The Press. — London, England, 1858-12-04 00:00:00

1186 THE PRESS, DECEMBER 4,1858. r. it 1 fittratart. cruelty and vice are almost the unavoidable attendants upon the throne ; we see that intrigues and conspiracies naturally pullulate where affec tion is forbidden as a crime ; and we no longer wonder at the sustained energy of a Government the reins of which, by whomsoever passively held, must inevitably be guided by the hand best able to seize them. then entered his room and reminded them of their dnt to which they immedi a t e l y su b mitted, which made the Gr and Duke say to me, on more than one occasion, that he did not know how I managed his people--he thrashed them well and yet could not make them obedient, while I obtained from them all I wanted by a single word. His respect for his wife's superiority, however, does not seem to have been by any means a constant feeling,—witness the following hist°. riette : At Zarskoe Selo the Grand Duke conceived a decided tendresse (especially of an evening after drinking) for the little hump-backed Princess of Courland. He kept constantly at her side, and would speak to nobody else. At length this affair came to be carried on openly in my own presence and in that of all the rest of the world ; and it certainly hurt my vanity and my selfesteetn to see this little mor.ster preferred to me. One day, on leaving table, itme. Vladislava told me that everybody was shocked at this hump-backed girl being thus preferred. I answered, " What can Ido ? " The tears started to my eyes, and I went off to bed. I was scarcely asleep when the Grand Duke came to bed also. As he was drank and did not know what he was about, he began to entertain me with lauding the eminent qualities of hie mistress. I pretended to be fast asleep in order to silence him ; but after raising his voice to wake me, and seeing that I still slept on, he gave me two or three heavy blows in the aide, cursed my drowsiness, and then turned round and went to sleep. I wept much that night over the thing itself, the blows he had given me, and my own positi on , which was in every respect as disagreeable as vexatious. liEnwires de rlnyWratrice Catherine II.; Ecrits par Ella-mime. (Autobiography of the Empress Catherine II.) With a Preface by A. llerzen. London : Triibner. THERE is perhaps no class of works which the world is more given to overvalue than that to which these Memoirs belong. An autobiography, as a general rule, is a mere tissue of special plead ing. That it must be so, a glance into our own hearts, if taken in one of the rare lucid intervals of that self-approving monomania which is com mon to all mankind, will infallibly demonstrate. Why, even before the secret tribunal of con science, what marvellous ingenuity do we not display in imagining ex post facto motives—in painting over ugly spots—in transferring the hverage of all irksome burdens from our own to our coadjutors shoulders ! No—if an auto biography has any value whatever as a delinea tion of character, or even of correlative events, such value must be arrived at by a process of sifting and of restoration which will almost require the patience of a Liebig and the sagacity of a Cuvier. Only the most subtle analysis of the complex amalgam can detect its true bases; only the most keensighted examination of what is given can supply all the important and dis tinctive parts which are left out. If the above remarks are applicable to auto biographies in general, how much more so to the autobiographies of that sex in which the love of approbation is more decidedly developed ? Such at least was our persuasion in taking up the work before us; and if that persuasion has not been strengthened by the perusal, it certainly has not been weakened. The fact is, that this book— spite of its author's maturer " philosophic" tastes—makes no pretension whatever to that self-analysis, to that confessional tone, which generally seasons works of the kind. All that we do learn of character is learnt indirectly—through remarks upon the conduct of others, through expressed impatience of control, through careless avowals and studied reticences. The scattered grains of individuality thus supplied, although destitute either of novelty or profundity, possess at least the merit of being genuine. If we are only told what we knew before, we are told so by the best and the most incontrovertible of all authorities; and we are so constituted that a certain degree of gratification is always expe rienced even where assurance itself is made " doubly sure." But if the autobiographical Memoirs of this most remarkable woman contain nothing either to enhance the qualified admiration of the histo rian, or to mitigate the unqualified censure of the moralist, they possess a general interest, in their simple, straightforward revelations of life at the Muscovite Court, which will serve, with the sober reader, as some set -off against this parti cular