Kelly W.K. The History of Russia: from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. Volume 2
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A.D.
1824]
ALEXANDER
S LAST
TEARS.
295
resisted
the wishes of his
people,
who were animated
by
a
lively
sympathj
r
for their
co-religionists.
That
sympathy
was
manifested as
strongly
as it could be under this
despotic
go-
vernment,
where
every
outward
demonstration is
interdicted,
unless when
specially
commanded or
permitted
by
authority.
They
could not see without
surprise
the head of the
so-styled
orthodox
church
enduring
the
outrages
of
the
infidels,
and
looking
on unmoved whilst one of her chief
pastors
was
hung
at
the
porch
of his
church,
and multitudes of her
children
were
massacred. These Greeks
had of late been
regarded
as
under the
protection
of
Russia
;
she was their old
ally
—
nay,
more,
their
accomplice,
who had more than once
instigated
them to break their chains. The
supineness
of
the
emperor
under such circumstances mortified the
nobility,
shocked
the
clergy,
and
was
a
subject
of
sincere
affliction to
the
people,
for
whom,
in their
debased
condition,
religious
sentiments
held the
place
of
political
emotions.
High
and
low
obeyed,
however
;
murmurs were
suppressed
;
but the
Russians failed
not to
attribute to the wrath
of
God
the
misfortunes
which
befel
Alexander,
amongst
which was
the
malady
with
which
he was afflicted
in 1824. It
began
with
erysipelas
in the
leg,
which soon
spread
upwards,
and
was
accompanied
with fever and
delirium.
For a time his
life
was
in
danger,
and
the
people,
who
sincerely
loved
him,
believed that
they
saw
in
this
a
punishment
from
on
high
because
he
had
abandoned an orthodox nation.
Another
misfortune was a
frightful calamity
which befel
St.
Petersburg
in 1821.
The mouth
of the
Neva,
opening
westward into the
Gulf of
1'inland,
is
exposed
to the violent
storms that often
accompany
the autumnal
equinox.
They
suddenly
drive
the
waters of
the
gulf
into
the
bed of
the
river,
which then
casts
forth its
accumulated
floods
upon
tho
low
quarters
on
both its
banks. It
may
be conceived
how
terrible
is the
destruction
which
the
unchained waters
make
in a
city
built
upon
a
drained
marsh,
on the
eve of
a northern
winter of
seven months' duration.
There were terrific
in-
undations
in
17l's,
172'.), 1735,
1740,
1742,
and
in
1777,
a
few
days
before
the birth of
Alexander;
but
the worst
of
all
was
that which
occurred
on the
19th
of
November,
1824,
a
year
before
his death.
A
storm
blowing
from
the
west
and
south-west
with extreme
violence,
forced back
the waters
of
296
HISTOEY OF RUSSIA.
[CH.
LXI1I,
the
Neva,
and
drove
those of the
gulf
into it. The
river
rose four
measures
above
the
ordinary
level,
and
nearly
the
whole
city
was
submerged,
the water
rising
nearly
to
the
firet
story
of
the
houses.
Horses and
carriages
were whirled
round on its
boiling
surface,
and sank to rise
no
more.
Many
bridges
were torn
up,
wooden
houses and
barracks
were
swept away,
and an entire
regiment
of
carbineers,
who
had
climbed to
the
roofs of one
of
them,
perished.
The environs
were
literally
razed. At
Cronstadt,
a
ship
of the
line
of 100
guns
was left in the middle of the
market-place.
From
eight
o'clock in the
morning
the
alarm-guns
were
fired,
and
until
four in the
afternoon
the
waters continued
to
rise.
The
emperor
had
recently
returned from
a
long
journey
as far as
to
the
steppes
of the
Kirghia
;
now
he found himself
besieged
in his
own
palace
by
an invincible
enemy.
He took his
station
upon
the
balcony
which looks
up
the
Neva to
the
north,
and
there,
surrounded
by
his
weeping
family,
he
had
the
grief
to
see the river
rushing
backward
to
its
source,
bearing
upon
its
bosom
wrecks
of
every
kind,
and
many
small
wooden
houses,
some of them still
tenanted
by
their inha-
bitants,
who were
uttering
cries
for
succour which
none could
render.
Bridges
and
merchandise were
floating
away
;
horses
and other domestic animals
struggling
in the
torrent
;
barks
sinking
under the
crowds
of human victims
who
sought
refuge
in them
;
and some who had
escaped
death
by
drowning,
were
actually
dying
of wet and
cold,
and
lay
stiffening
on the decks of
floating
vessels,
or
on
loose rafts
of
wood.
