title Stepennaia Kniga, or genealogical books. The pedigrees, charters, and lists of offices, preserved in the governmentarchives, extend back to the time of the Czar Andrew, who died in 1158; and, as well as all the chronicles of the priesthood, they have been drawn up in the language of the country. The military regulations begin with John III.

Some lives of saints exist which have great antiquity, such as those of Vladimir, Boris, Gleb, and Theodosius; and there are lay-biographies, and historical fragments of a local character. When we add to these the incidental illustrations to be derived from foreign historians, and from foreign archives, such as those of Konigsberg, from books of travels, from monuments, coins, and medals, an idea may be formed of the extensive and capacious range of authorities, which it was necessary to consult in order to attain the requisite information. M. KARAMSIN approaches all these documents with a patient industry, a conscientious love of truth, an anxiety for authenticity, a sagacity of appretiation, and a power of elegantly condensing his extracts, which place him among the most praiseworthy historians. His entire work, of which these two volumes form but a fourth part, is dedicated to the Emperor Alexander; who, sensible of the author's high merit, has conferred on him the rank of privy-counsellor, and a knighthood of the order of Saint Anne. The first volume is illustrated with a map of Russia, according to its divisions in the ninth century between the various settled or nomade tribes, and contains ten chapters, to each of which we shall allot a few words.

Chapter i. treats of the nations who formerly inhabited Russia, and describes the Slavonians in general, who formed the mass of population. The second contains a more particular account of those Slavonian tribes who have coalesced under the Russian sceptre. The third treats of the physical and moral character of the antient Slavonians. These three sections are preliminary, and may be compared with the delineation by Tacitus of the manners of the antient Germans; only that, whereas the Roman historian characterizes Gothic tribes, M. DE K. has to describe usages common to the hordes allied by Slavonian language. With the fourth chapter begins nominal history; and the election of Rurik, a Varangian chieftain, with his comrades Sineous and Trouvor, to a permanent interior ascendancy, is detailed. Rurik consolidated their separate sovereignties, and bequeathed them to his descendants.

The fifth chapter relates the regency of Oleg: the sixth, the reign of Igor; and the seventh, that of Sviatoslaf. A

treaty

treaty of peace and commerce with the Emperor of Constantinople, dated in 945, has been preserved, and runs thus :

We, Russians, ambassadors, and merchants*, deputed by Igor, great prince of Russia, and of all its principalities and inhabitants, are come to renew for ever the antient peace with the puissant Emperors Constantine and Stephen, and with the whole Greek nation. We trust that this treaty may last as long as the sun shall enlighten the world, in spite of the evil spirit, the enemy of good, and the author of discord.

The Russians engage never to break this alliance with the empire; those who are baptized, under penalty of incurring temporal and eternal punishment from the Most High; and the others, under penalty of being deprived of the help of Perown, of being unable to defend themselves with their shields, and of being compelled to wound themselves with their own weapons, and to become slaves in this world and in the next.

The great prince of Russia and his boyards shall have liberty to send their vessels into Greece, with their ambassadors and their merchants: the latter shall bear silver seals, and the former golden seals. They shall bring a passport from the great prince, declaring their purpose, and the number of their vessels and comrades; and, if not provided with such passport, the Greek emperor shall be at liberty to detain them, until he has given information to the great prince of Russia: if they resist, and in consequence of such resistance should lose their lives, the Russian prince shall make no complaint touching the same; and if they escape into Russia, the Greeks shall apprize the prince of their flight, that he may deal with them as to him shall seem good.' (Vol. i. p. 186.)

A third article conditions that the Russian strangers at Constantinople shall be under the protection of a special officer of the Greek emperor, who shall have authority to judge all disputes originating between Greeks and Russians; and that all contracts for more than fifty pieces of gold shall be recorded and sealed by this magistrate. A fourth article provides that fugitive slaves shall reciprocally be given up by both nations. A fifth enacts the punishment of theft by restoration of the stolen property, and by a fine of double its value. A sixth establishes the redemption of prisoners, at the price of ten pieces of gold for a young man, of eight for a middle-aged man, and of five for an old man, or a child, or a woman. Article seven cedes all right of sovereignty over the Chersonesus, now the Krimea, to the Greek emperor. The eighth makes provision for respecting and guarding wrecked property in behalf of the owners. The ninth prohibits the

*Then follow fifty names, which are mostly Norman, with the exception of three or four Slavonian names.

Russians

Russians from landing to fish on the Chersonesus; and the tenth undertakes to prevent the Bulgarians from plundering there. The eleventh agrees that Greeks, accused of crimes in Russia, shall be sent guarded to Constantinople, to be there punished according to their own laws: but the twelfth article allows, in case of murder, a right of vengeance to the relations of the deceased. Articles thirteen and fourteen provide for furnishing hired troops to the Greek emperor, in case of his going to war. These conditions, it is farther stated, shall be engrossed on two parchments, the one to remain with the emperor and the other with the prince; and that the treaty shall be solemnly sworn by the contracting parties in the cathedral of Saint Elias: the Christians swearing on the cross, and the others, who are not baptized, depositing on the ground their shields, their rings, and their drawn swords.

This entire document is truly curious, and throws great light on the state of manners and civilization in the then Russian empire.

Chapter viii. narrates the reign of Yaropolk; and the ninth that of Vladimir, who was baptized by the name of Basil: whose conversion may be considered as the epocha which decided the civilization of Russia; and whose intermarriage with the imperial family of Constantinople placed his throne on a level with that of the proudest European sovereigns. To a description of the state of Russia at the close of the reign of Vladimir, the tenth chapter is exclusively allotted.

