The Empire of Russia Part 28

Catharine was now firmly established on the throne. The beneficial effects of her administration were daily becoming more apparent in all parts of Russia. Nothing which could be promotive of the prosperity of the empire escaped her observation. With questions of commerce, finance and politics she seemed equally familiar. On the 11th of August, 1673, she issued an imperial edict written by her own hand, in which it is said,

"On the whole surface of the earth there is no country better adapted for commerce than our empire. Russia has s.p.a.cious harbors in Europe, and, overland, the way is open through Poland to every region. Siberia extends, on one side, over all Asia, and India is not very remote from Orenburg. On the other side, Russia seems to touch on America. Across the Euxine is a pa.s.sage, though as yet unexplored, to Egypt and Africa, and bountiful Providence has blessed the extensive provinces of our empire with such gifts of nature as can rarely be found in all the four quarters of the world."

CHAPTER XXV.

REIGN OF CATHARINE II.

From 1765 to 1774.

Energy of Catharine's Administration.--t.i.tles of Honor Decreed to Her.--Code of Laws Inst.i.tuted.--The a.s.sa.s.sination 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 Part.i.tion 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 a.s.sembly was convened to frame a code of laws, based on justice, and which should be supreme throughout all Russia. The a.s.sembly prosecuted its work with great energy, and, ere its dissolution, pa.s.sed a resolution decreeing to the empress the t.i.tles of "Great, Wise, Prudent, and Mother of the Country."

To this decree Catharine modestly replied, "If I have rendered myself worthy of the first t.i.tle, 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 t.i.tle 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 n.o.ble 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 a.s.sembly, 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 const.i.tution 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 n.o.bles, excited her deepest commiseration. She wished their entire enfranchis.e.m.e.nt, 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 n.o.bility, obliging them to act more circ.u.mspectly 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 a.s.sa.s.sinate Catharine. He was arrested in the palace, with a long dagger concealed in his dress, and without hesitation confessed his design. Catharine had the a.s.sa.s.sin 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 princ.i.p.al 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 n.o.ble with all its imposing architecture, and its enginery of offense and defense. The mud hovels of the peasants were cl.u.s.tered around the ma.s.sive pile; and they pa.s.sed 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 a.s.signed 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 n.o.bility 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 a.s.sistance 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, ent.i.tled _An inquiry into the causes and effects of Variolae Vaccinae_, 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 s.e.x and age, and, as near as possible, of her own const.i.tutional 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 n.o.bility, 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 amus.e.m.e.nt 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 grat.i.tude 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 grat.i.tude 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 emba.s.sador 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 Circa.s.sia. The Tartars of the Crimea were the first foes whom the armies of Catharine encountered. The Sea of Azof, with its surrounding sh.o.r.es, 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 gla.s.ses, 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 pa.s.sed 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 s.p.a.cious houses of entertainment personated some particular Russian nation, where the dress, music and amus.e.m.e.nts 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 s.p.a.cious 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 amus.e.m.e.nts. 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 bra.s.s wire, that the birds from all countries, singing among the trees and shrubs, or hopping along the gra.s.s 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 part.i.tion 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 emba.s.sador at the Russian court, had sufficient sagacity to detect that, beneath this display of amus.e.m.e.nts, 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, b.a.l.l.s, 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 n.o.bler 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 part.i.tion were at this time all made, the portion which was to be a.s.signed 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 Ma.s.sachusetts. The isthmus of Perikop, which connects it with the mainland, is but five miles in width. The Turks had fortified this pa.s.sage 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 part.i.tion 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 ma.s.ses 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, spa.r.s.ely 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 part.i.tion, 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 disburs.e.m.e.nts 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.