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

186 CULPABILITY OF THE ARISTOCRACY.

the moment he appears to be disgraced. Russia does not know to-day if the minister who governed her yesterday exists. Under Louis the XV. the banishment of M. de Choiseul was a triumph ; in Russia the retirement of M. de Repnin is a funeral.

To whom will the people one day appeal, from the mute servility of the great? What explosion of vengeance is not the conduct of this cringing aristocracy preparing against the autocratic power ? What are the duties of the Russian noblesse? To adore the Emperor, and to render themselves accomplices in the abuse of sovereign power, that they themselves may continue to oppress the people. Is such the position that Providence has ordained them to occupy in the economy of this vast empire? They fill its posts of honour. What have they done to merit them ? In the history of Russia, no one except the Emperor has performed his part. The nobles, the clergy, and all the other classes of society, have each failed in their own. An oppressed people have always deserved the ills under which they suffer. Tyranny is the work of the nation. Either the civilised world will, before another fifty years, pass anew under the yoke of barbarians, or Russia will undergo a revolution more terrible than that, the effects of which we are still feeling in Western Europe.

I can perceive that I am feared here, which I attribute to its being known that I write under the influence of my convictions. No stranger can set foot in this country without immediately feeling that he is weighed and judged. " This is a sincere man," they think, " therefore he must be dangerous."