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SAYES COURT, DEPTFORD.

he expected by the duties to realize a large sum for the treasury. A Russian merchant, Órlenka, had offered 15,000 rubles for the monopoly, and even General Gordon had offered 3,000 rubles in 1695, but the Marquis of Caermarthen was willing to give more than three times as much as Órlenka, viz., £28,000, or 48,000 rubles, and to pay the whole in advance. For this, he was to be allowed to import into Russia a million and a half pounds of tobacco every year, and Peter agreed to permit the free use of tobacco to all his subjects, notwithstanding all previous laws and regulations. Lord Caermarthen acted here as the representative of a group of capitalists. The monopoly had previously been offered by the Tsar to the Russia Company, and had been declined.

The personal relations of the Tsar and King William had become very cordial. Peter had always admired William, and a close personal intercourse caused the King to speak in much higher terms of Peter toward the end of his visit than he had at first. As a souvenir of the visit of the Tsar, the King persuaded him to have his portrait painted, and the remarkable likeness of him by Sir Godfrey Kneller, then in the height of his celebrity, still hangs in the Palace of Hampton Court.

The Austrian embassador, Count Auersperg, in a letter to the Emperor Leopold,

says:

"As concerns the person of the Tsar, the Court here is well contented with him, for he now is not so afraid of people as he was at first. They accuse him only of a certain stinginess, for he has been in no way lavish. All the time here he went about in sailor's clothing. We shall see in what dress he

presents himself to Your Imperial Majesty. He saw the King very rarely, as he did not wish to change his manner of life, dining at eleven o'clock in the morning, supper at seven in the evening, going to bed early, and getting up at four o'clock, which very much astonished those

Englishmen who kept company with him."

Peter and Golovín took their leave of the King at Kensington Palace, on the 28th of April. We are told that, as a slight token of his friendship and his gratitude, not only

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for the kind reception he had had, but for the splendid yacht which had been presented to him, Peter took out of his pocket a small twisted bit of brown paper and handed it to the King, who opened it with some curiosity, and found a magnificent uncut diamond of large size. This may not be true, but it is thoroughly characteristic. The last days of Peter's stay he had again consecrated to sight-seeing. He was present at a meeting of Parliament, when the King gave his assent to a bill for raising money by a land tax, but he was so unwilling to have his presence known that he looked at it through a hole in the ceiling. This gave rise to a bon mot which circulated in London society. Some one remarked that he had

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seen the rarest thing in the world, a king on the throne, and an emperor on the roof." Hoffmann wrote to the Austrian Court that Peter expressed himself unfavorably to the limitation of royal power by a parliament; but according to a Russian account he said: "It is pleasant to hear how the sons of the fatherland tell the truth plainly to the King; we must learn that from the English."

A spirit of proselytism, a desire to propagate one's own religious, social and political views, is implanted in the Anglo-Saxon breast at least, if indeed it be not common to the human race. A young monarch who was liberal or curious enough to visit Quaker meetings and Protestant cathedrals, became the natural prey of philanthropists and reformers, who saw a way opened by Providence for the introduction of their peculiar notions into remote Muscovy. Such an enthusiast was "the pious and learned Francis Lee, M. D.," who gave "proposals

to Peter the Great, etc., at his own request, for the right framing of his Government."*

That Peter should visit the churches of different denominations in Holland, made many simple-minded or fanatical Dutch believe that he was inclined to Protestantism, and that the object of his journey was to unite the Russian and Protestant churches. It was reported that he had already taken the communion with the Elector of Brandenburg, and that he was inviting doctors of all sciences to establish colleges and academies in his dominions. In like way, in Vienna, it was widely believed that Sheremétief had already become a Catholic, and that the Tsar was inclined to become one. When Peter was in Vienna, the nuncio reported to Rome that the Tsar had shown a special respect for the Emperor Leopold, as the head of Christianity, that he had dined with the Jesuits, and wished to be taken into the bosom of the true church. From Poland the Jesuit Votta wrote to Cardinal Spada, with great satisfaction, of the reverential demeanor of Peter during the Catholic service, and of the humility with which he accepted his blessing.

