I believe, which an absolute monarch ever
pronounced! How many virtues it requires, in a despot, properly to
estimate despotism! and how many virtues also, never to abuse it,
when the nation which he governs is almost astonished at such signal
moderation. At Petersburg especially, the great nobility have less
liberality in their principles than the emperor himself. Accustomed
to be the absolute masters of their peasants, they wish the monarch,
in his turn, to be omnipotent, for the purpose of maintaining the
hierarchy of despotism. The state of citizens does not yet exist in
Russia; it begins however to be forming; the sons of the clergy,
those of the merchants, and some peasants who have obtained of their
lords the liberty of becoming artists, may be considered as a third
order in the state. The Russian nobility besides bears no
resemblance to that of Germany or France; a man becomes noble in
Russia, as soon as he obtains rank in the army. No doubt the great
families, such as the Narischkins, the Dolgoroukis, the Gallitzins,
&c. will always hold the first rank in the empire; but it is not
less true that the advantages of the aristocracy belong to men, whom
the monarch's pleasure has made noble in a day; and the whole
ambition of the citizens is in consequence to have their sons made
officers, in order that they may belong to the privileged class. The
result of this is, that young men's education is finished at fifteen
years of age; they are hurried into the army as soon as possible,
and everything else is neglected. This is not the time certainly to
blame an order of things, which has produced so noble a resistance;
were tranquility restored, it might be truly said, that under civil
considerations, there are great deficiencies in the internal
administration of Russia. Energy and grandeur exist in the nation;
but order and knowledge are still frequently wanting, both in the
government, and in the private conduct of individuals. Peter I. by
making Russia European, certainly bestowed upon her great
advantages; but these advantages he more than counter-balanced by
the establishment of a despotism prepared by his father, and
consolidated by him; Catherine II. on the contrary tempered the use
of absolute power, of which she was not the author. If the political
state of Europe should ever be restored to peace: in other words if
one man were no longer the dispenser of evil to the world, we should
see Alexander solely occupied