Weekly national intelligencer., 1854-11-18

The institutions, genius and character Of the
Governments and populations of Western Europe
are pretty well understood by the intelligent classes
Of our country Of the character and condition Of
the several races which constitute the vast empire
Of the North, its feet resting both hemispheres
and betting three-quarters of the globejust emerg
cd or emerging from almost universal barbarism--
our people have yet had the means of acquiring but
very imperfect knowledge
The fierce war which has sprung up between the
Sovereign Of that great empire and the two most
powerful nations of Western Europe has attracted
the attention of our countrymen more strongly than
ever before to the polity and power the intellectual
social and political state of the people of that vast
Arctic empire, swayed by the sole will of the Impe
rial Autocrat, and destined to exert, through an in
definite period of time, great influence on the
sdairs of Europe, if not of America.
We therefore submit to our readers the result of
some reaec.fon, some inquiry, and some reading
touching the state of the empire of Nicholas, and
especially Of y
PUBLIC OPINION IN RUSSIA.
The direct, constant, and powerful influence of
public opinion upon Governments is perhaps the
most remarkable and hopeful characteristic of the
politics and civilization of the nineteenth century
Where freedom exists public opinion breathes into
Government its very breath Of life; and no one of
the actual rulers of Europe, however despotc in
form the tenure of his power and apparently ample
his means of enforcing arbitrary will, feels strong
enough in his daily administration to omit taking
into account this capital element of modern society
The proudest and most potent of them may longer
adopt the naughty language of Louis NV, "Pctat
<'sa moi" without painful misgiving that, how
ever true by the letter. it is in spirit and in truth,
but an empty boast. In the present important
crisis Of European affairs which exhibits the vast
physical resources of the Russian Empire directed
by one will against the two leading Powers Of
Western Europe, public opinion in Russia, its Vi
saty the extent to which lis capable Of influencing
the resolves of the Czar and the character of that
influence, become matter of interesting inquiry.
Does there really exist in Russia public opinion
IN the sense of that phrase as used in Western Eu-
rope and in the United States? This may well be
questioned Political parties do not divide the Rus
aian population. These are the marks and the
means of more advanced civilization than yet OBJ
tains in Russia The habitude Of past ages still ex
lists there That movement of the popular mind by
which individuals, when society is emerging into a
higher civilization, extend their thoughts from
merely personal concerns and the cares of animal
existence to the consideration of the common inter
ssts and national affairs is to commence in Russia
and perhaps century will yet elapse before the first
stirring of the waters will announce that the vast
masses Of Russian population are waking up to the
political life which moves to their lowest depths
other populations of Europe.
Of the sixty million souls composing, in round
numbers the total population of the Russian Empire,
the order of the clergy may be held to form the
hundredth part, or about six hundred thousand
This includes theis wives and children, numbering
more than two-thirds of the whole The old heredi
sary aristocracy boyards) comprises about another
hundredth part of the whole population, or six hum
dred thousand souls. The modern nobility created by
Peter the Great and his successors, as counter
balance to the powerful wealthy and dangerous aris
tocracy Of the boyards and consisting of civil and mill
tary officers Of all grades is Of equal extent and con-
.sists of about six hundred thousand souls. There
h no middle or burgher class for the policy of the
Cars causes the comparatively few individuals who
would gradually form this class if left to themselves
to be absorbed in the ranks of the lower nobility
Immediately, therefore, on leaving the class Of
mobiles we encounter the vast dense masses of Rus
man population, almost as ignorant and rude as were
their fathers thousand years ago. Some fifty five
millions of them are serfs, attached to the soil with
which they Sold transferred from master to mas
ter, together with all other implements of husbandry
g These are distinguished" says modern writer,
"by apatient, hardy, obstinate, enduring character
by very limited extent of intellectual culture and
of those characteristics which raise man above the
brute" Of course no public opinion can emanate
from population of this sort to tell upon the march
-of the Government that rules them. Their ideas
must necessarily be circumscribed by the bounds of
the estate upon which they were born and serve,
and will die. The ruler who would rouse them to
efficient common action for the attainment of national
ends can do so only by the fat of despotic power,
by appeal to mere animal instincts and passions, or
to the zeal of religious fanaticism.
The only possible seat, therefore, for an efficient
public opinion in Russia, if that may be called pub
lie opinion which can possibly have hold upon only
about two individuals in hundred Of the entire
population, is the nobility This nobility is almost
exclusively of the Sclavonc race; for nearly fye-
S1xths or ffty millions of the sixty composipp the