The Press. — London, England, 1855-07-28 00:00:00

718 All the other elements of prosperity occupy but a secondary rank, and can play but a more or less subordi nate part iu the mechanism of her productive forces. We are far from sharing the errors of those economists who will concede a real value only to the productions of the soil, and consider as merely fictitious those values which pro. ceed from industry, and are created by the transformation of these same products into others more suitable for the various wants and usages of civilised society. On the contrary, we are fully persuaded of the high importance of industry, not only in regard to national wealth taken as a whole, but in regard to the influence which it directly exerts upon agriculture itself, the nursing mother of the nations: but we are of opinion, that, on a superficial estimate of the public wealth, there are prevailing errors in the degree of importance attributed to the re spective brances of social economy. Such error ia natural enough. The infinite variety of industrial products, the unheard-of progress which industry has made within the lest halfceutury, the tribute so largely paid to it by the exact and natural sciences, the ingenious inventions which augment its productive forces, the wonderful mechanisms by means of which it has rendered tributary the physical forces of nature to spare the labour of man,—all these pro digies are apt at once to strike the intellect and the imagi nation, whilst agriculture, more simple and uniform in its gait and procedure, is much less susceptible of exciting similar admiration. When, however, industry is stripped of its brilliant prestige, and we descend to the reality of facts, we perceive that the plough, after all, in its modest guise, plays the principal partin the creation of values, even in countries the most commercial and industrial. Of this England furnishes a notable example. Of all nations England is without dispute the most industrial and the most mercantile—the weaving factory of the universe—the commercial centre of all the ends of the earth : it is notorious that her trade and her industry form the main basis of her power; and yet it appears from her income•tax returns that the net revenue of all the industry, of all the coine merce, and of all the personal capital of the country, does not come up to two•thirds of the net revenue derived from agriculture alone. From this single fact we may infer the degree of preeminence that ought to be attributed to the agricultural element of national wealth iu a country like Russia. But England and Russia are hardly parallel countries—climate and the proportion of popu lation to the soil being alike widely distinct. Concerning that system of serfage to which eco nomists hare hitherto generally attributed the little care bestowed upon the cultivation of the soil, M. Tegoborski tells us that we— Are very apt to fall into error with regard to the ideas which the Russian peasant attaches to his serfage and state of dependence : the feeling of indifference about his possession is very far indeed from being so marked as many persons are disposed to believe ; everybody that has come into frequent contact with our peasants must have had occasion to perceive that, though they, no doubt, con sider themselves as the property of their masters, yet each of them at the same time regards the land laboured for himself as his own, or rather as part and parcel of the pro perty of the community which has fallen to his own share by right ; he therefore cannot be indifferent to its culture on the ground of its not being his own. To judge correctly of the degree of in fluence which serf - labour exercises upon agricultural economy, we must, of course, consider the relative numbers of free peasants and serfs who till the land. These classes are returned at nearly twelve millions each; so that, perhaps, in the imperfect system of agriculture, too much is attributed to the effect of serf labour, and not sufficient to local causes, want of capital, and insecurity of possession, arising from defective survey, and the want of a precise determination of the boun daries of estates. Upon the question of serfdom the author, on the whole, is opposed to any but the most gradual conversion of the eorvie into a money rent : However defective the corree system may he in itself, in a general agricultural pointof view, it is for the moment, for a great part of Russia, a necessity of our agricultural position ; for, first, the amount of disposable capital re quisite to be invested in agriculture in order to establish a rational system of culture in conjunction with paid labour, does not exist in proportion to the immense extent of the arable lands; secondly, in many districts, the value of the products of the land would not afford a sufficient return to cover the working expenses ; thirdly, in those provinces which are little favored in regard to commerce and indus try, and where money circulation is trifling, it is much easier for the peasant to discharge