The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-24 00:00:00

THE PRESS._

ment. Of thetie 60,000,000 it is computed that
not more than one-fourth, or 15,000,000, are
between the ages of seventeen and forty-five.
It is further computed that of these 15,000,000
not more than one-third, or 6,000,000, are
available for the purposes of war. This com-
putation appears somewhat arbitrary ; but if
we consider that the Government would not
willingly accept recruits so young as seven-
teen nor so old as forty-five—the really avail-
able term of life being between twenty and
thirty five—and further that a considerable
number of this class of the population must
be disabled from shortness of stature or
physical infirmity, the estimate appears rea-
sonable. It is with the 5,000,000 of able-
bodied Russians, then, that we have practically
to deal. Exterminate these 5,000,000, says
the Times, in what it supposes will be deemed
a " cold-blooded calculation," and we shall be
in a position to " dictate terms to Russia."
On our power of being able to effect this
extermination the whole argument of the
writer depends, and he supposes that we have
already advanced far in the work.
Of these 5,000,000 available men, a total
number about equal to 3,500,000 have been
called into action by the several levies of
February, May, September, and December,
1854, and of February, May, August, and
October of the present year. So far we are in
accord with the writer in the Times.
But now comes the point at which our
reasoning diverges. It is assumed by the
London, and perhaps, also, by the German
journalist, that a considerable portion of these
levies has already been used up. We doubt,
on the contrary, whether any number of them
worth mentioning has yet been brought into
the field. If the calculations we dispute are
correct, the human forces of Russia must,
indeed, be in course of rapid exhaustion ; but
if only small bodies of these new soldiers have
yet been brought into the field, then we must
suppose that the levies remain in reserve, and
are being prepared for the long contest to be
expected should the war continue. What are
the probabilities of the case?
From the enormous area of the Russian
empire it requires a long time to collect any
considerable bodies of recruits at one place ;
then how long trust it take to form a Russian
boor into a soldier, and how much longer to
equip three millions and a half of men, to
form them into corps, to supply them with
artillery and cavalry, and to tit them for the
field ? From February, 1854, when the first
levy was ordered, to October, 1855, is at the
utmost a period of twenty months. Can we
suppose that time long enough to allow any
considerable number of the men of the earlier
lines even to join the armies in the field?
Certainly the later levies cannot yet have been
drawn upon at all.
The radical error of the writers we argue
with appears to consist in the supposition
that the successive levies were dictated by
immediate and urgent need for men, and that
they were consumed as soon as the ukases
which ordered them appeared ; whereas the
levies were most likely ordered that the whole,
or nearly the Whole, available strength of the
empire might be brought into a state of pre-
paration for military service, shmild the
necessity for employing it arise.
Adopting the exterminating theory of the
Times, it is very possible that as regards the
disposal of the 5,000,000 fighting men of the
Russian empire, our work has only just began.
How much will it cost us to exterminate these
millions?
As we consider that men' are of somewhat
more importance than money, let us begin
with them first. We have no precise data for
determining what has been the proportion
between the losses of the Allies and those of
the enemy during the last year. In that
period the British are said to have lost 50,000,
and the French 80,000 men : the loss of the
Sardinians and the Turks would probably
bring the total loss of the Allies to 200,000.
The loss of the enemy must have been very
severe, probably much exceeding that aggre-
gate. Let us take the largest number that
can be conjectured, and suppose it altogether
500,000, while we drop the French and Eng-
lish loss to 100,000. Then it would seem that
it takes one soldier of France or England to

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dispose of five Russians. By this calculation
it will require the sacrifice of one million of
French and English soldiers to exterminate
five million Russians. Is England, for the
sake of some wild visionary aim—as to avenge
the crimes of the Empress CATHERINE, or to

put heart into the Teuton races—prepared to
contribute her quota to this hecatomb ? We
remember a picture in our youth of " the man
" what won the fight," and that we then first

