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    THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL AGITATOR . Who are t he nobles with whom the Emperor Alexander has been remonstrating on their resistance to his august will and pleasure ? The no * bles of Russia have hitherto borne rather a Kb character in Europe , at all events as compared with the Imperial family : The Russians have been called the French of the north , and with no small reason : there is some family ' resemblance between the Russian Sclave and the French Gael , —the same vivacity of idea , the same impulsiveness , the same sympathetic desire for approbation . But there are some differences . If the Russian has in some

    empire was consolidated , and they were deprived of something like sovereign power on their own estates , with something like power of life and death over their dependents , threw up the title of Prince a nd contented themselves with being the simple country gentry of the land . " We have among the same distinguished nobility some few creatures of the Court who , like the Kutaissoffs , descended from some Imperial butler , or the Viers , from a Venetian cabin-boy upon whom shone the sun of imperial liking . Amongst them also there are the Strogo ^ noffs , representatives of thafc energetic merchant ^ _ _ IT 1 ^_ .. ^ . ^^ it / l ^ iA /] nnJ 4-1 ^ n * r A Anvi \ mA r \ $

    who really won for Russia her Siberian provinces , by intelligently employing the Cossack robbers that molested liis own property , and loyally handing over the proceeds to his imperial master . We have amongst them the representatives of the Nesselrodes , and the Pozzo di Borgos , whom Germany or Italy has furnished for the service of the Court . But amongst the nobles also , there is a class of men who might make the Emperor pause if he were a man to be deterred by sense of personal peril or even dynastic danger . Amongst the nobles are the Orloffs , the Zouboffs , and Bariatinskys , who

    are coolly recorded in authentic Russian histories as being amongst the actual murderers of the Peters and Pauls in the Imperial families , those headstrong ill-regulated princes that molested their nobles with their unconsidered innovations or vexatious regulations . If a Paul was murdered for meddling with men ' s beards and hats , what might not be apprehended by the man who meddles with their property — the peasants . No French levity which may distinguish the Russian nobles can blunt the danger ; there is no button on the foil of the foppish nobility when its

    blood is up . The Count Samoiloff , who offended his imperial master , wa 3 the subject of undying imperial dislike , and he felt the displeasure in many ways ; yet never was the young buck ' s blood quelled . When a popular actor was ordered to caricature him on the sTage , the exquisite told the actor that he wanted one ' * property " to complete the perfection of the character : it was the diamond ring which- the nobleman himself commonly wore , and which he presented to the actor to be worn when he personated the character . It was the same man who originally incurred the imperial displeamilitarrauic ai review

    sure oy some y a , auu . wucu the indignant Emperor raised his hand to strike , the young nobleman coldly remarked , " Take care , sire , you sec I have a sword in my hand . " The Emperor Alexander cannot take his stand against a nobility of this spirit now , notwithstanding its various origin and standing , united in such numbers to oppose him , unless he were conscious of very great support ; and such is the fact . In the first place , all the nobility are not against him ; but many who best understand the position of the country join with 'him in . urging the most le

    important reforms . Amongst them , for examp , we find the Potemkines , distinguished for their fidelity and their audacity ; the Scheremeteffs , of whose family the Romanoffs themselves form a younger branch ; and many others . The Emperor has , on his side , the large and increasing number of professional men , whom his intelligent patronage encourages to study the resources of Russia and of science . We may presume that he has with him the merchant class , hitherto kept down by Court and nobles , forming , indeed , onl y the foundatiou of the class as it will hereafter exist in

