Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-04-05
The Character of the Emperor Mich
0laz

the grave Oh OnFlSlldu L dlIlOllSlu anu ANT
rican Manhood
The Character of the Emp Mich
olas.
The following character of NICHOLAS, is /
given by ALLISON. The work of GuRowsKI,
If read tcih the remembrance that the author acas
a Polish patriot, will, Also leave favorable
impression of NICHOLAS:
Nicholas /. is the greatest sovereign that
Russia has known since Peter the Great; In |
some respects he is greater than Peter HIM
self. Not less energetic in character and ar
dent in improvement than his illustrious pred
ecessor, he is more thoroughly national, and
he has brought the nation forward more COM |
pletely in the path which nature had point
ed out for it. Peter was Russian only in
his despOtism, his violence, his cruelty; his
benefcence, his ardor for improvement, his
patriotic ambition, were all borrowed from the
States of western Europe. As these States
were greatly further advanced in the career
of civilization than his was, his reforms were
in great part premature, his improvements
abOrtive, his re6nements superficial. He
aimed at doing bv imperial what so many ar
dent men have endeavored to effect by dem
ocratic despotism-to engraft 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 his republican
imitators, as it will do in those of their sue
cessors, whether on the throne, or in the tri-
bune, to the end of the world His civiliza-
ton was external merely; it made brilliant
appearance, but it did not extend beneath the
surface, and left untouched the strength and
vitals of the State. He fiattered himself he
had civilized Russia, because he ruled by a
police which governed it by fear and an army
which retained 1t 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 elevate
his country, and he has done much to effect
that noble object; but he desires to do 80 by
developing, not changing the national spirit
by making it become first Russia, not a Sec
ond 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
philosophers, like Catharine, nor the visions
of inexperienced philanthropy, like Alexan-
der. He has not attempted to erect capital
in pestilential marsh, and done so at the ex-
pense of a hundred thousand lives; nor has
he dreamt of mystical regeneration with a
visionary sybil, and made sovereigns put their
hands to a holy alliance from her influence.
He neither corresponds 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 Russian
garb animated with a Russian spirit, and
moulded by Russian institutions, without the
aid either of Partisan communism or British
liberalism. The improvements he has effec-
ted in the government of his dominions have
been vast the triumphs with which his ex-
-ssrnaispoiiey have been attended unbounfef
but they have all been achieved, not in imita-
ton Of, but in oppositioato to, the ideas OF west
ern Europe. ifhey bespeak, not less than
his internal government the national charac-
ter of his policy. But if success is the test of
worldly wisdom, he has not been far wrong
in his system, for he has passed the Balkan,
heretofore imprevious to his predecessors he |
has conquered Poland, converted the Euxine
into Russian lake, planted the cross on the
bastions of Erivan, and opened through sub |
dued Hungary path to Constantinople.
Nature has given him all the qualities fit |
ted for such an elevated destiny lofty |
stature and princely air, give additional in
fluence to a majestic countenance, in which |
the prevailing character is resolution, yet not |
unmixed with sweetness. Like Wellington,
Caesar, and many other Of the great men re-
corded in history, his expression has become
more intellectual as he advanced in wears and |
become exercised in the duties of sovereignty. |
instead of the stern routine of military disci- |
pline. Exemplary in all the relations of pri- /
vate life, a faithful husband and an affection
ate father, he has exhibited in a brilliant
court, and when surrounded by every tempta-
ton which life can offer, the simplicity and /
affections of patriarchal life. Yet he is not
a perfect character. His virtues often border
upon vices. His excellencies are akin to de-
fects.
Deeply impressed with the responsibility
of his situation, his firmness has sometimes
become sterness, his sense of Justice degene-
rated into severity. Sir Archibald explains,
in foot no:e:-'It is in regard to political
offences of "a serious dye, however. that this
severity chiefly applies" He knows how to
distinguish the innocent Gom the guilty, and
has often evinced a noble and magnanmous
spirit in separating the one from the other,
and showing obligation of injury, even kind
ness, to the relatives of those who had con-
spired against his throne and life; but towards
the guilty themselves he has not been equal
ly compassionate. He has not always let the
passion OF the contest pass away with its ter
mination. He is an Alexander the Great in
resolution, but not in msgnanimity. He wants
the last grace in the heroic character-he does
not know how to forgive.
SAD PICTURE OF NEW ORLEANs.-A New /
Orleans paper has the courage to tell the truth,
in the following strain.