Philaretes archbishop of Rostow, and sent him ambassador to Poland, where he was detained prisoner by the Poles, who were then at war with the Russians; so little was the law of nations known to the different people of these times. During his father's confinement, young Romanow was elected czar. The archbishop was exchanged against some Polish prisoners; and, at his return, his son created him patriarch, and the old man was in fact king, under his son's

name.

If such a government appears extraordinary to strangers, the marriages of czar Michael Romanow will seem still more so. The Russian princes had never intermarried with foreign states since the year 1490, or after they became masters of Casan and Astracan; they seem to have followed the Asiatic customs in almost every thing, and especially in that of marrying only among their own subjects.

This conformity to the ancient customs of Asia, was still more conspicuous at the ceremonies observed at the marriage of a czar. A number of the most beautiful women in the provinces were sent for to court, where they were received by the grand gouvernante of the court, who provided apartments for them in her own house, where they all eat together. The czar paid them visits, sometimes incognito, and sometimes in his real character. The wedding-day was fixed, without its being declared on whom the choice had fallen. At the appointed time, the happy she was presented with a rich wedding-suit, and other dresses were given to the rest of the fair candidates, who then returned home. There have been four instances of these marriages.

In this manner was Michael Romanow espoused to Eudocia, the daughter of a poor gentleman, named Streschneu. He was employed in ploughing his grounds with his servants, when the lords of the bed-chamber came to him with presents from the czar, and to acquaint him that his daughter was placed on the throne. The name of the princess is still held in the highest veneration by the Russians. This custom is greatly different from ours, but not the less respectable on that account.

It is necessary to observe, that before Romanow was elected czar, a strong party had made choice of prince Ladislaus, son to Sigismund III. king of Poland. At the same time, the provinces bordering on Sweden had offered the crown to a brother of Gustavus Adolphus: so that Russia was in the same situation then in which we have so frequently seen Poland, where the right of electing a king has been the source of civil wars. But the Russians did not follow the example of the Poles, who entered into a compact with the prince whom they elected; notwithstanding they had smarted from the oppression of tyrants, yet they voluntarily submitted to a young man, without making any conditions with him.

greatness of his offer was the cause of its being rejected. He is said to have been very deserving of the new kingdom, by the manner in which he governed his own. He was the first who caused a body of laws to be digested in Russia, though imperfect; and introduced both linen and silk manufactures, which indeed were not long kept up; nevertheless, he had the merit of their first establishment. He peopled the deserts about the Wolga and the Kama, with Lithuanian, Polish, and Tartarian families, whom he had taken prisoners in his wars before his reign, all prisoners of war were the slaves of those to whose lot they fell. Alexis employed them in agriculture: he did his utmost endeavours to introduce discipline among his troops in a word, he was worthy of being the father of Peter the Great; but he had no time to perfect what he had begun, being snatched away by a sudden death, at the age of forty-six, in the beginning of the year 1677, according to our style, which is eleven days forwarder than that of Russia.

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FOEDOR, OR THEODORE ALEXIOWITZ.

Upon the death of Alexis, son of Michael, all fell again into confusion. He left, by his first marriage, two princes, and six princesses. Theodore, the eldest, ascended the throne at fifteen years of age. He was a prince of a weak and sickly constitution, but of merit superior to his bodily infirmities. His father Alexis had caused him to be acknowledged his successor, a year before his death: a conduct observed by the kings of France from Hugh Capet down to Lewis the Young, and by many other crowned heads.

The second son of Alexis was Iwan, or John, who was still worse treated by nature than his brother Theodore, being almost blind and dumb, very infirm, and frequently attacked with convulsions. Of six daughters, born of this first marriage, the only one who made any figure in Europe was the princess Sophia, who was remarkable for her great talents; but unhappily still more so for the mischief she intended against Peter the Great.

Alexis, by his second marriage with another of his subjects, daughter of the boyard Nariskin, had Peter, and the princess Nathalia. Peter was born the 30th of May (or the 10th of June new style), in the year 1672, and was but four years old when he lost his father. As the children of a second marriage were not much regarded in Russia, it was little expected that he would one day mount the throne.

It had ever been the character of the family of Romanow to civilize their state. It was also that of Theodore. We have already remarked, in speaking of Moscow, that this prince encouraged the inhabitants of that city to build a great number of stone houses. He likewise enlarged that capital, and made several useful regulations in the general police; but, by attempting to reform

the boyards, he made them all his enemies: besides, he was not possessed of sufficient knowledge, vigour, or resolution, to venture upon making a general reformation. The war with the Turks, or rather with the Crim Tartars, in which he was constantly engaged with alternate success, would not permit a prince of his weak state of health to attempt so great a work. Theodore, like the rest of his predecessors, married one of his own subjects, a native of the frontiers of Poland; but having lost her in less than a year after their nuptials, he took for his second wife, in 1682, Martha Matweowna, daughter of the secretary Nariskin.* Some months after this marriage, he was seized with the disorder which ended his days, and died without leaving any children. As the czars married without regard to birth, they might likewise (at least at that time) appoint a successor without respect to primogeniture. The dignity of consort and heir to the sovereign seemed to be entirely the reward of merit; and, in that respect, the custom of this empire was much preferable to the customs of more civilized states.

Theodore, before he expired, seeing that his brother Iwan was by his natural infirmities incapable of governing, nominated his younger brother Peter, heir to the empire of Russia. Peter, who was then only in his tenth year, had already given the most promising hopes.

