The Press. — London, England, 1854-06-17 00:00:00

568 Transcaucasia. Sketches of the Nations and Races between the Black Sea and the Caspian. By Baron von Haxthausen. London : Chapman and Hall. BARON HAXTRAUSEN is a Prussian subject, born in Westphalia, and by choice—we might almost say by profession—a student of political and social science. While in his own country his attention was chiefly turned to questions of land tenure and those affecting the condition of the people. Some publications by him on these subjects attracted notice ; and in 1842 he was invited by the Czar to continue his researches within the Russian dominions. Of these the present work is the result, printed in Germany as early as the year '47, and there fore valuable as the testimony of a witness unbiassed by the dispute now raging It refers exclusively to the Caucasian provinces, in which the author passed many months, and concerning which it contains a mass of infor million for which we might look in vain else where. To such a work it is impossible that any notice of ours should do justice, inasmuch as it embodies, not a single leading idea, but a vast variety of separate and disconnected, though interesting, facts. The Russians boast much of their activity in stopping the Circassian slave trade. Here is a singular instance of ingratitude, showing how little reforms are appreciated by those whom they benefit. A Turkish vessel had been seized, with girls on board, bound for the Constantinople market. As they were subjects of a friendly power the Russian au thorities ordered them to be released, a pro position less acceptable than had been sup posed : In announcing to the girls their liberation, the general ordered them to be informed that the choice was open to them, to be sent back to their homes with the prince of their own race ; to marry Russians and Cossacks of their free choice ; to return with me to Germany, where all the women are free ; or lastly to accompany the Turkish captain, who would sell them in the slave market at Constantinople. The reader will hardly credit that, unanimously and with out a moment's consideration, they exclaimed, " To Con stantinople—to be sold ! " There is scarcely any people more proud and jealous of their liberty, and yet this was the voluntary answer of these women The baron argues very ingeniously that this decision was, according to Eastern ideas, rea sonable and wise. A Circassian girl is little better than a slave at home; the purchase of wives is as common among their tribes as among the Turks ; it involves nothing servile or disgraceful; they are certain at Constan tinople to meet hundreds of their country women, and not unfrequently their kindred also; their treatment is in general good; the social rank to which they may rise depends on their own beauty and attractions. The emigration, therefore, is in a great measure voluntary, and it is contemplated as a natural, perhaps as an inevitable, destiny. Transcaucasia, our author thinks, is to the Russian empire rather a burden than a benefit. It requires to maintain it two armies of 25,000 or 30,000 men each, on which the annual loss is one-sixth of the whole, or more than 16 per cent. No present advantage derivable from its occupation counterbalances this enormous charge, which is endured solely with a view to future, and possibly far-distant, results. The strength of Russia lies in her prescience and the unchangeable nature of her policy. One of the most curious histories related in this volume is that of the Suabian colonies settled near Tiflis. Their founder had reason to complain of certain religious innovations attempted by the Government of Wirtemberg about 1818, which being unable to resist and unwilling to suffer, they moved off in search of religious freedom to Russia! At Odessa, their first settlement, they failed; at their own request they were assisted to migrate again beyond the Black Sea ; and, despite many hardships, they now form a flourishing, peace able, and unmolested community, being al lowed entire self-government in matters of public worship. But their enthusiasm has gradually assumed a deeper dye : most of them believe that the end of the world is at hand, and some actually prepared to act on this conviction, by selling their worldly goods, establishing a community of property, and marching to Jerusalem, the holy city, where they might await the course of events. The THE PRESS. Government seems to have acted kindly by these fanatics, not refusing them leave to depart, but trying, by persuasion and inter posing delays, to shake their purpose, in which it finally succeeded, and the projected journey was given up. Throughout Georgia and the adjacent dis tricts there is visible a great decrease in popu lation. Many miles of plain are covered with the ruins of canals, aqueducts, and works of irrigation, resembling those of Ceylon and Southern India. The existence of these proves not only that a dense and civilised community once occupied a region now almost deserted, but also that a single monarch, and he probably a despot, must have ruled over innumerable tribes, now hcstile or at best un connected with one another. From the levies known to have been raised in the thirteenth century it seems certain that Russian Trans caucasia, with the independent territories adjoining, had sixteen millions of inhabitants : they do not now, at the highest estimate, ex ceed four millions. It seems that a standing controversy exists as to the mode of government most suitable to these provinces. One class of legislators desire to leave the national customs and pecu liarities as far as possible untouched, govern ing through native agency, and with as little interference as may be : their rivals prefer a more centralised system, agreeable to the general custom of Russia. The latter theory, notwithstanding some doubts entertained by the Emperor himself, seems likely to prevail in the end. The officials are everywhere hated, but the physical condition of the Crown peasants improves. Those under private per sons have suffered by the transfer; for serf dom, in its strict form, did not exist in Cau casia until introduced from beyond the moun tains. A few more details on the government of these conquered provinces may not be unin• teresting : The position and life of the Russian army here resembles that of the Roman legions, stationed in the frontier countries and exposed to the incursive attacks of their enemies. The soldiers are early trained to every kind of labour, especially of a rural description, and mostly for the benefit of the officers. The Emperor, on being informed of the abuses which had arisen from this system, has in many instances in person abolished and punished them with inflexible severity. An anecdote is told, that on one occasion in Tiflis, in face of the troops, he degraded Gene ral Dadien for some such cause; the general, overwhelmed and humbled, merely said, " Czar, thou