The Press. — London, England, 1856-06-07 00:00:00

JUNE 7, 1856. Nittraturt. Commentaries on the Productive Forces of Russia. By M. L. de Tegoborski. Vol 11. London : LODgMari.S. THE statesmen of Russia can possess little of that sagacity with which the world credits them if this work fails to open their eyes to important views. The facts collected by the author are irresistible. They show that the whole political system of the Emperor Nicho las was a great mistake, and that by keeping afoot an immense army, and by isolating his empire by extravagant commercial restrictions, he retarded that agricultural improvement, which is the first condition of Russian pro gress. To give one instance. There is no surer test of the industrial prosperity of a people than their command of iron. A Go vernment which understood the true interests of its people would prize iron above gold, and would sooner think of imposing restrictions on the import of the latter than of the former. Iron is the true fertiliser of the earth. But because Russia possesses some iron mines— tliough much of the ore is of that finer sort which it is profitable to export—enormous ddties have been laid on the importation of iron by land, and by sea its importation is altogether prohibited. The consequences of this policy are notable. In England the e,onsumption of iron yearly for each person is 138 Russian lbs. ; in France, 43 lbs.; in Prus sia, 36 lbs.; in Austria, 12 lbs. ; and in Russia only 9lbs. The author writes : We find in the rural buildings of our western provinces wooden nails taking the place of iron nails; and even amongst easy if not wealthy proprietors, we find locks and bolts at park-gates. and garden-doors, and sometimes at farm-doors too, replaced by wooden latches, and hinges by osier rings by which the doors are hung upon the posts, whilst their richer brethren who use the metal grumble sadly at its price. Throughout a great part of the empire, farm-horses are without shoes, and farm-carts without tire ; axles are of wood; spades cf wood covered with a thin coating of iron, and in rainy districts the ploughshare itself is wood, with an iron point. A good test of the social condition of a people is their consumption of colonial pro duce. Russia is far behind other countries : PER HEAD, IN RUSSIAN LBS. Tea. Coffee. Sugar. 2.13 .. 1.40 .. 29 66 .. 0.014 .. 1.12 .. 9.50 .. 0.029 .. 10.45 .. 6.48 0.012 .. 3.53 .. 6.85 .. 0.001 .. 0.65 .. 2.84 .. 0.23 .. 0.14 .. 2.0 Great Britain] .. France . Belgium Zollverein Austria .. Russia .. As the Russian people are fonder of tea than even the English, and as it is the luxury they relish above all others, their limited consump tion of this article is a striking proof of their poverty Yet Russia possesses in abundance the elements of agricultural prosperity, the first condition of national wealth. The elaborate tables given here of the exports of Russia show where her strength really lies : Grain forms three•tentha of the total value of the exports, tallow an eighth, and flax more than ten per cent. Adding to these three articles oleaginous grains, hemp, wool, and building timber, we obtain for the seven a value of 77,387,000 roubles, or more than three-fourths of the whole exports. These exports of agricultural produce might be increased indefinitely. Russia cannot buy without selling. All commerce resolves itself into barter. Russia is as yet too poor, and too little ad vanced for manufactures, to flourish among her people. "We have never," says M. Tego boraki, " met with Russian manufactured " goods of any description at a price even " approaching to that of similar foreign arti " cies." He speaks constantly of the want of capital in Russia, and of the scarcity of mer chants. The reason is obvious. Manufactures for which the country is not yet prepared are forced, while the one great manufacture for which Russia is most favorably circumstanced —agricultural produce—has been overlooked. Can the statesmen of Russia fail to perceive that for the due evolvement of her immense resources Russia requires peace ? Not the peace of the last reign, with its immense army devouring the productive forces of the empire, but a reign of peace which shall give to the culture of the soil the labour of its suns, and shall relieve a most patient, ingenious, and orderly race from burdens which oppose THE PRESS. their progress. A noble career is open to the Emperor Alexander. Of all countries Russia has least need of a large standing army, as her territory is least exposed to invasion. We are only sorry that the Caucasus has been left unsettled to employ her arms. But for that temptation to hostility the Russian frontier on every side would have been defined, and her whole empire would have been at peace. We cannot praise too highly the industry of the