REIGN OF CATHARINE II.
From 1765 to 1774.
Energy of Catharine's Administration.--Titles of Honor Decreed to
Her.--Code of Laws Instituted.--The Assassination of the Empress
Attempted.--Encouragement of Learned Men.--Catharine Inoculated for
the Small-Pox.--New War with Turkey.--Capture of Crimea.--Sailing of
the Russian Fleet.--Great Naval Victory.--Visit of the Prussian Prince
Henry.--The Sleigh Ride.--Plans for the Partition of Poland.--The
Hermitage.--Marriage of the Grand Duke Paul.--Correspondence with
Voltaire and Diderot.
The friends and the foes of Catharine are alike lavish in their
encomiums upon her attempts to elevate Russia in prosperity and in
national greatness. Under her guidance an assembly was convened to
frame a code of laws, based on justice, and which should be supreme
throughout all Russia. The assembly prosecuted its work with great
energy, and, ere its dissolution, passed a resolution decreeing to the
empress the titles of "Great, Wise, Prudent, and Mother of the
Country."
To this decree Catharine modestly replied, "If I have rendered myself
worthy of the first title, it belongs to posterity to confer it upon
me. Wisdom and prudence are the gifts of Heaven, for which I daily
give thanks, without presuming to derive any merit from them myself.
The title of _Mother of the Country_ is, in my eyes, the most dear of
all,--the only one I can accept, and which I regard as the most benign
and glorious recompense for my labors and solicitudes in behalf of a
people whom I love."
The code of laws thus framed is a noble monument to the genius and
humanity of Catharine II. The principles of enlightened philanthropy
pervades the code, which recognizes the immutable principles of right,
and which seems designed to undermine the very foundations of
despotism. In the instructions which Catharine drew up for the
guidance of the assembly, she wrote,
"Laws should be framed with the sole object of conducting mankind to
the greatest happiness. It is our duty to mitigate the lot of those
who live in a state of dependence. The liberty and security of the
citizens ought to be the grand and precious object of all laws; they
should all tend to render life, honor and property as stable and
secure as the constitution of the government itself. It is
incomparably better to prevent crimes than to punish them. The use of
torture is contrary to sound reason. Humanity cries out against this
practice, and insists on its being abolished."
The condition of the peasantry, heavily taxed by the nobles, excited
her deepest commiseration. She wished their entire enfranchisement,
but was fully conscious that she was not strong enough to undertake so
sweeping a measure of reform. She insisted, however, "that laws should
be prescribed to the nobility, obliging them to act more circumspectly
in the manner of levying their dues, and to protect the peasant, so
that his condition might be improved and that he might be enabled to
acquire property."
A ruffian attempted to assassinate Catharine. He was arrested in the
palace, with a long dagger concealed in his dress, and without
hesitation confessed his design. Catharine had the assassin brought
into her presence, conversed mildly with him, and seeing that there
was no hope of disarming his fanaticism, banished him to Siberia. But
the innocent daughter of the guilty man she took under her protection,
and subsequently appointed her one of her maids of honor. In the year
1767, she sent a delegation of scientific men on a geological survey
into the interior of the empire, with directions to determine the
geographical position of the principal places, to mark their
temperature, their productions, their wealth, and the manners and
characters of the several people by whom they were inhabited. Russia
was then, as now, a world by itself, peopled by innumerable tribes or
nations, with a great diversity of climates, and with an infinite
variety of manners and customs. A large portion of the country was
immersed in the profoundest barbarism, almost inaccessible to the
traveler. In other portions vagrant hordes wandered without any fixed
habitations. Here was seen the castle of the noble with all its
imposing architecture, and its enginery of offense and defense. The
mud hovels of the peasants were clustered around the massive pile; and
they passed their lives in the most degrading bondage.