Alexander
exerted himself on
this dreadful
occasion
in
the
full
spirit
of his
better
nature.
He
exposed
his
life
to
a
thousand
dangers
in
personally
directing
the
means
of
rescue
for
all
the sufferers who could be
reached. After
the cala-
mity,
he
immediately imposed pecuniary
sacrifices
on
himself
in
order
to
augment
the
resources
of his
charity
;
and to
the
honour of
the Russians
of
every description
be
it
told,
his
example
was
nobly
imitated.* The number of
lives
lost
was
rated in the
official
report
at 4500
;
but it
is
probable
that
the truth
would
hardly
be reached if
this
number
was
doubled
or trebled.
Winter
provisions
were
destroyed,
and
*
The
subscriptions
amounted
to
more than
160,000/.
The
emperor
gave 1,000,000
rubles.
A.D.
1824]
SECRET
SOCIETIES.
297
the value of
many
millions
sterling
in
sugar,
cotton, wool,
sale, &c,
was at
once
annihilated.
Many
houses that
were
not carried
away
were
rendered
uninhabitable;
and thou-
sands of
houseless
wretches,
without
means
to warm
their
chilled
limbs,
or
dry
their
drenched clothes
(for
the
flood
was
followed
by
a cold that
sent
Eeaumier's
thermometer
down
to the
10th
degree),
were
seen
wandering
through
the
wreck-
strewn
streets. Houses of
the
most solid
construction re-
mained
impregnated
with
saline
damp,
and
hung
with
crys-
tallisations,
which
proved
that it
was not
the river
but tbe
sea
which
had thus
awfully
invaded
them. The
foundations
of
many
were
shaken
;
and if
the water had
continued for
any length
of
time
at
the
height
it
had
reached,
they
too
must
have fallen.
To
crown
this
distress,
all
who suffered
from
it
could not but
look
forward to future
returns
of
the
same
disaster.
This
continual
danger
hovers like
a
destroy-
ing angel
over a
population,
whose
thoughts
are
nevertheless
perpetually
diverted
from it
by
the
glitter
of
riches and
honour,
and
who,
while death
stands thus ever
by
their
side,
give
themselves
up
to a life of
sensuality
and
dissipation.
The
multitude
regarded
the
catastrophe
as
a
judgment
of
God. The
czar,
deeply
affected
by
the sad
spectacles
he had
witnessed,
never
recovered from the
shock. This increased
his
disgust
of
life
and
the
heavy
melancholy
that had of late
being
growing
upon
him.
The whole
aspect
of
Europe
gave
fearful
tokens that
the
policy
of
the
Holy
Alliance was false
and
untenable
;
it
was
everywhere
the
subject
of
execration,
and its
destruction
was the
aim of an
almost universal con-
spiracy, extending
even
into
Alexander's
own
dominions.
Poland
inspired
him
with
deep
alarm,
and
his native
country,
notwithstanding
her habits
of
immobility,
seemed
ripe
for
convulsions. Thus his
public
life
was tilled with
disappoint-
ment and
care,
and his
private
life
was
deeply
clouded
with
horrors.
The diet of
"Warsaw
had
become
so
refractory,
that
in
1820
Alexander had
found it
necessary
to
suspend
it,
in vio-
lation
of the constitution
given
by
himself;
and
though
he
opened
a new diet
in
1824,
he
did
so under
such
restrictions,
that the
Poles
rightly
considered
it
a
mere
mockery
of
repre-
sentative forms. In the
mean
time,
secret societies
which
menaced the Eussian
power
had
been
discovered.
The
prin-
298
history or
kttssia.
[ch.
lxiii.
cipal
members
of them
were
arrested
in.
1823,
and order
seemed for the
time
re-established. It
was, however,
merely
seeming
—
a calm on
the surface
only;
the
political
dictator-
ship
and
the
military
regulations
repressed
all
outward de-
monstrations
;
but a
continual
agitation
below the
surface
foreboded an
eruption
which
could
only
be
prevented
by
means
abhorrent to
the
benevoleut
feelings
of
Alexander.
To add
to these
troubles,
Eussia herself was
by
no
means
tranquil.
In the
year
1824
insurrections
of
the
peasants
occurred in
several
governments,
and
especially
in
that
of
JSTovgovod.
in
dangerous
vicinity
to the
first-founded
of
the
military
colonies. The
latter themselves shared the
general
discontent,
and
threatened to
become
a
fearful
focus of
re-
bellion,
as was
actually
the
case
in
1832.
