tions in the same direction, but the country | Wallachia. Nearly nine centuries have was generally traversed by those of them who elapsed since the event to which we have went to Constantinople in order to enter the alluded, but things remain nearly as they imperial service. The attempts of the Scan- were, and we see no more difference between dinavians to settle themselves there were Sviatoslav in the tenth century and Nicholas unsuccessful until the latter part of the ninth now, than that the one openly proclaimed century, when Rurik, one of their chiefs, es- his object, whilst his modern successor entablished a permanent dominion over the deavours by his manifestos and diplomacy Slavonic and Finnish tribes in the neighbour- to mislead the public opinion of Europe.* hood of the Baltic. The name of Russia, we The details of these early wars are given are told, was bestowed upon his new domin- by the historian Nestor, as well as by the ion, and this name was extended with the Byzantine writers, particularly by Leo Dialimits of the new empire, of which Rurik conus. It is curious, indeed to find the rewas thus the founder. cords of a conflict which occurred 882 years Soon after the establishment of Rurik's ago, between the medieval Russians and the dominion at Novogorod, a number of his Greeks, in the very same locality where a countrymen proceeded southward, and fol- similar collision between the modern Ruslowing the course of the Dnieper, arrived at sians and the successors of the Byzantine Kioff, where they formed a permanent set- emperors seems now on the point of taking tlement. They established their dominion place. Nestor relates, that Sviatoslav conover the Slavonic population who inhabited soled himself for his retreat on that occasion, the surrounding regions, paying tribute to by saying, "Whenever we next find occasion the Khozars, who were allies of the Greek of quarrel with the Greeks we shall assememperors. Their number must have been ble a more numerous army, and we know considerable, since they were able to under-now how to find our way to Constantinople," take an expedition to the Bosphorus in 865, -a consolation which the Emperor Nicholas when they made an unsuccessful attack upon will have still better grounds than SviatosConstantinople, where the name of Russia lav to indulge in, if European diplomacy was then heard for the first time. Thus succeeds in compelling him to evacuate the almost one thousand years have elapsed Danubian principalities.

since the Russians first assailed the metrop- In the close of the tenth century, Vladiolis of the East. The assault was followed mir, the reigning monarch of Russia, emby a series of Russian invasions of the Greek braced the Christianity of the Greck Church, Empire, and the history of the nineteenth which had been already widely spread may perhaps in this respect be a counterpart among his subjects. He applied himself to that of the ninth century. Constantinople with great energy to the establishment of was more than once besieged, and the Rus- the Christian religion in his dominions, sians extended their ravages even to the which extended from the vicinity of the Balsouthern shores of the Bosphorus. In short, tic to the shores of the Black Sea, and from during the ninth and tenth centuries the the banks of the Volga and the foot of the East was the scene of a constant struggle on Caucasus to the ridge of the Carpathian the part of the Russians to extend their do- mountains. This vast tract was inhabited minion over the highly favoured countries by various Slavonic populations, and in the which surround the Black Sea, and history north by Finnish tribes, all of whom, though records the successive negotiations and con- comprehended under the general appellation cessions of the Greek emperors to their bar- of Russians, greatly differed among thembarous invaders. The wars of Sviatoslav in selves, and were kept together not by any particular, who invaded and conquered Bul- regular system of government, but by the garia, and advanced to Adrianople, occupy bond of a common sovereign. Vladimir a large place in the Russian annals of the died in 1015, and divided his dominions tenth century. among his numerous sons, who were to hold their respective states under the suzerainty of the eldest, who enjoyed the title of Grand

* When Sviatoslav, having returned for a short

When we study the history of the East of Europe in these early ages, the fact that similar social forces are still in operation there, is naturally suggested to us. The Czars and their subjects still seek to exchange the fro- time to his own country, was preparing a new expezen marshes of St. Petersburg for the shores bles had intreated him to remain in his own domindition to Bulgaria, and his mother and principal noof the Bosphorus. It still delights the Rus-ion, he gave the following reasons for preferring Bulsian armies to march from the cold and bar-garia to the north: "It is situated in the centre of ren north-western provinces of the Empire, the riches of nature and art. The Greeks bring their where so many of them are usually quar- and Hungarians silver and horses, and the Russians, gold, silver, stuffs, wine, and fruit; the Bohemians tered, into the rich plains of Moldavia and poultry, slaves, wax, and honey."

