Kitabı oku: «The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia», sayfa 19

This example may suffice to shew, how easy it was in former times, before the art of printing was found out, for one man to destroy the reputation of another, in the minds of whole nations, by reason that manuscript histories were in a few hands only, and not exposed to general examination and censure, or of the observations of contemporaries, as they now are. A single line in Tacitus or Sallust, nay, even in the authors of the most fabulous legends was enough to render a great prince odious to the half of mankind, and to perpetuate his name with infamy to successive generations.

How was it possible that the czar could have beheaded his son with his own hand, when extreme unction was administered to the latter in the presence of the whole court? Was he dead when the sacred oil was poured upon his head? When or how could this dissevered head have been rejoined to its trunk? It is notorious, that the prince was not left alone a single moment, from the first reading of his sentence to him to the instant of his death.

Besides, this story of the czar's having had recourse to the sword, acquits him at least of having made use of poison. I will allow, that it is somewhat uncommon, that a young man in the vigour of his days should die of a sudden fright, occasioned by hearing the sentence of his own death read to him, and especially when it was a sentence that he expected; but, after all, physicians will tell us that this is not a thing impossible.

If the czar dispatched his son by poison, as so many authors would persuade us, he by that means deprived himself of every advantage he might expect from this fatal process, in convincing all Europe that he had a right to punish every delinquent. He rendered all the reasons for pronouncing the condemnation of the czarowitz suspected; and, in fact, accused himself. If he was desirous of the death of his son, he was in possession of full power to have caused the sentence to be put in execution: would a man of any prudence then, would a sovereign, on whom the eyes of all his neighbours were fixed, have taken the base and dastardly method of poisoning the person, over whose devoted head he himself already held the sword of justice? Lastly, would he have suffered his memory to have been transmitted to posterity as an assassin and a poisoner, when he could so easily have assumed the character of an upright though severe judge?

It appears then, from all that has been delivered on this subject in the preceding pages, that Peter was more the king than the parent; and that he sacrificed his own son to the sentiments of the father and lawgiver of his country, and to the interest of his people, who, without this wholesome severity, were on the verge of relapsing again into that state from which he had taken them. It is evident that he did not sacrifice this son to the ambition of a step-mother, or to the son he had by her, since he had often threatened the czarowitz to disinherit him, before Catherine brought him that other son, whose infirm infancy gave signs of a speedy death, which actually happened in a very short time afterwards. Had Peter taken this important step merely to please his wife, he must have been a fool, a madman, or a coward; neither of which, most certainly, could be laid to his charge. But he foresaw what would be the fate of his establishments, and of his new-born nation, if he had such a successor as would not adopt his views. The event has verified this foresight: the Russian empire is become famous and respectable throughout Europe, from which it was before entirely separated; whereas, had the czarowitz succeeded to the throne, every thing would have been destroyed. In fine, when this catastrophe comes to be seriously considered, the compassionate heart shudders, and the rigid applauds.

This great and terrible event is still fresh in the memories of mankind; and it is frequently spoken of as a matter of so much surprise, that it is absolutely necessary to examine what contemporary writers have said of it. One of these hireling scribblers, who has taken on him the title of historian, speaks thus of it in a work which he has dedicated to count Bruhl, prime minister to his Polish majesty, whose name indeed may seem to give some weight to what he advances. 'Russia was convinced that the czarowitz owed his death to poison, which had been given him by his mother-in-law.' But this accusation is overturned by the declaration which the czar made to the duke of Holstein, that the empress Catherine had advised him to confine his son in a monastery.

With regard to the poison which the empress is said to have given afterwards to her husband, that story is sufficiently destroyed by the simple relation of the affair of the page and pocket-book. What man would think of making such a memorandum as this, 'I must remember to confine my wife in a convent?' Is this a circumstance of so trivial a nature, that it must be set down lest it should be forgotten? If Catherine had poisoned her son-in-law and her husband she would have committed crimes; whereas, so far from being suspected of cruelty, she had a remarkable character for lenity and sweetness of temper.

It may now be proper to shew what was the first cause of the behaviour of the czarowitz, of his flight, and of his death, and that of his accomplices, who fell by the hands of the executioner. It was owing then to mistaken notions in religion, and to a superstitious fondness for priests and monks. That this was the real source from whence all his misfortunes were derived, is sufficiently apparent from his own confession, which we have already set before the reader, and in particular, by that expression of the czar in his letter to his unhappy son, 'A corrupt priesthood will be able to turn you at pleasure.'