From all parts of Europe the most learned men were invited to the
court of Catharine. The renowned mathematician, Euler, was lured from
Berlin to St. Petersburg. The empress settled upon him a large annual
stipend, and made him a present of a house. Catharine was fully
conscious that the glory of a country consists, not in its military
achievements, but in advancement in science and in the useful and
elegant arts. The annual sum of five thousand dollars was assigned to
encourage the translation of foreign literary works into the Russian
language. The small-pox was making fearful ravages in Russia. The
empress had heard of inoculation. She sent to England for a physician,
Dr. Thomas Dimsdale, who had practiced inoculation for the small-pox
with great success in London. Immediately upon his arrival the empress
sent for him, and with skill which astonished the physician,
questioned him respecting his mode of practice. He was invited to dine
with the empress; and the doctor thus describes the dinner party:
"The empress sat singly at the upper end of a long table, at which
about twelve of the nobility were guests. The entertainment consisted
of a variety of excellent dishes, served up after the French manner,
and was concluded by a dessert of the finest fruits and sweetmeats,
such as I little expected to find in that northern climate. Most of
these luxuries were, however, the produce of the empress's own
dominions. Pineapples, indeed, are chiefly imported from England,
though those of the growth of Russia, of which we had one that day,
are of good flavor but generally small. Water-melons and grapes are
brought from Astrachan; great plenty of melons from Moscow; and apples
and pears from the Ukraine.
"But what most enlivened the whole entertainment, was the unaffected
ease and affability of the empress herself. Each of her guests had a
share of her attention and politeness. The conversation was kept up
with freedom and cheerfulness to be expected rather from persons of
the same rank, than from subjects admitted to the honor of their
sovereign's company."
The empress after conversing with Dr. Dimsdale, decided to introduce
the practice of small-pox inoculation[20] into Russia, and heroically
resolved that the experiment should first be tried upon herself. Dr.
Dimsdale, oppressed by the immense responsibility thus thrown upon
him, for though the disease, thus introduced, was generally mild, in
not a few cases it proved fatal, requested the assistance of the court
physicians.
[Footnote 20: Vaccination, or inoculation with the cow-pox, was not
introduced to Europe until many years after this. The celebrated
treatise of Jenner, entitled _An inquiry into the causes and effects
of Variolæ Vaccinæ_, was published in 1798.]
"It is not necessary," the empress replied; "you come well
recommended. The conversation I have had increases my confidence in
you. It is impossible that my physicians should have much skill in
this operation. My life is my own, and with the utmost cheerfulness I
entrust myself to your care. I wish to be inoculated as soon as you
judge it convenient, and desire to have it kept a secret."
The anxious physician begged that the experiment might first be tried
by inoculating some of her own sex and age, and, as near as possible,
of her own constitutional habits. The empress replied,
"The practice is not novel, and no doubt remains of its general
success. It is, therefore, not necessary that there should be any
delay on that account."
Catharine was inoculated on the 12th of October, 1768, and went
immediately to a secluded private palace at some distance from the
city, under the pretense that she wished to superintend some repairs.
She took with her only the necessary attendants. Soon, however,
several of the nobility, some of whom she suspected had not had the
small-pox, followed. As a week was to elapse after the operation
before the disease would begin to manifest itself, the empress said to
Dr. Dimsdale,
"I must rely on you to give me notice when it is possible for me to
communicate the disease. Though I could wish to keep my inoculation a
secret, yet far be it from me to conceal it a moment when it may
become hazardous to others."
In the mean time she took part in every amusement with her wonted
affability and without the slightest indication of alarm. She dined
with the rest of the company, and enlivened the whole court with those
conversational charms for which she was distinguished. The disease
proved light, and she was carried through it very successfully. Soon
after, she wrote to Voltaire,
"I have not kept my bed a single instant, and I have received company
every day. I am about to have my only son inoculated. Count Orlof,
that hero who resembles the ancient Romans in the best times of the
republic, both in courage and generosity, doubting whether he had ever
had the small-pox, has put himself under the hands of our Englishman,
and, the next day after the operation, went to the hunt in a very deep
fall of snow. A great number of courtiers have followed his example,
and many others are preparing to do so. Besides this, inoculation is
now carried on at Petersburg in three seminaries of education, and in
an hospital established under the protection of Dr. Dimsdale."
The empress testified her gratitude for the benefits Dr. Dimsdale had
conferred upon Russia by making him a present of fifty thousand
dollars, and settling upon him a pension of one thousand dollars a
year. On the 3d of December, 1768, a thanksgiving service was
performed in the chapel of the palace, in gratitude for the recovery
of her majesty and her son Paul from the small-pox.
