The alacrity and liberality with which Ivan seconded this great behest of fortune, redound much to the credit of his discernment, and prove an unusual enlargement of mind. He seems to have distin the Indies. Mere chance carried her, after being separated from her companions by a furious tempest, into the White Sea, and to the mouth of the Dwina. As she was the first vessel that had ever appeared in that quarter, in-guished at once its unrivalled imformation of the circumstance was communicated with all possible speed, to the Czar, then at Moscow. Her captain, Richard Chancellor, was invited to proceed to the capital, where he was most graciously and splendidly received. Every encouragement was held out for the immediate establishment of commercial relations between the two countries, and the fortunate navigator was charged on his return with a letter from the Czar to his sovereign, of the most munificent purport. Chancellor made a second voyage to Russia in 1555, with suitable instructions from his government, and obtained in favour of his countrymen, a license or or formal patent authorizing them to establish themselves, and carry on trade in any part of the Russian empire, with an exemption from taxes, duties and imposts of whatever description.* Of the first communications of England with Russia, the most ample and authentic narratives are to be found in Hackluyt's principal navigations of the British nation, and in Purchas' Pilgrims, printed in 1625. The following are the titles of some of the accounts contained in the last mentioned work. "The beginning of English discoveries towards the North and NorthEast, by Sir Hugh Willoughby, Richard Chancellor, and others of the Muscovite trade-as also voyages by Russia over the Caspian sea and through divers regions of Tartaria." "The first voyage for discoveries with 3 ships set forth under the charge portance, not only with a view to the developement and fructification of the natural resources of Russia, but to her advancement in civilization. The connection to which it led has, indeed, done more for her in every respect, than all the domestic reforms of her sovereigns. Whatever empty or interested clamours may have been raised in regard to monopoly, it must be evident, on calm reflection, that British capital and enterprize have poured riches into her lap, animated her industry, benefited her agriculture, and promoted her naval strength to a far greater extent than would have resulted from her solitary efforts, or a communion with any other people. I need not add that, with respect to sound knowledge and moral dignity, the same superiority could be claimed for the intercourse with England, had the bulk of the Russians been properly susceptible of impression on this score. In proportion as of sir Hugh Willoughby, knight, in which he died, and Muscovia was discovered by captain Chancellor. Some additions for better knowledge of this voyage taken by Clement Adams, schoolmaster to the Queen's Henshmen, from the mouth of captain Chancellor. 66 Copy of the duke of Muscovia and emperor of Russia his letters sent to king Edward the sixth, by the hands of Richard Chancellor." "The first voyage made by Master Anthonía Jenkinson, from the city of London, towards the land of Russia, begun the 12th of May in the year 1557." they become so, the policy of rendering the communion as intimate as possible, will be the only true one for every Russian sovereign who sincerely aims at raising his people to the highest standard of excellence and felicity. Ivan studied to improve to the utmost this new and auspicious acquaintance. He drew a number of artificers and artists of every description from England, and sent thither an ambassador accompanied by twelve of his nobles. He seems to have made that country an object of the deepest personal interest, if we may credit the statement that he proposed, at one period, to marry lady Ann Hastings, daughter of the earl of Huntingdon, and demanded of Elizabeth an asylum near her throne, in case the presence of external enemies or the discontent of his subjects should compel him to abandon his own. The English company of "merchants adventurers for the discovery of lands unknown" obtained from him the exclusive privilege of tranporting merchandize through his pire by the Caspian into Great Buckara and Persia. Their attempts to carry this project into execution were, however, frustrated, by the depredations of the Cossacks who infested the route. Ivan sent troops to punish the freebooters. They made resistance, but were speedily overcome. One of their leaders, of the name of Yermak, escaping from the banks of the Boristhenes with a body of five or six thousand of the delinquents, was pursued from province to province, until at length driven by despair, he pushed forward into Siberia, and as Cortes and Pizarro had em done in Mexico and Peru, effected through inumerable perils and difficulties, the subjugation of a great part of that region.* After a lapse of four years, Ivan was equally delighted and surprised by the appearance at his court, of Cossack deputies from the east bank of the Irtish, sent to do homage for a new empire conquered by his rebellious vassals, and to solicit the pardon of the conqueror as the only recompense desired for so splendid a service. The whole narrative of this adventure,-which, however, was not completed in the reign of Ivan-is scarcely less romantic and interesting, than that of the Spanish usurpations in South America. These were, in fact, of much less importance and value to the mother country, than was to Russia, the acquisition which English enterprise thus singularly induced. Siberia, by her position, her inexhaustible mines and her rich furs, has added incalculably to the security, strength, commercial wealth and facilities, of the Russian empire.