When we behold the traits exhibited during this brief reign of five years, we are not surprised at Catherine's unwillingness to resign to her son the empire for which she had done so much; and we are inclined to believe it is true that there was, as has been rumored, a will left by the Empress naming as her heir the grandson whom she had carefully prepared to be her successor, and that this paper was destroyed by the conspirators.
There is one wise act to record in the reign of Paul--although it was probably prompted not by a desire to benefit the future so much as to reverse the past.

Peter the Great, probably on account of his perverse son Alexis, had set aside the principle of primogeniture; a principle not Slavonic, but established by the Muscovite Princes.

Peter, the ruthless reformer, placed in the hands of the sovereign the power to choose his own successor.

Paul reestablished this principle, and thereby bestowed a great benefit upon Russia..