The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-25 00:00:00

(Front the Morning Post.)

It does not appear that the Russian railway scheme
can be made to float in its present form, but we may
rest assured 'that it will not be abandoned. It is too
promising ; and the deadly tenacity with which the
Cabinet of St. Petersburg clings to its plans allows no
retreat. The mistake was made at first of not offering a
sufficient rate of interest; that mistake can easily be
rectified, and will be so directly or indirectly. A. six
per cent. Imperial guarantee would certainly add
100,0001. a year to the expenditure of Russia itself—
about forty millions sterling when all was done ; but
the railways will not be altogether dead loss ; and
though not, perhaps, the most advantageous that could
be devised for external commerce, still will no doubt
add materially to the tax-paying power of the people. In-
. deed the omission of Odessa almost looks as it it was
not intended that they should encourage foreign trade
too much,- that being the very point where Russia is
moat vulnerable. As long as the principal revenue of Rus-
sian nobles is derived from the export of their produce to
foreign countries—which an effective blockade almost an-
nihilates, ass the cultivation of their soil depends upon ad-
vances from theircust onaers, which are stopped by the war,
and on the number of their efficient serfs, whose number
and not the area of land is the true measure of landed
property in Russia, and who are taken away by the war
—so long will a Russian war with this country run its
regular course, through the impoverishment of the land-
owners, to discontent, to conspiracy—sooner or later to
the assassination of the Emperor or a revolution. Paul
neglected the warning, and perished ; Alexander saw the
advance of the grim spectre in 1811, and preferred even
the terrible scourge of the French invasion to the pitie
less ruin of the English blockade. Nicholas confronted
it in an evil hour of overweening pride, saw the wr. ck
his obstinacy had made, felt that he could no longer
brave it, and sunk, broken-hearted, at the prospect. We
may therefore look to every effort being made by Russia
to increase her consuming power at home, and the ac-
tivity of her domestic traffic, and render her in that
respect independent of foreign cations; and certainly
the obtaining possession of forty millions of foreieu
capital to invest in works facilitating her interior com-
munications, though not leading to important seaports,
is not a had beginning. We believe the exact sum pro•
posed is 43,200,0001.—the odd three millions being, and
appears to be, paid down forthwith to the Russian
Government for that portion of the St. Petersburg and
Warsaw Railway which it has-already executed; and
there is likewise talk of a further sum to be paid
fete some large works for the construction of machi-
nery belonging to a member of the Imperial family.
Altogether, we may assume that from fifty to sixty
millions will be expended in the dominions of the
Czar ; for, it he will only offer sufficient interest, he
will get the money. In the course of the next ten
or twelve years therefore the pear will be ripe for further
operations, and as that will about have brought round
the cycle of Russian outbreak, it may not be amiss to
consider what will then be our mutual position.
Three great facts in favour of the encroaching policy
of Russia have come to light from the war that has just
ended. Firstly, that Cronstadt is now, whatever it may
have been three years ago, impregnable, and St. Peters-
burg, consequently, secure from insult; seconaly, that
the tranquil possession of Finland is not. to be meddled
with, and balf-Russianised as it is, will be left undis-
turbed until the Russianisation is complete—an operation
which will be facilitated by the circumstance of the pre-
sent Czer having been brought up in Poland—to say
nothing of the disputed boundary at the Warangee
Fiord, of which we shall probably hear more before
long; thirdly, that the Polish question is disposed ot.
There is no more a Poland in Poland. A few wandering
exiles cherish the memory of Kosciusko, but the guns
of the citadel of Warsaw will never open to fulfil Ni-
cholas' threats. The nationality is gone, the country.
is Russiarased ; and so fu ly is that felt, that it is well
known that the Russian army in those provinces never
was so weak as it is now. Of course the completion
of the railway to Warsaw will strengthen Russia in
that quarter ; but upon the whole we may assume that
the empire is now perfectly at ease and unembarrassed
in her European relations. She is liable to no aggres-
sions from the West ; the time is not favourable tor ag-
gressions on her part in Europe; ,and we may safely con-
clude that the whole activity of her never-slumbering
p ;flay wilt be turned upon Asia. Through two portals
she debauches on the East—Kaffa and Nijni Novo-
ral—the first leading to Constantinople and I-palian,
and supporting en echelon the advance of the latter
"Pan Delhi and Calcutta. It sounds wild to task of a
Russian
cept ti take
nta,ukintry so recently and so hopelessly defeated under-
!.he.Bßssearataan
ng pinch enterprises, but it must be remembered
that
breath for
never varies and newveer
mhaayltst,hienicx
frontiera r newec
rectified—which,
a d spring.—
w
ich, by-the-bye
it 1. not yet—and the Turkishquestion settled for hail'
~
r
1 a century to come • '
, ,_ but the Russiau Cabinet. sees a
1 second SUWarrovv
same laconic n_deraafora Ismael, who will receive the
judge from th.;
to send back C
h
' that, however, is
in Asie are going 0, Probablyrepiy
beard the summons to re,ist
The brazen head has uttered'
absorption of Circas4a is nose
and somewhat advanced detail, ex. the first did, though it may not, t
ante
reply
of Silietria, be in his power
of blasphemous doggrel.
distant; tae operations
unw• Like Poland, Circassia
sace, alai heeded it riot.
its third ,entenc , aed the
trely a matter of detail,
theby Vladi Caucasus ;
a communication, no longer beriousl
shores of the Caspian, through DerbeYndmaenaced, by the
undisputed pessession of Georgia •
_, the pr
,nveddßaku ; the
and corruptibility of the high Turkish , ffi.,
jah.m.aliacity
mania S a position at Gutnri which we inn, I
t -sea s in
Ai'
forth to call Alaxandropol, which eo any
likelyriihpnce
be c' lected in the efface pssbalics of Asia er to
mor could
look.at, atid which all but c ,mmands, or at all
events
a not very difficuit advance from whichvsenia arm'.
:nand the roads n. Erzerouxu, Aleppo, and Damascus
I:az i',... Ruz.iaith her force deple-aed to the south of
the Caucasus, her right flank sufficiently secured, her