The Turks began now to manifest great apprehensions in view of the
rapid growth of the Russian empire. Poland was so entirely
overshadowed that its monarchs were elected and its government
administered under the influence of a Russian army. In truth, Poland
had become but little more than one of the provinces of Catharine's
empire. The Grand Seignior formed an alliance with the disaffected
Poles, arrested the Russian embassador at Constantinople, and mustered
his hosts for war. Catharine II. was prepared for the emergency. Early
in 1769 the Russian army commenced its march towards the banks of the
Cuban, in the wilds of Circassia. The Tartars of the Crimea were the
first foes whom the armies of Catharine encountered. The Sea of Azof,
with its surrounding shores, soon fell into the possession of Russia.
One of the generals of Catharine, General Drevitch, a man whose name
deserves to be held up to eternal infamy, took nine Polish gentlemen
as captives, and, cutting off their hands at the wrist, sent them
home, thus mutilated, to strike terror into the Poles. Already
Frederic of Prussia and Catharine were secretly conferring upon a
united attack upon Poland and the division of the territory between
them.
Frederic sent his brother Henry to St. Petersburg to confer with
Catharine upon this contemplated robbery, sufficiently gigantic in
character to be worthy of the energies of the royal bandits. Catharine
received Henry with splendor which the world has seldom seen equaled.
One of the entertainments with which she honored him was a moonlight
sleigh ride arranged upon a scale of imperial grandeur. The sleigh
which conveyed Catharine and the Prussian prince was an immense parlor
drawn by sixteen horses, covered and inclosed by double glasses,
which, with numberless mirrors, reflected all objects within and
without. This sledge was followed by a retinue of two thousand others.
Every person, in all the sledges, was dressed in fancy costume, and
masked. When two miles from the city, the train passed beneath a
triumphal arch illuminated with all conceivable splendor. At the
distance of every mile, some grand structure appeared in a blaze of
light, a pyramid, or a temple, or colonnades, or the most brilliant
displays of fireworks. Opposite each of these structures ball rooms
had been reared, which were crowded with the rustic peasantry, amusing
themselves with music, dancing and all the games of the country. Each
of the spacious houses of entertainment personated some particular
Russian nation, where the dress, music and amusements of that nation
were represented. All sorts of gymnastic feats were also exhibited,
such as vaulting, tumbling and feats upon the slack and tight rope.
Through such scenes the imperial pleasure party rode, until a high
mountain appeared through an avenue cut in the forest, representing
Mount Vesuvius during an eruption. Vast billows of flame were rolling
to the skies, and the whole region was illumined with a blaze of
light. The spectators had hardly recovered from the astonishment which
this display caused, when the train suddenly entered a Chinese
village, which proved to be but the portal to the imperial palace of
Tzarkoselo. The palace was lighted with an infinite number of wax
candles. For two hours the guests amused themselves with dancing.
Suddenly there was a grand discharge of cannon. The candles were
immediately extinguished, and a magnificent display of fireworks,
extending along the whole breadth of the palace, converted night into
day. Again there was a thundering discharge of artillery, when, as by
enchantment, the candles blazed anew, and a sumptuous supper was
served up. After the entertainment, dancing was renewed, and was
continued until morning.
The empress had a private palace at St. Petersburg which she called
her Hermitage, where she received none but her choicest friends. This
sumptuous edifice merits some minuteness of description. It consisted
of a suite of apartments containing every thing which the most
voluptuous and exquisite taste could combine. The spacious building
was connected with the imperial palace by a covered arch. It would
require a volume to describe the treasures of art and industry with
which it abounded. Here the empress had her private library and her
private picture gallery. Raphael's celebrated gallery in the Vatican
at Rome was exactly repeated here with the most accurate copies of all
the paintings, corner pieces and other ornaments of the same size and
in the same situations. Medals, engravings, curious pieces of art,
models of mechanical inventions and collections of specimens of
minerals and of objects of natural history crowded the cabinets.
Chambers were arranged for all species of amusements. A pleasure
garden was constructed upon arches, with furnaces beneath them in
winter, that the plants might ever enjoy genial heat. This garden was
covered with fine brass wire, that the birds from all countries,
singing among the trees and shrubs, or hopping along the grass plots
and gravel walks, and which the empress was accustomed to feed with
her own hand, might not escape. While the storms of a Russian winter
were howling without, the empress here could tread upon verdant lawns
and gravel walks beneath luxuriant vegetation, listening to bird songs
and partaking of fruits and flowers of every kind.
