The Press.
London, England, 1855-07-28 00:00:00

718

All the other elements of prosperity occupy but a
secondary rank, and can play but a more or less subordi-
nate part iu the mechanism of her productive forces. We
are far from sharing the errors of those economists who
will concede a real value only to the productions of the soil,
and consider as merely fictitious those values which pro.
ceed from industry, and are created by the transformation
of these same products into others more suitable for the
various wants and usages of civilised society. On the
contrary, we are fully persuaded of the high importance
of industry, not only in regard to national wealth taken as
a whole, but in regard to the influence which it directly
exerts upon agriculture itself, the nursing mother of the
nations: but we are of opinion, that, on a superficial
estimate of the public wealth, there are prevailing
errors in the degree of importance attributed to the re-
spective brances of social economy. Such error ia natural
enough. The infinite variety of industrial products, the
unheard-of progress which industry has made within the
lest halfceutury, the tribute so largely paid to it by the
exact and natural sciences, the ingenious inventions which
augment its productive forces, the wonderful mechanisms
by means of which it has rendered tributary the physical
forces of nature to spare the labour of man,—all these pro-
digies are apt at once to strike the intellect and the imagi-
nation, whilst agriculture, more simple and uniform in its
gait and procedure, is much less susceptible of exciting
similar admiration. When, however, industry is stripped
of its brilliant prestige, and we descend to the reality of
facts, we perceive that the plough, after all, in its modest
guise, plays the principal partin the creation of values, even
in countries the most commercial and industrial. Of this
England furnishes a notable example. Of all nations
England is without dispute the most industrial and the
most mercantile—the weaving factory of the universe—the
commercial centre of all the ends of the earth : it is notorious
that her trade and her industry form the main basis of her
power; and yet it appears from her income•tax returns
that the net revenue of all the industry, of all the coine
merce, and of all the personal capital of the country, does
not come up to two•thirds of the net revenue derived from
agriculture alone. From this single fact we may infer the
degree of preeminence that ought to be attributed to the
agricultural element of national wealth iu a country like
Russia.

But England and Russia are hardly parallel
countries—climate and the proportion of popu-
lation to the soil being alike widely distinct.
Concerning that system of serfage to which eco-
nomists hare hitherto generally attributed the
little care bestowed upon the cultivation of
the soil, M. Tegoborski tells us that we—
Are very apt to fall into error with regard to the ideas
which the Russian peasant attaches to his serfage and
state of dependence : the feeling of indifference about his
possession is very far indeed from being so marked as
many persons are disposed to believe ; everybody that has
come into frequent contact with our peasants must have
had occasion to perceive that, though they, no doubt, con-
sider themselves as the property of their masters, yet each
of them at the same time regards the land laboured for
himself as his own, or rather as part and parcel of the pro-
perty of the community which has fallen to his own share
by right ; he therefore cannot be indifferent to its culture
on the ground of its not being his own.

To judge correctly of the degree of in-
fluence which serf - labour exercises upon
agricultural economy, we must, of course,
consider the relative numbers of free peasants
and serfs who till the land. These classes are
returned at nearly twelve millions each; so that,
perhaps, in the imperfect system of agriculture,
too much is attributed to the effect of serf-
labour, and not sufficient to local causes,
want of capital, and insecurity of possession,
arising from defective survey, and the want
of a precise determination of the boun-
daries of estates. Upon the question of
serfdom the author, on the whole, is opposed
to any but the most gradual conversion of the
eorvie into a money rent :

However defective the corree system may he in itself, in
a general agricultural pointof view, it is for the moment,
for a great part of Russia, a necessity of our agricultural
position ; for, first, the amount of disposable capital re-
quisite to be invested in agriculture in order to establish a
rational system of culture in conjunction with paid labour,
does not exist in proportion to the immense extent of the
arable lands; secondly, in many districts, the value of the
products of the land would not afford a sufficient return
to cover the working expenses ; thirdly, in those provinces
which are little favored in regard to commerce and indus-
try, and where money circulation is trifling, it is much
easier for the peasant to discharge his quit-rent in the
shape of labour, than to pay any rent whatever in the shape
of money.

It would be imprudent, he says, further on, to
lay rash hands upon an order of things so
identified with local traditions and with the
wants and habits of the peasantry.

