The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1849-10-04

highly interesting. if it were possible now
to recover its details. 1t was the chief
depot of the northern Asiatic commerce
with Europe; it has government, laws,
and privileges of its own, with which 1t
suffered not even the Khan of the Tartars
to Interfere. Its population amounted to
four hundred thousand-then nearly equal
to the population of a kingdom. In the
thirteenth century it connected itself still
more effectively with European commerce,
by becoming a member of the Hanseatic
League; and the wonder and pride of the
Russians were expressed In the well known
half profane proverb, "Who can resist
God, and the great Novgorod!"
There is always something almost aP-
preaching to picturesque grandeur in the
triumphs of barbarism. The Turk, until
he was fool enough to throw away the
turban, was the most snowy parsonage in
the world. The Arabs, under Mahomet,
were the most stately warriors, and the
Spanish Moors threw all the pomp, and
even all the romance of Europe into the
shade. Even the chiefs Of the "Golden
Hords'' seemed to have had as picturesque
conception of the supremacy as the Sar-
acen. Their only city was vast camp,
in the plain between the Caspian and the
Wolga; and while they left the provinces
| in the hands of the native princes, and en-
/ loved themselves in the manlier sports of
hunting through the plains and mountains,
they commanded that every vassal prince
should attend at the imperial tent to receive
permission to reign, or perhaps to live; and
that even, when they sent their Tartar
collectors to receive the tribute, the Rus
sian princes should lead the Tartar's horse
by the bride, and give him feed of oats
out of their cap of state!
But another of those sweeping devasta-
tors, one Of those gigantic executioners,
who seem to have been sent from time to
time to punish the horrible prohigacies of
Asia, now rose upon the north. Timour
Khan, the Tamarlane of European story,
the invincible, the lord of the Tartar world,
rushed with his countless troops upon the
sovereignties of Western Asia. This uni
versal conqueror crushed the Tartar dy-
nasty of Russia. and then burst away like
an inunG alton. to overwhelm other lands.
But the native Russians again made head
against their Tartar masters, and a centu-
ry and half of sanguinary warfare follow
ed, with various fortunes and without any
other result than blood.
In the fifteenth century Russia began to
assume a form. Ivan Ill. broke off the
vassalage of Russia to the Golden Horde. ,
He had married Sophia, the niece of the
Greek Emperor, to which we may attrl-
butte his civilizations; and he received the
embassies of Germany, Venice, and Rome,
at Moscow. His son, Ivan w., took Nov
gorod, which he ruined, and continued to
! fight the Poles and Tartars until he died.
His son, Ivrn in the middle of the sixteenth
century, was crowned by the title OF Gar,
\ formed the first standing army of Russia,
named the Strelitzes, and established a
code of laws. In 1898, by the death of
the Gear Feeder without children, the
male line of Ruric which had held the
throne for seven hundred and thirty-six
years, and under ffty-six sovereigns be-
came extinct.
Another dynasty of remarkable distinc-
ton ascended the throne in the beginning
of the seventeenth century. Michael Rom
anoff, descended from the line of Rurlc, by
the female side, was declared Gar. His
son Alexis was the father of Peter the
/ Great, who, with his brother Ivan, was
placed on the throne at the decease of their
4 father, but both under the guardianship OF
the Princess was sent to a convent, Ivan,
who was imbecile in mind and body, sur
rendered the throne, and Peter became sole
sovereign of Russia.
/ The accession of Peter began the last
and greatest period of Russian history
Though man of fierce passions and bar
barian habits, he had formed high con-
ception of the value Of European arts,
chiefly through an intelligent Genevese,
Lefort, who had been his tutor.
GBlack,cood's Magazine.