![]() It will appear in Chinese, in every tongue it will be a gospel for all mankind.” 51 And he added in later letters: “Legislators have the first place in the temple of glory conquerors come behind them. Today I have begun to translate it into French. “Madame, last night I received one of the guarantees of your immortality-your code in a German translation. The Empress sent a copy direct to Voltaire, who made his usual obeisance. 50Įven as so bowdlerized the Instructions, published in Holland in 1767, stirred the European intelligentsia to enthusiastic praise. ![]() Religious worship should be free “amongst so many different creeds the most injurious error would be intolerance.” 49 The Nakaz, before being printed, was submitted by her to her advisers they warned her that any sudden change from existing custom would plunge Russia into disorder and she allowed them to modify her proposals, especially those for the gradual emancipation of the serfs. 48All trial should be open, torture should not be used, capital punishment should be abolished in law as well as in fact. Catherine upheld the feudal system-i.e., the system of mutual loyalty and services between peasant and vassal, vassal and liege lord, lord and sovereign-as indispensable to economic, political, and military order in the Russia of 1766 (a land of communities almost isolated from one another, and from the center of government, by difficulties of communication and transport) but she urged that the rights of masters over their serfs should be defined and limited by law, that serfs should be allowed to own property, and that the trial and punishment of serfs should be transferred from the feudal lord to a public magistrate responsible to a provincial court responsible to the sovereign. It meant a government in which the ruler, though ultimately the sole source of law, ruled in obedience to law. She began by declaring that Russia must be thought of as a European state, and should have a constitution based upon “European principles.” This did not, in her understanding, mean a “constitutional government” subordinating the sovereign to a legislature chosen by the people the educational level of Russia would not permit even so limited an electoral franchise as existed in Britain. These reflected her reading of Montesquieu, Beccaria, Blackstone, and Voltaire. In preparation for their coming she personally prepared a Nakaz, or Instructions, describing the principles uponwhich the new code should be formed. Hoping to play Justinian to Russia, and to consolidate her power, Catherine, on December 14, 1766, summoned to Moscow administrative agents and legal experts from every part of the empire, to undertake a thorough revision and codification of Russian law. The task of governing her vast area was made almost impossible by the number (ten thousand), diversity, contradictions, and chaos of existing laws. She entrusted her ministers with only the details of business, and still kept her eye on the execution. She assisted at all the deliberations of the Council, read the dispatches of her ambassadors, and dictated, or indicated … the answers to be returned. But she knew how to renounce pleasure, and to make the transition to employments the most serious, and application the most indefatigable to the affairs of government. Said one of her earliest and least friendly biographers:Īmbition extinguished not in Catherine’s soul an ardent relish for pleasure. She informed herself assiduously on every relevant subject, and wrote detailed instructions on a thousand topics from army training and industrial operations to the toilette of her court and the production of operas and plays. ![]() I swear by Providence to stamp these words into my heart. ![]() Do not allow the world to contaminate you to the point of making you lose the ancient principles of honor and virtue. See that this kindness, however, does not weaken your authority nor diminish their respect. Do not let your grandeur prevent you from condescending with kindness toward the small, and putting yourself in their place. Have confidence in those who have the courage to contradict you, … and who place more value on your reputation than on your favor.īe polite, humane, accessible, compassionate, and liberal-minded. Search for true merit, be it at the other end of the world, for usually it is modest and retiring.ĭo not allow yourself to become the prey of flatterers make them understand that you care neither for praise nor for obsequiousness. Study mankind, learn to use men without surrendering to them unreservedly. In her copy of Fénelon’s Télémaque were found these resolutions: We can hardly doubt the good intentions of Catherine in the early years of her reign. ![]()
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