The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-07 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7.

Togas is an ancient tradition which tells us that
scorpions were killed by encircling them with a ring
of Are. As the intensity of the fire increased, the
convolutions of the scorpion grew more contracted,
until at last, wearied with the unequal contest, the
wretched animal made use of its own poison to
put an end to its own existence. Is not something
of this kind developing itself in the modern
world at the present day ? Russia is the
great snake which is surrounded nay, has
surrounded itself—with a ring of fire, which, if it '
cannot burst through it, will of necessity involve its
contraction, if not destruction.l here are the Danubian
Principalities on the south, over which the CZAR
thought that he might glide without exciting atten-
tion ; but, alas ! at the very moment that he crossed
the border the fiery ring flung upwards its tongues
of flame, and warned the invader of the danger he
would incur in passing its houndaries.Aswe trace the
Russian limits eastwards and westwardswesrestruck
with the appearance of the same phenomena. The
real Asiatic boundary on the south—the Caucasus— '
is bristling with weapons. The East of Europe lends A
its aid to the great end of enclosing the European
pest within his own confines, and making him vent
his own poison on himself. On this side, as we
amend from the Danubian Principalities, we come
upon the Polish boundary, which contains within '
its limits an amount of deep concentrated
hatred which it is difficult to measure rarely,
but the intensity of which may be estimated
by the consistency with-which the Poles maintain
their nationality in spite of the oppression of half a '
century. As we travel upwards towards the north,
we come upon what the continental geographers
persist in calling the German provinces on the Bal-
tic, Kourland, Livonia, and Esthonia. No better way
of estimating the danger which may arise to
Russia, in the event of a European war,
from these provisos, can be found than by
taking into consideration the peculiar features
which these provinces exhibit at the present day.
Defeated, bet not subdued, by Germain, Russians,
and Swedes, these provinces two centuries ago dis-
played in all their greot political features elements
of German civilisation. The great towns were essen-
tially German. Travellers at the present day recog-
nise this peculiarity. The influence of Russia is of
late date. In the spring of 1617 a great portion of
these provinces fell into the power of Sweden, and
the great Gurravus ADOLPHUS, foreseeing the
danger which threatened the welfare of Europe from
the possible progress of Russia, exclaimed at the
peace of Stolbova in that year, " Russia is now,
thank GOD, shut out from the Baltic Sea, and I hope '
to GOD she will never have the power to leap over
this stream." This stream was the Narova, which '
separated the provinces of Remain Proper from the '
German provinces on the Baltic. The KING caused '
afterwards a stone monument to be erected, on which '
were inscribed the words:—" GCSTATUS ADOLPHUS,
King of Sweden, has here established the boundaries
of the kingdom. May this work, under Goo's pro-
tection, be lasting." The stone has vanished, the
facts that it chronicled are matters of history, but
they have not endured. The provinces are in the
power of Russia. The CZARS have pursued their
usual policy of Rustionising these provinces, and they
h►ve succeeded to a great extent, although they have
not succeeded, and never will succeed, in stifling the
inborn hatred which is always entertained, from
Esthonia to Georgia, by all Rnesianieed provinces
against their conquerors. The very course that
Russia has taken, although admirably suited to de-
stroy that unity of action in a province which is
necessary to create a national feeling, must of neces-
sity fail in establishing a feeling in favour of Russia
itself. Russia played off the inhabitants of the
towns of these provinces, German citizens, against the
inhabitants of the provinces. It then put the
nobility of the country in opposition to the serfs. It
granted privileges to the serfs in order to excite
enmity between these and their masters. It increased
the authority of the masters in order to intensify
the ill-feeling. It flooded the country with Greek
piens, and offered premiums to apostacy. It en-
aited that if eit►er the father or the mother
of a child were a member of the Greek
church the child must be brought up as a member of
that church. It extended the conscription to these
provinces contrary to the stipulation of treaties.
All methods, whether insidious or violent, are taken
to bring over converts to the Greek Church. Recan-
tation of the doctrines of that church incurred the
severest punishment. The German lognage is dis-
couragedandevery moos taken faits abolition: Those
who wish for advancement must graduate in Russian
schools or universities. The Cult himself has said,
"The Baltic provinces have belonged to Russia for
150 years, and they are therefore Russian. We will
have so more talk about Gennasism." This is the
intention and the wish of the Russian Government.
But what has bees the effect on the provinces
themselves? All travellers tell us that in propor-
tion as these provinces have become more " Russian'.
the more they have become filled with intense hatred
to Russia. The inhabitants, degraded as they are,
know that Russia has degraded them in order to
make more certain of them. They have no
loyalty to Russia. They are ready to fall into the
hands of any party that promises them deliverance.
And in the event of a general outbreak they will
look either to Germany or to Sweden.

The latter country has been unjustly deprived of
Finland, the province which completes the western
boundary of Russia as we ascend. There may be
aroeptions amongst the richer and the mobile classes,
but the Finns, ea a nation, hate the Russians as
those who keep down Finland by brute force. The
provinces, therefore, otKourland, Livonia, Esthonia,
and Finland, forming the most important possessions
of Russia on the Baltic, are filled with inflammable
material ready to beret into flame at the first provo-
cation. And it requires not much penetration to
see whence they may obtain fuel to feed the
flame. Sweden, filled with the recollection of
former injuries, may not be unwilling to come
forward at a fitting season. The speech of
King OSCAR shows that Sweden has not lost the
feeling which once elevated it to so high a rank in
the family of nations. It is certain that the proceed-
ings of the CZAR have given rise to feelings not only
of fear, but of hope in the north and cast as well as
in the south and west. King Ose %A points to " the
present state of Europe" as a reason for looking to the
needs of the army. The whole of the nations which
encircle Russia are animated with the same thought,
and the consequence of this unanimity of feeling may
be—unless the pusillanimity of Cabinets intervene—
to thrust back Russia within those boundaries which
it has overleaped within the last few centuries, or at
least to make its farther progress impossible. We