Don't imagine that I mean only to frighten you; don't rely upon your being my only son forbif. Iospare not my own life for my country and the good of my people, how shall I spare you? I would rather leave my kingdom to a foreigner who deserves it, than to my own son who makes himself unworthy of it." And in a subsequent letter, Peter said "Take your choice; either make yourself worthy of the throne, or embrace a monastie state."

But Alexis seemed not at all inclined to to do either; although, during fits of pretended penitence, he was willing to do anything.There is no doubt, however, that the terror of the czar was, that even if his son entered a monastery, he might still at his death be placed at the head of that party who were opposed to reform, and so recover the throne. It seems to us that this dread of future ruin to the country is the true explanation of Peter's severity; for, taking into account the barbarism of the times, and other sanguinary laws all over Europe, we can find no evidence of a cruel disposition in the history of Peter the Great.ni vino tom odwet ing

Before the czar set out for Germany and France, he visited his son, who was then on a bed of sickness. On this occasion Alexis solemnly promised that, if he recovered, he would embrace a monastic life; but his father was no sooner out of Russia, than the prince became suddenly well, and entered upon his former life of riot and dissipation. Some intelligence of what was occurring at home reached the czary and he wrote a peremp tory letter to his son, desiring him either to enter a monastery without delay, or join him at Copenhagen. Upon this Alexis declared his intention of going to Copenhagen, and drew money from Menzikoff for his travelling expenses. But, apparently frightened at the thought of meeting his father and really it is easy to fancy the incensed czar an object of great terror to the culprit he proceeded to Vienna, there to concoct some treasonable schemes with the emperor of Germany, who, however, alarmed at the probable consequences, got rid of him; and from Vienna he turned his steps to Naples. His plan seems to have been to get out of his father's way as far as possible, and wait the chances of life and death that might place him in some new position. But Peter I., either as a sovereign or a father, was not a personage to be treated in this manner. Accordingly, we find him despatching two messengers to Naples, to bring Alexis back to Moscow by fair means or foul. There is evidence that he accompanied them, on the solemn assur ance of his father's forgiveness; and this deception certainly gives the darkest hue to the trial and condemnation which followed... #f9f9 fresh is t b. 29 d As soon as Alexis arrived at Moscow, which was in February 1718, a council was called, at which he was publicly disinherited; and after a long private conference with the czar, the particulars

of which never transpired, Alexis was arraigned as a criminal, and tried for conspiring against his father's life and throne by a body of "ministers and senators, estates military and civil.” Peter was so accustomed to make his own will the law, that in this array of judges there is clear evidence that he wished in some measure to throw the responsibility from his own shoulders, or rather to seem to do so; for no doubt the judges only strove to decide in the manner which should best please their master. After all, the condemnation chiefly rested upon the confession of Alexis himself, and the acknowledgments of his mistress, his companions, and his confessor; and the words of these were wrung from them on the rack. Certainly Alexis made himself out to be much more guilty than any other evidence proved; and yet the czar's only excuse for revoking his pardon was, that it had been promised "on condition that he confessed everything."

There can be no doubt that this weak and vicious young man had been quite ready to lend himself to any plot; or, according to his own words, "If the rebels had asked me to join them in your lifetime, I should most likely have done so if they had been strong enough." And in answer to another question, he said that he "had accused himself in confession of wishing the death of his father;" but that the priest had replied that God would pardon it, as they all wished it as much.

At last he is found guilty. A council of clergy, who are among those referred to for a sentence, quote from the Bible, and especially Absalom's case, and recommend mercy. But further transgressions are said to have come to light, and the ministers, senators, and generals unanimously condemned him to death, without stating the manner or time of the same, and of course well knowing that the breath of the czar could revoke their edict.

Whether Peter intended to save his son, or really to permit his execution, is among those secrets which history can never pierce. The sentence alone literally terrified Alexis to death! On hearing it read, he fell into a fit, from the effects of which he never recovered, although he regained his senses sufficiently to implore the presence of his father. An interview was granted, at which it is said both father and son shed tears; and finally, after receiving the pardon of the czar, and the consolations of religion, the miserable Alexis breathed his last in prison on the 7th of July.

The most absurd stories were current for a long time, and repeated from mouth to mouth, and copied by one biographer after another. They are still to be found in many otherwise grave authorities. The very number and variety of these tales falsify them all. The czar was accused of poisoning his son (sending openly one messenger after another for the poison); other accounts say that he knouted him to death with his own

hand; others, that he cut off his head himself, and had it privately stitched on again. The best argument against such fables is, that if Peter really wished his son's death, he had only to let the so-called "course of justice" have its way. Besides, the cir cumstance of his receiving extreme unction, when on the point of death, is a fact authenticated and established.

As may be imagined, Catherine did not escape her share of these accusations; but all the evidence which remains tends to prove that, so far from meriting them, she endeavoured to incline her husband to the side of mercy.

DEATH OF PETER THE GREAT.

We are drawing near the close of the active and eventful life of Peter the Great. We need not dwell upon his Persian campaign, in which, after having found a pretext for a quarrel, because he wanted one, he acquired those sunny provinces to the south of the Caspian, which compensated for the loss of Azoph. "It is not land I want, but water," was his frequent exclamation when studying the requirements of his vast empire. The ruler who had first evinced his love of maritime affairs by paddling a skiff upon the Yausa, and who had inherited only a wild and barbarous inland country, was now the master of a respectable navy, the lord of the sunny Caspian and of the icy Baltic.