his quit-rent in the shape of labour, than to pay any rent whatever in the shape of money. It would be imprudent, he says, further on, to lay rash hands upon an order of things so identified with local traditions and with the wants and habits of the peasantry. Upon the various branches of industry, the manufacture of beet-root sugar, the distillation of brandy, the brewing of beer, and the linen manufacture, M. Tegoborski offers the fullest information. With regard to the latter im ')ranch of trade, he admits that it very precarious condition, from the consumption of cotton goods. THE PRESS. Upon the whole, want of capital appears to be the great present want of Russia. Whether she possesses resources sufficient within her self to dispense with her trade by sea, this war will prove. The tenor of M. Tegoborski's conclusions is, that she cannot do so and advance ; if her trade is ruined she must re trograde, or at best remain stationary. Few can watch the gradual and progressive development of so vast an empire as Russia, without feeling an inward fear that she is yet destined, despite every obstacle, every mis fortune, every trial, which is inflicted upon her, to mightily influence the future fate and fortunes of the world. But three centuries ago possessing only an insignificant patch of country in the environs of Moscow, of about fifty square miles, she has in the inter val, with singular concentration of energy and resource, joined to the instinctive intelligence of her people, conquered so'vast an extent of country from the Pole to the tropics, as may well make us dread the full development of her prodigious resources. With a people re • markably united in faith,combining in a singular degree the adaptative mind of Asiatics with the intelligence of Europeans—patient, skilful, and industrious—they are gradually emerging from barbarism, profiting by the inventions and discoveries of the civilised world, and having but one aim—a determination to succeed in spite of every obstacle ; but one end— the conquest of the world. The translator, in this his first volume, ap pears to us to have been completely successful in his undertaking, and we hope that the con cluding volume may not be far behind, for the work is the most valuable, the most instruc tive, and the most important which has ever been published upon Russia. It is a book in every way worth studying: its tone is un prejudiced, its details minute, its results simple, and its range of observation vast and comprehensive. These merits are suffi cient to claim for it the position of a leading authority upon the subject. My Travels ; or, me Unsentimental Journey through France, ,Switzerland, and Italy. By Captain Chamier, R.N. Three vole. London : Hurst and Blackett. CAPTAIN CHAMIER'S design, at the commence ment of this book, seems to have been to give to his " Travels" an air of originality and character. So much is indicated by the title, an " Unsentimental Journey," in contrast with the sentimental journey of Sterne. The opening pages are something in the style of Hood's "Up the Rhine." A most whimsical account is given of the preparations made for the journey by the ladies of the writer's family, and of the advice pressed on them by their female friends. Thus the buxom lady of the unsentimental traveller is told by one friend : I should think that you are just the person most likely to be attacked by mosquitoes and Neapolitan sand flies. I once had both arms iu slings for a month, from the bites of these vermin ; my face was so swollen from the venom, that I could not see for a fortnight ; as to sleeping, if y ou have not musquitoe curtains, you might as well expect to doze surroun led by Red Indians, who were singing their grace before they began to eat you. Tarantulas are common. I have found scorpions in my shoes, and once discovered a centipede in my glove. It is altogether a horrible place ; very dear, and very dirty ; and I can fancy your regret at leaving your beautiful apartment in Paris, surrounded by every luxury, with everything at your command, when you ere forced to sleep in beds badly aired, always full of bugs, and never free from other anoyances. Another counsellor was not more exhilarat ing:— " Mind you take," said another rather sickly-looking old maid, " plenty of biscuits, if you are going into Switzerland ; for if you are foolish enough to go sight-seeing in the moun tains, as most people do, merely to say hereafter that they have been, and to show a parcel of sticks with the names of different places burnt upon them, you may be starved — ay starved I know myself two skeletons dug out of the snow, and there was no doubt, I suppose, but that they died of sheer exhaustion ; mind also, my dear child (she was a great patroniser of everybody), to take a pair of linen sheets, two pillows, a homoeopathic case of medicine, a lancet, and a horse-shoe picker ; you must not expect to find any assistance from the natives." The various companion bags and cases taken by the ladies are, with their contents, enume