......_ .• _._ ____ e, _
discovered that proverbs were sometimes
false, and that people did not always laugh

who win.
Next comes the calculation of pounds,
shillings, and pence. How much hard cash
will it cost us to exterminate these five million
Russians? We will take the outside figures
both ways, basing our calculation on the maxi-
mum of Russians killed during the last year
and the minimum of the allied expenditure.
We will assume, as before, that we have anni-
hilated half a million of the enemy ; what has
it cost the Allies to effect so much ? Their
war expenditure during the last year cannot
be set down at less than one hundred millions
sterling. Then what does it cost to kill a
Russian? It is not a very difficult sum ; any
of our readers can work it out for themselves.
As 500,000 men are to 100,000,0001. sterling, so
is one Russian slain to 2001. Before, there-
fore, our red and blue coated gamekeepers
have accomplished their task, and cleared
every head of the five million Russians off the
ground, their masters will be called on to pay
the sum of one thousand millions, by far the
greater part of which will remain a burden on
the industry of the Western nations for ever.
Here, then, we see what figures will do for us.
We are grateful to our contemporary for
having suggested so ready a mode of arriving
at results. And we can only advise the leaders
of the "war-to-the-knife " party to keep the
calculation in the background if they wish to
retain their adherents.
Is it certain that our labourtlivoUld end with
the extermination of the five millions? AS a
general rule the human species is propagated
in all sparsely-populated districts faster than
it dies out. In Russia the annual increase of
the population is estimated at one per cent.
On 60,000,000 this rate of increase would show
a yearly addition of 600,000 souls. Then, as
our contemporary observes, there will be, dur-
ing the progress of the war, a continual
growth of the youthful population up to the
age at which military service commences; and,
lastly, there might probably be a reserve to be
drawn, in case of extremity, from those two-
thirds of the male population between the ages
of seventeen and forty-five, which we have agreed
to count for nothing in our calculation. Towards
the close of the desolating wars of Louis XIV.
we know that scarcely a man was to be seen
in the fields, women guiding ploughs drawn by
cows. yet the King was to the last enabled to
keep great armies to meet his enemies in the
field. Taking all these elements of computa-
tion into account, we must admit that the exter-
minating theory presents to us one of the
moat hopeless and, at the same time, barbarous
labours which a nation of rational Christian
men ever yet undertook.
Supposing that at last we succeed in our ob-
ject, that the great mass of the able-bodied
population of Russia are exterminated, what
then ? Is it not probable that by that time
both parties may be heartily tired of the con-
test, and anxious to bring the war to the best
conclusion they can ? From the very exhaus-
tion and weariness of the Allies, Russia may
obtain better terms after we have beaten her
for ten years than after we have beaten her
for two. A merely tolerable peace may be our
only relief from intolerable burdens. And we
may wake to find ourselves impoverished, dis-
heartened,, and thrown back a century in the
career of improvement, while the state of
Europe remains after all 'scarcely affected by
all the sacrifices we have made to change it

THE COMMISSION AT CONSTANTINOPLE, to inquire
into the employment of the last loan to Turkey, has
been arranged, and has commenced proceedings by
requiring that the war budget of the Turkish army
shall be communicated to it.
TILE KING OF PRUSSIA has bestowed the Order of
the Red Eagle of the Second Class to Solyman
Pacha, Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman forces
in the principalities.

NOVEMBER 24, 1855.

THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON'S SPEECH:
THE speech of the French Emperor at the close of
the Exposition was so important a statement of the
views of the French Government upon the present
aspect of the war, that we think it our duty to give
the speech, verbatim and translated, as delivered.
Our report last week was necessarily crude, and
in some parts incorrect. We trust that the following
will make amends :

Mzesracas,
L'Exposition qui va finir offre au monde un grand spec-

tacle.

C'est pendant une guerre serieuse que de toutes les
parties de I'univers sont accourus a Paris, pour y exposer

leurs travaux, les beelines les plus distingues de la science,
des arts et de 'lndustrie.

