_Louis_.--Who, sir, could have thought, when you were learning the trade
of a shipwright in the dockyards of England and Holland, that you would
ever acquire, as I had done, the surname of "Great."
_Peter_.--Which of us best deserved that title posterity will decide. But
my greatness appeared sufficiently in that very act which seemed to you a
debasement.
_Louis_.--The dignity of a king does not stoop to such mean employments.
For my own part, I was careful never to appear to the eyes of my subjects
or foreigners but in all the splendour and majesty of royal power.
_Peter_.--Had I remained on the throne of Russia, as my ancestors did,
environed with all the pomp of barbarous greatness, I should have been
idolised by my people--as much, at least, as you ever were by the French.
My despotism was more absolute, their servitude was more humble. But
then I could not have reformed their evil customs; have taught them arts,
civility, navigation, and war; have exalted them from brutes in human
shapes into men. In this was seen the extraordinary force of my genius
beyond any comparison with all other kings, that I thought it no
degradation or diminution of my greatness to descend from my throne, and
go and work in the dockyards of a foreign republic; to serve as a private
sailor in my own fleets, and as a common soldier in my own army, till I
had raised myself by my merit in all the several steps and degrees of
promotion up to the highest command, and had thus induced my nobility to
submit to a regular subordination in the sea and land service by a lesson
hard to their pride, and which they would not have learnt from any other
master or by any other method of instruction.
_Louis_.--I am forced to acknowledge that it was a great act. When I
thought it a mean one, my judgment was perverted by the prejudices
arising from my own education and the ridicule thrown upon it by some of
my courtiers, whose minds were too narrow to be able to comprehend the
greatness of yours in that situation.
_Peter_.--It was an act of more heroism than any ever done by Alexander
or Caesar. Nor would I consent to exchange my glory with theirs. They
both did great things; but they were at the head of great nations, far
superior in valour and military skill to those with whom they contended.
I was the king of an ignorant, undisciplined, barbarous people. My
enemies were at first so superior to my subjects that ten thousand of
them could beat a hundred thousand Russians. They had formidable navies;
I had not a ship. The King of Sweden was a prince of the most intrepid
courage, assisted by generals of consummate knowledge in war, and served
by soldiers so disciplined that they were become the admiration and
terror of Europe. Yet I vanquished these soldiers; I drove that prince
to take refuge in Turkey; I won battles at sea as well as land; I new-
created my people; I gave them arts, science, policy; I enabled them to
keep all the powers of the North in awe and dependence, to give kings to
Poland, to check and intimidate the Ottoman emperors, to mix with great
weight in the affairs of all Europe. What other man has ever done such
wonders as these? Read all the records of ancient and modern times, and
find, if you can, one fit to be put in comparison with me!
_Louis_.--Your glory would indeed have been supreme and unequalled if, in
civilising your subjects, you had reformed the brutality of your own
manners and the barbarous vices of your nature. But, alas! the
legislator and reformer of the Muscovites was drunken and cruel.
_Peter_.--My drunkenness I confess; nor will I plead, to excuse it, the
example of Alexander. It inflamed the tempers of both, which were by
nature too fiery, into furious passions of anger, and produced actions of
which our reason, when sober, was ashamed. But the cruelty you upbraid
me with may in some degree be excused, as necessary to the work I had to
perform. Fear of punishment was in the hearts of my barbarous subjects
the only principle of obedience. To make them respect the royal
authority I was obliged to arm it with all the terrors of rage. You had
a more pliant people to govern--a people whose minds could be ruled, like
a fine-managed horse, with an easy and gentle rein. The fear of shame
did more with them than the fear of the knout could do with the Russians.
The humanity of your character and the ferocity of mine were equally
suitable to the nations over which we reigned. But what excuse can you
find for the cruel violence you employed against your Protestant
subjects? They desired nothing but to live under the protection of laws
you yourself had confirmed; and they repaid that protection by the most
hearty zeal for your service. Yet these did you force, by the most
inhuman severities, either to quit the religion in which they were bred,
and which their consciences still retained, or to leave their native
land, and endure all the woes of a perpetual exile. If the rules of
policy could not hinder you from thus depopulating your kingdom, and
transferring to foreign countries its manufactures and commerce, I am
surprised that your heart itself did not stop you. It makes one shudder
to think that such orders should be sent from the most polished court in
Europe, as the most savage Tartars could hardly have executed without
remorse and compassion.
_Louis_.--It was not my heart, but my religion, that dictated these
severities. My confessor told me they alone would atone for all my sins.
_Peter_.--Had I believed in my patriarch as you believed in your priest,
I should not have been the great monarch that I was. But I mean not to
detract from the merit of a prince whose memory is dear to his subjects.
They are proud of having obeyed you, which is certainly the highest
praise to a king. My people also date their glory from the era of my
reign. But there is this capital distinction between us. The pomp and
pageantry of state were necessary to your greatness; I was great in
myself, great in the energy and powers of my mind, great in the
superiority and sovereignty of my soul over all other men.