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• ^^^^^¦ ^ ¦ ^ / RUSSIAN PUBLICATIONS IN LONDON . * We have before us the first part of a new Russian publication by M . Alexanbrb Herzen , 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 his literary and political difficulties and misadventures : —
" Why was the impression of my work forbidden ? I cannot say : read it and judg-e for yourself . I will simply remind you that it was just after the Revolution of February , when the Russian censorship assumed the most 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 only the books themselves , but books , civil censors , authors , editors , publishers , and printers , all in a heap .
. " Guided by the military regulations of Peter the Fhrsfc , and the Byzantine nom . oca . non , this censorship de siege took upon itself to forbid the printing of any work of mine on any subject ; 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 meat 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 evarigelizers are : — .... The General-in-chief was no less a person than our old acquaintance the Prince , the same Prince who had captured la petite Francaise at Paris , just about the time when Paris was takiug the Great Bastille . He had enjoyed a brilliant career , and returned after the campaign of 1815 with decorations from
, paved all tho sovereigns of Germany , who had been replaced in possession of their hereditary thrones by the Cossacks of the Don and the Oural . Ho was a perfect millet / way of Russian stara ; covered with wounds and riddled with debts . His eyesight was slightly impaired ; his legs were rather shaky ; his hearing had not all the precision one might desire ; but on the other hand lie was always coijfe with a certain jion of white hair ; his uniform was a tight fit to his imposing figure ; his moustaches were dyed , he was bodewed in perfumes , he mado lovo to youth and beauty wherever ho found them , and ho protected rieaven knows
^ why , if not par haute comsonance ) a i * roach cantatrico more distinguished perhaps for her statuesque bust than for her chest voice . " I took a lively interest in our old Prince . He bolongod to a certain typo which is now disappearing , and winch was very familiar to mo in my youth : a typo which wo should endeavour to conserve tho more that it is so rapidly becoming effaced . Ho belonged , in short , to a type ot Russian Generals of 1812 , of tho army of Emperor Alexander . l
Lot it bo remembered that since Potor L , Russian nocioty has four times shed it , 3 skin . Much has bcou written and talked about tho men of tho roi / m of Potor I tho old men of Catherine II . ' s reign ; but tho officers ot -tuoxandor a time are almost forgotten . Why this aileneo about thoso men P Is it because thoy aro nearer to our uwnaaya ^ J ? hoir typo is characteristic and quito as distinct irom that of tlioir fathers as it is from that of our MHuempomries who figuro in tho Galendrier do la . Cour de »*• x otorahourg . hCh th ° - *' ' (> f CrttIl ™' no H . there grow up in tho t ! H t \^ of s ° ci « ty , not an aristocracy , but a cortuin L ^ LZT * !< ™ itin t / { soianeurio de service ) , hnuirhfcv . h lIia
• 'M « u , , half-tamed . From . 1725 to . 1782 Unpeople arli Li m .. ovop y disorder and in every crisis ; disposing KnnLr - ° m , ClWnof RmHhl > whldl " «! »« nlc into nmah m . ro . Tlioy know well enough that the Throno of on ' lv f """ ffM 8 hot to ° Heonn » ly ' biiH «( I , and that not taVL ,. ;? t om « f P « tor and Paul was within easy dis-( oi tho Palace , but ( lie immense wa . sf . os of Siberia . ^ Z « , V UUmii l T / ° ! l d ^» i ( ' » li ^ ' » siH ted by iois , i '" f mul hy a COUJ >| 0 of G « r »™» intriguer * , « rv I n th ° y W (> ul ( l U 1 » lho « " •«""' . wliilo lh « y preiui ( r » , i " f ? oini » ff » « f ft sorvilo Hubminsion and of aa unli-««¦ < od on !" n lh ° ^ Tr ^ n- Ah tunm m flll 7 hll ( l thoir > , t ¦ hrono nt thoir "ftlwMH' / thoy proeoedod at «» o nooni rA to aw l uamtl < >'" « t » or groat Umnm and « , „[' , " ' ompiro generally , wlio was tho Tzar now , ''" n « l ' T " Ts » w * ° Jo'W" - : All things oonsikuowin T ° l K )() l > l 0 co » ld '" k « no groat interest in ' ^ tfjriiol l JUlU ( I JlCl < l tU ° knout ' -l ) r ( > vi < l <)( l * ' wiw
C ! ounli o \ l'T' ? m , ot Anhnlfc-ZorlMfc , promoted by tho w 'th tho ° ° ° r J 5 m l >™ <>* ' » " < - «» ituHsian , ll lu > i , mm oi' ll woimiu and of a eouHoMan , oli K'treliH . [ "f ' ; o (! ril « b *«« power of Hiimo inaolent ~ - ~ -- ^ ii ^ lJ [^ hdl thoir Huvaffo capricna by soporifio
flatteries : b y her winning smile , by her largesses of a few thousand souls of serfs , and , occasionally , by the imperial grant of more ma terial and immediate favours . It was from these effeminate savages that sprung the satraps who , with Catherine , swayed the empire . They were a strange _ amalgam of the old Boyard , Russian , patriarchal , antediluvian race , with the polished , Corrupt , refined exotics of Versailles . They combined curiously the cold and distant self-possession of the western aristocracies , with the abjectness of Eastern serfs , the turbulence of the Hetman
Cpssacks , the hypocrisy of diplomatists , and the effrontery of 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 condescendingoccasionall y . 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 . Narrow and inflated , however , as these creatures were , they preserved a certain air of dignity , and loved sincerely ' the Mother Empress , ' and ' La Sainte JZussie '
" 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 JEkzerzier Haus .
