New-York daily tribune., 1854-05-01
DETER AND I.
Russians.


DETER AND fEL~'
pnbl;c ereduty in Europe is COM - 49, r,s,,msr,
.or.errinO the great apocryph called yI. Jo,
of Peter the Great In a recent nufiloei a.. ao.r
- J,u,s we find extracts from this spun -,
n,o,, sr,vely Put forth worthy oi a''eH'h n,so.,
n,,oubere Give them place in our coiuii"' :,
ox,.c,s alone contain conclusive ih'ernai o''u'u
,be f,lsitv of the whole paper II they sho" az!
:; :. that the will is the product OF modern '"'
:,v. of things such as were not even ur' a'eu -
ho erestest philosophers in the time vi
.h O.. be least of all men, could nave oiis
f. oX mple the will compares the state vi H.'Vr
:. A., 5ccrepitude Of the Roman EMPIRE anu "0iu'
" - invasion Of the northern barbarlans as oe'"s 's
o.s.,v Cor the regeneration OF society as was 'na'
s ,h. German tribes in the early centuries oi tnc
C,r;s+ian era Peter is represented as cohsiuerihS
,oh ;nundations to be unavoidable Ike Periodl-
o~i aoods Of the Nile a conception which, with all
of its kind. belongs to the philosophy OF history as
co,nnrebended by our epoch. To attribute it TO the
Pussiau Uercules would be to make him the precur-
sor of modern thought and thus greater than 'otare
Leibntz yico or Herder But the fact is that Peter
was TOO busy to have had time to study history and
speculate upon its laws Besides at his epoch there
was no such idea in existence as the decrepltude OF
Eurote: and had there been, he must have reJecedt
for be abored with all his might to Europeanze his sub
iects. Finally, he died Unexpectedly. in the midst oil
varied enterprises and of activity, which had no other
aim than 20 carry out radically the internal reforms
he had set on foot He died of rapid inhammatory dis
ease aer having taken cold in dragging out othe water
the crew of an upset boat just as they were on the
poiut of drowning AT the time of this exploit he was
himself laborng under severe attack OF gravel anu
there is no reason to suppose that he made VIII oil
sny Kind. Moreover it is historical fact that the
frat idea of tie partition of Poand-which is another
of the points in this false acknowledgement IN
Berlin. and was thence communicated to VIENNA
When Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa
had settled the affair between themselves, the plan
WAS carried 10 St. Petersburg by Prince Henry the
brother of Frederick to be accepted, sanctioned, and
shared in by Catharine. 1t is likewise notorloust 10
all WHO are acquainted with Russian history that the
tendency toward COnstantlnople was first positively
conceived and manifested under the reign OF Catha-
rine H. It's chief supporters at that time were among
others the Orlofs and Potemkin who, when Catha
rne with great pomp visited the Taurian region raised
there trumphal fnger-posts with the inscription;
Tbe Road to Constantinople' In the recent but al
ready famous correspondence between the Emperor
and the British Cabinet, the Car himself admits
that these ambitious views of Russian policy origin
ated with Catharne though fthere had been any pos
sibty whatever of ascrbing them to Peter Nicholas
would not have failed to seize upon it, His hobby is
to trace back his actions to the great ancestor whom
he regards as his model and his chief aversion is to
whatever aggrandizes the glory and the memory OF
Catharine Again, in this apocrypba will the Slavic
l. i,D al and Aus-
tria. Hungary and Turkey are called Greeks while
Peter in all his correspondence and in other docu-
ments of his recorded in the Russian history of this
sovereign, always mentions them as kindred peo-
pie.
The discovery of this precious document is traced
as far back as to the year 1857, and the Chevaler
d Eon that hermaphrOdte enigma in the diplomacy of
the time of Louis XV is its god ther. This in itself
would be more than enough to render it doubtfu but
THE London Times as if 10 corroborate its genunene-s
cites il from History of Peter the Great, published in
Germany by Edward Pelz.
Whoever is acquainted with Mr. Pelz and his lit
erary productions for exampe with the descriptions
of America and the Americans, and of their manners
and customs which he furnishes from NewYork
to papers published in Germany, will understand
at once that his authority is still less trustworthy
than that of such an adventurer as the Chevaler
d'Eon We believe that Mr.. Pelz has made com
pilaton from other works concerning the history of
Peter but it impossible that he himself should have
had to any of information not perfectly
known before. 1t is true that for time he was
established at ST. Petersburg a bookseller of very
inferior order without any connection whatever with
men of learning OF such official rank to have
cess to the Russian archives. For some he
always in bad odor with the custOmhOuse and the pO
ce and finally his shop was shut up by the order of
the latter and he obliged to leave St Petersburg. 1t
seems that this fallen greatness aterward became
historian, and is made to appear as an authority
in behalf of this spurious testament.
CHAscE FOR WoRXMEy.-L0ke Superior.-The copper
mines in this region attracting the notice of some
Of the most able and enerprsng capitalists in