BOOKS.

"MY EXILE 214r SIBERIA � AUXIN. DER AKezeN, the author of this work, is a self-exiled Rns- -sian gentleman, -who has published various books on the politics and institutions of his country, which have excited more attention on the Continent than they have here. His expositions have been so free, that successive acts of power closed the presses of Germany and Franceagainst him, driving him to have recourse to England. Since 1834 he appears to have been an object of sus- picion to the Russian Government, sometimes under ban, always under .surveillance. About 1847 he obtained a long-sought permis- sion to travel ; and once fairly out of the country, refused, like some other compatriots, to return. M. Herzen has been known in Rus- sia by his writings for some fifteen years ; his Continental reputa- tion dates from the Revolutionary year 1848 ; passages from his writings and pamphlets have been translated, but this is the first work in English, at least that we have met. Ity -Exile in Sateria appears to be an autobiography of the au- thor, _often thrown into the form of fiction. It begins with his arrest for a conspiracy, which had no existence, in the summer of 1834; describes with much detail his imprisonment, examina- tions, and final sentence to Wiatka, where he was employed as a _Government clerk. After some time he was as an act of grace and favour removed to Wladimir, a Russian town near Moscow, his native place. A blank of three years occurs during his residence at Wiaclimir ; in the course of which time, however, he married. On the expiration of his sentence, he returned to his family at Moscow, and was subsequently employed under Count Strogonoff at St. Petersburg. His freedom of comment again brought him into trouble, and he was sent into a sort of provincial exile as a Coun- cillor -to the Regency or Governor of Nov.goroil. The manner Of doing business there did not suit him ; he resigned, and returned to Moscow, till he got permission to travel.

The dramatic form in parts of the book gives greater life and vraisemblance to many scenes than mere narrative probably could have done. In more level passages there is a species of flatness, as well as some incongruity. Characters are introduced at length that have no influence on the fortunes of the author, nor, as far as _can be seen, upon Russian opinion, 'but owe their prominence en- tirely to the.personal feelings of M. Herren. It is not, however, as an individual biography or as a story of events that My Exile chiefly interests the reader, but as a picture of official society and official practices in Russia. We say official, because Government regulations or Government influence permeate everywhere, pressing upon every one like the easing air ; and this result is, we think, about the only point in which his pictures resemble those of other writers, unless 'it be in his contemptuous account of the lower .class of " tchinovniks."

And the ,pictures will be 'equally valuable even if they are coloured or exaggerated, as is not improbable. The very prejudices of the author tend to bring out a sort of lifelike reality. M. Herzen himself seems.to belong to our country gentleman class, and among them his sympathies are chiefly developed. Ile displays, indeed, a sort of patriotic feeling for the Russian people, and pity for the brutal tyranny to which they are subjected, but his own class are the real objects of his regard. Except in the case of .personal obligation, the high nobility—especially if official, not territorial—are objects of his dislike and contempt, mingled with the strong disposition to think and tell evil of them, which distin- guishes anti-aristocrats in other places besides Russia. The inferior employee—the lower order of the " tehins," and the higher officers who have sprung from that class, are the especial objects of his dis- gust and abhorrence. Dark as these men have us lly been painted, -we doubt whether they have ever appeared so black as in the pages of IL Herzen. The main grievance of his exile at Wiatka was his fellow clerks. The labour was light, the head of the de- partment civil, his family were permitted to supply him with funds, but the atmosphere of the office sickened him. "There were about twenty clerks in the office, for the most part people• without the least instruction, and without a trace of morality. Children of clerks and secretaries, they were accustomed from the cradle to think, and 1 ook at service as a profitable means of getting money, and to consider the peasants like a mine from which they have to extract gold. They were to be bribed with twenty and twenty-five kopecks, sold .documcnts for a glass of wine, altered others, and degraded themselves in every possible way—in short, committed every meanness. My valet-de-ehambre ceased to play at billiards, for he said the officers cheated more than anybody else, and he could not even chastise them for it, because they had the military rank. 'With these kind of people, then, whom my servant was prevented from striking merely on account of their rank, I was obliged to spend every day, from nine to two in the morning, and from five to eight in the evening. "Besides Alenizia, who was chief of the entire office, there was a special head of each desk. My superior was not a bad man, but a drunkard, who could scarcely read and write. At the same table with me there sat four more clerks. I was forced to speak to and be acquainted with them ; and, „indeed, with all the others, not only because they would have taken my re- serve for pride, and have played me some trick for it sooner or later, but be- cause it would really have been impossible to spend daily several hours with the same, people without becoming acquainted with them."

