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bravery of the Preach African regiments . He is equally enthusiastic with respect to the policy pursued " by the Erench Government to prevent its conquests and victories from having only a barren result ; We may learn a lesson or two for our guidance in our own Indian hostilities from these pages . .
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MEMOIRS OF CATHERINE II . Memoirea de rimperatrice Catherine II ., e ' crits par elle-. meme etvrjtedcs d ' tme Preface . Par A . Herzen . Trtibner and Co . Ok the death of the Seroiramis , or , as some would say , the Theodora , of the North , her son and successor , Paul , found amonjr her papers a mass of autobiographical memoirs m her own hand . Affection or respect could permit little of this to see the light . The bulk was therefore burnt—so the story runs — by Paul in person ; but one portion of peculiar interest , as detailing Catherine ' s early im-Russian Courtand the circum
pxessions of the , - stances attending her first amorous intrigue , was Ereserved . This fragment is now before us , edited iy the accomplished Russian , Alexander Herzen . As the importance of the work must mainly depend upon its authenticity , we may be excused for noticing the pedigree of the MS . furnished by the editor . Paul , says he , set so much store b y it that he trusted it to no one but his familiar , Alexander Kourakine , who copied it . Twenty years after Paul ' s death , Kourakine ' s MS . was recopied for the Tourgeneff and WoronzofF families , and hencefor-Trard began to circulate covertly . The late Czar einnlbved the police to stop this , but with only
partial success . A copy in the hand of Pouschkine , the poet , and perhaps one other , escaped , and the result is before us . Fashionable and literary circles in Russia have long looked for it , and among these , as in high continental society , it will be read with the more zest that it has obtained publicity in spite of imperial mandate and police machination . How mistaken were these will be admitted by all candid readers . For so general has been the belief that Paul was the fruit of Catherine ' s adultery that her virtual admission of the fact could add nothing to her ill fame , while full proof of it will not now unsettle the Romanoff dynasty . But generous minds , on the other hand , will find in this unvarnished tale , and in the study of the circumstances which surrounded her young wedded life , a plea in extenuationat all events , of her first sin .
, The memoir commences with the arrival at Moscow , in 1744 , of Catherine , then Sophia Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst , accompanied by her mother , followed by a shrewd review of the cliques and persons about the Court . The German maiden soon found out that her intended , Peter , was an overgrown baby of sixteen , always playing at . soldiers ; and that the Empress Elizabeth was an . overbearing , querulous old intriguer who regarded ¦ Sophia in no other light than as necessary for the perpetuation of the imperial race . All the Russian family and their minions plotted the estrangement of the mother and and the banishment of
daughter , the former ; and these lamily bickerings , alternating with ballets , masquerades , burning wooden palaces , sledging , and general Court and cabinet gossip , arc narrated 30 minutely , yet so artlessly , as to stamp the memoir as genuine . Catherine was in cpurse of time baptized intojthe Russian Church and married . But she pined in thought , no doubt , for though she grew tall , she became , she says , thin as a skeleton and deadly pale . She wearied of the Court and its ways , of the Tchoglokoffs ( an , odious pair imposed upon her as chief spy and grandc gouvernante \ and ox the whole entourage . She endeavoured , but vainly , to beguile herself into an idea of happiness by dint of dancing , billiards , marionettes , oliudman ' s-buff , and other romping games , played
with an ardour that horrified the card-playing Russian dowagers , and even her own grave Gorman , waiting-woman . Anxious to outrage the Court , she refused to wear rouge or patches , and tried to " introduce simplicity . " For distraction ' s sake she became a great horsewoman and astonished her tailor by the many riding-skirts she wore out . She even devised a kind of saddle so fashioned that when her mother-in-law's back was turned she could shift the crutch , lower a second stirrup , and ride wildly "d califowrchon . Her spouse was low in Iris tastes , ana promisouons in his infidelities . The progress of his various amours is traced minutely by tho injured bride , as well as his atrocious conduct towards heraolf , wluoh even wont oo far as gross personal brutality . Tho reader
