The National Register. — London, England, 1817-10-06 00:00:00

MI 7 . . . * ' . •. „, . ... . ..-- • . - • • • -r: ' • ... • * .. . . . , • . ' .. • , . . • ........... ( # 2 , 11 . , li., anonat Lib ftsiottr4. • lit araaniashommams____ Our fling, Con4titutf4anu ittitml. No. 504.--Yor... X. MONDAY, OC'IOBEA t it 17... • Paws 944. * - ---___--~.-. I'OLITICAL DISQUISITION. has now arrayed Russia against wan s ins4101:1 ram nell, from varioiwources of infomation,that the mews ..-.......-. formidable attitude, than ever Boons:Pete wood if we rate of marching of an army is, under ordinary circum- stances, not:qurte 14 miles per day; but allowing it to ON THE PLANS FOR THE INVASION OF INDIA. were to believe him, we hold dominion 14.464. guarter ••. ..., be full that number, and that the army halted one day entirely at the will of Alexander. It has . • in five, the usual practice with the Russians, it will re- It is well known, that the invasion of the British . scrvcdby an able writer of the present flay . ._ quire at least 90 days, instead of 46, to retell, posswions in India was long a favourite scheme with are, and always will be, certain Perturb's& eieitlis, so the Indus. This is not mere conjecture ; fort Buonaparte. When he reached Grand Cairo, after utterly unfitted for a state of trangslility, that their fe- l uckil y , in iim the n present b eside, we have upon rn• landing in Egypt, he dispatched letters to Tippoo Sul- yen lab imaginations are perpetuallt hatching some ob- s li t, d to It y fi on ve e nc o e t the in faun, with whom hit had bees carrying on secret flop- in its march from 18 a 1 o 6 mi u wank jest of uneasines, and alarm. That object, for the of nations, infix:fling hint of the event, and telling him 1000 British miles , which amounted ' to 9 5 day.i, that he would shortly arrive with a powerfu l arm y , present moment, is Russia.. By the powerful aid of a and this through friendly states, where every possible sort - of second-sight they actually "be d the Russian facility was aftOrded to the troops, where ttte countrioa to co-operate with him in driving his enemies , the ti•-...1:0. "... •"C I ...U. eagle on the wing for the eastern . phere. There were intersected b y re g ular roads, and the ardour and .• _ . ______ __ l _ l _,_ enthusiasm of the men so great, as to 4.--npel their. 1 11 anlour and 4... A pd their . officers frequently to halt them, to prevent mrious evils to the corps at large. Suc h then, sr' the erroneous data upon which this digested plan of Buonapartes is given. If it renlly was found where the Morning Chronicle says it was, (which we greatly doubt,) unit . was known to Sir Robert Wilson, that officer must , have seen at the first glance, that it was utterly unde serving of attention ; hitadvocate, however, the Turn. ing Chronicle, thought otherwise, and pr oduced it at once as a proof of the oeetiracy of his statement ; sod sr allowing the facility of such a march. The Morning Chronicle has song been celebrated for its geographical knowledge, and the production of this document, ilia add to that celebrity.—But to have done with this plan :—lf time were all that is required to ensure tbn safe arrival of say army by land on the frontiers of In. , dia, it would matter little whether it were 90, or 200 days, considering the mighty object in view ; but na ture has interposed obst ac which no army, however brave, however patient of fatigue and privation can sur mount. Mr. Elphinstor, in his account of Caubul, or Afghanistan, describes the routes of the caravans from Caubul to Cardsharp as not more than eight or ten miles a day ; the roads leading through close defiles, narrow and stony valleys, among bare mountains, or in the beds of torrents, which, in the wet season, descend [ and sweep every thing before them • over craggy ! passes, and across waste plains, in whic h there is either no water, or such only as is salt, and totally unfit for use. To all the natural ohstaeles is to he added the still greater one of the population, hardy ant} Incittpen dent mountaineers, whose trade is plunder, and whose desultory attacks would harms, and break down any army long ere it could gain the Indus; and if it were even to gain that point, what would be its pros pects ; with enemies still on every side, destitute it artillery, (fur it is folly to suppose fir a moment that this arm could be transported,) plundered of its bag gages and a thousand miles from its magazines ; there le still before it, a march of many hundred miles, ere it can reach the frontier of the British possessions ? Another