The Press. — London, England, 1855-07-21 00:00:00

JULY 21, 1855. beginning at the glacis of the fortress, terminates in a two story martello tower, about eighty feet in diameter. The probable object of fortifying this inland city is to establish a good place of assembly for troops and reserves, in event of any disturbance among the military colonies, or from the side of Gallicia. Kiew is the seat of govern- Inent of the province of " Little Russia," and is always provided with a large garrison. The navigation of the Dnieper down to Kherson, and from thence to the Black Sea, is practicable. While at Kiew, the late Emperor Nicholas arrived, on a tour through the pro vinces, and, after having been duly presented, Lord De Ros was invited by his Majesty to attend a review of forty thousand infantry, ten thousand cavalry, and one hundred and thirty guns:— It was a magnificent spectacle. The Emperor's manner in giving °friers and in speaking to his principal officers appeared to me extremely suited to his own posi tion, and such as to insure attention and respect, without assumed pomp or haughtiness. He was very clear and short in his explanations of what was to be dune, and quick at perceiving and remedying mistakes. Every message was repeated by the officer charged with it before he started, and was immediately afterwards written in pencil on a card by a staff officer, and forwarded by an orderly sergeant, so that any accident to the officer (if before the enemy) would not cause much delay, as the duplicate in writing always followed the verbal order within one or two minutes. A Circassian trumpeter, in a splendid national dress, accompanied the Emperor, and gave the few signal sounds occasionally used in the loudest and clearest tones I ever heard produced by a trumpet. _ • • * • • • The Emperor talked to me a good deal about the troops. I admired one squadron extremely as it passed, upon which he said " bites a mon ami Lord Palmerston que j'ai troll' cents parells." - - A slight trait of the military system of Rus sia is given here in the description of the cavalry colonies which are formed in Southern Russia:— They are on a different footing from those attempted for the infantry near Petersburg, nor do they resemble the military colonies of the Austrians, because in the Russian cavalry colonies the soldier actually serving has no con• cern with the agriculture of the colony, but is simply quartered upon the peasantry. The peasantry of the colonies are exempt from every taxation, and their eldest sons are free from military con scription, but their younger sons are liable, not to general service, but to whatever extent of conscription is requisite for keeping up to its establishment the regiment of their own district. Boys of low stature, or other unfitness for the ranks, are not on this plea exempted, but are taught trades, and attached to the troops as artisans. It must be observed that this regimental conscription does not remove the peasantry from their homes and families, except when those actually in the ranks march on foreign service, those who are artisans remaining and exercising their usual trades and occupations. From the intermarriage of the original soldier with the peasantry, a large proportion of the soldiers at present quartered on the peasants are their own brothers•in-law, or relations who have been recruited into the corps; and in the next generation the military will be all the sons and kinsmen of the peasantry upon whom they are quartered. Each regiment has a stud, which must at first have been very curtly, but the object seems to have been fully answered, and they are supplied with horses of a superior description, and of a hardy nature from being suffered to run almost wild upon the steppe till nearly of sufficient age for service. To prevent any danger of want of corn or forage, there is now always a provision in hand for two years. The conscription falls annually lighter by the in crease of the population, which has quite stopped those discontents which arose at first, and there is every reason to conclude that the cavalry colonies have proved a success ful measure. The troops are in very fine order, the horses large, strong, and active, and their equipment, rather serviceable than showy, is of a capital description. There mustered at each colony about nine thousand effec tives, in all twenty-seven thousand heavy cavalry, a prodigious force. Speaking of the regimental schools, Lord De Ros remarks the peculiar aptitude for acquiring whatever is taught theM, either theoretically or practically, as a distinct fea ture of the Russian peasantry. In another place, mentioning Madame Woronzow's superb mansion at Aloupka, he tells us that the cutting of the stone was executed by native masons, under the instruction of some of Blore's foremen sent from London, and that they were in astonishment at the readiness with which the Russian workmen acquired what they wished to learn. In the present war the Russians have at least proved that in the de fensive art of warfare they not only rapidly acquired all that the art could teach, but, like the fable of the boy at chess, they have already taught their teachers more than one important leMon. We have extracted all that possesses any in t crest or novelty in the book, and must con• THE PRESS. dude by merely stating, that, after a hasty cruise round the south coast of the Crimea, a visit to Kertch, and a return to Sebastopol, Lord De Boa once more started for Odessa, and from thence, by Yassy and Silistria, passed through Bucharest to the Austrian frontier, Vienna, and home. Woman in the Nineteenth Century. fly Mar- garet Fuller Ossoli. London : Triibner and Co. Tins is a work in which the Countess Osso li " goes in" for the rights of woman with a strong-mindedness worthy of her country. There is, to be sure, little that is new and less that is true in her 'remarks ; but the danger of a bad theory is not alway s in proportion to the ability with which it is urged ; and it strikes us that the sooner we have some resolute ex posure of the absurdities of this one the better. If we do not wish to see our house holds gradually penetrated with a taste for public life, and our wives and maidservants invading the platform, or haranguing their op. pressed sisters from the inverted washing-tub; if we would not have them come to regard marriage as a yoke imposed by their tyrants, and rob even vice itselfof the little grace which is left to it; if this ugly-looking millennium be a consummation we care to avert, sure we are that some serious castigation must at once be administered to its apostles. They themselves would doubtless reject with scorn any foolish indulgence to their sex, but as we are still in bondage to our old-world notions of decorum we recommend nothing stronger than the pen As long as this movement confined itself within the limits of pink trousers, short skirts, and