In this artificial Eden the empress often received Henry, the Prussian
prince, and matured her plan for the partition of Poland. The
festivities which dazzled the eyes of the frivolous courtiers were
hardly thought of by Catharine and Henry. Mr. Richardson, an English
gentleman who was in the family of Lord Cathcart, then the British
embassador at the Russian court, had sufficient sagacity to detect
that, beneath this display of amusements, political intrigues of great
moment were being woven. He wrote from St. Petersburg, on the 1st of
January, 1771, as follows:
"This city, since the beginning of winter, has exhibited a
continued scene of festivities; feasts, balls, concerts, plays,
and masquerades in continued succession; and all in honor of, and
to divert his royal highness, Prince Henry of Prussia, the famous
brother of the present king. Yet his royal highness does not seem
to be much diverted. He looks at them as an old cat looks at the
gambols of a young kitten; or as one who has higher sport going
on in his mind than the pastime of fiddling and dancing. He came
here on pretense of a friendly visit to the empress; to have the
happiness of waiting on so magnanimous a princess, and to see,
with his own eyes, the progress of those immense improvements, so
highly celebrated by Voltaire and those French writers who
receive gifts from her majesty.
"But do you seriously imagine that this creature of skin and bone
should travel through Sweden, Finland and Poland, all for the
pleasure of seeing the metropolis and the empress of Russia?
Other princes may pursue such pastime; but the princes of the
house of Brandenburg fly at a nobler quarry. Or is the King of
Prussia, as a tame spectator, to reap no advantage from the
troubles in Poland and the Turkish war? What is the meaning of
his late conferences with the Emperor of Germany? Depend upon it
these planetary conjunctions are the forerunners of great events.
A few months may unfold the secret. You will recollect the signs
when, after this, you shall hear of changes, usurpations and
revolutions."
In one of these interviews, in which the dismemberment of Poland was
resolved on, Catharine said,
"I will frighten Turkey and flatter England. Do you take it upon
yourself to buy over Austria, and amuse France."
Though the arrangements for the partition were at this time all made,
the portion which was to be assigned to Austria agreed upon, and the
extent of territory which each was to appropriate to itself settled,
the formal treaty was not signed till two years afterwards.
The war still continued to rage on the frontiers of Turkey. After ten
months of almost incessant slaughter, the Turkish army was nearly
destroyed. The empress collected two squadrons of Russian men-of-war
at Archangel on the White Sea, and at Revel on the Baltic, and sent
them through the straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean. All
Europe was astonished at this wonderful apparition suddenly presenting
itself amidst the islands of the Archipelago. The inhabitants of the
Greek islands were encouraged to rise, and they drove out their
Mussulman oppressors with great slaughter. Catharine was alike
victorious on the land and on the sea; and she began very seriously to
contemplate driving the Turks out of Europe and taking possession of
Constantinople. Her land troops speedily overran the immense provinces
of Bessarabia, Moldavia and Wallachia, and annexed them to the Russian
empire.
The Turkish fleet encountered the Russians in the narrow channel which
separates the island of Scio from Natolia. In one of the fiercest
naval battles on record, and which raged for five hours, the Turkish
fleet was entirely destroyed. A courier was instantly dispatched to
St. Petersburg with the exultant tidings. The rejoicings in St.
Petersburg, over this naval victory, were unbounded. The empress was
so elated that she resolved to liberate both Greece and Egypt from the
sway of the Turks. The Turks were in a terrible panic, and resorted to
the most desperate measures to defend the Dardanelles, that the
Russian fleet might not ascend to Constantinople. At the same time the
plague broke out in Constantinople with horrible violence, a thousand
dying daily, for several weeks.
The immense Crimean peninsula contains fifteen thousand square miles,
being twice as large as the State of Massachusetts. The isthmus of
Perikop, which connects it with the mainland, is but five miles in
width. The Turks had fortified this passage by a ditch seventy-two
feet wide, and forty-two feet deep, and had stationed along this line
an army of fifty thousand Tartars. But the Russians forced the
barrier, and the Crimea became a Russian province. The victorious
army, however, soon encountered a foe whom no courage could vanquish.