" Paul was a sort of savage half tamed . He did but faintly preserve a few romantic ideas about chivalry . Ho 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 . JVofc in vain had he passed twenty years of a severe campaign in teaching a regiment of troglodytes a new exercise and a new theory ( entirely constructed by his Highness himself ) of salutes with VSrponton : he naturally was anxious to apply the exercises
of Gutchika to the wielding ( nianiement ) of the affairs of the State , and to govern the empire as you would load a musket . Never , even in Russia , was absolutism seen under an aspect so simple , so naive , so sincere . It was a delirium , a fever , a furor . The marsomanie of Paul , which he bequeathed to his children , overleapt the height of absurdity , and from being ridiculous became , by one stop , tragic . Imagine that crowned Quasimodo shedding tears , and beating time 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 excuse , not even state necessity . Who can tell the names or calculate the number of those whom ho poisoned , tortured , butchered , exiled en masse , by the aid of his attorney-general ObolianinofF ? No ono will ever know .
" lhe time came , howover , when the nobles roused themselves to the perception that they were nothing better than serfs , to be exiled and dungeoned at the will of their mastor , upon whose caprices they were in aa absolute dependence as the peasants on their own . They regarded with . stupefied horror tho practical jokes of the Tzar . Stealthily and silently , from day to day , ono at Tobolsk , another at Iskuisk , they bogan to pack up and be od' one after tho other , in their lumbering carriages , drawn by their peasants' horses , to bury themselves at Moscow , or on their estates which they owed to tho ample bounty of tho deceased Empress . ' There the Emperor Alexander found and left thorn dozing securoly , in the midst of petty courts which they had formed after the fashion of their defunct Imperial MintiVRS .
" Young Russia , startled no rudely from reposo by tho cruel blasts of the Paul regime , was " full of reckless energy and capacity . It was with this youth that Alexander surrounded himself . Events completed their education . Austorlitz , Eylau , Tilnif ; , 1 B 12 , from Paris to Moscow , from Moscow to Vavm—that career was no bagatelle . The officers of Paul ' s guard came back from tho campaign victorious frencrni . s . The < lungm \ s and ( he roverHoa of the national war , the lator victories , and tho vory contact with la grandcarmdo—all contributed to form a generation of frank , courageous , liberal-hearted follows , rather narrowminded , perhaps , fanatical for discipline , and worshipping buttoned uniforms like a religion , but withal trained in tho religion of honour . TIioro men governed Itusnia till the new school of mvorded civil functionaries and military clerku grow up under the foatcrin < r hand of Nicholas
" These mongrel officials not , only occupied all tho military post h , hut about liino-tiintim of tho whole civil Hervico , without oven tho noiublanco of experience in udininiofcrativo matters , nigning ' tho papers put , info tlioir hands without reading thorn , or not fiignirifr thoni at , ( ill . A ( lairs wont on no wor . io for all that ! Thoy cherished evorythin » r military—even ( he noldiern ; but tlioy had them floinred on every occasion , not from ferocity , but because they had novor conceived tho possibility of forming a good Holdicr without , flogging him as often an possible . They mpmndorod enormous fiuiuH of money , and when their own cofferH were oxhaustoil , they dipped their hands into tho coflbrH of the Htate without stint or scruple . To entice a dog away from its owner , not to rol . urn a book lent , is unually eonisidorod thofb in othor countries : nof , no ' in RuHflin , whero robbery of tho State id a national / icntimcnt . On tho other hand , theno bureaucrats wore neither informers
nor inquisitors , and they defended their subordinates tnrough thick and thin . One of the most complete representatives of that class was Count Miloradbvitch . Rash , D-runant , reckless , gasconading , ungovernable , extravagant , over It ead : and eara in debt , whitewashed over and over again by the Emperor Alexander , and incessantly penniless , he was the most amiable fellow in tho world , the idol of his soldiers , an excellent Governor-General of St . Petersburg , without ever having glanced at a pa e of any code . . .. . Miloradovitch , by a strange fatality , was killed the very day of the accession of Nicholas to the throne . When
the wounded general was broueht into the barracks of the horseguards , and Doctor Arenst , who had examined the wound , was proceeding to extract the ball , Miloradovitch said to him , 'Ma foi f my dear Doctor , I have seen wounds enough in my 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 . r if any other hand were to perform the operation . ' So they fetched the old surgeon , who sobbed as he drew out the ball . After the operation , his aide-de-camp asked the General whether he desired to make any testamentary arrangements . Miloradovitch sent for a notary .. When the notary arrived he had no instructions to give him . He thought , and thought , and at last said : 'Mais via foi , it is dithcult to
very 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 ?' 'Ah ! yes , I have one ; 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 General died—fduv 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 not
are so manageable , they 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 moment , except an internal war , and it is precisely in that sort of war that men like Miloradovitch are incapable . It is said that Count Beckendorff turned pale whenever he entered the Cabinet of Nicholas , and he certainly entered it ten times a day for twenty j-ears . ' ^ Such were the men the new Emperor required . . He wanted agents and auxiliaries to execute , not brains to devise ; ordonnances , not warriors . Ho has never known what to do with the most able of all the Russian generals , d'Ermoloff , and leavoa him to die at Moscow in complete inaction .
