The Press.
London, England, 1854-06-10 00:00:00

546

Russia, and the War. By Captain Jesse.
London : Longmans.

" HANDBOOKS to Russia" are useless for the
present ; and Captain Jesse has done wisely
in turning his knowledge of the country to
hatter account. He writes well, tells stories
amusingly, avoids encumbering his pages with
mere commonplace; in a word, his book is one of
the most entertaining which the Russian war
has produced. Of the Government and people
his opinion is exceedingly unfavourable; in-
deed he seems sometimes to go out of his way
for the purpose of finding fault; nor should
we like to accept all his anecdotes without
further proof than he supplies. But, whether
right or wrong, he has certainly taken the
popular side. Criticism on a work of this kind
is almost impossible, wherefore we confine
ourselves to the selection of a few character
istic passages. Here is a view of the Russian
army when drawn out expressly for dis-
play :

The corps of Guards and Grenadiers go under
canvas every summer. When at St. Petersburg I
went to see the camp at Sarsko-Seloo and, as it had rained
for several days consecutively, the troops appeared tobe in a
most forlorn state ; the interior of their tents was full of
mud mixed up with straw, and upon this the men were
lying, in dirty cotton drawers and shirts, without either
coats, trousers, or shoes—very different from Chobham. I
was not a little surprised, however, to find that many of
the officers, though apparently living in tents, were inhabit-
ing little wooden houses fixed under them; they were
about six feet square, and as easily packed up and re-
erected as the tents; the floor was boarded, and four of us
dined in one of them very comfortably. The Emperor,
when in camp, lives really under canvas.
I saw a picked man from each company of a battalion of
the Preobrajensky regiment. They were remarkably tall,
but being very much padded out at the breast, and drawn in
tight at the waist, they had, in their great-coats, a very
lanky appearance ; many of the regiments of the line that
I saw at Moscow, and in the south, would have worked
them off their legs in a campaign of any duration. Their
coats were well brushed, and they were, no doubt, made to
look their best. Brushing is continually going on. I re-
member being not a little amused by seeing a batch of
orderlies going down the rear rank of one of their regi•
meats, and performing this operation upon the back of
every man in the line. The camp hospitals were unusually
full at Sarsko-Selo, and I was told that a great many casual-
ties regularly take place on their return to their splendid
quarters at St. Petersburg after the summer manceuvres.
There they are so worried by the numerous orders con-
nected with their dress and appointments that they avoid
leaving their barracks as much as possible. The Emperor,
not long ago, observing that but few soldiers were to be
seen in the streets, asked the military governor the reason.
This official was either afraid or too good a courtier to
give the right one ; but, to prevent a recurrence of the re-
mark, he issued an order that some of the men of each
company should be told off every day as the " walking sec-
tion," to ornament the most public parts of the capital.

The soldiers' food is coarse and cheap,
consisting chiefly of black bread and vege-
tables:

The soldiers and sailors' messes are served in an im•
mense bowl, round which they sit or kneel, and, dipping in
their wooden spoons, continue the operation till the por•
ridge or borsch is eaten. The clothing, that is the uniform
and accoutrements, are excellent; the cloth, though not
quite so good as English, is close ; the belts, of a white
patent leather, are much more easily cleaned than our com-
mon buff, and the sling of the firelock is of red leather;
were it not, therefore, for the bright barrel of his musket,
the Russian soldier would have scarcely anything to oc•
cupy him in barracks. His knapsack, however, is all
but empty ; socks, even amongst officers, are not always
worn, by the soldiers never ; a few of them tie or swathe a
dirty piece of calico round the leg and foot.

Yet Captain Jesse considers the army as
effective ; " their morale, as being based on
" enthusiasm for their religion and their Czar,
" is likely to support them under the most
" trying circumstances." He does not think
equally well of its generals, whose blunders in
Poland, Turkey, Circassia, and Khiva are
notorious among military authorities. The
medical department is " disgracefully ineffi-
cient." A regiment three thousand strong,
serving in Persia, was reduced by disease to
fifty :

In conversation one day with an aide-de camp of the Em-
peror, at St. Petersburg, upon the state of the sick list
among the guards, I was not a little astonished at his telling
me that mercury and quinine were medicines too expen-
sive to be given to the men ; and when I adverted as
politely as I could to the inhumanity as well as false
economy of such a system, be replied, " Ah, mon cher 1 a
soldier in Russia costs nothing."

The nobility, according to our author, are as
far from being free as the serfs. They must
all go into civil or military employ if the Em-
peror thinks fit ; and their profession is some-
times very arbitrarily chosen for them, as
witness the following instance :