The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-03 00:00:00

RUSSIAN COMMERCE ON THE CASPIAN'

A Hertfordshire incumbent, in writing to the Tin°,
says :—Sir,--" I owe it to your correspondent in
day's paper, who signs himself An Old 52d,' to expo;
the difficulty 'which he finds in reconciling rey cal&
tions of the commerce on the Caspian with the statisti°
of the Board of Trade. My data are the same as 0,1
of which he has made use, but I have taken the aver,
of the four years 1849-1852, whereas he has confie°
himself to the last year of that period.
He is quite right in his conjecture that in my WI
mate of the Caspian commerce I confined myself to tlO,
consideration of that between Russia and Persia ; and'
did this, because no other country has any port on lb'
sea. It is true that there is a small traffic with
through the Caspian ; but, independently of its extrem
small amount, it is of such a peculiar kind that if
water communication with Astrachan were cut off, t
whole of it might be easily transferred to one of the oth
routes, which no number of British cruisers on the C3l:w
pian could affect. Your correspondent must not imagi,r,
that the trade with the Kirghese steppes and that W
Bokhara, Taschkend, and Kokham, which he sees 06
down in the excellent statistical tables which he quote
is a sea-borne traffic. If he will refer to a most instrtle,
tive book, which was much read when it first appear"
—I mean 'Burnes's Travels into Bokhara'—he will sold
account of the different routes by which the Asiatic tree;
of Russia is carried on. In Burnes's time the main roa!
to Bokhara was by way of Mung Kislak, on the CO
pian, but now the tables show that the Khivan trade'
which is the one that passes by that route is very incoly
siderable—a result which I should be disposed to inter
pret by the conjecture that the improved navigation 0;
the Indus had brought British manufactures by way
Affghanistein into Kliiva, and forced ont the Russian.
"The traffic with the Kirghese steppes passes, I W..
no doubt, by Orenburg and Samara. If your correspee'
(lent will look down the proper column of the tables, 13°
lull see that its principal items are cattle and skins, Oil
latter of which are most probably at this moment pre'
tecting from the inclemency of the weather troops de;'
tined in the early summer to be brought into the Crimea,
"The trade with Bokhara, and that with Taschkeutlf
which appear in the tables, are, apparently, that corn'
merest which Burnes describes as taking place by way
Troitski and Kuzzubj or respectively.
"As the only question which I desired to illustrate
was the effect likely to be produced by the destruction
of Russian trade on the Caspian—supposing such a ehiog,
possible—l was unwilling to introduce the mention n'
the above topics in my last letter.
" I trust your correspondent does not understand MO
to disparage his recommendation of military operation°
in Imeritia, and Georgia. If I had thought it becoming
to offer any opinion upon such a subject, it would hall
been one in hearty concurrence with his views. But,
although I have no more doubt than he that our eneraf
is trying, and always will try, to push on to India, I ens
one who thinks that Great Britain is more likely, through
the silent but effective operation of manufactures and
commerce, to get to the eastern bank of the Oural, than
her rival, by a widely different agency, to reach the
western bank of the Indus. All that we really want 0
a spirit of patriotism in officials, sufficient to overcool°,
the habit of jobbing and nepotism which seems engraine°
in English society.—in the lower and middle claw's.,
perhaps, even more than the highest. The throwing
opee of the Indian service to all meritorious candidate°
is, I believe, a firmer security for the stability of on; jl
Indian empire than "a Gibraltar in the Caspian" would
be. It will put us, pro twat°, on a level with the Czar;
who has no constituents to humour and no politics.,
party to keep together ; and accordingly, as facts prove,
generally experiences no difficulty in finding " the right
man for the right place."

* At Samara there is a winter fair for peltries, and Of
Kirghese lambskins, remarkable for their extreme softness
and warmth, are said by Pallas to sell for a very high price
in Moscow and pt. Petersburg.