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    the first f t « e Russian printing-press . Thence have emanated many striking worics , some of which have been introduced to English readers by ourselves , some by the Athen < sum . Unti the outbreak of war , indeed , they were only permitted to circulate within the British frontier , though , when the Elect of France desired to wave a warlike p lume in the popular breath , Herzen s works once more appeared in the Parisian windows . Eoooufaged by the notice bestowed on him by our contemporary , by ourselves , . and by the Revue des Deux Monties , M . Herzen has published an English version of his Memoirs , relating chiefly to his political persecutions , including a protracted exile in Siberia . In these Memoirs he presents a highly characteristic view of Russian official society , interspersed with sketches of rural life , episodes of picturesque adventures , and fragments of serious and logical speculation . Moderate , frank , and conscientious , he uses no dramatic artifices to enhance the effect of his well-written and manly narration . The volumes , as presenting the experiences of a patriotic and intellectual Russian in conflict with his Government , contain all the sources of popularity , they sparkle froin end to end with clear thoughts and keen allusions ; they are severe ; they are ironical ; they abound in illustrations and incidents , free portraits of imperial dignitaries , and satire upon institutions ; but M . Alexander Herzen writes his personal history , and writes it with well-bred reserve . In the spring of 1834 a friend , whom he dares not name , was arrested , upon an unspecified charge . Alexander Herzen , belonging to a rich and noble family , then knew that danger had been incurred by him , not only through his bold democratic conversations , but through the expression of his political faith in essays and sketches , of which the manuscripts would witness against him . He felt that when his friend was seized , some connexion existed between that circumstance and his own position , —the more so since the officials maintained a significant silence when questioned upon the matter . Some weeks passed , and the cloud still overshadowed the house . At length , at two o ' clock in the morning of the 28 th of July , he was awakened by his valet , and summoned to meet an officer who had entered the salons below . There were soldiers in the street , and the cap of a Cossack was recognised behind a group of men with white plumes . The Director of the Police met him as he went down , with orders to give up his papers , and to accompany him to the bureau . A wretched scene of terror and grief ensued : — My mother was nearly senseless . All the household servants accompanied me down-stairs , surrounded me , kissed my hands . It was as if I , while still alive , were present * t my own burial . The Director of Police frowned , and hurried our departure . "When , we stepped out of the door , he assembled his army . With him were four Cossacks , two commissioners , and two policemen . " Will you not allow me to go home ? " asked a man with a beard , who sat before the door . " Go ! " ¦ answered Muller . " Who is that man ? " I asked , as I stepped into the carriage . ¦ " That is the juryman ; you know that unless he is present , the police cannot enter a . house . " " And on that account you left him outside the door ?" "A mere formality ; the poor man has lost his sleep for no purpose , " observed Muller . We drove off , accompanied by two Cossacks on horseback . Upwards of half a year elapsed , while Herzen was transferred from one place of detention to another , before he learned bis sentence . Sometimes , secluded in an ancient cell converted from monastic to penal uses , he wus allowed to converse only with his gaolers ; sometimes the authorities relented from this rigour , and permitted him to have books and paper , and even to receive the visits of his friends . At irregular intervals he was brought up before the Imperial commissioners , first exhorted by a priest to confess his political Bins , and then plied with leading questions as to secret associations , their places of meeting , their numbers , objects , and methods of action . His invariable reply , that he belonged to no secret associations , was characterised as a perverse endeavour to elude the Imperial justice . The Imperial clemency , however , was proposed to him on condition of his becoming an informer . To refuse was to aggravate his offence , and to excite additional suspicions , punished by additional severities . In Iiu 6 sia , however , there is a prison