If, on the one hand, the custom of raising a subject to the rank of czarina, was favourable to the females, there was another which was no less hard upon them; namely, that the daughters of the czars were very seldom married, but were most of them obliged to pass their lives in a monastery.

The princess Sophia, third daughter of czar Alexis, by his first marriage, was possessed of abilities, equally great and dangerous. Perceiving that her brother Theodore had not long to live, she did not retire to a convent; but finding herself situated between two brothers, one of whom was incapable of governing, through his natural inability; and the other, on account of his youth, she conceived the design of placing herself at the head of the empire. Hence, in the last hours of czar Theodore, she attempted to act the part that Pulcheria had formerly played with her brother, the emperor Theodosius.

ly ten years old to the throne, the exclusion of the elder brother, and the intrigues of the princess Sophia, their sister, excited a most bloody revolt among the Strelitzes. Never did the Janissaries nor the Prætorian guards, exercise more horrible barbarities. The insurrection began two days after the interment of Theodore, when they all ran to arms in the Cremelin, which is the imperial palace at Moscow. There they began with accusing nine of their colonels, for keeping back part of their pay. The ministry was obliged to break the colonels, and to pay the Strelitzes the money they demanded: but this did not satisfy them, they insisted upon having these nine officers delivered up to them, and condemned them by a majority of votes, to suffer the Battogs, or Knout; the manner of which punishment is as follows:

The delinquent is stripped naked, and laid flat on his belly, while two executioners beat him over the back with switches, or small canes, till the judge, who stands by to see the sentence put in execution, says, "It is enough." The colonels, after being thus treated by their men, were obliged to return them thanks, according to the custom of the eastern nations; where criminals, after undergoing their punishment, must kiss the judge's hand. Besides complying with this custom, the officers gave them a sum of money, which was something more than the custom.

While the Strelitzes thus began to make themselves formidable, the princess Sophia, who secretly encouraged them, in order to lead them by degrees from crime to crime, held a meeting at her house, consisting of the princesses of the blood, the generals of the army, the boyards, the patriarch, the bishops, and even some of the principal merchants; where she represented to them, that prince John, by right of birth and merit, was entitled to the empire, the reins of which she intended to keep in her own hands. At the breaking up of the assembly, she caused a promise to be made to the Strelitzes, of an augmentation of pay, besides considerable presents. Her emissaries were in particular employed to stir up the soldiers against the Nariskin family, especially the two brothers of the young dowager czarina, the mother of Peter the First. These persuaded the Strelitzes, that one of the brothers, named John, had put on the imperial robes, had seated himself on the throne, and had attempted to strangle prince John; adding, moreover, that the late czar Theodore had been poisoned by a villain, named Daniel Vongad, a Dutch physician. At last Sophia put into their hands a list of forty noblemen, whom she styled enemies to their corps and to the state, and as such worthy of death. These proceedings exactly resembled the proscriptions of Sylla, and the Roman triumvirate, which had been revived by Christian II. in Denmark and Sweden. This may serve to show that such cruelties prevail in all countries in times of anarchy and confusion.

The mutineers began the tragedy with throwing the two knes, or princes, Dolgorouki and Matheof, out of the palace-windows; whom the Strelitzes received upon the points of their spears, then stripped them, and dragged their dead bodies into the great square; after this they rushed into the palace, where meeting with Athanasius Nariskin, a brother of the young czarina, and one of the uncles of czar Peter, they murdered him in like manner; then breaking open the door of a neighbouring church, where three of the proscribed persons had taken refuge, they drag them from the altar, strip them naked, and stab them to death with knives.

They were so blinded with their fury, that seeing a young nobleman of the family of Soltikoff, a great favourite of theirs, and who was not included in the list of the proscribed, and some of them mistaking him for John Nariskin, whom they were in search of, they murdered him upon the spot; and what plainly shows the manners of those times, after having discovered their error, they carried the body of young Soltikoff, to his father to bury it; and the wretched parent, far from daring to complain, gave them a considerable reward for bringing him the mangled body of his son. Being reproached by his wife, his daughters, and the widow of the deceased, for his weakness, "Let us wait for an opportunity of being revenged," said the old man. These words being overheard by some of the soldiers, they returned furiously back into the room, dragged the aged parent by the hair, and cut his throat at his own door.

Another party of the Strelitzes, who were scouring the city in search of the Dutch physician, Vongad, met with his son, of whom they inquired for his father; the youth trembling, replied, he did not know where he was, upon which they immediately dispatched him. Soon after, a German physician falling in their way, "You are a doctor," said they, "and if you did not poison our master, Theodore, you have poisoned others, and therefore merit death :" and therefore killed him.

At length they found the Dutchman of whom they were in quest, disguised in the garb of a beggar; they instantly drag him before the palace. The princesses, who loved this worthy man, and placed great confidence in his skill, begged the Strelitzes to spare him, assuring them that he was a very good physician, and had taken all possible care of their brother Theodore. The Strelitzes made answer, that he not only deserved to die as a physician, but also as a sorcerer; and that they had found in his house a great dried toad, and the skin of a serpent. They furthermore required to have young Nariskin delivered up to them, whom they had searched for in vain for two days: alleging, that he was certainly in the palace, and that they would set fire to it unless he was put into their hands. The sister of John Nariskin, and the other princesses, terrified by their menaces, went to acquaint their unhappy brother in the place of his