MOSCOW. 
133 
Tahlars , and its Tsar subjected to an ignomi- 
nious tribute. Twelve years afterwards, the 
eldest son of that successor, John Basilovich the 
Second, then an infant, but afterwards a fero- 
cious and implacable tyrant, came to the 
throne '. 
It is a curious fact, that, in the very opening 
of his reign, three hundred artists, intended for 
Russia, were arrested in the town of Lubeck. 
What the great work then carrying on in Moscow 
was, is now uncertain; but it evidently proves a 
disposition, on the part of the sovereign, to 
superinduce the hearts of Western nations over 
the long-established Oriental customs of his 
(l) Some writers endeavour to apologise for the conduct and cha- 
racter of John Basilovich the Second. The Editors of the Modern 
Universal History even speak of him with eulogium. (Vol. XXXV. 
p. 259.) Mr. Co.ve thinks his character has been misrepresented ; 
(Trav. vol. I. p. :W2.) and yet allows it would be “ contrary to his- 
torical evidence to deny many of the cruelties committed by him." 
If the horrible cruelties related of this monarch by Ur. Crull (see 
Account of Muscovy, vol. 1. p. 331 . Bond. 1698) be untrue, what will be 
said of the narrative of those persons who were eye-witnesses of many 
of his enormities ? Crull says, his affected sanctity led Jovius into the 
mistake of calling him a good Christian. “ But if any delight to reaile 
the terrible and bloudie acts of Ivan Basilovich, he may glut, if not 
drowne himsell'e in bloud, in that historie which Paul Odcrborne hath 
written of his life, and both there and hi others take view of his other 
unjust acts. I will not depose for their truth, though I cannot dis- 
prove it : adversaries perhaps make the worst. For myselfe, 1 list not 
to rake sinkes against him, and would speake in his defence, if I found 
not an universall conspiracy of all historie and reports against him. - ' 
Puretuu his Pilgrimes, lib. iv. c. 9. sect , ! . 