The following is, almost word for word, the manner in which a certain ambassador to the court of Russia explains these words. – Several ecclesiastics, says he, fond of the ancient barbarous customs, and regretting the authority they had lost by the nation having become more civilized, wished earnestly to see prince Alexis on the throne, from whose known disposition they expected a return of those days of ignorance and superstition which were so dear to them. In the number of these was Dozitheus, bishop of Rostow. This prelate feigned a revelation from St. Demetrius, and that the saint had appeared to him, and had assured him as from God himself, that the czar would not live above three months; that the empress Eudocia, who was then confined in the convent of Susdal (and had taken the veil under the name of sister Helena), and the princess Mary the czar's sister, should ascend the throne and reign jointly with prince Alexis. Eudocia and the princess Mary were weak enough to credit this imposture, and were even so persuaded of the truth of this prediction, that the former quitted her habit and the convent, and throwing aside the name of sister Helena, reassumed the imperial title and the ancient dress of the czarina's, and caused the name of her rival Catherine to be struck out of the form of prayer. And when the lady abbess of the convent opposed these proceedings, Eudocia answered her haughtily – That as Peter had punished the strelitzes who had insulted his mother, in like manner would prince Alexis punish those who had offered an indignity to his. She caused the abbess to be confined to her apartment. An officer named Stephen Glebo was introduced into the convent; this man Eudocia made use of as the instrument of her designs, having previously won him over to her interest by heaping favours on him. Glebo caused Dozitheus's prediction to be spread over the little town of Susdal, and the neighbourhood thereof. But the three months being nearly expired, Eudocia reproached the bishop with the czar's being still alive, 'My father's sins,' answered Dozitheus, 'have been the cause of this; he is still in purgatory, and has acquainted me therewith.' Upon this Eudocia caused a thousand masses for the dead to be said, Dozitheus assuring her that this would not fail of having the desired effect: but in about a month afterwards, he came to her and told, that his father's head was already out of purgatory; in a month afterwards he was freed as far as his waist, so that then he only stuck in purgatory by his feet; but as soon as they should be set free, which was the most difficult part of the business, the czar would infallibly die.

The princess Mary, persuaded by Dozitheus, gave herself up to him, on condition that his father should be immediately released from purgatory, and the prediction accomplished, and Glebo continued his usual correspondence with the old czarina.

It was chiefly on the faith of these predictions that the czarowitz quitted the kingdom, and retired into a foreign country, to wait for the death of his father. However the whole scheme was soon discovered; Dozitheus and Glebo were seized; the letters of the princess Mary to Dozitheus, and those of sister Helena to Glebo, were read in the open senate. In consequence of which, the princess Mary was shut up in the fortress of Schusselbourg, and the old czarina removed to another convent, where she was kept a close prisoner. Dozitheus and Glebo, together with the other accomplices of these idle and superstitious intrigues, were put to the torture, as were likewise the confidants of the czarowitz's flight. His confessor, his preceptor, and the steward of his household, all died by the hands of the executioner.

Such then was the dear and fatal price at which Peter the Great purchased the happiness of his people, and such were the numberless obstacles he had to surmount in the midst of a long and dangerous war without doors, and an unnatural rebellion at home. He saw one half of his family plotting against him, the majority of the priesthood obstinately bent to frustrate his designs, and almost the whole nation for a long time opposing its own felicity, of which as yet it was not become sensible. He had prejudices to overcome, and discontents to sooth. In a word, there wanted a new generation formed by his care, who would at length entertain the proper ideas of happiness and glory, which their fathers were not able to comprehend or support.

CHAP. XXX

Works and establishments in 1718, and the following years.

Throughout the whole of the foregoing dreadful catastrophe, it appeared clearly, that Peter had acted only as the father of his country, and that he considered his people as his family. The punishments he had been obliged to inflict on such of them, who had endeavoured to obstruct or impede the happiness of the rest, were necessary, though melancholy sacrifices, made to the general good.

1718.] This year, which was the epoch of the disinheriting and death of his eldest son, was also that of the greatest advantage he procured to his subjects, by establishing a general police hitherto unknown; by the introduction or improvement of manufactures and works of every kind, by opening new branches of trade, which now began to flourish, and by the construction of canals, which joined rivers, seas, and people, that nature had separated from each other. We have here none of those striking events which charm common readers; none of those court-intrigues which are the food of scandal and malice, nor of those great revolutions which amaze the generality of mankind; but we behold the real springs of public happiness, which the philosophic eye delights to contemplate.