Ce concours dans des circonstances semblables est dfi,
j'aime ale croire, cette conviction generale que la guerre
entreprise ne menacait que cent qui I'avaient provoquie,

qu'elle itait poursuivie dans rintaret de tour, et que
l'Europe, loin d'y voir un danger pour reveille, y trouvait
platut un gage d'independancs et de sioutite.
Neanmoins, b. la vue de tent de merveilles etalees a nos
yeuz, la premiere impression est un aisle de Pair. La Pair
seule peat davelopper encore ces remarquables produita tie
'lntelligence humaine.
irons devez dono tons souhaiter comme moi que cette
Pain snit prompte et durable.

Mais, pour etre durable, ells dolt resoutlre nettement la
question qu► a fait entreprendre la guerre; pour etre
prompte, it faut que l'Europe se prononce, car, sans l'ex-
pression de l'opinion generalP, lea luttes entre grandee
puissances menaceut de se prolonger ; tenths qu'au con.
traire si l'Europe se decides declarer qui a tort on qui a
raison, ce sera tin grand pas vers la solution.

A l'Opoque de combats oil nous sommes, les succes des
armees, quelque brillans qu'ils soient, ne sont que passe.
gen. C'est en definitive I'opinion publique qui remporte
toujours la derniere vieteire.
Vous toes done qui pensez qua lee progris de l'agriculture,

de I'industrie, et du commerce d'une nation contribuent au
bien-titre de touter les autres, et que plus les rapports

reciproques se multiplient, plus les prejuges uationaux
tendent a s' effacer, ditty A vos concitoyens, en retournant
dans votre patrie, que la France u' a de haine contra aucun
peuple, qu'elle a de la spmpsthie pour tons ceuz qui veulent
comma elle le triomphe du druit et de la justice.
Dites•leur que, s'ils desirent la pain, it faut qu' °verte•
meat ila fassent au moins des vceuz pour ou contre nous,
car au milieu d'un grand conflit Europeen, l'indifffirence
est un mauvais calcul et le silence une erreur.
Quant A nous, peuples allies pour le triomphe d'une
grand° cause, forgeons des armes sans ralontir nos mines,
sans arreter noa metiers; soyons grands par les arts de la
pain comme par les arts de la guerre, soyons forts par la
concords et mettons notre confiance en Dieu pour nous
faire triompher des difficultes du jour et des chances de
ravenir.

(Translation.)
Messieurs,—The Exhibition which is about to close
offers to the world a grand spectacle.
It is whilst a serious war is being carried on, that the
most distinguished men of art, science, and industry, from
every quarter of the universe, have united in Paris, there
to exhibit their productions.
This union under such circumstances, is due, I am
induced to believe, to the gene al conviction that the pre-
sent war threatened only those who provoked it, that it was
pursued in the interest of all, and that Europe, far from
Wing in it any danger for the future, would rather find
in it an assurance for independence and security.
Nevertheless, in sight of so many marvels placed before
us, the first impression is a desire for peace—peace alone,
in truth, can develop still further these remarkable pro.
ducts of human intelligence.
Yon should, therefore, each of you desire, as I do, that
this peace should te prompt and durable.
But to be durable, it should clearly resolve the question
from which the war emanated. In brief, Europe must
pronounce terself, fur without the pressure of general
opinion the 'struggles between the great powers only
threaten to be prolonged; whilst, on the contrary, if Europe
decide to declare who is right and who is wrong, it will be
a great step towards a solution.
In the present state of civilisation at which we have
arrived, the successes of the armies, however brilliant they
may be, are only transitory. It is decidedly public opinion
which always carries the last victory.
You all, then, who believe that the progress of agricul-
ture, industry, and the commerce of eno nation contribute to
the welfare of every other nation, and that the more reei•
procal interchanges are multiplied the more national pre-
judices will be effaced, say to your brother citizens on
returning to your homes, that France basing hatred of any