" Much time , constant effort , and laborious persistency have been required to educate the race of contemporary employes : _ those generals of the inkstand and of the gendarmerie , those sabred clerks and spurred penmen ; those 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 lias ground down Poland , absorbed the Baltic provinces so devoted , Finland so unhappy—and still it grinds , and grinds always . Tho fact is , that the father had the acute malady of absolutism , delirium tyrannorum ; with tho son it liaa degenerated into a chronic inflammation , or . slow fever of despotism .
lhe father took to his hobby with such a savage ardour that in four years ho broke—not Russia ' s neck , but , his own . Tho son draws tho knot closer by little and little ; one day he hangs a few Russians , another he executes a batch of Poles ; to-day no passports are allowed for abroad , to-morrow tho mixed schools suddenly closed . Wo aro beginning to choke—our breath is failing ; while our muster , after twenty years slow strangling , is in capital preservation . It is worth remarking , that , upon tho accession of Nicholas , tho jaundiced , bilious , arachnoid , degraded apparition of Ooni ' to Araktoheof , that Tyiihon of tho rei » -n
of Alexander , disappeared almost ; elegiucally , weeping over the grave of a virago who was assassinated by her cook ; but his school i « increasing , his disciples have ' . seized upon Lhe most , influential positions . It is Mm grand . school of scribes in epaulettes , regimental auditors , military lawyers , narrow , soulless , incapable creatures ; but punctual , mediocre , destitute of ambition , exact - and whose * zeal for the Tzar omtiia innr . it . V \ iv these men thoro is room perhaps in the ministerial bureaux and in bahtillons do correctum , but ; certainly they can find no place in a novel , and no fitness in a romance .
Wherefore I persist in a weakness for my old IVinee , who protected tho I'Yench ennlalriee morn renowned for her antiquo bust than for her voi . v de poitrine . '
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1 December 3 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 1159
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^ w a i „ ~ ^ : - J- ' ' wcoln ' fl im c ™™ ™ library , «) , Groat Queon-fltroofc , »» oor « tin ( T ; , ^ . ftntl nt ' tiioofllco « f tho " PoliahDo" * wo tJontrolufttuui , " 08 , Eogont ' a-oquaro .
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• MalUohi , as Xouia XVIII . called him .
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THE POLLS it 11 K VOLUTION OF 1830 . TltK gallant struggle of tho PoleH , twenty-throo yoara ago , for independence , was celebrated by a company of gentlemen mid ladies at the Ilaiiovor-i ,- ( ju ; iro itooms , on Tuesday . The speak em were , Mr . Linton , M . Ltidni'lvollin , Mr . James Watson , M . Alexander Ilerzon , Dr . Arnold Hugo ; Or . Roney , and M . . 10 . Ktauiowioz . Tho whole tone and tendency of tho npoaking was for war , with the view of revolutionizing lOuropo . A letter from M . Ma / . zini , addressed to Mr . Worcoll tho ohiurman , and road at tho mooting , w « Hiibio ' m : —
"Mvdraii Khikn i ) ,-Nothing but illness could prevent mo from attending at your anniversary mooting . I am hoarse , nouralgic , feverish , coughing . ( Ttiablo to l , ako tho least part in your proceedings , I would only provo n trouble to the hyntaiidoi'H . 1 am , however , thn loner . Soul mind , affection , you luivo mo all . Wo have nl , uek our ( lajy to Mio mast , some twenty-two years ago , sinco tlio first day of our proscription . Old in yearn , not , in spiritH , wo ntil | , hold b y it—brothers as over , brothers for over . Poverty deceptions , botrayaltt , ochiamB , and fouda , all tho bittor-
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 3, 1853, page 1159, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2015/page/7/
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