, arose in all the grandeur of Eastern art
and barbaric strength. The mines of the country were worked, the roads
cleared of banditti, and a code of laws established. The veil which
concealed Russia from the rest of Europe was rent. An army of three
hundred thousand men was enlisted, Siberia was discovered, the
printing press introduced, and civilization commenced. But the czar
was, nevertheless, a brutal tyrant and an abandoned libertine, who
massacred his son, executed his nobles, and destroyed his cities.

His successors were disgraced by every crime which degrades humanity;
and the whole population remained in rudeness and barbarism,
superstition and ignorance. The clergy wielded enormous power; which,
however, was rendered subservient to the interests of absolutism.

[Sidenote: Accession of Peter the Great.]

Such was Russia, when Peter, the son of Alexis Michaelovitz, ascended
the throne, in 1682--a boy, ten years of age. He early exhibited great
sagacity and talent, but was addicted to gross pleasures. These,
strangely, did not enervate him, or prevent him from making
considerable attainments. But he was most distinguished for a military
spirit, which was treated with contempt by the Regent Sophia, daughter
of Alexis by a first marriage. As soon, however, as her eyes were open
to his varied studies and his ambitious spirit, she became jealous,
and attempted to secure his assassination. In this she failed, and the
youthful sovereign reigned supreme in Moscow, at the age of seventeen.

No sooner did he assume the reins of empire, than his genius blazed
forth with singular brilliancy, and the rapid development of his
powers was a subject of universal wonder. Full of courage and energy,
he found nothing too arduous for him to undertake; and he soon
conceived the vast project of changing the whole system of his
government, and reforming the manners of his subjects.

He first directed his attention to the art of war, and resolved to
increase the military strength of his empire. With the aid of Le Fort,
a Swiss adventurer, and Gordon, a Scotch officer, he instituted,
gradually, a standing army of twenty thousand men, officered, armed,
and disciplined after the European model; cut off the long beards of
the soldiers, took away their robes, and changed their Asiatic dress.

He then conceived the idea of a navy, which may be traced to his love
of sailing in a boat, which he had learned to navigate himself. He
studied