ginal condition remained strong in his nature. It speaks the more for his wonderful genius that, throughout his whole history, he forces us to feel that we are reading the adventures of the chief of a barbarous country, struggling to civilize himself as well as his people. And undoubtedly we do not follow his progress with the less interest on that account. Nothing, in fact, in his proceedings or his character so much engages our curiosity, as to watch the astonishment with which his own ignorance was struck on the first view of those arts of civilized life which he was so anxious to introduce among his less ambitious, but hardly more ignorant, subjects. It is exactly the case of a strong-minded and enterprising leader of some tribe of wild Americans, or South Sea islanders, setting out to see with his own eyes the wonders of those distant lands of which his white visitors have told him, and, after all, viewing the scenes which civilization presents to him with an intoxication of surprise, which shews how imperfectly even his excited fancy had anticipated their actual nature. But, however he was at first struck with what he beheld, Peter did not continue long lost in mere amazement. The story which is told of the occasion which awakened him to the ambition of creating a Russian navy is very illustrative of his character. While looking about one day among some old stores and other neglected effects, he chanced to cast his eye upon the hulk of a small English sloop, with its sailing tackle, lying among the rest of the lumber, and fast going to decay. This vessel had been imported many years before by his father, Alexis Michelovitch, also a prince of distinguished talents, and who had nourished many schemes for the regeneration of his country; but it had long been forgotten by every body, as well as the object which it was designed to promote. No

sooner, however, was it observed by Peter than it fixed his attention; he made inquiries of some of the foreigners by whom he was surrounded, as to the use of the mast and sails, even the general purposes of which he did not know; and the explanations which he received made him look on the old hulk with new interest. It immediately became, in his imagination, the germ of a magnificent national marine; and he could take no rest till he had made arrangements for having it repaired and set afloat. With some difficulty the Dutch pilot was found out whom Alexis had procured at the same time with the sloop to teach his subjects the method of managing it; the man, like the vessel, of which he was to have the charge, had long been forgotten by all the world. Once more, however, brought out of his obscurity, he soon refitted the sloop; and the Czar was gratified beyond measure by at length beholding it, with its mast replaced and its sails in order, moving on its proper element. Delighted as he was he went himself on board, and was not long before he became a sufficiently expert seaman to take the place of his Dutch pilot. For several years after this his chief attention was given to maritime affairs; although his first ships were all of foreign construction, and it was a considerable time before any issued from his own docks. From so small a beginning as has been described, Russia has since become, after England, one of the greatest naval powers in the world*.

The most detailed account we have met with of the story told in the text is one preserved among the MSS of Sir Hans Sloane, in the British Museum (No. 3,168). It appears to have been written shortly after the death of Peter the Great, and by a person who was either a native of Russia or had resided in that country. According to this authority the incident took place in the flax-yard at Ishmaeloff, an old seat of the royal family near Moscow. The writer gives us also an account of a great naval show, at which he was himself present, in honour of this celebrated

But the most extraordinary of the plans which Peter adopted in order to obtain an acquaintance with the arts of civilized life, was that which he put in execution in 1697, when he set out in the suite of his own ambassador to visit the other countries of Europe. On this occasion, passing through Prussia, he directed his course to Holland, and at last arrived in the city of Amsterdam. His embassy was here received by the government of the United Provinces with all manner of honour and distinction; but he himself refused to be recognized in any other character than as a private individual. The first days of his visit were spent in perambulating the different streets of the city, the various wonders of which were probably never viewed by any eye with more astonishment and gratification than they excited in this illustrious stranger. The whole scene was nearly as new to him, and as much beyond anything by which he had ever before been surrounded, as if he had come from another world. The different arts and trades which he saw exercised, and the productions of which met him, wherever he turned, in such surprising profusion, were all attentively examined. But what especially attracted his attention was the great East India dock-yard in the village of Saardam (situated a few miles from Amsterdam), which was then the principal establishment of this description in Hol

vessel, which took place by the emperor's command at St. Petersburg, on the 12th of August, 1723. On this occasion the sloop, or ship's boat, as it is here called, having been repaired and beautified, was received by about 200 yachts, and, having advanced to the harbour attended by that numerous convoy, was then saluted by a general volley from the twenty-two men-of-war, which might be considered as forming its progeny. The emperor, of course, was present, and the day was altogether one of the greatest festivals that had been known in Petersburg. "A few days after," it is added, "the boat was brought to Petersburg, and laid up in the castle, where she is to be taken the greatest care of."

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but he found this both a very noisy place of abode and not conveniently situated for the object on account of which principally he had come to England,-his improvement in the art of ship-building. After a short time, therefore, he removed to Deptford; and here he spent several months in the dockyard, employing himself in the same manner as he had done in that of Saardam. He was so much pleased, it is said, with the superior method of working which he found pursued here, that he used to declare he never should have known his trade had he not come to England. While at Deptford he lodged in the house of the celebrated John Evelyn, author of the Sylva," which stood on the site now occupied by the Workhouse of the parish of St. Nicholas. We find the circumstance noticed in Evelyn's Diary under the date of 30th January, 1698: "The Czar of Muscovy being come to England, and having a mind to see the building of ships, hir'd my house at Say's court, and made it his court and palace, new furnished for him by the king." He remained here, it appears, till the 21st of April. Some notion of his manner of living may be obtained from a letter written during this time to Evelyn by his servant: "There is a house full of people, and right nasty. The Czar lies next your library, and dines in the parlour next your study. He dines at 10 o'clock and 6 at night, is very seldom at home a whole day, very often in the king's yard or by water, dressed in several dresses. The king is expected there this day, the best parlour is pretty clean for him to be entertained in. The king pays for all he has *"

While the dockyard, however, was the place in which the Czar spent the greater part of the day, he employed many of his leisure hours in taking lessons in mathematics, navigation, and even anatomy, which * Bray's Memoirs of Evelyn, ii. 60.

he had begun to study while in Holland under the instruction of the eminent professor Frederick Ruysch, whose museum he afterwards purchased for the sum of thirty thousand florins. Peter, indeed, neglected no opportunity, during his travels, of forming the acquaintance of distinguished individuals; and both in Holland and England many of the ablest men of the time were introduced to him, some of whom he persuaded to accompany him home to Russia. He also expended considerable sums in purchasing such curious productions of art as he conceived might best excite the emulation of his subjects.

Among other persons who were made known to him when in England was Bishop Burnet, who does not seem, however, to have comprehended the character of the extraordinary man with whom he was on this occasion brought into contact. In the History of his own Times he tells us the impression the Czar made upon him. "He wants not capacity," says he," and has a larger measure of knowledge than might be expected from his education, which was very indifferent; "but immediately after he adds that he " seems designed by nature rather to be a ship-carpenter than a great prince." He did not at that time appear to the bishop to be capable of conducting so great a design as the attack upon the Turkish empire, which he was understood to be meditating; although it is acknowledged that he afterwards displayed a greater genius for warlike operations than the writer then imagined him to possess. Bishop Burnet had a good deal of conversation with him upon religious matters, and remarks that "he was desirous to understand our doctrine, but he did not seem disposed to mend matters in Muscovy." He allows, however, that he was "resolved to encourage learning, and to polish his people by sending some of them to travel in other countries, and to