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

grave, and therefore dangerous subjects, it is only in strict and confidential privacy.*

Russia is instructed to say nothing which could render the empress nervous; and thus is she left to live and die dancing! " She would be distressed, therefore hold your peace." And hereupon, children,

* I may insert here the extract of a letter received in the present year from a female friend, which, though it does not add to, may serve to illustrate what has been already said, and to give a better idea of the subjection in which minds are held in Russia than anything I can myself say. " An Italian painter who was at Petersburg at the same time that you were, is now in Paris. lie related to me, as you had done previously, the circumstances of that catastrophe, in which about four hundred individuals perished. The painter told his story in a very low voice. ' I know all this,' I said to him, ' but why do you whisper it ?' ' О ! because the Emperor has forbidden that it should be spoken of.' This obedience, in spite of the time that had elapsed, and the distance, excited my astonishment. But you, who cannot conceal one truth, when do you mean to publish your journey ?"

I subjoin yet another illustration, taken from an article in the Journal des Dêbats of the 13th October, 1842: — In the month of October, 1840, two trains running in an opposite direction on the railroad of St. Petersburg and Krasnacselo, came into collision, owing to their engineers not having seen each other's approach, by reason of a heavy fog. Everything was shattered by the shock. Five hundred persons, it is said, lay around the broken cars, killed, mutilated, or more or less severely wounded. This was scarcely known in Petersburg. Early on the morrow, a few curious persons only ventured to visit the scene of the accident. They found the remains of the carriages cleared away, the dead and the wounded removed, and, as the sole evidence of the accident, a few agents of the police, who after interrogating them as to the motives of their morning visit, reprimanded them for their curiosity, and roughly commanded them all to return home."