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December 3, 1853.] T H E L E A D E R. 11...
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BTJSSIAN PUBLICATIONS IN LONDON.* We hav...
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THE POLISH .REVOLUTION OF IH.'JO. This #...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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December 3, 1853.] T H E L E A D E R. 11...
December 3 , 1853 . ] T H E L E A D E R . 1159
Btjssian Publications In London.* We Hav...
BTJSSIAN PUBLICATIONS IN LONDON . * We have before us the first part of a new Eussian publication by M . Albxandbb Hebzen , bearing the title of "Interrupted Tales . " . It , consists of three stories — "Duty before all , " "A little ( cracked / " and " By the way . " The first portion of the novel— "Duty before all " —was , it appears , sent to St . Petersburg in 1848 , but the imperial censorship refused its imprimatur : hence its renascence five years later in the freer atmosphere of London . Let us leave to the writer the relation of big literary and political difficulties and misadventures : — -
" Why was the impression of my work forbidden ? I cannot say : read ifc and judge for yourself . I will simply remind you that ifc was just after the devolution of February , when the Russian censorship assumed . the . mo 3 t exorbitant proportions . Besides the ordinary civil censorship , the Emperor had organized another extraordinary and military , composed of generals-in-chief , generals of cavalry , generals of artillery , aides-de-camp of S . M ., officers of the suite of S . M ., officers of the gendarmerie , a prince of Tartar origin , two orthodox Greek monks—all under the presidency of the Minister of Marine . This naval and military censorship censured not onl y the books themselves , but books , civil censors , authors , editors , publishers , and printers , all in a heap .
" G-uided by the military regulations of Peter the First , and the Byzantine nomocanon , this censorship de siege took upon , itself to forbid the printing of any work of mine on any sub ject ; it would not even permit me to publish an eulogium on the secret police , and on barefaced absolutism , or a private and confidential correspondence on the advantages of serfdom , on corporal punishment , and , above all , on the Russian conscription . " This embargo laid upon me by the staff of the censorship convinced me at last that it was time for me to print Russian out of Russia . I have done my best to justify the confidence of that literary court-martial—in arms —against literature . "
Thus far the proscribed author . He has not , however , completed the novel ; he has only given the outline and sketch of his design . We will translate a fragment which has a special interest of apropos just now , when everybody is anxious to know what manner of men these orthodox Russian evangelizers are : .... The Greneral-in-chief wag no less a person than our old acquaintance the Prince , the same Prince who had captured la petite Frangaise at Paris , just about the time when Paris was taking the Great Bastille . He had enjoyed a brilliant career , and returned after tho campaign of 1815 , paved with decorations from all the sovereigns of who had been