There
existed
also
in
Eussia
other centres of
disaffection,
the
existence
of
which
might
have been
long
before
known to
Alexander,
but
for
his
culpable
habit of
allowing petitions
to collect in
heaps
in
his cabinet without
even
breaking
their seals.
He,
however,
learned the
fact on his
last
journey
into Poland
in
June, 1825,
or
immediately
after his
return.* He then received the
first
intimation
of
the
conspiracy
which had for
many
years
been
plotting
against
himself and
against
the
existing
order of
things
in Eussia
—
a
conspiracy
which,
as
many
believe,
involved
the
perpetration
of
regicide.
It is a curious
fact,
but
one
by
no
means
unparalleled,
that in a
country
where
the
police
is so
active,
such a
plot
should have remained
for
years
undetected. In
1816,
several
young
Eussians
who had
served
in the
European
campaigns
of the three
preceding
years,
and
who
had
directed their
attention to the
secret
associations which
had
so
greatly
contributed to
the
liberation
of
Germany,
conceived the
idea
of
establishing
similar asso-
ciations in Eussia
;
and this
was the
origin
of
that abortive
insurrection which broke out in St.
Petersburg
on
the
day
when
the
troops
were
required
to take the
oath of
allegiance
to
Alexander's
successor.
These
details would
be
sufficient
of
themselves
to account
for the
melancholy
that
haunted Alexander
in
the
later
years
of his
reign,
and
which
was
painfully
manifest
in
his counte-
nance.
But he
had
to
undergo
other
sufferings.
*
The
informer was an
inferior
officer
of
Lancers.
His
name was
Sherwood,
and he was of
English
origin.
A.D.
1825]
ALEXANDER'S DOMESTIC
SOEEOWS. 299
He was
not more than sixteen
years
of
age
when
his
grand-
mother,
Catharine
II.,
had
married him to
the amiable and
beautiful
princess
Maria
of
Baden,
then
scarcely
fifteen.*
The
match was better assorted than is
usually
the
case
in
the
highest
conditions
of
life,
but
it
was not a
happy
one. It
might
have
been so
if it
had been
delayed
until the
young
couple
were of
more mature
years,
and
had not the
empress
unwisely
restricted their freedom
after
marriage,
and
spoiled
her
grandson
as a
husband
by
attempting
to
make him
a
good
one in
obedience to her orders.
Moreover,
the
tie of
offspring
was
wanting
which
might
have drawn
the
parents'
hearts
together,
for
two
daughters,
born in the first two
years
of.
their
union,
died
early.
Alexander
formed other
attachments,
one
of which with
the countess
Narishkin,
lasted
eleven
years,
until it
was
dissolved
by
her
inconstancy.
She
had borne
him three
children
;
only
one was
left,
a
girl
as
beautiful as her
mother,
who
was
now the sole
joy
of
her
father's sad
heart. But the
health of
Sophia
JNarishkin was
delicate,
and
he was
compelled
to
part
with
her,
that she
might
be
removed
to
a
milder
climate.
She
returned
too
soon,
and
died on the eve
of her
marriage,
in
her
eighteenth
year.
The
news was
communicated
to Alexander
one morn-
ing
when he was
reviewing
his
guard.
"
I
receive
the reward
of
my
deeds,"
were the
first words that
escaped
from
his
agonised
heart.
Elizabeth,
whose love
had survived
long
years
of
neglect,
had tears
to shed for
the
daughter
of
her
rival,
and none
sympathised
more
deeply
than
she
with
the
suffering
father.
He
began
to
see
in
her
what
his
people
had
long
seen,
an
angel
of
goodness
and
resignation
;
his affection
for
her
revived,
and he
strove to
wean her
from
the bitter recol-
lections
of the
past
by
his
constant aud devoted
attention.
But
long-continued
sorrows had
undermined Elizabeth's
health,
a.
id her
physicians
ordered that
she should be re-
moved
to lftT native
air.
She
refused,
however,
to
comply
with this
advice,
declaring
that the
wife
of
the
emperor
of
Russia
should die
nowhere
else
than in
his dominions.
It
was then
proposed
to
try
the
southern
provinces
of the
em-
pire,
and Alexander
selected for
her
residence
the
little
town
of
Taganrog,
on the Sea of
Azof,
resolving
himself
to
make
*
She took the name of
Elizabeth Alexeiovna.