The plague broke out in their camp, and spread through all Russia,
with desolation which seems incredible, although well authenticated.
In Moscow, not more than one fourth of the inhabitants were left
alive. More than sixty thousand died in that city in less than a year.
For days the dead lay in the streets where they had fallen, there not
being carts or people enough to carry them away. The pestilence
gradually subsided before the intensity of wintry frosts.
The devastations of war and of the plague rendered both the Russians
and Turks desirous of peace. On the 2d of August, 1772, the Russian
and Turkish plenipotentiaries met under tents, on a plain about
nineteen miles north of Bucharest, the capital of Wallachia. The
Russian ministers approached in four grand coaches, preceded by
hussars, and attended by one hundred and sixty servants in livery. The
Turkish ministers came on horseback, with about sixty servants, all
dressed in great simplicity. The two parties, however, could not
agree, and the conference was broken up. The negotiations were soon
resumed at Bucharest, but this attempt was also equally unsuccessful
with the first.
The plot for the partition of Poland was now ripe. Russia, Prussia
and Austria had agreed to march their armies into the kingdom and
divide a very large portion of the territory between them. It was as
high-handed a robbery as the world ever witnessed. There is some
consolation, however, in the reflection, that the masses of the people
in Poland were quite unaffected by the change. They were no more
oppressed by their new despots than they had been for ages by their
old ones. By this act, Russia annexed to her territory the enormous
addition of three thousand four hundred and forty square leagues,
sparsely inhabited, indeed, yet containing a population of one million
five hundred thousand. Austria obtained less territory, but nearly
twice as many inhabitants. Prussia obtained the contiguous provinces
she coveted, with about nine hundred thousand inhabitants. They still
left to the King of Poland, in this first partition, a small fragment
of his kingdom. The King of Prussia removed from his portion the first
year twelve thousand families, who were sent to populate the
uninhabited wilds of his hereditary dominions. All the young men were
seized and sent to the Prussian army. The same general course was
pursued by Russia. That the Polish population might be incorporated
with that of Russia, and all national individuality lost, the Poles
were removed into ancient Russia, while whole provinces of Russians
were sent to populate Poland.
The vast wealth which at this time the Russian court was able to
extort from labor, may be inferred from the fact, that while the
empress was carrying on the most expensive wars, her disbursements to
favorites, generals and literary men--in encouraging the arts,
purchasing libraries, pictures, statues, antiques and jewels, vastly
exceeded that of any European prince excepting Louis XIV. A diamond of
very large size and purity, weighing seven hundred and seventy-nine
carats, was brought from Ispahan by a Greek. Catharine purchased it
for five hundred thousand dollars, settling at the same time a
pension of five thousand dollars for life, upon the fortunate Greek of
whom she bought it.
The war still raged fiercely in Turkey with the usual vicissitudes of
battles. The Danube at length became the boundary between the hostile
armies, its wide expanse of water, its islands and its wooded shores
affording endless opportunity for surprises, ambuscades, flight and
pursuit. Under these circumstances war was prosecuted with an enormous
loss of life; but as the wasting armies were continually being
replenished, it seemed as though there could be no end to the strife.
Catharine had for some time been meditating a marriage for her son,
the Grand Duke Paul. There was a grand duchy in Germany, on the Rhine,
almost equally divided by that stream, called Darmstadt. It contained
three thousand nine hundred square miles, being about half the size of
the State of Massachusetts, and embraced a population of nearly a
million. The Duke of Darmstadt had three very attractive daughters,
either one of whom, Catharine thought, would make a very suitable
match for her son. She accordingly invited the three young ladies,
with their mother, to visit her court, that her son might, after a
careful scrutiny, take his pick. The brilliance of the prospective
match with the tzar of all the Russias outweighed every scruple, and
the invitation was eagerly accepted. Paul was cold as an iceberg,
stubborn as a mule and crack-brained, but he could place on the brow
of his spouse the crown of an empress. Catharine received her guests
with the greatest magnificence, loaded them with presents, and finally
chose one of them, Wilhelmina, for the bride of Paul. The marriage was
solemnized on the 10th of November, 1773, with all the splendor with
which the Russian court could invest the occasion, the festivities
being continued from the 10th to the 21st of the month.
