inclination to excite civil war, by acting on the prejudices of the people in favour of the regular order of succession. The throne of Nicholas seemed to be as firmly rooted as if he had been always destined to it from his birth; a sup pressed revolt only gave it, as it always does, additional security his character was respectable and popular; his activity in business was exemplary; even to the disaffected military, the intrepidity, the coolness, and the energy of his conduct, amid the tumults and dangers of the 25th of December, were powerful recommendations. His first care was, to acknow ledge the services of those who had been faithful to him; they were liberally rewarded with promotions and titles of honour: a pension was given to the rela tions of general Miloradovich, who had fallen in his defence. The punishment of the traitors was the next object. It was a good sign of the government, that, far from indulging, from the fears and provocation of the moment, in indiscriminate executions and proscriptions, it proceeded with great calmness and moderation, regularly to ascertain the guilt of the different criminals by an investigation to which it afterwards gave every publicity. There was policy in this, as well as justice; it was desirable to reach the conspiracy throughout its minutest ramifica tions, and not to cut off, by an over-hasty zeal to punish, any probable sources of important information. A special commission of inquiry was appointed in January for the trial of the rebels. It consisted of the grand duke Michael, the minister at War, general Tatistcheff, president; the privy Councillor, prince Gallitzin; the aide-de-camp, general Golen istcheff; Koutousoff, military governor of St. Petersburgh; the aides-de-camps, generals Benckendorff, Lewascheff, and Patassoff. At the same time he set about remedying the abuses, which, although they neither produced nor justified the treasons of the conspirators, might have been used by them to excite popular discontent, and conceal their real motives. Negligence in the execu tion of the laws, and corruption in the administration of justice, were widely diffused. It appear ed, from a report of the minister of justice, that sixteen different governments of the empire had neglected to carry into execution no fewer than 2,749 ukases, addressed to them by the directing senate from the year 1822 to 1824, of which 660 were for the government of Kursk alone. The committee of the ministry immediately ordered the sixteen governments to be severely reprimanded, to be enjoined to carry these ukases into execution within the term of a year, and to be ordered to account for the delay. But, the resolution of the committee being laid before the emperor, his majesty allowed only three months for the execu tion of ukases, and added, that it should be intimated to the civil governor of Kursk, that, if he should be guilty of such irregularities in future, he would be prosecuted before the criminal court. Nothing could show more clearly the helplessness of the despotic head of an extensive empire, than that so many ordinances of Alexander for the good of his subjects, or the interests of his authority, should have been lying disobeyed and disregarded in the custody of the very officers to whom their execution had been intrusted, without either he or his ministers having any knowledge of the fact. Instructions were likewise issued, enjoining the civil governors of the empire to demand of all judicial tribunals within their respective provinces the most prompt decision of causes pending before them, whether civil or criminal, and especially of criminal prosecutions affecting the life of the accused. The governor of Smolensko, against whom loud complaints of negligence were made, was reprimanded for the dilatoriness which existed in the proceedings of the courts of that province; and the attorniesgeneral of the different governments were specially charged to watch over the strict execution of the imperial will, and to report to the minister of justice every instance which might occur of négligence e in a judge. An abstract of these reports to be communicated every month to the emperor himself.alijo, si The empress Elizabeth had been with the emperor when he died, and she did not long survive him. A chronic disease had, for many years, been undermining her health, and the physicians had advised a journey into the south of the empire, in the hope of effecting a cure which was deemed impossible in the d climate of St. Petersburgh. The change of air seemed to produce a favourable effect, but it was fatally counteracted by the illness and death of Alexander, over whom she watched to the last with exemplary solicitude and assiduity. From that moment she felt that death was approach ing herself. Having set out from Taganrog to join the empress mother at Kalouga, her disease evidently increased at every stage; VOL. LXVIII. but she persisted in continuing her journey, contrary to the remonstrances of her physician, and her suite. Her situation became so alarming, that an express was sent to the empress mother, who had already arrived at Kalouga, acquainting her with the danger, and requesting her to come to Beleff, a town between Kalouga and Orel, the empress being unable to proceed further. The former immediately set out; but before she could arrive at