Upon the various branches of industry, the
manufacture of beet-root sugar, the distillation
of brandy, the brewing of beer, and the linen
manufacture, M. Tegoborski offers the fullest
information. With regard to the latter im-
')ranch of trade, he admits that it
very precarious condition, from the
consumption of cotton goods.

THE PRESS.

Upon the whole, want of capital appears to
be the great present want of Russia. Whether
she possesses resources sufficient within her-
self to dispense with her trade by sea, this
war will prove. The tenor of M. Tegoborski's
conclusions is, that she cannot do so and
advance ; if her trade is ruined she must re-
trograde, or at best remain stationary.
Few can watch the gradual and progressive
development of so vast an empire as Russia,
without feeling an inward fear that she is yet
destined, despite every obstacle, every mis-
fortune, every trial, which is inflicted upon
her, to mightily influence the future fate and
fortunes of the world. But three centuries
ago possessing only an insignificant patch
of country in the environs of Moscow, of
about fifty square miles, she has in the inter-
val, with singular concentration of energy and
resource, joined to the instinctive intelligence
of her people, conquered so'vast an extent of
country from the Pole to the tropics, as may
well make us dread the full development of
her prodigious resources. With a people re •
markably united in faith,combining in a singular
degree the adaptative mind of Asiatics with the
intelligence of Europeans—patient, skilful, and
industrious—they are gradually emerging from
barbarism, profiting by the inventions and
discoveries of the civilised world, and having
but one aim—a determination to succeed
in spite of every obstacle ; but one end—
the conquest of the world.
The translator, in this his first volume, ap-
pears to us to have been completely successful
in his undertaking, and we hope that the con-
cluding volume may not be far behind, for the
work is the most valuable, the most instruc-
tive, and the most important which has ever
been published upon Russia. It is a book in
every way worth studying: its tone is un-
prejudiced, its details minute, its results
simple, and its range of observation vast
and comprehensive. These merits are suffi
cient to claim for it the position of a leading
authority upon the subject.

My Travels ; or, me Unsentimental Journey
through France, ,Switzerland, and Italy. By
Captain Chamier, R.N. Three vole. London :

Hurst and Blackett.
CAPTAIN CHAMIER'S design, at the commence-
ment of this book, seems to have been to give
to his " Travels" an air of originality and
character. So much is indicated by the title,
an " Unsentimental Journey," in contrast with
the sentimental journey of Sterne. The
opening pages are something in the style of
Hood's "Up the Rhine." A most whimsical
account is given of the preparations made for
the journey by the ladies of the writer's family,
and of the advice pressed on them by their
female friends. Thus the buxom lady of the
unsentimental traveller is told by one friend :
I should think that you are just the person most likely
to be attacked by mosquitoes and Neapolitan sand flies.
I once had both arms iu slings for a month, from the bites
of these vermin ; my face was so swollen from the venom, that
I could not see for a fortnight ; as to sleeping, if y ou have
not musquitoe curtains, you might as well expect to doze
surroun led by Red Indians, who were singing their grace
before they began to eat you. Tarantulas are common.
I have found scorpions in my shoes, and once discovered
a centipede in my glove. It is altogether a horrible place ;
very dear, and very dirty ; and I can fancy your regret at
leaving your beautiful apartment in Paris, surrounded by
every luxury, with everything at your command, when you
ere forced to sleep in beds badly aired, always full of bugs,
and never free from other anoyances.

Another counsellor was not more exhilarat-
ing:—
" Mind you take," said another rather sickly-looking old
maid, " plenty of biscuits, if you are going into Switzerland ;
for if you are foolish enough to go sight-seeing in the moun-
tains, as most people do, merely to say hereafter that they
have been, and to show a parcel of sticks with the names
of different places burnt upon them, you may be starved—
ay starved I know myself two skeletons dug out of the
snow, and there was no doubt, I suppose, but that they died
of sheer exhaustion ; mind also, my dear child (she was a
great patroniser of everybody), to take a pair of linen
sheets, two pillows, a homoeopathic case of medicine, a
lancet, and a horse-shoe picker ; you must not expect to
find any assistance from the natives."

