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

24RESTOKATIOX OF THE CAPITAL.

from Persia to Lapland, from Astraehan and the Caspian to the Uralian Mountains and the White Sea with its port of Archangel ; from thence, bordering the Baltic, where stand Petersburg and Kron-stadt, the two arsenals of Moscow, it sweeps to the Vistula in the west, and from thence again to the Bosphorus, where concpicst awaits the coming of the Russians, where Constantinople will serve as another portal of communication between Moscow, the holy city of the Muscovites, and the world.

The Emperor Nicholas, notwithstanding his practical sense and his profound sagacity, has not discerned the best means of accomplishing such an end. He comes now and then to promenade in the Kremlin; but this is not sufficient. He ought to have recog-nised the necessity of permanently fixing himself there : if he has recognised it, he has not had the energy to make such a sacrifice, — this is his error. Under Alexander, the Russians burnt Moscow to save the Empire : under Nicholas, God burnt the palace of Petersburg to advance the destinies of Russia; but Nicholas docs not answer to the call of Providence. Russia still waits !—Instead of rooting himself like a cedar in the only fitting soil, he disturbs and upturns that soil to build stables and a palace, in which he may be more conveniently lodged during his journeys ; and with this contemptible object in view, he forgets that every stone of the national fortress is, or ought to be, an object of veneration for all true Muscovites. It is not wise in him — a sovereign whose authority depends upon the superstitious sentiments of his people — to shake, by a sacrilege, the respect of the Muscovites for the only truly