Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

night here, asked to see me while his horses were changing: he confirmed to me news that I had already heard, of eighty villages having been just burnt, in the government of Sembirsk, in consec|uence of the revolt of the peasants. The Russians attribute these troubles to the intrigues of the Poles. "What interest have the Poles in burning Russia ?" I asked the person who related to me the fact. íC None/' he replied, " unless it be that they hope to draw upon themselves the wrath of the Russian government: their only fear is that they should be left in peace."

" You call to my recollection," I observed, £C the band of ineendiaries who, at the commencement of our first revolution, accused the aristocrats of burning their own chateaux." " You will not believe me," replied the Russian, " but I know, by close observation and by experience, that every time the Poles observe the emperor inclining towards clemency, they form new plots, send among us disguised emissaries, and even feign conspiracies when they cannot excite real ones ; all of which they do solely with a view of drawing upon their country the hate of Russia, and of provoking new sentences for themselves and their countrymen : in fact, they dread nothing so much as pardon, because the gentleness of the Russian government would change the feelings of their peasants, who would soon be induced even to love the enemy"

" This appears to me heroical macliiavelism," I replied, " but I cannot believe in it. If it be true, why do you not pardon them in order to punish them ? You would be then more adroit, as you are already more powerful, than they. But you hate them: and I am much inclined to believe that to