fyftem of jurifprudence, was not more favourably received. Clamorous complaints were fet up in all quarters by thofe interested in the continuation of old abufes; and eagerly re-choed by those who were the dupes of a blind attachment to ancient ufages, and who had neither common fenfe to fee the tendency of the propofed laws, nor fpirit to feel the oppreffive nature of those that were to be abrogated. "If they will not confent to receive good laws," faid Elifabeth," they must be allowed to feel the weight of their bad ones;" and the attempt was laid aside.

When I have stated fuch facts as thefe in conversation, and still heard the trumpet of reformation founded by the advocates for great and immediate alteration, it has always brought to my mind the fanciful experiment which divines have imagined-of fuppofing a bad man to have gained admiffion into heaven, and there depicting the uncouth appearance he would make among beings for whofe fociety he is not prepared. I imagine that Ruffia would juft make fuch an awkward figure among nations, were its prefent government made as perfect as a republican could wish it. What has fometimes happen ed with regard to individuals, might, in this cafe, be found verified of the nation. I have known a Ruffian fol dier, who has folicited a difcharge with much anxiety and perfeverance, return to his old commander a few months after he had obtained his long wifhedfor liberty, and beg to be again taken into the fervice; because he did not know how to live as his own mafter. I think the nation would be as incapable of thaking off at once its old prejudices, as this foldier was; and as un fit for relishing the bleffings of freedom. Too many are interefted, or fancy themfelves interested, in the continuation of the exifting abuses, to allow them to be remedied without oppofition. The reclamation of such men, coinciding with vulgar notions, would unavoidably excite general difcontent, The nation is

not fufficiently enlightened to judge of the motives from which alterations in the form of government are introduced, or of those from which they would be oppofed.

In fuch a difpute, the party whose arguments were addreffed to the national prejudices would be fure to have the advantage over his antagonist.

But though it be very unlikely that Ruffia is to obtain a distinguished rank among nations, either for the mildnefs of its government or the civilization of its inhabitants; the nation is certainly in a progreffive ftate of improvement, in both refpects. For the honour of royalty I must add, that the progrefs is entirely owing to the exertions of the fovereign power. If we were to compare in this refpect the fovereigns of Ruffia, from the acceffion of Peter the First to the prefent time, with the princes of any other country in Europe for an equal length of time, and at a period when the nation was equally unenlightened with the Ruffians; Peter and his fucceffors would, I am perfuaded, gain much by the comparison. Even in England, national improvements have feldom had their origin in the fovereign power. The fpirit of the people has generally led the way; and the court has only had the merit of following. In many cafes it has been reluctantly dragged along, and forced to fanction improvements which it could no longer retard.

But in Ruffia this progrefs has been completely reverfed. At the acceflion of Peter the First to the throne, the nation was funk into the groffeft ignorance and barbarity. Peter and his fucceffors have had not only to fet the ex ample of civilization, but also to compel their fubjects to follow it. The nation, fancying itfelf, according to the abfurd pride of barbarifm, the first people on earth in regard to every ufeful accomplishment, has not admitted, with out the utmost reluctance, the improvements that have been enforced by the fovereign power. The foreigners who

have been employed to inftruct the people, have met with every difcouragement from the nation, that ignorance, and pride, and prejudice could throw in their way. And the natives have geBerally fucceeded in making the fituation of thefe men fufficiently irkfome. Of the English officers who have entered into the fervice, I have not found an individual who has not had caufe to regret that ever he had flattered himfelf with the dreams of greatnefs in Ruffia. Admiral Sir Samuel Greig fhould have been an exception. His integrity was above fufpicion. His abilities in his profeffion were not difputed; and he poffeffed the friendship of many of the principal men of the empire Yet was his fituation rendered extremely difagreeable, from the national jealoufy of foreigners, and the fretful oppofition of men who would not be inftructed, because they were not convinced that they needed to learn. "I am forry you have fo many enemies," faid the Empress to him on one occafion, "but I know the reafon of it; and you may depend on my protection."

