of his work, and what he undertook to write he has written well. We can recommend the book as possessing the merit, rare in these days, of being concise without dryness and graphic without exaggeration.

The history of Russia, from the time when its name begins to obtain mention " as the denomination of a people, a state, and a country," extends over a period of somewhat less than 1,000 years. But of much of the earlier portion of this term, the materials furnished by so rude and uncivilized a state of society, for anything deserving the name of history, would necessarily be of a scant and obscure description. They can only be the legendary accounts of a fierce and barbarous people, continually embroiled in sanguinary conflicts amongst themselves, and often very formidable to their neighbours :

The rise of the Russian monarchy was nearly contemporaneous with the introduction of the new (i. e. Christian) faith. Rurik, its founder, a leader of Varangians from the Baltic, a bold Scandinavian or Norman rover, settled in the neighbourhood of Novgorod about the year 862, apparently upon the invitation of the inhabitants for their defence. The city was then a flourishing commercial site and the republican head of an extensive territory. But the auxiliary speedily became a master, established a princedom, and founded a dynasty which lasted upwards of seven centuries.

It would not consist with the limits of our present notice, to do more than give a very slight and cursory outline of some of the principal events and personages that come before us in the rise and growth of the giant Empire of the North. Like all the northern tribes, the Russian Princes early discovered that passion for aggression which has, up to the present time, continued to develope itself as the ruling policy of their country. Oleg, the immediate successor of Rurik, having transferred the seat of government from Novgorod to Khiev, on the Dneiper, penetrated with his warlike followers up to the very gates of Constantinople:

And wrung from the Emperor an enormous booty as the price of his retreat. Igor, the third sovereign, twice engaged in a similar expedition. Thus early did Russian princes trace the road to Byzantium, and became as formidable to the Greek Imperial Family as their descendants have been to the Ottoman Sultans.

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Amongst the Sovereigns of the house of Rurik, whose names have acquired notoriety, those, perhaps, of Olga (nominally Regent, but virtually Sovereign), Vladimir, Ivan III. and Ivan IV., surnamed The Terrible," stand most conspicuous. The two former,inasmuch as they were the most powerful of the early Sovereigns, and are associated, in a peculiar way, it is true, with the introduction of Christianity into Russia, as the acknowledged religion of the country. The third,—

Russia came into connexion with England, the Caspian, and the Caucasus: the port of Archangel was founded: the printing-press was introduced to Moscow: and Western Siberia was discovered and conquered.

Of the conversion of Olga and Vladimir (so important an epoch to every country is the change of its religion) it may not be uninteresting to say a few words. To those who are acquainted, only and happily, with the influences of Christianity under their fairer aspect, the mention of the conversion of barbarous and warlike rulers to its faith, may call up ideas of a great change in things, happy for prince and people alike: of cruelties abhorred and vices abandoned; of goodness, and gentleness, and truth, spreading their benign influences gradually over the land. Alas! this is not the way they did things in Russia; nor, indeed, after the lapse of so many centuries, have they yet learned this better way.

Olga, an implacable and bloodthirsty creature, prepared for her reception of the waters of baptism by bathing herself in the blood of her people, and then repaired in state to Constantinople to have the ceremony performed, "in a manner as august as possible, by the hands of the Patriarch himself.” We do not, however, find that her adopted creed softened or altered, in any one respect, her Pagan disposition, or inclined her to the slightest observance of the law she had publicly acknowledged. She is, nevertheless, a great saint in the Russian calendar.

Of the conversion of Vladimir Mr. Milner has given a very graphic picture. Having determined to adopt a new religion,—

The merits of Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Mohammedanism, and Greek Christianity were successively canvassed; and deputies were sent into the countries where they were professed to report upon their claims to atten

tion. The three first were rejected for characteristic reasons. Judaism, the profession of a race without a national temple or a political status, and considered to be under the ban of Heaven, was quickly dismissed. Romanism involved the recognition of a Pope, claiming temporal as well as spiritual supremacy, and was, therefore, ineligible. Mohammedanism had powerful attractions in

its sensual paradise and beautiful houris. But it interdicted wine; and "wine," said Vladimir, "is the delight of the Russians; we cannot do without it." There only remained Greek Christianity: and its imposing ceremo

U

nies, as witnessed by the deputies, in the magnificent St. Sophia, at Constantinople, made a powerful impression. "If the Greek religion," said they, "had not been the best, Olga, your ancestress, the wisest of mortals, would never have thought of embracing it." The prince determined to follow the example of the princess.

