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

transferred direct from the public schools to the public administration. These individuals, who are very frequently the sons of men born in foreign lands, are noble so soon as they wear a cross at their button-hole; and it is only the Emperor who gives this decoration. Invested with the magical sign, they become proprietors of lands and of men; and thus obtaining power without obtaining also that heritage of magnanimity natural in a chieftain born and habituated to command, the new lords use their authority like upstarts as they are, and render odious to the nation, and the world, the system of servitude established in Russia, at the period when ancient Europe began to destroy her feudal institutions. By virtue of their offices, these despots oppress the country with impunity, and incommode even the Emperor; who perceives, with astonishment, that he is not so powerful as he imagined, though he dares not complain or even confess it to himself. This is the bureaucracy, a power terrible every where, because its abuses are always made in the name of order, but more terrible in Russia than any where else. When we see administrative tyranny substituted for Imperial despotism, we may tremble for a land where is established, without counterbalance, the system of government propagated in Europe under the French Empire.

The emperors of Russia, equally mistaken in their confidence and their suspicion, viewed the nobles as rivals, and sought only to find slaves in the men they needed for ministers. Hence has sprung up the swarms of obscure agents who labour to govern the land in obedience to ideas not their own; from which it n 4