The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-09 00:00:00

RUSSIAN MILITARY OPERATIONS AND PRETENSIONS.

United, we can select our field of operations, and reduce
her to listen to such terms as we shall think proper to
dictate. Throughout her own extended territory, in the
sandy plains of Russia Proper, in the steppes of Lithuania,
in the deserts of Siberia, in the wilds of Tartary, she is
inaccessible ; we are not going to march our armies 2,000
miles inland, without a defined base of operations, to
perish in the snow ; we have no intention of going to her,
but we can confine her within bounds, and effectually
prevent her from coming to us. At home, and in the wide
circle of her own limits, she is formidable. In aggressive
and distant wars, although insatiable in desire, she is
weak in execution. She cannot produce in the field the
large armies that are created in a ukase, and terrify the
credulous by imaginary numbers.' If so, how is it that
they have never yet stood in battle array, or been concen-
trated on a given point in the hour of necessity ? We
read of 800,000 men, and as there are no colonies to de-
mand large garrisons, no distant wars to operate as a per-
petual drain, where are they when their presence would
overwhelm, crush and annihilate opposition ? At Boro-
dino, in the heart of their vast empire, retiring on their
resources, and resolved at last to make a final stand to
save thqjliapital, and fight for independence, 120,000 was
the fullaixtent of their muster-roll. Neither did they
ever exceed this aggregate in the successive invasions of
France, in 1814 and 1815. Moreover, the Russian con-
tingent would never have arrived at all but for the sub-
sidies of England. M. Schnitzler, whose work is generally
correct and authentic in facts, as it is often sound in
opinions, has been misinformed, or is tinctured with pre-
judice, when he says, " The assemblage in the Plaine des
Vertus (10 September, 1814) of a Russian army of 160,000
men ready for the field, struck with amazement the diplo-
matic corps of Europe, who were present at the imposing
spectacle; but such an exhibition of the military strength
of a vast empire alarmed them much less than the invisi-
ble power and perfect moral influence which the greatness
of soul and well-known principles of the monarch who
now reviewed his troops had created." I cannot tell what
were the impressions of civilians and diplomatists to whom
I had no access, but happening to be an insignificant unit
among many hundreds of military men of all nations who
were looking on, I can testify, that as a mere military dis-
play we were neither petrified with amazement nor awe.
No mistakes are so easily made as calculations of the
numbers of troops estimated from a coup d' cell; the
general belief was, that on this occasion they did not
amount to 90,000, and the entire Russian contingent
which marched up to Paris, subsequent to the battle of
Waterloo and the second abdication of Napoleon, I was
assured by an officer of the Russian staff, never exceeded,
even on paper, 110,000 men. At this vaunted review,
which had been long in preparation, and lasted three days,
little or nothing was done to illustrate strategy or capa-
bility of rapid movement. Three days previous to the
commencement of the display were required to place them
on the ground. On the first day of action, the operations
consisted in marching past in review order; on the second,
they were confined to performing worship according to
the rites of tha Greek Church ; and on the third, the whole
force marched off again to the cantonments from whence
they had been summoned. Not long after this, in an
after-dinner conversation, arising incidentally, the Duke
of Wellington proposed to the Allied Sovereigns, or they
suggested to him, to show them the British army with
their allies in British pay, including the Hanoverian and
Danish divisions, amounting in all to more than 80,000
men. A representation of the principal manoeuvres and
incidents of Salamanca, as nearly as the ground permitted,
was afterwards stated to have been the programme agreed
on for the evolutions of the day. There was no previous
announcement or rehearsal. At nine at night, the orders
were sent round to the different brigades, and by eight on
the following morning the whole were drawn up in two
lines, the left resting on Montmartre, and the right on
the Seine, with St. Denis a little in the rear. The Sove-
reigns with a gallant escort, comprising many of the lead-
ing generals of the day, rode hastily along the front. All
were then put in motion ; the entire day was occupied in
a series of complicated movements, and at seven in the
evening the corps marched past the assembled potentates,
and returned to their several quarters. The quickness
and precision of their evolutions, the martial bearing and
exact discipline of the men, and especially the equipments
of the horse artillery, excited the loudest approbation. It
was a proud day for Britain, as showing a solid exhibition
of her power. Thousands still live who will recollect the
impression it produced, and the reminiscence will not in-
cline them to join the ranks of despondency. We have
not, at this moment, the same numerical amount of men,
for we have not hitherto required them ; but we possess a
substantial nucleus of similar materials, which we can in-
I crease at pleasure, now that the necessity of a supply has
arisen. The Russian Imperial Guards, during the occu-
pation of Paris, in 1815, were chosen troops, well appointed,
and imposing in appearance ; but their ordinary infantry
of the line were anything but formidable. They had
neither muscle nor stamina.

This want of muscle and stamina is accounted
for by Mr. Cole, as by many other authorities, as
occasioned by the miserable quality and scanty
amount of their provisions. The Russian contin-
gents are clearly shown, even under the most
favourable circumstances, to consist almost exclu-
sively of men and animals, for whose efficient main-
tenance no adequate provision is made, and whose
lives and comforts seem to be estimated as of the
lowest possible value. " I can," said the Czar, on
a recent occasion, " afford to lose a million of men,
but I cannot afford a stain on the national honour."
Many would be led to think that the sacrifice of a
million of men would amount to something very
like " a stain on the national honour ;" not so his
Imperial Majesty of all the Russias. The inva-
riable question of this humane and paternal poten-
tate after a battle is not " How many men have
been killed ?" but " How many muskets are
missing P" The weapon being obviously of more
importance in his Majesty's esteem than the living
machine into whose keeping it had been entrusted.
In accordance with this view, the soldiers of the
Russian army are represented to be ill-paid,
shockingly clothed, and worse fed, and are, it is
said, totally neglected when in hospital, whether
from sickness or from wounds. The system of
clothing and provisioning the troops is said to
involve an amount of barefaced and systematised
plunder scarcely credible. Mr. Cole says of the