† Whether *The Russians had previously carried on a regular exchange of trinkets for the furs of Siberia, and Ivan had sent an army against its principal Khan, which was almost annihilated in the attempt. Gibbon mentions in his account of the conquests of the Moguls that Sherban Khan, a grandson of Gengis Khan, led, in 1243, a horde of fifteen thousand families into the wilds of Siberia, and that his descendants reigned at Tobolskoy above three centuries. He adds that fifteen years after the death of Gengis, the Moguls were informed of the name and manners of the Samoyds, who dwelt in subterraneous huts in the neighbourhood of the Polar circle. (Decline and Fall, C. lxiv.) The following article from a late London paper, in relation to Siberia, the cause of humanity has gained by the opening of a receptacle for the innumerable victims of despotism, whose blood might otherwise have contributed to swell the streams that so constantly flowed about the throne, is a problem which I shall not undertake to solve. To the majority immediate death might be more desirable, less afflictive, than the protracted sufferings of such an exile: under a seeming is of itself interesting, and serves to show how tardy has been the reduction of the Nomades of that region. "The Russian government has made considerable progress towards opening a communication with the northern regions of America, by the way of Siberia. The Tschuktsches, a nation inhabiting the north-east part of Siberia, having been continually in a state of war with the Konrakes, who inhabit the shores of the sea of Ochotks, the latter threw themselves under the protection of Russia. The prudent measures adopted by the Russian commissary Panner, succeeded in inducing the Tschuktsches to make peace with the Konrakes, and to come every year into the circle of Nischuckolyma to exchange their furs for linen, tobacco and other goods. This traffic was carried on for several years, and finally they submitted themselves to the Russian government in form. "On the 5th of March 1813, they sent a deputation of 70 persons to Fort Angora, on the great river Anui; these deputies took the oath of fidelity to the Emperor of Russia, and many of them were baptized according to the rites of the Greek church.-The chiefs have engaged a fox's skin for every individual baptized, in the name of tribute. The trade with these new sub. jects of the Russian empire has since become brisker than ever; and there is every reason to believe that the Russians will speedily, by advancing overland to Behring's straits, open a com munication with the people of America who inhabit these coasts, and who can supply abundance of teeth of seahorses, and furs of great value." economy of human life, a greater havoc might be made of human happiness: to tyranny which must be always more or less confined in its range, when the ax and the knout are the only instruments of its persecutions, a wider scope, a safer opportunity, full encourits malignant passions, might be agement for the gratification of afforded by the new penal po licy.* Innocence might be more exposed; but at the same time we cannot deny, that the guilty, while punished with adequate severity, might yet be reformed, and rendered useful both to themselves and to the public. The first printing press known in Russia was established by Ivan the fourth, for the purpose of having a native edition of the bible, beyond which his literature did not extend. He also caused to be shape of a regular code, of which compiled a body of laws, in the the provisions in general savour strongly of the rudeness and ferocity of the national character.† * During the short reign of the empress Anne, in the eighteenth century, there were comparatively but few public executions. "Yet," says general Manstein in his memoirs, "it was reckoned that since the commencement of her reign there had been above twenty thousand state criminals sent into Siberia. There were five thousand of them of which the habitation could never be discovered, nor any the least news learnt what was become of them. But as the empress Elizabeth had recalled all that could be found, there was not a day passed, but there were seen at court some new faces of persons who had passed several years successively in the most horrid prisons." (P. 321.) † See, for this code, William's history of the northern governments, vol2d. and Le Clerc Histoire de la Russie Ancienne, vol. 2d. Some small part of it, however, known to God and the Czar;” as is marked by intelligence, and a his tyranny might well have sugclear sense of justice. From such gested the other, " near the Czar, a source nothing mild or equitable near death." Notwithstanding the could well be expected to spring. enormity of his vices, he was not All that is related of the de- without glimmerings of generosipravity and cruelty of the tyrants ty and moderation, and possessed of antiquity nearly ceases to in- great qualities of understanding, spire horror, when compared as his andertakings abundantly with the vices and atrocities prove. What with these, and the ascribed to Ivan. The murder of fruits of accident, the Russian his