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

as from so many isolated atrocities nothing results to disturb the general repose of the country. As I have already said, tranquillity is maintained among this people by the length and difficulties of communication, and by the secrecy of the government, which perpetuates the evil under the fear of disclosing it. To these causes I may add the blind obedience of the troops, and, above all, the complete ignorance of the country people themselves. But, singular conjunction of facts ! — the latter remedy is at the same time the first cause of the evil: it is, therefore, difficult to see how the nation will í>`et out of the dan-gerous circle in which circumstances have placed it. Hitherto the good and the evil, the danger and the safety, have come to it from the same source.

The reader can form no conception of the manner in which a lord, when taking possession of some newly-accµúred domain, is received by his peasants. They exhibit a servility which woiúd appear incredible to the people of our country: men, women, and children, all fall on their knees before their new master—all kiss the hands, and sometimes the feet, of the landholder; and, О ! miserable profanation of faith ! — those who are old enough to err, voluntarily confess to him their sins — he being to them the image and the envoy of God, representing both the King of Heaven and the emperor! Such fanaticism in servitude must end in casting an illusion over the mind of him who is its object, especially if he has not long attained the rank which he possesses: the change of fortune thus marked, must so dazzle him as to persuade him that he is not of the same race as those prostrate at his feet —· those whom he sud-