The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-04-12
VISIT OF PETER THE GREAT TO ENGLAND,

[The fifth volume of MACAULAY's 8 history has
Just been issued. When he announced his pur-
pose to bring his history down =" to time
which is within the memory of men still liv-
ing" we may assume that he intended that it
should close with the overthrow of NAPOLEON,
covering period of one hundred and thirty
years. His fifth volume closes with the death
of WILLIAM III. The whole work extends over
but seventeen years. If the history had been
completed on the same scale, it would have
filled between thirty and forty volumes.
This fifth volume is as marvellous as either of
its predecessors. 1t treats of the two closing
years of the reign of WILLIAM ILL.,, when there
were no striking events to record, and no new
great men to portray. Yet in MACAULAY's
hands, the intrigues of wings and tories become
fraught with vital interest. Here and there a
brilliant episode is wrought up with all that
skill which renders his ESSAYS" the most fas-
cinating reading in the language. Such is the
following account which we are permitted to
use from advanced sheets, of the visit of PETER
THE GREAT to England. d. 1898 j
In the same week in which Whitehall
perished, the Londoners were supplied with
new topic of conversation by a royal
visit, which of all royal visits, was the least
pompous and ceremOnious, and yet the most
interesting and important. On the 10th of
January vessel from Holland anchored off
Greenwich, and was welcomed with great
respect. Peter the First, Gar of Muscovy,
was on board. He took boat with a few
attendants, and was rowed up the Thames
to Norfolk street, where house, overlook
ing the river, had been prepared for bis re.
ception.
His journey was an epoch in the history
not only of his own country, but of ours,
and of the world. To the polished nations
of Western Europe, the Empire which he
governed had till then been what Bokhara
or Siamis to us. That Empire, indeed, though
less extensive than at present, was the most
extensive that had ever obeyed single chief.
The dominions of Alexander and of Trajan
were small when compared with the immense
area of the Scythian desert. But, in the
estimation of statesmen, that bOundless eX-
panse of larch forest and morass, where the
snow lay deep during eight months of every
year, and where wretched peasantry could
with difficulty defend their novels against
troops of famished wolves, was of less ac-
count than the two or three square miles
into which were crowded the counting houses,
the warehouses, and the inumerable masts
of Amsterdam. On the Baltic, Russia had
not then single port. Her maritime trade
with the other nations of Christendom was
entirely carried on at Archangel, place
which had been created and was supported
by adventurers from our island. In the
days of the Tudors, ship from England,
seeking a northeast passage to the land of
silk and spice, had discovered the White
Sea. The barbarians who dwelt on the
: shores of that dreary gulf had never before
seen such portent as vessel of hundred
and sixty tons burden. They fled in terror;
and, when they were pursued and overtaken,
prostrated themselves before the chief of the
strangers, and kissed bis feet. He succeeded
in opening friendly communication with
them, and from that time there has been a
regular commercial Intercourse between our
country and the subjects of the Gar. A
Russia company was incorporated in Lon
don. An English factory was built at
Archangel. That factory was indeed, even
in the latter part of the seventeenth century,
a rude and mean building. The walls con.
sisted of trees laid one upon another, and
the roof was of birch bark. This shelter,
however, was sufficient in the long summer
day of the Arctic regions. Regularly at
that season several English ships cast anchor
in the bay. A fair was held on the beach.
Trades came from distance of many hun
dreds of miles to the only mart where they
could exchange hemp and tar, hides and tai.
low, wax and honey, the fur of the sable
and the wolverine, and the toe of the stur-
geon of the Volga, for Manchester stufs,
Sheffield knifes, Birmingham buttons, sugar
from Jamaica, and pepper from Malabar.
The commerce in these articles were open !;
but there was secret traffic which was not
less active or less lucrative, though the Rus
sian laws had made it punishable, and
though the Russian divines pronounced it
damnable. In general, the mandates of
princes and the lessons of priests were re-
ceived with profound reverence. But the
authority of his princes and of his priests