Russia formed, during the period which intervenes between her conversion to the Christian religion, towards the end of the tenth, to her conquest by the Mongols in the middle of the thirteenth century, a kind of connecting link between the East and Enrope. Having received her religion from Constantinople, she received at the same time, to a considerable extent, the material and intellectual civilisation of Byzantium,

Duke of Russia. The internal disorders oc-, lation of Russians, and were governed by casioned by this arrangement were for a the same dynasty to which all the sovereigns time mitigated during the supremacy of of those numerous principalities equally be Yaroslav, who greatly promoted the consol- longed. The only real bond of unity idation and civilisation of Russia in the amongst these numerous states was an eceleventh century. In his reign, and under clesiastical one-the Greek Church, govhis orders, the Greek empire was invaded erned by the Archbishop of Kioff, its mewith a numerous military and naval force. tropolitan, whose office dates from the tenth The invasion was occasioned by the circum- century. stance, that a Russian of distinction was killed at Constantinople in a quarrel between his countrymen and the Greeks. Yaroslav demanded satisfaction; and not having obtained it, he sent in 1043, an expedition under the command of his son Vladimir, and of one of his generals, against Constantinople, and which, like that of Oleg, in 901, and those of Marshal Diebitch, in 1828 and 1829, marched on the western coast of the Black Sea, supported by a fleet on the the only part of Christendom in which litercoast. The Greek Emperor sent an em- ature and art were cultivated at that time. bassy to meet the invaders, and wrote a let- The upper clergy were Greeks either by ter to Prince Vladimir, representing, that birth or education. An active commerce the friendship which had existed between between Greece and Russia was carried on the Greeks and the Russians for so many centuries before the establishment of the years ought not to be disturbed for so trivial Christian religion in the latter country, and an event. The Russian Prince gave to the its conversion to the Greek Church could not Imperial messenger an insolent answer, à la but greatly increase it. The well-known Menschikoff, and continued his advance. The German writer, Dittma of Merseburg, fleet having arrived off Pharos, near the en- states, on the authority of some of his trance of the Bosphorus, found the Greeks countrymen who had been at Kioff with the arranged in order of battle. An engage- expedition of Boleslav, King of Poland, ment ensued, in which the Russian navy was 1018, that the city might be considered as a almost entirely destroyed. The army which rival of Constantinople, on account of the had penetrated as far as Varna, deprived great number of churches, market-places, of the support of the fleet, was destroyed by public edifices, and the quantity of riches the victorious Greeks. A peace was con- which it contained; adding, that a great cluded three years afterwards. This was number of Greeks were settled in the place. the last of the many expeditions of those When, in the latter part of the same centu mediæval Russians against the Greek em- ry, Isiaslav, Grand Duke of Kioff, having pire. The internal commotions which pre- been expelled by his brethren from the vailed in Russia among the successors of throne, came to Germany, to implore assistYaroslav, deprived her of the resources

needed for external action.

ance from the Emperor Henry IV., the pres

ents which he offered on that occasion to the Yaroslav, like his father, divided his em- Emperor and his court were so costly that pire amongst his sons, giving the title of the contemporary chronicles declare that Grand Duke and the supremacy to the eld- nothing so magnificent was ever before seen est. This arrangement led to a long course in Germany. This wealth proves the imporof troubles and embarrassments. Russia tance of the commerce between Europe, was partitioned into a number of petty Asia, and Grecce, of which Russia was then states, warring among themselves. The the centre and the high road. Goods were authority of the Grand Dukes sank, under these circumstances, into insignificance. The numerous states into which Russia was then divided were inhabited by Slavonic populations differing from one another as much as they differed from the Poles, Bohemians, and other Slavonians, whilst in the northern parts, there was a large admixture of the Finnish element, which has not yet been entirely absorbed by the Slavonic one. They were, however, comprised under the general appel- * The importance of that trade is attested by the

carried from Constantinople by the Black Sea and the Dnieper, and from Central Asia, by the Volga. On the banks of that river, moreover, lived the Mahomedan nation of the Bulgars, which had an extensive trade on one side with the Caspian Sea, and the countries situated beyond, and on the other with Russia, and, by means of Novogorod, with the Baltic and the north-west of Europe.* The

