* Paul waited for these battalions with evident impatience and anxiety. They marched all night, and arrived in the morning. Ratikof, a fubaltern, who had no other merit than the good fortune of announcing to him their wifhed-for arrival, was inftantly created a knight of St. Anne, and made aide-de-camp to the grand-duke. It was not till Paul faw himself furrounded with his little army, that he began to act as he bad done at Gatfhina.

ancient captains, and they the firft families in the empire, found themfelves under the command of officers of no birth, who but a few years before had left their companies as ferjeants or corporals, to enter into the battalions of the grand-duke. This bold and hafty change, which at any other time would have been fatal to its author, had no other effe&t than that of inducing a few hundreds of officers, fabalterns, and others, to retire. Most of thefe were fuch as had fufficient to live upon befide their commiflions, or could neither digeft the putting others over their heads, nor fupport the harafling difcipline which the intruders were about to establish.* Many of thefe young officers, however, felt no other affiont than that of being obliged to quit their brilliant uniforms, and to alter their drefs according to the grotesque and fantastical clothing of thofe batta

lions which had fo long excited their ridicule.

Paul, alarmed and enraged at this general defertion, went to the barracks, flattered the foldiers, appeafed the officers, and endeavoured to retain them, by excluding from all employ, civil and military, thofe who fhould retire in future, and who befides were no longer to wear their uniform. He afterwards iffued the ridiculous and cruel order, that every officer or fubaltern who had refigned, or fhould give in his refignation, fhould quit the capital within four-and-twenty hours, and return to his own home. It never entered the head of Paul, or of him who drew up the ukafe, that it contained an abfurdity; as feveral of the officers were natives of Petersburg, and had families refiding in that city. Accordingly fome of them retired to their homes without quitting the capital, not obeying the

Of thefe obtruded officers, no one made his fortune fo rapidly as Araktfchief. Seven years before, the grand-duke, willing to have a company of artillery at Pavlofsky, afked general Meliffino for an officer capable of forming one. Araktfcheief, who had been brought up in a corps of cadets, and who had gotten himself noticed by the progrefs he made, and particularly for the ardour and paffionate zeal he difplayed for the minutiae of difc.pline, was given him. In fpite of his indefatigable attentions, feverity, and exactitude, in the fervice, it was fome time before he could eftablish himself thoroughly in the good opinion of Paul. Several pretty fire-works, which he compofed, with the affiftance of his old mafter, for the entertainments at Pavlofsky, but, above all, the rage for exercising with which he burned, and which induced him to harass the foldiers day and night, at length gained him the favour of the grand duke. At his acceffion to the throne, Arakt cheitf was created a major in the guards, with the rank of general, and appointed military governor of Petersburg. He received the order of St. Anne, with fome thousands of peasants, and became the emperors right hand. Araktfcheief, with whom major M. has ferved in the corp of cadets, where he was ferjeant, was truly commendable for the talents, acquirements, and zeal which he difplayed atthat time: but he is difgufting by his brutality, which he exercifed even towards the cadets. Never was Pindaric poet more tormented by his mufe, than this man is poffeffed by his military demon. His fury and his cane have already coft more than one unfortunate foldier his life, even under the eye of Paul. This wretch has revived a barbarity, which had long been a ftranger to the Ruffian fervice; he abufes and ftrikes the very officers when exercifing. However, while in favour, that he might have the appearance of being grateful, he recommended major Meliffino, his former matter, with whom he was at variance. He was lately difgraced, but fince recalled, and barónized. It was he who reviewed the troops fent into Germany.

VOL. XLIII.

E e

firft

first part of the order, left they fhould be found guilty of difobedience to the fecond. Arkaret, who was to fee it put in force, having informed the emperor of this contradiction, he directed that the injunetion to quit Petersburg fhould alone be obeyed. A number of young men were confequently taken out of their houfes criminals, convey ed out of the city, with orders not to re-enter it, and left on the road without shelter, and without peliftes, in a very intente froft. They who belonged to remote provinces, for the most part wanting money to carry them thither, wandered about the neighbourhood of Peterburg, where fevera! perished of cold and

want.

Thefe meafares were extended to all the officers of the army; and thofe on the staff as generals were equally obliged to join their regiments, or refign, because their staffs were abolished. And it was by this impolitic ftep that he pretended to commence a reform, and gain the goodwill of the army. But what foon fhewed that Paul, on becoming emperor by no means renounced the military frivolities which had entirely occupied him while grandduke, was his devoting all his attention, from the morning of his afcending to the throne, to the trifling changes he was about to introduce into the dress and exercife of the foldiers. For a moment the palace had the appearance of a place taken

by affault by foreign troops; thofe who began to mount guard there differing fo much in drefs and ftyle from thofe who had been feen there the day before. He went down into the court, where he was manoeuvring his foldiers three or four. hours, to teach them to mount guard after his fashion, and establish his wachtparade (guard-parade), which became the most important infiitution and the central point of his adminiftration. Every day fince he' has dedicated the fame time to it, however cold the weather. "Here, in a plain deep green uniform, great boots, and a large hat, he spends his mornings in exercifing his guards :* here he gives his orders, receives reports, publishes his favours, rewards, and punishments; and herê every officer must be prefented to him. Surrounded by his fons and aides-de-camp, flampisg his heels on the pavement to keep himfeN warm, his bald head bare, his fnub nofe cocked up to the wind, one hand behind his back, and with the other raifing and falling his cane in due time, and crying, raz, dva; ruz, dea; one, two; one, two; he prides himself in braving a cold of fifteen or twenty degrees of Reaumer without furs. Prefently, none of the offcers dared any longer to appear in peliffes; and the old generals, tormented with coughs, gout, and rheumatifm, were obliged to form a circle round Paul, dreffed like himfelf. +

