Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/275

Rh being consequences of despotism, existed in the same degree under the last reign. Catherine, however, exercised her tyranny with a degree of hypocrisy unknown to her son. It is our constitution, perhaps, that produces our virtues and vices. The springs of his, being long subdued by fear, burst forth violently as soon as the power of pressure was removed. The Emperor Paul is passionate, but, I believe, not a bad man. Imbued with the principle that nations are the property of sovereigns, and ought blindly to obey their caprices, the least contradiction is, in his eyes, an unpardonable crime, and then, there is no excess which he is not capable of committing; there is no reflection,—no limit either to his favour or his resentment. He would send Suwarow into the heart of Kamtchatka, as quickly, and with the same facility as he would declare him his equal, and give orders that the people should throw themselves upon their knees before him. It is not known whether those fits of madness frequently noticed in him, are a disease generally common