Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/257

Rh she shed tears, retired, and secluded herself for several days. Recalling those whom Peter had banished; making her arrangements with foreign powers, and settling the internal affairs of the empire, formed her first cares. She had many mortifications to endure, in the coldness in which she was received at Moscow, and in the cabals of the priests, whom she had promised but neglected to reinstate in the privileges Peter had taken from them, and who began to prepare the minds of the people for a counter revolution. But prompt severity and decisive measures, uninterrupted by the scruples of pity or gratitude, not only put an end to these movements, but rid her of some troublesome friends, whose services she wished to have been forgotten. Amongst others, of the princess Dashkoff, who was banished by her to Moscow, but afterwards recalled, and the memory of whose courage and actions she wished to obliterate.

She abolished the secret court, instituted by Peter I. to inquire into and punish religious and state crimes: she strove to sooth the people by proclamations, in which her maternal interest was much dwelt upon: and the wise measures she took to increase trade and civilization are entitled to the highest praise. She annihilated torture, as a means of forcing the confession of crimes, and made the laws more mild and equitable. The general toleration she allowed in point of religion, and the invitation she gave to the professors of the liberal arts, and the industrious agriculturist, induced thousands to come from foreign countries and settle upon the unpeopled districts of her empire, while the ingenious beautified her capital by their works, and gave birth to taste amidst a rude and uncultivated people. Yet