The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-15 00:00:00

APRIL 15, 1854.

result is obvious; its danger will be differently
regarded by different persons.
We have not in the above paragraphs
attempted to give anything like a full analysis
of Dr Pusey's opinions on these subjects.
His treatise is ♦aluable, full of matter, and
clearly written, the greater part of it being
devoted to the question of " Colleges v.
University and Private Halls." It is possible
that many readers will think too much use is
made of mediaeval precedent; yet Dr. Pusey
may fairly argue that material improvement is
not identical with moral progress, and that,
though human customs alter, human nature
remains much where it was.

Travels in Siberia. S. S. Hill, Esq.
By

London: Longnians.
A scam of travels may possess either of two
merits: it may contain new and valuable
facts, or it may describe in an agreeable style,
and with a certain novelty of treatment, scenes
which are already more or less familiar.
Nearly all the works which come under our
reviewal belong to the latter class—of course
that which takes its place lowest in literary
rank. Mr. Hill's journey is an exception ; his
subject—Siberia—is almost untrodden ground.
Captain Cochrane, indeed, told us something
in the narrative of his pedestrian tour, and
about half a dozen other travellers have fol-
lowed in the same track; but of these, Hol-
man, the blind tourist, was physically ill
qualified for an observer; Sir George Simpson
merely passed through the country at railroad
speed, on his way to England from Oregon ;
and Erman, doubtless the most scientific and
laborious, is not happy in his style nor fortu
nate in a translator. Consequently, Mr. Hill,
if he has not the field absolutely to himself,
cannot complain of either the number or the
'ability of his rivals. As regards personal
qualifications, he occupies a fair though not a
high position. His style is often involved and
clumsy, but it is not pretentious ; he tells a
plain story well; his descriptions of natural
objects are neither particularly graphic nor
the reverse ; and he only fails where he at-
tempts to generalise and discuss—a task for
which his habit of mind seems to unfit him.
Bating a few disquisitions which we should
like to strike out, there is not much in these
two volumes which requires abridgment. An
Englishman who has passed three years
between the Ural mountains and Kamschatka,
and that of his own free choice, neither con-
fined to one place by business nor detained
against his will, may claim a full and patient
hearing. Would that no greater prolixity were
displayed by writers who have less to tell !
Our author begins his published tour where
most Russian travellers end theirs—at Moscow
and Nijhui Novgorod. He proceeds from
thence to Kazan and across the Ural—on to
Ikaterinburg, Tomsk, and Krasnoyarsk—
reaches Irkuutsk after a long delay—makes a
little excursion to Kiachta, on the Chinese
frontier—descends the Lena to Yaltoutsk—
and finally reaches the Pacific port of Ochotsk
—concluding a journey of between 7,000 and
8,000 miles over the worst of roads by a town
in the interior of Kamschatka. Of Mr. Hill.
apart from his book, we know nothing, except
that he claims a Canadian origin ; but, let him
go where h will. he will find few men more
strongly pose
sessed with the spirit of adventure
than himself.
All civilised or semi-civilised societies have
their anomalies, and Russia is not without her
full share. At Novgorod Mr. Hill found a serf,
unemancipated, whose mechanical skill had
enabled him to amass a fortune of 120,0001.
His master, naturally proud of such a de-
pendent, chose to retain him still in nominal
subjection—nominal only, for the serf is en
titled to purchase his personal freedom at the
rate of about 2/. 10s. yearly.
The Novgorod fair, according to our author, I
draws together about 300,000 strangers, and
the value of goods bought and sold there ex-
ceeds 9,000,000/. sterling. Many of the buyers
and sellers come from immen distances,
travelling mostly by land, over fro se
zen steppes
and tracks that hardly deserve the name.
These journeys, especially when rapid, as the
Russian custom is, involve great hardships :

THE PRESS.