The colonists, whom the prefent Emprefs invited to cultivate the wafte lands belonging to the crown, and inftruct the natives in the different operations of husbandry, met with a ftill worfe reception. The Imperial orders in their favour were, it is true, fulfiled according to the letter of the ftatute. Each family received horfes and cows, and inftruments of hufbandry, and provifions according to the terms of the agreement. But the horfes and cows were either old and useless, or else f wild and untractable, that a great part of them made their efcape into the woods. The utenfils were the worst and the cheapest that could be procured; and the provifions were, for the most part, fo much damaged as to be unfit for ufe. The unhappy colonists were reduced, by thefe iniquitous and inhuman arts, to extreme mifery. Many of them died of hunger; and not a few, finding their fituation infupportable and

hoplefs, put an end to their own lives. In the mean time the principal authors of thefe abuses, Mr Betskoi and Mr Rutfky, were continually boafting of their fervices, and prefenting accounts of excellent horfes, and cows, and carts, and provifions, they were furnishing; and complimenting their fovereign on the happy confequences which must follow from her benevolent plans, for the improvement of the country, and receiving great fums from the treasury for the behoof of the colonists, befides croffes, and ribbands, and gratuities for their own fervices. The infignificance of these men might have claffed them with the multitude of knaves, whofe names are forgotten when their vices have ceafed to be troublefome, did not the nature of their crimes drag them from the oblivion to which they feemed defined, and hold them up to more than common deteftation.

Almost every plan that has been adopted for the improvement of the country has met with a fimilar oppofition. The artists, who were, a few years ago, invited over from Britain to put the iron works on a better footing, found themfelves haraffed with fo many impofitions, and fubjected to fo many mortifications, that almost all of them have already refigned their places. At Petrazavedíky, where they were chiefly ftationed, only two have remained. In all probability, their forbearance will foon alfo be exhaufted.

It has feldom happened, that the fovereigns of Ruffia have found fervants fufficiently enlightened to fee the utility of their plans of improvement, and at the fame time, fufficiently honest to co-operate, with good faith, in carrying them into effect. The men who have been employed for this purpofe, have either failed in their duty from national prejudice, because they did not wish the objects entrusted to their care to fucceed, or they have employed the confidence repofed in them, difhonestly, to fatisfy their own avarice. Catherine the Second has found many a Betskoi

and

and Rutfky to make her plans of improvement fail of the effect they should have produced.

Yet, with all thefe obftructions, Ruffia has certainly made very confiderable progrefs in improvement fince the æra of Peter the Great. Manufactures of almost every kind have been brought to much greater perfection, and are carried on upon a much more extenfive fcale. Moft of the ufeful, as well as many ornamental, arts have made great advances. Commerce has been greatly extended. Even learning has made fome progrefs. It is now no uncommon thing to meet with flaves who can both read and write; whereas, in the days of Peter the Great, fo uncommon were thefe accomplishments, that even Prince Menzikoff, Peter's great favourite, and who afterwards ruled the empire, under the nominal reign of Catherine the First, was aii his lifetime unacquainted with both. The preffes of Peterburgh and Mofcow have furnished the nation with a confiderable variety of books in the Ruffian language. Most of them are indeed only tranflations from other authors, chiefly English and French; but Ruffia alfo furnithes fome original writers.

Thefe circumstances, while they ardently mark the progreffive improvement of the nation, lead us to conclude, that the prejudices which have fo long counteracted the attempts of the fove. reigns of Ruffia, to raise their subjects out of their ancient ftate of barbarifm and degradation, will gradually difappar. The Ruffians will acquire jufter notions of the national intereft; they will become fenfible of their own deficiencies; they will deferve a better fyftem of government, by feeling that they ftand in need of it.

