l^cientific Revims. 418 



strange to Russia, and its popiiktion was a conftised mass of Ta- 

 tars, of emigrated Scluvooians, of jNIercians, of Ostiaks, of P^t- 

 choses. At a subsequent period Peter the Great moulded Russia 

 with his powerful hands into its present state, and called himself Em- 

 peror of all the Russias, though he did not possess them; and in 17^3, 

 Catherine II. obliged Poland to acknowledge her title of Empresa 

 of all the Russias, and to give to the ]\Iuscovites the title (tf Rus- 

 sians ; but this kind of political baptism, obtained by force, could 

 HOt transform JMuscovy into a legitimate heir of a Sclavonian-Rus- 

 sian state. IVIuscovy, having conquered the vast Lithuano-Polish 

 confederation, now rules the Sclavonians, but does not represent 

 them ; its origin is different, it comes from Asia; its national spirit 

 is different, being humble, servile, and accustomed to the yoke ,• 

 its manners and its laws are different ; and if, at a future period, 

 it should raise serious pretensions to the dispersed inheritance of 

 the great family of Sclavonians, it will have no other title to pr©i 

 gent to Europe than the right of the strongest and of the sword.. ; 



To name Peter the Great would be to recall one of the most suri 

 prizing features of modem history, — the birth of Russia, and the 

 entrance of a new people on the political stage. In the words of 

 De Segur, " greater than his empire, he filled it : he more than 

 covered it in all its parts, and opened the immensity of land, of 

 ocean, of the industry of his subjects." But these enthusiastic pic- 

 tures will give us little idea of the reality. A life that shall be at 

 once pure and glorious, is one of those wonders which are seldom 

 met with except in ancient times. Washington is perhaps the only 

 exception. Such a life is the alliance of moral force with justicej 

 — genius put in the service of virtue. Without force you will only 

 have an honest man on the throne ; without virtue either a great 

 warrior or a great governor : but it is impossible to cast the vices 

 of Peter on the barbarism of Russia, and to impute his virtues to 

 himself, and his crimes to the people. It is impossible to wipe out 

 the blood-spots, which, in the eyes of posterity, will ever stain his 

 glory. Alexis had solidly laid the foundation of the Muscovite 

 civilization, and planted Polish and Lithuanian colonies on the 

 banks of the Wolga. ' But Peter the Great, of an enterprizing ge- 

 4iius, firm, and ambitious, inflicted this civilization on his subjects 

 && a punishment, and the results of this hasty trial cannot be bet- 

 ter judged of than by Mr. Schnitzler's present statistical work. 



The analysis of the origin of the different tribes, or the know- 

 ledge of the elements of that immense population which had to un- 

 dergo the reform of Peter, is, strictly speaking, the object of the 

 Count Potocki's second volume ; and we find, in the elaborate de- 

 tails, and yet great clearness of this work, many important addi- 

 tions to the labours of Guldenstaedt, Chardin, Geoi^i, and de Rech- 

 fcerg. It is customary to v4ew the Russian population as an ag- 

 gregate of races, of which the Sclavonian constitutes one of the 

 ^rincip^^ elements. Next comre the Polish race, the Letto-Lithua- 



