The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-22 00:00:00

THE SPIRIT OF DESPOTISM.

"Despotism," says the Marquis de Custine, in his
"Russia," " is never so much to be feared as when it
is pretending to do good ;" for despots sometimes,
among their other freaks, determine to be reformers,
and to civilise, educate, and improve the people and
the institutions of the country over which they
have power. Good men have had a fancy of this
kind, and when they have written upon the subject,
despots have read and received them with pleasure-
They perhaps wished the people to be improved ; but
then it must be after their fashion.

Fenelon, in his " Telemachus," gives instruction to
the Bourbon Princes how to rule and make a nation
happy. Nothing was to emanate from the people
themselves ; all was to be the work of the Prince.
Fenelon was perhaps the first who put this notion,
into the heads of Princes, and Kings, and Emperors,,
and strange as it may be, of Pashaws, But all Fene-
lon's men and women resemble the pictures drawn by
poets of smiling maids and piping shepherds so faith-
fully copied in the last age by the pencil of Bartalozzi.
These shepherds, however, are not of this world, nor
ever had existence except in poets' and painters' dreams.
The Bourbons certainly attempted to carry some of
Fenelon's notions into effect, and so late as the reign
of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette it is easy to
trace in the arrangements of " little Trianon" an af-
fection for simplicity and a country life. Frederick
of Prussia was of It sturdier race, and under the influ-
ence of philosophy; but all his efforts to improve the
condition. of the people were attended with real tor-
ments to them without advancing them in the least
degree.

Later still, we have seen Mehemet Ali, whose as-
sumed "amelioration" and aggrandizement of Egypt
have steeped the people in blood and tears, whilst he
was flattered in Europe as the regenerator of a
nation.

Something of the same kind has been going on
ever since the reign of Peter the Great in Russia, and
is still carried on. The Emperor Nicholas wishes
perhaps the people of his empire to be the greatest,
wisest, and most civilized people on the earth. He
has, with this view, founded seminaries and colleges
in every considerable town in the country. He
patronises the arts, and encourages learning ; hut
everything, even to the cutting of a moustache,
must be done according to the Imperial
rule : all must square with his notions, as if he
were a God, and could form the mind of
man as easily as he can clothe his army in a
peculiar garb. But the mind of man, though plastic
enough at times, is formed of other than Imperial
stuff, and men will think for themselves in the end ;
and when they begin to think it is not long before
they proceed to action. It is "impossible to teach,
ignorance, for the light that pervades, and illustrates),
at the same time dispels darkness." The truth seems
to be, that Russia must become European—she
cannot remain Oriental, nor for many centuries
despotic. The light of European civilisation will
penetrate even that dark region. The attempt to,
bring up the people in darkness and to educate them
at the same time has been often tried and has always
tfailed.he
ig
ignorant
tr e vhiivgaoltroyf col af s s
ti chael
me airdndilneg was . fatal to
The
principles of Greek freedom survived that glorious
people, and burst forth with original vigour the
moment they were known and transplanted to
Europe. The proud bearing of haughty independence
that breathes through every line of Plutarch has
exercised a far greater influence over the revival of
freedom than is often supposed. Luther did not
labour with more zeal or success to arouse the dor-
mant faculties of man in the north, than did the re-
fined Leo X. in his Pontifical chair. Both, though
in different ways and with different views, were ex-
tending the mental and intellectual powers of man.
The same operations are still going on—dark-
ness is continually driven back, and the light is
daily extending its bounds. Fenelons and Bour-
bons, Fredericks and Mehemet Alis, Emperors and
Churches, may assist the people to rise from
mental prostration, but are apt, when they
rise, to be angry because they will no longer 'sub-
mit to the dicta of their rulers, who would give th(
right of private judgment, but with the condition
that that private judgment must always be in accord-
ance with their own views—or be treated as a six)
and a crime. But, wherever real education pre-
vails, men will think for themselves, and it is seldom
they will think with despots, whether at Moscow or
Venice. Emperors who undertake the task of
educating and civilizing their subjects are engaged
in the same way as Frankenstein, but with this
ference ; instead of raising up a monster of darkner.,st
they give being to the noblest of all beinga—g ..)od
and intellectual men.—Brighton Herald.