o hope and nothing to fear from the
Czar. The _mot_ was deeply true.[237]

From these oriental schemes the young Czar was, for the time, drawn
aside towards the nobler path of social reform. The saving influence
on this occasion was exerted by his old tutor, Laharpe. The
ex-Director of Switzerland readily persuaded the Czar that Russia
sorely needed political and social reform. His influence was
powerfully aided by a brilliant group of young men, the Vorontzoffs,
the Strogonoffs, Novossiltzoff, and Czartoryski, whose admiration for
western ideas and institutions, especially those of Britain, helped to
impel Alexander on the path of progress. Thus, when Napoleon was
plying the Czar with notes respecting Turkey, that young ruler was
commencing to bestow system on his administration, privileges on the
serfs, and the feeble beginnings of education on the people.

While immersed in these beneficent designs, Alexander heard with deep
chagrin of the annexation of Piedmont and Parma, and that Napoleon
refused to the King of Sardinia any larger territory than the
Siennese. This breach of good faith cut the Czar to the quick. It was
in vain that Napoleon now sought to lure him into Turkish adventures
by representing that France should secure the Morea for herself, that
other parts of European Turkey might be apportioned to Victor Emmanuel
I. and the French Bourbons. This cold-blooded proposal, that ancient
dynasties should be thrust from the homes of their birth into alien
Greek or Moslem lands, wounded the Czar's monarchical sentiments. He
would none of it; nor did he relish the prospect of seeing the French
in the Morea, whence they could complete the disorder of Turkey and
seize on Constantinople. He saw whither Napoleon was leading him. He
drew back abruptly, and even notified to our ambassador, Admiral
Warren, that _England had better keep Malta._[238]

Alexander also, on January 19th, 1803 (O.S.), charged his ambassador
at Paris to declare that the existing system of Europe must not be
further disturbed, that each Government should strive for peace and
the welfare of its own people; that the frequent references of
Napoleon to the approaching dissolution of Turkey were ill-received at
St. Petersburg, where they were considered the chief cause of
England's anxiety and refusal to disarm. He also suggested that the
First Consul by some public utterance should dispel the fears of
England as to a partition of the Ottoman E