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    « that the parties agreed , and talked of the death of the Emperor as necessary ; nay , that it was put to the vote , opposed , and carried by a majority , ten years ago . It is impossible not to see that this point is very much laboured—that the constructive treason was not satisfactory to the commissioners—and that the death of an

    existing sovereign , which none of these people could have looked to but as a possible means which might be necessary to be resorted to for the end in view , ( a reform in the government , ) is most improbably brought forward on every occasion as the end itself ; yet that no steps are taken to accomplish that end .

    Of these societies no rules or papers are given from which we can derive information . Some tracts , such as the " Catechism of a Freeman , " are alluded to . To make the design as revolutionary as possible , eveuthe " goddess of reason " is in one place brought forward by the Report , though this is contradicted by other parts , where the strongest religious sanctions are stated to have been administer .

    ed ; and selections from the Old Testament are said to have been compiled , to persuade the soldiery that a republic was the favourite government of the Deity : and on the morning of the revolutionary movement in Petersburg , the short but expressive prayer offered up by one of the leaders is mentioned ia the Report as having been , "Oh God ! if this our design be good , so help thou it 1—if not , thy will be done !"

    The names of Spanish , English , French , and American Reformers , or popular leaders , are stated to have been coutinually on the lips of the members of these societies , who would seem to have been almost exclusively soldiers ; and they boasted their correspondence and cooperation with these foreign patriots .

    An accidental circumstance brought out the overt acts alleged to be the fruit of these numerous conspiracies , extending over so wide an empire for many years with the most bloody purposes , yet discovered by no one , though the members were , it is said , at constant variance . We cannot but suspect that this military movement ( in which , perhaps , some who

    were or had been members of the secret societies were implicated ) was laid hold of as a pretence for striking a blow on the part of the new Government . It certainly excites astonishment to find , that although in this tumult or insurrection a considerable division of tfre army took party it is only stated to have been directly instigated by some three or four < of the persons implicated in the previous

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    proceedings—that only two or three of those persons took an active part on the spot—and that out of the 121 sentenced to death for their supposed connexion with rebellious movements , only about seven were taken , or known to have been in arms at all .

    The insurrection took place after the death of Alexander and the resignation of Constant ! ne , when the troops were suddenly called on , immediately after taking an oath to the latter , to take another to Nicholas ; and it is alleged that such members of the secret societies as

    were on the spot , acting on the known wishes of their associates , embraced the occasion to persuade the soldiery that there was foul play , and induced them to offer resistance . This resistance was , as we have observed , soon overcome ; and the result was the proceeding now before us , in which almost all the offenders ( we hare waded through

    this " recorder's report" of each man ' s case ) are convicted merely of having written songs or catechisms , or of belonging to a secret society , ( without distinguishing which , though there were many , ) the object of which , it is said * , was , either constructively or directly , the death of the monarch , or the limitation of his authority .

    The 121 beiug condemned to death , and the object of the imperial court beiug probably more , to frighten and dissolve these societies than to take any very bloody revenge , it was referred back to the criminal court to classify the cases . It then reported on the different offences proved , and recommended a cruel death for 5 , beheading for 31 , political death and labour for 17 , and so

    on . Then follows a decree of the Emperor still further mitigating all these sentences , except that of the first five , whose punishment he gives the criminal court further power to consider , and this court accordingly remits the former sentence , and directs the five to be merely hanged .

    What is the real history of these societies ( of which this tumult at St . Petersburg on the spur of the moment was considered as the crisis , so as to implicate men at the other end of the empire ) we cannot with certainty discover . We

    ought to add , that the Emperor has since issued a decree prohibiting Bible Societies , which , at all events , seem hardly likely to have been confined to the army . And another order has appeared from the post-office as to the foreign periodicals not allowed to pass . As far as .

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    148 Intelligence . —Foreign .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1827, page 148, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1793/page/68/