is gradually prepared by the tale to learn that-its narrator ceased to be pure' in contact with such a heap of corruption as the Russian Court . The young chamberlain , Soltikoff , and his wife , Matrevna Paulovna , now come upon the scene , and an acquaintance between them and Catherine commences at the summer palace of Peterhof , whither so poorly was the Court off—the tables and chairs , beds and looking-glasses , used to be moved for the season like the ladies and gentlemen in waiting . In a twelvemonth this intimacy so far ripens ° that Sergius declares his passion , and is at first repulsed with an allusion to his young and handsome wife . "AH is not gold that glitters , he answers , and presses his suit . Je fis tout au le iaire
monde /' says Catherine , " pour cnanger d'idee ie croyais bonnemeut y reussir—ll me faisait pitie . Par malheur je l ' ecoutais . " Sergius was a master of intrigue ; all Catherine stood m need of then was sympathy . It was his best weapon under the circumstances , and he used it " He was handsome , " says she , " as the day , and neither in the empress ' s nor" in the heir-apparent s court was there any nian who could come near him . For a little while she feigned resistance , but at last yielded . A hunting party of pleasure took the pair on to an island on the Neva . Soltikoff rode beside Catherine and poured words of passion into a not unwilling ear . He made the most of her husband s crueltv . uitied her sorrows , guaranteed secrecy , and tor lours
triumphed . A storm kept the party many . on the islet , and Catherine went home full of apprehension , " ties maussade , et tres malcontentcde moi-menie . " The journal , from this point until after the birth of Paul , offers abundant evidence that Sergius Soltikoff reigned supreme in the writer ' s heart . But even the Grand-Duchess of Russia couklnot make sure of a heart for a heart . She writes about politics , Court follies and fashions , her husband s debaucheries , her own illnesses , the rejoicings of the Russians at her infant ' birth and baptism ; but the name of Sergius chequers every page . But he ,
by degrees , grew c older and colder , on all sorts of pretences , and at last wore out his affection by foreign travel , and irritated his mistress ' s pride by connecting himself with other women . Leon Narishkine and Poniatowski , who succeeded to the wreck he abandoned , are now barely introduced to us , when the story closes abruptly at the period of Catherine ' s contemplated retreat to her German home . Her protest against her husband , her enemies , and her rivals is affecting ; and the long scene between herself , the empress , and her husband , in which she pleads for a separation , is powerful and animated .
This autobiography—though dedicated by a mother to her son—is one of the few we have ever seen that carries the air of having been composed without a thought of future eyes . It is not a shameless , but a painfully natural , confession , and moves the reader ' s sympathy for one whom it depicts most unaffectedly as a state prisoner in gilded fetters , young in years , old and withered in heart , and estranged from her savage husband by his own perverse industry , with the connivance of his family . The empress-mother , as we have said , took to heart
the infertility of the grand-ducal marriage Dea . Madame Tchoglokoff was chosen to break the royal sentiments to her charge , and to make suggestions " pour le bien do l'Jfitat . " She opened her fire with a , lengthy eulogy on her own domestic virtues and an exposition of the means by which every-day people might attain and keep conjugal felicity . Site then suggested the choice of a cavalier between Sergius Soltikoff and Ldon Nanchkino , volunteering to oppose no obstacles . Cathcrino , as the reader knows , had already made her first" choice , but the lesson of the grande
gouvernante was not still thrown away . "La jcuno femme , " aays Herzen , "jouo la niaise , prond lea deux , plus JPoniatowski , et commenco uno carriere drotiquo dans luquclio , pendant quaranto ans , elle no s ' arrOtera plus . At tho dawn of this " carnero erotique" tho Catherine ] MS . breaks off in the middle of a sentence . In the words of tho editor , " The loading feature of the book , wherein consists its importance to the reigning family of Russia , is the proof it disdoses that they have no more claim to the name of Holstein Gottorp than to that of Romanoff . Catherine ' s avowal is explioit onough-i-tho father of tho Emperor Paul was Sergius Soltikoff , and hero , therefore , must end all their pretence to ' traditionary rights . '"