Beleff, the empress had expired on the 16th of May." Insurrections have been produc ed in our West-Indian colonies, by the negroes being imbued with a belief, that government had decreed their emancipation, and that they were deprived of its benefits by their owners suppressing the fact. A similar belief had gone abroad among the serfs and peasants of Russia, although it displayed itself as yet only in murmurs and petitions. Alexander had abolished the personal servi tude of the peasants of the crown, and, with the consent of the greater part of the land-owners, had extended the benefit of the measure to the peasantry of the German provinces of the empire, Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland. But the same freedom could not be used with the less enlightened proprietors of old Russia: to have emancipated their serfs would have been to injure too many interests, or rather, to wound too many prejudices, which the emperor found it necessary to respect. He was compelled, therefore, to rest satisfied with preparing the way for such a measure, and, as one important step, he had prohibited the proprietors from making a traffic of their serfs, whom they had hither to been in the habit of selling like [T] tions to their sovereign; but expectations would have been entertained, and the assertions of the peasantry would have been thought to be acquiesced in, so long as petitions. were received without censure. To crush all hope, and repress every expression of discontented feeling was, at the moment, the policy of the government. cattle they might be sold with the estate to which they belonged, but they were no longer to be handed over from master to master, as forming of themselves an article of commerce. The peasants naturally thought that, where this had been granted, more was intended; they wished to be placed on the same footing with their brethren in the German provinces; they were misled, perhaps, by political agitators, for a much worse purpose; and they asserted that an ukase, decreeing their complete emancipation, had been prevented only by the sudden death of Alexander. These feelings and ideas daily gained ground; the peasants on the crown lands believed that they had been released from taxes which were still exacted from them, and the peasants of the landowners, that they were freed from absolute obedience to the will of their lords. Numerous petitions, founded upon these suppositions, were addressed to Nicholas; and just about the time when the investigations of the commission of inquiry into the plot of December had discovered a perseverance and extent of conspiracy to which such a spirit in the peasantry would have been a most useful ally, a decree was issued, correcting the errors of the peasantry upon both points, ascribing them to the machinations of seditious and evildisposed persons, but threatening, if they were acted on, to punish with the whole rigour of the law. All further petitioning on such mat ters was prohibited; and it was organize the first secret association, dered, that the authors of such peti tions should be delivered over to the tribunals, and severely punished, as disturbers of the public tranquillity. It was a harsh measure to punish subjects for addressing peaceable peti After an investigation, which lasted nearly five months, the commission of inquiry into the conspiracy which had led to the events of the 26th December, terminated its labours; and, in a long report, developed the origin, the constitution, and the objects of the secret societies in which the conspiracy had originated. This report was founded almost entirely on documents belonging to these societies themselves, and on the evidence and confessions of the accused, who seem all to have been willing to reveal every thing they knew. The first idea of such associations had been imported by some young military men in 1814 and 1815, who had become acquainted with them as they existed in Germany, and who, believing in their infalli ble tendency to create liberty and happiness, had resolved to transport them into Russia. The first persons who proposed the plan were Alexander Muraviev, a captain on half-pay, captain Nikita Muraviev, and colonel prince Trubetsky. These original conspirators were soon joined by others, almost all officers of disbanded regi-. ments; and they proceeded to or under the name of "The Union of Safety, or, the true and faithful Sons of the Country." This society included three classes, that of brethren, that of men, and that of boyars, From the last class, superior to the other two, were chosen every month the elders and directors, namely the president, the superintendent, and the secre neral Orlov, who was employed along with Ceunt Mamonov, and the counsellor of State, Nicolas Turguenev, in the formation of tary. The admission of members another society, ssian Knights. was accompanied with solemn ceremonies. The candidates took an oath to preserve secresy in every thing that should be confided to them, even when their opinions should not agree with those of the society; they bound themselves to proceed towards the object of their union, and to submit to the decision of the supreme council of boyars, although the boyars were to remain unknown to all the individuals of the inferior classes. At this time, the society consisted of Alexander, Nikita, Serg, and