author in collecting the immense mass of statistics contained in these volumes, his skill in arranging them, nor the perfect fairness with which he comments on them. His im partiality is equal to his diligence, and that is saying much. As far as figures can represent the productive forces of a nation, his work is perfect. His first volume on the agricultural produce of Russia showed her strength; this second on her manufactures exhibits her weak ness. A third is to follow on the institutions and administration of the Government. He exhibits great sagacity on industrial topics, but he has not yet quite cleared his mind of those absurd notions of political economists on the " balance of trade" which once confused and embarrassed commerce, though now happily exploded among us. If we are not much mistaken, the publication of such a work must be viewed as indicative of a large and most beneficial change in the policy of the Russian Government. L'Expedition de Crintie jusqu'd la Prise de Sebas topol. By the Baron de Bazaneourt. Paris: Amyot. . . . (Second Notice.) AFTER the battle of Inkermann, the generals in-chief called a grand council of all the gene rals and admirals, and the result of it was the postponement of the assault which had been fixed for the 6th November. In an extract from a private despatch of the Bth, General Canrobert is made to say that this postpone ment was rendered necessary in consequence of the Russians having received reinforce ments of at least 100,000 men (part of them from the Pruth, where they were supposed to be detained by the Austrians), who would be able to attack the allies in flank during the assault ; but Baron de Bazancourt throws the resnonsibility of it mainly on the English : The losses of Inkermann had, so to speak, stricken the English army to the heart. The battle of Balsklava, which preceded the battle of Inkermann by ten days, had already decapitated its cavalry. The two days were glori• cuts but fatal. Assuredly the losses of the Russians were greatly superior to those of the allied armies ; but was that a compensation? A footnote adds, on authority of Colonel Vico, the French officer attached to Lord Raglan, that at this date the English army consisted only of 18,500 bayonets, after deduct ing 2 580 killed or wounded at Inkermann. The author then describes the storm of 14th November, which did more damage to the allies than the Russian fire could do, and speaks of the means taken to relieve the suf ferings of the French by the incessant vigilance of the Emperor. Of the situation of the English we read : The English, alas ! were far from having the same welfare. The losses which they had sustained by the hurricane of the 14th, snd perhaps the want of foresight of their military administration, which was not so minutely and so regularly organised as ours, left them more exposed to the first and severest attacks of the winter. But the courage of this valiant army remained the same ; and we saw it every day, with profound sorrow, become weakened by maladies, and advance only slowly in the portion of the siege which was left to it. In consequence of the unfavorable state of atfairs the Emperor of the French sent his aide de camp, General de Montebello, to make a full investigation into and to report on them. The general thought that— The siege would cause delays which seemed to him in- evitable, and he expressed doubts as to the decisive results to be hoped for from the situation. He saw Lord Raglan, and made, but in vain, efforts to obtain from him his per- sonal opinion on events as regarded the present and the future. At that epoch of the year, however, with the un- expected hazards which might suddenly arise, it was diffi cult to foresee a certain solution. The French works, nevertheless, continued to advance ; and a page or two further on our author writes as follows, again " showing up " the unfortunate English : Our works of approach became developed, enlarged, and armed. The enemy's defences also accumulated, and his position became surrounded with works in earth and threatening cannon. The difficulties were great; but everything was hoped for from a forcible attack. Alma and Inkermann proved that we might count even on the impossible. " The assault ! the assault ! " was conse• quently the cry of every man—to combat was the hope of every heart. Gene►al Canrobert might say, as Marshal Saint Arnaud said at Varna, " Everybody wishes to march in advance, and J, who wish it more than anyone, do not show it !" Was the portion of the attacks which devolved on the English army terminated? NVere the batteries of our allies armed? Alas! In spite of their good will, in spite of all the efforts they made, they were still very far from the object they desired to attain. Sickness decimated them, and every day