300
HISTOBY
OF
KUSSIA.
[CH.
LXI1I.
all
the
arrangements
for
her
reception
in
that
remote and
little
frequented
spot.
A
journey
of 1800
versts,
after
the
many
other
journeys
he had
already
made
since
the
opening
of the
year,
was
a
fatigue
too
great
for him
to
sustaiu
without
injury,
suffering
as he
still
was from
erysipelas
;
hut he
was
accustomed
to
listen to no advice
on the
subject
of
his
movements,
and
two or
three thousand
versts
were
nothing
in his
estimation
;
besides,
on this
occasion,
in
the
very
fa-
tigue
of
travelling
he
sought
his
repose
: he
would fulfil a
duty
Avhich was
to
appease
his
conscience. He
quitted
St.
Petersburg
in
the
beginning
of
September,
1825,
preceding
the
empress by
several
days.
His
principal
travelling
com-
panions
were
prince
Volkhonski,
one
of
the
friends of
his
youth
;
his
aide-de-camp general,
baron
Diebitsch,
a distin-
guished
military
man
who had
been made
over to him
by
the
king
of
Prussia
;
and
his
physician,
sir
James
Wylie,
who
had been
about his
person
for
thirty years,
and was at the
head
of the
army
medical
department.
The
journey
was
prosperous,
and
was
accomplished
with
Alexander's
usual
rapidity
in
twelve
days,
the travellers
passing
over 150
versts a
day
;
but his
mind was
oppressed
with
gloomy
forebodings,
and
these
were
strengthened
by
the
sight
of
a
comet
;
for
though brought
up by
a
philosophic
grandmother,
and
by
a
free-thinking
tutor,
he
was
by
no
means
exempt
from
the
superstition
which
is
so
common
amongst
the
Russians even
of the
highest
classes,
in whom
the
varnish of
civilisation
covers,
without
extinguishing,
the
vulgar
prejudices
and instinctive
sentiments of the uncul-
tivated man
;
besides,
in
spite
of
culture,
misfortune
renders
its victims
superstitious,
and,
as we
have
seen,
Providence
had not
spared
sorrows to the
man whose
greatness
all were
ignorantly
envying.
"
llya,"
he
called out to
his old
and
faithful
coachman,
"
have
you
seen the new star
?
Do
you
know that
a comet
always presages
misfortune
?
But God's
will
be
done
I"
A
very
favourable
change
having
taken
place
in
the
empress's
health in
Taganrog,
Alexander
ven-
tured to
leave
her
early
in
October,
for
a
short excursion
through
the
Crimea.
On
the 26th of that
month Dr.
Ro-
bert
Lee,
family
physician
to count
Vorontzof,
was one
of
the
emperor's
guests
at
Aloupka.
He
relates
that at
dinner
Alexander
repeatedly
expressed
how much
he was
pleased
A.D.
1825]
DEATH OF
ALEXANDER.
301
with
Orianda,
where
he
had
been that
day,
and
stated that
it
was his
determination to have a
palace
built
there as
expe-
ditiously
as
possible.
"
To
my
amazement,"
says
Dr.
Lee,
"
he said after
a
pause,
'
"When I
give
in
my
demission,
I will
return and
fix
myself
at
Orianda,
and wear
the
costume
of
the
Taurida.' Not
a word was uttered
when
this extraordi-
nary
resolution was
announced,
and
I
thought
that I
must
have misunderstood the
emperor
;
but
this
could
not
be,
for
in a short
time,
when count
Vorontzof
proposed
that
the
large
open
flat
space
of
ground
to the
westward of
Orianda
should be
converted into
pleasure-grounds
for his
majesty,
he
replied
:
'
I
wish
this to be
purchased
for
general
Dieb'itsc'h,
as it is
right
that the
chief of
my
etat-major
and I should
be
neighbours.'
"
During
the latter
part
of
his
tour in
the
Crimea,
Alex-
ander
had
some
threatenings
of
illness,
but
peremptorily
re-
fused
all
medical
treatment.
He
returned
to
Taganrog
on
the 17th of
November,
with
evident
symptoms
of a
severe
attack of the
bilious
remittent
fever of the
Crimea. He
persisted
in
rejecting
medical aid until it
was too
late,
and
died on the 1st of
December.
For a
long
time
the belief
prevailed throughout
Europe
that
he had
been
assassinated
;
but it is
now
established
beyond question
that his
death
was
a
natural one.
The
empress
survived him
but
five
months.
