SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

POLITICAL MISCELLANIES,

Russia under the Autocrat Nicholas the First. By Ivan ColovIne, a Ruitslan sub-

ject. In two volumes Colburn.

VOTAGRS AND TRAVELS,

NRITIIIIVe or a Four-Months Residence among the Natives of a Valley of the Mar- quesas Islands; or a Peep at Polynesian Life. By Herman Melville. (Home and Colonial Library.) Murray. Ficriox, Court Intrigues; a Novel. By William Peake, Esq. In three volumes Newby.

IVAN GOLOVINE9S RUSSIA UNDER NICHOLAS.

Ma. GoLovrNE is a Russian subject of some family and literary distinc- tion. Till he quitted it " through a caprice of Count Nesselrode," he was in the Imperial employ ; but he seems to have been of too speculative or independent a character for that autocratic Government. It appears inci- dentally, that he sometimes opposed the officials in other departments on questions of personal freedom, and Nesselrode sarcastically advised him " to take lessons in writing,"—a witticism whose point is not very clear, whether it relates to caligraphy (as it appears to have done) or to composition. In the spring of 1843 Mr. Golovine was at Paris as a traveller on leave, when he received a notification from the Russian Charge d'Affaires that the Emperor required his immediate return to St. Petersbnrg. This he was unwilling to do, as he was about to publish a book on political eco- nomy, and might also have had some misgivings as to his reception. He therefore, declaring he was ill, refused to budge; and, after some months of correspondence with the authorities at St. Petersburg, was " sentenced by the Senate, which pronounced against him the penalty of banishment to Siberia, the privation of all his civil rights, and the confiscation of his property." Of course Mr. Golovine is too considerate to trouble the authorities with his transmission to Siberia ; and, self-exiled at Paris, has amused his leisure by composing these volumes on the character and government of the Autocrat, and the existing institutions and condition of Russia.

The book consists of a brief sketch of the history of the reign of Nicholas the First, and a very full account of his character, or rather of all kinds of anecdotes intended to illustrate it, with briefer portraits of the Imperial Family. These are followed by reviews of the different classes of Russian society from the noble to the serf, as well as by ex- positions of the different institutions of the country,—using that word in the largest sense, so as to embrace the executive departments and funda- mental laws, as well as what may be termed the constitutional forms in which the power of the various classes have been developed. Chapters on the Army, Industry, and Literature, respectively unfold the author's views of those subjects ; and miscellaneous papers scattered about the first volume touch upon topics less amenable to classification.

The character of the Emperor. as...painted by. Mc. Golovine is bad enough, and must be received with some caution, not merely for his oWn grievances, but because he seems to have the Sclavonic prejudices, (to which the author of' the White Slave called attention,) and looks upon the Imperial Family as more German than Russ,—if it be not altogether spurious, Paul having been, he thinks, a substituted child. It must, how- ever, be said that Mr. Golovine agrees in the main with those writers who seem to have had access to the best sources of information; and they all rather sink the tyrant in traits that approach the madman Iest- less rather than active—incessantly attentive, but, for a man in his po- sition, chiefly to trifles or details—full of a weak kind of vanity—open to the grossest flattery—so inconceivably obstinate that he never yields to advice, and possessed with his own self-sufficiency in all knowledge and all art—the present Autocrat exhibits strong symptoms of a morbid temperament, which waits but for unfavourable circumstances to be clearly developed; and, according to our author, it is an opinion in Russia, that the house of Romanoff go mad after forty. All the anecdotes of Nicholas which are not told by skilful flatterers incline to this view, and they are too numerous to be inventions. The following, perhaps, are merely the effects of absolute power ; yet they look not like the self-will of a sensible despot.

NICHOLAS AT SEA.

The ship of the line called " Russia " is an overwhelming proof of the despot- ism of Nicholas. On visiting the vessel while on the stocks, he thought that there was not sufficient room to -walk about, and accordingly commanded the space to be enlarged; even enforcing his opinion against that of competent judges. By consequence, this vessel is the very worst sailer in the whole Russian navy, and is very seldom employed. When he takes it into his head to command the movement of a ship, which he does almost every time he goes to sea, the captain of the vessel tales care always to keep behind him, in order, by counter-signals, to prevent the strict execution of his Majesty's dialers, which would inevitably lead to the loss of the ship and its august passenger.

