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

284:PAliALLEL BETAVEEN

men are restless and unquiet: with us this is demonstrated by visible agitations and explosions, in Russia, political passions are concentrated. In France every one can arrive at his object, by setting out from the tribune, in Russia, by setting out at court. The lowest of men, if he can discover how to please his sovereign, may become to-morrow second only to the emperor. The favour of that god is the prize which produces as many prodigies of effort, and miraculous metamorphoses, as the desire of popularity among us. A profound flatterer in Petersburg is the same as a sublime orator in Paris. What a talent of observation must not that have been in the Russian courtiers, which enabled them to discover that a means of pleasing the emperor was to walk in winter without a great coat in the streets of Petersburg. This flattery of the climate has cost the life of more than one ambitious individual. Under a despotism which is without limits, minds are as much agitated and tormented as under a republic; but with this difference, the agitation of the subjects of an autocracy is more painful on account of the silence and concealment that ambition has to impose upon itself in order to succeed. With us, sacrifices, to be profitable, have to be public; here, on the contrary, they must be secret. The unlimited monarch dislikes no one so much as a subject ■publicly devoted. All zeal that exceeds a blind and servile obedience is felt by him as both troublesome and suspicious: exceptions open the door to pretensions, pretensions assume the shape of rights, and under a despot, a subject who fancies that he has rights is a rebel.

Marshal Paskiewitch can attest the truth of these