eldest son was among the power made important advances least of his crimes. No imagina-under his sway in strength, contion can well endure the recital of sistency, and reputation. the massacres with which he en- The history of the interval besanguined Novogorod and Mos- tween the accession of Ivan IV., cow. His subjects were often and that of Michael Romanof in butchered in crowds by his own 1613-much of which yet remains hands, and his courtiers made to to be traced-depends for its auco-operate with him in the fell tra- thenticity, not merely on the Rusgedy. There is no refinement of sian chronicles, but on copious rebarbarity or hypocrisy, no excess lations of foreigners, eye-witnesses of extortion or violence, no wild in general, of what they relate. riot of sensuality or rage of which Among the number are the amhe is not accused by cotemporary bassadors sent from England and writers, whose veracity can be Germany, to the court of Mosquestioned only on the ground of cow; who corroborate fully what the incompetency of human nature the professed historians have to produce, or to support such a written, concerning the character mass of turpitude and guilt.* In of Ivan and the transactions of his their pictures, he is a heteroclete reign. The events immediately monster even among despots. His subsequent are attested by simisubjects viewed him, neverthe-lar and unquestionable evidence.* less, with veneration, and towards the end of his reign with affection! The sentiments with which he inspired them, gave rise to their proverb, when speaking of a doubtful circumstance, " It is * The works upon which the text is grounded are,-Levesque Histoire de Russie, Le Clerc do., Tooke and Card's Russia, Histoire des Czars par Le Baron Iwan Nestesurandi, the work of Possevin cited above, the travels of Olearius, the narratives of various ambassadors sent to Ivan by foreign powers, including the commentaries of Baron Herberstein, sic Jerome Bowes' discourse on Russia, &c. &c. The writers just mentioned speak largely of the civil condition, morals, and customs of the Russians, during this period. What the two first must have been, is sufficiently evident from their political history, and would be much more so to my readers, could I have quoted particular traits, the actions of individuals, which exhibit every class and degree of the Russian population, as alike ignorant, abject, ferocious, and debauched. It is made a question by those who visited Russia in the time of Ivan, and even by a cotemporary Russian of the highest authority,* whether the savage government of this monster was not best suited to the character of his subjects; whether the tyranny of her sovereigns had operated to render the nation barbarous, or her barbarism has made it necessary for them to be such as they were.† Ivan is said to have first attached the peasants to the glebe, in consequence of their prospensity to emigration and a vagabond life. He could not however by any regulation, have degraded the nation to a more abject state of political servitude, than that in which it had uniformly existed from the foundation of the monarchy. In relation to the throne, as in the Asiatic despotims, all were upon the same level; all animated by the same spirit. When the noble sunk under the lash of the knout, at the feet of the Czar, he would yet, although guilty of no crime, thank the tyrant for condescending to honour his faithful slave, so far as to think of his amendment. A similar trait is to be noted in the history of ancient Persia, where, according to the historians, even those who were publickly scourged by the king's order, used to return him thanks for vouchsafing to remember them. The sciences and most of the mechanical arts were altogether unknown in Russia. To be able to read the bible was a rare accomplishment with the Czars, and scarcely less so with the clergy. Among the latter but three were acquainted with the Latin, in the time of Ivan, and none with the Greek tongue. Their morals corresponded to the extent of their knowledge, and their fanatacism could only be exceeded by that of the populace, from whom they sprung, and over whom they possessed an unlimited ascendancy. The nation held all christians not of the Greek church, in abhorrence, and regarded intercourse with them as a contamination: a circumstance which proved a material obstacle to her civilization, by causing it to be strictly forbidden to a Russian to visit foreign countries. The domestic condition of the Russian was little better than the social and political. Physically, his comforts, if he did not belong to the highest class, scarcely exceeded those of the savage; and his habits were almost equally gross: morally, he was a stranger to all the refinements and endearments which prevail even among the lowest orders of civilized life. The wife ascribed it to indifference on the part of the husband, if he did not incessantly ply her with blows. She was kept in Asiatic seclusion, and the husband seems to have had the right of putting her to death, since no punishment is prescribed for the act by the ancient laws of Russia. Children were at the disposal of the father, throughout the whole course of life, with this limitation * Prince Kourbskoi in his life of Ivan. Incertum est an tanta immanitas gentis tyrannum principem exigat, an tyrannide principis gens ipsa tam im. manis tamque dura crudelis que red-only, that they could not be sold datur. (Herberstein.) beyond the fourth time as slaves. |