The National Register. — London, England, 1814-12-04 00:00:00

■ THE NATIONAL REGISTER. Cur tang, Constitution, anti taboo. PVELISHED AT NO. 11, NEWCASTLE-STREET, STRAND. Nn. 357. SUNDAY, DECEMBER, 4, ISI4. Parc!: !Ji. PO L 171 CA L DIS'QUIS 17'10 N. EXPEDIENCY OF PRESCRIBING BOUNDS TO THE RUSSIAN•EMPIRE. Proposing to call the attention of our readers to this sti'lmt in a more detailed manner, we think we cannot commence it in a better way than by chewing the light in which that Power has at different times, and in different countries of Europe, been regarded. The progress which Prince Potemkin made in 1790 in the grand scheme of a Creek Empire ; the assistance Catherine derived from Austria and France ; the opposi tion she experienced from Great Britain, Sweden, Prussia, and Poland, as the Allies of the Porte, arc not to be for gotten. To develope these events more accurately, it is our intention to make extracts from a Ministerial Pamphlet of 1791, which briefly shows the diseased and ignorant state of il public opinion at that time. It is entitled, "An Inquiry into! the Justice and Eapediency of prescribing bounds to the Russian Empire," and was printed for Faulder, in Bond street. Iv no rti. instance, it contends ) can Russia essen tially bassist as. It ;4poses that we may be at war with the,. House of Bourbon, and triumphantly asks, " in what manner can she be of service to us " France," continues this alarmist, " and Spain still more so, are invulnerable to her attacks by land. The difficulty of marching an army of , sufficient effective force to so great a distance, and the yet greater difficulty to maintain and recruit it, seems to secure them from inva sion : but even if these obstacles, great as they are, could .be surmounted,it is not probable that Poland, emancipated as she is from a slavish dependence on the court of Peters- . bur,;h l lvould consent, or that the King of Prussia, and the intermediate Princes of the Geiman Empire, would permit a Russian army to traverse their respective territories, for the purpose of carrying war, desolation, and :disease, into two nations with whom many of them are in alliarce, or in amicable intercourse. All idea, therefore, of being able to divert a part of the enemy - 's force from hostile en terprises against this country, by rendt.iring it necessary to the defence of their frontiers, must be relinquished. We might as well apply to the NabOb Of Arcot for an army to march to the Rhine, as to the Empress of Rue,sia Va l VI. No CCCLVII. ': ^ ''e •••• as to her fleet, in the name of Heaven, what assistance could it give to the fleet of Britain ? Her navy consists of forty line of battle ships ; and, supposing her zeal would permit her to leave her own shores defenceless, by sending us the whole of her marine -force, it is not probable that we shuuld dc::ve much benefit from it." The author of this Pamphlet then proceeds with a firm denial of the alliance between Great Britain and Russia being to he considered as at all a natural one. In deed, he endeavours to contradict the existence of any those (so called) natural alliances, except, perhaps, in the instance of Sweden and Denmark ; and, in this case, such appears to be his horror of Russian aggran dizement, it merely arises from their vicinity to her. gg A spirit of conquest has .uniformly marked the con duct of Russia since Peter the First laid the foundation of that greatness which threatens to overwhelm us. A spirit of commercial enterprise has joined itself to that of conquest ; and nothing less than the full possession of Constantinople and the Black Sea, at least, will satisfy her inordinate ambition. In possession of the Euxine at one extremity of Europe, and of the Baltic at the other, her immense domains will encircle the fairest and best cultivated portion of the globe. Silo will embrace ; :.s :' were, all Europe ; not to caress and foster it with the tender and animating pressure of.affection, but to stifle and destroy it by the savage and remorseless hug of the bear- - the / hug of death ! Let the partisans for an alliance is ith Russia demonstrate, that this country„ has nothing to.ap prebend from the vast acquisition of territory to sshich she aspires; and then we will debate on the equity and propriety of prescribing' hounds to her empire. In the language of all nations, expediency is RIGHT ; and this lan guage will ever be held and maintained by those who have the means of enforcing it. The sole question to he considered is, how far it is consistent with the safety of the British Government to permit the Russians to extittguish the Turkish Emp:re, and establish their dominion on the Bos phorus. If it should appear, on examination, that the commerce and power of this country would be endangered by such en event, tho.expediency of preventing its taking place can no longer be disputed : and that it would be at tended with much mischief to our trade in general with :dal ,and absolute ruin in particular to the t r a de * e 1 . : ..; , ;t'/' •J • 41