‘With what a lovely day has Thy reign begun! It seemed as though Nature
herself were greeting Thee with rapture![90] Alexander, beloved of our
hearts! For ten days now the spring sun has been shining on Thy subjects,
who are full of hopes, and day by day, hour by hour, Thou hast done more
to justify those hopes. What a joyful future awaits us!
‘At this time of universal rejoicing, who would spare his life for Thy
defence? But Thou hast no need of it.... Forgive me, then, if I, remote
from Thy Court and all dreams of reward, an obscure Russian, seeking
to bring Thee an offering, trace certain truths with audacious hand.
Forgive, forgive me for this unworthy offering, an offering from the
heart; accept it as a testimony of trust in Thy virtues, as a sign of the
true love of Thy subjects. Doubtless all that I could say to Thee is more
or less clearly printed already on Thy noble heart, or is well known in
the counsels of the wise men with whom Thou surroundest Thyself. But this
thought could not keep me from offering my widow’s mite to the treasury,
even as the most dazzling conception of Thy glory will never keep me from
zealously proclaiming it wherever I may go.
‘My Sovereign! Thou reignest over forty million men, from of old
accustomed to pay boundless homage to authority, apart from which they
cannot picture their weal. A mere glance from their Tsar is often enough
to diffuse universal joy, and of course, a mere command is enough to give
the greatest happiness man can enjoy on earth....
‘The Empire which will call Thee its own is not an ordinary State. There
is no other like it either in the Europe of to-day or in the other parts
of the earth, nor perhaps in the chronicles of past ages. It includes
ten climates, and is inhabited by a people for the most part of one
language and of one religion. From north to south and from west to
east it abounds in innumerable riches of all kinds supplementing each
other; and this gives it the possibility of complete independence in its
relations with foreign countries. It has spacious lands for producing the
materials peculiar to it, and the trusty hands of its sons for working
upon them. Hence its wealth, resting on no chance foundations but on
Nature herself, is bound to increase with time. It may be compared to a
mine that has only been opened on the surface, the wealth of which is
gradually revealed as it is sunk deeper. It abounds in rivers which,
flowing from its centre into five seas, await only the protecting hand of
government to unite them in order to carry the products of Europe to Asia
and the products of Asia to Europe by the shortest ways. It is bounded
for the most part by the Arctic Ocean or by lands as unapproachable; on
its other frontiers it has neighbours accustomed to respect the might of
Russia. What new thing can I say to Thee, Sire, of the civic virtues of
Thy people, which even in the period of coarsest ignorance had already
given evidence of its power; of the people, which in the present state
of the moral world is perhaps less corrupted than any other nation?...
I will only recall one of these virtues, which secures the stability
of the Fatherland. The sacrifice of life for one’s country has at all
times and in all places been deemed worthy of everlasting praise; but
this sacrifice with no prospect of the glory which comforts dying
heroes, this great devotion, is characteristic only of rare souls, and
the Russian soldier is more capable of it than any warrior of ancient
or modern times. The heroic leader goes to his death: I respect him;
but I see that the glory which beyond the grave will strew its laurels
on him fills his mind with the admiration of his fellow-countrymen
and of posterity, and that glory softens the horrors of death. He is
intoxicated by ambition, the desire of winning the highest distinction.
