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

150 WANT OF A BENEFICENT ARISTOCRACY.

I reproach, the Russian government, than with the absence of an authorised aristocratic power, whose attributes are clearly and constitutionally defined. Recognised political aristocracies have always struck me as being beneficent in their influence; whilst the aristocracies that have no other foundation than the chimeras, or the injustices of privileges, are pernicious because their attributes remain undefined and ill regulated. It is true the Russian lords are masters, and too absolute masters, in their territories ; whence arise those excesses that fear and hypocrisy conceal by humane phrases, softly pronounced, which deceive travellers, and too often the government also. But these men, though monarchs in their far distant domains, have no power in the state ; they do what they please on their own estates, defying the power of the emperor, by corrupting or intimidating his secondary agents ; but the country is not governed by them; they enjoy no consideration in the general direction of affairs. It is only by becoming courtiers, by labouring for promotion in the tchinn, that they can obtain any public credit or standing. This life of the courtier excludes all elevation of sentiment, independence of spirit, and humane, patriotic views, which are essential elements of aristocratic bodies legally constituted, in states organised to extend their power and to flourish long.

The government, on the other hand, equally excludes the just pride of the man who has made his fortune by his labour. It unites all the disadvantages of democracy with those of despotism, and rejects every thing that is good in both systems.

Russia is governed by a class of subaltern employes,