MILITARY PREDILECTION.

The Emperor, as we before observed, has a predilection for the military which exceeds all bounds. He imagines that a military man is fit for everything, and far better calculated than a citizen to fill a civil office. Most of his Ministers have been or are still in the army. Count Cancrim himself has not escaped the folly of desiring military rank, and was made a General at his own request. By making his Aide-de-camp, Count Strogonof, Minister of the Interior, the Emperor has rendered ill service to the country as well as to the Count himself, who is an honest man rather than a skilful minister. Count Pahlen was another General to whom Nicholas gave a civil appointment. "Sire," said the Count, "1 have all my life followed the profession of arms: you call me to a difficult post." "Look at me," replied the Emperor; "had I ever anything to do with politics before I ascended the throne? yet I have acquitted myself pretty well, as you know."

The accounts of the different branches of Russian society, of the exe- cutive departments, and of what in the usual use of the word may be called the institutions of the country, are the best we have seen; distinguished not merely by a knowledge of the paper rescript but the actual working. Two things especially are clearly shown,—the Asiatic origin of the Russian Government and upper classes, consequent upon the Tartar invasions ; and the corruption and ignorance of the gently, (landed proprietors entitled to rank among the noble class) which shoo- lately prevent them from making use of the constitutional forms existing in provincial assemblies, to establish checks upon despotism. The fourteen grades of the nobility, with the means of attaining them by a certain course of education and a certain grade in the public employ, are clearly Chinese ; and, coupled with the territorial rank assigned to proprietors according to their serfs, appear a good enough system of social distinction, in a half-civilized country, since it follows the natural order of property, position, or education. The folly of uniforms and other trivialities of the reigning Emperor may be readily conceded to Mr. Colovine ; but his censure of Nicholas because the grades of nobility resemble the orders of Mandarins, and because there are fourteen when there might as well be four-and-twenty, is forced and unphilosophical. These and many si- milar things are not chargeable upon Nicholas, or upon anybody, but are the natural growth of events and circumstances. An attempt to change them for a cut and dry constitution from any philosopher's political toy- shop would probably make matters worse.

It would occupy a great deal of space to unfold the rights and powers attached to the proprietors and the burghers ; but the following descrip- ticsa of the provincial assemblies, though partially quoted and conse- quently imperfect, will indicate that it is not so much constitutional weapons which are wanted in Russia, as the courage and skill to use them.

"The nobility of each government forms a separate body, and has the faculty of assembling to consult upon its common interests. Assemblies of this kind are held by governments or by districts, and they are ordinary or extraordinary. "The ordinary assemblies, for governments, are held every three years, habitu- ally from the month of December to that of January: those of the districts, three months before.

" The right of sitting in these assemblies with a deliberative voice belongs to the hereditary nobles who have at least one hundred peasants or three thousand dessiatines of land fit for tillage. Those who have fifty peasants at least, may attend them, but not deliberate. Colonels or Councillors of State, and function- aries of superior ranks, need not have more than five serfs to be electors. In the governments of the two capitals, of Tanride, and of Astralcan, the nobles posses- sing country-houses or lands producing them at least six hundred silver rubles, take an active part in the assemblies. Moreover, no one can be a member of them till he has attained the full age of twenty-one years, and unless he has acquired at least the fourteenth class in active service.* "The noble who possesses at one and the same time, in several governments Ind cdistricts, the property requisite to give him a right to attend the elections, participates in them in each of those governments or districts. He who has in different governments or districts small parcels of property, amounting together to three thousand dessiatines, with one hundred peasants, has the choice of the place in which he may prefer exercising his rights of elector.

"Petty proprietors have a light to unite their possessions into a joint stock till the quantity of lands and peasants amounts to that which is required by the law, and then to send a representative to the assembly. "Guardians and life-possessors of properties, the importance of which fulfils the conditions fixed by law, can take part in the assemblies,if they answer the other prescribed conditions "The duties of the government assemblies are to elect to the different offices which are dependent on them to discuss the interests of their government, and to, present their opinions to the Governor, to the Minister of the Interior, and to the Emperor himself, to whose own hands they can address petitions. They have to make choice of three deputies, in case the supreme power should see fit to SHOI/11031 them before it to confer on the complaints and demands of the nobility.

