emperor proceeded and received them at the head of the guards in la salle

blanche.

"The general salute was electrifying. Such indescribable sounds of warlike instruments are, perhaps, rarely or never heard in so comparatively confined a space; but the sense of hearing was lost in that of sight. The grandeur and appearance of the troops, who looked superb in this imperial residence of the Czars; the stars and decorations; the splendid uniforms of the military and staff officers and civil chargés de cour; the unrivalled beauty of the empress and her daughters; the variegated colours of the Russian caps and trains of the dames and demoiselles d'honneur; the costly and rich ornaments of the rooms, where loads of gilt plate were displayed to prepare for the supper of the evening, and which was already in its place;-these united objects dazzled and bewildered the thoughts, and I feel quite persuaded there is no court in the world that can exhibit such a mass of treasures."-Vol. i. pp. 258, 259.

With this admirable passage, of which the words are as gorgeous as the scene described is magnificent, we must take leave of the noble marquis; need we say, that we part in good humour?

From him we pass at once to a kindred genius, one Tietz, a Coburger, we believe, by birth, a Prussian counsellor of legation by profession,-a Prussian counsellor who makes diplomatic voyages from St. Petersburg to Constantinople and to Greece. The Legationsrath's volume has been translated, we find, in this country, and by a foreigner, as anybody may perceive who takes the trouble to examine the two,-some disinterested admirer, doubtless, of the Emperor Nicholas, of whom many are to be found about the Russian embassy, and who have excellent reasons for their political opinions.

We may laugh occasionally at Lord Londonderry's simple stories and easy credulity; but however monstrous his lordship's opinions may be, we know at least that they are honest, and formed from the peculiar circumstances of his life, and according to that degree of intellect with which Providence has endowed him; but whatever his defects may be as a writer, the bitterest of his critics can never doubt that he is a gentleman, generous, manly, kind-hearted, and honest where his politics will allow him to be so. But a nobleman of his politics, profession and fortune, travelling with three carriages, and a "heavy baggage" of couriers and cooks, cannot reasonably be expected to produce a good book; that is, if he persist, as the noble marquis did in this instance, in

He should have

writing every word of the book himself. placed an author bodkin between the cook and the courier, (no bad companions on a journey, by the way,) and confided to him the task of compiling an account of his master's adventures. The consequence of neglecting this precaution has been, that Lord Londonderry has produced almost as bad a book as can be conceived about Russia, or indeed any other country.

Legationsrath Tietz may flatter himself, however, with having produced the very worst. He is not a gentleman, like the noble marquis, but on the contrary atrociously vulgar and mean in his thoughts and in his style; he has not a whit more imagination or erudition than Lord Londonderry, but, unlike the noble lord, (who writes like a plain man) he clothes his dulness in words so absurdly pompous and affected that they would put Bayes to the blush. He has not had the opportunities which were enjoyed by Lord Londonderry to witness the manners and splendours of the court; but he chronicles this court "small-beer," without ever having had the felicity to taste it, and worships and wonders, and licks the dust from the imperial shoes-not because he has been dazzled by the attentions, cajoled by the fair words, or affected by the actual kindness of the emperor, but from sheer abjectness and love of dust-kissing. We will not suppose that the man had any other motive, or that his journeys from Petersburg to Constantinople were made with the money and for the service of any other government but his own.

The Legationsrath begins his descriptions the morning after his arrival in St. Petersburg, and declares as a positive fact that the Palmyra of the north would make "at least a couple of dozen splendid cities" in any other country. He fully agrees in the remark that "every house is a palace, and every palace a town," and rejoices over the Newski Prospect and the Alexander Pillar, and the statue of Peter, and the silver doors and the ninety-five gigantic pillars of the church of Casan; he enters the church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and there the affectionate creature is moved almost to tears by-the tombs of the emperors and empresses!

"On the right bank rises from the waters the fortress granite-walled; fire-mouths (cannon) stare down from its sides threatening-but protecting

too! glistening like a flash of lightning the spire of the church of St. Peter and St. Paul streams upwards into the blue air: but within it, in God's house, rises many a stern sarcophagus of marble; and among them, since the great PETER's time, the czars and empresses of Russia sleep! a solemn feeling of woe pervades the bosom, as we stand by these Kaiser-graves."

O melancholy Tietz! tender Legationsrath! what an ame sensible does he possess for a diplomatist! what would we give to see the tender creature mourning over the broken images in the ruins of the Royal Exchange; or blubbering in St. Paul's churchyard under the sainted statue of queen Anne! Who employs this amiable sentimentalist we know not, but be it the king of Prussia or his philanthropic son-in-law, either monarch has a jewel of a Legationsrath in his pay. Continuing his ecstatic topographics, we come on the following sublime passage regarding the imperial palace :

"Above from the pinnacle of the palace floats a white flag with the crowned double eagle. It is a sign that the lord of the east, the eagle, that with protecting wing and piercing glance watches over the seventy millions in his unmeasurable kingdom-finds himself in his residenz (his chief town). The flag sinks when the emperor leaves Petersburg; it is a day of joy for the inhabitants when that sign acquaints them with the return of their all-beloved lord. Perhaps no monarch has been so misunderstood as Nicholas→ this, however, only applies to foreign countries, and an age remarkable for its fantastic notions about freedom (eine gewisse freiheitsschwendelnde pcriode). In his own country he is adored. How noble a man this prince is, he has himself in the course of his reign proved innumerable times, and it is full time that the cry of digging moles ought to be plunged into that ridiculous nothingness to which it belongs."

