The National Register. — London, England, 1809-09-17 00:00:00

NA , . foreign dependencies. Here it will be said, that we are capable - of coOderable efforts against enemies at a dis!ance, n account of our comparative swealth, and the assistance which we are therefore abli,in detail, to obtain from every guartpr of the globe, But we all remember, that America was once conquered in Gerniriny ! Our foreign possessions We so widely separated and detached, that they can neither Issist us, nor succour each other, when our enemies, no longer fighting us at arms length, grapple with us at home, sad confine us to our native resources. . , • -It is then we must depecid lipon.the proportional stamina of our population, opposed to the hiVes of military plun derers that Will swarm upon our coasts. But India has its sope.rato danger; she has certainly been weighed in the ba• &Neel of our enemy, and her fate is determined so far as the will of the two Emperors are able to determincit. We We no other solution of the conAuct of ALEXANDER, we have no other mode of accounting for that dereliction of old friendship and tried alliance; we cannot otherwise account for an old friend becoming the most implacable enemy, than by supposing that Buoxtr4aTE has offered to revive the an- tent division of the world into the Empires of the East and West, and that he has held out the plunder of . Turkey and Asia to the -cupidigous avarice-of - the Autocrat of all the Russian, We are -aware, that many very wise and 'intelli gent persons treat these schemes of devastation and plunder as visionary. But it is„ perhaps, for the very reason that grey appear to be visionary, that they actually cease to be sot for, at no period, is our enemy so completely master of success, as when his opponent does not expect to meet bim ; and he is never more likely to accomplish an object, than when his even attempting it, isconsidered as•impossi- Met The old routine of human affairs has given way to pae more alive. The secret has been discovered, of ob taining dominion by compromise and without war. BUONA• "aim has fascinated the Powers of Europe; either by specious promises, or real terrors, or by both ; so as to leave those nations, whom he would hunt down, jealous of the only power left who is capable of maintaining a conflict with him ; he is conquering in detail. The two EMperors are acting upon a deep plan, long concerted, and ?rofnundly secret. Military operations are rendered almost electrical by the improvement; of modern tactics, and the pervading genius of a subtle and comprehensive mind ? And shall we stand like gaping idiots, staggered by the very force of our danger, and, like children, cry out, is this possible ? Yes, It is possible; a part of it is, perhaps, at this moment act ing, and the danger approaching whilst we indulge in a post childish ineensibility. Russia has a population of between thirty and forty millions rapidly and progressively increasing: She is placed almost invulnerable in the NOrth fast porner of Europe. She has immense forces, and a peculiar strength in light troops fOr preserving large tracts Of country in awe and subjection. Religious prejudices *line all her soldiers Ufa contempt ofdtath, and a ferocious slispesition for plunder inclines them to the profession of arms. 'She !Ids increased in population, in wealth, in stivilization and discipline . , almost unobserved by the rest f Europe . Her territories skirt the whole No ' rth'er n frctntier of 'Asia, and since distance is nothing to Russians, phe is not witijost the means of attacking its rich Westere nk from North to South, at the same time that its Eastern uc, and even the rich Mines of Western America, arc pot 4:4ce‘gble. put what is of more iinportance, both to, , • 1 her and to us, she has rid* the means of invnding o u i Eastern possessions from A l e North—because since Austria is crippled, or kept in check by BVONAPARTE, she corn mand4 the navigation both of the Red Se and the Persian Gujph. _ _ The Russians have establishments formed in the quarter of the Black and Caspian Seas. Her share of Poland gave to her the entire corn countries of the Ukraine, and whole provinces of pasture and forest, together with the navi. gation of all the rivers East of the Danube. The obstacles, therefore, to the progress of her arms, from a barren frontier in Asia, and from a difficult country in Europe, are quite removed ; she is brought to the 'gates Of Con. stantinople, without a single fortress of any consideration intervening. This city, celebrated ,for so many ages,` is strong only to a maritime invader ; and politician, witho(it brains could alone have sent a fleet to vepour epposii4 , tq the gardens of the seraglio, instead of an army to disem bark in its neighbourhood, and attack it by land. • If the Russians once possess the capital, whlth we thin* easily attainable by the Russians, what is to prevent them from completing the conquest of Asia Minor Nill no; the Greek Christians, who swarm throughput the TUrkish dominions, assist to destroy and pull down the standard eir the Prophet ? This opens the road of the Russians ,tq India by the Persian Gulph. The ease with which a par. eel of Matnelukes may be expelled from Egypt, or may he bribed with the pillage of Turkey, to abandon it,,lenves no room to doubt of the practicability of a passage to India by the Red Sea.—For whatever may have been t,4e case with the ancients, Surely it will not be necessary to prove, that in the present day the engineers of Boox4eka.res army would find no difficulty to float a Russian army across thn Isthmus of Suer to 'the Indian Ocean. We have elreaq noticed the Black and Caspian seas , which, with die Southern Indian Rivers, will be no contemptible Whee l Asia has always been the seat of wide,'extensive, and rapid conquests, in which 114 Tartar and Persian cavalry were principal ingredients, tq which the light troops of Russia, assisted by the military tactics of Buospie.saTs. would form a more than adequate opposition. • What is there to oppose to this reasoning ? And OP more to the purpose, what . have we to Oppose to this progrese of the Russian armies to the East, whilst LivosArhare keeps their Southern frontiers free from apprehensions of any designs on the part of Austria, Prussia, or any other of the continental powers; for we find that he has; already began to assume the direction of Swedish politica as well as those of Denmark. What we ask is to be op. posed to this t The Russians abound with men, who are hardy and poor, these will fight against the South which is rich ; and feeble, and timid, as to its inhabitants. Our thief fortresses in India, lie to the maritime frontier, and inland we possess but ill-garrisoned fortresses, and puny stations to defend oppressive tax-gathered. To keep in Order More than twenty millions of people, and to de fend such an extent of country what force do we possess? An army of natives, half alienated by our wretched policy, and nlmost exasperated by our inattention to their preju dices, and perhaps still more weakened as to their allegiance by our religious attempts. • 4re there 'besides this uncertain force, IQQ,OOO Eu ropeans,' men, wotrien, and children included ? In addi tic`n to these considerations can we disguise from pure sclvet that the Aut9igiti can afford to void Any th.4.4i TH