•

Limited as are the rights of the assemblies of the nobility, the sphere of activity allotted to certain posts which are in their nomination is so extensive, that this institution might be beneficial if it were duly exercised; but such is the disfavour attached to the public service in Russia, and so deeply have sordid prin- ciples penetrated there, that the inferior posts are considered as a disgrace. To n6 purpose have generous patriots devoted themselves with a view to raise them in'the public opinion; they lave failed in their attempts, and have been obliged to relinquish them to men who have no other means of subsistence but the ex- tortions inseparable in Russia from every public office."

This remark is true, but not the whole truth. The mass of the lower territorial nobility, or what we should call the squires, are in a state of the crassest ignorance and prejudice. The professional nobility of the lower grades, chiefly consisting of the educated portion of the citizens and of foreign adventurers, are perhaps well trained and apt enough for their par- ticular functions, but are devoid of religious restraint, the point of honour, or a sense of morality, whilst such public opinion as there is permits every villany and venality. The higher orders partake somewhat of these latter characteristics, to which may be added the hotbed vices of a court, and the servility which personal contact with the dispenser of honours and fortune is so prone to produce. Even those who have aimed at elevating their country have had no other resource than conspiracies, contrived and carried on by falsehoods of all kinds. As Mr. Goloviue remarks, the Russians are "not Liberals, but malecontents."

These views might be supported by numerous examples ; but we prefer an extract relating to a subject of more immediate interest—that of Russian agriculture.

"In Russia, agriculture is in the primitive state, a state of alarming back- wardness. Dearths occur periodically: more or less general, they happen regu- larly every. five or six years, and each time bring the country to the brink of rum.

"

The fault of this is not, as one would be tempted to believe, in the severity and the inconstancy of the climate, but in the deplorable state of agriculture, which in Russia has not yet profited by the progress which it has made in other countries; it is likewise owing to the insufficiency of the ways of communica- tion, in consequence of which certain parts of the empire are sometimes glutted with corn, while others are suffering famine, without any possibility for the former to afford assistance to the latter. To this cause must be likewise at- tributed in a great measure the enormous differences that are remarked in the prices of grain; they are sometimes at one to ten, not only according to years, but even according to localities. "Pasturage, that teat of agriculture, is an object of no attention. Artificial meadows are generally unknown, and irrigation and draining still more so. The cattle spoil the grass, and the hay that is made is ill-dried and badly preserved.

"A- simple routine presides over all the operations of agriculture. People sow, cut., and harvest, not at suitable seasons, but at such times as their forefathers were accustomed to do, reckoning from certain holydays, which are more or less move- able, according to the ancient calindar in force in this country.

• The fourteenth class is the lowest grade of nobility attained by active service, and embraces many persons. For instance, artists and actors of the first class belonging to the Imperial Theatre are ennobled In this grade after six years' service ; officers In the Army below a Sub-Lieutenant, and master workmen of manufactories after twelve years, belong M it. It should, however, be observed, that the lower classes of nobility are rather privileged freemen than noblemen in our Idea of the word. "Next to serfage, the practice of fellows which prevails in Russia, is the principal cause of the wretched condition of agriculture. With this aystem, forage never can prosper; and consequently the cattle can neither attain the quantity nor acquire the quality desirable. Accidents of temperature have a different influence on the different agricultural crops, and there, where they are not varied, there is no remedy for those dearths which effectoproductions at once. The want of hands is not an obstacle to the introductionpf O. better system of fellows; for it is more profitable to cultivate less land, but well, than to cul- tivate a great deal, but ilL "The cattle are in a state of incredible inferiority. For the most part, the Russian cows are like goats, and the horses employed in agriculture are of the size of asses. In the government of Archangel alone is still kept up the liholmogor breed of cattle, which is of Dutch and English origin. In the South we meet with Hungarian horses; but those two superior breeds of horned cattle have re- mained confined to the localities into which they were imported. The Russian sheep consumes quite as much as it brings in."

Mr. Golovine's style of composition is French, with some of that na- tion's proneness to generalize, grafted upon a Sclavonic looseness, especially in the more miscellaneous parts of the first volume. With strong views against the Government, the author has also national pre- judices in favour of Russia, which should render one cautious in receiving his opinions implicitly : but notwithstanding these drawbacks, his book will be found one of the most informing that has lately been published on the institutions, classes, laws, and administration of Russia, as they exist in actual movement and being, not merely upon paper.