The

See the print of him, which, though intended perhaps as a caricature, is nevertheless a striking likeness, published in St. James's Street, having under it, "Our magnanimous. ally. Painted at Petersburg."

A Hogarth, who fhould fee the emperor and his younger fon bufy about a poor recruit, turning him to the right and to the left, marching him forward and backward, raifing up his chin, tightening his belt, and placing his head properly, with every now and then a blow, would have a fine fubject for a caricature. An emigrant named Lami conceived

The first impreffions of fear and foy being deadened in the heart of Paul, punishments and difgraces fuccorded with the fame rapidity and profufion with which he had lavified his favours. Several perfons experienced the two extremes within the

Ipace of a few days. It is true, that most of thefe punishments at first appeared to be juft: then, how ever, it must be allowed, that Paul could fearcely frike any where but on the guilty, fo corrupt were all who befet the throne,

Notwithstanding the affurances he had juft given to Zubof, one of the firft orders that followed was, to feal up his chancery and that of Markof, and to expel their officers and fecretaries from the court with difgrace. One Terfky, mafter of requests, and reporter to the fenate, who publicly fold juftice to the highest bidder, and, with a fhocking effrontery, was at first gratified with an order of knighthood, and obtained fome lands, which he faid the late emprefs had promifed him a few days before her decease, was next morning difmiffed from his offices. This re

fpect of Paul to the pretended will of his mother, and his care farther to enrich a rafcal before he difcarded him, excited a ftupid admiration. Surely he ought rather to have brought to trial this defpoiler of the widow and orphan, and made him an example of public justice!

Samoilof, the procureur-general, whom likewife he had honourably confirmed in his office, with a prefent of four thousand pealants, amounting in value to more than

twenty thoufand rubles (2000%.) a year, was difplaced a few days after, put under arreft, and his fecretary was fent to the fortrefs. In fhort, all was reformed in this manner, except Befborodko, Nicholas Soltikof, and Arkarof.

This uncertain and fluctuating conduct, which characteriled the firft fteps of Paul, clearly proves that his favours were the effects of policy; and the difgraces that followed them were to be afcribed to paffion rather than to juftice. But what confounded all who had admired him, was to fee him, at the very moment when he was entering fuch an intricate labyrinth of butiness and abuses, and the importance whereof to the ftate would have found him work enough at leaft for fome days, was, I fay, to fee him applying the very morning of his acceffion with the fame eagerness to the most trifling details of the military fervice. The fhape of a hat, the colour of a feather, the altitude of a grenadier's cap, boots, fpatterdalhes, cockades, queues, and fword-belts, became the affairs of ftate that abforbed his aftonishing activity. He was furrounded by patterns of accoutrements and uniforms of all kinds. If Louis XIV. was of all the princes of Europe the most ex- · pert at making a lock, verily Paul I. is the beft hand at fcouring a button, and employs himself at it with the fame affiduity as formerly Potemkin did in bruthing up his diamonds. The greatest proof of zeal and merit any one could give him during the firft days of his reign, was to appear

conceived the humerous idea of dedica ing to Paul a bad tranflation he made of the explanation of Hogarth's prints. I know not whether he did it out of fimp,icity, or as a troke of fatire; but the name of Paul is very happily placed at the head of that work, which wanted only the ridicule of fuch a dedication to make it compete. Paul, how ever, fufpected no joke in it, for he fent abbé Lami a prefent of a fnuff-box.

E e 2

before

General Meyendorf being mentioned to him as a good officer of horse, he difpatched a courier to him; and Meyendorf, in his eagerness to obey the command, prefented himfelf at the parade in his ancient unifo m. Paul, enraged, uttered some severe reproaches to those who had recon.mended fuch a man, called him one of P temkin's foldiers, and banished him to his eftate.

↑ Another Frglishman was met by an officer of the police, who took from him his round hat. The Eng ifhman, folding his arms, and surveying him from head to foot, faid with a look of compation, "My friend! how I pity thee for being a Rufhan!

It is likewife the national hat of the Ruffians, a little difference in the crown excepted, which it was well to be apprifed of, as it prevented the wearer from infult The hatters shops being foon emptied of cocked hats, they who had neither tine nor means to procure ore, cocked up their little round hats with pins, that they might walk the ftrests with faf ty.

Perhaps the reader may fuppof, that these round hats were confidered as fome party fign. Ly no means: it was a fingular averfion which raul had for them; and he had drol..cel war against them'at Pavloisky four years before.