RUSSIA. 



The Ruffian language is an improved dialed, of the Sla- 

 vonian, which, with its characters, is ftill ufed in the offices 

 of religion. According to M. Schloetzer, it is preferable 

 to almolt all the European languages. It is rich in words, 

 foft, expreffive, and requires great flexibility in the organs 

 of utterance. It is, however, difficult of attainment by 

 foreigners, on account of its innumerable peculiarities and 

 anomalies. The Ruffian grammarians themfclves are not 

 agreed even concerning the number of letters contained in 

 the alphabet. Some make it to be forty-one, and others 

 thirty-one ; whilft Rodde, with greater propriety in the 

 opinion of Mr. Tooke, fixes the number at thirty-eight. 

 Some of thefe letters are merely notes of accent in pro- 

 nunciation. 



Government of the Rujian Empire. — As far as hiftory 

 reaches, Ruffia has always been an hereditary empire. The 

 throne was occupied by Rurik and his defendants, accord- 

 ing to the ufual computation, from about the year 862 to 

 1598: and when Michael Feodor Romanow afcended the 

 throne in 1 6 1 3, a charter was executed confirming it to him 

 and all his pollerity, by which aft Ruffia was in a formal 

 manner declared a real hereditary empire. His acceffion to 

 the throne was by unanimous eleftion, " in a general affem- 

 bly of the boyars and the other eftates of the country," and 

 partly by his relationfhip to the tzarian family now extinft 

 in the male lineage, and alfo in virtue of nomination, by 

 which his father had already been heir to the throne. On a 

 vacancy the heir takes pofieffion of the throne, without any 

 invitation or afts of homage. The oath of allegiance is 

 ufually adminiltered to all claffes of fubjefts, though the 

 fovereign may difpenfe with it. The coronation has for 

 many centuries been cuftomary in Ruffia, and is ftill con- 

 tinued, on which occafion the fovereign, who puts the crown 

 on himfelf, is anointed with holy oil. Since the introduc- 

 tion of Chriftianity, the fovereigns have always profefled 

 themfelves of the orthodox Greek church. As to the title 

 of the fovereign, we may obferve, that Ivan Vaffillievitch 

 declared himfelf tzar in the year 1547, but it was exprefsly 

 given to the fovereigns of Ruffia long before : this title in 

 the Ruffian Bible fignifiea a king. In 1721 Peter I. ail'umed 

 the appellation of emperor ; and this imperial title has been 

 borne ever fince by the fovereigns of Ruffia. The abridged 

 title, ufual in ukafes, fentences, commands, petitions, &c. 

 is " emperor and autocrator, or emprefs and autocratrix, of 

 all Ruffia, or of all the Ruffias." It is befide our pur- 

 pofe to difcufs the queftion concerning the ancient origin, 

 or even exiftence of fundamental laws of the empire : it will 

 be fufficient to remark, that all the prefent laws of this kind 

 may be reduced to two principal claffes, as they afcertain 

 either the authority and prerogatives of the fovereign, or the 

 claims of the fubjefts. Thofe that regard the fovereign 

 comprehend the hereditary fucceffion, the uncircumfcribed 

 authority, including all the great and exclufive prerogatives 

 of majefty, and the principle that the fovereign is an im- 

 perial majefty and the dominion an empire : thofe that re- 

 gard the fubjefts include fpecific obligations and rights, and 

 they concern cither the empire at large, or particular tribes, 

 ranks, and claffes ; iuch are fecurity of perfon, of reputa- 

 tion, of property, the nonvlenial of juftice, legal proteftion 

 againft violence and oppreflion, unmoleited enjoyment of all 

 lawfully obtained immunities, privileges, and rights ; the 

 right, on the extinftioa of the reigning family, if no fuc- 

 ceffor be appointed, to eleft one, &c. Accordingly, the 

 nobility may jultly demand the quiet enjoyment of all the 

 privilege? and immunities granted to them by letters of 

 grace. The burghers may appeal to the privileges granted 

 to them in the regulations for townlhips. The Don Cof- 



facks, and other nations of that kind, may juftly expect that 

 no invafion be made on their diftrifts and poffeffions, or any 

 infringement of their rights, &c. 



