The Press.
London, England, 1855-06-16 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

surrender, and employ ourselves in the consi-
deration of what should be our subsequent
operations. What ate we to do when we have
taken Sebastopol ? Are we to be content with
our laurels and return home? Or are we to
garrison the town, and leave the Russians in
undisturbed possession of the interior? Or
are we to incur the loss by disease as well as
by the sword which an expedition during the
summer season will produce, in order that we
may occupy the whole peninsula of the Crimea?
Or would it be hest to transfer our forces to
some more inviting scene of action ?
Such questions are important, and there is
no better way of forming a judgment upon
them than by consulting those who are ac-
quainted with the countries which form, or
are likely to become, the theatre of war.
Among the foremost of these authorities we
must place Mr. Oliphant, whose work on the
" Russian Shores of the Black Sea " is known
to most of Our readers. and who has published
in the pamphlet which heads this notice his
view of the course which ought to be taken.
Mr. Oliphant infringes too much upon the
province of the general in his conclusions on
points of military strategy, and in his asser-
tions respecting the practicability or imprac-
ticability of the country for military move-
ments, but his geographical knowledge is
valuable, and the view which he adopts is
original and worthy of attention.
There are three quarters from which Russia
has hitherto menaced Constantinople—viz., the
Danubian principalities, Sebastopol, and the
Caucasus. The danger from the principalities
seems to have passed away ; that from Sebas-
topol is diminishing; but that on the side of
Asia Minor remains as great as ever. If
peace were concluded to-morrow, and Russia
were at liberty to resume the development of
her resources, it is here that Turkey would be
most vulnerable ; and yet on no part of its
frontier could the Turkish empire find a
stronger natural barrier than the moun
tain chain of the Caucasus, which extends
from the Caspian to the Black Sea : it is almost
inaccessible to a hostile army, and is inhabited
by warlike tribes engaged for a quarter of a
century in continual hostilities with the Rus-
sians. But it has been rendered nugatory as
a defence of the Turkish territory by the con-
quest of Georgia and the occupation by the Rus-
sians of the long line of the eastern coast of the
Black Sea from the Straits of Yenikale to the Fort
of St. Nicholas. To reconquer these provinces,
and restore them to the Sultan, or erect them
into independent States, is the remedy which
Mr. Oliphant proposes
Sebastopol once taken, he thinks a campaign
in the Crimea unadvisable. Few countries, he
tells us, are so ill adapted for operations in the
field. The southern half is mountainous, and
is in the highest degree defensible. The road
along the coast is scarped for the most part
from overhanging precipices; and the only other
road, passing through Baktchi- Serai, Simfero-
pol, and Kara su•Basar, is most difficult of
access, full of gorges and narrow passes, and
capable of being disputed inch by inch. To
the north, flat grassy plains stretch away to the
Isthmus of Perekop and the shores of the
Putrid Sea, dry and parched in the summer
months. To holi the Crimea would require
strong fortifications at Perekop and Arabat :
The Isthmus of Perekop at its narrowest point is about
live miles broad, unapproachable by sea; by no means well
supplied with fresh water ; unhealthy in its climate, and
exposed to the full force of those keen northerly blasts from
which our army has already in a more sheltered situation
suffered so severely. The burning sun of summer, the
malaria of autumn, the snows of winter, and the stench
exhaled from the Putrid Sea, would render the camp at
Perekop a most disagreeable place of abode at all times ;
while a glance at the map will suffice to show that upon the
long narrow Isthmus of Arabat troops would be exposed to
still greater inconveniences. The forces at these two
points, however, must necessarily he enormous, as upon
them would be concentrited the whole strength of the
Russian army enjoying a free end uninterrupted comma•
nication with the interior.

Hence he forms the conclusion that it would
be better to content ourselves with garrisoning
Sebabtopol and Balaklava, and to tranFport a
portion of our forces to Asia Minor. Ai the
country between the mountains and the coast
of the 131ack Sea is only held by the Russian
forts, most of which are evacuated, there will
be no need of any campaign for its reduction.
Georgia is the prize at which he would aim.