I am confirmed in thefe anticipations, when I confider, that the Ruffian go. vernment has become much milder in its execution than it was in former times. The adminiftration of Eliza beth was confiderably more lenient than that of Peter the Great; of Menzikoff,

under Catherine the First; or of Biron, under the Emprefs Anne. Elizabeth was not naturally cruel. She even affected the praife of clemency: Yet, at the acceffion of Peter the Third to the throne, feventeen thoufand perfons are faid to have been restored, from banishment or imprisonment, to their liberty. Many of these had been guilty of no other crime than that of being the relations or dependents of those perfons of diftinction who had been facrificed to court intrigues. For, even in the reiga of Elizabeth, it continued to be too much the practice, to involve in the ruin of any great man who had become ob noxious to the court, every person who was fuppofed to be particularly attached to his fortunes.

During the reign of the prefent Emprefs, this abfurd fpecies of tyranny has never been admitted. In general, the administration of Catherine the Second has been milder than that of her immediate predeceffor. It has exhibited very few ftriking inftances of feverity. Thole miferable beings with whom the mines of Siberia are ftill amply fupplied, confit almost entirely of the refuse of the people, who have been condemned by the ordinary courfe of law, and whofe fate court intrigues could not have influenced.

That fpecies of offenders whom the jealousy of former fovereigns would have punished with the utmost rigour, I mean thofe who were fufpected to be difaffected to the interest of the ruling party at court, have not generally met with a feverer punishment than that of being permitted to travel into foreign countries, during a certain term of years, for their improvement. Elizabeth, to gratify the spleen of her favourites for the time, banished to Siberia Leftoc, whofe talents and activity had been the principal means of railing her to the throne, and that after the had given him the ftrongest assurances, confirmed by a folemn oath, that the would never listen to the infinuation of his enemies against him. Catherine the Second, after her elevation to the throne,

all.

With equal magnanimity, and in equal oppofition to the maxims of Ruffian revolutions, fhe continued Count Munich in all his offices and appoint ments, although he had been the most zealous of Peter's adherents, and had been prevented only by his mafter's pufillanimity from precipitating her from the throne to which fhe was raised.

The fame fpirit of moderation has distinguished the courfe of her reign. Under former fovereigns, the difiniffal of a favourite or minifter from his office was generally the prelude to fending him to Siberia. The prefent Emprefs has feldom changed her fervants; and thofe of them who have been difmiffed, have been allowed to retire honourably, and live in peace. Although her plan of forming a new code of laws has not been carried into effect, fhe has eftablished many particular ftatutes, and adopted many regulations favourable to an equal diftribution of juftice. In the emancipation of the peasants on the crown lands, fhe has fet an example which, it is to be hoped, many of the Ruffian gentlemen will foon follow. A few of them have already been in part her imitators in this refpect; and as the

During the prefent reign, the public has been totally unaccustomed to fuch fhocking examples of barbarity as were often prefented to them in former times. The natural confequence of this circumftance, taken in connection with the increafed diffufion of knowledge, has been, that the national spirit has acquired a certain degree of independence which it did not before poffefs. Abfolute fubmiffion to the will of their fuperiors, though ftill a very prevalent principle, is not now the ruling principle which actuates the fubjects of this empire. Were Peter the Great to rife from the tomb, and feize his former fceptre, his courtiers and officers would not fubmit to be publicly beaten by him without refiftance; nor durft he attempt to exercife on the most despicable fet of men in the empire thofe atrocities with which he formerly extinguifhed the Strelgi..

Although, therefore, much remains to be done, in order that the government of this country may be established on liberal and equal principies, yet confiderable approaches have been made to this object. The administration of Catherine is as different from that of her predeceffors, as it is from that of our own government under George III.

When the conference was at an end, they arofe to feparate; the Marshal made his bow with hat in hand, and the Vifier his falam, with turban on his head: But when thefe ceremonies of taking leave were over, the Vifier turn

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