Alexander's last
days
were
embittered
by
fresh
disclosures
brought
to him
by general
count
do
Witt,
respecting
the
conspiracy by
which,
if the
official
report
is
to be
believed,
he was
doomed to
assassination.
From
that
time he de-
clared himself
disgusted
with
life.
Once
when sir James
Wyliewaa
pressing
him to
take
some
medicine,
"My
friend,"
said
Alexander,
"
it
is the
state of
my
nerves
to which
you
must
attend;
they
arc
in
frightful
disorder."
—
"
Alas!"* re-
joined
the
physician,
"
that
happens
more
frequently
to
kings
than to
ordinary
men."
—
"
Yes,"
said
the
emperor,
with
animation,
"but with me
in
particular
there
are
many
special
reasons,
and
at
the
present
hour
more so than
ever."
Some
days
afterwards,
when
his
brain was
almost
delirious,
the czar
gazed
intently
on
the
doctor,
his
whole
countenance
manifesting
intense fear.
"
Oh,
my friend,"
he
exclaimed,
"
what an
act,
what
a
horrible act
!
The monsters !
the
un-
grateful
monsters
! I
designed
nothing
but their
happiness."
302
HISXOEY
OF
ETTSSIA.
[cil.
LXIII.
We
borrow
from
Dr.
Lee the
following
just remarks,
written,
lie
says,
after his arrival
in
Taganrog,
when
the
general
expression
of
grief
for the
departed
emperor
had
began
to
subside :
"
The
people
here,
and
indeed all
over the
empire,
were
much
attached
to
their
sovereign,
on
account of
his
personal
good
qualities
and
amiable and
conciliating
manners.
Affa-
bility
and
benevolence
he
certainly
possessed
in an
eminent
degree,
and had
he not
been a
great
monarch he would
have
been
beloved and
respected by
all who
knew him.
But I
have
met with
none
here who
have
endeavoured
to
form
an
estimate of his
public
and
political
life.
I
have
asked,
what
Las
he
done for
the
internal
improvement
of the
country
?
but
no one
has fixed
upon
any object
of
importance
which
will
serve
to
commemorate his
reign.
Of his
conduct in
regard
to
Greece,
Italy,
and
Spain,
there can
be
but
one
opinion; and,
in
respect
to
Eussia,
few will
hesitate
to
express
their
conviction,
that
his blind attachment to
the
army,
and his
dread
and
hatred of all
free institutions in the
country,
have
been
two of
the
greatest
errors which
a
sovereign
could have
committed.
The former
passion
led to
the ruin
of the
commerce of
the
country
and finances of
the
empire
;
and the
latter
to the
proscription
of
every species
of
public
instruction,
and
an
obstinate
opposition
to
the
introduction of all
useful
knowledge.
The
state of
the
universities is
truly
wretched
;
every
man
of talent
being
either
driven out
or
forced to
quit
them,
owing
to the
restrictions to
which
they
have
been
subjected.
Had one
thousandth
part
of
the sums
which he
expended
on
the
army
and
navy
been
devoted to
the
institution of
public
schools,
to the
general
welfare
of
the
people,
and to
the
instruction and
emancipation
of the
slaves,
civilisation
might
have
been
far advanced
;
and
the
danger
which
must
ever
exist
to
a
country
where
so
large
a
proportion
of
the
people
are
in
a
state of
slavery, greatly
diminished,
if not com-
pletely
removed. But
everything
like freedom was
banished
from
the
country,
and all was
sacrificed
to this
great
army.
If,
instead of
wasting
the last
ten
years
in
exercising
his
unwieldy
host,
in
planting military
colonies,
and
in
crushing
the
rising
liberties
of
Germany
and
the
south
of
Europe,
he
had directed
his
mind
to
the
improvement
of
the
laws and
A.D.
1S25]
REVIEW OE ALEXANDER'S
DEIGN.
303
civil
institutions
of
the
country,
and
to
the amelioration
of
the
forty
millions
of slaves
in his
empire,
what a
magnificent
and
imperishable
monument would he
not
have raised to his
fame
all
over the world. As
things
are,
he
will not
cease to
be
viewed
in all
succeeding
ages,
by
political
philosophers,
as
a
scourge
to his
country,
and
as
one
who
utterly
failed
in
fulfilling
the
high
destinies which
Providence at
the com-
mencement of his
reign
appeared
to
have
marked
out for
him.