Churchmen in England were led into similar beliefs, and entertained hopes of a union of the two churches. It was probably not simple politeness that led the Archbishop of Canterbury and other English prelates to visit Peter. Among them was Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, who, in his "History of his Own Time," gives the following opinion of the Tsar:

"I waited often on him, and was ordered, both by the King and the archbishop and bishops, to attend upon him, and to offer him such information of our religion and constitution as he was willing to receive; I had good interpreters, so I had much free discourse with him; he is a man of a very hot temper, soon inflamed, and very brutal in his passion; he raises his natural heat by drinking much brandy, which he rectifies himself with great application; he is subject to convulsive motions all over his body, and his head seems to be affected with these; he wants not capacity, and has a larger measure of knowledge than might be expected from his education, which was very indifferent; a want of judgment, with an instability of temper, appear in him too often and too evidently. He is mechanically turned, and

*These proposals related to the institution of seven committees or colleges: 1. For the advancement of learning. 2. For the improvement_of nature. 3. For the encouragement of arts. 4. For the increase of merchandise. 5. For reformation of manners. 6. For compilation of laws. 7. For the propagation of the Christian religion. They were printed in 1752 in a rare book entitled, "'AROTELTouɛva, or dissertations, etc., on the Book of Genesis." It is hardly possible to take Lee's phrase, "at his own request," in its most literal interpretation.

seems designed by nature rather to be a ship-carpenter than a great prince. This was his chief study and exercise while he stayed here; he wrought much with his own hands, and made all about him work at the models of ships; he told me he designed a great fleet at Azuph, and with it to attack the Turkish empire; but he did not seem capable his wars since this has discovered a greater genius in of conducting so great a design, though his conduct in him than appeared at that time. He was desirous to understand our doctrine, but he did not seem disposed to mend matters in Muscovy; he was, indeed, resolved to encourage learning and to polish his people by sending some of them to travel in other countries, and to draw strangers to come and live among them. He seemed apprehensive still of his sis ter's intrigues. There is a mixture both of passion and stands little of war, and seemed not at all inquisitive severity in his temper. He is resolute, but under

that way.

After I had seen him often, and had conversed much with him, I could not but adore the depth of the providence of God, that had raised up such a furious man to so absolute an authority over so great a part of the world."

The phrase "he did not seem disposed to mend matters in Muscovy," evidently referred to the religious question, and Burnet, as well as others, was much surprised that this apparent free-thinker and liberal should hold so firmly to the orthodox faith. It has been the fashion, either from too little knowledge or from too great patriotism, sharply to criticise Burnet's opinion of Peter's character; but considering what Burnet knew of Peter, and even what we know of Peter, is it, after all, so far out of the way? Peter's tastes led him to navigation and to ship-building, and he sincerely believed that it was through having a fleet on the Black Sea that he would be able to conquer Turkey, mind. But he did not show the same dis-the idea at that time uppermost in his position to master the art of war as he did that of navigation. Many a wide-awake boy of fifteen will nowadays equal and surpass Peter in special accomplishments and general knowledge. Many a young man, with a far better education than Peter, has the same mechanical and scientific turn, carried even further. At this time only one idea possessed Peter's mind-navigation. His own studies, the fact that men of the best Russian families were sent abroad to become common sailors, and nothing else, are proof enough. Hoffmann writes to Vienna:

"They say that he intends to civilize his subjects in the manner of other nations. But from his acts here, one cannot find any other intention than to make them sailors: he has had intercourse almost exclusively with sailors, and has gone away as shy as he came."

During his journey abroad he saw something of the effects of a greater civilization;

he saw comforts and conveniences which he thought it would be well to introduce among his people, but he paid little or no attention to anything concerning the art of government, or to real civil and administrative reforms.