Ixermany , replaced in possession of their hereditary thrones by tho Cossacks of tho Don and the Oural . He was a perfect millcif tvay of Russian , stars ; covered with wounds and riddled with debts . His eyesight was slightly impaired ; his legs were rather shaky ; his hearing had not all tho precision ono might desire ; but on the other hand he was always coiffe with a certain fwn of white hair ; his uniform was a tight fit to his imposing figure ; his moustaches were" dyed , lie was bedewed in perfumes , he made lovo to youth ami beauty wherever lie found them , and lie protected ( lleavon knows why , if not par haute convenance ) a J ' ronch cantatrico more distinguished perhaps for her statuesque bust , than for her chest voice . i
. - — — — »— — - — v « ' « -m-r ^_ p 1 took a lively interest in our old Prince . He beionged to a certain typo which i . s now disappearing , and winch was very familiar to mo in my youth : a typo which wo should endeavour to conserve tho moro that it is bo rapidly becoming offaeed . He belonged , in short :, to a typo ot iuissnm Generals of 1812 , of tho army of Emperor Alexander . "Let it bo romomborod that since Peter I ., Russian flocioty . has four times shod its skin . Much has been written and talked about the men of tho reign of Peter I the old men of Catherine IL \ s reign ; but tho officers o " f Alexander a time are almost forgotten . Why this mlnice about those i i i those
men ? Is \ t l ^ emi-ic < ,,-, „ ,. „ , „„ ,., > ,. ,, «»< " « men ? Is it boeause they are nearer to our own days ? Their typo is olmructomtiu and quite an disunoMrom that of their fathom as it i . s from that of our contoinporarios who figuro in the Calendrier do la Cour do « £ . . / . dtttrsbourg . "In tho time of Catherine II . thero prow up in tho lugher regions of society , not an aristocracy , but ; a eortnin I'lcum crass m walUni / ( aeir / nnicrie de sorrier ) , haujrhlv ^ mrant and half-tamed . l-Vom 1 7 ar , I .,, 17 M I hose people "'' ,.. » MU ; in « v «« -y dlsoi-de ,- mid in wmy crisis ; iliHiKwinir arbitraril y « , t the Crown of Ru . hmIu , whic : li Iiml Hunk info lv . . ' . - ¦¦« ' »»<¦ \ n im . irmi , > vjim : m Jiiiu tiUJHC IHI , *) sh
mm . intn > . Thoy knew well enough that the Throne of o ,, l J ' Hi . Urff WftH " tl ) l > B «"">» " « ly »» w «( l , and that not «"" y the . lortroHs of Fester and Paul was within easy dls" m / . flh " * ft' « M » , but tU « iinm « iwo wiwto . s of Siberia . . ihi . SinutinouH b ,, Vy of Ui ^ -h < lignit ; arie . M , aswiHtod by 1 . 1 tious ofh (!( M-. s and by a couplo of Umnmn inJ . ri . niorH , »» H « l whom they would upon tlio throne , while they proit l t . iie womingH of a Horrile . sulmiiHHion and of an unlidia !! w ? Vf ![ m to Uw H «> vor . ! i » : ii . A . s hoou an tl , l ) y had th ,, i , ° tlim" « »<¦ ¦ thoir capri . re , they proceeded at flu e " I V 0 "l" »««* : «> n « qi «» nt th <> other , r , va ( , town . s , an < l iiml T ( > 1 ihl ) " I" «» g « 'nemlly , who win the T / ar now , nn wlu , W 1 W ( , | X ( , Tzai . 1 () ; . . . , thil | tfH ro | 1 H j _' km . ; 1 > I"' | U 11 « ( Ue people eould take ; no great interns ! , in '' VS ' holV 1080 IlUIMl hiM " " ^» " > "t—l >"' vi (!«< l it mm
K mSTiffTT , " Atl ''« lt-Zerl ) st ; , pn , mote « l by | , bo Will , i railIc of M » M > r « ' « rt o' 1 » l 11 ' he ItiiffMian , hud li ' " il '" "'"" " <> 1 " " woman and of n eourtomui oHir-ir i . 'l < ' < h ;" HN to < : 1 > I 1 H 1 » 'ho power of thotio intw > l « ni ^ hl ^^ uuij ^ lull thoir Havag o eaprieeH by Hoporilic t'hiJln '» iL rTt " , Libmr r » r . 0 , GreaTT ^^ oX t oooriiLn ; ; . ' l « t tho office of tho " Polish . Do . aoM « tw Oontrolwation / ' 38 , Itt ^ ont ' a-syunro .