even natives rarely escape a kind of fever, the
result of exposure, constant motion, and want
of rest, which goes off, like sea sickness, after
a certain time, but in the interval is sufficiently
disagreeable. No traveller stops at night:
inns do not exist, and the filth of a Russian
posthouse repels the least fastidious. Saving
of time, moreover, is an object where the dis-
tance to be traversed considerably exceeds the
breadth of the Atlantic Ocean, as is the case
between Moscow and Irkoutsk.
The ch meter of Siberian scenery appears
monotonous ; snow in winter, dry grass in
summer, flowers and fresh verdure during a
few weeks only of the spring, everywhere a
wide unvaried steppe, a sparse and savage
population, few houses, fewer trees, and
scarcely any cultivation. Even the cities that
occupy so large a space in the map shrink
into insignificance when their real size is
considered. Tomsk contains 9,000 inhabi-
tants ; Irkoutsk, the capital of Eastern
Siberia, 40,000 ; Yakoutsk only 4,000. Of these
three settlements only one would rank as a
town in England, the rest being mere villages.
Russia has been called the empire of inagnifi
cent distances ; but to realise this fully we
have only to consider that London proper, not
including its suburbs, has a population equal
to that of all Siberia—that is, of a tract which
fills up the whole intervening void between
Europe and America.
Na description can exaggerate the severity
of a Russo-Asiatic climate, which becomes
worse as you go further to the eastward.
Extremes of heat and cold are always found
in the centre of extensive continents ; as wit-
ness Africa, South America, the Hudson's
Bay country, and that of which we are now
writing. At Yakoutsk a temperature of
—BO deg. Fahrenheit has been known in
winter (122 deg below freezing-point), although
Yakoutsk lies only in N. Lat. 62 deg., or not
much nearer the pole than our own Hebrides.
This excessive frost exceeds by 20 deg. the
utmost inclemency of weather undergone by
Arctic navigators. In such a situation agri-
culture becomes almost impossible, the sub
soil never thawing at any season. Yet the
Yakoutes and Russian colonists residing there
live and enjoy health, although their mode of
passing the winter would not appear pleasant.
The windows, trebly glazed, are barricaded
with blocks of ice, which the addition of a
little water fastens firmly into their place.
These almost exclude light, and lamps are
kept burning during 21 hours out of the 24.
Only the rich use glass, talc being the ordi-
nary substitute. Skins are worn by the
peasantry, and domestic ventilation seems not
to be cared for.
Mr. Hill tells us much of the exiles or
political offenders scattered over Siberia.
Their lot, except as regards absence from their
country, is not hard ; they are free to choose
an occupation, and in many instances a
residence, their sole sentence being that of
banishment beyond the Ural. Large numbers
of criminals are also sent over the mountains,
it is supposed about 10,000 yearly, some of
whom are kept to hard labour. For murder
the penalty is a public flogging (often fatal),
and, in case of recovery, penal servitude for
life in the silver mines of Neutchink. Though
a wide distinction exists between the two
classes of sufferers, yet association to a certain
extent is inevitable ; and the degradation
thus incurred forms to honourable and high-
minded men not the least severe part of their
sentence.
The families of exiles are kindly dealt with,
often recalled to Russia, and granted employ-
ment in the military or civil services.
It is not a little startling to find our author
loud in his praises of Russian tolerance in re
ligious matters. The fact, however, may be
admitted so far as the savage tribes of Siberia
are concerned, and his capable of easy explana-
tion. The policy of Russia has invariably
been founded, not on impulse or abstract prin-
ciple, but on a farsighted calculation of results.
Towards Europe her attitude is essentially
aggressive. Western ideas must be excluded
—liberalism in Church and State must he
guarded against—at whatever cost of severity.
In the far east it is different. From that
quarter no danger is apprehended ; the predo-
minance of an energetic race and organised

