assistance, proper materials, that he might, of his own power, create all, and be himself the source, the soul, the centre of a newly risen world. Jealous of every interference not her own, she not only deprived him of a suitable education, but exposed him to one replete with poison and corruption; that, in repelling both, in waking from the ignominious slumber, and tearing the cords, which bound his hands, asunder, he might derive no aid from art, and be indebted only to his own efforts; that she might claim the infant Samson for her own, and, in shewing him to the astonished world, she might with conscious pride exclaim: Behold my chosen offspring! Behold the master-piece of man!

To follow Peter through his career would require the rapidity of a tempest, the keen sight of an eagle, and the strength of a Hercules. To explore the unbounded capacity of his mind would be a task, presumptuous and hopeless. Such a blaze of glory never yet encircled an individual. Such a mine of mental riches never in one man was yet discovered. Nothing was hid from his penetrating eye; nothing couki elude his indefatigable search. Unassisted, untutored, purposely uninstructed, and wilfully neglected, during the most susceptible part of his life, he yet, as if by inspiration, recoiled from vice; reached virtue at one step; overran in an instant the regions of science; grasp. ed the tools of art; seized on the hoarded treasures of knowledge; pierced the depth of the past, present, and future; and, with one bold movement, despoiled mystery of her dark curtain.

His activity reached the utmost limits of his empire. His vigilance never slept. His eye inspected all. His spirit presided every where; and its presence, like that of some invisible deity, was felt in every part of his extensive dominions. Tall of stature, robust of frame, endowed with an exterior, whose form and symmetry denoted beauty, strength, and majesty, he was enabled to encounter toils incredible; with a single look to overawe the malecontents, to win the fastidious, to rivet the affections of the well disposed; and to appear, now like a cheering rainbow, and now like a thunderbolt, wherever his presence was required: so that even his body, like some palpable vision, seemed to keep pace with the rapidity of his spirit."

We have now given to the reader the general complexion of the author's style and manner, and it would be unnecessary to multiply quotations. He has accompanied his reflections with copious notes, containing anecdotes of the czar, compiled from various authors, which present to us some of the facts on which his panegyric is grounded. He very successfully refutes the charge that Peter was prone to cruelty, and shows the indispensible necessity of enforcing the rigorous observance of law on a people not disciplined and innured to such restraint. Clemency, in such instances would have completely dissipated that salutary

awe that legal penalties were calculated to inspire, and would have rendered his whole system, founded on this basis, precarious and abortive. In one of these notes the author asserts that

"A friendship once contracted was so sacred with Peter, that he, though seated on the throne of majesty, never forsook his humble friends and fellow labourers of Sardam; but some of them he invited to settle in Russia, and with others, who could not leave their home, he kept up a constant correspondence under the name of Peter Bas, by which he was known among the workmen. Many of his letters to them are still preserved and published in the Russian language. They are well worth the curiosity of those, who are desirous of forming a correct knowledge of Peter's character. If my present undertaking should meet with encouragement, it would be a great pleasure to me to introduce them with many other more important letters to the acquaintance of the American reader."

We hope the author will be induced to comply with the promise here given-these would, indeed, be testimonials of a trait in the character of the czar, not generally known, and we think he owes this tribute of reverence to his ashes.

The czar, on his way to Moscow, was beset by thieves and robbers. Finding who he was, they offered to release him, provided he would give them an order on his treasury at Moscow for one thousand rubles, and pledge his royal word that no search should be made. Peter accepted of the terms, and punctitiously complied with his promise. Of his humanity, we have the following example recorded. When the city of Narva was taken, the Russians, exasperated at such obstinate resistance, prepared for indiscriminate slaughter. Peter ran from piace to place, and slew several of his soldiers with his own hand, before he could stop their exterminating vengeance. When he entered the citadel, and the governor was presented to him a prisoner of war, he laid his bloody sword upon the table, and with a tone of mingled indignation and sorrow, exclaimed, "Look on this sword, it reeks with Russian, and not with Swedish blood. I have been forced to destroy my own subjects to save the city from pillage and massacre, provoked by your rash and obstinate, because hopeless resistance."

His clemency, to those whom the chance of war had made dependant on his mercy, is attested by the following fact. After the peace was signed, he restored a great many principal officers

without ransom; to some he gave magnificent presents, and others he recommended to their master's favour. The rear admiral, Ehrenschild, on his return home, was immediately made an admiral in consequence of his recommendation.