The indirect effects of Russian despotism do not appear to be capable of exaggeration. Unless the Emperor authoritatively and personally interferes, (in which case there is nothing to be done,) particular acts of despotic power do not wear the shocking appear- ance which fancy is inclined to attribute to them,—that is, if the subject is a weLeducated man or gentleman. Of course, a man

My Exile in Siberia. By Alexander Herzen. In two volumes. Published by Must and Slackett. Who gives a loose to his-tongue is liable to be arrested ; the prisons are not-very oomfortable places ; the officials pocket the allowance, so that the prisoner must "•find himself" ; and the indulgences are nat mangy-. Still,--the reality as described by our author has not the atrocious character fancy has attached to it. The Rus- sians, unless acting under some-pressure, are a goodnatured-people; the officers of the army are mostly polite, and disposed to amelior- ate matters as much as they can ; such is the reverence for position that gentlemen under arrest not only make the tehin keep their distance, but treat them with undisguised contempt. There are also certain legal rights and constitutional forms to be observed, though these last are mere forme, of no real use for protection against injustice. In many of the superior officers there is a sense of-right which induces them to see fair play. Most heads of office would appear opposed to the police, and throw obstacles in their way if they can. It was Strogonoff and some others who carried our author so easily over his second accusation at St. Petersburg, and let him down with a Councillorship at Novgorod. To have these advantages, however, the Emperor must not have spoken decided- ly, and you must be a gentleman.

"In order to form an idea of a Russian prison, of Russian jurisdiction, and Russian police, a person must be either a peasant, a menial servant, work- man, or citizen. The political prisoners are certainly severely treated and cruelly _punished, but their fate can in no way be compared with that of the poor bearded men. The latter are treated without ceremony ; and to whom should they address their complaints ? where can they find justice ?

"The disorder the brutality, and arbitrariness of Russian courts of jus- tice, and •Russisuipolice, are of such a nature, that the poor man fears his punishment less.tn the preceding process, and awaits with impatienee.the moment of his departure to Siberia, as a deliverance. His torments termi- nate where his punishment begins. And it must not be forgotten, that three parts of those, imprisoned upon a mere suspicion, and declared innocent af- terwards by the tribunal, have to go through the same torment as those who are guilty. - "Peter III. abolished the Secret Chancery add Torture-room.

"Catherine II. abolished torture.

"Alexander I. abolished it a second time.

".Answera extorted by brutality are not valid before the law. Any official who tortures an accused man is himself subject to the most rigid punishment. " And yet, notwithstanding all this, people are tortured through the whole of Russia, from Behring's Straits to Tauroggen. Where blows are not al- lowed, other means are resorted to, and prisoners are made to endure insup- portable heat, thirst, salted food, and other atrocities. For instance, one :man was put on an iron floor with bare feet at ten degrees of cold; he fell ill, and died some time afterwards, in an hospital which was under the su- perintendence of Prince M—; who himself related this case with indig- nation.

"The-superiors know all this ; the Governors hush it up; the governing -Senate' connives at it ; the Ministers are silent; the Emperor, the Synod, the landed-proprietors, down to the Commissioners, are all unitdherein.

The first volume, with-its scenes and public characters, from-the .author's uthos arrest till he departs from Wiatka, is the most interest- ing. A large part of the -second consists of personal matters, ar sketches of people obscure or unknown to English readers. There are also several disquisitions, not unimportant, but not so lifelike as the earlier scenes. Among these, is one on the present _or late -Russo-Slavonic movement ; -which M. Herzen does not think much of. He describes it-as literary, arehteologieal, or of Nicholas, not practicable or popular. " Once for ever, we ought to know that history never returns. Life rich in material, that it never wants to go back to its old clothes. All re- storations have never been anything but masquerades. We have seen two of them. Could the Legitimists succeed in reawakening the monarchy. of Louis XIV. from the tomb ? -Could the traditional Republicans succeed in drawing back humanity to the 8th Thermidor ? It is the truer for us as we have nothing in our recollections to which we could go back. Political life in Russia, before Peter I., was absurd, poor, and savage; and, nevertheless, it is to this life that the Slavophiles would return. They did not confess it —but, bow else explain all their archmological exhumations, their veneration for the customs of another time ? Their endeavour to change-the costume -was an endeavour to return to the ancient one, nett° come nearer to the na- tional dress of the people.

