se that monarchs may not feel the same
sympathies, the same principles of honour--nay, the same abhorrence of a
sanguinary republicanism--which a private individual might feel in any
other instance of oppression?"

"Still, Marston, I am at a loss to know by what influence a British
government could urge a Russian despotism into a contest, a thousand
miles from its frontier; in which it can gain no accession of territory,
and but little accession of military fame; and all this, while it is
itself perfectly secure from all aggression."

"All true; but remember the striking commencement of Voltaire's Memoir
of Peter--'Who could have pretended to say, in the year 1700, that a
magnificent and polished court would be formed at the extremity of the
Gulf of Finland; that the inhabitants of Cazan and the banks of the
Wolga would be ranked among disciplined warriors, and, after beating the
Turk and the Swede, gain victories in Germany? That a desert of two
thousand leagues in length, should, in the space of fifty years, extend
its influence to all the European courts; and that, in 1759, the most
zealous patron of literature in Europe should be a Russian sovereign?
The man who had said this would have been regarded as the most
chimerical mortal on earth.' But all this has been done, and the career
is not closed. More will be done still. It may even be our most
essential policy to bring Russia into full collision with France. She is
now the only rival: and I shall scarcely regret the fall of the German
sovereignties, if it clears the field, to bring face to face the two
great powers which hold at their sword's point the fate of the
Continent."

A month passed, of perpetual difficulty in the cabinet, of ill news from
abroad, and of violent discontents among the people. A deficient harvest
had come, to increase the national murmurs; a season of peculiar
inclemency had added its share to the public vexations; and I fully
experienced the insufficiency of office, and of the showy honours of
courts, to constitute happiness. But a new scene was reserved for me.
Casual as my conversation with the secretary of state had been, it was
not forgotten: it had been related to the minister; and it had so far
coincided with the conceptions of a mind, which seemed to comprehend
every chance of human things, that I was shortly sent for, to enter into
the necessary explanations. The result was, the offer of a mission to St
Petersburg. The proposal