As to the title of czar, it may possibly come from the tzars or tchars
of the kingdom of Casan. When John, or Ivan Basilides, completed the
conquest of this kingdom in the sixteenth century, which had been begun
by his grandfather, who afterwards lost it, he assumed this title, which
his successors have retained ever since. Before John Basilides, the
sovereign of Russia, took the title of Welike Knez, i. e. great prince,
great lord, great chief, which the Christian nations afterwards rendered
by that of great duke. Czar Michael Theodorowitz, when he received the
Holstein embassy, took to himself the following titles: 'Great knez, and
great lord, conservator of all the Russias, prince of Wolodomer, Moscow,
Novogorod, &c. tzar of Casan, tzar of Astracan, and tzar of Siberia.'
Tzar was, therefore, a title belonging to these eastern princes; and,
therefore, it is more probable to have been derived from the tshas of
Persia, than from the Roman Cæsars, whom the Siberian tzars, on the
banks of the Oby, can hardly be supposed to have ever heard.
No title, however pompous, is of any consequence, if those who bear it
are not great and powerful themselves. The word emperor, which
originally signified no more than general of the army, became the title
of the sovereign of the Roman republic: it is now given to the supreme
governor of all the Russias, more justly than to any other potentate, if
we consider the power and extent of his dominions.