He now appointed a lieutenant-general of police over the whole empire, who was to hold his court at Petersburg, and from thence preserve order from one end of the kingdom to the other. Extravagance in dress, and the still more dangerous extravagance of gaming, were prohibited under severe penalties; schools for teaching arithmetic, which had been first set on foot in 1716, were now established in many towns in Russia. The hospitals, which had been began, were now finished, endowed, and filled with proper objects.

To these we may add the several useful establishments which had been projected some time before, and which were completed a few years afterwards. The great towns were now cleared of those innumerable swarms of beggars, who will not follow any other occupation but that of importuning those who are more industrious than themselves, and who lead a wretched and shameful life at the expense of others: an abuse too much overlooked in other nations.

The rich were obliged to build regular and handsome houses in Petersburg, agreeable to their circumstances, and, by a master-stroke of police, the several materials were brought carriage free to the city, by the barks and waggons which returned empty from the neighbouring provinces.

Weights and measures were likewise fixed upon an uniform plan, in the same manner as the laws. This uniformity, so much, but in vain desired, in states that have for many ages been civilized, was established in Russia without the least difficulty or murmuring; and yet we fancy that this salutary regulation is impracticable amongst us.

The prices of the necessaries of life were also fixed. The city of Petersburg was well lighted with lamps during the night; a convenience which was first introduced in Paris by Louis XIV., and to which Rome is still a stranger. Pumps were erected for supplying water in cases of fire; the streets were well paved, and rails put up for the security of foot passengers: in a word, every thing was provided that could minister to safety, decency, and good order, and to the quicker dispatch and convenience of the inland trade of the country. Several privileges were granted to foreigners, and proper laws enacted to prevent the abuse of those privileges. In consequence of these useful and salutary regulations, Petersburg and Moscow put on a new face.

The iron and steel manufactories received additional improvements, especially those which the czar had founded at about ten miles distance from Petersburg, of which he himself was the first superintendant, and wherein no less than a thousand workmen were employed immediately under his eye. He went in person to give directions to those who farmed the corn-mills, powder-mills, and mills for sawing timber, and to the managers of the manufactories for cordage and sail-cloth, to the brick-makers, slaters, and the cloth-weavers. Numbers of workmen in every branch came from France to settle under him; these were the fruits he reaped from his travels.

He established a board of trade, which was composed of one half natives, and the other half foreigners, in order that justice might be equally distributed to all artists and workmen. A Frenchman settled a manufactory for making fine looking-glass at Petersburg, with the assistance of prince Menzikoff. Another set up a loom for working curious tapestry, after the manner of the Gobelins; and this manufactory still meets with great encouragement. A third succeeded in making of gold and silver thread, and the czar ordered that no more than four thousand marks of gold or silver should be expended in these works in the space of a year; by this means to prevent the too great consumption of bullion in the kingdom.

He gave thirty thousand rubles, that is, about one hundred and fifty thousand French livres,¹⁰⁹ together with all the materials and instruments necessary for making the several kinds of woollen stuffs. By this useful bounty he was enabled to clothe all his troops with the cloth made in his own country; whereas, before that time, it was purchased from Berlin and other foreign kingdoms.

They made as fine linen cloth in Moscow as in Holland; and at his death there were in that capital and at Jaroslaw, no less than fourteen linen and hempen manufactories.

It could certainly never be imagined, at the time that silk sold in Europe for its weight in gold, that one day there would arise on the banks of the lake Ladoga, in the midst of a frozen region, and among unfrequented marshes, a magnificent and opulent city, where the silks of Persia should be manufactured in as great perfection as at Ispahan. Peter, however, undertook this great phenomenon in commerce, and succeeded in the attempt. The working of iron mines was carried to their highest degree of perfection; several other mines of gold and silver were discovered, and the council of mines was appointed to examine and determine, whether the working of these would bring in a profit adequate to the expense.

But, to make so many different arts and manufactures flourish, and to establish so many various undertakings, it was not alone sufficient to grant patents, or to appoint inspectors: it was necessary that our great founder should behold all these pass under his own eye in their beginnings, and work at them with his own hands, in the same manner as we have already seen him working at the construction, the rigging, and the sailing of a ship. When canals were to be dug in marshy and almost impassable grounds, he was frequently seen at the head of the workmen digging the earth, and carrying it away himself.

In this same year (1718) he formed the plan of the canal and sluices of Ladoga: this was intended to make a communication between the Neva and another navigable river, in order for the more easy conveyance of merchandize to Petersburg, without taking the great circuit of the lake Ladoga, which, on account of the storms that prevailed on the coast, was frequently impassable for barks or small vessels. Peter levelled the ground himself, and they still preserve the tools which he used in digging up and carrying off the earth. The whole court followed the example of their sovereign, and persisted in a work, which, at the same time, they looked upon as impracticable; and it was finished after his death: for not one of his projects, which had been found possible to be effected, was abandoned.