"Through the whole of Russia, except the Slavophiles of Moscow, nobody wears the Norman cap. A— dressed in a way ao very Muscovite, that the people in the streets of Moscow took him for a Persian.

"The return towards the people has also been considered by them in a strange, superficial, and rude way. They have shared the error of many de- mocrats:, who are pleased to flatter the people rhetorically, and to . find it quite perfect. They thought, that to partake of the prejudices of a nation is to be in communication with it ; that to sacrifice one's own reason, in- stead of developing that of the people, is a great act of humility. Thence comes their Greek, artificial, and sincerely hypocritical orthodoxy. Thence come their practices of devotion, ones more recalled to life ; a practice some- times deeply touching in the poor, with their ingenuous :faith, but terribly offensive when premeditated. "In short, the return to the people has.been so little adroit, that it was not at all popular: The people understood them as little as it did us, and it liked neither one nor the other." The following story is from the prison scenes. It is apparently told ^by 'the author to show the want of conscience among 'the lower -class of Russians. This want is not peculiarly Russian, but belongs to all peoples in a state of ignorance with narrow mo- rality and sympathies. Less than two centuries ago, a Scotch Highlander would have done the -same for his chief. The whole service was performed by five or six gendarmes. The old one, of whom I speak, was a good and simple creature,. grateful for the slightest kindness, which, very likely, he had rarely experienced in his life. He had been in the campaign of 1812; his breast was covered with Medals. His time of service was over, and still he remained in service, because he did not know what else to do. " ' I have written home twice to the Mohileff province,' he informed-me. 'but I have received no answer. It seems that none of my relations are still alive ; and it is hard in ones old days to be reduced to beggary.' " The individuality of a man is sacrificed unscrupulously by us without the least compensation. "-Such a gloomy character pervaded the old man's tales that he always made me thoughtful. " In the year 1817 he-had been in the campaign-against the Turks, under

the command of a very kindhearted captain, who took care of all his soldiers as though they were his children, and in fact was always at their head under fire.

4" A 'Moldavian -woman,' Philomonoff related, had bewitched the cap- tain. We observed once that he was very distressed. The thing was, look ye, that—you understand—he had remarked that the Moldavian went also to another officer. He then called us one day, me and one of my com- rades, a fine fellow, both whose legs were shot off later at Little Jaroslav, and told us how the Moldavian had betrayed him ; andasked if-wewould as- sist to give her a lesson for it.'

" Why not ?' we answered; we are always ready with allsur heart to serve your. Lordship.' " He thanked us, and said—' She will certainly go this night' to see him, (showing the house where the officer lived) : post yourselves on the bridge, and when she passes grasp her silently and into the river with her.'

" Very well, captain,' we said. We provided ourselves with a sack, and sat down on the bridge. Towards midnight the Moldavian came. We went up to her. • Where are you going in such haste, gracious lady ?' we ex- claimed ; and with these words she received a blow on the head. The sweet- heart did not utter a sound : we put her into the sack and threw her into the water. The following day our captain went to the officer and said, Don't be angry with the Moldavian girl ; we slightly prevented her coming • that is to say,• she is just now lyingat the bottom of the river. But I should like to take a little walk with you, with swords or pistols, whichever you prefer.'

" Well, then, they had a duel. Our captain was shot through the chest the good man pined away, and some months after he expired.' " ' And the Moldavian ?' I asked ; was she drowned ?'

"'She was drowned, the soldier observed.

" I observed with astonishment the childlike carelessness with which the old gendarme told me this story ; and be, as if he now reflected about and understood it fer.the first time, added, as if to tranquillize me and to ap- pease his conscience, She was but a heathen ; such people were just the same as if they were unbaptized."