The most peculiar feature, however, of this undertaking, is the manner in which he proceeded to carry it out. To preserve his inde. pendence and to extend his influence, he conceived

The scheme of capturing, by force of arms, some valid administrators of the Sacrament, and compelling the vanquished to Christianize the victor. Accordingly, he made war upon the Greek Empire, attacking, with a powerful fleet and army, the city of Cherson, the site of which is nearly identical with that of Sebastopol in the Crimea. So determined was the aggressor to enter into religious fellowship with its inhabitants, that he caused them to be informed that he was prepared to remain three years before their walls. On commencing the siege, one of the chroniclers relates, that he offered up the following prayer:-"O God, grant me thy help that I may take this town, that I may carry from it Christians and priests to instruct me and my people, and to convey the true religion into my dominions!" Surely, never before or since, have the waters of baptism been sought in a manner so strange.

After a long resistance the city was taken by the treason of a priest within its walls. Vladimir thus compassed his pious object. He demanded, and obtained, the sister of the Greek Emperor in marriage, and in great state was baptized and married, the same day, at Cherson. Vladimir, on his return to Kiev, ordered a general and public baptism of all its inhabitants, who submitted to the ordinance without understanding its meaning. In the sequel of his reign he exhibited a very improved character, and, from the kind and enlightened policy he pursued, has received from his countrymen the title of The Great."

From Vladimir I. we pass on to the reign of Ivan III. Between these two princes there was a period of more than 480 years, and a dark and dreary period it is. The rulers, with one or two exceptions at the most, were tyrannical, perfidious, and cruel to the extreme. What could the people be? The wonder is that, subject as they were, to a frequent succession of sanguinary civil wars, to continual oppression, grinding exaction, and wholesale slaughter, they ever survived such political maladies, and rose to be a great and powerful nation. During this period the seat of government was twice changed: first, from Kiev to Vladimir, a more secure and central place, A.D. 1167, and afterwards from Vladimir to Moscow, A.D. 1328. Up to the accession of Ivan III. the government of Russia was conducted upon the feudal system, or something nearly akin to it. This had sprung up

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at an early date, and "seems referable to the force of circumstances," viz., the necessity of providing for the younger sons of the sovereign. By the year 1150, A.D., there were not less than seventy appanaged princes under the Sovereign of Kiev, as Grand Prince and Lord Paramount" (p. 28). They held their principalities as hereditary fiefs.

When Ivan III. ascended the throne, he seems, from the very first, to have conceived the scheme of bringing all these independent principalities directly under his own autocratic rule; and, by so doing, to crush the political rights of the country, and fasten on its neck the yoke of perpetual serfdom. It was long ere he succeeded in his purpose, which he carefully veiled by false and specious pretexts; but he did succeed, and laid the foundation of that Empire with which we are ourselves acquainted. Like Vladimir, he had an eye to Constantinople, and, like him, sought to acquire a title to its throne by marriage. It was from his marriage with Sophia, princess of the imperial blood of Constantinople, A.D. 1472, that the recognition of Russia as a political power, by Europe,

dates:

Twenty-eight years after the death of the third Ivan the monarchy devolved to the fourth of the name, a grandson and a minor ... only three years of age. This boy survived a stormy pupilage to confirm the power of his country and extend its limits, then becoming its Scourge and curse. Posterity has distinguished him by the ominous appellation of " the Terrible:" and, without exception, in the list of tyrants with which nations have been harassed, there is no example of a despot so original -a monster so tremendous. We must throw together a Nero, a Commodus, a Louis XI., and Henry VIII, in order to produce his likeness. Even then the resemblance will not be perfect without adding the features of a sanctimonious monk, familiar with scraps of divinity, and prone to quote them, with that characteristic mark by which Antichrist is known-a blasphemous self-exaltation to the high seat of the Divine Majesty.

