know
how to punish with the utmost severity; and with the utmost severity I
mean to punish!" ("_Avant tout, point de reveries, messieurs!... Au
besoin, je saurai sevir, et je sevirai!_")

Thus the autocratic vein strongly stood out even in this more sickly
type of a barbarous autocracy. It is the fashion at present, at least
among some who take the name of "philosophical Radicals" in vain when
they curtsy before a Machiavellian tyrant, to dwell with admiring pride
upon the philanthropic character of Alexander the Benevolent. All the
cardinal virtues are his. He is the Liberator of the Serfs, the
Deliverer of Downtrodden Nationalities, the Educator and Friend of the
People--a monstrous paragon of princely perfection. The truth is that
this Czar, albeit lacking the nerve of his sire, has from early youth
shown the full absolutistic bent. Dire necessity only brought him to the
accomplishment of some reforms. But the evidence before us clearly shows
that in this he acted on the well-known lines of despotic calculation,
and that he never did good without the intention of thereby preventing
what to him appeared to be the greater evil for his position as an
irresponsible autocrat, by the so-called "Grace of God."

III.

So deeply shaken was the Empire by the events of 1853-56, that Alexander
did not dare for several years--in fact, not until 1863--to ordain any
fresh recruitment for the army. This necessity greatly diminished the
oppressive power of the Crown. At the same time, public opinion showed
signs of a threatening unrest. An "Underground Literature," as it was
called, began once more to express the ideas of the better-educated,
progressive classes. Among the troops, the "Songs of the Crimean
Soldiers," by Tolstoy, an artillery officer, made a great stir. Count
Orloff, then Minister of the Police, wrote to the Commanding-General in
the South, that he should silence these rebel songs. The General
somewhat bluntly replied, "Please come yourself, and try to silence
them!"

Among the secret publications then in vogue there were some political
poems of Pushkin, hitherto only known in clandestine manuscript form.
Pushkin is often called, with a great deal of exaggeration, the Russian
Byron, whereas others will only let him pass as a Byron travestied,
wanting in originality, like most of his Russian brother-poets of the
end of the last and the beginning of this century. At all events, one of
Pushkin's utterances contain