    Russia . This class , notwithstanding its great wealth , has made little way into the ranks ot the nobility , and is looked down upon . Some of- the nobles have descended into it , and these have been peculiarly disgusted by the obstruction which they have encountered from the old-fashioned ways of Russia . Iu the matter of the railways , the Emperor lately discovered the largo dependence which not only himself but the throne must owe towards this wealth-possessing and wealth-creating class . It is quite certain that the Emperor has on his side also the now turbulent millions of

    peasantry , who , by their impulsivo movements , by the jfiros which they are lighting up iu the Russian forests—those precious sources of noble wealth which , already so scanty , are so rapidly becoming thinned—show their impatience for the coming reform . And , above all , the Emperor has on his side the right . Ho has shown no disposition to stop in his career . It is reported , and the ronort is very likely tmo , that he has promised to visit Paris and London as- soon as he shall have accomplished thjs great work . The nobles have , until now , exhibited ( i passive resistance . Commissions have been

    apparts of the empire been benefited by an admixture of Norman blood , he has not had the corresponding benefit of admixture with Italian blood , that combination which has perhaps brought forth the highest and most commanding type of Frenchman . Still the Russian noble lias been considered a man of active mind , of advancing views , of taste ; he has been understood to represent the most cultivated aspect of Russian society ; while the Court clung to old Moscow , maintained a savage indigenous spirit , resented French innovations , hated the sound of the foreign language at

    pointed in the various provinces to collect evidence on the subject , and to suggest provisions for the emancipation of the peasantry , with the necessary regulations for defining the social position and perhaps the municipal regulation of the peasantry ; who would , of course , have henceforward , for example , to pay their own taxes to the Crown , to raise rates among themselves for local purposes , and so forth . Even these few considerations show how difficult and onerous the measure is . The nobles have not shown much arl in . fKo ^ iiQ T * t * flX 7 H'l /* ft < 4 f A OX \\ Ififif

    alacrity in aiding these committees . In a recent tour the Emperor has addressed them in language of paternal encouragement , of reproof , and even of remonstrance and entreaty combined . He has announced to them that , after the termination of the local committees , the nobles of each province will be allowed to elect two delegates to sit in a centra ) commission which will be assembled at St . Petersburg , and it is by the aid of this central commission that the Emperor will definitively arrange his new law . That new law he has determined , it would appear , to settle before he lays down the task , the magnitude and vital importance of which the reader can now understand .

    Court , and , in short , stood upon the ancient ways , barbarous as they were . Strange that the nobles in various governments of the empire should now be themselves standing upon the ancient ways , while it is the eldest son of that same obstructive antiquated family who is pressing fora great reform . " The position of the Russian nobles is not unlike that of the French nobles in another respect—their over-developed feudal ownership of the cultivators of the land as well as of the land itself . The Russian noble owes allegiance to his lord , and must serve him with person , purse ,

    and peasants , who form the raw material of the imperial armies ; but with regard to the labourers themselves , they are the property of the noble ; and when he contributes them to the State lie does but pay his taxes in kind . If he has the ownership of the peasant he has burdens in consequence : he must maintain him in old age and in sickness , his is the charge of hospital and almshouses . We may be quite sure , however , that if the noble is under these painful liabilities , there is another side of the same liability which falls upon the poor peasant himself ; and we could tell abundant stories taken from that point of view . If the

    peasant is aged , it must be a kind lord that lets him leel not his uselessncss . If he is sick , he may- not tarry in the hospital . If he is a valuable labourer , such a man as in this country could work his way , his lord wants his service . If he is an independent , courageous , intelligent man , he may speak a little too openly , is treated as a drunkard or outcast , and either sent to the army " or to Siberia . Any way , his will lies in another man ' s hands , and that man a sort of French noble , who , like an Iri&h landowner of some generations back , rackrents his tenantry ; only with- the more grasping

    capacity for raking out ail that they can yield ; and spending his money , faster than he gets it , at St . Petersburg , makes those at home feel the wholo stress of his needs . Such a state of things cannot go on for ever ; it must come to an end . A country whose peasantry are ground to the dust is daily impoverished , even while its numbers and its accumulated wealth arc both increasing ; and the spirit of man will not tolerate a consciousness of the strength with multitudes which the examples of luxury holdup before his eyes . They will not remain passive . A reform is necessary . In France it burst

