The Express.
London, England, 1861-09-28 00:00:00

TO OUR READERS.

SPORTING tNTELLIGENCE.

A late edition of the Express is publisbed every
evening during the ruing season, containing the
results of the day's races.

WHILS a hundred of our summer travellers are
said to have scaled the summit of Mont Blanc
this year, some of their less aspiring compatriots,
preferring posting over the steppes to climb-
ing np the glaciers, have been to see how the
great measure of emancipation is working in
Russia, how the produce of that country promises,
how its military force is kept up, and whether the
same general progress ia making there which is
visible in most of the other countries of Europe.
We cannot say that the reports of observers
are favourable upon any one of these points. They
represent the change from the stern iron rule of
Ifiettoz.ss to the loose government of his suc-
cessor, as bringing most disastrous results in re-
mote provinces, however it may have thawed
that atmosphere of terror which used to prevail
at St. Petersburg. Poland, which might have
made profitable returns to leniency, is the only
part of the present CZAWK dominions which has
not felt the benefit of that disposition, whilst
the indulgence shown in the Russian provinces to
defaulters and incapable functionaries has greatly
aggravated the abuses of local administration.
As an example of this, we are informed that
the military colonies of South Russia may be said
to have perished. Instead of being examples
of an economical mode of furnishing regiments,
the military colonies had been turned to indivi-
dual profit ; and so universal has been the plunder
and dilapidation, that the CZAR, unwilling to
punish, and unable to amend, has resolved to do
away altogether with the system, which cost his
predecessor so much pains, and which at one time
promised such ample success.

With respect to the great edict of emancipa-
tion, it may, it is said, if • strong and vigilant
hand be kept over it, be successfully carried out
in those rich bordering provinces which have con-
tiguous markets for agricultural produce. But in
the interior it is a source of the greatest embar-
rassment, of resistance on the part of the pro-
prietors, and of discontent amongst the peasantry.
Without money, either procured by itself or
furnished by the State, the labourer's condition
remains, in despite of the nksse, pretty much
what it was. He has nought but labour to
give—labour for his own sustenance, labour
in lieu of rent, for his landlord's susten-
ance. He deems himself exempt from the latter;
and the proprietors, if quiescent, would bo almost
all ruined. They blame the CZAR, and the Cr.sx's
Governmentiblames them. The worst result is a doubt
of the omnipotence and omniscience of their ruler
which Russian peasants never entertained before.
Nor is their discontent described as always reason-
able. They complain in the first instance of furnish-
ing recruits, yet complain equally when, as
at present, the soldiers have been in great num-
bs= sent back to their families. Once a Russian
resent has served as a soldier, they say, he is good
far nothing else.

The difficulties of Russia, as described by tra-
vellers but just returned, may be compared to those
of the Great Eastern. The monster empire resembles
the monster ship, which was to walk past and over
everything on its own element ; but which, after
• prosperous voyage or two that even confirmed
her reputation, turns out • rudderless wreck in a
storm of more than ordinary magnitude. The
chief motive power of the Ruaian Rmpire, tried
severely in the Crimean war, has been for • time
destroyed. It is without finances and without an
army. There is no coin to be found in Russia,
and the very bayonets are sparse. And worse than
even this, the state rudder is in hands too feeble to
use it, or to impress any steady course upon the
drifting vesseL
_ _

In Russia the character of the reigning Err-
retina is everything. We have mentioned that
the lower classes have no longer the fear or the
faith which used to form their universal senti-
ment of loyalty. An analogous change has taken
place in classes above them, and even amongst the
public functionaries. The whole country seems
to be in a state of restlessness, to judge from the
bold and defiant nature of the language every-
where heard. The frowardness of rebellion is
not confined to Warsaw or to Wilna. It is quite
as rife at Kiew, where Russian students and mer-
chants are just as clamorous for freedom as those
in Poland. Not only their sentiments, but their
expression of sentiment, is too universal to be put
down. For though some few may be imprisoned
or despatched to Siberia, any large measure of
severity would meet with a degree of reprobation
amounting to fury. And to do ALEXANDER 11.
justice, he is not the Prince to issue such orders.
One of our informants compares Russia and its
Court to France under Loris XV., the premature
civilisation of the former country having induced
a premature corruption similar to that which
betel the despotism of the Betlasexs. Of the way
in which this comparison is carried out by adescrip-
tion of the habits of the court, we shall bo
silent. In the provinces the Russian Government
is regarded as an imbecile tyranny which no
longer inspires fear even into its own subordinates,
and which dares not attempt any measures of re-
I premien.