The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1809-07-21
POLITICAL spECUL ATOMS.
From Belts Lonaoa) We.t!y Messenger.
RELATIONS OF RUSSIA & FRANCE.


- =.
The die is at length cast beyond recall, and
Austria and France, the political gladiators OF
the day, are about ~ fight the last battle of ma
tons. The point ofhonor demands the pecessa-
ry death ofone ofthe parties they are commit
ted in fact to fight till one shall fall. There is
state OF things SO extreme As even IN common
prudence to preclude all possibility of modera-
tion.-France would be insensible to her own
safety, il she suffer Austria, after her declared
, hostility, to escape, and Austria having once
chosen her part, having once drawn the sword,
must act up to her menace, and throw away the
scabbard. The moment of irresolution and tim
idity has passed away for ever. The emperor
Francis must defend his imperial threne retire
from it-lfbeaten i'm the field, he certainly ceas-
es to be sovereign. He will equally lose his
empire, If to avoid the immediate peril, he sub
init to the present demands-The only difference
will be, that in the first case he has the chance Of
war, which in human affairs is not alwa, for the
strongest. In the latter state of things, he may
be permitted to reign year or few months
gust so long as Bonaparte is embarrassed with o.
ther objects. A quarrel, which is always at
hand, would then be contrived, and Austria
like Prussia cease to be in the list ofindependent
nations.
Under these circumstances, public attention is
very strongly turned towards Russia, and every
one anxiously demands and enquiries what will
be her probable course.-Will the emperor A
sees every threne around him destroyed? Is it
possible that the alliance between France and
Russia can be framed on principles of sympathy
Tor French interest, with total oblivion and ne
8lect of the immediate peril of Russia from the
Overwhelming superiority of her neighbor
Grant that, exhausted by an unsuccessful war,
the emperor Alexander desired peace-grant
that by certain sacrifices and certain complances
the emperor Napoleon converted this peace into
an alliance-and grant that our conduct in the
expedition to Copenhagen, confirmed and rivet-
ted this alliance by severing whatever remained
of connection between Russia and England-yet
even under all these circumstances is it conceva-
bic that Russia will consent to aggrandize
France to her own evident ruin . Willth empe-
TOR Alexander be mad enough to remove the ON
ly barrier between his own dominions and the
ambitious, the powerful Napoleon
Has he so little knowledge, so little expert
ence of this prolgate child OF fortune, to deem
his gratitude security against his ambition Can
he be so blind to the example of the king of
Spain, who at least deserved so well cfthe French
emperor, and has been treated so i'll
Such are the reflections which naturally arise
in the minds of those who consider attentyely
the present state Of things, and who deduce their
conclusions from the general course OF human
actions. In every question of this kind, howe
yer, there are certain indirect relations, which,
not being upon the surface, are not perceived till
the matter is well stirred. They are strangely
simplicity OF external circumstances.
Every government has some particular point
some certain and defined object, to which it looks
as to its natural policy. Now, from the days of
the empress Catharine, the object OF Russian am
biton has been to incorporate in its territory the
European domnions of Turkey, and to have for
the boundaries of its empire the Baltic OH the
west, and the Black Sea on the east. Russia, in
fact, borders on Kingdoms which are vast enough
toprovide her with objects ofambition for many
centuries. China, Persia, and Turkey, the
natural fund of Russian ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, and it
has been accordingly the opinion of many of the
wisest of the Russian cabinet, that Russia should
keep herself from German quarrels-that her
natural interests lie in other quarters, and that
her true policy towards the states of Europe is to
cultivate and maintain such good understand
ing-such a passive amity, as may leave her at
full leisure to attend to interests more immediate
iy her own.
1t has been the opinion ofmany of our English
statesmen, that England herself had no interests
III common with the continent. 1t has been in the
same manner the opinion of the Russian states
men, that the most immediate interest OF Russia
is to occupy herself in the due cultivation ant.
improvement other territory, and t.at having no.
thing to fear from European coniedcracies she
had in fact nothing TO do with them. Russia,
said they, has nothing to gain, and certainly no
thing to lose, on the side of Germany-hcr s,er-
lie frontier is of tselfa bar of iron against any
my, she could starve him. Russia, therefore, is
in full safety on this side. Her just policy is to
be defensive in Germany. Her fund Of aggran-
dizement lies in other quarters.
The empress Catharlne always acted upon
this policy till the OF the French revolution
1t was the unhappy nature at this revolution,
that being war of principles, the contagion
reached those whom it could not touch, and that
no distance was Il security against it. The war
therefore which Catharine medtated, and which
the emperor Paul executed against the French
revolution, was contradiction to the former
system. The war was purely defensive, and
had no other object than to abate "a nuisance, *
cat off a pestilence which corrupted every thing
within the wide sphere of its influence.
Neither was the invasion aud partition of Po-
land any departure from the same system. Po-
land, by its situation the Vistua, was nat,i-
rally desirable object to Russia, the acqllisiti-
on Off rounded the Russian dominions, x com
pleted the line of natural boundary. Poland,
moreover, at least Russian Poland, though in
the loose and general way of speaking amongst
geographers it has been sometimes described as
a part of .Germany, has certainly very little in
common with the German states or character
1t is rather Tartar waste and an Asatic en-
pire, where hundred miles of plain has but a
therefore, was no departure from the adopted
system of the Russian cabinet, chat Russia had
nothing in common with European interests
The result of what has been above said APP
pears to be, that Russia has two leading points,
two fundamental principles, which have htber-
To governed her foreign relations The first is,
that she has nothing to do in Europe, but To
maintain such amicablc and neutral relations as
may leave her at leisure to pursue her designs i'm