flatteries : by her winning smile , by her largesses of a few thousand souls of serfs , and ., occasionally , by the imperial grant of more material and immediate favours . It was from these effeminate savages that sprung the satraps who , with Catherine , swayed the empire . Thofy were a strange amalgam of the old Boyard , Russian , patriarchal , antediluvian race , with the polished , corrupt , refined exotics of Versailles . Tiiey combined curiously the cold and distant self-possession of the western aristocracies , with the abjectness of Eastern serfs , the turbulence of the Hot-man
Cossacks , the . hypocrisy of diplomatists , and the effrontery ot the Pandoures of the Trenk . These men were arrogant in Russian , and impertinent in French , and never polished , save with foreigners . With their countrymen they were scarcely courteous , and merely condescendingoccasionally . They treated with insolent familiarity ( tutoyaient ) every man who had not attained the rank of colonel , or who could not boast of a Boyard father . Harrow and inflated , however , as these creatures were , thoy preserved a certain air of dignity , and loved sincerely 'the Mother Empress , ' and ' La Sainte Bussie . ' '
Catherine coaxed them , and listened with gracious indulgence to their counsels—which she never followed . " The heavy and overpowering epoch of those old seigneurs , begrimed with gunpowder and snuff ; of those senators and chevaliers . of the orders of St . Andre "' , and St . Wladimir of the first class ; of those men who leaned on long sticks with golden knobs , and were attended by servants in hussar uniform—that generation of men , who always raised their voice in speaking , and always spoke through their noses , was brushed away by the Emperor Paul ; who , within twenty-four hours after the death of his mother , transformed that male seraglio—that splendid and luxurious Aphrodisiac Temple—the Palais d'Hiver , into a guard-house , a State prison , a house of correction , a police station , a barrack—ein JZ / czerzier Hans .
" Paul was a sort of savage half tamed . He did but faintly preserve a few romantic ideas about chivalry . He was a white bear , * subject to chronic fits of amorous tenderness . " Paul must needs have been consigned to a lunatic asylum if he had not . chanced to be placed on the Imperial throne of St . Petersburg . He made short and sharp work with those old seigneurs , who had been used to a dignified ease , and to the flatteries and distinctions of the Court . He had no need of statesmen and senators : he wanted sergeant-majors and corporals . Not in vain had ho passed twenty years of a severe campaign in teaching a regiment of troglodytes a new exercise and a new theory ( entirely constructed by his Hi ghness himself ) of salutes with Verponton .- he naturally was anxious to apply tho exorcises
of Gutchika to the wielding ( maniement ) of the affairs of the State , and to govern the empire asyou would load a musket . Never , even in Russia , was absolutism seen under an aspect eo simple , so naive , so sincere . It was a delirium , a fever , a furor . The marsomanic of Paul , which he bequeathed to his children , overleapt the height of absurdity , and from being ridiculous became , by one step , traffic . Imagine that crowned Quasimodo shedding tears , and ' beatinc tiuie with his hands in a frenzy of delight , as his soldiers marched before him with precision ! Madness ruled then : the cruelties of Paul had no excuso , not even state necessity . Who can toll the names or calculate the number of th ' oso whom he poisoned , tortured , butchered , exiled en masse , by the aid of his attorney-general OboIianinofT ? No one will ever know .
'llio time eame , however , when the nobles roused themselves to the perception that they were nothing hotter than serfs , to be exiled and dungeoned at the will of their master , upon whose caprices they were in as absolute dependence as the peasants on their own . They regarded with stupefied horror tho practical jokes of tho Tzar . Stealthily and silently , from day to day , one at Tobolsk , another at Iskutsk , they began to pack up and be oil' one after the other , in their lumbering carriages , drawn by their peasants' horses , to bury themselves at Mo . seow , or on their estates which they owed to the ample bounty of the decoasod Empress . There the Emperor Alexander found and left them dozing securely , in the midst of petty courts which they had . formed after the fashion of their defunct Imperial Mistress .
