exist in a republic when citizens or
powerful magistrates oppress society. Autocracy does not signify the
absence of laws, since law is everywhere where there is any duty to be
performed, and the first duty of princes, is it not to watch over the
happiness of their people?"

To the traveler, in the age of Vassili, Russia appeared like a vast
desert compared with the other countries of Europe. The sparseness of
the habitations, the extended plains, dense forests and roads, rough
and desolate, attested that Russia was still in the cradle of its
civilization. But as one approached Moscow, the signs of animated life
rapidly increased. Convoys crowded the grand route, which traversed
vast prairies waving with grain and embellished with all the works of
industry. In the midst of this plain rose the majestic domes and
glittering towers of Moscow. The convents, in massive piles, scattered
around, resembled beautiful villages. The palace of the Kremlin alone,
was a city in itself. Around this, as the nucleus, but spreading over
a wide extent, were the streets of the metropolis, the palaces of the
nobles, the mansions of the wealthy citizens and the shops of the
artisans. The city in that day was, indeed, one of "magnificent
distances," almost every dwelling being surrounded by a garden in
luxurious cultivation. In the year 1520, the houses, by count, which
was ordered by the grand prince, amounted to forty-one thousand five
hundred.

The metropolitan bishop, the grand dignitaries of the court, the
princes and lords occupied splendid mansions of wood reared by Grecian
and Italian architects in the environs of the Kremlin. On wide and
beautiful streets there were a large number of very magnificent
churches also built of wood. The bazaars or shops, filled with the
rich merchandise of Europe and of Asia, were collected in one quarter
of the city, and were surrounded by a high stone wall as a protection
against the armies, domestic or foreign, which were ever sweeping over
the land.

From the eleventh to the sixteenth century, slavery may be said to
have been universal in Russia. Absolutely every man but the monarch
was a slave. The highest nobles and princes avowed themselves the
slaves of the monarch. There was no law but the will of the sovereign.
He could deprive any one of property and of life, and there was no
power to call him to account but the poignard of the assassin or the
sword of rebellion. In like manner the peasant