Matthew Muraviev, Prince Serg Trubetsky, Novikov (formerly director of the office of governorgeneral of little Russia), Michael Lounine, and three other members, who subsequently abandoned it at different periods, and broke off all connexion with their more ardent colleagues. Its object, from the beginning, was a change in the existing institutions of the empire. Such were the unanimous declarations of Alexander, Serg, Matthew, and Nikita Muraviev, as well as Pestel. Prince Trubetsky affirmed that, aware of the weakness and temerity of their enterprise, they discussed at their meetings the means of promoting the good of their country, and of furthering the accomplishments of every useful design. Their principal object was to increase the force of their society by the acquisition of new members, whose talents and moral qualities were to be supported upon good testimony, as a qualification for their admission. In the mean time they secured the accession of M. Yakuchkine, and major-ge was to bear the title of the Russian Knights. Major-general Michel Orlov, and Alexander Muraviev, tried to ef fect a junction of their respective societies, but they could not agree upon the terms of the union. The plan failed, and an association, of which the general had conceived an idea, namely, to prevent the erection of a kingdom in Poland, was not formed. The original society made no progress. Some of its members, particularly one Pestel, left Petersburg; others disco vered inconsistency in its views, and inconveniencies in its laws. Others again, and especially those who had simply consented to fra... ternize with the Union of Safety," required that the society should limit itself to acting slowly on the public mind, that it should change its statutes, which had for their basis the principle of blind obedience, and the employment of violent means, and that it should adopt, in place of them, regulations to be drawn principally from the code of the German Tugend-Bund, or association of virtue. The primitive members of the society opposed the alteration for a long time; and it was during the deliberations upon this subject that, in 1817, the assassination of the emperor Alexander was first broached, and that too upon suppositions which almost implied frenzy in those who entertained them. One of the members had received a letter from Troubetsky, announcing that the emperor had the intention of restoring to Poland all the provinces conquered by Russia, and that, foreseeing on for its object philanthropy and beneficence, public and private. The second had for its object, intellectual and moral education, the establishment of schools, particularly on the Lancasterian system, and, in general, co-operation in the instruction of youth. To the members of this section was confided the inspection of all schools. The third had for its object, to watch over the proceedings of the tribunals. Its members bound themselves not to refuse any judicial appointment that should be offered, to fulfil their duties with the part of the Russians, discon tent and opposition, he intended to retire to Warsaw with his court, and leave the country al prey to anarchy. This intelligence, of which the conspirators themselves acknowledged the absurdity, produced upon them an effect scarcely credible. They cried out that an attempt upon the life of the emperor had become an object of urgent necessity. Prince Theodore Schakousky proposed not to delay the execution of it longer than the day on which his regiment was to mount guard. They even wished to draw lots who should be the as-zeal and exactness, to encourage sassin, when, excited by the agitaotion of his companions, and inflamed by their discourses, Yakouchkine offered his arm for regicide. -Even in his madness he seemed to feel the enormity of the crime which he meditated. "Fate," said he, has marked me for its victim. Having become a criminal, of shall no longer be able to live. I shall strike the blow first, and then kill myself." The proposal, however, was at that time carried -no further; because they were convinced that the crime would be Luseless, and Yakouchkine, who yseems to have been really mad, broker off all connexion with the Tsociety. t The association having hitherto -enjoyed so little prosperity, changed its name into that of "The Union - of the Public Weal," and adopted a new constitution, and new regulations. By the first part of these regulations the members declared that they entertained no intentions sof injuring government, and that they pursued their labours in secret only to avoid the perverted constructions of malevolence and ha*tredoqThe members were divided into four classes. The first had T persons of integrity employed about When the members of the central union joined this council, the assembly took the name of the Central Direction. The central council exercised the executive, and the central direction the legislative, power. The direction had, besides, the power of nominating a temporary chamber of legislation to examine, explain, and complete, the laws of the union without changing their object. Thus the whole authority of the society, and the power of directing it towards any object, was wielded Lyby its founders, members of the original association. It belonged to them to receive new members by establishing each a direction. These |