The very necessity of acting in accordance with the traditions of the
class to which he belongs leads him on. But the humble soldier who does
not dream of laurels, who has none of the conventional ideas of noble
birth that compel a man to distinguish himself, expects no reward; the
soldier, whose lot is unchanged after twenty battles won, and who, with
no thought of eye-witnesses, of posterity, of history, dies _altogether_,
for whom his sacred duty is the one impelling force, is to my mind a
great hero indeed! Such is the Russian soldier; and of such Thou hast
hundreds of thousands. Time has developed the wisdom of man; time, which
perfects all things, is making it possible for the lawgiver to be the
benefactor of all mankind. If Catherine, if Marcus Aurelius himself had
lived in the Iron Age of the reign of Ivan Vassilyevitch when all Europe
was still shrouded in the darkness of superstition and oppressed by
the tyranny of feudalism, could they have done much for the benefit of
their subjects? Even assuming that they had evolved laws from their own
benevolent hearts, from their own all-embracing wisdom, assuming that
they could have found the possibility of vigorous action and of deep
reflection, could, without any preliminary study, have fully understood
the organisation of society and the hearts of the people, where could
they have found men worthy to carry out their plans? Neither the men nor
the means for public education had yet been evolved. In our day, Sire,
legislation, together with other branches of learning and the progress
of reason which has inevitably advanced in the course of ages, offers
Thee in the works of the greatest minds a thousand new ideas. These
ideas, embraced by Thy beneficent spirit, and tested by Thy religious
ardour as gold by fire, may be the foundation of the happiness of the
Russians. Great is the service of the sage who laboriously discovers the
truth; but he who uses the power given him by Heaven to apply that truth
to real life is deserving of an altar! He is like God Who gathers the
mists that float profitless in the air into the fructifying rain that
brings fertility to the plains and water to the rivers irrigating them.
If earthly rulers may be likened to the Great Inconceivable Being Who has
created millions of worlds, it can only be when they imitate Him in their
beneficence....
‘Look at the present state of Europe; can there ever have been a time
fitter for the raising of Thy “Russia to the pinnacle of glory and
happiness” in accordance with Thy promise? The pretensions and aims of
all the Powers are so different, so opposed to one another, that Thou
canst never be forced to take up arms if Thou hast Thyself peaceful
intentions, if the vain praises of idle minds (the so-called glory of
conquerors) are never by Thee held worthy to be weighed beside the
blessings of thousands and thousands of men whose fate depends on Thee.
The French Revolution, so fatal in itself, so menacing to the stability
of many Governments, far from doing harm to Russia, into which its
principles could never penetrate, has brought it palpable advantage: in
the first place, by turning away the envious attention of the Powers at
the moment most critical for Russia, and then, by the new grouping of
their alliances, freeing our Court from the necessity of adhering to
one or the other party, both of whom now, regarding our alliance as the
determining factor, are bound to compete for our goodwill. Through this
unexpected concatenation of circumstances Russia has emerged from the
state of concealed warfare with all the European Powers which has always
existed since the days of Peter the Great. The very youth of Russia,
which would hardly have been forgotten for another whole century, has
been for ever effaced from the memory of man by the Revolution.
‘In this position of affairs, the internal and external debts of Thy
Empire are not so great in comparison with the still unexhausted sources
of Thy revenues that the Treasury could not be extricated from every
difficulty in a few months by simply cancelling some proposed expenses.
‘Such are the means, Sire, which Thou hast at Thy disposal for becoming a
great and happy monarch in the midst of the happiest people on earth....
‘At night as I passed by Thy palace I drew this picture of Thy blessed
political position and pondered on what would be Thy ways.
‘Can it be, I said to myself, can it be that He will wantonly destroy
the rare harmony of heaven and earth in His favour, and will leave
uncompleted the blessed work that has been prepared by the last
half-century? Can it be that for the pleasure—created for common souls—of
despotic power He will coldly sacrifice the people’s hopes, the immortal
glory and the reward which in the Land of Bliss awaits virtuous monarchs
after a long untroubled life filled with domestic joys?