" loung Rusaia , start led no rudely from repo . so by ( he cruel blasts of tho Paul rt '/ fhne , was full of reddens energy and capacity . It wiik with this youth that Alexjinder surrounded himself . Events completed their education . AuNtorlitz , Eylau , Tilsit , 181 . H , from Paris to Moscow , ' from Moscow to Vnrin- —t / iat career was no bagatelle . ' The oflicer . s of Paul ' s friiard came back from tho mmpaiga vielorious genomlH . The dangcr . s and the rovornes of tho national war , tlio later victories , and the very contact . with Utffntndcarmt ' o all contributed to form amelioration of frank , oounigeoii . s , liberal-hearted follows , rather narrowminded , perhaps , fanatical for discipline , and worshipping buttoned uniforms lileo a religion , but withal trained in the religion of honour . These men governed Uuhhih till tho nmv school of nwordod civil functionaries and military chirks grow up under the fostering hand of Nicholas
" Them ! mongrel ofluiiala not only occupied all the military poHtH , Imt about nine-tenths of Mio whole civil nerviee , without oven the semblance of experience in adminiHtralivo matters , signing the papers put into their hands without , rending thorn , or not mgning ( , | , , ( , nn . Affairs wont on no worse for all that ! They cherished everything military -even the Holdier . s ; but thoy had H , om < We ! l on every occasion , not from ferocity , b ,, fc because ( , | 1 () y \ XM \ never conceived the possibility of forming a good tidier without ; flogging him as often an possible . They H <( unndered enormous Hums of money , am { w \ wn ( h (> il , - ^^ . _ fen ; worn exhausted thoy dipped thoir hands into tho ooilor . s of tho State without ; ntinl , or scruple . To entice a dog away from its owner , not to r ,, | , a book lent , i . s iwunlly considered thojt in other countries : not ho in Ruflsia , where robbery of tlioHuto in a national nenli . nont . On the other hand , l , hono bureaucrats woro neither infonaern * Mul UoM , aa louia XVIII . called him .
nor -inquisitors , and they defended then ? subordinates through thick and thin . One of the most complete representatives of that class was Count Miloradoviteh . Rash , brilliant , reckless , gasconading , ungovernable , extravagant , over-head and ears in debt , whitewashed over and over again by the Emperor Alexander , and incessantly penniless , no was the most amiable fellow in the world , the idol of his soldiers , an excellent Governor-General of St . Petersburg , without ever having glanced at a page of any code . . . . Miloradoviteh , by a strange fatality , was killed tne very day of tho accession of Nicholas to the throne .
^ ' When the wounded general was brought into the barracks of the horseguards , and Doctor Arenst , who had examined the wound , was proceeding to extract the ball , Miloradoviteh said to him , ' Ma foi ! my dear Doctor , I have seen wounds enough in ray life to know that this is mortal ; but if , to make your conscience easy , you insist on the ball being extracted , call in my old surgeon , he was so attached to me ; he would be hurt , ma foi / if any other hand were to perform the operation . ' So they fetched the old
surgeon , who sobbed as he drew out the ball . After tho operation , his aide-de-camp asked the General whether he desired to make any testamentary arrangements . Miloradoviteh sent for a notary . When the notary arrived he had no instructions to give him . He thought , and thought , and at last said : 'Mais ma foi , it is very difficult to say—well , you must know surely what ought to be done ; do all—in order—as the law directs . ' ' Has M . le . Comte no private instructions to give me ?* c yes , I haveo » e ; write as I dictate . There was a
young man , son of one of my old comrades , a fine young fellow , but headstrong . I saw him among the insurgents ; write , then , my dying request to his Majesty to pardon that young man—that is all I have to say . ' Two hours after the G-eneral died—felix opportunitate mortis . " The cold , foggy , prosaic reign of Nicholas has no concern with men who , when , they are wounded to death , remember their old surgeon , and who'in the last agony have no will to make ^—save to ask pardon for an insurgent . Men like this are not so manageable , thoy hold their heads too high , speak too directly , disturb the sluggish stream of
servility . True , they shed their blood to the last drop , and die in arms , but happily no war was apprehended at the -mom . en < y _ exeept an internal war , and it is . precisely in that sort , of war that man like Miloradoviteh are incapable . It is said that Count Beckcndorff turned pale whenever ho entered the Cabinet of Nicholas , and he certainly entered it ton times a day for twenty years . Such were the men the new Emperor required . He wanted agents and auxiliaries to execute , not brains to devise ; ordonnanccs , not warriors .- He has never known what to do with the most able of all the Russian generals , d'Ennoloff , and leaves him to die at Moscow in complete inaction .