Such is the character given of the monarch under whose reign Russia became connected with our own country, and began to evince signs of that great and persevering enterprise which has been since carried out so extensively. The heart sickens, nevertheless, to read the horrible tragedies of this reign. We might have looked for some approach to an enlight ened and liberal government from the man who first brought the printing-press to his country, promoted its commerce, developed its vast resources, and encouraged the forma tion of mercantile companies. But after the death of his first wife, Anastasia, who seems to have exercised a beneficial influence on his mind,

His vile passion acquired full expansion. The fiend within, now the charmer was gone, started up from

slumber-a living thing-a masterful spirit—a horrible reality, combining the most savage cruelty and brutal lust with the strange addition of mock devotion. "However revolting to dwell upon," adds Mr. Milner, his career ought not to be passed over: for, besides being a chapter in the history of human nature, it is evidence of the astonishing servility of the Russian mind that such a monster could be endured a twelvemonth.

With his successor Feodore, terminated the rule of the house of Rurik. Five sovereigns of various families afterwards successively occupied the throne of Russia, and illustrated, in their unhappy experience, the too uniform fate of unprincipled ambition. It was in the year 1613 A.D., that the first of the present dynasty, the house of Romanoff, was elected to the throne. Michael Romanoff was the son of Philaretes, the fourth Patriarch of Moscow; whose family was connected with the race of Rurik by marriage.

Well, on, on we go, with the same sad story: reading of revolutions, followed by defeat of the rebels, and horrible executions for upwards of eighty years, till we come to that very marked epoch of Russian history, the reign of Peter the Great.

From the accession of this monarch the history of Russia becomes more familiar to us; and so much has been said and written on the subject since the outbreak of the present war, that it would be needless for us to prolong our remarks on events so generally and so well known. From his reign dates the commencement of that very important chapter in the history of Russia, we may say, of the world, which records the systematic policy pursued by the Muscovite Sovereigns in the extension of their territorial limits. During the 150 years that have elapsed since the time of Peter, those limits have been extended to an average of 1,000 miles on every side. But things do not get much better, so far as the condition of the people is concerned, from the reign of Peter. In fact, it is one long tragic story of oppression on the part of the rulers; conspiracy on the part of the people, or rather their leaders. We may write the history, in fact, with these few words:-Oppression engendering conspiracy, followed by detection and punishment: revolution entailing defeat and wholesale execu

tions. In return, sovereigns are murdered, strangled, or poisoned: and so the history of Russia proceeds. It is a wonder how, under all these circumstances, Russia has become the prodigious power she is. What, we may ask, might she not have been? It is, perhaps, a still more solemn question, What will she be? There are not wanting those who predict that her destiny is a still further absorption. into her gigantic proportions of other nations, till she become absolute dictatress of the world. We do not sympathise with the prophets of so dark a future. Russia may indeed be, as men say, impregnable to assault, but she is powerless, in the same proportion, for the work of aggression, as long as the powers of western Europe continue united in opposing her. And this continuance happily does not depend upon the caprices of international friendship, but upon the necessities of a selfdefensive policy. And this England and France well know. They are well aware of the consequences that would ensue to their own interests from permitting Russia to extend her territorial influence, and therefore they will not permit it. Meanwhile, let us hope that there are not wanting signs of an awakening to better things amongst the long oppressed population of Russia. She has now been brought into collision with free and civilised nations. Her citizens captured in war, will return to their homes with notions, incipient perhaps and ill defined, but still notions more dangerous to the despots who enslave them, than the steel of the English or the French.

The prince who now presides over the af fairs of that mighty nation would do well to anticipate a struggle for freedom that may add another and a darker tragedy to the already brimful catalogue; he would do well and nobly to initiate a policy that would hand down his name to posterity, a name that would stand in bright contrast to those of the potent warriors who, to gratify their ambition, extended the limits of the Russian empire, but to preserve their despotic power kept its population in thraldom,-the name of an enlightened and constitutional monarch.

My First Season.

By BEATRICE REYNOLDS.

partook too much of German mysticism to meet our complete approbation. We find in the work now offered to our criticism greater originality of style and promise of excellence.