‘_No! He will open the great book of our destiny and the destiny of our
descendants to which Catherine only pointed with her finger. He will
give us inviolable laws. He will confirm these laws for generations on
generations with the oath of allegiance of his numerous subjects. He will
say to Russia: “This is the limit of my autocratic power and that of
my descendants, and is immutable for ever....” And Russia will at last
become one of the monarchical powers; and the iron sceptre of arbitrary
tyranny shall not be able to break the Tables of her Covenant._
‘Towards this goal He will move slowly, as Nature moves in the mysterious
ways made ready for her by the Creator. He will call to His aid the
Eternal Reason that can shed light on His soul; guided by that, He will
examine the whole code of laws hitherto existing, that He may not without
need or through mere love of novelty destroy what has been confirmed and
justified by time. In the name of the Fatherland He will require advice
from the wise men happily placed by destiny at His side, and from others
whose voice from the remotest borders of His Empire may make the truth
known to Him. _Under vow of strictest discretion_ He will question them;
with the light of His own pure conscience He will go through the works
of the lawgivers of the world, ancient and modern, and will compare
them with the circumstances of His people, with their manners, customs
and religion, with their local conditions, with the true enlightenment
promised us by the coming age after the cruel trials of the past.... He
will compile in secret, but publish in the face of an attentive world, an
Imperial Code, the basis of laws which may of themselves imperceptibly
pave the way for the diffusion of its underlying principles. He will
command throughout the expanse of Russia the election of elders, worthy
of the unlimited confidence of their fellow-citizens; and, putting them
beyond the sphere of ambition and fear, bestow upon them the excess
of His authority—that they may preserve the Holy of Holies of the
Fatherland.... He will take other measures too, drawn from the experience
of ages, to confirm the rights of his subjects. He will be the first to
use autocracy for the bridling of despotic power; He will be the first
who from the purest impulse of the heart will sacrifice His own interests
for humanity! And humanity, sobbing with joy, will raise His image higher
than the images of other rulers, and multitudes of foreign people will
flock to kiss its pedestal and to enjoy happiness in our midst!
‘Doubtless, our Alexander, the Friend of Humanity, knows that nothing but
confidence in the Government, resting on the certainty of its immutable
principles, begets mutual confidence among the citizens, that it alone
is the life of commerce, the mother of public virtue and the source of
social prosperity....
‘Beside confidence in the Government, and on a level with it, He will set
faith in the justice of law. Without these two principles, the honoured
words “Citizen” and “Fatherland” are empty sounds in our language!...
‘He will despise these new false politicians who maintain that private
wrongs do no harm to society, that it makes no difference to the State
“how property passes from hand to hand.” Leaving all the administration
of justice to the elected of the people, He will remove the judges from
temptation, not by laws, inevitably ineffectual, but by providing them
with an abundant maintenance, commensurate with their disinterestedness
and their zeal for the public service. To the same end He will subject
the judges to the influence of public opinion. It has always been more
impartial, more implacable than the higher authorities, which were not
rarely moved by the same motives as their subordinates, to the still
greater discredit of the laws! A court with open doors, the right for
the litigants to publish the decisions, will be one of the most reliable
guarantees of justice.
‘He will lay the State property on a firm basis once for all: He will
reckon out the wealth of His spacious dominions; He will determine
the powers and liabilities of His subjects upon an immovable scale,
unaffected by the rise and fall of the currency, and will say: “Such
are the dues of one class to another; such are the dues to the public
Treasury; such are the means at the personal disposal of the Tsar.” Then
only extraordinary needs of State that cannot be foreseen by any human
wisdom will remain undetermined: but to meet these there will be the
national—so to speak—natural riches of the country, which in a state of
peace increase indefinitely.
‘He will not command steps to be taken for laying on new taxes in order
to increase the nominal revenue indefinitely, but with goodwill will take
steps tending to diminish expenditure. And by this surest of means He
will, accompanied by the blessings of the citizens who toil in the sweat
of their brow, secure a continual surplus in the Treasury of which no
single Power can yet boast.
‘He will restrict particularly the expenditure which does not serve the
welfare of His Empire, nor really exalt the glory of His crown. He will
diminish His Court; He will dismiss from it the crowds of servitors
and flatterers who shamelessly imagine that the property of the Empire
belongs to them, and that they have a pre-eminent right to the Tsar’s
favour, simply because chance has placed them in proximity to His person.
‘He will restrict vain display—the desire to adorn the streets and
squares of the capitals while all the rest of the Empire presents
the spectacle of roofless huts. He will not call art to His aid to
provide monuments for Himself, but will find them in the wisdom of His
institutions and the love of His people. These memorials will not perish
with time, and will awaken not the wonder of idle curiosity but the
reverence of all ages and all peoples!