Catharine, with her own hand, kept up a regular correspondence with
many literary and scientific men in other parts of Europe,
particularly with Voltaire and Diderot, the illustrious philosophers
of France. Several times she sent them earnest invitations to visit
her court. Diderot accepted her invitation, and was received with
confiding and friendly attentions which no merely crowned head could
have secured. Diderot sat at the table of the empress, and daily held
long social interviews with her, conversing upon politics, philosophy,
legislation, freedom of conscience and the rights of nations.
Catharine was charmed with the enthusiasm and eloquence of her guest,
but she perfectly appreciated the genius and the puerility combined in
his character.
"Diderot," said she, "is a hundred years old in many respects, but in
others he is no more than ten."
The following letter from Catharine to Diderot, written with all the
freedom of the most confidential correspondence, gives a clearer view
of the character of Catharine's mind, and of her energy, than any
description could give.
"Now we are speaking of haughtiness, I have a mind to make a general
confession to you on that head. I have had great successes during this
war; that I am glad of it, you will very naturally conclude. I find
that Russia will be well known by this war. It will be seen how
indefatigable a nation it is; that she possesses men of eminent merit,
and who have all the qualities which go to the forming of heroes. It
will be seen that she is deficient in no resources, but that she can
defend herself and prosecute a war with vigor whenever she is unjustly
attacked.
"Brimful of these ideas, I have never once thought of Catharine, who,
at the age of forty-two, can increase neither in body nor in mind,
but, in the natural order of things, ought to remain, and will remain,
as she is. Do her affairs go on well? she says, so much the better. If
they prosper less, she would employ all her faculties to put them in a
better train.
"This is my ambition, and I have none other. What I tell you, is the
truth. I will go further, and say that, for the sparing of human
blood, I sincerely wish for peace. But this peace is still a long way
off, though the Turks, from different motives, are ardently desirous
of it. Those people know not how to go about it.
"I wish as much for the pacification of the unreasonable contentions
of Poland. I have to do there with brainless heads, each of which,
instead of contributing to the common peace, on the contrary, throws
impediments in the way of it by caprice and levity. My embassador has
published a declaration adapted to open their eyes. But it is to be
presumed that they will rather expose themselves to the last extremity
than adopt, without delay, a wise and consistent rule of conduct. The
vortices of Descartes never existed anywhere but in Poland. There
every head is a vortex turning continually around itself. It is
stopped by chance alone, and never by reason or judgment.
"I have not yet received your _Questions_,[21] or your watches from
Ferney. I have no doubt that the work of your artificers is perfect,
since they work under your eyes. Do not scold your rustics for having
sent me a surplus of watches. The expense of them will not ruin me. It
would be very unfortunate for me if I were so far reduced as not to
have, for sudden emergencies, such small sums whenever I want them.
Judge not, I beseech you, of our finances by those of the other ruined
potentates of Europe. Though we have been engaged in war for three
years, we proceed in our buildings, and every thing else goes on as in
a time of profound peace. It is two years since any new impost was
levied. The war, at present, has its fixed establishment; that once
regulated, it never disturbs the course of other affairs. If we
capture another Kesa or two, the war is paid for.
[Footnote 21: Questions sur l'Encyclopedie.]
"I shall be satisfied with myself whenever I meet with your
approbation, monsieur. I likewise, a few weeks ago, read over again
my instructions for the code, because I then thought peace to be
nearer at hand than it is, and I found that I was right in composing
them. I confess that this code will give me a considerable deal of
trouble before it is brought to that degree of perfection at which I
wish to see it. But no matter, it must be completed.
"Perhaps, in a little time, the khan of the Crimea will be brought to
me in person. I learn, this moment, that he did not cross the sea with
the Turks, but that he remained in the mountains with a very small
number of followers, nearly as was the case with the Pretender, in
Scotland, after the defeat at Culloden. If he comes to me, we will try
to polish him this winter, and, to take my revenge of him, I will make
him dance, and he shall go to the French comedy.
"Just as I was about to fold up this letter, I received yours of the
10th of July, in which you inform me of the adventure that happened to
my 'Instruction'[22] in France. I knew that anecdote, and even the
appendix to it, in consequence of the order of the Duke of Choiseul. I
own that I laughed on reading it in the newspapers, and I found that I
was amply revenged."
[Footnote 22: Her majesty's instruction for a code of laws.]