art just !" Soldiers are better treated here than in the northern parts of Russia. They are instructed and employed in various trades, not harassed with drills, and even encouraged to marry. Those who do so generally become settlers ; and every retired soldier who chooses to end his days as a colonist is entitled to have his family brought from Russia at the public expense. The Russians have not usually been fortu nate in generals. Yermoloff, or Jermalow, whose character is here given, seems to have been their best until Prince Woronzow as sumed the command : Of all the early Governor-Generals who ruled here, no one lives so strongly in the recollection of the soldiers, and of the people at large, as General Jermalow. Anecdotes and traits of his character are on the lips of every one, but his memory is most cherished by the independent moun taineers, from a feeling that they received at his hands im partial justice. Every one who had any cause of complaint repaired directly to the general, who assisted him whenever he was able. Nevertheless his discipline was inflexibly strict : if any village, or any inhabitant of one, did a wrong or committed a robbery, the general immediately ordered a space to be cleared near the church or sanctuary, a gallows to be erected upon it, and the guilty persons were without more ado hanged. Even in the enemy's country, among the Circassians, similar spots are still seen. Whenever any considerable robbery took place, and the thief could not be discovered, the governor instantly ordered the village, or the whole district upon which the suspicion rested of being the home of the guilty person, to be summoned, and to make good the loss. This system worked so well that reports of robbery or theft became very rare. The Armenians are fully and well described by our author. Next to the Jews, no scattered people is so closely connected by a religious bond ; and the Armenians, though spread far over the earth, have still a home of their own to which they may return. Families live together, and have all things in common. Free intercourse is permitted between unmar ried persons of both sexes, but marriage is SATURDAY, succeeded by a kind of discipline elsewhere unheard of : The girls go where they like, unveiled and bareheaded ; the young men carry on their love -suits freely and openly, and marriages of affection are of comm on occurrence. Bat with marriage the scene changes : the word which the young woman pronounces at the altar, in accepting her husband, is the last that is for a long time heard from her lips. From that moment she never appears, even in her own house, unveiled. She is never seen abroad in the public streets, except when she goes to church, which is only twice in the year, and then closely veiled. If a stranger enters the house or garden she instantly conceals herself. With no person, not even her father or brother, is she allowed to exchange a single word; and she speaks to her husband only when they are alone. With the rest of the household she can only communicate by gestures, and by talking on her fingers. This silent reserve, which custom imperatively prescribes, the young wife maintains until she has borne her first child, from which period she becomes gradually emancipated from her constraint: she speaks to her new-born infant ; then her mother-in-law is the first person she may address ; after a while she is allowed to converse with her own mother, and then with her sisters-in-law, and afterwards her own sisters. Now she begins to talk with the young girls in the house, but always in a gentle whisper, that none of the male part of the family may hear what is said. The wife, however, is not fully emancipated, her education is not completed, until after the lapse of six years ! and even then she can never speak with any strangers of the other sex, nor appear before them unveiled. If we examine closely into these social customs, in connection with the other phases of national life in Armenia, we cannot but recognise in them a great know ledge of human nature and of the heart. The above are only a few of innumerable anecdotes and disquisitions, all instructive or interesting. taron Haxthausen's book well deserves to be studied, for it conveys an extra ordinary amount of information in a very unpretending form. The engravings with which it is illustrated are singularly beautiful both in design and colouring. Modern German Musio. Recollections and Criticisms. By Henry F. Chorley. London : Smith, Elder, and Co. NOTWITHSTANDING that the title of this book refers to musk alone, so considerable a por tion of it is devoted to an account of the author's tours in Germany that the work, in point of fact, presents a double aspect to the reviewer, as illustrating not only the modern music of Germany but also the peculiar pre judices of its inhabitants. With the last of these subjects we have no concern. The book comes under our notice as belonging to the literature of art; and it is our intention to try, impartially, whether it can exercise any influ ence which will prove of lasting benefit. We are satisfied that no one can rise from the perusal of the pages before us without feeling that the author is a man who has devoted much time and thought to the subject of which he treats, and who, in spite of a certain affected ob scurity of style and coinage of strange words, has pretensions of no ordinary kind to literary distinction. These qualifications, added to the undoubted honesty of purpose and enthu siasm for his favourite studies which he possesses, ought to render him a rare phenomenon in these days, a good critic in art. We say a rare phenomenon, because it is the misfortune of our time that all criticism upon art flowing out of the recognised channels is practically useless. Nothing, for instance, can be more deplorable than the pre sent state of criticism on painting and architecture. Sublime, indeed, are the dis coveries of modern days, so much so that they closely approximate to the ridiculous. It is no uncommon thing to hear that the Greek sculptors were wanting in dignity ; that Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Titian are vastly overrated ; that Domenichino (vide Mr. Choi.• ley) has second-rate expression and borrowed fancies (we wonder whether Mr. Chorley ever saw certain frescoes at Rome, " Grotta Fer rata," by said Domenichino) ; and, to crown all, the author of " Modern Painters," after wasting his eloquence and ingenuity to prove the bad taste and demolish the merits of the great architects of the sixteenth century, whose works, by his own confession, he has neither seen nor studied, has lately infortned us that Mr. Hunt's caricature of Christ with a lantern, now on view in Trafalgar-square, is one o . f . the "noblest works of sacred art ever painted.. The primary cause of this evil, in our opinion, 15 the smattering of knowledge which pervades all classes, and which renders the taste of the