Even the public amusements of Peter had for their object the improvement of his subjects. Fire works were those in which he most delighted. On one exhibition of this kind, he inquired of a Prussian ambassador what he considered the expense? The ambassador estimated the cost at twenty thousand rubles. His majesty replied, "I know that the frequency of fire works has exposed me to the imputation of extravagance. I also know that owing to the abundance of materials produced in Russia, my fire works, comparatively with those of other countries, are far less expensive, so that the present, instead of twenty, do not cost me five thousand rubles; but if they were ever so dear, I should still find them of great advantage: for, by making them familiar, I find that my subjects insensibly accustom themselves to stand the fire in battle, and to face, without terror, what they so often behold for their amusement." How contemptible does hereditary dignity, reclining on the down of indolence appear, when contrasted with a monarch of a mighty nation, who could write thus on the very evening before the great and decisive battle of Pultowa. In a postscript he desires that his tools for turning might be sent to him, as he had a great deal of leisure time, and wanted something to amuse him. Another circumstance will shew the economy of the czar, which is, indeed, the proper sort of economy, and what Burke made a great part of the business of his life to recommend. We find the same monarch, who would not regard the expenditure of twenty thousand rubles in fire works, for the laudable purpose of disciplining his subjects to danger, adding these directions to one of his letters, written on matters of the highest importance, to "overhaul some old mats on board the Eagle," which were cast off as useless; but which he thought on recollection might yet be applied to some useful purposea saving at most of a few rubles. His inflexibility and unconquerable heroism, combined with that prudent and discerning an ticipation of probable events, is strikingly exemplified by the following incident. When encamped on the river Pruth, in a

hopeless condition, and the destruction of himself and army he thought irretrievable, he stated his apprehensions in a letter addressed to the senate. He informs them that he is surrounded by a Turkish army four times as strong as his own-that the destruction of his army appeared inevitable, without the special intervention of Providence in his favour, and for himself, he looked for nothing but death or captivity. If the latter event should take place, he enjoins the senate no longer to regard him as their lawful sovereign, and to disregard whatever might be sent in his name, were it even written in his own hand. If he should perish, and they should receive authentic intelligence of his death, they were commanded to choose the worthiest for his

successor.

We wish to deal very frankly with this respectable and patriotic writer, and to inform him that a more thorough knowledge of Peter's character-the relative state of Russia, both before and after his accession to the throne-the obstacles he was destined to encounter and to overcome; all these will be required, before the propriety of his panegyrics will be seen and acknowledged by all classes of his readers. The notes, it is true, so far as they go, answer in part our objection, and support the eulogy. We regret, notwithstanding, that the author had not interwoven these testimonials in his eulogy, adopted a strain of writing more allied to the narrative, and partaking more of biography. Impressions of this kind, although they may not answer the fervid feelings of an author, have a much more durable and abiding influence on the mass of ordinary readers. As the volume now stands, it is an honourable specimen of the writer's genius and patriotism; but we wish it might have had a still more extended utility. We can but hope, that the writer intends it as a mere vade mecum-that he will hereafter be encouraged to favour us with the biography, and descend into all the nicer shades and details of character, for which the present volume proves him so competent. Panegyric, it is true, dazzles and delights us; but we conceive, with submission, that where it is gracefully adorned with fact, the whole work appears to be one entire piece, and presents a fabric more compact, and more permanent. The massy materials he has already in his possession, and genius and

patriotism, both solicit this workmanship from his hands. He will pardon the freedom of these remarks, when they are only designed to tempt him once more to the exercise of the pen. We wish only to enlarge the circle of his admirers.

Such, then, we conceive, will be the opinions formed of our author and his book. Those readers familiar with the history of Russia, will discover in this splendid panegyric the overflowings of a grateful heart-that honest pride of country, which is the nursery of high and generous sentiment, and manly virtue. On the other hand, it will, we fear, risk the character of rhapsody, with those who have still to learn, that to Peter alone, is Russia indebted for twining around her cold and apparently inhospitable temples, the tender and delicate blossoms of civilized life. We hope, even this objection, our author is destined to remove. In the present day, when patriotism is thought so cheap, and has, like other articles of traffic, its market price, the crisis demands that the character of a real patriot should be spread before us in all its details; that our countrymen may see the awful disparity between the genuine and counterfeit. We will dismiss this point, by simply remarking, that this would more effectually answer the author's own intentions, since the life of Peter, from such a hand, would constitute his best eulogy.

Our author, with an honourable and characteristic warmth, vindicates Peter from the charge of his supposed agency in the death of his son, and the presumptive heir to the crown, Alexis. He dwells on the notoriety of the charge, the trial, the anguish, that the royal parent suffered, his visit to his son in prison after his condemnation; the result of that interview, with a variety of other collateral facts, utterly irreconcilable to the imputed agency of the czar.

The author, with a view to impress these ideas more powerfully on the minds of his readers, has framed a tragedy of this incident, which he denominates Alexis the Czarewitz. The plot is remarkably simple, and which we shall attempt to delineate. Peter is represented as confined to his bed by sickness, occasioned by the crimes and ingratitude of his son Alexis. Wavering between his love of justice, and his parental sensibilities, he hesitates between the father and the monarch. During this con