578

Occupying Redout Kale and Poti as the basis
of operation, he would t►ansport the army for
sixty miles up the navigable stream of the
Rhion, and thence by a Russian road into
Georgia. With a friendly population and a
fertile territory, and with the communications
of the Russians and their reinforcements inter-
cepted, the conquest would be no difficult
task :

It would be impossible fur the Russians to concentrate
any very large force at one point, for they are compelled
to scatter their army, estimated at about WOW men, over
the country, in order to repress any outbreak on the part
of the native population, who are only watching for an
opportunity to give effectual assistance to the enemies of
their hated oppressors. This inconvenience was seriously
felt by them during last year's campaign against the Turks.
The allied forces, provided with a good commissariat, and
ample means of land transport, which a campaign in the
Crimea must equally involve, would have the additional
advantage here of a population more willing and able to
contribute supplies, and of a country far more fertile in its
resources, possessing a climate both milder in winter and
healthier in summer.
The consequences would be important.
Turkey would be protected, Persia relieved
from her present vassalage, our trade through
Trebizond secured, and Russia checked in bet
designs upon India. But nothing, Mr. Oli-
phant urges, is so necessary as territorial
deprivation :
But while the common object with which the war was
originally undertaken, viz., the protection of the Stillwell
dominions, may be thus in a great measure achieved, the
humiliation of Russia is also one in which the Western
powers are no less united; and this would certainly be
involved by that territorial deprivation which would be the
result of success in the expedition now proposed. In the
present state of our political relations upon the continent
of Europe, there is no portion of the Russian dominions
there of which she could be permanently shorn. Finland
is out of the question, because we have alienated the Fins,
by blockading their coasts and burning their villages.
Poland is not to be calculated upon, because we have
placed ourselves in antagonism to the revolutionary element
of Europe by attempting to conciliate its despots. Bess-
arable mast ever remain an oppressed province of Russia,
for its population is deficient in vitality. The Crimea
might be temporarily occupied, but to hope permanently
to annex to Turkey this distant peninsula, which is now
an integral portion of the Russian empire, would be as
absurd as to imagine that it could be organised into an
independent kingdom. But none of these objections
exist in the case of the provinces beyond the Caucasus. We
have not, as in Finland, given their inhabitants cause for
complaint, beyond manifesting an extreme want of interest
in their concerns. Nor have they, like the Poles, bat
tOttidence in us, for we have not been engaged for two
years in unsuccessful attempts to propitiate powers upon
their frontiers whose interests are directly opposed to
theirs. Their vital energies have not been crushed by a
long course of Muscovite oppression, or their hopes of
freedom almost extinguished, as in the leas favoured pro-
vince of Bessarabia. While comprising territory four
times in extent to that of the Taurio peninsula, containing
a population proportionately exceeding it in amount, and
formed, not of dejected Tartars, but of the moat hardy and
enterprising race in the world, with a frontier conterminous
with that of Turkey for three hundred miles—these pro-
vinces are in a totally different position from the Crimea,
and are capable either of independent organisation or of
such arrangement with respect to Tarkey at the end of
the war as may be deemed consistent with the interests of
that empire, and serve at the same time as a more effectual
barrier to Russian aggression in the East,—an advantage
which would not be involved by the severance of the
Crimea from the dominions of the Czar, even were such a
project feasible, since that ,irovince is completely isolated,
and touches the frontier of no other country. . . Here,
at least, our efforts will be attended with definite results;
we shall deprive Russia of a portion of her empire equal
in extent to Prussia; we shall render her Anther aggres-
sion upon Persia and Turkey impossible ; we shall utterly
destroy her prestige throughout Asia—save our own transit
trade, and be entirely relieved of apprehension with regard
to India. We shall free an oppressed and enslaved people,
in all probability capable themselves of guarding their own
frontier, but with whom if it is necessary to leave a small
force they will be well eared for. in a healthy climate and
fertile country ; and ultimately, by means of a rigorous
and bond fide blockade of her whole maritime provinces,
and the adoption of such other measures as may effectually
destroy her commerce, frame a basis for negotiation very
different in its character from that which has been
so scornfully rejected, and of which a " fifth point "
should be, that between the Black Sea and the Caspian,
the Terek and the Kouban do henceforward form the
frontier of Russia.

