suspicions of government. The regulation of the Bien Public, and the other documents, were committed to the flames. Many members, Bourtzoff and Komaroff among others, believing in the reality of the dissolution of the Union, congratulated themselves sincerely on the occasion. But the real motives which had induced this ostensible declaration, had been, according to the testimony of Yakouchkine, of Von Viesen, and of Nikita Mouravieff, in the first place, that the too vague definition of the object of the society, in its statutes, had contributed to paralyse its working; and, in the second, the wish to remove members whose zeal for this object had already grown cold, and who, without being yet sensible of it, appeared unfit, both by their characters and their opinions, to become useful auxiliaries for the central direction. Those of its chiefs who were at Moscow, took, even there, the resolution, as General Von Viesen and Yakouchkine declare, of forming, in time, a new society, and dividing it into two classes, laying down, as a principle, that the members of the first alone should know the real object, which was to be the preparing Russia for an alteration of the organic laws of the state. To obtain admission to this first class, the assent of the superior direction of St. Petersburgh would be indispensable. For admission to the second, the unanimous suffrages of the members of two sections, four of which were to be established at Petersburgh, Moscow, in the government of Smolensko, and at Toulczyn, would be requisite. Yakouchkine asserts, that this new secret society was organized from that time, and that it received, besides a special regulation, a name which he cannot now recall. Major General Von Viesen, on the contrary, pretends that nothing was formed but vain projects, and that it was more than once acknowledged, that the end could never justify the means. The former

adds, that the plan for establishing sections in Moscow, and in the government of Smolensko, was not carried into effect.

Colonel Bourtzoff, and Lieutenant Colonel Komaroff, who delivered to the Direction at Toulczyn the intelligence that the Union du Bien Public was dissolved, had been charged to transmit to it a written communication, on the part of the president of the general assembly at Moscow. But Pestel and Youschnevsky, already informed of the fact by another channel, agreed, first, not to regard the society as dissolved; and secondly, to profit by this occasion for removing all pusillanimous associates, by representing to them the difficulties and dangers of the undertaking.

In consequence of this agreement, scarcely had Bourtzoff, accompanied by Komaroff, departed, after discharging, at the direction of Toulczyn, convoked for that purpose, the commission with which he had been entrusted at Moscow, when Youschnevsky delivered a speech, which had been prepared beforehand, but which, far from producing the effect he had anticipated, only served to excite the vanity of those present. Colonel Avramoff (who has since repented, as he himself declares) affirmed, that if even the Union should be abandoned by all, he should not cease to regard it as existing in himself alone. Several others exclaimed, that the deputies sent to Moscow had exceeded the limits of their powers; that the society was not dissolved, and that it would continue its labours in modifying some of its original principles. The members present at this meeting, and those who afterwards adopted their opinions, namely, Pestel, Youschnevsky, Avramoff, Wolff, Ivascheff, the two Krukoffs, Prince Bariatinsky, Bassarguine, Prince Serge Volkonskoy, Bassill Davydoff, took (no doubt according to the provisions of the regula

tions of the first secret society, which Pestel had drawn up) the denomination of Boyars de l'Union. They elected as presidents or directors, Pestel and Youschnevsky, to whom they added at first Nikita Mouravieff, believing that, as he had not attended the meeting at Moscow, he would, like themselves, refuse to adhere to the dissolution of the society. But Nikita Mouravieff assures us, that at St. Petersburgh "the society was, to say the least of it, entirely disorganized: the greater part of its members had withdrawn, and the directions, which still existed, were disunited among themselves. Without regulation, or government, in common, they themselves were ignorant of the end to which they were to direct their attention, or at least, could not mutually account to each other for their wishes and tendency." It was not till about the end of the year 1822, that this society of St. Petersburgh, or of the North, became re-organized. It divided itself into believers and adherents. The association of believers, or the superior section, was composed of the founders; other members, chosen from among the adherents were also admitted, but this could only be by consent of all the believers present at St. Petersburgh. This consent was equally necessary for the adoption of every decisive measure. The superior section further combined the following prerogatives: that of electing the members of the directory or of the council, charged with the guidance of the society; that of authorising the initiation of new members, and that of requiring an account of the operations of the directory. No member, unless belonging to the superior section, could initiate more than two candidates, and each was required to procure an authorisation, by means of the member by whom he himself had been initiated. This latter was bound to observe the same rule, unless he were one of the believers; and it was also by

