the cruelties of his predecessors. His first act was an invitation sent to his father, who had matured his wisdom under affliction, and was grown grey in adversity. Having taken no part in the late intrigues, the old man had no resentments to gratify. The son always shewed a respectful deference to the opinion of his father, whose advice was the rule of his conduct. The constant proofs which he exhibited of filial piety and affection, gained him the love and admiration of the nation; and he merited the general esteem of his subjects, by bestowing the greatest attention on every object that could be conducive to the welfare of his people.

He married the daughter of a poor but virtuous man, whom the messengers of the czar found at his plough, when they announced to him the honour which the emperor intended to confer on his family. Eudocia, equally virtuous as beautiful, gained the love of the whole nation, by her prudent and condescending behaviour. Distressed innocence always found in her a sincere friend; and the poor never applied to her in vain. She proved herself worthy of the emperor's choice, and assisted her husband, in proportion to her abilities, and in the degree suitable to her sex, in supporting the burden of the government after the death of his father,

Michael Theodorowitz was so much respected by his neighbours for his equity, prudence, and piety, that, besides the crowd of his own subjects, who were attracted to his court by a sentiment of veneration for his person and government, it was constantly adorned by the presence of embassadors from many princes of Europe and Asia, who were desirous of obtaining and preserving

the

the friendship and alliance of so great a monarch.-Ye sovereigns, desirous of vain glory, was not this renown infinitely more estimable, than that which is acquired by conquest and the force of arms?-This great and pacific prince, beloved by all his subjects, who considered him as their father and friend, died in the forty-ninth year of his age, and the thirty-third of his reign, and bequeathed his crown to his son, then in his sixteenth year.

Alexis Theodorowitz, who succeeded. A. D. to the throne on the death of his father, 1645. had not, like him, the good fortune to be guided in the first steps of his career by a Mentor interested in the happiness of him and his people. Michael imagined that he had wisely appointed as his counsellor and first minister Boris Morosou, a man till then held in estimation and respect, and possessed of great abilities, but unfortunately tainted with the spirit of ambition. He advised Alexis to marry the daughter of Miloslauki, a nobleman of small fortune, but strongly attached to the interest of the minister; and he himself soon after espoused the sister of the empress. No sooner were the nuptial ceremonies performed, than Morosou, now brotherin-law to the czar, and Miloslauki, his father, associating themselves with Leponti Stepanowitz Plesscou, chief judge of the supreme court, formed a triumviral cabal, and took into their own hands the entire management of the govern ment, while the young emperor passed his time in the enjoyment of pleasures which they were careful to afford him.

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• Their authority was exercised with effrontery which exasperated the people, Plesscou made : VOL. XXII.

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open traffic of justice; Miloslauki publicly sold offices and employments; and Morosou enjoyed his pre-eminence, with disgusting haughtiness and ostentation. The inhabitants of Moscow, who had experienced the paternal government of Michael, exhibited their resentment at these exactions and oppressions. They petitioned the czar, but in vain: the bojars, who attended the emperor, followed the instructions of Morosou and no answer was returned, nor any grievance redressed. Exasperated at this neglect, they lost all patience: they proceeded to the utmost excesses of unbridled licentiousness, not indeed against the czar, whose inexperience they pardoned, and whose innocence they respected, but against his faithless ministers, and their accomplices and agents, whom they loudly demanded to be put to death. Alexis complied with the wishes of the populace, and with difficulty saved the life of his father-in-law, by sacrificing the others. Taught by this lesson, Morosou afterwards became mild, affable, just, and obliging. The czar also was instructed by this act of popular vengeance to beware of reposing unlimited confidence in his ministers, and to guide the helm of the empire with his own hand. Accordingly, the sequel of this prince's reign was peaceful and happy, if we except some inconsiderable wars, of short duration, which he waged with the Swedes, the Poles, and other neighbouring nations.

During this reign appeared a daring impostor, who pretended to be the son of the great duke Basilius Iwanowitz Zuski; but whose name was Timoska Ankaduna, and was the son of a linendraper at Wologda. His father having perceiv

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ed in him some marks of an extraordinary genius, was at much expence in his education, and he became a person of consequence among his illi terate countrymen. His pleasing voice, and taste in singing the hymns and canticles of the church, recommended him to the archbishop, who took him into his service, in which he behaved so well, that feeling an esteem and regard for him, he gave him his grand-daughter in marriage. This alliance, which might have been very advantageous to him, finally proved his ruin. His good fortune now began to turn his brain he assumed the quality of son-in-law to the waivode, or governor of Wologda. After the death of the archbishop, he dissipated the fortune of his wife, and went with his family to Moscow, where, through the recommendation and assistance of a friend, he obtained a lucrative office, attended with responsibility. In this new station, he recommenced his career of plea sure and extravagance; and finding that his first payment of taxes to the czar would be greatly defective, he borrowed of one of his friends the pearls and rings of his wife, under pretence of a ceremony which required some show. These he squandered in dissipation, like every thing else of which he obtained possession; and, when called upon for restitution, he denied that he had ever received them. His wife, the archbishop's grand-daughter, reproached him with his perfidiousness and dishonesty upon which, fearing that he might be called to an account for his arrears to the treasury, and that his wife would be an evidence against him, he shut her up in a stove, set fire to the house, and burned her to death.

After this horrid transaction, Timoska escaped secretly into Poland, and it was thought at Moscow, that he had perished in the conflagration, with the rest of his family. Understanding, however, that the czar was about to send an ambassador to the king of Poland, and that his living at Warsaw was known in Russia, he went to Chmielnisky, general of the Cossacs, who enjoyed considerable authority, and begged his protection against the persecutions which he suffered, he said, on account of his being nearly related to the prince Basilius Iwanowitz Zuski. The embassy sent by the czar, was, he affirmed, for the purpose of demanding him. Timoska carried on this imposture with such art and address, that he insinuated himself into the favour of Chmielnisky, and acquired considerable repute. But as the name, which he had assumed, began to give him a dangerous celebrity, he did not think the general's protection sufficient, or that he was safe even in the Ukraine. He, therefore, suddenly quitted Poland, and repaired to Constantinople, where he abjured Christianity, and was circuncised. The fear of punishment for crimes committed in the Turkish dominions, induced him to visit Rome, where he became a Roman catholic.

From Rome he repaired to Vienna, and thence proceeded into Transylvania to prince Ragotzky, who gave him letters of recommendation to Christina, queen of Sweden. That princess received. him with the greatest kindness, and, believing his story, allowed him an honourable subsistence. The Russian merchants residing at Stockholm, acquainted the czar with the pretensions of this impostor, who now affirmed that he was the son

of