This home of primordial barbarism was suddenly thrust upon the attention of the civilised world by the genius of one man. Peter the Great, a coarse and cruel, but highly gifted barbarian, conceived the colossal plan of bridging over the gulf that separated his empire from Western Europe, and of reaching at a single stride the point of culture towards which others had crept slowly and painfully in the course of many centuries. It was the conception of a great engineer, and it required great workmen for its execution. It is, therefore, no matter for surprise if the work, when the mind and the will of the original designer were removed, made indifferent progress, if it remained stationary at times, if it was partially destroyed at others. It must also be borne in mind that Peter’s dream of a European Russia was far from being shared by the Russian people. The old Russian party, which interpreted the feelings of the nation, had no sympathy with the Emperor’s ambition for a new Russia modelled on a Western pattern. They wanted to remain Asiatic. And this party found a leader in Peter’s own son Alexis, who paid for his disloyalty with his life. The idea for which Alexis and his friends suffered death is still alive. Opposition to Occidental reform and attachment to Oriental modes of thought and conduct continue to exercise a powerful influence in Russian politics. Europe and Asia still fight for supremacy in the heterogeneous mass which constitutes this hybrid Empire, and there are those who believe that, although Russia poses as European in manner, in soul she is an Asiatic power; and that the time will come when the slender ties which bind her to the West will be snapped by the greater force of her Eastern affinities. Whether this view is correct or not the future will show. Our business is with the past.