Henry Buckley - History of Civilization in England, Vol. 1 of 3

Malcolm ( History of Persia , vol. i. p. 204) says of the Tartars, ‘There is only one path to eminence, that of military renown.’ Thus, too, in the Institutes of Timour , p. 269: ‘He only is equal to stations of power and dignity, who is well acquainted with the military art, and with the various modes of breaking and defeating hostile armies.’ The same turn of mind is shown in the frequency and evident delight with which Homer relates battles – a peculiarity noticed in Mure's Greek Literature , vol. ii. pp. 63, 64, where an attempt is made to turn it into an argument to prove that the Homeric poems are all by the same author; though the more legitimate inference would be that the poems were all composed in a barbarous age.

To the prospect of personal distinction there was formerly added that of wealth; and in Europe, during the Middle Ages, war was a very lucrative profession, owing to the custom of exacting heavy ransom for the liberty of prisoners. See Barrington's learned work, Observations on the Statutes , pp. 390–393. In the reign of Richard II. ‘a war with France was esteemed as almost the only method by which an English gentleman could become rich.’ Compare Turner's Hist. of England , vol. vi. p. 21. Sainte Palaye ( Mémoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie , vol. i. p. 311) says, ‘La guerre enrichissoit alors par le butin, et par les rançons, celui qui la faisoit avec le plus de valeur, de vigilance et d'activité. La rançon étoit, ce semble, pour l'ordinaire, une année des revenus du prisonnier.’ For an analogy with this, see Rig Veda Sanhita , vol. i. p. 208, sec. 3, and vol. ii. p. 265, sec. 13. In Europe, the custom of paying a ransom for prisoners-of-war survived the Middle Ages, and was only put an end to by the peace of Munster, in 1648. Manning's Commentaries on the Law of Nations , 1839, p. 162; and on the profits formerly made, pp. 157, 158.

I wrote this in 1855.

Indeed some have supposed that there is less immorality in Russia than in Western Europe; but this idea is probably erroneous. See Stirling's Russia , Lond. 1841, pp. 59, 60. The benevolence and charitable disposition of the Russians are attested by Pinkerton, who had good means of information, and was by no means prejudiced in their favour. See Pinkerton's Russia , Lond. 1833, pp. 335, 336. Sir John Sinclair also says they are ‘prone to acts of kindness and charity.’ Sinclair's Correspondence , vol. ii. p. 241.

The reverence of the Russian people for their clergy has attracted the attention of many observers, and is, indeed, too notorious to require proof.

A very observing and intelligent writer says, ‘Russia has only two ranks – the highest and the lowest.’ Letters from the Baltic , Lond. 1841, vol. ii. p. 185. ‘Les marchands, qui formeraient une classe moyenne, sont en si petit nombre qu'ils ne peuvent marquer dans l'état: d'ailleurs presque tous sont étrangers; … où donc trouver cette classe moyenne qui fait la force des états?’ Custine's Russie , vol. ii. pp. 125, 126: see also vol. iv. p. 74.

A recent authoress, who had admirable opportunities of studying the society of St. Petersburg, which she estimated with that fine tact peculiar to an accomplished woman, was amazed at this state of things among classes surrounded with every form of luxury and wealth: ‘a total absence of all rational tastes or literary topics… Here it is absolutely mauvais genre to discuss a rational subject – mere pédanterie to be caught upon any topics beyond dressing, dancing, and a jolie tournure .’ Letters from the Baltic , 1841, vol. ii. p. 233. M. Custine ( La Russie en 1839 , vol. i. p. 321) says ‘Règle générale, personne ne profère jamais un mot qui pourrait intéresser vivement quelqu'un.’ At vol. ii. p. 195, ‘De toutes les facultés de l'intelligence, la seule qu'on estime ici c'est le tact.’ Another writer of repute, M. Kohl, contemptuously observes, that in Russia, ‘the depths of science are not even guessed at.’ Kohl's Russia , 1842, Lond. p. 142.

According to Schnitzler, ‘Precedence is determined, in Russia, by military rank; and an ensign would take the pas of a nobleman not enrolled in the army, or occupying some situation giving military rank.’ M'Culloch's Geog. Dict. 1849, vol. ii. p. 614. The same thing is stated in Pinkerton's Russia , 1833, p. 321. M. Erman, who travelled through great part of the Russian empire, says, ‘In the modern language of St. Petersburg, one constantly hears a distinction of the greatest importance, conveyed in the inquiry which is habitually made respecting individuals of the educated class: Is he a plain-coat or a uniform?’ Erman's Siberia , vol. i. p. 45. See also on this preponderance of the military classes, which is the inevitable fruit of the national ignorance, Kohl's Russia , pp. 28, 194; Stirling's Russia under Nicholas the First , p. 7; Custine's Russie , vol. i. pp. 147, 152, 252, 266, vol. ii. pp. 71, 128, 309, vol. iii. p. 328, vol. iv. p. 284. Sir A. Alison ( History of Europe , vol. ii. pp. 391, 392) says, ‘The whole energies of the nation are turned towards the army. Commerce, the law, and all civil employments, are held in no esteem; the whole youth of any consideration betake themselves to the profession of arms.’ The same writer (vol. x. p. 566) quotes the remark of Bremner, that ‘nothing astonishes the Russian or Polish noblemen so much as seeing the estimation in which the civil professions, and especially the bar, are held in Great Britain.’

The consequences of the invention of gunpowder are considered very superficially by Frederick Schlegel ( Lectures on the History of Literature , vol. ii. pp. 37, 38), and by Dugald Stewart ( Philosophy of the Mind , vol. i. p. 262). They are examined with much greater ability, though by no means exhaustively, in Smith's Wealth of Nations , book v. chap. i. pp. 292, 296, 297; Herder's Ideen zur Geschichte der Menschheit , vol. iv. p. 301; Hallam's Middle Ages , vol. ii. p. 470.

From the following authorities, it appears impossible to trace it further back than the thirteenth century; and it is doubtful whether the Arabs were, as is commonly supposed, the inventors: Humboldt's Cosmos , vol. ii. p. 590; Koch , Tableaux des Révolutions , vol. i. p. 242; Beckmann's History of Inventions , 1846, vol. ii. p. 505; Histoire Lit. de la France , vol. xx. p. 236; Thomson's History of Chemistry , vol. i. p. 36; Hallam's Middle Ages , vol. i. p. 341. The statements in Erman's Siberia , vol. i. pp. 370, 371, are more positive than the evidence we are possessed of will justify; but there can be no doubt that a sort of gunpowder was at an early period used in China, and in other parts of Asia.

Vattel, le Droit des Gens , vol. ii. p. 129; Lingard's History of England , vol. ii. pp. 356, 357. Among the Anglo-Saxons, ‘all free men and proprietors of land, except the ministers of religion, were trained to the use of arms, and always held ready to take the field at a moment's warning.’ Eccleston's English Antiquities , p. 62. ‘There was no distinction between the soldier and the citizen.’ Palgrave's Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth , vol. i. p. 200.