The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1854-09-30

CNcI OOuv HluSI cease 10 speak, or must speak
in some language of which the domestic is ig-
norant - the prccaution being taken against
him not as servant, or as what he processes
and appears to be, but as a government spy.
Assuredly, the servants arc not maintained
on salary as spics-it would be absurd to sup
pose so; but this is neither consolation nor
security to the master and mistress, or to their
guests, but rather the reverse. spy paid
by time would not be so dangerous on every
trivial occasion; but spy paid by the piece,
must be on the alert to earn his money 1t is
an atmosphere Of moral cowardicc, of suspic-
ion, of mistrust, of lies, of uncasincss, and Of
mild but chronic terror. 1t lis a social condi-
tion revolving to every stout-hearted, honest,
straight wcll-intentioncd citizen,
subject, or soiourner. Have I not found it
impossible to procure what in every other
country would be considered the mental pro-
perty of the present public, and of all poster
ity-and what is truly nothing less than no.
thing else mean the details of great his
torcal transaction directly affecting eighty
millions of human beings, and Indirectly the
whole world? Have not found it impossi-
bic to obtain the real facts and circumstances
of vast event now nearly thirty years old,
and appertaining to the general chronicles
Of Europe - namely, the insurrcction which
encountered Nicholas accession to the throne
+ without noticing that my informants -
three men of high spirit. two of them British
subjects, and the third also foreigner, a
German on several occasions, when none
but myself and one of them respectively were
present, in large room, with closed doors
lowered their voices and gazed every moment
around, while they communicated the more
cirrumStantial version of this historic event.
using all those precautions which nothing but
the most lively sense Of positive and serious
risk could dictate? And vet this is an affair
which rather reflects honor on the youthful
macnanimity and mistaken personal hardi-
hood of the monarch. with whose very praises
thev seemed to feel it to be dangerous to med
die. How would it be if you asked for an
account of his conduct in some more eIuivo-
cal conjuncturc
And to 90 from small matters to great from
these moral, POLITICAL social, and historical
concerns, to somcthin" little more import
ant, mean, to astronomical questions - to
your kItchen-what do YOU think of the most
extraordinary cookery? but will quit that
subject; it would keep me too long, and would
be too painful, too narrowing to the feelings
of every reader Of civilized appetite and we'll
regulated mind. Fresh meat. indeed, four
or five months killed. kept fresh; YES, fresh
as dai>y-ir ice. And how would the daisy
be that was 50 treated? There is no hc,p
for it, ! admit the beasts cannot be killed in
summer, or the meat would turn almost un-
der the butchers knife; there is, in ST. Pc
tcrsburs, ! say, no help for it but there is
help for being in St. Petersburg, and this
brings me to my story.
You know that lively. pleasant, accom-
plshcd French fellow, called Dc Gascon -
said a friend to me one evening, as was tax
ing glass of wine with him after dinner, in
his own house, or rather in his own Ha', not
twenty miles from the NcvSki Perspective
and within easy reach Of the Isaac Plain and
the admiralty Square. The great granite
mansions of new ST. Petersburg - for there
have been floods and coni!agrations enough
to give fine architectural opportunities fire
and water have done their work-thcsc great
granite mansions often comprise three or four
complete houses under one roof bedrooms,
ccption-rooms, kitchen, cellars and stores,
AL in great finish, on each floor; and these
arc what call flats. My friend, country
man, an excellent man in every sense, had
closed the door Of a large room; and we were
seated, say, together at table on which
there was abundance of wine, (almost the on
ly thing you get really good, and compare
lively cheap at St. Pctcrsburg,) and of fruit
We were in the middle of this large room,
and speaking in low voice, there was no
danger we should he overheard could not
help thinking, as noted the mechanical, ha-
bitual, almost unconscious precautions of NV
countrvman, that it was four hundred years
ago-that and he, and every thing around.
belonged to four hundred years ago; and that
this subtle, far-reaching, pcrvading odor of
tyrannical supervision and authority was a
huge practical anachronism: and a queer
! tumble of ideas was suggested to me, which
was lust this between ourselves, sitting here
in the midst of such a state of things, and
modern times, as they are generally under
stood, there are three or four centuries - vet
there arc but six or seven days between all
this and London, between us and the Thames
wharycs. could hardly realize the situa-
ton. My change Of scene seemed to be alsc
change of eras. My journey into Russia
was something more - it was an excursion
into the Middle Ages, or, at the very least
into the davs of a worse and more ignoble
Louis XIV.
What of DIR Gascon. said |.
BY Jove.' said he, 1T is the very best sto-
ry I've heard for many year. Why he has
oot out of st. Petersburg!