large straw hats, to laugh at it was enough ; but a grave countess and a smirking barmaid are mighty different things. When the former gets into her " altitudes " she is a troublesome customer indeed, and taxes all our knowledge of the English language to sustain us in bearing her company. Such passages, however, are less objectionable than those iu which she condescends to be intelli gible, and to inform us that women must no longer be given in marriage, hut must give themselves, and extend, we sups ose, the pri vilege of leap-year through the entire cycle ; That they must not shrink from knowing all that men know, and that if they occasionally trip in the pursuit of this desirable lore they are but martyrs in the cause of truth. We subjoin a few extracts, in order that our readers may judge for themselves of the style in which these views are propagated : Mary Wolstencroft, like Madame Dudevant (commonly known as George Sand) in our day, waa a woman whose existence better proved the necessity of some new inter pretation of woman's rights than anything she wrote. Such beings as these, rich in genius, of most tender sympathies, capable of high virtue and a chastened harmony, ought not to find themselves by birth in a place so narrow that in breaking bonds they become outlaws. Again : But as to the transgressions against custom which have caused such outcry against those of noble intention, it may be observed that the resolve of Eloise to be only the mistress of Abelard was that of one who saw in practice around her the oontract of marriage made the seal of de gradation. Shelley feared not to be fettered, unless so to be was to be false. Wherever abuses are seen the timid will suffer, the bold will protest. But society has a right to outlaw the m till she has revised her law ; and this she must be tau ght to do by one who speaks with authority, not in angel • or haste. As to who this coming woman may be the Countess gives us no information. We pro ceed to our third specimen : It is the tendency now to endeavour to help the erring by showim ; them the physical law. This is wise and ex cellent ; but forget not the better half. Cold bathing and exercise w ill not suffice to keep a lite pure without an in ward baptism and noble exhilarating employment for the thout;bte and passions. We moy cry out against certain newspaper advertisements, but the innate grossness of mind tvhich has gone to the composition of this last passage is such as no pomp of lan guage can disguise ; and we appeal to the English public whether all three do not hetok en such an utter laxity of principle as shoul d exclude the volume from every decent house in the kingdom. On r authoress's view of woman in the antis nt world is a very favorable one. Were she ;lot so very strongminded, we might, per haps, on the prhiciple that ignoranie is bliss, refrain from enlightening her as to the classic idea of feminity. She speaks with raptures of Iphigenia and Antigone. Yet both were ac tuated by the honest womanly ambition of marriage and children, and the performance of household duties for the men of their choice. The speech of Antigone to Creon is much more like the simple pleading of Jeannie Deans than of any such transcen dental heroine as Madame ()atoll or her Mend Miranda would imagine. Iphigenia, again, of all the characters to be found itt Grecian literature, one of the most elegant, tender, and loveable—the light of her father's eyes as she sung to him at the banquet, the gloty of her mother as she led the dance and looked more than worthy of her royal lover. That little touch of nature which /Bodging has in troduced is worth a thousand dissertations; and if the Countess wishes to see a perfect picture of the character and the sacrifice ,of Iphigenia we recommend to her perusal the beautiful Latin ode of Dr. Wordsworth. An age, indeed, which has produced Mrs. Chisholm, Miss Nightingale, and Miss Sellon, need not turn to antiquity for its heroihes, even did the latter in any way support Madame Ossoli's theory. But the joyous and graceful revellers who poured the libation to Lentrus, or hung garlands on the altars of Paphos, had little in common with her repul sive ideals. The ju dgment of Paris was the judgment of all Greece ; nor did her poets attante the woes that followed it nearly so much to the guilt of Helen as to the invete rate wrath of the gods inclementia Divum Hos evertit open, eternitque a culmine Trojam. Horice *rites much to the same purpose, and whatever is wanting to complete our apprehen sion of the classic view is supplied by Hofiifr. In the " Odyssey" we have Helen restored to her former position—bright, beautifill, and queenly—unconscious of the slightest degra dation, and receiving the guests of Menelaus with the dignity of an unblemished matron. The injured but forgiving husband is per fectly satisfied : his wifu, it is true, ran away for a season; but has she not come back? There she is—ad mensam et thorum—and what more can he want? The idea of her spiritual pollution does not seem to enter his head ; he has recovered her person, and all is well. Sp much of Greece with its elevation and purity ! and if Madame Ossoli is not satisfied with this let her turn to her favorite Euripides, and read, what, in spite of her schooling we dare not transcribe, the famous speech of Jason to Medea. What is good in the book—and we do not assert that it is wholly bad or false—is still tainted by the same coarseness. dish may not be unwholesome, but the odour is abominable. This may be the fastidiousness of weakness; but if we are intellectual invalids we must not have our calve's-foot jelly flavoured with a red herring. The advice given to young ladies strongly reminds us of this kind of condiment. London ie termed a sty of sensuality." They are warned against acquiring a taste for " satyr society," like the nymphs and bacchanals, and so forth. Now, with all possible respect for con jugalfidelity and male purity, we take Madame Ossoli's remedy to be almost worse than the disease, and we make bold to offer some remarks of our own to the young ladies of England as a kind of corrective to the savoury advice accorded them from pp. 132-40 of this work. When a gentleman pays yon some attentions, do not let your first thought be—ls the man a satyr? When you are married let your highest claim on your husband's respect be your innocence, not your cunning. Be assured that your best safeguard is in that old European courtesy which the disciples of the new creed affect to despise. The throne on which you now sit is one based on Chris tianity and defended by chivalry. Fling away your crowns of flowers, unrobe yourselves of your graces, disband your soldiers, and retire to the cold summits of philosophy, if you will, but cease to expect that man will follow you the instincts of the heart are sure ; he will still sing the same song, laid *6O you in the same words ;