On his accession, in 1689, its western boundary was in longitude 30 degrees, and its southern in latitude 42 degrees; these have now been pushed to longitude 18 degrees and latitude 39 degrees respectively. Russia had then no access to any European sea; her only ports were Archangel in the Frozen Ocean, and Astrakhan on the Caspian: she has now access both to the Baltic and the Euxine. Her population, mainly arising from increase of territory, has augmented thus:—
At the accession of Peter the Great, in 1689, it was 15,000,000; at the accession of Catharine the Second, in 1752, it was 25,000,000; at the accession of Paul, in 1796, it was 36,000,000; at the accession of Nicholas, in 1825, it was 58,000,000.
By the treaty of Neustadt in 1721, and by a subsequent treaty in 1809, she acquired more than the kingdom of Sweden, and the command of the Gulf of Finland, from which before she was excluded.
By the three partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795, and by the arrangements of 1815, she acquired territory nearly equal in extent to the whole Austrian Empire. By various wars and treaties with Turkey, in 1794, 1783, and 1812, she robbed her of territories equal in extent to all that remains of her European dominions, and acquired the command of the Black Sea.
Between 1800 and 1814, she acquired from Persia districts at least as large as the whole of England; from Tartary, a territory which ranges over thirty degrees of longitude. During this period of 150 years, she has advanced her frontier 500 miles towards Constantinople, 630 miles towards Stockholm, 700 miles towards Berlin and Vienna, and 1000 miles towards Teheran, Cabool, and Calcutta. One only acquisition she has not yet made, though steadily pushing towards it, earnestly desiring it, and feeling it to be essential to the completion of her vast designs and the satisfaction of her natural and consistent ambition, namely,—the possession of Constantinople and Roumelia,—which would give her the most admirable harbors and the command of the Levant, and would enable her to overlap, surround, menace, and embarrass all the rest of Europe.
NICHOLAS, THE REIGNING CZAR.
Nicholas Paulovitch, the son of Paul the First and Maria Feodorowna, is the fifteenth sovereign of the Romanoff dynasty. He is of a great height, and is very proud of it. His air is serious, his glance wild, even a little savage; his entire physiognomy has something hard and stern in it. The Emperor never shows himself but in the military costume, the stiffness of which is in perfect keeping with his tastes, and which makes his great height still more conspicuous. His face and whole deportment are noble and commanding. He speaks with vivacity, with simplicity, and the most perfect propriety; all he says is full of point and meaning,—no idle pleasantry, not a word out of its place. There is nothing in the tone of his voice or the arrangement of his phrases that indicates haughtiness or dissimulation, and yet every one feels that his heart is closed, and its deep secrets studiously concealed.
Nicholas has a boundless delight in seeing his soldiers, and in reviewing them. He is unsurpassed for the skill and despatch with which he passes numerous regiments in review, in the Place of Arms, at St. Petersburg. Woe to the poor soldier who shall be convicted of a button badly fastened, or a buckle out of its place! The eagle eye of the Emperor will search in the very thickest part of the ranks for infractions of this description, and his inflexibility is known. He is, nevertheless, a timid rider, and travels by drosky or sledge, in preference to horseback.
The Emperor leads a life of restless and incessant activity. Morning, noon, and night, he is engaged in the public business brought beneath his notice from the different sections of the various departments. In private life he is free from immoralities, and sets a worthy example of conjugal fidelity to all his subjects.