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

NATURE OF AN AUTOCRACY.79

among them, not only as an existing state, but as a constituent principle of society. It has degraded the right of speech in Russia to such a point that it is no longer considered anything better than a snare: our government lives by lies, for truth is as terrible to the tyrant as to the slave. Thus, little as one speaks, in Russia, one always speaks too much, since in this country all discourse is the expression of religious or political hypocrisy."

" Prince," I replied, after having listened attentively to this long series of deductions, " I will not believe you. It is enlightened to rise above national prejudices, and polite to deal gently with the prejudices of foreigners; but I have no more confidence in your concessions than I have in others' claims and pretensions."

" In three months you will render me greater justice ; meanwhile, and as we are yet alone," — he said this after looking round on all sides, — "I will direct your attention to a leading point, I will present you with a key which will serve to explain every thing to you in the country you are about to visit.

" Think at each step you take among this Asiatic people that the chivalrous and Catholic influence has never obtained in their land; and not only have they never adopted it, they have withstood it also, with bitter animosity, during long wars with Lithuania, Poland, and the knights of the Teutonic order."

" You make me proud of my discernment. I wrote lately to one of my friends that I conceived religious intolerance to be the secret spring of Russian policy.

" You anticipated clearly what you are going to see ; you can have no adequate idea of the intense intolerance of the Russians ; those whose minds are E 4