Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-11-29

But although directing their chief EN-
ergy towards Baltic quarters, The aut-
ocrats of that period did not wholly
lay aside the "Byzantine" policy of
their predecessors. By the ties
of marriage and state craft,
the hospodars of Moldo- VAL
lachia were drawn into the Mus
covite interests, and the zeal of the
Greek population of Turkey kept up
by snowy demonstrations, which the
agents of one of those czars contrived
perform in the very streets of SIAM
boul. Thus an embassy was sent by
Ivan ". to the Sultan, which in the
details of its get-up, astonishingly re-
minds us of the Menchikoff embassy
of some fifteen years ago. Now
twenty-four years ago. At that
time, also, the double eagle of By.
zance, symbol of sovereignty over the
east and west, was adopted as the
Russian escutcheon, so as to exhibit
the Gar in the light of the chosen
champion of Christianity against the
unbelieyer. This at an epoch when
the Moslem stood atthe zenith of his
power
Such was Russia in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. But this re-
newed attempt at an ascendency was
not of long duration 1t ended sud-
denly with the extinction of the Rur-
TX family Scarcely had the last ty
rant of that race expired when anoth-
er catastrophe hurled down the Mus
covite Empire into the depths of hu-
initiation. Poles, Germans of all the
Baltic provinces, Swedes, Tartars of
Astrakhan, and other nations that re-
sented the former entertainments of
Russia, make a similar attack upon
her. The situation is complicated, too,
by internal dssensions. Pretenders
arise on all sides, and wars of success
sions break completely the strength of
Russia. The capital falls into the
hands of the Poles, whose princes dis
pose Of the throne of Moscow. Con-
spiracies are rife all over the country,
in the sacristies of the clergy and in
the castles of of the mobiles, until the
last tumult subsidies into the election
Of the new dynasty OF RomanoH:- Dur
ing this state of confusion the atten-
ton of Europe had gradually been d.
verified again from those northern re-
gions. Russia once more became to
the west a hyperborean ultima Thule.
At the end of the seventeenth cen
tury Gar Peter appeared. He COM
bined the schemes of the Russo-Nor-
man Grand Princes Oleg, Igor, Svia-
toslaf, Vladimir, and Yaroslaf with
those of the semi-Mongol czars, Ivan
III. and Ivan ". His ambition en-
braced the north and the south, the
Black Sea and the Baltic, Asia and
Europe and since his time the march
OF Russian aggression was again on
ward until check was offered to it in
the Crimean War.
From this brief summary it will be
perceived what Importance must be
attached TO the history before Peter |.
Nor are we wanting in authentic
sources. Not to speak of the regular
Chiefly Byzantine, Arabic and Rus
sian) chronicles, there exists, if we
may say SO, whole series of voyage
literature" concerning Russia, begin
ming with the ninth century, and con-
sisting of travels, memoirs, ambassa'
dorial reports, and so forth.
From Ohthere, a Norman native of
Heligoland, who in 500 gave an ac-
count of his voyage to Northern Rus
STA by order of Alfred of England;
and from Ahmed ben- Fosylan, the
plenipotentiary of an Abasside Khalif,
who in 921 drew up report of his
journey,-tbere are, down to modern
times, comparatively a great number
of documents. Taking only the two
centuries before Peter l., we come to
the surprising fact that, nearly four
hundred years ago, Germany sent her
scientific commissions to Moscow,
with view to studying the situation
of Russia, which had then just emerged
from Mongol slavery. The reports of
these commissions still exist. I'm
fortunately, they are hidden in the
dust of Austrian archives. more ac-
cessible are the documents OF politl-
cal nature, such as the letters and me-
moirs of German ambassadors at the
court of Moscow
T*These are, however. not the earliest
traces of Intercourse between Russia and the
West There were Russian embassies to Ger
many, and Uice versa during the reign of the
German emperor Henry Ii. t!003-24). Pro-
jects of intermarriage at that epoch were dis
cussed or carried out between German, Hum
garian, Polish English and French princes or
princesses on the one hand, and members of
the Rurk family on the other. In the eley~
enth century dethroned Russian sovereing
made personal pilgrimage to Mayence to So
licit aid against rival-the exiled Russian
pretender promising that if Henry ~ of Ger
many would reinstate him on the throne he
would engage Ito hold Russia only as vassal
fief of the German empire" Henry w., being
involved in struggle both with his own vas-
sails an the Holy See was unable to do more
than to make an inefficient diplomatic inter-
vention.
OF these latter we name only the
accounts given by George Thurn,
who had a mission from the German
Emperor Macmillan to negotiate for
a marriage with the daughter of the
Gar O492) then the work OF Sigls'
mund Won Herberstein, Councillor
and President OF the Board of Reye-
nues of the German Empire, who, in
1916, went as envoy extraordinary to
Moscow (Rerum Mocovitarum Com
mentarii, Vienna, 1549). In the six
teenth century Russia was much trav-
elled through by men OF all nations,
trades, and stations of life. Of their
numerous reports we will single out
those of few Englishmen. Thomas
Aldcocke, factor of an English COM
mercial company, who made the voy-
age from Jaroslaw to Astrakban
(I564); Arthur Edwards (l565);
Thomas Southam, in the service OF
the Anglo-Russian Company in Lon
don Q566); Thomas Randolfe, am
bassador of Queen Elizabeth (l56s) /;
Giles Fletcher, also ambassador at
Moscow (l5sS), etc.
PROFESSIONALLY, one of the most
interesting memoirs is that of the
French Cantain Marperet. originally