TOURGUENIEF, NIKOLAI I. 



veraber 10, 1871. He received his primary 

 education in the best schools of the Kussian 

 capital, and thence proceeded to the German 

 universities, and pursued a long course of 

 study at Gottingen, but returned to his native 

 country just as he entered upon manhood, 

 entered the Russian civil service, and after 

 being attached, as commissary of Russia in 

 France, to the staff of Baron von Stein, he be- 

 came a member of the Council of State, and 

 was appointed to a post which enabled him to 

 devote his energies to a subject in which he 

 was profoundly interested, the then intended 

 and since accomplished emancipation of the 

 serfs. So assiduously did he work at his dar- 

 ling project, that after a time his health gave 

 way, and he was sent to Carlsbad to recruit 

 it. Accordingly, in April, 1824, he left Russia, 

 little knowing that he was taking his final 

 leave of the country. The following year the 

 Emperor Alexander died, and the accession of 

 Nicholas to the throne was attended by the 

 outbreak of the abortive insurrection of De- 

 cember, 1825. M. Tourguenief was in Paris 

 when the news reached him, and soon after- 

 ward he paid a visit to London and to Edin- 

 burgh. While in the latter city he received 

 word that he was charged with having par- 

 ticipated in the insurrectionary movement 

 which had led to the December outbreak. A 

 little later he discovered that he had been 

 condemned to death. It was in vain that he 

 attempted to exculpate himself: the fact of 

 his having belonged to the celebrated " Union 

 for Public Welfare" was considered a suf- 

 ficient reason for condemning him unheard. 

 It is said that the Russian Government de- 

 manded his extradition from Mr. Canning, who 

 acknowledged the receipt of the letter con- 

 taining the demand without alluding to the 

 nature of its contents. From that time for- 

 ward M. Tourguenief continued to live abroad, 

 never abating the enthusiastic interest he took 

 in the welfare of his native land, continuing 

 to urge the necessity of the reforms he had so 

 much at heart, and having the satisfaction, 

 thanks to the generous courage of the present 

 Emperor, of ultimately seeing the greater part 

 of them carried out. The most important of 

 the writings which he dedicated to this sub- 

 ject, the book in which he embodied most of 

 his ideas, is his work in three volumes, pub- 

 lished at Paris in 1847, under the title of " La, 

 Russie et les Russes." It is one which every 

 one ought to study who wishes to understand 

 the past and the present state of Russia the 

 successive phases through which that country 

 has passed in the course of the present cen- 

 tury. The first volume, styled "Memoires d\in 

 Proscrit" is in part autobiographical ; the 

 second, under the title of " Tableau Politique 

 et Social de la Russie," gives an account of 

 the different classes of the Russian people, and 

 the interior organization of the empire; the 

 third, entitled " De VAvenir de la Russie" 

 gives a sketch of the reforms most necessary 



TUCKERMAN, HENRY T. 741 



for the cure of the diseases under which the 

 body politic was laboring. M. Tourguenief s 

 ideas were considered very reprehensible at 

 the time ; they have since been, for the most 

 part, realized. On M. Tourgu6niefs smaller 

 works, such as " La Russie en Presence de la 

 Crise Europeenne" (1848), " Un dernier Mot 

 sur V Emancipation des Serfs en Russie " (1860), 

 and others written in Russian, we have not 

 space enough to dwell. Suffice it to say, that 

 all that he wrote was, like the man himself 

 who wrote it, honest, high-minded, and cou- 

 rageous. Of late years he might, if he had 

 pleased, have gone back to live in Russia, but 

 he preferred to stop in the pleasant homes he 

 had made for himself in Paris and near Bougi- 

 val. When the Prussian army advanced on 

 the city, he and his family passed over to Eng- 

 land, and from their temporary home in Lon- 

 don from which they were all but burnt out 

 one night they watched with profound anx- 

 iety the progress of affairs. At the conclusion 

 of the siege they returned, to find their 

 country-house a wreck, and before long to be 

 involved in all the horrors whicli attended the 

 fall of the Commune in Paris. M. Tourguenief s 

 house in the Rue de Lille faced the Palace of 

 the Legion of Honor, which was burnt down, 

 and the fire extended to the neighboring 

 houses, stopping only when it was two doors 

 off. M. Tourguenief lived to see order resume 

 its sway in the city which had so long been 

 his home, but the shock of this civil war was 

 too much for his aged frame, and he passed 

 quietly away. 



TUCKERMAN, HENBY THEODORE, an 

 American essayist, critic, and poet, born in 

 Boston, Mass., April 20, 1813 ; died in New 

 York City, December 17, 1871. He was the 

 son of a prominent merchant at Boston, and 

 was prepared to enter Harvard College, when 

 ill health compelled him to suspend his studies. 

 At the age of twenty he went to Europe for a 

 year, which he spent chiefly in Southern Italy. 

 Three years later he went again abroad and 

 spent two years in Sicily and Florence, where 

 he acquired a knowledge of Italian literature 

 and Italian affairs, which distinguished him to 

 the end of his life. In 1845 he removed to 

 New York City, which continued to be his 

 residence till his death. In 1850 Harvard Uni- 

 versity conferred on him the honorary degree 

 of A. M. Mr. Tuckerman's whole life was 

 that of an assiduous student, though not a re- 

 cluse. He was fond of society, and was on 

 terms of affectionate intimacy with most of 

 the eminent scholars and literary men of our 

 time. He was a voluminous writer, and his 

 writings are distinguished for their wide, cath- 

 olic sympathies, the purity and elevation of 

 their tone, the decorum and refinement of 

 their manner, and their curious knowledge of 

 the details of literary history. His first pub- 

 lished work was "The Italian Sketch Book " 

 (1835), published after his first visit to Eu- 

 rope. This was followed, after his second Eu- 