rated with unctions humour; and, when the travellers are off, we are primed for laughter. The foundation is laid for a train of odd dilemthas and ridiculous perpletities, but the SATURDAY, design of the unsentimental journey is scarcely carried further than the foundation, and, with the exception of some touches of humour hero and there— from which no work by Captain Chamier could be free—this record of his tour is mainly distinguished by its shrewd sense, penetrating remarks, and a glow of poetic feeling, which imparts to natural scenery a colouring of beauty or sublimity, and tinges the ordinary incidents of travel with the hues of romance in a manner the very reverse of " unsentimental." Thus, in the very second chapter of the book, a pathetic story is told of the fortunes of an old soldier, who " sat on a " stone bench opposite the wonderful clock in " the Cathedral of Strasburg ;" and the whole route through Switzerland to Milan, Rome, and Naples, is marked by descriptive sketches of great force and clearness, though inter rupted at times by such exclamations as dis turbed the author when he caught his first view of the six glorious peaks of the Alpine chain : I was lost in rapture and amazement, and was in all the enjoyment which such a scene inspires, when I was dis turbed in my reverie by the heavy breathing of a man, better described as puffing and blowing. 1 turned round, and beheld the very type and figure of a railway contractor —he looked at me, and, putting his huge paw upon my shoulder, asked, in such a voice, " His them the Halps P Another tourist, Mr. Pincher—a type of un sentimentalists—thinks the Jungfrau is only " like a huge wedding-cake without its orna ments," and compares an avalanche to " a " profusion of dirt shot from a dustman's cart." The providence of the ladies before-mentioned does not seem to have been wholly without its reward. The " Sinking• Case " is the best title yet invented for one of those packages urgently recommended by outfitters to comfort loving tourists : The ladies in the chaise it portenr had the best of it, if they could only have believed so ; but as we toiled up the road, and the precipice below looked more appalling, fright began to require assurance. This was only to be done by means of the travelling-case, which contained sherry, brandy, cold fowl, bread, ttc. ; the case being one of those dirt-cheap purchases only costing five pounds, and which came flesh from the manufacturer to the vendor for half that sum. " What is the halt for?" inquired an officer who had gone through half the jungles of India. " I have such a sinking," replied one of the ladies, whose face was particularly wellshut out from all view, by means ofan ugly and a double blue veil. '• What's to be done for this sinking ?" " The travelling•case" ; she hesitated to pronounce the word " sherry." Now, in our suite was a French lady's. maid, who hearing the summons called out to her hus band, who bore this precious affair : " L'we, apportez le Sinking-Case." From that moment, all through Italy, over Alps and Apennines, en route or at home, this elegant toy went by the name of the " Sinking Case "—and it merited its appellation, for at every two hundred yards it sunk i►► value in regard to its contents. - - The readers of this book will be frequently reminded of the travelling sketches of Sir Francis Head, for Captain Chamier has great capacity for original observation, a dislike of mere conventional sight-seeing and routine, and a happy knack of indicating by minute touches the undercurrent of the life and condition of the cAintries he passes through. The heavy curse of Austrian oppression in Lombardy is represented with vivid reality in some little circumstances recorded by our author during his short stay at Milan. Re turning from La Scala to his hotel, he relates : I had a good opportunity of seeing bow they manage! some things at Milan : before me walked a man wel dressed, who picked his steps cautiously enough to avoid the wet, for it had rained hard. I was close to him, when, as sudden as thought, he was seized by both arms, before him were two armed men, in a second or two others rushed between me and the prisoner, and ha was walked off. No one took the trouble of saying a word, and the prisoner might as well have addressed the wind as his captors. T freshened my way, and got home as quickly as possible, think perhaps that, under such a state of siege, there was such a thing as " being out after hours." " The king has long arms," said Lord Bacon, in one of his state-trial speeches. The Austrian Government has not only lung arms but long ears. Its spies are everywhere, and the mili tary seem to take a pride in treating Milan as a conquered city, where Woe knows no limit save the victor's will. That amalgamation of races, interests, and feelings which sometimes takes place in van- quished States, and of which England after the Conquest presents the most memorable ex ample, it not likely to be ever witnessed in portant bi is in a v incriaas©d 11161116-.