The legiflative authority is veiled folely in the monarch ; 

 neither the whole nation as a body, nor Tingle members or 

 claffes of it, can claim any part of it. The fovereign is 

 alfo the folc difpenfer of all ranks and dignities ; to the 

 higher he himfelf appoints the perfons, and figns with his 

 own hand the inftrum<?nt or patent. The inferior degrees' 

 are bellowed in his name by the proper commiffioners or 

 boards, e. g. in the civil department by the fenate, in the 

 military by the college of war, in the navy by the admi- 

 ralty, in the church by the fynod, in the medical depart- 

 ment by the college of medicine, &c. Formerly there were 

 feveral monopolies of the crown ; but the late emprefs, to the 

 manifell advantage of her fubjefts, abolifhed the greater 

 part of them, referving only two, -uiz. fait and brandy. 

 As to landed property in general, it belongs either to the 

 crown, or to private owners, and that again either to indi- 

 viduals, or in common to a whole tribe. Another pre- 

 rogative that adheres to the throne is that the fovereign can 

 appoint a regency during the minority of his fucceffor, and 

 fix the period of his arriving at majority. The form of 

 government in Ruffia is unlimited monarchy ; however, the 

 free-born Ruffian fubjefts are always treated as fuch ; and in 

 general, it is permitted the fubjefts to utter their complaints 

 and to make a reprefentation of them. From feveral ukafes 

 it appears, that the next fucceffor, his confort, and all their 

 children, are ftyled grand dukes and grand ducheffes, and 

 that they all bear the title of imperial highnefs ; that it is 

 conferred upon them always by a figned decree of the mo- 

 narch, and that, refpefting the grand-daughters, the terms 

 grand duchefs and grand ducal princefs are fometimes 

 fynonimous. The rights of the grand duke, as heir appa- 

 rent, do not leem to have been accurately defined ; he is the 

 firft fubjeft, but he has properly no funftions ariiing from 

 his high birth and appointment, thefe depending on the good 

 pleafure of the fovereign. The princes and princeffes of 

 the reigning family have no fettled eftablilhment ; their 

 houfehold depending on the pleafure of the fovereign. The 

 annual allowance to the grand duke, it is faid, is ufually 

 z 20,000 rubles, and fometimes more, to which are added 

 many great prelent6. 



The arms in the middle ages were borrowed from Mofcow, 

 at that time the imperial rcfidence, and confided of St. 

 George on horf.*back, killing a dragon with a Ipear. Ivan 

 Vaffillievitch made choice of a black fpread eagle, with a 

 crown on each head, a larger crown between them, in a 

 golden field, and holding in one claw a fceptre, and in the 

 other an imperial mound, with the arms of Mofcow on the 

 breail. Sometimes it is furrounded with a collar compofed 

 of the arms of fome of the countries belonging to the 

 Ruffian empire, as Altrachan, Kazan, Siberia, &c. This 

 is accordingly the imperial feal, and when the late emprefs 

 ufed it for letters, it had an imperial mantle, and over it an 

 imperial crown. The court is compofed of the great 

 officers of Hate, of fenators, aftual privy-counfellors, princes, 

 counts, barons, &c. On court-days accefs is open to 

 every fubjeft. Six orders of knighthood form 3 part of 

 the fplendour of the court, with their peculiar infignia. 

 The firft three were conftituted by Peter 1. ; the two next 

 by the late emprefs Catharine II., and the fixth proceeds 

 from Slefwick-Holilem. Of the former five the monarch 

 is always grand-mailer ; but of the fixth, the grand duke, 

 as duke of Slefwick-Holftein. To the fourth and fifth, 

 penlions are annexed to a feleft number of the eldeft knights. 

 Thefe orders take precedence according to the feniority of 



their 



