The Sun.
London, England, 1836-05-24 00:00:00

RUSSIA.

(From the Frankfort Journal of May 9.)

The genius of the Russian people has up to the present
time been either very lightly examined, or very badly under-
stood. The Russian is a nation, or an assemblage of na-
tions, as new and as bizarre as the concourse of nations
which people the United States. Its primitive population
is singularly homogenous, and is of a common race. a com-
mon idiom, and a common faith. The Empercr, the head
of the Church, and the chief of the race, it looked upon as J
the father of all his subjects, whose devotion to h_los is
bounded. The world never before saw such a yott entra-
tion of power in the bands of one man. The Sclavonic
tribes are simple and. easy—they wish for a master, and
their submission is ucither forced nor fictitious—they love
the yoke. Every nge, by assuring the success of the un-
dertakings of Ilussia, increases the devotedness of which
we speak. Let it not be said that the Russians are barba-
rians ; let not this multitude of men be branded as sa-
vages, whom civilization has as yet left unpolished and un-
prepared. Wonderful instruments in the hands of a
conqueror !—to govern them there is no need either of
Pollee, or Deputies, or Peers, or Elections, or Minis-
to-jai intrigues. The whole machine is of the most extra-
ordinary simplicity ; it works of itself ; and all the energy
of this great kingdom is free to be employed on the exte-
rior—the interior does not give it the smallest trouble.
When the principal chiefs of the aristocratic opposition
have been once drawn into the higher grades of the army,
Russia can rriarch onward without ever looking behind. It
is this that sets in motion the springs of her diplomacy—a
diplomacy so constant, so vigorous, and so enlightened ; it is
this that, gives her talent to turn to her own advantage every
event in foreign nations—a talent which is worth more to
her than conquest, and more efficacious than victorious
armies. Having her desires always bent upon the accom-
plis'ament of one object, well acquainted with the East, of
w`aich she holds the key, familiar also with the genius of
the Turkish people, which we do not understand, and upon
which nothing has enlightened us. Russia has made our
diplomatists, and their profoundest combinations and mas-
ter-strokes of design, the sport of her policy and the instru-
ments of her greatness.
How was it possible for Russia to avoid mixing. in fo-
reign policy ? In remaining inclosed within her primitive
boundaries, she would have been at the mercy of all Europe.
Two straits, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, could
give the law to her rivers, to her ports, and to her most
important arsenals. These formed the double outlet for
her wealth, and the double gates of her prison—it was by
these that she respired, by .these that her commerce
flourished, and by these alone that she could be extin-
guished. It is not necessary to be a profound diploma-
tist to understand these things—it is sufficient to be a
Russian. Vulnerable in these to points at a distance
from herself, it would seem that her vitality was outside, if
we may so express it, of her territory. Thus it is that
she springs to the succour of these dangerous points—thus
it is that, leaving her interior civilization to take care
of itself, she remains ever on the watch. The first
soldier of fortune who is sent as ambassador to Con-
stantinople immediately comprehends her position. It
is necessary that Russia should be of weight in the
balance of European power ; and she must not be
niggardly of the gold which bribes and corrupts,
but at the same time she will not spread abroad too many
menaces or promises, or too much terror or gold. The first
care of Russia has been to assure to herself the free passage
of these two straits, and she has then tried to weaken other
Powers, and to prevent a coalition against herself—a coontion which would ruin her. Her ulterior object is to be-
come mistress at the same time of the Bosphorus and the
_Dardanelles ; of the Dardanelles especially, which open
out a whole world to her. It must be said circumstances
are very favourable to her, and Russia is not ignorant of it.
The model of an absolute power, she finds friends and allies
in the most of the Powers of Europe,who see their autho-
rity endangered by popular usurpations, or, if you will, by
the progress of liberal ideas. Politically speaking, all these
kingdoms find themselves engaged in an interior struggle,
1 danger of which Russia has escaped. Morally,
nussia otters virwdoms a model, an asylum, a hope,
and a resource.

Admire the language of Russia even towards Eagland,
her most redoubtable foe. The Gazette of Moscow, of the
27th December, 1832, says :—" The Russian nation is
filled with indignation at the secret part which England, or
rather her perfidious Ministry, has taken in the troubles of
Poland. But we will have our turn ; we will take off her
mask, and will teach the world in what manner a great peo-
ple is rescued from slavery. You will soon see whether
Ponsonby said rightly, in repeating to all that were willing
to listen, that Russia was nothing, and that her Asiatic
Government should no longer be of any weight in the des-
tinies of Europe. How dares this indebted Albion to
wake the Polar Bear (it is by this name that she designates
us) this bear, which was well nigh devouring Napoleon with
the first army which was fool-hardy enough to set foot on
her territory, and which then proceeded to Paris to be re-
venged for this temerity ? No, the turn of England must
goon collie ; in a alert time we 'must- Wake no 4r...try-with
that people, except at Calcutta. Her false policy has
played its last game ; and she may now go on and form an
alliance with the negroes of Africa, to whom she wishes to
do so much good, and for whom Europe is her dupe. N.7e
Russians, barbarians and slaves, as her journals call i;is, will
one day give her a lesson. In the mean time let t:deni con-
tinue—it is all we desire."

