The Imperial Family.
I had at last the pleasure of seeing that monarch, equally absolute
by law and custom, and so moderate from his own disposition. The
empress Elizabeth, to whom I was at first presented, appeared to me
the tutelary angel of Russia. Her manners are extremely reserved,
but what she says is full of life, and it is from the focus of all
generous ideas that her sentiments and opinions have derived
strength and warmth. While I listened to her, I was affected by
something inexpressible, which did not proceed from her grandeur,
but from the harmony of her soul; so long was it since I had known
an instance of concord between power and virtue. As I was conversing
with the empress, the door opened, and the emperor Alexander did me
the honor to come and talk to me. What first struck me in him was
such an expression of goodness and dignity, that the two qualities
appear inseparable, and in him to form only one. I was also very
much affected with the noble simplicity with which he entered upon
the great interests of Europe, almost among the first words he
addressed to me. I have always regarded, as a proof of mediocrity,
that apprehension of treating serious questions, with which the best
part of the sovereigns of Europe have been inspired; they are afraid
to pronounce a word to which any real meaning can be attached. The
emperor Alexander on the contrary, conversed with me as statesmen in
England would have done, who place their strength in themselves, and
not in the barriers with which they are surrounded. The emperor
Alexander, whom Napoleon has endeavoured to misrepresent, is a man
of remarkable understanding and information, and I do not believe
that in the whole extent of his empire he could find a minister
better versed than himself in all that belongs to the judgment and
direction of public affairs. He did not disguise from me his regret
for the admiration to which he had surrendered himself in his
intercourse with Napoleon. His grandfather had, in the same way,
entertained a great enthusiasm for Frederic II. In these sort of
illusions, produced by an extraordinary character, there is always a
generous motive, whatever may be the errors that result from it. The
emperor Alexander, however, described with great sagacity the effect
produced upon him by these conversations with Bonaparte, in which he
said the most opposite things, as if one must be astonished at each,
without thinking of their being contradictory. He related to me also
the lessons a la Machiavel which Napoleon had thought proper to give
him: "You see," said he, "I am careful to keep my ministers and
generals at variance among themselves, in order that each may reveal
to me the faults of the other; I keep up around me a continual
jealousy by the manner I treat those who are about me: one day one
thinks himself the favorite, the next day another, so that no one is
ever certain of my favor." What a vulgar and vicious theory! And
will there never arise a man superior to this man, who will
demonstrate its inutility? That which is wanting to the sacred cause
of morality, is, that it should contribute in a very striking manner
to great success in this world; he who feels all the dignity of this
cause will sacrifice with pleasure every success, but it is still
necessary to teach those presumptuous persons who imagine they
discover depth of thinking in the vices of the soul, that if in
immorality there is sometimes wit, in virtue there is genius. In
obtaining the conviction of the good faith of the emperor Alexander,
in his relations with Napoleon, I was at the same time persuaded
that he would not imitate the example of the unfortunate sovereigns
of Germany, and would sign no peace with him who is equally the
enemy of people and kings. A noble soul cannot be twice deceived by
the same person. Alexander gives and withdraws his confidence with
the greatest reflection. His youth and personal advantages have
alone, at the beginning of his reign, made him be suspected of
levity; but he is serious, even as much so as a man may be who has
known misfortune. Alexander expressed to me his regret at not being
a great captain: I replied to this noble modesty, that a sovereign
was much more rare than a general, and that the support of the
public feelings of his people, by his example, was achieving the
greatest victory, and the first of the kind which had ever been
gained. The emperor talked to me with enthusiasm of his nation, and
of all that it was capable of becoming. He expressed to me the
desire, which all the world knows him to entertain, of ameliorating
the state of the peasants still subject to slavery. "Sire," said I
to him, "your character is a constitution for your empire, and your
conscience is the guarantee of it." "Were that even the case,"
replied he, "I should only be a fortunate accident."* Noble words!
The first of the kind, 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 with the improvement of his country!
and in attempting to establish laws which would guarantee to it that
happiness, of which the duration is as yet only secured for the life
of its present ruler.
* (Note by the Editor)
* This expression has been already quoted in the third volume of the
Considerations on the French Revolution; but it deserves to be
repeated. All this, however, it must be remembered, was written at
the end of 1812.
(End of Note by the Editor.)
From the emperor's I went to his respectable mother's, that princess
to whom calumny has never been able to impute a sentiment
unconnected with the happiness of her husband, her children, or the
family of unfortunate persons of whom she is the protectress. I
shall relate, farther on, in what manner she governs that empire of
charity, which she exercises in the midst of the omnipotent empire
of her son. She lives in the palace of the Taurida, and to get to
her apartments you have to cross a hall, built by prince Potemkin,
of incomparable grandeur; a winter garden occupies a part of it, and
you see the trees and plants through the pillars which surround the
middle inclosure. Every thing in this residence is colossal; the
conceptions of the prince who built it were fantastically gigantic.
He had towns built in the Crimea, solely that the empress might see
them on her passage; he ordered the assault of a fortress, to please
a beautiful woman, the princess Dolgorouki, who had disdained his
suit. The favor of his Sovereign mistress created him such as he
showed himself; but there is remarkable, notwithstanding, in the
characters of most of the great men of Russia, such as Menzikoff,
Suwarow, Peter I. himself, and in yet older times Ivan Vasilievitch,
something fantastical, violent, and ironical combined. Wit was with
them rather an arm than an enjoyment, and it was by the imagination
that they were led. Generosity, barbarity, unbridled passions, and
religious superstition, all met in the same character. Even now
civilization in Russia has not penetrated beyond the surface, even
among the great nobility; externally they imitate other nations, but
all are Russians at heart, and in that consists their strength and
originality, the love of country being next to that of God, the
noblest sentiment which men can feel. That country must certainly be
exceedingly different from those which surround it to inspire a
decided attachment; nations which are confounded with one another by
slight shades of difference, or which are divided into several
separate states, never devote themselves with real passion to the
conventional association to which they have attached the name of
country.