well as his public reasons for writing the
foreboding with no triumphant heart!); but
even party occupation, the reviewer's license,
or the editorial plural, does not absolve a
gentleman from a gentleman's duty, a gentleman's
restraint, and a gentleman's generosity.

Mr. Dickens will willingly do his best to
"account for" any new case of Circumlocution
Office protection that the Review may
make a gauntlet of. He may be trusted to
do so, he hopes, with a just respect for the
Review, for himself, and for his calling;
beyond the sound, healthy, legitimate uses
and influences of which, he has no purpose
to serve, and no ambition in life to gratify.

A REMARKABLE REVOLUTION.

A REVOLUTION which is serious enough to
overthrow a reigning sovereign—which is
short enough to last only nine hours—and
which is peaceable enough to begin and end
without the taking of a single life or the
shedding of a drop of blood, is certainly a
phenomenon in the history of human affairs
which is worth being carefully investigated.
Such a revolution actually happened, in the
empire of Russia, little more than a century
and a quarter ago. The narrative of its rise,
its progress, and its end deserves to be made
known, for there are points of interest
connected with it which may claim the rare
attraction of novelty, while they possess at
the same time the indispensable historical
merit of being founded on a plain and
recognisable basis of truth.

Let us begin by inquiring into the state of
affairs by which this remarkable revolution
was produced.

We start with a famous Russian character
—Peter the Great. His son, who may be
not unfairly distinguished, as Peter the
Small, died in the year seventeen hundred
and thirty. With his death, the political
difficulties arose, which ended in the easy
pulling down of one sovereign ruler at
midnight and the easy setting up of another by
nine o'clock the next morning.

Besides the son whom he left to succeed
him, Peter the Great had a daughter, whose
title was princess, and whose name was
Elizabeth. Peter's wife, the famous
Empress Catherine, being a far-seeing woman,
made a will which contained the expression
of her wishes in regard to the succession to
the throne, and which plainly and properly
designated the Princess Elizabeth (there
being no Salic law in Russia) as the reigning
sovereign to be chosen after the death of her
brother, Peter the Small. Nothing,
apparently, could be more plain and straightforward
than the course to be followed, at
that time, in appointing a new ruler over the
Russian people.

But there happened to be living at Court
two noblemen—Prince d'Olgorowki and
Count Osterman—who had an interest of
their own in complicating the affairs
connected with the succession. These two
distinguished personages had possessed
considerable power and authority, under the
feeble reign of Peter the Small, and they
knew enough of his sister's resolute and
self-reliant character to entertain considerable
doubts as to what might become of their
court position and their political privileges
after the Princess Elizabeth was seated on
the throne. Accordingly they lost no time
in nominating a rival candidate of their
own choosing, whom they dexterously raised
to the Imperial dignity, before there was
time for the partisans of the Princess Elizabeth
to question the authority under which
they acted, much less to oppose the execution
of it with the slightest chance of success.
The new sovereign, thus unjustly invested
with power, was a woman—Anne, Dowager
Duchess of Courland—and the pretence
under which Prince d'Olgorowki and Count
Osterman proclaimed her as Empress of
Russia, was that Peter the Small had
confidentially communicated to them, on his
death-bed, a desire that the Dowager
Duchess should be chosen as the sovereign
to succeed him.

The principal result of the Dowager
Duchess's occupation of the throne was the
additional complication of the political affairs
of Russia. The new empress had an eye to
the advancement of her family; and, among
the other relatives for whom she provided,
was a niece, named Catherine. By the wise
management of the empress, this young lady
was married to the Prince of Brunswick,
brother-in-law of the King of Prussia. The
first child born of the marriage was a boy
named Ivan. Before he had reached the
age of two years, his mother's aunt, the
Empress, died; and, when her will was
opened, it was discovered, to the amazement
of everyone, that she had appointed this
child to succeed her on the throne of
Russia.

The private motive which led the empress
to take this extraordinary course, was her
desire to place the sovereign power in the
hands of one of the favourites, the Duke de
Biren, by nominating that nobleman as the
guardian of the infant Ivan. To accomplish
this purpose, she had not only slighted the
legitimate claims of Peter the Great's
daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, but had
also entirely overlooked the interests of
Ivan's mother, who naturally felt that she
had a right to ascend the throne, as the
nearest relation of the deceased empress and
the mother of the child, who was designated
as the future emperor. To the bewilderment
and dissatisfaction thus produced, a
further element of confusion was added by
the total incapacity of the Duke de Biren
to occupy creditably the post of authority
which had been assigned to him. Before he
had been long in office, he gave way alto-