aristocracy . M . Herzen contrasts his owu treatment —somewhat considerate and respectful—with that of the peasants , menial servants , workmen , or citizens accused or condemned . The practice of torture , though thrice abolished—by Peter the Third , by Catherine the Second , and by Alexander the First—prevails from Behring ' s Straits to Tuuroggen , and men and women are Hogged , chained , forced to walk with bare feet on frozen iron floors , to eat excessively salt food , to endure the temperature of ovens , and to vary between the extremes of thirst and famine , that they may corroborate by their confessions the perjuries of the police . Only an escaped captive can testify to their miseries , since every grade of officials composes a separate fraternity deaf among the victims , dumb among those who have the power to redress . Such are the disorders and brutalities of these courts of secret justice , that the poor criminal awaits with impatience the end of his trial and the beginning of his punishment , for Siberian banishment , monotonously wretched , it ) preferred to the gratuitous and malignant caprices of the petty tribunals . Not even the feur of these Powers , however , could silence the political prieoners , who argued with the commissioners , denied their inferences , and occasionally threw out suggestions of the most refined but audacious irony . The following is admirable ; it refers to a free ballad against the altar and the throne : — Tho auditor of the commission , a pedant and piotiat , who had grown grey and lean through envy and covetousneea , asked Sokolofttky , apparently through respect i'or tho throne and altar , and as if not understanding the grammatical sense of the luet two verses : " To whom do you apply , the detestable words at the end of your poem , ? " " Bo assured , " answered Sokolofsky , . " that they do not apply to the Emperor , but to Qod . I direct your attention particularly to this extenuating circumstance . " Tho auditor shrugged his ehouldera , looked up to tho coiling , then regarded Sokulofcky for a long while silently , and finally took a pinch of snuff . Ultimately M . Herzen was banished to Perm , on , tho desolate Siberian

    frontier . To this place he was taken in a carriage , guarded by soldien and , on his arrival , was at onco introduced to the governor . That func tionary was neither harsh nor insolent , and M . Herzen discovered that tli first day of exile was the first day of liberty since the night-arrest . How ever , from Perm he was deported to Wiatka , and hidden in the remote desert beyond the country of the Woteks , the Mordwines , and Tschen misses . Here his superior , with all the instincts of a wolf , hud all tl habits of a monkey—coarse , dissolute , brutal , enjoying only the humour < autics ; gibes , and sneers . Ho placed M . Herzen at an official desk t scribble with tho clerks—a company of poor-minded , dirty , spiritle * creatures , whose society forced him to regret his former prison , with its sol tude , its vermin , its moisture and darkness , its sentinels pacing by the doo Nevertheless , he had time and inclination to observe—A propos of tho exiles ! In Nyjnei we find exile Poles ; in Kasan , tho number ii creases considerably . In Perm there were at that tiuio forty ; in Wiatka not lea ; besides which , in every small district town there arc several . They live quite separate from the Russians , and shun every intercourse with tl inhabitants . The greatest union prevails among them , but no Russian is admitlt into their society . On the part of the inhabitants , I saw neither hatred , nor particular inclination t wards them . They looked upon them as strangers ; and the more so as not one the Poles understood tho Russian language . An old and thorough-broil Sarmatiun . who had been an officer in the time Poniatowsky , and had shared a part of Napoleon ' s campaigns , received , in the ye ; 1837 , the permission to return to his possessions in I-ithuania . The day before li departure , the old man invited me and some Poles to dinner . After dinner , when m host was a little elevated , lie . approached me with a driukiug-cup , ' embraced me tei dcrly with soldier-like cordiality , and whispered in my ear : "Why are you Russian ? " I made no reply ; but this observation fill heavily on my heart . I in derstood that this generation of Poles will not liberate Poland . Since the time of Konarsky , however , the Poles look differently upon the Russian The exiled Poles have never been ill-treated ; but the position of those who hai no means is dreadful . From Government they receive but ttfteen roubles bauco month , and with this money they must provide lodgings , board , lire , and clothing . J the larger towns , such as Kasau and Tobolsk , they can live by giving lessons ai concerts , establishing drawing-classes , and playing at balls . But in Perm and Wiatl even these resources are wanting . Notwithstanding , tbey never ask the Russians f anything . , Siberia , subjected to a series of vicious or incompetent governors , adi little to the resources of the Russian Empire . It is oilicially regarded n . s region which , abounding in furs and other valuable commodities , may L drawn upon to replenish the Imperial treasury ; but which is cold , disma scanty in its produce of food , destitute of good roads and rivers , and ii habited by a meagre and unenterprising population . Vet to this countr ; JVi . Herzen affirms , a nation like the American might give an impulse th : would place it among the richest in the world . The opening of the Amoo which will tend to introduce Siberia to America on tho confines of Chin : may stimulate its commercial and industrial development : — I * said long ago that the Pacific Ocean will be the Mediterranean of the future . ] this future , the part of Siberia is most important , in consequence <> f its position b < twe *> n the l ' acitic . Southern Asia , and Russia . It is understood , of course , tbj -Siberia must extend to tho Chinese frontier . Why should we be obliged to tremb with cold in Beresof and Irkutsk , when there is a Krasnoyarsk ? 'Ihe natives are generally well-formed , healthy , and characterised b habits of prudence . They have no feudal class , and the officials who govcr them resemble a hostile garrison . Free from the immediate control both i the army and the Church , the use of hunting implements has communicate to them a bold and almost a martial spirit , which flourishes unrcprussct whilo tlie police and their superiors aro absorbed iu a policy of privat embezzlement . Recalled from Siberia to the capital , M . Herzen perpetrated a secon oflence , and incurred a second punishment , the nature of which may b gathered from a dialogue with the chief commissary of police : — " It seems it is not very long since you got permission to return to the capital ?" " Last year . " The old man shook his head . 44 You proiit badly by the Imperial favour . It seems that you depend upon on < more going to Wiatka ?" I looked at him with astonishment . 41 Ye « , " he continued , u you show a noble gratitude to Government for your frcdom . " " Indeed , I do not understand ! " I said , losing myself in conjecture . 41 You cannot understand what ( his means V That is very bud ! What conne-xioi have you — what occupations ? lustcud of ( showing the first tiino an extruordiuar zeal to wash off tho spots left behind by youthful error , instead of einpl . jying yoi capacities for tin- public welfare , you continue to occupy yourself with politics , and t ojiposu Government . lla . s experience taught you nothing ? How then are you sm tliat in the number of tho .-e wi ( h whom you . sj « - » k , there i , s not every time .-oir rascal , knowing nothing better , than to come the same minute hither with a dcuunrii lion ?" 44 you can explain to mo what nil thin signifies , you will greatly oblige me . mn torturing myoelf to uodcrrttnnd what you are talking about , or to what you inak allusions . " 41 Of what I talk ? Hem ! well toll me , did you lieur that near tho liluc liridge , policeman murdered a man in the night ?" "I did hoar it , " I unswored quite naively . II you repented it V " " It huoiiis so that 1 repeated it . " 41 With reasoning about it , I think . " " Probably . " 41 And with what reasonings V Them in always the name inclination to hlamo (« o voniinont . I U-U you openly , it does you honour Unit you confess ho frankly ; and will bo taken into consideration by tho court . " 41 Hut , for Heaven'h Hako I" I said , " what do I con few P Tho wholo town talko about this story ; thoy talked of it in the Chanceries of the Minister of Homo Attain att well ae in tho magazines . Ih it to bo understood that I , likewise , talked of it V " 41 To spread false and pernicious rumours , is a crime prosecuted by law . " 41 It seems that you accuse mo . of having invented this tale V " 41 Iu tho account made to tho Emperor , it is only mud , that you helped to npron < this pernicious rumour , liut thereupon ensued an Imperial resolution , about your ro turning to Wiatka . "

    Untitled Article

    990 THE LEADE B . [ No . 290 , Saturday

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 13, 1855, page 990, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2110/page/18/