immigration from Scandinavia, whence the of Russia became vassals of the descendreigning family of Russia derived its origin, ants of Genghis Khan. The consequences seems not to have continued long; because, of this Eastern conquest to Russia, and espethough we often find Scandinavian names at cially to its Church, are thus described by the beginning of the period which we have the celebrated historian Karamsin:described, they soon disappear and give "One of the most remarkable effects of the place to names of Slavonic origin. There was, however, a considerable intercourse be- Mongol dominion over Russia was the increase tween Russia and the north-west of Europe, well as of income to the churches and convents. of dignity which it imparted to our clergy, as and frequent intermarriages between their The Khans, whose policy it was to oppress the princes. Scandinavian influence is particu- people and the princes, were protectors of the larly manifest in the laws of Novogorod, Church and the servants of Christ. They showproclaimed in 1024, which established trial ed them particular favour,-treated the metroby jury, and many provisions of an evident-politans and bishops with extreme kindness, ly Northern origin. Even the continual favourably received their petitions, and their subdivision of the Russian principalities, anger of the Khans against their flocks. Many respect for the pastors frequently disarmed the though injurious to the strength of the whole persons of distinction, disgusted with the world against a foreign enemy, was favourable to on account of the calamities which Russia was the liberty of the inhabitants in each; be- then suffering, sought peace of soul in the sacause the petty sovereigns amongst whom cred places of retirement, exchanging the costly Russia was divided were obliged, during of the monk; they thus illustrated the ecclesivestments of the Boyar for the humble garments their continual quarrels, to court the favour astical condition into which even the princes of their subjects, and to increase their liber- entered before their death. The Khans prohib ties for the sake of maintaining their allegi- ited any one, under penalty of death, to pillage ance. It may, indeed, be said, that with and even to molest the convents, and the pious the exception of Italy, there was in Russia, enriched them by bequests of movable and landduring these centuries, more wealth, liberty, ed property. Every individual was in the habit and enlightenment than in any other part of of leaving at his death something to the Church, and this was particularly the case during the Europe. pestilence which desolated Russia for so long a time. The estates of the Church, free from every tax paid to the Khans, or to the princes of the country, were prospering. The Bishops of Novogorod employed the treasures of St. Sophia* for the necessities of the State, but the metropopolitans did not follow this praiseworthy example; and whilst the people were languishing in poverty, the monks, occupied with trade, and having no taxes to pay, thought of nothing else than of increasing their riches. Thus, without speaking of the high consideration which was attached to the monastic life, and of the impulses of piety, its temporal advantages alone tants of towns and villages to seek the repose of conventual establishments, because piety was rewarded there not only by the enjoyment of public respect, but also by that of wealth, and people secure from violence and want could reap without having sown. We have very few convents indeed that were built either previously to the dominion of the Tahtars or after its close.

were sufficient to induce crowds of the inhabi

This state of things was, however, entirely changed through the subjugation of Russia by the Mongols, an event which, in its consequences, has perhaps no parallel in the history of the world. It was the dominion of a foreign and Mahomedan nation which laid the foundation of the state of Muscovy or modern Russia, and of the power and prosperity of its church and clergy. The Mongols commanded by the generals of Genghis Khan, appeared suddenly in the region which extends from the shores of the Black Sea, to the banks of the Volga, in the early part of the thirteenth century. Ilaving ravaged the country in a succession of excursions, they as suddenly retired to the plains of Central Asia whence they had issued. Several years passed without a recurrence of these Mongol incursions, the terror inspired by them was nearly forgotten, and the Russian princes had resumed their mutual quarrels, when the Mongols reappeared, in 1238, on the north-eastern boundary of The position which the Russian Church Russia. They repeated their incursions in enjoyed under the dominion of the Khans 1239, and 1240, and having ravaged Hunga- increased its wealth without advancing its ry and Poland, they penetrated as far as learning. We find no trace of any schools Liegnitz in Silesia, where they defeated a or literary productions of worth belonging numerous Christian army, and the princes to this communion during the period to which we refer. It does not appear, more over, to have gained any such political influ

great numbers of Cufic coins of the time of the Ca

liphs which are continually found in the provinces bordering on the eastern shores of the Baltic; so that the principal numismatic collections of Europe have been chiefly furnished from that quarter.

Nearly all are monuments of that period."(History of Russia, vol. v. chap. 4.)