Having thus exposed the moles, and their cries under ground, our author proceeds to give his impressions of Nicholas. They are such as might be expected from a gentleman who wishes to plunge the cry of moles into ridiculous nothingness, and who has found so much leisure for sentiment over the tomb-stones of the immaculate Catharine and the rational Paul.

"Even Nicholas's outward appearance is truly imperial, inspiring awe and at the same time raising confidence. A body in every limb well-built, full of strength, and exceeding the common size of man, bears a head that seems to be formed after the noblest antique models. A softly-hooked nose (eine sanfigebogene Nase), a friendly-smiling mouth, a blue eye, from which mildness beams combined with stern resolution, appearing under a brow shadowed with light hair, gives to his countenance a friendly although earnest stamp. Walking one day on the Newski-Prospectus, with a friend just

arrived at St. Petersburg, we met the emperor in his little one-horsed droschka, and standing still we offered the emperor our reverential greeting, The emperor by chance looked at us very closely, as he was looking around him from his swiftly passing carriage, and I remarked that the countenance of my friend was suffused with a dark red. Upon asking him what was the matter, he owned that the look of the emperor had left him in an extraordinary confusion: he felt that did he but close his eyes this embarrassment would cease, and yet it was quite impossible for him to remove his glance from this majestic man. And here it must be remarked that the person to whom this happened was no revolutionary Pole with a bad conscience, no poetic, eccentric genius, but a simple honest man. The Russian, even the common man, who is accustomed to see his father in his emperor, and who seldom calls him anything but father, as he calls the empress, mother, can bear this glance more courageously. Indeed, I have sometimes seen, when the emperor in his simple green uniform-surtout has been walking alone about the streets, some Russian of the old school, with his long beard and his national caftan, go up without fear to this prince, to which he, although as might be supposed very little interested, paid attention."

The following passage illustrates in a still more striking manner the remarkable and Medusa-like properties which are said to be possessed by the Imperial head.

"The foundation of the great moral power and firmness which Nicholas so often has displayed in moments of dangers, originates in his firm faith in God and a higher Providence, which has (at times when death has been very cunningly on the watch for the emperor's life) often preserved him. How, at the time of the insurrection which broke out on his accession to the throne, he stood for hours long fearless among the troops of the insurgents, and when conciliation failed, used the severest language, is well known. An officer among the rebels, who had sworn upon the Sacrament to kill the emperor, declared that at the moment when he had his hand on his pistol, an incomprehensible influence prevented him from effecting his crime. A glance of the emperor, as he looked towards the insurgents, had irresistibly disarmed and discouraged him!"

Many proofs of the Czar's excellent disposition are now adduced by the Legationsrath. He proves, and we are quite willing to allow the fact, that the emperor has plenty of personal courage, and is good-natured and even affectionate with his family. They are points which, as we have said in commenting upon Mr. Raikes's volume, prove nothing beyond their own existence,-virtues which may belong to the most ruthless villain under the sun: so that when we read that the emperor one day in carrying his little son into public, said, "You are chief-admiral of the fleet-a chief-admiral ought to know how to climb;" whereupon the little fellow to show his

seamanship climbed up his father's neck and kissed him, we must take this story for what it is worth, and no more, a pretty and touching display of love between child and father; an instance, not of virtue, but of human nature merely. The next tale has higher pretensions, and we give it in the language of Tietz's translator:

"How the emperor, however, decided on dealing with those parties who sought to injure him, the following facts will testify. On the conclusion of the summer reviews, at a short distance from Peterhof, which in 1833 had been joined by the cadet corps, the emperor invited the latter to dinner, and afterwards, selecting two from among them, presented them to the empress, with these words: This is the son of General who fell at the storming of Warsaw, fighting for my cause; and this is the son of Colonel who died the death of a hero, courageously defending, against my troops, the redoubts of Wolna. I have promised to supply to both the place of a father, be you therefore to them a mother.' This is the same emperor of whom the French newspapers have fabled the most ridiculous tales of sending poor Polish children to Siberia !"

Even this may be true, as far as concerns the single boy in question; there are some natural feelings of kindliness in all men's bosoms. God forbid that Nicholas should be denied his share. But the worthy Tietz knows, doubtless, the value of un petit mot pour le peuple. Sometimes these mots are made by monarchs, sometimes for them; at all times they are the very cheapest modes of earning popularity which an absolute sovereign can acquire. But the Legationsrath spoils his game by his indecent and untimely triumph upon the manner in which the emperor has proved his humanity. He may not have sent little children to Siberia, but he has torn children from their mothers, and drafted them into Russian schools, or far colonies, or regiments; and this foolish braggadocio falsehood of the Polish butcher will be received as it should be received. It was intended for Russians, not Poles; they know too well the truth; but the Russians may be content with this easy, lying magnanimity, as may Prussian legation-secretaries and others, who have their reasons for believing the tale.

Legationsrath's book contains more than one such anecdote as the following, where the kaiser is made to perform a Haroun-Alraschid part, and which none but such a creature as the diplomatic Tietz could admire.