‘He will not merely protect the arts capriciously and only in His own
palace, on condition that they pay Him homage, but will truly encourage
them, increasing the general welfare and setting free intellects and
talents. In general, He will prize the toil, the bloody sweat of His
subjects, that is devoted to the public benefit; and moral beauty will
be His first care. He will not deign to occupy Himself with details,
and waste on trifles the precious time which will barely, very barely,
suffice for the all-embracing cares of the Ruler of the greatest Empire
in the world. His glance will embrace whole masses. He will give the
right direction to the chief wheels of the political machine, and all the
rest will run their course rightly! As even the most perfect laws will
remain useless to a corrupt people and will lack meaning for an ignorant
people, He will doubtless turn all His attention to the education of
His subjects in accordance with the local and personal needs of each.
He will entrust the higher supervision of this to the class of the
guardians of the law, and they will act through the men who have the most
moral influence over the people. The clergy will be employed for the
enlightenment of the people, and will first themselves be enlightened to
that end; schools will be founded for the latter, free from the tedious
principles of scholasticism; and distinctions will be given not to those
preachers of the Word of God who with poetic enthusiasm glorify the Tsar
in town churches, but to those who show in practice the good influence
they have had on the morals of their flocks; to those who, founding
schools, will faithfully preach in them the pure teaching of Christ and
by their example will exhort the man and the citizen to his duties. In
this way not the sword, wielded, day and night, by power, will compel the
fulfilment of the law, but far more effectively the personal conviction
of each man of his usefulness. In this way law will be preserved by
morals and morals by law.
‘On the other hand, He will do something, too, for the moral improvement
of those who are called the lowest. He will secure to the landowners’
serfs the rights of man; He will give them the rights of property; He
will set limits to their dependence. And this not by a law which might
dangerously shake the stability of the present bonds of society, but
by the gradual influence of custom, which would strengthen them the
more. To the simple peasants He will give the means of tasting at times
the sweetness of life in reward for their toil, without resorting to
wantonness, to beverages that deaden the sense, to other temptations of
depravity, sometimes of despair, and of hopeless slavery....
‘Agriculture will flourish under His gentle rule. Little by little He
will cover the wide steppes of Russia with settlements, not moving whole
families by force over thousands of versts to lands terrible from being
unknown and deadly from extreme contrast of climate, but by attracting
them from adjacent over-populated parts and encouraging them with rewards
and privileges.
‘The waterless but fertile mountain-ranges of favourable climates He will
make habitable and will turn to blossoming gardens, cutting canals from
neighbouring rivers, turning spacious lakes to advantage, or gradually
clothing the slopes of mountains with forest. Is it only enlightened
capital cities that have claims on government expenditure? Is it not
bound to prepare dwellings for future generations and ... a refuge for
those who will probably come one day from the West to seek a home among
us?
‘He will not set crowds of greedy officials to take charge of the
forests, those ornaments of the land and treasure-stores of water, but
by judiciously distributing them as private property will preserve
them for the country. Only the wild steppes and impassable forests
should be the estate of the Government; they must become the property
of private persons as soon as they are made fit for husbandry. Woe to
the Governments whose institutions serve only as a source of temptation
without eradicating the evil in its very foundation!
‘He will assign solemn rewards for peasants distinguished either by rare
virtues or by industry or by the invention or introduction of anything
new in agriculture or manufactures. He will not leave the decision of
this and the like in the hands of local authorities swayed by partiality
or narrow political considerations, but will organise occasional
expeditions about the Empire of persons qualified by special knowledge in
the department investigated and worthy to represent His Imperial Eye. He
will Himself not infrequently abandon the monotony of Court life in order
to see and hear in person; He will not confine the rule of the lovely and
spacious realm entrusted Him by God within the narrow limits of work at
the papers laid before Him. He will encourage handicrafts, not by sudden
and arbitrary prohibition of the importation of foreign produce (it is
possible to combine the welfare of the Fatherland with peace and goodwill
towards foreign countries), but by privileges given to manufacturers
and factories, and especially by the removal of oppressive taxes which
discourage new enterprise. Russia can, however, without the slightest
disadvantage to herself, generously yield many branches of industry and
manufacture to nations more scantily provided with land. Is it for her,
so lavishly endowed with essential riches, greedily to appropriate all
the sources of existence? Is it for her to desire to make everything for
herself, when she can incomparably more cheaply employ _hired_ labour
outside her frontiers? How long are we going to measure ourselves by
foreign standards and to imitate like children?