evil to be encountered, is the monsoon ; let the period of its departure be what it may, it must somewhere in its course be overtaken by this change in the season. We shall not extend our ober maims farther upon this subject: but leave our readers to form their own opinions on what arc likely to he the results of any attempt on our Indian territo ries, while the power of Great Britain remains un shaken at home. We entertain too high an opinion of the wisdom of the Emperor of Russia, to suppose that he will ever embark in so wild a scheme ; " could we, however, imagine past experience so thrown away upon the autocrat of all the Russias, that he was F Ar weak enough to desire to add to the tenth part of th • habit able globe, which he already 'assesses, a few more square leagues of wastes and deserts, we should re oinninend - him to beware of entering the into Persia, where every man is armed with a sword and a dagger let the present king of that country tiillow the plan which his uncle, Aga Mahomed Khan had intemhsl to act upon against the Russians, and he has nothing to fear. ' Their shot,' said this experienced leader, ' shall never reach me ; but they shall possess no country be yond its range ; they shall not know sleep ; and let them march where they c hoose, I will surround them with a desert.' As little is there to apprehend for the safety of India front the whole power of Russia, though the wonderfill discovery Inks been loathc of a few fur merchants passing the deserts to 13oklitra, to I exchange their skins, hardware an d woollens, for hones, 1 .fea shts 4t w a ls , , tr a a nd silk yel in‘s s i ; nt b or tit e fir the essa ke, i ,f t . ratl tize trs i • teri , i s t no is w oo f n ; ~heinselves and their cattle, atsl to avoid, the hurr:ag sands of summer, destitute of water—sat:alb-at ems couragetuust for a Russian army I" . eastern• phere. was nothing very preposterous in l 47aricature which represented Catherine with one foot on Saint Sophy, and the other on the Kremlin : but the speculation of the present day is not confined to Turkey—Persia, and Caubul, and Hindostan, and China, with its immense Tartarian provinces, are now the objects of Russian ambition ; and we are actually presented with the gi gantic and amusing portrait of the modern Alexander, perched with one foot on the minarets of Teheraun, and the other on the battlements of Delhi." It is reilly surprising to see such a man as Sir Robert Wilson, who must be well acquainted with every thing relating to the march of stabies., with the obstacles, the delays, the wear and tear wltish take place in all its departments, even under the most favourable cir cumstances, thus indulging in speculations utterly des titute of all probability. Without denying the extent', of the power of Russia, we are bold to affirm, that she is unequal to a successful invasion of India, from an y point of her empire ; she is unequal to it by way ofl the Persian Gulph, and must continue so, while Great Britain maintains a naval superiority ; to attempt it by way of Persia, and A fghanister. wit id be a fruitless sacrifice of men and treasure. And here it may be necessary to notice the artielt,bich appeared in the bforning Chronicle, on this infijUgi% and to Which we adverted in our last number ;---fliat paper is, as was to be expected, the strenuous defender of all that is ad vanced by Sir Robert Wilsen ; Orr this purpose it pub lished the article in question; ft wits thus: "A plan of the praje:tal expedition t' India as digested by Bunnaparte, was found in the portfolio of the Minister ' of War, at Paris. This paper „rue no doubt howls to the author of the " Sketch of the power of Russia," though he does not give it, but• it serves to prose the etc curney if his statement as to' the facility of such a march. The following, is a literal translation."— This plan is briefly as follows :—Russia, Austria, and France, to cooperate the army to consist of 70,000 men, of which Q 5,000 infantry and 10,000 Cossacs are to be furnished by Stasi*, and to collect at Astra can, to sail down the Caspian sea, to Astruhad, there to await the French tinny of 55,000 men, which is to proceed thither down the Danube, through the Euxine tualtaca of Asoph to Taganroc, and thence to Csaritzion on the Volga ; to descend this river to Astracan, em bark there on the Caspian sea, and proceed to join the Russians at Astrabuti, whictileity is to be the " seat of the magazines of military stores and provisions, and the central point of the lines of conmenication between Hindostan, France, and Russia ! On wriehing Astnt bad the army to set out immediately on its march by the cities of Herat, Fersh, and Candahar, fin the right batik of the Indus." Next follows the number of days in which the march is to be effected, including the passage down the Danube, making in the whole 119 days!