The various companion bags and cases taken
by the ladies are, with their contents, enume-
rated with unctions humour; and, when the
travellers are off, we are primed for laughter.
The foundation is laid for a train of odd
dilemthas and ridiculous perpletities, but the

SATURDAY,

design of the unsentimental journey is scarcely
carried further than the foundation, and, with
the exception of some touches of humour hero
and there— from which no work by Captain
Chamier could be free—this record of his tour
is mainly distinguished by its shrewd sense,
penetrating remarks, and a glow of poetic
feeling, which imparts to natural scenery a
colouring of beauty or sublimity, and tinges
the ordinary incidents of travel with the hues
of romance in a manner the very reverse of
" unsentimental." Thus, in the very second
chapter of the book, a pathetic story is told of
the fortunes of an old soldier, who " sat on a
" stone bench opposite the wonderful clock in
" the Cathedral of Strasburg ;" and the whole
route through Switzerland to Milan, Rome,
and Naples, is marked by descriptive sketches
of great force and clearness, though inter-
rupted at times by such exclamations as dis-
turbed the author when he caught his first
view of the six glorious peaks of the Alpine
chain :

I was lost in rapture and amazement, and was in all the
enjoyment which such a scene inspires, when I was dis-
turbed in my reverie by the heavy breathing of a man,
better described as puffing and blowing. 1 turned round,
and beheld the very type and figure of a railway contractor
—he looked at me, and, putting his huge paw upon my
shoulder, asked, in such a voice, " His them the Halps P
Another tourist, Mr. Pincher—a type of un-
sentimentalists—thinks the Jungfrau is only
" like a huge wedding-cake without its orna-
ments," and compares an avalanche to " a
" profusion of dirt shot from a dustman's cart."
The providence of the ladies before-mentioned
does not seem to have been wholly without its
reward. The " Sinking• Case " is the best title
yet invented for one of those packages
urgently recommended by outfitters to comfort-
loving tourists :

The ladies in the chaise it portenr had the best of it, if
they could only have believed so ; but as we toiled up the
road, and the precipice below looked more appalling, fright
began to require assurance. This was only to be done by
means of the travelling-case, which contained sherry,
brandy, cold fowl, bread, ttc. ; the case being one of those
dirt-cheap purchases only costing five pounds, and which
came flesh from the manufacturer to the vendor for half
that sum.
" What is the halt for?" inquired an officer who had
gone through half the jungles of India.
" I have such a sinking," replied one of the ladies, whose
face was particularly wellshut out from all view, by means
ofan ugly and a double blue veil.
'• What's to be done for this sinking ?"
" The travelling•case" ; she hesitated to pronounce the
word " sherry." Now, in our suite was a French lady's.
maid, who hearing the summons called out to her hus-
band, who bore this precious affair : " L'we, apportez le
Sinking-Case." From that moment, all through Italy, over
Alps and Apennines, en route or at home, this elegant toy
went by the name of the " Sinking Case "—and it merited
its appellation, for at every two hundred yards it sunk i►►
value in regard to its contents.

- -
The readers of this book will be frequently
reminded of the travelling sketches of Sir
Francis Head, for Captain Chamier has great
capacity for original observation, a dislike of
mere conventional sight-seeing and routine,
and a happy knack of indicating by minute
touches the undercurrent of the life and
condition of the cAintries he passes through.
The heavy curse of Austrian oppression in
Lombardy is represented with vivid reality in
some little circumstances recorded by our
author during his short stay at Milan. Re-
turning from La Scala to his hotel, he
relates :

I had a good opportunity of seeing bow they manage!
some things at Milan : before me walked a man wel
dressed, who picked his steps cautiously enough to avoid
the wet, for it had rained hard. I was close to him, when,
as sudden as thought, he was seized by both arms, before
him were two armed men, in a second or two others rushed
between me and the prisoner, and ha was walked off. No
one took the trouble of saying a word, and the prisoner
might as well have addressed the wind as his captors. T
freshened my way, and got home as quickly as possible,
think perhaps that, under such a state of siege, there was
such a thing as " being out after hours."
" The king has long arms," said Lord Bacon,
in one of his state-trial speeches. The Austrian
Government has not only lung arms but long
ears. Its spies are everywhere, and the mili-
tary seem to take a pride in treating Milan as
a conquered city, where
Woe knows no limit save the victor's will.

That amalgamation of races, interests, and
feelings which sometimes takes place in van-
quished States, and of which England after the
Conquest presents the most memorable ex-
ample, it not likely to be ever witnessed in

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