" Much time , constant effort , and laborious persistency have been required to educate tho race of contemporary employes : _ those generals of tho inkstand and of the gendarmerie , those sabred clerks and spurred penmen ; thoso correspondents , reporters , secretaries , reporters , tchinoviclcs who compose his ministries , not to . speak of a herd of spies under denominations more or less euphemistic . The mould of Nicholas has pounded and pulverized all that was good in the government : : it has ground down Poland , absorbed the Baltic provinces so devoted , Finland so unhappy—and still it grinds , and grinds always . The fact in , that the father had the acute malady of absolutism , delirium tj / ranjwruiit ; with tho son it lias degenerated into a chronic inflammation , or slow fever of despotism .
Tlio father took to his hobby with such a savage ardour that in four years he broke—not Russia ' s neck , but his own . Tho son draws the knot closer by little and little ; ono day he hangs a t \;\ v Russians , another ho executes a batch of Poles ; to-day no passports are allowed for abroad , to-morrow the mixed schools suddenly dosed . We are beginning to choke— -our breath i . s failing ; while our master , after twenty years . slow nil-angling , is in capital preservation . It is worth remarking , ( hat upon the accession of Nicholas , the jaundiced , bilious , arachnoid , degraded apparition of Com to Arnklclioef , that Typhon of the" rei '' ii
ot Alexander , disappeared almost ologinailly , weeping over the grave of a virago who was assassinated by her cook ; but his school i . s increasing , his disciples have / seized upon the most influential posit ions . Il , is the grand whool of . scribes in opaulel . tes , regimental auditors , military lawyers , narrow , soulless , incapable creatures ; but punctual , mediocre , destitute of ambition , exact and whose ; zeal for the Tzar omnia vi ) icif . For these men there is room perhaps in the ministerial bureaux and in hataillons de correction , but certainly they can find no place , in a novel , and no fitness in a romance .
Wherefore \ persist in a weakness for my old Prince , who protected tho I'Yeneh eunta . trien more renowned for her antiiiiio bust than for her voi . v tl <; poitrine . "
The Polish .Revolution Of Ih.'Jo. This #...
THE POLISH . REVOLUTION OF IH . 'JO . This # all ; int Htrugglo of tho Poles , twenty-three yearn ago , for independence , wan cololiratad by a company . of gontlonien and ladicH , ; ifc tho Hanover Nquaro Itoonm , on Tuesday . Tho Hpe . i kens were , Mr . lantou , M . ' Ledni Kollin , Mr . . James Wat . son , . M . Alexander Hor' / Aiti , Dr . Arnold Kuge , . Dr . Roney , and M . K Stitniow ' wx . Tlio wliolo tone and tendency of tho repealling wan for war , with tho view of revolutionizing . Kurope . A letter from JV 1 . Masc / . ini , addressed to Mr . Woroell tho < : liainnan , and read at tho meeting , wo nnbjoin
"Mvdkau Fkikni ) , Nothing hut , illness eould prevent me from attending at your anniversary meoliiiir . [ am hoarse , neuralgic , fovoi-i . sh , coughing . Unable (( > take tlin least part , in your proceedings , 1 would only provo n , trouble to | , ho bystanders . 1 am , however , tho lo . sor . Noul mind , affection , you have mo all . W « i have stuck our flu ^ to Iho miiHl ,, noiiio twoiily-J . wo years ago , miieo tl . o first ; day of our proscription . Old in yeans , not in spirits , wo still hold b y il , —brother . ' ) as ovor , brothers for over . Poverty deceptions , bolrivyalu , Mchiwns , and foudn ; all tho bitter *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 3, 1853, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03121853/page/7/
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