The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-10-29 00:00:00

RUSSIAN ENCROACHMENTS.

Before the reign of Peter the Great, Moscow was unknown
to Europe ; Russia possessed not a single point upon the
shores of the Baltic ; she was hemmed in by Turkey, then a
formidable power, by Poland, as yet inviolate, by Sweden a
vigorous enemy.
Peter the Great was well aware that to strengthen his em-
pire and increase its extent its outskirts must be bathed by
the sea. Upon this principle it was that he constructed the
city of Newa upon a territory wrested by his arms from Swe-
den. The manner in which it was peopled is already known.
He laid the foundation of that system of policy which prompted
successively the invasion of Poland, Turkey, Sweden, and
Persia. Romanows were not wanting to profit by the les-
sons of Peter. He was the first to meddle with the affairs of
Poland, and a few years later Catherine placed the crown of
that country upon the head of one of her numerous lovers.
In 1772 she took her share in the first dismemberment, and
appropriated Courland to herself into the bargain. Again in
1792 she participated in the benefits arising from a second
dismemberment. At the present day Russia is bounded to
the west by Prussia and Austria; Poland no longer exists.
Although Turkey was not one of the first to be attacked,
she nevertheless was stripped of some of the best of her Eu-
ropean possessions by the indefatigable and insatiable suc-
cessors of Peter the Great. It is awful to reflect, but not the
less true, that Russia (lid not commence her encroachments
upon Turkey until about the middle of the last century, and
within that short intervening period she has extended her
limits to the Pruth, invaded Servia, Moldavia, and Walla-
chia ; acquired a portion of Armenia, and the Turkish for-
tresses of (4eorgia, and obtained not long since from Mahmoud
the exclusive privilege of the navigation of the Black Sea,
and, to crown all, she commands the councils of his suc-
cessor. _ _

From Sweden the grasping power of Russia has wrested
Finland and Eastern Bothnia ; and her maritime territory
now extends, on the north side, from the bottom of the Gulf
of Bothnia to beyond the Niemen.
In the direction of Persia, she has possessed herself of the
exclusive navigation of the Caspian Sea; from this sea she
has advanced to the west and to the east, as far as the Khanat
of Erivan, which she has occupied since the treaty of 1828,
and even to the south of the Gulf of Balcan.

With the incontestible evidence of so rapid and gigantic
conquests recorded indelibly on every map and geographical
work, who can for a moment doubt of the ambitious projects
of Russia, not merely upon Constantinople, for that is be-
yond all doubt, but with respect to India, as also of her ca-
pability of carrying them into execution ? Sufficient atten-
tion has not as yet been paid, nor can too much be said, with
respect to the grandeur, skill, and perseverance of the policy
adopted by the Czars from the time of Peter the Great to the
present—a policy connecting everything by an indissoluble
chain, and which makes everything tend to the same object.
Russia finds herself impelled by the force of events to be-
come a great maritime power of the first class ; the waters of
the Baltic could no longer suffice for her navy, and to increase
her influence in the Black Sea, the possession of Constanti-
nople was indispensable. Her armies have already encamped
under the walls of that city ; she only waits a fitting oppor-
tunity of descending once more into the plains of Adrianople;
and should this occur she will not stand still there, but will
push onwards to that city so much coveted by Napoleon, and
hold perpetual possession of it. This was the prediction of
Napoleon.
Once mistress of Constantinople, Russia would extend her
power along the Asiatic shores of the Bosphorus. Persia,
which she has coveted for the last 40 years, must finally be-
come her prey, and, that once pounced on, she will be next
door to British India. A Russian expedition will then be
seen traversing that empire, and arriving, in a short period,
at the confines of Hindostan, aided, no doubt, in their en-
terprise, by the natives themselves, tired of the English yoke.
All this looks like a romance when viewed upon the map ;
but when Peter the Great laid the first stone of St. Peters-
burgh, in 1703, what would have been thought of the judg-
ment of any one who had predicted that the successors of the
carpenter of Saradam would arrive at that pitch of power
which they have obtained?
According to the designs of the Czars, St. Petersburgh is
but a temporary capital, the permanent one being Constanti-
nople.
With regard to the difficulties and obstacles in the way of a
Russian army on its route from Constantinople to British In-
dia, they have been greatly exaggerated: Napoleon, who had
always in his mind an expedition against the rich empire of
Indostan, bad the road carefully examined, as well as the re-
sources it offered, and the obstacles likely to be met with,
and he traced, almost step by step, the march of a Franco-
Muscovite army of 70,000 men, starting from the shores of the
Black Sea to traverse those distant regions. These explora-
tions formed the principal object of the embassy of Gardanne.
Moreover the Russians would have the choice of two roads.
If they were unwilling to follow that pointed out by Napo-
leon, they could follow the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea,
and the foot of the Ural mountains.
Supposing that the accomplishment of this vast project
does not take place until long after our times, as must be
the case, Russia will sooner or later carry it into execution
when events in Europe afford leisure, and if she does not
find the French strongly established upon the Nile and the
Euphrates. Russian policy must always have a conquering
tendency ; with her, one expedition will succeed to another.
There can be no cessation nor repose. The Czars must keep
up constant warfare so as to employ an active nobility, half-
subjugated inhabitants, and that mass of people, half savages,
which forms the heterogeneous population of the Russian
empire.
Upon this principle we can account for the prolonged
maintenance of the statu quo in the east, offering, as it does
to Russia, an opening to the conquest of Constantinople,
and, perhaps, subsequently to the banks of the Indus. As
we before said, this event may not take place for a long pe-
riod ; but in the government of a people, and especially of a
people like the French, events should be foreseen and pre-
pared for, not only year by year, but century by century, if
necessary.
In the anticipation or possibility of an event of this kind,
the press cannot be too zealous in stimulating the cabinet of
the Tuileries to continue to support the pretensions of Me-
hemet Ali. This may not only obtain for France an advan-
tageous commercial treaty, and a market for her various ar-
ticles and manufactures, but, perhaps, open to her the com-
merce and sceptre of the world.
Russia objects to the basis of the statu quo, as laid down
by France, fearing that the latter country might secure foot-
ing in the east, and throw obstacles in the way of Russian
aggrandisement. England rejects the statu quo upon prin-
ciples still more exclusive.
The great question or object at the present moment is to
establish French influence and civilisation in Egypt. At a
later period, when France decides upon breaking the treaties
of 1815, by getting rid of the shackles of dynastic policy, she
will find it by no means difficult to block up the road which
the Russians would take to Constantinople. She will force
the colossus to deploy the wings of his arrnies,so as, to cover
the centre. Ancient Poland, Moldavia, Walachia, Servia,
the inhabitants of Caucasus, &c., revolted at the instigation
of France, and waking common Ms. with her, would 190 A

deprive Russia if not of the will, at least of the leisure re•
quired for such distant conquests.
The present policy of the French government can at the
utmost only accomplish the first part of this task—prepare
the occupation of Egypt ; the second—to establish her power
there and prevent the occupation of Constantinople—is re-
served for a policy founded upon other principles, and put
into action by arms more vigorous than those of our states-
men.—National.