‘Internal trade, strengthened by the progress of agriculture and
handicrafts, will of itself in the course of a few years, with no
artificial encouragement, increase our foreign trade to our advantage.
Morality and love for everything belonging to one’s own country,
encouraged by examples in high places, will also tend to diminish the
demand for foreign produce. The price of essential Russian goods, and at
the same time also the rate of exchange, will rise inevitably.
‘For the sake of internal and external trade, for the sake of completing
the great work of legislative reform, He will, of course, strive to
keep the peace with the Powers. To this end, He will employ the happy
means furnished Him now by Providence, which is unmistakably extending
to Russia a blessing hand. It will doubtless be His task to outline a
bold plan of permanent policy appropriate to the Russian Government and
peculiar to it. Has He not the most hopeful resources for keeping all
the Courts respectful to Him, without swerving from one side or the
other? Will He, in the present position of His Empire, with its unbroken
frontiers and its strength, find the slightest reason for entering into
their disputes? Is the population of Russia, still in its flower, such
as to justify the sacrifice of men without the utmost necessity?... Oh,
what a destiny, to draw upon oneself the grateful love and respect of
all peoples! To have unlimited power and to do good.... If the Almighty
loathes murder and the other abominable results of war, if it is pleasing
to Him that there should ever be a truly Christian Power, it is most of
all likely in Russia and in the reign of Alexander.
‘In that happy time the armed forces will not remain useless. On the
contrary, then they will fulfil their true purpose, the preservation of
public tranquillity. While waiting till some frantic foe really attacks,
means will be found, without forcing them to shed blood in foreign
lands and affairs that do not concern them, to occupy the millions of
strong, healthy hands which cost annually more than a third of the
Imperial revenues.... First of all, He will fence the western frontier
of His Empire with a double shield of fortresses: and they will seem
to neighbouring peoples like the terrible rows of teeth of a lion in
repose. Then, after the example of the Romans, who, though they esteemed
the trade of arms above all others, did not hesitate to employ soldiers
on public works, building their splendid aqueducts and roads; after
the example of some European sovereigns who in more modern times have
undertaken similar experiments, and among them of the founder of this
capital, who secured its welfare by the Ladoga Canal, He will employ part
of our sturdy soldiers, accustomed from their youth to obedience and
labour, on the tasks of the State. Some addition to their ordinary pay
will stimulate their energy; and how many really profitable works there
will be to show for it in the course of a few years! On all sides means
of communication by water and by land will be opened. Rivers will be
made navigable, marshes will be turned to fertile valleys.... Meanwhile
the frontiers of the Empire will not remain undefended, and the force of
Russia will be seen and understood by enemies.
‘He will unite the warrior with the peasant, and the peasant with other
classes, by bonds of mutual profit, the feeling of which, together with
brotherly love and allegiance to the Sovereign, will be the same feeling
under three different aspects.
‘He ... but can I fathom the designs of God? Can I picture, can I
enumerate, all the activities of which the seed lies in the humane heart
of Alexander?...
‘Nations will always be what it pleases the Government they should be:
the Tsar, Ivan Vassilyevitch, wanted to have submissive slaves—abject
with him, brutal among themselves; he had them. Peter wanted to see us
imitating foreigners; unhappily we have done so to excess. The wise
Catherine began to educate the Russian. Alexander will complete that
great work. Rejoicing in the fruits of His youth, He will be the most
blessed of mortals. His glory, resting securely on the love of His
subjects, passing down from generation to generation, based on the
universal esteem of all races of the earth, will be the envy of the
greatest monarchs!
‘I have heard that our young Ruler receives with indifference the
hackneyed phrases of poets who shamelessly apply them to all monarchs,
assuring each one that he is better than his predecessor: I have made
bold to outline these thoughts....
‘O Thou whom my heart adores, do not reject this gift of it, offered Thee
in simplicity and with disinterested feelings....
‘Sire! In my soul I throw myself at Thy feet, I water them with tears
of the purest everlasting devotion.... Beneficent Genius of my beloved
Fatherland!’
3