A STRONG-MINDED EMPRESS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume L, Issue 9002, 26 January 1906, Page 6

A STRONG-MINDED EMPRESS.

GLIMPSES OF AN UNCONVENTIONAL LIFE.

A remarkable woman was Catherine 11. of Russia. No more capable Queen has ever sat upon a throne, but, unfortunately, to the brilliant qualities of her intellect and the cEarm of her person was added a semsuous and pleasure-loving disposition. The daughter of a dull-witted, beer-drinking German Prince, who was married to an alert and ambitious woman, Catherine was summoned in her fifteenth year to the Russian Court in orde<r to espousa the Grand Duke Peter, the heir to the Russian Throne.

Peter was the nephew of the reigning Empress Elizabeth^ but he possessed none of her forceful character and keenness of intellect. The Grand Duke was, in fact, almost an imbecile, and his sole interests appealed to He in drilling wood^Hl soldiers and playing childish tricks upon his attendants. Catherine was not slow to recognise that her intended husband was no equal match for her, and that his childishness, his gTossness of person, his vulgarity, and his stupidity would be hard to bear. But she had inherited her mother's ambition and her mother's strength of character, and was willing to tolerate the buffoonery of her husband because he would lead her to a throne.

Her strangely contradictory character and her amazingly successful career have attracted the attention of many historians. The latest is Mr Fitzgerald Molloy, who in his work on "The Russian Count in the Eighteenth Century," published in two handsome volumes by Messrs Hutchinson and C 0.., has given a vivid and fascinating picture of this wonderful woman. Mr Molloy has to write of much that is disagreeable and offensive, because the country was savage and the- times were bratal and licentious, but, in spite of the many moral aberrations which tarnish thtf character of Catherine, an indelible impression of the genuine greatness of t<he, woman is left upon the reader.

This is Mr Molloy's .description of the Court to which Catherine was summoned as a young and unsophisticated girl of fifteen :—: —

The Court by which the Grand Duchess i was surrounded was at once brilliant, lij centious, and extravagant, a network of j intrigue, the scene of adventure; with | equal possibilities of vast power and j wealth, or of disgrace, exile, or death for those who took prominent parts in its social or political -movements. Elizabeth, the central figure around whom moved a throng of lovers, politicians, adventurers, sycophants, a.nd schemers, was in herself a remarkable and many-sided woman. She could be deeply religions for days, only to relapse' into": notorious profligacy.; sha could be gentle and affectionate, and fiendishly cruel. She sometimes dressed in gorgeous splendour, covered lierself with matchless jewels, and appeared before her subjects in a blafce. of glory ; while thers were- times when, wrapped in an old dress-ing-gown; -she remained shut up in heT own .apartments, -passing her tun© in listening to the gossip of her |adies-in- waiting. Elizabeth had ability, but she was indolent, and Russia mad© no advance under hor guidance;' the character of the country may even Have retrograded under fier guidance; the character of the example. . Catherine, if hardly less licentious than Elizabeth, • was a much more active administrator. What she did for Russia, is justly stated, by Mr Molloy in the following passage:—

A HERCULEAN TASK

On coming to the Throne, Catherine, who had spent the first fifteen yeaTs of her life in a civilised country, and who during the compulsory solitude^ of her succeeding years Had Tead wotKs of philosophy and travel, history and biography, found herself the supreme sovereign of a barbarous empire slowly and reluctantly emerging from the darkness of ignorance, encrusted with* habits of cruelty, and jealous of all innovations. Broad-minded, intelligent, and courageous, she determined to enlighten and to civilise this world of chaos over which she. reigned.

Learned men from almost every country in Europe, as well as sculptors and painters, were invited to take up their residence in St. Peteirsburg, while she planted colonies, founded schools, built hospitals, corrected the abuses of the tribunals, and drew up a code of instructions for the administration, of the laws. When, this last Teform had been drafted, she invited deputies from all parts, even the most remote of the empire, to assemble at Moscow and give their free and unbiassed opinions on the suitability of the instructions which she had written. Such liberality in Russia of the present day would amaze all Europe.

HER POWER TO FASCINATE

Catherine became an exceedingly popular, as well as an exceedinly capable administrator. She was not beautiful, as she herself confessed, but she would add — "I have the poweT to please, and that I think is my greatest gift." She had wonderful eyes — grey blue and almost brown — "so magnetic as to be unendurable to those on whom they were steadily fixed, and to startle those on whom they were turned in searching enquiry or sudden anger."

On occasions she endeavored to dazzle by the brilliance and splendour of her person, and she sedulously courted the homage of her nobles by appearing in regal pomp at State functions. Such a. festal occasion as this is thus described by Mr Mollov : —

At the height of their utmost vivacity the figures in the dances suddenly stood still as if turned to. stone by a magician's wand, when the dooTs of tfis private apartments being flung open, Her Majesty was seen standing on the threshold, rouged, clad in cloth of gold, and blazing with jewels, Uk^e some barbaric idol.

This dramatic .entry was succeeded by a relapse into a more congenial role. Presently, the Empress would sit down quietly to a game oi cards, while dancing was Tesumed. ( ,,. She never appeared intensely interested in her cards, but preferred to talkjunceremoniously and with vivacity to ,thpee . who formed a halfcircle round hej^chair. When ten o'clock came she quietjy rose^ and without wishing to attract ajiy attention, or disturb the dancers, went to her own rooms.

AT HER AMUSEMENTS.

Catherine really loved simplicity, and I the society of intimate friends. As Mr J Molloy says : — I Always wearied with ceremonies ? which j she suff&redJ'because she believed them necessary to .'impress her people and be- | cause they were civilised by them she found relief and enjoyment in the small select parties she continually gave at the Hermitage, Here she threw ceremony overboard, and insisted that others should do the same. Printed rules $o this effect were hung in each room, and it was declared that dll-teniper and jealousy must' •be left behind bj- all who entere.d, that quarrels must' 'be forgotten, and no lies 6poken. ' 'ic Sometimes -the entertainments began with music,{^Jufc Catherine, who' had no ear' for music, preferred cards, charades, or Better still, childish games. When these involved forfeits, stie paid hers by doing whatever was' asked of her^ standing on a chair in a corner, sitting on the floor, or drinking a glafss of water at "a gulp. A tritk which she would perform, ' amid great amusement was to wag her right ear, while keeping a serious' face. The evening's entertainment closed with a supper. That Her Majesty and her friends might be free from the presence, of servants-, the meal' was served on small tables that rose up and were lowered through trap-doore.