the same degrees that the authorisation of the directory was obtained by the new members. These at first passed through some preparatory trials; after which, the object of the society was gradually unfolded to them; but the knowledge of the means for attaining it, and of the period fixed for commencing operations, was reserved to the superior section. All those who were to be made blind instruments, were told that their business would be to fight sword in hand. The new members, and in general all such as were not in the class of believers, only knew the members who had initiated them. But this rule, as all the others, was far from being strictly observed. After the re-organization of this secret society, the only chief acknowledged for some time was Nikita Mouravieff. Later, towards the end of the year 1823, the believers resolved, for greater success, to name three presidents, and consequently to add to Mouravieff, Prince Serge Troubetskoy, recently returned from abroad, and Prince Eugene Obolensky. A year afterwards, Prince Troubetzkoy repaired to Kieff, for the double purpose of profiting by the influence which his office as staff-major of the 4th corps gave him over the troops composing it, for serving the interests of the society, and of watching more closely the conduct of Pestel, whom the principal directors of the Northern Society began to suspect, regarding him, according to Ryléieff, as an ambitious man, full of artifice-a Bonaparte, and not a Washington. In place of Troubetzkoy, this Ryléieff was appointed member of the directory, and insisted on the necessity of no longer considering the directors unremovable, but of reelecting them annually.

If we are to judge from the depositions of several of the accused, the communications of the new Union of St. Petersburg or of the North, with that of the South, were

unfrequent, and always verbal. The directories even hesitated in confiding written documents to their own members, fearing to see them, by some accident, fall into strange hands. These two societies differed among themselves on many subjects, and particularly on the mode of their internal organization. Still the object of both was the same;-the overthrow of the existing order of things. Both were occupied in framing laws for the reformation of Russia and the Commission submitting to the inspection of your Majesty the copies of these several projects, which fortunate research has enabled it to discover, adds also a compendium of their contents.* Both agreed as to

The plan of the constitution drawn up by Nikita Mouravieff preserved the monarchical government, but left the Emperor only a very limited authority, similar to that exercised by the President of the United States of America, and divided Russia into independent states, bound together by a federative union. Pestel declares, that this project was merely intended as a preparative for the members newly introduced, whom they did not wish to shock by an abrupt proposal for establishing the republic; but Nikita Mouravieff replies, that his only motive in presenting the matter under this point of view, was to deceive Pestel himself, fearing to irritate him, and provoke a total division between the society of the south and that of the north. Another constitution, under the name of Code Russe, and conceived in an entirely republican spirit, had been drawn up by Pestel. Both are founded on the absurd maxim that all states are equally suited to any form of government which it may please their legislators to adopt. Both exhibit, even by the admission of the most sensible members of the union, a perfect ignorance of the interests and wants of the country. In the project entitled Code Russe this ignorance is ridiculous, and frequently carried to a degree perfectly inexplicable: thus the framer, after having divided the empire into great provinces or states, and separated nearly all those which had been detached from Poland, gives the name of Kholmogory Province to the junction of Livonia, Esthonia, la Courlande, and the governments of Novgorod and Tver. Another province, which he calls that of Severia, was to be composed of the governments of Archangel, Yaroslaw, Vologda, Kostroma, and Perma. According to his project, the provisional government was to serve as a transition from absolute monarchy to republicanism, and the first measure of this government was to be the suppression of secret societies, and the organization of an active espionage, the