STORIES FROM RUSSIA.

Part 1.-The Muscovites.

CHAPTER I.

PETER THE GREAT.

PETER THE GREAT, the founder of the Russian Empire, one of the most extraordinary men that ever appeared in any age, by the sheer force of his own indomitable will, created a great nation out of scattered tribes of semi-civilized barbarians. It was, however, no slight element of his success, that the disparity between himself and his people was not so great as to preclude their hearty co-operation. He progressed with them, though ever in advance, and by this means carried them on in a way that a reformer fresh from the refinement of Paris would have failed to have done. Many anecdotes have been preserved illustrative of his character and proceedings, a few of which will suffice to show the peculiar energy, zeal,

and originality with which he accomplished the ends he had in view. In our own country's history, we are accustomed to trace out the struggles of the people for liberty, and their gradual advancement in civilization-sometimes under popular leaders, but not infrequently in direct opposition to their sovereigns and chiefs. Such is, undoubtedly, the true element of a nation's progress. In Russia, on the contrary, we see a single great man, by the sheer force of his genius, will, and indomitable energy, making his people civilized, great, and powerful, almost in spite of themselves. It cannot but be interesting to those whose free institutions have originated under a system so different from this, to investigate some of those incidents which marked the rise of the Russian Empire under its great Czar.

Alexis Michaelovitz, the father of Peter the Great, is not without some credit in the origination of the first steps which led to the partial civilization of the Muscovites. Under his reign, the first important manufactories of the country were established; several of the finest provinces of modern Russia, including Plescow and Smolensko, were added to his dominions, and various movements made towards legal and military reform. In the latter measures, his chief agents were Scottish officers of good rank, among whom Gordon, Leslie, and Dalyiel, were the generals of his army. On their subsequent return to their native country, they gave evidences of the influence which Russian manners had had upon them, not

always to the satisfaction of their country. The last of them, especially, is still remembered in Scotland, by the unenviable title of "bloody Dalyiel," in consequence of the unrelenting barbarity with which he employed himself in the persecution of the Covenanters, under the tyranny of Charles II. and his brother James II.

There can be no doubt that the Czar Alexis, laid the foundation of the measures afterwards carried out by his distinguished son. The Muscovites, however, were then a barbarous people, whose distinguished characteristics were chiefly of an Oriental cast, and who had an inveterate dislike to foreigners and to European institutions. He tried to establish silk and cotton manufactories by means of German and Italian workmen, but the prejudices of the native Russians sufficed to render all such schemes abortive. These exertions of the old Czar, however, served to accustom the people to the intrusion of foreigners, and the practice of their arts; and thus, in some degree, prepared the way for the more successful attempts of his son.

Peter the Great was only five years old when his father died, leaving two sons by a former marriage, with prior claims to his throne. From that time till he was seventeen years of age, his life passed on under many disadvantages, and exposed to frequent dangers. Little pains was taken to cultivate his understanding, and we accordingly learn that the ingenious and active boy found a ready outlet for his

restless energies in practising the mechanical arts. Thus occupied, he escaped the jealousy of those who were bent on supplanting him in the succession to the throne of the Czar, and by whom his life was more than once attempted. On his arrival at Zaandam, in Holland, he gave good evidence of the occupation of his earlier years, by his skill in handling the adze, plane, and lathe.

One of the grand purposes of Peter's life, on which he specially prided himself, was the origination of a Russian navy, and nothing more strikingly evinced the strong and original bent of his genius, than the fact that he formed his projects for the foundation of the Russian navy while still at Moscow; and limited both in his ideas and practical operations by the inland waters of the Moskva, which passes through Moscow, navigated only by unwieldy flat-bottomed boats. It chanced that a Dutchman of the name of Brandt, resident at Moscow, had built a small boat with a keel. Its construction attracted the eye of Peter as soon as he saw it, from its difference from any boats he had yet seen on the Moskva, and he im mediately demanded an explanation from Timmerman, an officer under whom he was studying fortification. His reply was, that it was constructed in this manner, in order to sail against the wind. This was sufficient to awaken his liveliest curiosity; Brandt was immediately summoned to attend on him. With his aid, the boat was soon fitted with a mast, and rigging, and its sail set. Under his directions, the