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

58DEATH OF TWO ENGLISHMEN.

unknown, even to ourselves. I shall never cease to marvel at having seen a people exist, so thoughtless as readily and tranquilly to live and die in the twilight which the policy of its masters accords it. Hitherto I had been accustomed to believe that man could no more dispense with truth for his mind than with sun and air for his body; but my Russian journey has undeceived me. Truth is only needful to elevated minds or to advanced nations; the vulgar accommodate themselves to the falsehoods favourable to their passions and habits; here, to lie, is to protect society, to speak the truth is to overthrow the state. The twilight of politics is less transparent than the polar sky.

For the authenticity of one of the accidents connected with the catastrophe of PeterhoíF I can vouch.

Three young Englishmen, the eldest of whom I know, had been some days in Petersburg. Their father is in England, and their mother waits them at Carlsbad. On the day of the fete, the two youngest sailed for PeterhoíF without their brother, who constantly refused their solicitations to accompany them, alleging that he felt no curiosity. He валу them embark in their little vessel, and bade them adieu until the morrow. Three hours afterwards both were corpses ! They perished together with several women and children and two or three men, who wTere in the same boat; a sailor, who was a good swimmer, was alone saved. The unhappy surviving brother is plunged in a despair which would be difficult to describe. He is preparing to leave, to join his mother and apprise her of the melancholy tidings. She had written to her sons desiring them not to omit seeing