We have said above that Novogorod was a republic. Its cathedral was dedicated to St. Sophia.

ence in Russia as was enjoyed by the Western Church during these ages.

whom we have already referred describes the origin of the Grand Duke's wealth during that critical period, in the following manner :

"It is very remarkable that the yoke of the Tahtars served to increase the treasury of the Grand Dukes. The registration of the inhabitants, the introduction of the poll-tax and other imposts hitherto unknown, and levied in the name of the Khan, served by the address of the princes to increase their own revenue. It was easy to cheat, in the difficult and complicated accounts, the Baskaks, (Tahtar tax-gatherers.) who, though at first the tyrants of our sovereigns, soon perceived tha the interest of their friends. The people murmured, it is true, but avarice required that they should be their they paid, because the fear of losing everything made them find the means of satisfying the cupidity of the barbarians."—Vol. v. chap. 9.

they plunder his subjects, when his own predecessors on the throne of Moscow acted the same part between their Asiatic sovereigns and their own subjects? The dominion of these eastern barbarians in Russia, which lasted two centuries, produced deplorable effects upon the national character, which must be taken into account in our own times.

The dominion of the Mongols in Russia was no less favourable to the establishment of a despotic power on the ruins of the ancient liberties of the country than it was to the worthy interests of the clergy; and it was through the influence of these Asiatic conquerors that the State of Moscow or modern Russia was founded, and developed at the expense of the other states into which the country had formerly been divided. The princes of Russia, overawed by the authority of their common suzerain, dared no longer to make war against each other, and sought now to overcome their adversaries by accusing them before the Khan, and by intrigues among his courtiers. About the beginning of the fourteenth century the petty prince of Moscow succeeded in ingratiating himself so much with the Khan as to obtain Is it then a wonder that the employés of his sister in marriage, and the hereditary the Czar rob his treasury as mercilessly as succession of the dignity of the Grand Duke, whilst it had been formerly bestowed, according to the right of seniority, upon the princes of different branches. His descendants adhered to this policy, courting the favour of the Khans with great obsequiousness, and obtaining the territories of their neighbours by calumniating them to these conquerors. It was by a strict and persevering adherence to this not over chivalrous policy that the Grand Dukes of Moscow were gradually increasing their power, whilst that of the Khans was at the same time dedining by internal commotions, until the rulers of Moscow became so strong as to shake off the dominion of their Eastern Superiors. It was not by force but by cunning, not by war but by diplomacy, that Moscow has, from the beginning, developed its power. Is it, therefore, a wonder that she is so superior to other countries in an art to which she owes her very existence? The same means which enabled the Sovereigns of Moscow to extend their territory at the expense of other Russian princes, served them to establish an absolute authority over their own subjects. The ancient order was entirely changed; everything which wore a character of liberty -everything which reminded men of the ancient rights that had been enjoyed by the citizens of Russia in medieval times, was gradually abolished. The princes who in the Horde were crouching at the feet of the Khans, returned to their own country in order to exercise the tyrannical power which they had received from their masters. Under the dominion of the Mongols was accomplished, without violence, what had formerly baffled the efforts of the most powerful monarchs of Russia. The historian to

Much has been said about the present vices of the Russian character, particularly as regards its administration, but these have been improperly attributed too much to the effects of an imperfect modern civilisation, and too little to the Mongol dominion. A French traveller, the Abbé Chappe d'Auteroche, who visited Russia nearly a century ago, said, "Les Russes sont pourris avant de murir ;" and the well-known politico-philosophical writer of the same Roman Catholic school, Count de Montalembert, has observed, in speaking of Panslavism, which he fears will subjugate Europe, that "the moral condition of the West will not be improved by it, because the educated Russians are as corrupted as any inhabitants of Western Europe." Many, indeed, believe, that this unfortunate state of things has been produced by the type of civilisation which Peter the Great and his successors have forced upon Russia, which only served to introduce amongst its inhabitants, particularly of the upper classes, the refinements of luxury, and the corruption but not the solid advantages of the society of Western Europe; and it is supposed that this circumstance renders the power of Russia less formidable to Europe than it would have been with a higher degree of morality amongst its inhabitants. We would, however, ob