    up from the uudcr-stratu ot society , and the upheaval scattered the strata above , shaking the very throne to destruction . The idea has been struck out in Russia that such a reform may not come from below ; it must come from above , and Alexander II . is the Daniel O'Conucll of Russia . But ho is an Q'Connell who confronts opponents very different from our Commons and Lords , m \\\ x all the oppression that they arc said to indict upon Ireland . There is not , perhaps , in the world so ronmrkablo a olas 3 of men as the Russian nobles ,

    who represent almost every form of aristooratic power that at present exists in tho world . To have amongst thorn many princes of tho empire direct descendants of that Rurik who is regarded as the founder of the Russian monarchy ; while many of old birth , of ducul power own as their equals in antiquity nobility ; and blood , and in some respects of wealth , men amongst the simplo boyars or esquires of Muscovy , . who , like tho Yerapkirics , tho lijcvskys , or Liapouuofls , when tho Russian

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    PORTRAITURES OF THE ROYAL FAMILY OF PRUSSIA . The Court of Berlin , almost forgotten by us during the stormy times of the late war , has once more attracted public attention in this country . Through , the affliction of insanity which hjis befallen the old Kin < r , the governmental machine of Prussia has all at once become unhinged ; and questions have started up in the most unexpected manner , the solution of which wiE p robably influence not only the future of Germany , but the course of European , policy at large . The Prussian monarchy , at present / stands before the world the prey of the most violent dissensions of its Court . The unity which , hitherto it exhibited , at least in appearance , has given way to a display of fierce and unseemly contention in the "highest quarters . " Several , monarchic parties , —or ' perhaps' we should say factions , —are undisguisedly struggling with each other . There is the feudalist and bigot party of the Gerlachs , Stahls , and other romanticists of right divine , who would fain uphold the government of the insane king , in spite of the wretched state of debasement into which he has fallen , both intellectually and physically . There is , further , the Jesuit and reactionary coterie of the Queen , whose desire

    is to establish a Regency , the chief power of which should belong to the zealot Bavarian prinoess . There are the minions , also , of the Prince of Prussia —* a medley faction , composed of military and bureaucratic elements , with an admixture of the remnants of the " Gotha party . " * They are loud in their demands for the establishment of the government of the Prince , either as Regent with unrestricted powers , or , better still , as Sovereign and King . There is , lastly , even a small group who advocate the abdication of both King and Prince , in order to make room for young Frederick William , the husband of the Princess Royal . The latter knot of political speculators is , however , as yet

    insignificant enough , owing to the youth and inexperience of tho party on whom they desire the regal responsibility to devolve . £ >• far as principles arc concerned , there is , in the three first-named parties , but a difference in nuance . Thev all have the same objectsinview—theinvestmelit of absolute power within the narrow circle of a particular caste . But tho way in which they seek to accomplish this end lays in various directions . The Camarilla , whoso tool King Frederick William IV . has been for years , strives to make the Crown the pediment of a mediaeval building , of which the anded aristocracy and a certain sect of religiousilluininati would be the supporting pillars . This is

    the party of the " Junkers" and saintly " Pietists . " Opposed to it is tho military and bureaucratic party of tho Prince , who care but little for theologioal squabbles and antiquarian imaginings , but who advocate a system of despotism equally , if not more ? comprehensive , than even that demanded by the adherents of the Kinjr . As regards the Queon , she may be said , when speaking' of principles , to stand midway between those professed by the King and the Prince ,. Iu matters of religion , being a member ot tho Roman Church , slid of courso goes far beyond the Crypto-Catholicism of her husband . In mattors of government , she more approaches tho dry , martinet notions of her mother-in-law than the exuberant feudal romanticism of Frederick William IV . On ,

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    ^ 0 . 446 , 00 X 08 ^ 9 , 1853 . 1 THE LEADER . . 1065 ^ ^ w-m- ^—^—^^~ m ^ ^ ^^ ' ^^^^^ mmmmm ^^^^^^^^^^^^ -nr-A % » A r \/\ inf iratM /

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 9, 1858, page 1065, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2263/page/17/