disappointment. For us, and probably still more for our children, and our children's children, all that relates to Russia—all that contributes to lay bare to our scrutiny the process of consolidation constantly going on in that stupendous mass whose shadow throws a darker gloom over the mystery of the future —ought to he fraught with a special attrac tion. " The East " meant India, and India only, some half-century ago. When we speak it now, who does not feel that the chill mists of the Neva will creep at times across the gloaming sky of that picture-word ? From this point of view these Memoirs would be interesting, even if read by the light of a far inferior reputation. The profoundly demoralizing influences of a Court where devotions are ordered, and filial grief counter-ordered, through the medium of a chamberlain; where a valet-de chambre is commissioned to remonstrate with Catherine on the impropriety of an unconcealed (but innocent) preference for one of her husband's servants; and where her " grande-gouvernante," after an ostentatiously rigid surveillance of her earliest married years, undertakes the delicate task of recommending a similar provision for " the succession," as (niutatis mutandie) Sarah recommended to Abraham—are placed before us in all the cold, uuidealized colours of reality. We understand, as we read, that, where the path to irresponsible power lies through abject slavery, Perhaps the most finished portrait the book contains is that of Catherine's husband, l'eter 111. While we gaze at this moral and physical deformity, the errors of the woman whose most womanly feelings were immolated on the altar of an idol so hideous assume a less sombre hue. One of the noteworthy characteristics of this por trait is the natural and unexaggerated colours in which it is drawn. That the feelings of the artist towards her sitter must have reached the extremest verge of loathing cannot be doubted. But these feelings are never actually expressed— never at least with any clearness, any impulsive outburst. The profound self-control of Catherine could scarcely be more strikingly exemplified ! Here are a few specimens of the character and habits of this Imperial brute : In the country the Grand Puke got up a pack of hounds, which he began to train himself. When tired of tormenting dim he set to scraping the violin. He did not know a note, although he had a good ear. But he made the whole beauty of music consist in the force and violence with which he drew the tones from his instru {tient. His listeners, however, would often have gladly stopt their ears if they had dared. This mode of life was continued in town as well as in the country. On her return to the Summer Palace, Mme. Krouse, who bad never ceased playing the Argus, an far soitened as to take part in galling the Tchoglokoffs (the " grande.gouver !tante" and her husband ), who had become the biles noires of the whole household. She did more ; she procured the Grand Duke toys, dolls, and other children's playthings, of which he was immensely fond. During the day these things were hidden inside and underneath my bed. The Grand Duke retired first after sipper, and as soon as we were both in bed, Mme. Krouse locked the door, and then the Grand Duke played with his toys till one or two o'clock in the morning. Whether 1 liked it or not, I was obliged to take part in this pretty amusement, and so was Mine. Krouse also. Sometimes it made me laugh, but oftener it wearied me to death and even inconvenienced me; for the whole bed was covered and filled with dolls and toys, some of which were considerably heavy. I do not know if Mine. Tchoglokoff got wind of these nocturnal amusements ; but one evening, towards midnight, she came and knocked at our bedroom door. It was not opened at once, because the Grand Duke, Mine. Krouse, and I, were far too busy clearing the bed of the toys and hiding them away, witn the help of the bed clothes, under which we crammed them. As soon as this was accomplished the door was opened, but Madame was very cross at baying been kept waiting. and told us that the Empress would be exceed ingly angry when she heard that we were not asleep yet at such an hour. She then went away grumbling, but without having made any discovery. As soon as she was gone the Grand Duke resumed the same games until he felt inclined to sleep. We have said above that there is nothing in these Memoirs either to enhance Catherine's political or to meliorate her moral reputation. But really, on reflection, we must revise the latter part at least of this judgment. We must confess that, after perusing the above and much more in the same strain, we read with modified horror the page in which the determination upon the great crime by which Catherine possessed her self of the throne is calmly recorded. The Impe rial blackguard takes it into his head to become jealous, and expresses this feeling openly. As soon as the fact reaches his wife's