The second volume contains seventeen chapters. In general, a reign has been made the boundary line of these sections; thus, the first chapter gives the reign of Sviatopolk, and the second that of Yaroslaf: but some of them interrupt the progress of historic narrative to describe the state of law, literature, or art: the third chapter is especially of this description, and includes a very interesting sketch of the feudal legislation of the middle age. The Russian laws seem mostly borrowed, not from Greek institutions, but from Gothic codes, and bear a close resemblance to those of the Anglo-Saxons, the Frieslanders, the Swedes, and the Baltic nations. Those of Yaroslaf institute trial by twelve jurymen. Nations, like individuals, learn more easily from those who are in a contiguous stage of information.

During the reign of Yaroslaf, M. KARAMSIN has occasion to notice the prophecy said to have been inscribed on a statue at Constantinople, that the Russians should one day seize on that metropolis; and he quotes the note of Gibbon (the 66th of the 55th chapter) relative to the question, whe

ther

ther the statue in question represented Joshua or Bellerophon. This is aptly called by Gibbon an odd dilemma: but here the words are mis-printed an old dilemma, which assertion would not repose on authority: yet the doubt seems to imply thus much of antiquarian skill among the learned of Constantinople, that they deemed it probable that Joshua should be represented in contiguity with a sphinx; and this sphinx might resemble the chimæra of Bellerophon.

In this same section a curious point of English genealogy is discussed; and, on the authority of Scandinavian annalists, it is maintained that Gyda, one of the daughters of the Harold who was killed at the battle of Hastings, having taken refuge at the court of Sveno or Sweyn the Second, King of Denmark, this sovereign gave her in marriage to the Russian prince Vladimir. Saxo Grammaticus, and Torfæus, are the principal authorities for this anecdote; which agreeably connects celebrated families with each other, and may assist the epic or the dramatic poet with impressive allusions.

The reign of Ysiaslaf, who received on his baptism the name of Demitri, is contained in the fourth chapter. He bestowed on the patriarch of Constantinople the important privilege of naming the metropolitan bishop of Kief, which placed the Russian church under practical dependence on the see of Constantinople, and in a great degree defended it from the intrusion of that usurpative, encroaching, and intolerant race of priests who were formed in the schools of the church of Rome.

Vsevolod is the hero of the fifth chapter; and Michael Sviatopolk of the sixth. Vladimir Monomachos, a sovereign who would do honour to any annals, occupies the seventh. His character is thus summed up by the historian:

At the

"After having reigned thirteen years at Kief, Vladimir Monomachos died in his sixty-third year; celebrated, as the old chronicle says, for his victories and his good character. approach of his last moments, weakened by age and sickness, he desired to be carried to the place stained with the innocent blood of Saint Boris; and there, on the banks of the Alta, and beside the church which he had himself founded, he resigned his soul to God, penetrated with sentiments of piety, and surrounded by the consolations of religion. His body was carried to Kief by his grieving children, assisted by nobles of the court, and the funeral ceremony was performed in the church of Saint Sofia. In an age when devotion was a common virtue, Vladimir was distinguished by a profound sensibility; and the emotions of his heart made him burst into tears, when he addressed to the Almighty his prayers for the happiness of his country and of his subjects. The annalists praise the tenderness of his filial piety, and his habitual obe

dience to his father. He was indulgent to human weakness, and on all occasions displayed mercy, liberality, and mildness. According to the expression of his first biographer, he loaded his very enemies with benefits, and delighted to send them home with presents. His last written counsels to his children express in a positive manner the beauty of his soul; they have been preserved by the annalist, and merit a place in history.' (Vol. ii. p. 201.)

M. KARAMSIN then proceeds to translate a somewhat monastic sermon on the duties of princes, left by this monarch, which begins with the remarkable words,- The basis of virtue is the fear of God and the love of man. Praise him, and help your fellows. Neither fasting nor solitude, nor a monastic life, will procure you salvation, but beneficence alone.' It closes, also, in a very remarkable manner:

'My grandfather and I often went hunting together. Sometimes, in the midst of thick forests, I have myself caught some wild horses, and tied them together with my own hands. Often I have been knocked down by buffaloes, gored by stags, and trampled under foot by elks: a boar once snatched my sword from my girdle; my saddle was torn by a bear, who killed the horse under me; and many falls from my horse have I incurred in my young days. But the Lord watched over me; and do you, my children, put faith in his providence, and dread neither death nor wild beasts. Be brave on all occasions. Our days are numbered. Nothing can withdraw us from the decrees of Providence. The protection of Heaven is beyond all human precaution.'

Without this pious testament, adds the author, we should not have known all the beauty of the soul of Vladimir. If once in his life he violated the law of nations, and had recourse to perfidious means against the princes of the Polovtsi, we may excuse him in the words of Cicero," It was the vice of the age, not of the man."

The succeeding chapters give respectively the reign of Mstislaf, Yaropolk, Vsevolod, Olgovitsh, Igor Olgovitsh, and Ysiaslaf Mstislavitsh, under whose reign Moscow first acquired political importance.

In the thirteenth chapter, the author is occupied with the great Prince Rostislaf Michael Mstislavitch; and in the fourteenth with Georges, who is much praised by ecclesiastics as a builder of churches and a patron of civilization. The next three chapters are employed about a civil discord which occasioned the establishment of independent princes in different provinces of the empire. Cotemporary with Andrew at Susdal are the successive princes Ysiaslaf Davidowitsh, Rostislaf Michael, and Mstislaf Ysiaslavitsh at Kief: but they were unable to cope with his superior talents; and he took and

pillaged