thinned the ranks of these troops, splendid (belles) in combat, but unaccustomed to the severe trials of privations, watchings, sufferings, an & labours by day and night. Moreover, their means of trans port were quite insufficient for so heavy a task ; their horses died by hundreds, and those that lived were scarcely of any utility. This forced delay which the precarious situation of the English caused in the execution of the projects of attack, rendered the situation every day more difficult. Our allies had been of great assistance to us by their vessels in the transport of our troops ; and in our turn we did all that we could to aid them by placing at their disposal for their sick all our spare bedding, mules, cart and bit horses. Unfortunately, our animals were also severely tried by mortality and by the fatigue of transports, which the sinking in of the soil rendered every day more painful. _ _ " I do everything I can to assist our valiant allies," wrote General Canrobert, in a despatch of the month of December. " They are far from being ready, though all our batteries only await the signal to open fir.!, This situation is painful, and even dangerous, if the enemy, ac quainted wi'h it, were to cover with projectiles our batteries which are constrained to silence." And he added Our approaches towards the town having been forcibly stopped, I have ordered the general of engineers to prolong them towards our left, parallel to the defences of the enemy ; and we have gained the bottom of Quaran tine Bay, of which we occupy the lazaretto on the south bank of the bay." .. _ _ _ Already we could foresee that, to complete the develop- ment of the plan of attack, the French, R ! , ose troops were more numerous, and whose means of transport were more considerable, would be constrained to take a portion of the attacks comps ised in tbe English lines. That was a grave question ; but the general•in-chief of the allied army, far from declaring frankly his impossibility of termi nating the portion of the siege left to him, gave no reply which could lead to a new decision, and thus allowed precious days to pass away. In a footnote to the preceding passage, wo read that the French officer attached to the English army, after reporting that the Eng lish were behindhand with their works, said : They have not, as we have, baggage•traina militarily organised. The resources which they have found in the country are, no doubt, of great use to them when commu nications are easy, but they are far from sufficing in bad weather for the transport of provisions alone. In another• note we read this extract from " a very interesting correspondence " The English army suffers more than we do, although it is entirely established in large tents, a certain number of which are provided with stoves. The service has hitherto been very painful for this arm), and its food is not pre pared like that of our soldiers, who make soup twice a day, and coffee even three times a day—steeping in the latter crushed biscuit, so as to make it of nutritive and comfort ing solidity. The English soldier does not much like coffee, and he has not the same admiration of soup as our troops ; and yet the stomach of the English soldier re quires to be more ♦igorously fed than that of our men. There results from all this a greater number of maladies than in our army, where the men are more ingenious. At the commencement of 1855 the situation of the allied armies is thus described : We (the French) were ready, armed and provided with ammunition. At a given signal all our 150 guns could thunder at once against the besieged town. Our acting effective was composed of 67,000 men. But what was the situation of our allies? " The Eng lish army," wrote the general in-chief, " maintains priva tions and sufferings which it is not in my power to pre vent; its effective becomes so diminished, its cart and riding horses are so weakened, and the number of them is so reduced, that it has a good deal of trouble to take even food up to its camp ; it cannot, then, even by means of the co-operation we are so happy to afford it, arm its batteries as they ought to te, in order to act efficaciously in concert with our army." Meanwhile, the anxiety as to the state of the tam) , and the result of its attack on Sebas topol was very great in France, and demand after demand reached General Canrobort, both from the Emperor and the Minister of War, as to what he meant to do. He stated in reply that his object was the capture of Sebastopol, and that it was impossible to leave the place for several reasons, one of which was that " the English were not in a condition "to do anything, and that the French could " not and ought not to separate from them." General Niel, the celebrated engineer offi cer, was sent out by the Emperor, and he was