The nation much indebted to him. father, and not your father. The king having asked the reason, It is, said she, because the people wept at the death of Henry IV., and laughed at that of Louis XIII.'* The death of Louis XIV. was, in general, rather a cause of joy than of sorrow; but the arts, learning, the sciences, urbanity, the pleasures of social life, civil laws, good order, domestic tranquillity, perfection in many things; in one word, a part of those advantages which we enjoy at present, ought to immortalize his memory. • Voltaire. CHAPTER III. RISE OF THE CZAR PETER THE GREAT, TILL THE E and Charles XII. We have for a long time lost sight of the Peter L Northern powers; because they had no share in the war which was entered into to secure the Spanish succession; yet Charles XII., king of Sweden, and in a more particular manner, his rival, the Czar Peter I. made themselves famous by their courage and enterprises. We shall introduce the abridgment of their history in this place; it is too interesting to be left altogether unnoticed, and is even necessarily linked with that of the southern countries of Europe. Peter the Great, who stands forth the first of Muscovite princes, was in some degree the wonder of his age. Russia, or Muscovy, which was almost unknown before his time, is become, by his industry, worthy of fixing the attention of the whole world. He may be said to have created or fostered the seeds of all those surprising improvements which have been made, and still are executing, in that country. The empire of unknown. This empire, in its length from east to west, Russia comprehends an extent of about nineteen hunimmense and dred leagues, of which fourteen hundred and seventy belong to Siberia, and in its greatest breadth about seven hundred. The Roman empire was never so extensive; but an immensity of country almost entirely a desert, destitute of arts, commerce, government and learning, forms only an obscure, unstable power, subject to a thousand revolutions. The glory of states ought to be derived from the same source with their power. in Christianity Christianity had been introduced into Russia about the end of the tenth century, by the zeal Russia. of a princess, as it had been into France, Eng John land, Poland, Hungary and other places, where the women have had such a share in the conversion of princes, which has been followed by that of their people. The Russian church, at first under the power of the patriarch of Constantinople, at the end of the sixteenth century, had an independent patriarch. In other respects the Christianity of this nation, like that of the old Barbarians, consisted only in absurd superstitions, of which the patriarch took advantage to rule the sovereign. I formerly mentioned the Czar John BasiloBasilowitz, witz, who freed the Russians from the yoke of others. the Tartars, extended his conquests to the Cas and pian Sea, and added Casan and Astracan to his dominions. Russia was torn in pieces after his death, and the counterfeit Demetrius set the whole empire in combustion. Michael Romanow, the son of an archbishop, whom he Ow, at the end of Russian names, is pronounced of. made patriarch, was placed upon the throne by the principal Boyards, in 1613, amidst civil disturbances and the ruin of the royal family. After having ceded Smolensko to Poland, and Ingria to Sweden, he continued to reign in peace, and was succeeded, in 1645, by his son Alexis Michaelowitz, who retook Smolensko, and made some other acquisitions from the Poles. He even contended for the crown of Poland, and offered to add it to his own. He published the first Russian code, established some manufactures, peopled deserts, and, what was more, he was the father of Peter the Great. Fædor. Fædor Alexiowitz, the eldest son and suc- Peter the cessor of Alexis, laboured, like his father, to successor of civilize Russia; but he died young, in 1682, without leaving any children; and knowing the inability of John, his brother by a first marriage, named Peter, who was of a second, his heir, though he was then only two years of age, but who had already given proofs of a superior genius. The princess Sophia, sister of the two princes, committed some dreadful excesses to secure the crown to John, or rather to seize the government into her own hands. She roused the rage of the Strelitz, a body of militia consisting of about thirty thousand men, similar to the Turkish Janisaries. She carried her point so as to cause her two brothers to be proclaimed, and herself associated with them as co-regent, and in this manner reigned some years with her favourite Basilius Galitzin ; but a conspiracy against the life of Peter, which was probably formed by her, brought on her own ruin. Peter assembled some troops, pu Scheme of reforming the empire. Le Fort the confidant of nished the seditious, confined Sophia in a monastery, and, leaving only an empty title to John, made himself master of the empire in 1689. That prince, bred up in ignorance by an ambitious sister, addicted to wine and debauchery, of a habit which led him to be guilty of every excess, but of a genius capable of executing the greatest enterprises, had already conceived the scheme of reforming the empire. He wanted to introduce arts, sciences, military discipline, the advantages of a navy, and whatever had rendered the other states of Europe flourishing; in one word, he wanted to create a new nation. When we reflect that the Russians had all the prejudices of barbarism, that they reckoned it a crime to go out of their own country, and looked upon foreigners with aversion, this project may appear chimerical. But if we consider the influence of authority, and particularly the example of an absolute sovereign, the ascendancy of his genius, supported by invincible steadiness, and the helps he might derive from the knowledge diffused in other countries, the design deserves admiration, and the consequence will be expected to enable us to judge with prudence. A single ray of light sometimes leads great men to incredible success. The Czar wanted the Czar. only ideas, and they were given to him by Le Fort, a Genevan of birth and merit, who was the principal instrument of a most wonderful revolution. He was a young man, whom the fire of youth and a desire of making his fortune had drawn to Moscow. Peter having got acquainted with him, favoured him with his |