My First Season " possesses a quaintness of diction, and a freshness of imagination, which place it far beyond the pale of our every-day novels. Disdaining beaten tracks, the authoress has, without any great regard to scheme or plot, put together a large collection of bright dialogues. These are full of satire, and attack impartially the foibles of conceited beauties, coquettish old dowagers, pompous peers, and calculating clergymen.

Every class has its due coup de patte, and were it not for the many virtues emanating from two of the characters, we should accuse the authoress of a dark-sided view of human nature. The story runs thus:—

The autobiographer describes herself as a strange child with strange tastes, the orphan daughter of a clergyman and a lady of noble family. Taken under the guardianship of her cousin, Lord Ailye, the independence of her character developes itself rapidly, notwithstanding the somewhat fanatic views of her relation, who dies of a broken heart. The education she had shared with a female cousin and two boys being thus interrupted, the two girls are taken by a distant relation, Lady Barres, and the boys left to their tutor. The tutor is all through the book a character of interest. Under the name of Henry he hides an illustrious foreign descent, and though reduced to exile and poverty, for fear of the result he studiously conceals his lovely sister from Beatrice and his beloved pupil, the new Lord Ailye.

Beatrice Reynolds, a match-maker at heart, overcomes all obstacles, and by a stratagem that could only have occurred to herself, unites the young couple. The book ends with the marriages of old and young, but Beatrice preserves her maiden state, cherishing an unfortunate love for Mr. Henry and for Poland

·

Mr. Henry has only been twice to England since his sister's marriage. His patriotism and devoted purpose are not yet rewarded; but he is rewarded with the love and honour of his race: not an inconsistency has marred his course. His noble destiny forbids me to frame the wish that I might have shared it. The fire has passed upon him, for his hair reflects a silver light over its raven shades, and his graceful figure bends; but still the glance of life and energy is unquenched within his eye: still he hopes on, and while he lives will ever hope.

And at this crisis, when the confused noise of war is heard afar amidst the nations, and raiment "rolled in blood" troubles our nightly dreams-when old enemies, united as brothers, are fighting against the enemy side by side-one may hope that the rights of Poland will be restored, with those of other nations struggling against their oppressors. The day may yet be distant, but will surely dawn, when this glorious people-longsuffering but not dejected-shall be again a nation, and be hailed as the only barrier against the barbarians of the north.

We give the description of the tutor's sister:

I knew George's taste in beauty as in other things, and that this most beautiful woman would minister to it as completely as she would satisfy his appreciation of all that is pure and noble in character. In her countenance the rare type of true Sarmatian nobility was blent with youth in its blooming freshness, dignified with an air of majesty. Her head was set like a lily on its stem; her eyes of violet blue were fringed with the darkest lashes; her hair was purple black. This beauteous blending of dark hair with blue eyes was one upon which George had ever expatiated to me, even in his boyhood; and his manhood found him too fastidious to be impressed by the ordinary charms of reigning and rival beauties: though he could critically admire women, and with the usual coldness of connoiseurship, even analyse unquestionable charms. This merely by the way.

Her ingenuous and commanding countenance showed that she was at ease, occupied with her own thoughts, and unconscious of giving or taking offence. Her dancing was exquisite for the grace and harmony of her movements, which nymph-like sprung from the elastic step of her small and slender feet-a charın far rarer than the most beautiful of hands.

As a contrast to the graceful outline of Maya, we will extract a Holbein sketch of the son of Lady Barres. His attentions are de signedly forced by this lady upon Beatrice, but are repulsed with spirit:

This being was of immense proportions, so tall as not to seem stout, and so stout as not to look tall. He had a certain sort of symmetry, too: the symmetry one may observe in a very fat baby that has not a bone to show. His hands, red as roses, had apparently no muscle; there being big dimples in the place where knuckles should be developed, and his wrists were marked by creases in the superabundant flesh. His complexion, originally blond, had yielded to a stress of sunshine, and was profusely freckled; his hay-coloured hair was weather-bleached at the extremities, and a little straggling stubble composed his whiskers. A bland, foolish expression dwelt in his gooseberry-coloured eyes, which would have been actually swinish but for their human insolence, lurking under flaxen lashes.