The stay of Peter in Holland and in England gave rise to numberless anecdotes. The stories of Dutch carpenters who had assisted him in Russia, the tales told by the English captain of his familiarity at Archangel, of his bathing with them in public, and of his drinking bouts and familiar conversation, had, in a measure, prepared the public mind, and the spectacle of the ruler of a great country who went about in sailor's clothing, and devoted himself to learning ship-building, rendered it possible and easy to invent. Many of these anecdotes are, in all probability, untrue. They are of the same class of stories as are told now of any remarkable individual-the Shah, the Sultan, the Khedive-on his travels. Sometimes there may be a basis of truth, but it has been distorted in the telling.

After the interview with King William, Peter delayed still three days, which were chiefly taken up with visiting the Mint, for he had been struck with the excellence of the English coinage, and had already ideas of recoining the Russian money. On the 2d of May, he left Deptford in the yacht, the Transport Royal, given to him by King William, but even then could not resist running up to Chatham to see the docks there, and arrived at Amsterdam on the 19th.*

Twice the embassy at Amsterdam had been in great distress about Peter, for after his departure for London the storms were so great and the colds so intense, that it was three weeks before any news was received from him. Again, from the 18th of February to the 21st of March, no letters arrived in Amsterdam. People in Moscow were still more troubled, and Vinius showed his consternation by writing to Lefort, instead of to

The Transport Royal was sent to Archangel under the command of Captain Ripley, and took a part of the collections of curiosities and military stores which Peter had collected in Holland. By the Tsar's order, Franz Timmermann met it there, to take it to Vológda, and thence partly overland to Yaroslav. It was intended afterward to convey it to the Sea of Azof, as soon as the canal between the Volga and the Don should be finished, but as the yacht drew nearly eight feet of water, Timmermann could not get it further than Holmogóry, and it went back to Archangel, where it remained ever after.

Peter

Peter, to ask what the matter was. replied on the 23d of May, blaming his friend very severely for being so troubled by a miscarriage of the post, and adding fuel to the flame at Moscow when he ought to have been more courageous and not to have doubted. Lefort had written sometimes several letters by every post, taken up with longing for his return, with inquiries about his health, with talk of the necessity of going to Vienna, and of his personal desire to visit Geneva, and begging him to send something fit to drink.

On arriving at Amsterdam, Peter found several relatives of Lefort who had come from Geneva for the purpose of seeing him. They had already been sumptuously entertained by the embassy, and now had the pleasure of being presented to the Tsar, and being amicably received by him. The accounts which they give in their letters home of the position of their uncle, and the ceremony which everywhere attended him, show the rank which he held above the other embassadors, as being the friend and favorite of Peter. With regard to the Tsar himself, Jacob Lefort writes:

"You know that he is a prince of very great stature, but there is one circumstance which is unpleas ant, he has convulsions, sometimes in his eyes, sometimes in his arms, and sometimes in his whole body. He at times turns his eyes so that one can it arises, but we must believe that it is a lack of see nothing but the whites. I do not know whence good-breeding. Then he has also movements in the legs, so that he can scarcely keep in one place. He is very well made, and goes about dressed as a sailor, in the highest degree simple, and wishing nothing else than to be on the water."

There was every reason now to hasten Peter's departure. Troubles at Moscow with some Streltsi who had run away from the army, troubles in Poland, where the Polish magnates were not as well disposed toward Russia as was the King himself, troubles at Vienna,-for it was reported to him that the Austrians were intending to make a peace with the Turks, without the slightest regard for the interests of either Poland or Russia,-all rendered him uneasy. In addition to this, he was both surprised and astonished to learn that King William had accepted a proposition made to him to act as mediator between Austria and Turkey, and that the States-General of Holland was to take part with him. The troubles at Moscow he believed to be over; at all events, they seemed no more serious than the troubles which arose in Moscow on the eve of his departure, but he felt it necessary

to get soon to Vienna, in order that he might have a personal interview with the Emperor Leopold, and ascertain the views of the Austrian court, and, if possible, make them fall in with his own. Beside that, he

wished to go on to Venice, to complete his studies in naval architecture.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE JOURNEY HOME.

