The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-19 00:00:00

PROGRESS OF RUSSIA IN THE EAST.

Two hundred years ago Russia had no place
amongst the political bodies of Asia. She was
struggling to make good her position in Europe ;
contending, with varying success, against Poland,
which she afterwards swallowed up, and against
Turkey, on which she has yet to sate her appetite
for conquest. She had to acquire the solidity and
make the advances in the arts of civilisation which
she owed to Peter the Great. But in the two cen-
turies which followed, she has succeeded in appro-
priating an extent of territory nearly equal to that
of China—an empire which has stood for nearly two
thousand years. Of the seven and a half millions
of square miles which acknowledge her sway,
stretching through two of the great divisions of
the globe from the Atlantic to the Pacific, more
than two-thirds have been conquered in. Asia, and
attest not only the aggressive character of her
policy, but the untiring vigilance with which she
watches her opportunity and seizes it. From the
Ural mountains to Kamtschatka she rules through-
out the north of Asia, including amongst her sub-
jects the people of the ancient Tartarian kingdoms
ofKasan and Astrachan, the tribes of the Kirsrhlses,
and the mountaineers of the Caucasus—the latter
not docile subjects. She has the three Caucasian pro-
vince., which lie on both sides of Mount Caucasus,
and constitute a military government; the steppes
of the Kirghises, the Siberian islands, her acquisi-
tions on the Caspian, and the peninsulas in the Polar
region of the Pacific Ocean, as far as the North-
western shores of North America. She rules the
destinies of Siberia, until 1822 a military govern-
mont, but then placed under civil government, and
divided into the two provinces of Western and
Eastern Siberia, the former comprehending the
Governments-of Tobolsk, Omsk, and Temso; the
latter those of Irkutzk, Yeneseisk, and Yakutzk,
with the two maritime Governments of Okhotzk
and Kamtschatka.

But the gain of Russia in the East must not be
altogether judged by the extent of territory over
which she has extended her rule. It has been com-
puted that the subjects of the Russian empire in
Asia do not much exceed one-fortieth of the whole
population of that continent, while those of China
constitute one-half, to a Lea, ly equal area of square
miles. The Russian population in Asia gives two
inhabitants for every square mile, the Chinese
forty-six ; British India to ice as many. Thus, the
British possessions in Asia, apart altogether from
their British connexion, are the most valuable por-
tions of Asia. In them agriculture and civilisation
have made most improvement. Their peninsular
character, placing them under the protection of
the most powerful fleet in the world, also adds to
their value and importance. Well might. Napoleon,
and well may Russia conceive the design of robbing
us of this empire. And it is a fact which should be
borne constantly in mind, that in the last sixty
years she has extended her rule a thousand miles
towards India. Her farthest frontieron the western
shore of the Caspian is farther from her capital than
it is from the capital of the Punjab.—Advertiser.