We will not occupy ourselves further w-...th the Asiatic
possessions of Russia, but will content cnrselves with the
refutation of an error, shared by mP:ay politicians. The
extent of territory no more weake;is the central authority
than Me angmentation of capital, impoverishes its possessor.
This is a practical question. We must know how to em-
ploy capital, and we must also know how to make the
most of extent of territor; at the same time that we govern
it. This immense &Amain of Russia, over which wander
so many nameless tr::oes, is easier to govern than Modena,
a poor little princirfality about as large as one's hand! It
is submitted to a surveillance so exact and so rigid, that
not a day par.scA that the authorities do not examine a
space as load as the wall of Chinn, to see whether the
sward heals the impress of the foot of a man. As regards
European. 'Russia, it is composed of immense plains, which
would oiler neither asylum nor resource to revolt, if the
idea of it even penetrated into a Russian brain. Place
the point of a compass on the city of Moscow, and form
a circle, of which the diameter shall be one hundred and
fifty German miles (600 English), and within this vast
sphere you will not enclose a single mountain or even a
hill. The hollow of the valleys is the cradle of indepen-
dence, and the summit of the mountains is its o.rone. Men
hide themselves in caverns and escape frofr:a their oppres-
sors through the defiles of the mountr?.as. Clanship and
family spirit nourish pride and covage, but an agricul-
tural population, spread over ar'; immense plain surface,
easily falls into servitude. it '.s more difficult to conquer a
tribe of Bedouins than 1.-;.eep under two millions and a
half of Egyptians. is..tia notwithstanding, when these last,
incapable as they `Are of maintaining their independence,
were led to wr.e; they shook the Ottoman throne. The
Bedouin remr.i.ns a wanderer because he cherishes his inde•
pendence. The plains of Russia, which feed the Russian
troops, m..sy be calculated at five hundred thousand square
leagues, and the population daily augments more rapidly
than 'in any other European State. During six months of
the year,the soil refuses every species of vegetation. The
Government has only to give the order, and the storehouses
full of corn will be emptied, the huts and the stable ra-
vaged, and the peasant be left entirely without resources.
Thus the peasant has not the thought of resisting any
order. The being who, like the Emperor, possesses a
power so complete, an?, we may almost say so supernatural,
becomes, as it were, a god to his imaimation. His only re-
ligion is to o'oey. This universal sentiment speedily assumes
a character oF. enthusiasm :Ind fanaticism. In cur days few
Christians are to he 'round capable of undergoing martyr-
dom for their Goa, with the joy the Monjick feels when
concletr.necl to undergo torture and death in obedience to
the commands of the EMperor.
P. there are in Russia some few hard, intractable, and
stubborn spirits who are filled with European doctrines,
they are immediately sent to join the army, where military
discipline soon bends or breaks them. As regards the rest
of the population, fatalists, without embarrassing them-
selves about fatalism,:resigned to all, careless of the future,
without proper.iy, without liberty, and without hopes, cer-
tain of obtct.ning either from charity or from despotism the
necessari aliments of life, indifferent also as to the spot
where they may be allowed to subsist, they have no other
will than that of the Autocrat—no other joy than his good
Pleasure, and no other grandeur than in his conquests.
This population, so useful and so pliant—this dough, so
well kneaded (if we may be forgiven the expression), is
composed of thirty-four millions of souls. In other coun-
tries you find one or two elements of despotism, with a few
Vole germs of liberty ; but in Russia everything tends to
file aggrandisement of this despotism, and to the furtherance
of its designs—.religion, manners, climate, soil, the past and
the future,

ST, PETERSBURG, MAY 14.—The journal de St. Peters-
burg): contains the following article :
" A measure adopted by the Russian Government for
the general interest, respecting the establishment of a
quarantine at the mouth of the Danube, has furnished many
foreign journals with a pretext for propagating the most
lying assertions relative to the motives of that establish-
ment—assertions which have even been re-echoed in the
British Parliament, where an Hon. Member of the House
,26.rebifitiaiiiiiMade use of it as the foundation• of a heavy
..---coni-p0 int. against Russia. Though Lord 'Palmerston's
denial should seem to be sufficient to prove the groundless-
ness of it, yet considering that these false reports, which
have been proptgated by malice and dishonesty, might ex-
- cite apprehensions in the merchants, as if the navigation of