serve, to those who wish to rally by this its Khans as late as 1470. Under John III., consideration the alarm felt at the progress the reigning Grand Duke of that period, the of Russia, that the power of Rome was ex-power of Moscow was rapidly developed, tended from the Tay to the Euphrates and it has ever since continued to advance during the greatest corruption of its man- under his successors, who assumed the ners, and that a similar corruption will not title of Czars of Russia in the reign of his prevent Russia from extending her limits. son. John married a niece of the emperor Though her morality was not greater under at Constantinople, and adopted on that ooCatherine II. than it is now, she has con- casion the double eagle of the Greek emtinued to grow in the interval. The corrup- pire as the arms of Moscow. This marriage, tion of the Russian is not of a western but suggested by the learned Greek Cardinal of an eastern origin and character; it is that Bessarion, was encouraged by Pope Paul of a barbarian, and not of an over-civilized, II., with the double object of promoting the or rather over-refined nation, though it is union of the Russian Church with Rome, often varnished with the gloss of a western and of delivering Constantinople from the polish. The long peace which has favoured infidels by means of Muscovy. The former a hitherto unprecedented development of in- of these schemes failed, inasmuch as the dustry and general welfare, has rendered princess, instead of bringing over her hus the Western nations perhaps too fond of band to Rome, renounced that communion material enjoyments, and too anxious to ac- herself; the latter may perhaps be accomcumulate and to preserve the means of plished now, though we doubt whether it obtaining them; so that, at least in many cases, they will not be inclined to submit to moral disadvantages in order to preserve from injury their material power, and to overlook real but distant dangers for the sake of avoiding minor but immediate inconvenience. The Russian, on the contrary, though perhaps even more passionately fond of mat rial enjoyments than the inhabitants of Western Europe, is reckless in the use of means for procuring them. Like Cataline, he is sui profusus alieni cupiens, and he often acts like the savage who hews down the tree in order to gather its fruits. Like those Asiatics under whose dominion his national character has been formed, and much of whose blood is flowing in the veins of his nobles, he is greedy of spoil, which he nationally as well as individually wrings, whenever he can, from his own as well as foreign countries, in the shape of conquest, war contributions, bribes, and every kind of extortions. Every project of invasion and conquest must therefore be popular with such a nation.*

The Mongol or Tahtar dominion which has produced these important effects upon Russia, gradually declined in the early part of the fifteenth century. We have said that whilst the Grand Dukes of Moscow were increasing their power; that of their suzerians, the Khans, was decreasing by internal commotions. The sovereigns of Moscow, however, continued to pay tribute to

*We most particularly recommend to those of our readers who wish to have an insight into the state of Russian society the work of Hommair de Hell. It displays a remarkable knowledge of the subjects which it treats, whilst the descriptions of character, manners, and customs, as well as of the incidents of the voyage, written by the author's fair companion Mme. H. de Hell, are quite charming.

will giye great satisfaction to the Papal court. Meanwhile the Khanat of Kipchak, whose vassal Russia had been for about two hundred years, fell in the latter part of the fifteenth century; and upon its ruins rose Kasan, which was soon obliged to acknowl edge the suzerainty of Moscow, and the Crimea, whose Khans became vassals of the Sultan. Kasan tried several times to recover its independence, but was finally subdued by the Czar in 1552, and this conquest was followed by that of Astrakhan.

The conquest of Astrakhan brought the power of Moscow to the shore of the Caspian Sea, and established a communication with the countries situated in its vicinity, which spread considerable alarm among the Mahomedan population. It gave rise to defensive expeditions on the part of Turkey, and to an invasion of Russia by the Khan of Crimea, a vassal of the Sultan, which issued in the burning of Moscow in 1571, and the humiliation of the Czar.* The diplomacy

of the Czar succeeded, however, in averting, without any sacrifice, the danger with which he was menaced by the Sultan and his vassal, and peaceful relations were restored

*It is very remarkable, that during the diplomatic relations which took place then between Moscow and the Porte, the Czar represented to the Sultan the advantage enjoyed by the Mahomedans in his domideclarations of the Porte about its Christian subjects nions, in a manner which reminds us of the present. And indeed they have enjoyed, and enjoy now in Russia, all the privileges of Christians--a remarka

ble contrast to the hostile relations which subsisted for so many centuries between the Moors and Christians in Spain, and a circumstance to be taken into account in any estimate of Russian influence in the East. We need only suggest the advantage in this respect, even to an immoral and imperfectly civilized government, which opens full scope in all departments of its service to the ambition and energy of the natives.