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

156THE ONLY SINCERE RUSSIAN.

in the country; for as, hitherto, the Russians have had little personal intercourse with foreigners, they must have taken lessons in wariness from themselves alone.

Their experience is only such as their position with regard to each other can teach them. These men will not allow us to forget the saying of their favourite sovereign, Peter the Great, " It takes three Jews to cheat a Russian."

At each step you take in the land, you recognise the polities of Constantinople as described by the historians of the crusades, and as discovered by the Emperor Napoleon in the Emperor Alexander, of whom he often said, " He is a Greek of the Lower Empire." Transactions with people whose founders and instructors have always been the sworn foes of chivalry, should be avoided as much as possible. Such people are slaves to their interest, and lords of their word. Hitherto, I have found in the whole empire of Russia but one person who appears to me to be sincere, and that one, I take pleasure in repeating, is the Emperor.

I own it costs less to an autocrat to be candid than it does to his subjects. For the czar to speak without disguise, is the performance of an act of authority. An absolute monarch who flatters and prevaricates must abdicate.

But how many have there not been who, on this point, have forgotten their power and their dignity ! Base minds never think themselves above falsehood: we may therefore admire the sincerity even of a powerful ruler. The Emperor Nicholas unites frankness with politeness, and in him these two qualities, which are never seen combined in the vulgar, wonderfully act and re-act upon each other.