The great canal of Cronstadt, which is easily drained of its waters, and wherein they careen and clean the men of war, was also began at the same time that he was engaged in the proceedings against his son.

In this year also he built the new city of Ladoga. A short time afterwards, he made the canal which joins the Caspian Sea to the gulf of Finland and to the ocean. The boats, after sailing up the Wolga, came first to the communication of two rivers, which he joined for that purpose; from thence, by another canal, they enter into the lake of Ilmen, and then fall into the canal of Ladoga, from whence goods and merchandizes may be conveyed by sea to all parts of the world.

In the midst of these labours, which all passed under his inspection, he carried his views from Kamschatka to the most eastern limits of his empire, and caused two forts to be built in these regions, which were so long unknown to the rest of the world. In the meantime, a body of engineers, who were draughted from the marine academy established in 1715, were sent to make the tour of the empire, in order to form exact charts thereof, and lay before mankind the immense extent of country which he had civilized and enriched.

CHAP. XXXI

Of the trade of Russia.

The Russian trade without doors was in a manner annihilated before the reign of Peter. He restored it anew, after his accession to the throne. It is notorious, that the current of trade has undergone several changes in the world. The south part of Russia was before the time of Tamerlane, the staple of Greece, and even of the Indies; and the Genoese were the principal factors. The Tanais and the Boristhenes were loaded with the productions of Asia: but when Tamerlane, towards the end of the fourteenth century, had conquered the Taurican Chersonesus, afterwards called Crimea or Crim Tartary, and when the Turks became masters of Azoph, this great branch of trade was totally destroyed. Peter formed the design of reviving it, by getting possession of Azoph; but the unfortunate campaign of Pruth wrested this city out of his hands, and with it all his views on the Black Sea: nevertheless he had it still in his power to open as extensive a road to commerce through the Caspian Sea. The English who, in the end of the fifteenth, and beginning of the sixteenth century, had opened a trade to Archangel, had endeavoured to do the same likewise by the Caspian Sea, but failed in all their attempts for this purpose.

It has been already observed, that the father of Peter the Great caused a ship to be built in Holland, to trade from Astracan to the coast of Persia. This vessel was burnt by the rebel Stenkorazin, which put an immediate stop to any views of trading on a fair footing with the Persians. The Armenians, who are the factors of that part of Asia, were received by Peter the Great into Astracan; every thing was obliged to pass through their hands, and they reaped all the advantage of that trade; as is the case with the Indian traders, and the Banians, and with the Turks, as well as several nations in Christendom, and the Jews: for those who have only one way of living, are generally very expert in that art on which they depend for a support; and others pay a voluntary tribute to that knowledge in which they know themselves deficient.

Peter had already found a remedy for this inconvenience, in the treaty which he made with the sophi of Persia, by which all the silk, which was not used for the manufactories in that kingdom, was to be delivered to the Armenians of Astracan, and by them to be transported into Russia.

The troubles which arose in Persia soon overturned this arrangement; and in the course of this history, we shall see how the sha, or emperor of Persia, Hussein, when persecuted by the rebels, implored the assistance of Peter; and how that monarch, after having supported a difficult war against the Turks and the Swedes, entered Persia, and subjected three of its provinces. But to return to the article of trade.

Of the Trade with China

The undertaking of establishing a trade with China seemed to promise the greatest advantages. Two vast empires, bordering on each other, and each reciprocally possessing what the other stood in need of, seemed to be both under the happy necessity of opening a useful correspondence, especially after the treaty of peace, so solemnly ratified between these two empires in the year 1689, according to our way of reckoning.

The first foundation of this trade had been laid in the year 1653. There was at that time two companies of Siberian and Bukarian families settled in Siberia. Their caravans travelled through the Calmuck plains; after they had crossed the deserts of Chinese Tartary, and made a considerable profit by their trade; but the troubles which happened in the country of the Calmucks, and the disputes between the Russians and the Chinese, in regard to the frontiers, put a stop to this commerce.

After the peace of 1689, it was natural for the two great nations to fix on some neutral place, whither all the goods should be carried. The Siberians, like all other nations, stood more in need of the Chinese, than these latter did of them; accordingly permission was asked of the emperor of China, to send caravans to Pekin, which was readily granted. This happened in the beginning of the present century.