"
By
firmly
resisting
the
invaders
of his
country, by
march-
ing
his
army
into
Germany
after
their
retreat,
and
by
his
conciliatory
manners
keeping
the
sovereigns
on
the con-
tinent
in
a state of
union till
the
power
of their
adversary
was
destroyed,
there can
be no
doubt that he
rendered the
greatest
services
to
the
nations of
Europe.
But
in so
far,
and no
farther,
are
they
indebted
to
him. The
fate of
this
vast
empire
no one can
certainly
foretel
;
but
that
changes
await
it,
and
at no
distant
period,
who
can doubt?
The
army
is
rotten at the core.
Many
of the
officers detest
the
present
system
of
government,
and
desire a
representative
and
constitutional
government,
and
long
to see the
slaves
educated and
gradually emancipated.
The soldiers
cannot
feel
any
attachment
to the
government
which has
dragged
them from
their homes
and
doomed
them to
a life of
the
severest
hardship.
Slight
circumstances
might
effect
the
most
important
changes
in
the
whole
structure of
society
in
Russia,
and
it
is
hardly possible
that
good
should not
spring
from
any change.
All
power being
vested
in the
army,
the
changes
will
begin
first
in
that
quarter,
and will
propagate
themselves
into
all
the
ranks
of the
empire. Again,
I
say,
that
no
one
regrets
the
emperor
Alexander as
a
public
loss
;
and 1 feel
certain
that
out of
Eussia
few
tears will
be
shed
on
this
occasion,
except by
those
wretched
despots
whom
he
has
assisted
by
upholding
them
in
their
unlimited
and
un-
lawful
power.
Even
at
Taganrog,
where his
body
now
lies,
where his
empress
is still
present
in
a state
of
deep'
mourning
for his
loss,
and
where all
the
trappings
of
woe
are
exhibited,
the
tears
of the
people
nave
already
ceased to
flow,
and
(he
thoughts
<if
all are directed
with
the
deepest
anxiety
to
the
line of
conduct
which his
successor,
Constanrinc. will
follow.
The
emperor
Alexander
undoubtedly gained
the affection
of
301
HISTORY
OS
RUSSIA.
[CH.
LXIV.
those
immediately
around his
person,
because
he
was
most
attentive to
their
feelings
and
wants,
and
by
them
he
is no
doubt
sincerely regretted
;
but
of bis
tender
mercies
to the
people
at
large
I
can see no
evidence.
Where
were his
sympathies
at
the
congresses
of
Troppau,
Laybach,
and
Verona,
for the
people,
whose
national
independence
he
violated
? How did
his
compassion
show itself
when
inflict-
ing
so much
misery
on
those
whom
he had
torn
from
their
families to fill
up
the
ranks of
his
useless and
almost
countless
legions
?
"What
regard
to the
feelings
of
those
crown
slaves
whom
he had
planted
in
his
military
colonies ?"
Miserable
indeed were
the
results of a
reign
which in its
opening
had
promised
to
regenerate
Eussia.
All
is ex-
plained
by
that
fatal
infirmity
of
will
and
want of
practical
sense,
the
result in all
probability
of
Catharine's
too
rigorous
tutelage,
which
made
Alexander
the
dupe
of his
imagination
or
of other
men.
Subjected
in his
youth
to
a
domestic dis-
cipline
almost as
strict
as that
in
which
women
are
reared,
his
mind
remained
womanly
to the
last in
its need
of
dependence
and
guidance.
His
character,
says
one who
had
studied the
man,*
"
offered
only
a radiant
surface,
of softened
lustre it
is
true,
but
in which
weakness was
more
conspicuous
than
strength,
and
over
which
borrowed
ideas
successively glided,
and
systems
with
no
necessary
connexion
between
them."
CHAPTER
LXIV.
INTERREGNUM
—
CONSTANTINE's
RENUNCIATION
OF
THE
THRONE
ACCESSION OE
NICHOLAS
I.
MILITARY
REVOLT.
By
virtue of the law
of
succession
enacted
by
Paul
in
1797,
and
confirmed
by
Alexander in
1807,
the vacant
crown
of
Eussia
devolved
of
right
upon
Constantine,
the eldest
of
the
three
surviving
imperial
brothers.
Immediately
after
the
news
of
Alexander's
death
was
received
in
St.
Peters-
burg,
the
grand-duke
Nicholas
presented
himself
to
the
senate to
take
the
oath
of
allegiance
to his brother
;
yet
he
could not but
have
been
aware
of
the existence
and
purport
*
Alph.
Eabbe,
"
Histoire
d'Alexandre
I.,"
t.
i.
p.
4.