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

14NO MIDDLE CLASS IN RUSSIA.

his position may be, than to say to a nation " You have been deceived, and I will be no longer accessory to your error." The vulgar cling to falsehood, even to that which injures them, rather than to truth, because human pride prefers that which comes from man to that which comes from God. This is true under all governments, but doubly so under despotism,

An independence like that of the mugics * of Peterhoff can alarm nobody. It forms the liberty and equality which despots love ! It may be boasted of without risk; but advise Russia to a gradual emancipation, and you will soon see what is said of you in the country.

I, yesterday, heard the courtiers as they passed near me boasting of the politeness of their serfs, " I should like to see such a fete in France," they said. I was strongly tempted to answer them : " In order to compare our two people, we must wait until yours exists."

I called to mind at the same time a fete which I once gave to the lower orders at Seville. It was under the despotism of Ferdinand VII., but the true politeness of those Spaniards, free de facto, if not de jure, furnished me with an object of comparison little favourable to the Russians.†

Russia is a book, the table of whose contents is magnificent, but beware of going further. If you turn over the leaves you will find no performance answering to the promise: all the chapters are headed, but all have to be filled np. How many of

* Russian peasants.

† See " Spain under Ferdinand VII."