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

208ENQUIRY INTO THEIR MOTIVES.

themselves to any process, or even to too notorious animadversion, the judges or the police would turn against them; and that, in such case, what is here called law would be applied with rigour. They have dreaded incarceration, the blows of the rod in the prison, or, perhaps, something worse ! Under these motives, operating with double influence in the universal silence that forms the normal state of Russia, they have given this good example of commercial probity, with which the governor of Nijni took pleasure in dazzling me. If I was dazzled, it was only for an instant; for I was not long in recognising that if the Russian merchants forbore to ruin each other, their reciprocal modei`ation had precisely the same source as that of the boatmen of Lake Ladoga, and the coachmen and porters of Petersburg, who control their angry passions, not through motives of humanity, but under the dread of the superior authority intervening in their affairs. As I remained silent, I could see that M. Boutourline enjoyed my surprise.

¢¢ No one knows the supei`iority of the emperor," he continued, " unless they have seen this prince engaged in public business, especially at Nijni, where he performs prodigies."

I answered that I greatly admired the sagacity of the emperor.

" When we visit together the works directed by his majesty," replied the governor, " you will yet more admire him. You will see that, owing to the energy of his character and the justness of his views, the monetary revolution, which would elsewhere