There were stands of forced flowers in every window, and the perfumes of hyacinth and daffodil sent up incense to the moonlight I gazed on; when feeling I had wasted much of the only hour in the day allowed me to read in peace, I bethought myself to draw down the blind before leaving the window. Before I could do so I was startled by an unctuous tone. Said this elfin voice," Let me do that for you, I beg!"-and Lord Barres approached the window.

I have heard that the soft-headed are not soft-footed, and was astonished at the stealth of his advent until I beheld that his lordship wore slippers, which were embroidered with foxes' heads upon a ground of orangecolour.

I did not like to be alone with him, but did not choose to leave the room, lest he should imagine I thought about him at all. He lowered the blind with such impetuosity that he broke the cord, retaining the tassel in his hand. Then he followed me to the fireplace, and looking over my head, stared at my reflex in the glass. Finding this out in a few moments, I retreated into a corner, sat down upon a chair, and drew to me the work-frame of Lady Barres. I had scarcely taken up the needle before his lordship turned, pushed a chair before him, by leaning upon its back with his entire weight, and sat down in front of me upon the other side of the frame. Then passed this conversation :

"How do you do that?"

"I cannot show your lordship-it is a lady's work." "Men are too awkward: do you think so?" "Graceful persons are always exceptions.-awkward ones the rule."

"Miss Reynolds, do you think I'm awkward? My mother tells me I am, because I'm not accustomed to see ladies. I don't like ladies generally: I can't make them out."

I might have said the same of gentlemen, but was forbidden by his foolish, yet insulting glance.

"Now you know, Miss Reynolds, I mean to make you out. I think I have already, but it's not for me to say I am not vain."

50;

"Of course not."

"I should not like that kind of acquaintance with a mare."

Lord Barres put his hand into his pocket, and produced therefrom a very small pup-terrier, black and glossy, and roly-poly like its master. with a red morocco collar on. This animalcule he put down on the work frame; I shook it off, and it tumbled upon the carpet. With inane deprecation his lordship picked it up and restored it to his pocket, where it forthwith began and continued a hideous whine.

In a moment more his lordship rallied, and walked away to the window; I had hoped he was about to leave the room, but no!-he returned in another instant with a leaf of the scented verbena between his fingers, which, quite suddenly, he presented to my nose. I could have laughed, but restrained myself with scorn; and immediately rising, I rebuked with a glance of indignation his imbecile gaze his eyes seemed ready to start out of his head. Availing myself of his embarrassment, I pushed the frame against his great stubborn proportions until he was obliged to move, and escaped. But as soon as I was outside the door he tried the handle, so I locked him in, and flew to the dressing-room of Lady Barres. She was lying in a subdued light, upon the softest of sofas, in a long white wrapping-gown.

All the characters are touched with equal nerve, a lively sense of humour, a keen perception of the ridiculous, from the presump. tion of the favorite lady's maid to the wily serpent-like diplomacy of the false chaperon. Miss Reynolds, however, disinterestedly informs us that every woman has a snake in her heart.

There are too many flaws, however, which the authoress would do well to correct. At the beginning of the book she tells us that her acquaintance with her mother will begin in heaven-a strange and too flippant manner of expressing anything so sacred as the death of a parent. We also think it unlikely that a little girl of seven years old should begin learning Latin from her own choice, and consider it an abstruse game, still a game."

RACHEL GRAY," by Miss Kavanagh, is a very dull tale of the weakly amiable school. The heroine, to use our Laureate's words, is

"One dabbling in the fount of futive tears, And nursed by mealy-mouthed philanthropies." The tale is founded, so we are told in the preface, on facts which have occurred under the authoress's own observation. The scene is laid in humble life, and the actors are poor and lowly. We object to this latter circumstance being put forward by Miss Kavanagh

1856.

as a merit. In itself it is neither a beauty nor a blemish; and a writer is not justified in stigmatizing his readers as worldly, selfish, or unfeeling, because they may not admire a novel which deals largely in feeble sentiment and weak humanity.

If the mass of readers refuse to applaud such a book, the writer thereof may be well assured that their indifference arises, not from want of sympathy with truth and nature wherever they are to be found, but from the artistic inability of the narrator to interest us