The Express.
London, England, 1853-11-03 00:00:00

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TO CORRESPONDENTS.
a MIN Vitt,* et lee Knoreee,"eootAuurt the ism tiem.ng's
"Waite," le pull .4114 every liteeday and Jt
Mr root.

Whrinummits boob ;ed foe "Ms eJpreri," Lewlon Eresn'T tr.
OhSit be St the 0111 to. Beuvesio-street, by Two et.cet on Mit
ukty et pub/bastion.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
"ug WOW, 2h. Situ Aflrrnoon, 3b.
TO4boaivni-31 r.ang, SE. 3703 Aftetuwc, lb. Fb

LONDOS, TN r RsDA Y, No VEMBER 3.

%TINES ft moos opinions respecting the Eastern
Question may be, he must be hard-hearted indeed if
be can refuse his mpathy to the Toms. 1 here is
that most consistent and conscientious of journals
compelled by its stern sense of justice to declare that
the Cz.ta is in the wrong,—and forced also to im-
press upon its re.alers the necessity of upholding the
Ent.r.ce, yet groaning and moaning all the time at
the awkward complication of minim which compels
the (ei downs) organ of Puseyism to ally itself to
the infidel Turk, and abet the resistance that
is being offered to Russian aggression. For the
religious scruples of our revered contemporary there
is, we fear, no allaying balm ; but for his grief at
being made an accomplice in repelling the march of
civilisation, perhaps if he would take:the trouble to
learn what Russia really is, be might therefrom
derive a little consolation.

It is not indeed easy (perhaps not possible) to get
a thorough insight into the arettna or penal-alio of
Russia. The distinguished strangers" who have
penetrated into it of late have been carefully kept in
hand and allowed to ace nothing but what they
ought to see. A Liberal member of Parliament has
a passport for Russia risj at Embassy or Consu-
late, and forthwith the " coming event "is tele-
graphed to St. Petersburg. Letters of introduction
arc pressed upon his acceptance by the kind
and bland diplomatic or consular officials ;
he is received with empressem•nt at the frontier by
a courteous Government officer, who recommends
him to a brother official at his next station, and so
on. In fact, he arrives in Russia like a bale of con-
signed goods, and, all unconscious, is passed from
hand to hand by tho employt:t of Government as
piaively as any commodity. Silently, but surely,
every person is isolated from him who possesses any
language in common, or is likely to tell him awkward
truths. He is allowed to see only "show villages,' to
censer,e only with parrots trained to praise every-
thing in Russia, and he leaves the country as wise
as he entered it. It is amusing enough to hear such
a traveller clinch an argument in l'arliament or else-
where by the imposing phrase " I have been in
Russia."

But now and then a stray traveller, who enjoys
the advantage of being nobody to speak of, does find
his way to Russia ; and, if he has.the sense to look
about him without appearing to do so, can contrive
to pick up and carry away with him a few useful
facts. Such 0 one w.•..s the American STErtiess,
who, 15 or 16 years ago, made a run acrou the
country from Odessa to Kiew, Moscow, and St. Pe-
tersburg. Such a one is our countryman, LAURENCE
Orin' tNT, who no further agone than last year found
his way to Moscow, thence to the great fair of
Nijuei Novogorod, down the Volga to Dubouka,
across to the Don, down that river to Rostof and Ta-
ganrog, across the Crimea, and thence by Odessa to the
Danube. More might be mentioned (the fair author
of "Letters from the Baltic" among others), but these
may suffice as specimens of their clue: favour.
able specimens, it must be confessed. The American,
coming from a young land not yet altogether
emerging from the colonising condition in which
man is busied reclaiming the waste, and the English-
man, with his Indian experiences, were able to test
what they saw in Itussia —the ono by a country
which resembles it in the unreclaimed character of
much of its territory; the other by a country which,
like Russia, is subject to a government almost exclu-
Wvely military, and inh►bited by a variety of
unamalgasnated races. Rot every traveller who has
obtained a peep, however furtive, at Russia as it really
la, can contribute valuable enlightenment by which
we may me to read more correctly, if not altogether
aright, the specious and elaborate statistics which
the Government of that country imposes upon
Europe and America. For example : the square
miles of Russian territory, and the millions who
occupy it, look formidable on paper, but the awe
with which one is disposed to contemplate them
rather abates under the influence of the following
supplementary information communicated by Mr.
OLIPIIANT t

Russia is anon devoid of as urban population. St.
Petersburg, MOSCOW, sad Odessa aro t►e *sly chin when
populations nosed a hundred thousand ; indeed then is
N. doubt whether that of Odessa roaches this figura.
There an only four towns containing sere than fifty
thousand inhabitants each, and eighteen at twenty with
populations emending twenty-five thousand. In fact, it
has Wes eninputsd, from the official reports, that there is
only one town with an average population of seven thou-
sand, is an nes of a hundred and thirty none miles.

Of the condition of the rural population (the non-
no mad* part of it), which occupies the wide tracts
Interspersed between thin sown petty towns, the
following passage from the same author may convey
acme idea :

Altogether, though the ports on this coast (the Sea of
Azolf ) manifest the most detenniaed disposition to prosper
is spite of everything, I doubt whether the combine-
tie& of natural and political disadvantages with which they
are beset will not ultimately prove insurmountable ; for,
besides the want of water and the want of roads, they hare
jut experienced a new deficiency in the want of labour.
This seems rather an odd complaint for • country contain-
iag fifty millions of inhabitants, • considerable portion of
whom are in great poverty; but it is absolutely the'
Pee that those of the scanty population inhabiting the
steppes aeuthess parts who will give themselves the trouble
to work have oteasioaally earned as much as one silver
ruble • day each. The thousands half-starving in many
parts of the country, who are not altogether bound down as
awls to • particular locality, are enable to migrate to this
had of plenty oa account of the system which obliges
diem to invest their all in • passport to bring them here, and
when they ►ate made • Mete money to spend their savings
fa bribes to government officials for more passports
to take them back again to their own district, from which
they may not be absent above • limited time, while the
journey there and back would moat probably occupy a con-
siderable period, if it were not altogether impracticable for
pumas is their condition.

With regard to the means of intercommunication I
in this land of alternating steppes, fertile, untilled or
half-tilled land, undrained swamps and forest waste,
the accounts of the American and the Englishman
tally exactly. The fifteen years which intervene
between their visits has made no perceptible dif-
ference except in the one railway from St. Peters-
burg to Moscow—of which anon. The agricultural
produce of the country and other goods are either
transported in bullock waggons, over steppes, through
swamps, or along the rivers, at a pace equally slow.
On the noble Volga there are only some thirty-six
steamers, a dozen of which belong to an English com-
pany, now tolerably prosperous since it dismissed all
its Russian smployc't. But the progress of a steamer
down stream on the Volga is infinitely slower than
that of the veriest outworn American tub and kettle
breasting in its ascent the heavy current of the
Mississippi. The traffic of the country is confined to
annual fairs. The whole policy of the empire seems
to um at the repression of trade. No natives but