RUSSI A.

BY

THE MARQUIS DE CUSTINE.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.

"Respectez surtout les étrangers, de quelque qualité, de quelque rang qu'ils
soient; et si vous n'êtes pas à même de les combler de présents, prodiguez-
leur au moins des marques de bienveillance, puisque de la manière dont ils
sont traités dans un pays dépend le bien et le mal qu'ils en disent en re-
tournant dans le leur."

Extrait des Conseils de Vladimir Monomaque à ses Enfants en 1126.
Histoire de l'Empire de Russie, par KARAMSIN, t. xi. p. 205.

NOTICE.

THE Publishers of this work beg to state that it is private property, protected by
the late Copyright Act, the 5 & 6 Victoria, c. 45.

They beg also to state that any
person having in his possession, within the United Kingdom, for sale or hire, one or
more copies printed abroad of any English work protected by the Act referred to,
is liable to a penalty, which, in cases affecting their interests, they intend to enforce.
The Public are farther informed that the Act 5 & 6 Victoria, c. 47. s. 24., pro-
hibits the importation of all works printed in foreign countries, of which the
copyright is not expired. Even single copies, though for the especial use of the
importers and marked with their names, are excluded; and the Customs officers
in the different ports are strictly enjoined to carry this regulation into effect.
N. B. The above regulations are in force in all British colonies and depen-
dencies, as well as in the United Kingdom.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

IN publishing the second edition of the translation of a work, which, whatever its faults, has excited more attention throughout Europe than any travels which have appeared for a long time, it will not perhaps be considered out of place if the Translator advert for a moment to the criticisms of the British press, both on the original work and the English

version.

The great majority of reviewers, without overlooking the hasty impressions, somewhat vague conclusions, and unguarded expressions of personal feeling which may have rendered M. de Custine open to the charge of exaggeration, inconsistency, and egotism, have, nevertheless, done justice to his powers of description, and to his striking views of Russian character and policy. Indeed, although his aris

tocratical tendencies make him as little a favourite with one English party, as his attacks upon the great Representative of mo

iv

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

narchical power do with the other, nearly all our reviewers re-echo his leading opinions regarding Russia, even when most severely criticising the impressions and sentiments on which they are founded.

Nor has the general approbation thus extended to the original work, been withheld from the Translator's humbler labours. With but one exception, he has received from the Press a meed of commendation with which he has every reason to be gratified, and which, backed by the demand of the public, has imposed upon him the pleasing duty of preparing this new and, he trusts, improved edition.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

THE work, recently published in Paris, of which these volumes are a translation, has appeared in the form of letters addressed to anonymous friends.

This form has not been preserved in the translation, which is divided into chapters; an arrangement better adapted to the taste of the English reader, and unobjectionable in other respects, as the division of the chapters still corresponds with that of the original epistles.

In making the alteration, a few very trivial modifications in the phraseology of the text were neces

sary.

The translator has likewise ventured on some occasions slightly to curtail the French paragraphs. It will, however, be sufficient to add, that no details have been abbreviated, nor one single observation omitted, that appeared likely to interest the general reader.