In spite of his haste, it took Peter a month to reach Vienna, where he arrived on the 26th of June, and yet he traveled every day, with the exception of one day at Leipsic and two at Dresden. He also visited the linen factories at Bielefeld, surveyed the fortifications of Königstein, and walked through the beautiful park at Cleves, where he carved his name on a birch-tree. Dresden he was delighted with the curiosities of the green vaults, where he went immediately after his arrival, and stayed all night. He also carefully examined the arsenal, and astonished his entertainers by displaying the knowledge he had acquired at Königsberg and Woolwich, and pointing out and explaining the defects in the artillery. He paid a visit to the mother of the

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Elector, for Au- SPIRE OF ST. STEFANS CATHEDRAL

WEST FRONT OF ST. STEFANS CATHEDRAL, VIENNA.

gustus himself was then in Poland, and twice supped with Prince von Fürstenburg. At the Tsar's special request, ladies were invited, and among others the famous Countess Aurora von Königsmark, the mother of Maurice de Saxe, then a child in arms. Peter had met her accidentally on his way to the arsenal, and had doubtless been informed of her intimacy with Augustus. At these suppers, he was "in such good humor that in the presence of the ladies he took up a drum, and played with a perfection that far surpassed the drummers." Peter had a strange shyness which seemed to grow upon him. He hated to be stared at as a curiosity, and the more he met people of refinement, versed in social arts, the more he felt his own deficiencies. Nothing but the excitement of a supper seemed to render general society possible to him. His visits of ceremony were brief and formal. It was very hard at Dresden to keep people out of his way, and allow him to go about unobserved. After the Tsar had gone, Fürstenburg wrote to the King: "I thank God that all has gone off so well, for I feared that I could not fully please this fastidious gentleman." And General Jordan reported that the Tsar was well content with his visit, but that he himself was "glad to be rid of such a costly guest." Strangely enough, in spite of Peter's desire to find mining engineers, he did not stop at Freiburg, where quarters had been got ready for him.

In Vienna, all the difficulties of ceremonial and etiquette were renewed. The Holy Roman Empire, as the only empire in the world, and as the lineal descendant of the old Empire of Rome, claimed for its sovereign a superior rank to other monarchs, and insisted greatly on punctilio. The authorities at Vienna were unwilling to grant to the Russian embassy the same honors which had been given to it in other countries, or to do anything which might seem to place the Tsar on the same level with the Emperor. For that reason, it took four days before the details of the entry into Vienna could be arranged, and even then, through a general coming from exercise on

dorf,-for Peter had particularly requested that his quarters should be in the suburbs, and not in the middle of the town. The Russians were little pleased at the manner of their reception, and even the Papal

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TRINITY COLUMN, VIENNA.

the Prater insisting on marching all his troops across the route selected, it was night before the embassadors could take up their lodging in the villa of Count Königsacker, on the bank of the river Vienna at Humpen

COLUMN OF THE VIRGIN, VIENNA.

nuncio spoke of the slight pomp displayed. After this more than a month elapsed before the embassadors had their solemn reception by the Emperor, and it was only then on account of Peter's great desire to take Lefort and Golovín with him to Venice that he waived certain points of ceremonial which had up to that time been insisted upon. If the Congress of Vienna in 1815 did no other good, it at least accomplished much in putting all states on the same rank, abolishing national precedence, and simplifying court ceremonial as respects embassadors and ministers.

In the meantime, however, Peter had been privately received by the Emperor, the Empress, and their eldest son, Joseph, the King of Rome, in the imperial villa of Favoriten, where, with truly Austrian ideas of maintaining his incognito, he was not allowed to go in at the principal entrance, but was taken through a small door in the garden, and was led up a small spiral staircase into the audience-hall. Leopold also paid a personal visit to Peter, and, toward the end of his stay, entertained him at a great masquerade, called a Wirthschaft, in which all the society of Vienna, and many foreign princes sojourning there, took part, dressed in the costumes of different countries. Peter appeared as a Frisian peasant, and his partner, who was assigned to him by lot, and was dressed in the same costume, was the

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