It is worthy of observation, that the emperor Camhi had granted permission for a Russian church in the suburbs of Pekin; which church was to be served by Siberian priests, the whole at the emperor's own expense, who was so indulgent to cause this church to be built for the accommodation of several families of eastern Siberia; some of whom had been prisoners before the peace of 1680, and the others were adventurers from their own country, who would not return back again after the peace of Niptchou. The agreeable climate of Pekin, the obliging manners of the Chinese, and the ease with which they found a handsome living, determined them to spend the rest of their days in China. The small Greek church could not become dangerous to the peace of the empire, as those of the Jesuits have been to that of other nations; and moreover, the emperor Camhi was a favourer of liberty of conscience. Toleration has, in all times, been the established custom in Asia, as it was in former times all over the world, till the reign of the Roman emperor Theodosius I. The Russian families, thus established in China, having intermarried with the natives, have since quitted the Christian religion, but their church still subsists.

It was stipulated, that this church should be for the use of those who come with the Siberian caravans, to bring furs and other commodities wanted at Pekin. The voyage out and home, and the stay in the country, generally took up three years. Prince Gagarin, governor of Siberia, was twenty years at the head of this trade. The caravans were sometimes very numerous; and it was difficult to keep the common people, who made the greatest number, within proper bounds.

They passed through the territories of a Laman priest, who is a kind of Tartarian sovereign, resides on the sea-coast of Orkon, and has the title of Koutoukas: he is the vicar of the grand Lama, but has rendered himself independent, by making some change in the religion of the country, where the Indian tenet of metempsychosis is the prevailing opinion. We cannot find a more apt comparison for this priest than in the bishops of Lubeck and Osnaburg, who have shaken off the dominion of the church of Rome. The caravans, in their march, sometimes committed depredations on the territories of this Tartarian prelate, as they did also on those of the Chinese. This irregular conduct proved an impediment to the trade of those parts; for the Chinese threatened to shut the entrance into their empire against the Russians, unless a stop was put to these disorders. The trade with China was at that time very advantageous to the Russians, who brought from thence gold, silver, and precious stones, in return for their merchandize. The largest ruby in the world was brought out of China to prince Gagarin, who sent it to prince Menzikoff; and it is now one of the ornaments of the imperial crown.

The exactions put in practice by prince Gagarin were of great prejudice to that trade, which had brought him so much riches; and, at length, they ended in his own destruction; for he was accused before the court of justice, established by the czar, and sentenced to lose his head, a year after the condemnation of the czarowitz, and the execution of all those who had been his accomplices.

About the same time, the emperor Camhi, perceiving his health to decay, and knowing, by experience, that the European mathematicians were much more learned in their art than those of his own nation, thought that the European physicians must also have more knowledge than those of Pekin, and therefore sent a message to the czar, by some ambassadors who were returning from China to Petersburg, requesting him to send him one of his physicians. There happened at that time to be an English surgeon at Petersburg, who offered to undertake the journey in that character; and accordingly set out in company with a new ambassador, and one Laurence Lange, who has left a description of that journey. This embassy was received, and all the expense of it defrayed with great pomp, by Camhi. The surgeon, at his arrival, found the emperor in perfect health, and gained the reputation of a most skilful physician. The caravans who followed this embassy made prodigious profits; but fresh excesses having been committed by this very caravan, the Chinese were so offended thereat, that they sent back Lange, who was at that time resident from the czar at the Chinese court, and with him all the Russian merchants established there.

The emperor Camhi dying, his son Yontchin, who had as great a share of wisdom, and more firmness than his father, and who drove the Jesuits out of his empire, as the czar had done from Russia in 1718, concluded a treaty with Peter, by which the Russian caravans were no more to trade on the frontiers of the two empires. There are only certain factors, dispatched in the name of the emperor or empress of Russia, and these have liberty to enter Pekin, where they are lodged in a vast house, which the emperor of China formerly assigned for the reception of the envoys from Corea: but it is a considerable time since either caravans or factors have been sent from Russia thither so that the trade is now in a declining way, but may possibly soon be revived.

Of the Trade of PETERSBURG, and the other ports of the RUSSIAN EMPIRE

There were at this time above two hundred foreign vessels traded to the new capital, in the space of a year. This trade has continued increasing, and has frequently brought in five millions (French money) to the crown. This was greatly more than the interest of the money which this establishment had cost. This trade, however, greatly diminished that of Archangel, and was precisely what the founder desired; for the port of Archangel is too dangerous, and at too great distance from other ports: besides that, a trade which is carried on immediately under the eye of an assiduous sovereign, is always the most advantageous. That of Livonia continued still on the same footing. The trade of Russia in general has proved very successful; its ports have received from one thousand to twelve hundred vessels in a year, and Peter discovered the happy expedient of joining utility to glory.