Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-04-05
Character of the Late Gear.
BY SIR ARCHIBALD AlrsoS.

BY SIR ARCHIBALD AiISoN.
In the recently published second volume Of
Sir Archibald Alison's History of Europe"
(new SERIES we find the following striking
portrait of the late Emperor Of Russia
Nicholas | is the greatest sovereign that
Russia has known since Peter the Great, in
some respects he is greater than Peter himself
Not less energetic in character and ardent in
improvement than his illusirious predecessor,
he is more thoroughly rational, and he has
brought the nation forward more completely in
the path which nature pointed out for it. Peter
was Russian-only in his despotism; his vio-
lence, his cruelty, his benevolence, his ardor
for improvement, his patriotic ambition, were
all borrowed from the States of Western Eu.
rope. AS these States were greatly further adj
vanced in the career of civilization than his
was, his reforms were in a great part prema-
ture, his improvements abortive, his refine
ments superficial. He aimed at doing by i'm
perial what SO many ardent men have endeav-
ored to effect by democratic despotsm-to in
graft on one nation the institutions of another,
and to reap from the infancy Of civilization the
fruits Of its maturity. The attempt failed in
his hands, as it has ever done in those of their
successors, whether on the throne or in the tr
bune, to the end of the world. His civiliza
ton was all external merely; it made bril-
liant appearance, but it did NOT extend beneath
the surface, and left untouched The strength
and vitals of the State He Aattered himself
he had civilized Russia, because lie ruled by a
police which governed it by fear, and an army
which retained it in subsection by discipline
Nicholas, on the other hand, is essentially
Russian in all his ideas. He is heart and
soul patriotic, not merely in wish, but in spirit
and thought. He wishes to improve and ele-
vate his country, and he has done much to ef-
feet that noble object; but he desires to do so
by developing, not changing the national spirit,
by making it become first Russia not a
second France or England. He has adopted
the maxim Of Montesquieu that no nation ever
attained to real greatness but by institutions in
conformity with its spirit. He is neither led
away by the thirst for sudden mechanical i'm
provement, like Peter, nor the visions of mex
perienced philanthropy, like Alexander He
has not attempted to erect a capital in pesti-
lential marsh, and done SO at the expense Of a
hundred thousand lives nor has he dreamt Of
mystical regeneration with visionary sybil,
and made sovereigns put their hands to holy
alliance from her influence He neither cor
responds with French atheists nor English
Democrats; he despises the praises of the first,
he braves the hostility of the last. His maxim
is to take men as they are, and neither suppose
them better nor worse. He is content to let
Russia grow up in a Russian garb, animated
with Russian spirit, and moulded by Rus
sian institutions, without the aid either of Par
isian communism or British liberalism The
improvements he has effected in the gov
eminent of his domnions have been vast,
the triumphs with which his external policy
have been attended unbounded; but they
have all been achieved, not in imitation
OF, but In opposition to, the ideas of western
Europe. They bespeak, not less than his in
ternal government, the national character Of
his policy. But if success is the test of worldly
wisdom. he has not been far wrong in his sys-
tenn, for he has passed the Balkan, heretofore
impervious to his predecessors; he has con.
quered Poland, converted the Euxine into
Russian lake, planted the cross on the bastions
of Erivan, and opened through subdued Hun
gary path to Constantinople
Nature has given him all the qualities fitted
for such an elevated destiny. A lofty stature
and princely air give additional influence to a
majestic countenace, in which the prevailing
character is resolution, yet not unmixed with
other OF the great men recorded in history, his
expression has become more intellectual as he
advanced in years, and became exercised in
the duties of sovereignty, instead of the stern
routine Of military discipline. Exemplary in
all the relations Of private life, faithful hus-
band and an affectionate father he has ex-
hibited in brilliant court, and when sur
rounded by every temptation which life can
offer, the simplicity and affections Of patri-
archical life. Yet he is not perfect char,
acter. His virtues often border upon vices
His excelencies are akin to defects. Deanlv
impressed with the responsibility of mis- s;tpa.
ton, his frmness has sometime, become stern
ness, his sense Of justice depenerated into
severity, [Sir Archibald explains in foot
note /: It is IN regard to political offences of
serious ave, however, that this severity chiefly
aspphes" He knows how to distinguish the
Innocent from the guilty, and has often eviuced
a noble and magnanmous spirit in separating
the one from the other, and showing oblivion
OF injury, even kindness to the relatives of
those who had conspired against his throne
and life; but towards the guilty themselves he
has not been equally compassionate He has
not always let the passion of the contest pass
away with Its termination. He is an Alexan-
der the Great in resolution, but not in magma.
nlmity. He wants the last grace in the heroic
characterize does not know how IN foro;yo