MIM•Os

353

government over hordes of scattered savages
cannot be shaken, and, where conquest is
complete, conciliation becomes as easy as it is
wise. Our author has a liking for the Greek
Church, and overlooks its many follies and
superstitions in favour of that one merit which
distinguishes it above that of Rome—the per-
mission of marriage to the clergy. We shall.
not dispute the point, only observing that a
priesthood who fir ignorance and rudeness
are justly looked down upon in Europe may
still be useful agents of civilisation among
Tungooses and Yakoutes. The most interest-
ing part of these volumes is that wherein Mr.
Hill relates his excursion to the Chinese bor.
ders. He began by visiting, and crossing, the
great Baikal lake, an inland sea, whose coasts,
rugged anti wooded, are scarcely yet explored.
His passage was effected over the ice, which
he found ten feet thick, yet so perfectly trans-
parent that the water below was everywhere
visible. A few days' journey brought our tra-
veller to Kiachta, a petty village of' 1,200 inha-
bitants, yet famous as the advanced post of
Russo-Chinese trade. He was allowed to visit
the Chinese town opposite, and even asked to
dine with the governor. Here—his nationality
being unknown—he heard a candid opinion of
his country :
The interpreter ( for such was his tansy) kept talking
continually about the English, which of all things Ile
onght to have avoided, and myself found whet passed Ito
amusing, as it was communicated to me, that I could not
make up my mind to restrain him The wars we carried
on in China were the eubject chiefly dwelt upon Tbe inter-
preter pretended that be knew a very little either of the Eng-
lish or of these wars, and the merchant undertook to en-
lighten him. The English, he said, are a nation without fired
homes, dwelling sometimes in some islands in the ocean
and sometimes others. They are in truth mere pirates,
continually at war with all other nations. They come co-
casiovally on our coast, from which we could very well
drive them; but, as we find their sole object is money, and
our country is rich and we are disposed to peace, we RATO
them what they demand, and they depart satisfied. Bat,
just as this was passing, one of our party, who neither es-
derstood a word of the mixed tongue in which it wasspoken,
nor of that in which the interpreter and myself communi-
cated, contrived nevertheless to betray our little secret con-
cerning myself, by letting the Chinese merchant know
that he was entertaining one of the predatory race. I was
not, however, aware tit this until the interpreter informed
me, that, neon observing the confusion of the Chinese
which it had occasioned, he bad flatly contradicted it im-
mediately, and declared that I was an Italian.
Notwithstanding the outward show of civi-
lity displayed, Chinese exclusiveness remains
in full vigour. Of this trait a characteristic
specimen is given. A young girl, a child in
years. strayed from her parents, and, crossing
the interposed space of neutral ground, was
found by a Siberian party in the Russian
streets of Kiachta. None could speak or un-
derstand her language. Yet she showed no
fear. They took her home, entertained, and
sought to restore her to her family :
In the morning, when the cherished little stranger
awoke, the family with whom she had lodged, nothing di-
minished in their interest for their charge, began to think
it time to give notice to the Russian governor of the pre-
sence of a Chinese subject among them ; and a party,
composed of both sexes, led the girl out to present her at
the government-house. They were not, however, above
half way across the broad square, which lay between their
abode and the palace, before two Chinese appeared, who it
was soon evident were in search of the girl. There was
nothing particular the appearance or manner of
them men as they sho
rtappached to aflOrd any clue to the
still unsolved mystery. The girl, whether they were her
kinsmen or not, which was 'lever known, seemed to
nive them as soon as they appeared ; and she did not best.
tate for a moment to obey what seemed to the Russians
present to be a simple command to her to accompany
them.
No objection was made by the protectors of the girt
during the past night to render up their interesting charge,
nor were they able to hold a word of conversation with the
men who claimed her. They accompanied the Chinese,
however, and the little adventurer to the Russian barrier,
where they took a feeling leave of the girl, and the two
par lies sepal at ed.
But would that the story could end here! Why our
common Creator has made the wide difference between the
feelings of his creatures of the same order, which the end
of this tale reveal', who is able to tell us? The blood of
their race was siipposed by the inhabitants of this border
town to be contaminated, even by the circumstances above
related, and the offence must be avenged before the stain
could he expunged. Before the sun set that was on the
meridian when the Russian ladies took leave of their che-
rished little charge, the innocent girl was decapitated, and
her lifeless body cast upon the plain beyond the walls of
the town, to be devoured by the wolves.
Before returning to Irkoutak, Mr. Hill visited
the Khomba lama, or spiritual chief of the
Bouriats, a tribe numbering 200,000, Russian
in government only, but Buddhists in their

■

■