ears,— I saw (she says) from that in ment that three paths, equally perillous, presented themselves to my choice,— Ist., to share the fortunes of the Grand Duke, whatever they might be; 2nd., to remain exposed at every moment to all that it might please him to determine either for or against me ; 3rd., to take a line of conduct independent of every event. But, to speak more clearly, the alternative was to perish with or by him, or to save myself, my children, and, perhaps, the State, from the shipwreck menaced by the moral and physical capacities of this Prince. This last course appeared mo the safest. There is a dramatic brevity in this concluding phrase—involving as it does the death-sentence of her husband—which is about the only thing in the book which reminds us that Catherine was the patron of the Encyclopedistes, and the corm• spondent of Voltaire. In other respects there is little at all suggestive either of her Intellectual ability or of her political greatness. Intrigues, quarrels, descriptions of fifes, accounts of the wretchedness of accommodation in their hunting villas, and of the consequent agonies of toothache and rheumatism, form the staple incidents of this singular narrative. Only in one particular —in the absorbing ambition which regulates her whole demeanour and evidently bears her up through every trial—does the personal identity of the Empress and the Grand Duchess shine clearly out. In his brilliant but somewhat frothy preface, M. Herzen remarks : But his Imperial Highness's amusements are by no means always of such an innocent character. He establishes his pack of dogs in the room next to his wife's chamber, and here he occupied himself with rare perseverance in training these animals with the help of a huge whip, uttering hunting cries and making them race from end to end of the two rooms which were his own. Whenever any dog grew tired, or fell behind the others, it was severely chastised, which of course increased the noise One day, hearinit a poor dog yelling louder and longer than usual, I opened the door of toy bedroom in which I was sitting, and which adjoined the scene of punishment, and found him holding up one of these animals (a poor little English spaniel) by the collar, while a Kalmuck page held it by the tai:, and heating it as hard as he could with the butt end of his whip. I begin to intercede for the poor beast, bat this only made him redouble his blows. In general, tears and supplications, instead of softening the Grand Duke, put hint into a rage. Pity was a sentiment painful and even insupportable to his breast. ------- _ Reading these Memoirs, we are astonished to find one thing constantly for,rotten—so constantly, indeed, as never to appear at ;—/tuxsia, and the people. And this is tho characteristic trait of the epoque. This astonishment we cannot exactly share. The Memoirs break off with the year 1759—that is, three years before Catherine siezed the Impe rial power. That portion of her history, then, during which she held the welfare of " Russia and the people " in her hands, is untouched. Had the autobiography been completed—as was evidently her intention—other and far higher interests would doubtless have appeared, in their own proper time, upon the scene. But it would be scarcely just to accuse of indifference to her kingdom and her people a sovereign who was, after Peter 1., Russia's greatest regenerator. A catalogue of all the reforms that the .Muscovite empire owes to the author of these Memoirs, might put many a soi-disant leader of civilization to shame. Under her sway the judicial system was purified, public instruction was encouraged and forwarded, commerce was extended, nanal,s were opened, and the condition of the serfs greatly improved. The authenticity of the Memoirs cannot, we think, be questioned. Not that the account Matters get gradually worse and worse. While Catherine is confined to bed by the effects of a miscarriage (in which, she frankly tells us, the Grand Duke had no sort of part), the future Czar spent the greatest part of his time in his room; where a Ukrainian valet•de-chambre named Karnovitch, $ man as idiotic as drunken, amused him as best he could, supplying him with toys, wine and spirits, as long as he could do so without the knowledge of M. Tchoglokoff, whom, hythc•bye, everybody deceived and made a tool of. Put in these nocturnal and hidden orgies with his own servants, among whom were several Kalmuck boys, the Grand Duke often found himself both ill obeyed and ill-eerved ; for as they were all drunk they did not know what they were doing, and forgot that they were with their master, and that this master was the Grand Duke. 'Then his Imperial Highness had recourse to blows, with his stick or with the flat of his sword. Spite of these, however, his company obeyed him ill, and he was obliged more than once to have recourse to me, complaining of his people and begging me to bring them to reason. I