One difficulty Mr. Oliphant passes over.
Under what Government are we to place our
acquisitions? England and France could not
undertake them. The system of Turkey is
too corrupt to be restored. Placed between
Russia, Persia, and Turkey, independence is
scarcely possible, and the native population is
hardly capable of self-government. Tempting
as the scheme appears, it would be difficult to
carry out. We can only describe it by nega-
tives It is more promising than the region •
stitution of Poland, more practicable than a
Tartar republic in tile Crimea; more easy for


574

conquest and less difficult for defence than
Perekop and Odessa, and preferable to a
campaign in Bessarabia or the south of Rus-
sia; it is the best mode of attack should the
ar continue, but it is not sufficient to induce
us to make great sacrifices and to defer the
peace of Europe.

BURNETT TREATISE. SECOND PRIZE.
Theism: the Witness of Reason and Nature to
an All-wise and Beneficent Creator. By the
Rev. John Tulloch, D.D. London: Black-
wood and Sons.
NATURM. theology should be a progressive
science. It should advance with every dis-
covery made in the natural world, and with
every gleam of adtlitional light cast on
Nature's laws. Our knowledge of the Creator
should rise in exact proportion to our com-
prehension of his works ; and as it is not to be
doubted that the universe is to a great extent
the mirror of his mind, we may hope, by
reverent study of it, to draw nearer to Him,
and obtain clearer views of his power, wisdom,
and goodness. Hence encouragement afforded
to the studj of natural theology would seem
very appropriate, as the science must be in a
state of continued movement. Admitting
merely that there is a certain constitution in
nature, the progress of observation and intel
ligence must tend to show what that constitu-
tion is.
The Burnett Fund, it has,been rightly stated,
affords the most munificent encouragement
ever offered to the study of natural theology.
Mr. Burnett was a merchant of Aberdeen, and
by a deed of bequest, executed in 1785, he
gave to trustees certain sums, the interest of
which was to be expended at intervals of forty
years, in tw• prizes, for the best treatises on
the evidence " that there is a Being, all-
" powerful, wise, and good, by whom every-
" thing exists." On occasion of the last com-
petition the first premium was awarded to
Principal Brown, of Aberdeen, and the second
to the present Archbishop of Canterbury. On
the present occasion, the first price of 1,8001.
has been adjudged to the Rev. R. A. Thomp-
son, M.A , Lincolnshire; and the second, of
6001., to the author of this treatise—the judges
having been Mr. Isaac Taylor, Mr. Henry
Rogers, and the Rev. Baden Powell.
There is one obvious objection common to
all such kinds of competition, and it is, that
while the prizes may operate as an encourage•
went to persons little known, and who are so
fortunately placed that they can afford to
hazard time and toil on a slender chance of
success, they do not tend to bring forward
tried and acknowledged ability, which can
always command a certain recompense for its
labours. Competition, therefore, is rather
calculated to bring forward the ability which
is i►nmature or undistinguished, than to
immix) the exercise of the highest attainable
talent upon a given subject. The former Bur-
nett treatises have not attained the rank of
standard works ; and though as yet we can
say nothing of the treatise of Mr. Thompson,
we are afraid that the present volume will not
be remembered much beyond the year in
which it is published. The judges have cer-
tainly selected a treatise which displays a
considerable amount of industrious reading
and compilation, and a sufficient acquaintance
with the mere rind of modern discovery, with
the formulae and technicalities of science ; hut
for profound thought and original views we
look through this book in vain. Its harsh
and rugged style—not the ruggedness which,
as in the case of knotted natural confirmations,
denotes strength, and which in Butler, and in
some of our older divines, arises from the
mind struggling and sweating with the burden
of great thoughts, but the ruggedness or
obScurity which arises from superficial views
of things,—is sufficient of itself to repel or-
dinary readers. Great thinkers are occasionally
obscure because they cannot find language
equal to their thought, but Dr. Tulloch is
obscure because he cannot find thought equal
to his language. It is a great mistake to
attempt to base the science of natural theo-
logy on the word•chopping of Scottish meta-
physics.
It is not possible in our space to thread the
biases of the Doctor's teem Concisely stated,