After his return from Persia in 1722, we find him, as usual after any lengthened absence, instituting examinations for maladministration. The Vice-Chancellor Schaffiroff, one of his favourites, was condemned to death; but on the scaffold his punishment was commuted to banishment. Menzikoff was sentenced to pay 200,000 rubles into the exchequer, and was deprived of a great part of his income, and flogged by the emperor's own hand. For the infliction of this punishment Peter used his dubina—a cane of thick Spanish reed. Several others were disgraced, or flogged, or heavily fined-thus at once showing the czar's impartiality, and proving how well he knew the impossibility of reforming the masses while corruption existed in high places.

In July 1724, Peter again conducted a fleet against Sweden, to enforce his claims on Sweden and Denmark in behalf of the Duke of Holstein. Having effected this purpose, he returned to Cronstadt, where he celebrated, by a splendid parade, the creation of his navy, which now consisted of forty-one ships of war, with 2106 cannons, and 14,960 seamen. It was on this occasion that he caused the little skiff we have mentioned to be brought from Moscow, and to be consecrated by the name of the Little Grandsire-the father of the Russian navy. This little shallop is still preserved at St Petersburg with almost religious veneration.

The last years of this great monarch's life were employed in providing against the inundations to which his new capital was

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STAMTAV MHT ATT TO HIKI

exposed in the autumn, in continuing the Ladoga canal, and in the erection of an academy of sciences, He turned his attention next to the examination and punishment of state criminals to the promotion of the labours of the legislative body; the estab lishment of the order of " Alexander Newsky the improver ment of the condition of the monkst the banishment of the Capuchins from Russia; and a new commercial treaty with Sweden. He also betrothed his favourite daughter Anna to the Duke of Holstein in 1724, having already placed the crown, with great pomp, upon the head of his wife Catherine on the 18th of the preceding May, in token of his love and gratitude. He like, wise provided that an education should be given to the surviving son of the unhappy Alexis, such as would become a future emperor of Russia his only son by Catherine having died, as before-mentioned, when a child, in 1717. *4697 dt og

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02

Peter had been for a considerable time in a weak state of health; but he owed the acceleration of his death to an act of humanity. Late in the autumn of 1724, going to visit the forge and manufactory of arms at Systerbeck, he saw a boat filled with soldiers and sailors stranded, and sent a shallop to assist, but which failed in the attempt. Determined to gain his end, he set out for the spot himself; and as his vessel could not quite reach the spot, he leaped into the water, and waded to the boat, which he aided in getting off. A severe cold followed this dan gerous but humane act, and this, in addition to the painful disorder from which he had long been suffering, brought on the most fatal symptoms. These came on so suddenly at last, and his sufferings were so great, that he was unable to make his last wishes perfectly intelligible. There is, however, little or no doubt that he intended to appoint his wife his successor. His words, so far as they could be understood, expressed this; and on the very day of his death she succeeded him without oppo sition. Catherine watched by his bedside, without quitting him, for the last three nights of his life; and he breathed his last in her arms January 28, 1725, being only in his fifty-fourth year.

The reader of this brief biography may sum up the character of Peter the Great more satisfactorily than we can do it for him; for different minds will estimate differently his services to his country. That he was a man of powerful and original genius, who did everything himself, and was never the instrument of others, must be conceded on all hands. His ardour was joined with prudence and resolution. His violent passions and sensual excesses were the fruits of the barbarism of his nation, his im+ perfect education, and uncontrolled power. His services to ar people so ignorant and barbarous were of the greatest possible value; indeed all of good that Russia now enjoys may, without much exaggeration, be ascribed to him. But for him, or such as him, they might have remained till now as rude and powerless

2

a mareation polis,

as when he found them. Among the Russians, his memory is venerated as it deserves to be. St Petersburg, the city of his and of his "western portal of the empire" is now with palaces, arsenals, quays, bridges academies, and temples, rising one beyond another albeit that the severity of its climate must for ever be a drawback to its many advantages. Wan & bag

the

SA Russian winter lasts from October till May; and though the temperature is a little more variable at St Petersburg than in central Russia, in c consequence of its vicinity to the sea, cold is so intense, that the river is frozen entirely, and never thaws throughout this period. The houses are heated with stoves, and hot for a moment allowed to cool; the rooms have doublé windows, which in many cases are not opened for seven months in the year; though generally a single pane, called an airwindow, is left unfastened, for the purpose of occasional ventilation. We ourselves heard a vivid description of the precautions which are necessary on venturing out of doors, from a lady who had passed some time in Russia. Her feet encased in fur boots, and her whole person enveloped in cloaks so furred and thickly wadded, that she could scarcely stand under the weight, she was conducted to her sledge or carriage; her bonnet being of velvet or satin, thickly wadded, and of a shape that tied so close, as to leave only eyes, nose, and mouth exposed. From the back of the bonnet hung a thick curtain or cape, to prevent any aperture remaining at the neck; while two, and even three veils, were worn to protect the face. She described these veils as freezing together with the breath in a few minutes, until they became as stiff as glass; after which, she said, the face felt comparatively warm and comfortable." Nor are these wraps all, for every interstice of the carriage is filled up with furs and pillows of down.

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Of course, in a climate of such severity, notwithstanding the heat and rapidity of vegetation during the short summer, agricultural products are very limited. Rye and barley, and hemp and flax, are cultivated with success; but, with the exception of wild cherries, and an inferior sort of apple, fruit-trees will not thrive in the latitude of St Petersburg.

2 Notwithstanding these disadvantages, and the dislike of the Russian nobility to the new capital which the poet Puschkin describes as a sumptuous city, a poor city, the appearance regular, the firmament of heaven of a pale green, gloom, cold, and granite"it is still rising into importance a and splendour. The reigning emperor, who endeavours in many points to imitate his royal ancestor, has done much for St Petersburg, and is every year contributing to its embellishment; having, moreover, completed a magnificent causeway between it and Moscow! One of the chief ornaments of the city is the monument to the memory of its founder, Peter the Great, first exposed to view on

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