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

146 IMMENSE POWER OF THE EMPEROR.

in this artificial nation, may attain the first military dignity without having served in any army. The favour of promotion is never demanded, but always intrigued for.

There is here an immense quantity of fermenting material placed at the disposal of the head of the state. Medical men complain of their inability to communicate fever to certain patients in order to cure them of chronic maladies. The Czar Peter inoculated with the fever of ambition the whole body of his people, in order to render them more pliant, and to govern them according to his humour.

The English aristocracy is equally independent of birth; it depends upon two things which may be acquired, office and estate. If, then, this aristocracy, moderated as it is, still imparts an enormous influence to the crown, how great must be the power of that crown whence all these things — the rank, and also the office and estate — are both de jure and de facto derived!

There results from such a social organisation a fever of envy so violent, a stretch of mind towards ambition so constant, that the Russian people will needs become incapable of any thing except the conquest of the world. I always return to this expression, because it is the only one that can explain the excessive sacrifices imposed here upon the individual by society. If the extreme of ambition can dry up the heart of a man, it may also stop the fountain of intellect, and so lead astray the' judgment of a nation as to induce it to sacrifice its liberty for victory. Without this idea, avowed or disguised, and the influence of which many, perhaps,