—bat as there is a blunder of no less than 20, for 2, in the route from Tagunroc to Piatzi-Ishianca, (the whole distance from the flintier place to Czaritx in it self being o n ly about 280 British miles,) the entire time to be consumed will thus only amount to 101 days !—Let us now examine A little this digested plan : ,ye will for the sake of argument suppose, that the French continent machos Astraltad in sfi days (which, by the bye, is to admit an impossibility), there will A wn rema in }5 days, as given in the plan, for the march thence to the Indus. To whatever paint on that river this nurch is directed, the di.tailee is more than 1000 British tulles : it ha beat shown by Rem. English, out of India. Hadthe character of Buonapartcbeen as fully develop ed at that time as it now is—the unaboting persever ance with which he laboured to accomplish every plan, when once conceived, and his utter contempt of the waste of men in all his military expeditions, it is pro bable that his avowed project of penetrating to India by the way of Egypt would have been deemed less chi. leeriest in this country than is was then considered.— Ihdeed, if we look to the situation of India at that pe riod, t:tere was really more to be apprehended than ma ny persons were aware of Tippoo, whose power was fax from contemptible, had given in completely to the schemes of his new ally ; he also formed the centre around which the disaffixted states in India collected in every pi eject against the • nglish ; Scindiah was in arms, and a large force of well di>•ciplined troops, under a Frenchman named Perron, and officered by Europese,. was ready to eo-operate in the invasion of the British possessions : in addition to these advantages, France held the Mauritius, between which and the ports in the Red Sea, a constant traflick was kept up by the native vessels of the latter; had any considerable por- Coo, therefore, of the troops in Egypt effectod a junc tion with those of Tippou or of Perron, headed by Duo naparte, the consequences would probably have been of a serious nature. But the promptitude and the energy of the Governor of India, and the valour of its army, destroyed this powerful combination; the fite of Tippoo is known to all ; and, instead of advancing to the shores of the Red Sea, or the Perilan Gulph, Bannaparte was glad to escape from his broken army, and from Egypt, to usurp the government of France, Ssill, however, India was an object of attention with Lim, and whoa he succeeded in waking pease with the Emperor of Russia, (Paul,) a joint expedition to that country by French and Russian li)r..es. firmed one of the secret ' articles of that treaty ; and there is little room to doubt, that if this capricious autocret had lived much longer than he did, the expedition would actually have set out ; but his death again disappointed Buonaparte in his scheme. His next attempt was on the side of Per sia, whither he dispatched an embassy, consisting of General Gard.nnec, and other military and scientific men, whose secret instructions were to report upon the state of that country, and to collect every possible in formation respecting the different r o •.tes thence, by the way of Caubul, to India, and how far they were likely to admit of an army penetrating thither iu that direction. The real nature adds embassy having been pointed out to the King of Persia, by the English Envoy, Gardanne and his suite were Maantly sent out of die country ; but it is generally believed, that what little information they did obtain Avas considered as every way unfavourable to the march of an army by that route to the Wits. Thus foiled a third time, Bnonaparte, w:eording to the writer of the " Sketch of the Military Power of Russia," Are. hit upon ono titer pla's, which was, to compel the Emperor of Rus sia, in ease he had succeeded in foreina him to treat fur peace, to unite in an expedition to India, by way of the Persian Gulf lint Bnonaparte failed in his in vasion of Russia, and in that titih u •e all his other pro. jets were at as en:l ; ant so however, the danger of invasion of our Indian mitre. Sir Robert Wilson , l i 1 , } 1 R ; 1 [ , i :re , e its ~ i , ‘ ' r , , - I ;.* 1 t * ' ^ i . 4 V 1 1 i i 1 f; 1 AAA- . , . . ir . '., ibr sTs • .+ , . . ' A 1 . . 1 I', ,'. ' • •-• I . -....-. .. •