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THE PAPER DUTIES . The Tax upon Paper . The Case stated for fa immedinf . Repeah J-Rid g 4 We agree in the mam with the objects of tl , P " Association for obtaining the Repeal of the Pa « pr Duty , " and therefore incur no risk of beine ws understood in addressing that body with a friendlv warning . The tax upon paper must be removed It is a bad tax , because it fetters the press and hampers the schoolmaster , restrains the inter change of thought , and gives a dangerous premium
to popular ignorance . It was in its origin notoriously less a fiscal regulation than a cunningly devised burden upon intellectual exertion , audits character has not changed to this day . \ Vhat more need be urged against it ? While the Reformers take their stand upon these great though simple truths they are invincible . But the best pause niar be imperilled by bad arguments ; and this danger appears to us peculiarly to threaten the present movement . There are few arguments in this pamphlet , issued by the Association , which do not
violate some established principle , or which , are not wholly untenable in sound reasoning . If the friends of Repeal do not honestly tell them this , they will assuredly hear it from their enemies -when the warning is too late to be useful . Throughout the pamphlet the " poor paper-maker " is represented as bearing a heavy burden in the tax , and in the exciseman ' s interference . " It is Jsurprising , " says the Association , " that hi a country which aims at and boasts of
morality , its liberty , it is accounted a crime to earn an honest living by the exercise of a useful and : important manufacture . " If anything , however , has been settled , it is the principle that taxes , or trade burdens of any kind , do ' not fall on the manufacturer , but upon the ultimate purchaser of his goods . It is true that one of the first English paperriiiakers was knighted ; but it is not , of course , recommended that all papermakers in these davs should receive that honour ,
and it is certain that their industry is not punished as a crime . " No man is compelled to be a papermaker , arid if any one voluntarily adopts that / business , it is , of course , because he is fully compensated both for tax and inconvenience . VVhat is true of him in this respect is true of the distiller , the hop-grower , the maltster , the stage-coach proprietor . Nor is the Custom -house officer much less troublesome thau the exciseman . Exactly the
same violation of principle is involved in the committee ' s assertion that Sir Francis Baring ' s duty , amounting only to a trifling fraction per pound , did not warraut an increase in the price of paper , and that the tax is , therefore , paid out of the papermaker ' s pocket . The committee do not appear to have reflected that , on this princi p le , no article sold in the wholesale ninrlcet could ever rise m price , save by a sum capable of division into parts exactly corresponding with retail quantities ; and tins is
they certainly do not perceive that me very fallacy which is employed against themselves when it is contended that the cheap magazine will not be made cheaper when a tax . is remitted ot lialt-afarthing a copy . The argument that the papermaker is oppressed by reason of his haying to pay the duty by a certain day because " the stationer knows the day as well as he does , and compels him to accept his own terms , " is surely not worth a comment . Tho committee in their very opening sentence declare that " the producers of aa article
are not always desirous to have it exempted mw taxation , " and with singular inconsistency acknowledge that « papcr-makors of cmincnco" decline to be relieved . What , then , would be the posit oio tho committee if , after oil this P Cftdm S , ° " £ u of the oppressed papcr-nrnkers that trade should , at the last moment , repudiate tho con mttec advocacy , and , consistently with their ndint jd m clination , declare themselves quite content with tlio tax and the exciseman P A . false reason is never a
EilS vory forcibly by ^^^ J ^ since 183 ?" no less than 132 mills have stoppj *> and that the operation of the duty fwMjJJ " put labourers out of work , " and " thiovv lmua on tho parish . " Tho first fact may b ° « gj $ f g that the inferences are erroneous is capable ai w easiest demonstration . It caimot bo co » tondo ^ the quantity of paper manufactured baa unto go any such diminution in that period . On f o °£ troy , it is shown by tables quo cd by tho Agow tion that it h » enormously wffWLj % number of mills , therefore , lias ^"""'^ JV ' only bo because tho manufneturo is gonoriuiy
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1316 THE -Ii E A D E R . [ No . 454 , December 4 , 1858 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 4, 1858, page 1316, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2271/page/12/
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