remarkable for refinement; but they were shocked by the proceedings of the Czar and the Czarina, some of which greatly resembled those which are not uncommon in a very wild “wilderness of monkeys.”  The last of Peter’s descendants who reigned and ruled was his daughter Elizabeth, who died in 1761, and who was a most admirable representative of her admirable parents.  Neither the manners nor the morals of the Russian court and the Russian empire had improved during the twenty years that she governed; and as to policy in government, she had none, and apparently she was incapable of comprehending a political principle.  Had her reign been followed by that of some Russian prince of kindred character as well as of kindred blood, and had that reign extended to twenty years’ time, Russia would have fallen back to the position she had held in 1680, and never could have become a European power.  Fortunately or unfortunately,—­who shall as yet undertake to decide which, considering as well European interests as Russian interests?—­the reign of Peter III. was too short to be worth historical counting, and Elizabeth’s real successor was a foreigner, who not only was capable of comprehending Peter the Great’s ideas and purpose, but who had the advantage of understanding that world the civilization and vices of which Peter had sought to engraft on the Russian stock.  The grand barbarian himself never could understand more than one-half of the work to which he devoted his life, as there was nothing in his nature to which Occidental thought could firmly fasten itself.  He knew little of that the effects of which he so much admired.  His mind was essentially Oriental in its cast, and the creation of his Northern capital was a piece of work that might have been done by some Eastern despot; and in the preceding century something like it had been done by Shah Jehan, when he created the new city of Delhi.  In no European country could such an undertaking have been attempted.  It pleased Catharine II., in after-days, to say of Peter, that “he introduced European manners and European costumes amongst a European people”; but this was only a piece of flattery to her subjects, whom she did so much to Europeanize by making them believe that they were of Europe, and were destined to rule that continent.  She it was who did what Peter planned, and by making use of Russians as her agents.  Her statesmen, her generals, and her “favorites” were Russians; and it was after her character and purposes became known that the rulers of Western Europe were forced to the conclusion that a change of policy was inevitable.  But for the occurrence of the French Revolution, that Anglo-French Alliance which has been regarded as one of the prodigies of our prodigy-creating age would have been anticipated by more than sixty years.  By destroying Poland and humiliating Turkey, Catharine forever settled the character of the Russian Empire; and her successors were enabled to solidify her work in consequence of