Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1849-1856, 1849-05-03
Saturday, April "a.

N RCsslA. 1t dld Tot need NapOleOnS pro-
diction, made in his prison house at ST. Hell
ena, that within less than fifty years all
Europe woull be republican or Cossack," to
inspire the minds ofmcn, in that division of
! the globe, with perpetual fear Of Russia, lis
colossal power and supposed hostile designs.
Considering the nature Of lis dcspotc insti-
tutions, SO much opposed TO those nOr exist
ing west of the Nlstula considering the in
terc.s Of It's monarch, the absulute master Of
onc-seyenth of the tarth's habi,ablc surface
and from ffy-fye to sixty millions Of human
souls-souls and bodes--alI whose wants
and sympathcs arc. of course, so unlike those
oftho free people oatsde,-and considering,
too, the geographical necessities of the cm-
p re, which are very obvious and striking, one
cannot but feel that, sooner or later, the Mus
covitish giant must try conclusions with the
pygnies around him, or they with HMM
other words that there must bo struggle be-
tween Russia and the general governments
of EGrope &c decide the question ~hcther Rus.
sia is--as she would put ito enjoy her prop,
er righi7 as European power, o:--as the
others would express ito rule The world, or,
be driven back within her original barbaic,
almost Asaic boundaries the early times OF
Peter the Great.
There IS, in fact, something, at this period
of human history, strange, fearful, unnatural,
in the picture Of euch an empire as that of
Russia, which revivcs the recollection of
nay, which seems to repIoduce-one OF those
perished monarthics Of the first ages, 50 grand
and yet SO terrible, in which the king was as
god-a king Of kings--ruIing court Of
diademed satraps who kissed the earth at his
feet, and whole nations of bonded slaves,
who were as the dust before him in which his
elephants staked and his war horses pranced
to battle Assyria here lives again here Egypt
exists once more as of old. 1t is, to appear
ance, a Minus or a Sesostris, who occupies
the Russian throne, and mcdia,cs one of
those strokes Of power and efforts Of ambition
which 80 ofen made those old demgOds of
clay, for time, the masters of mankind,
One contempla,es the character of the RuSsl-
an empire only to ask in wonder whether this
be, indeed the nineteenth century,--thc epoch
of cyzation-of ideas-.of universal poiti-
cal and mental emancipation ! SucA an cm-
prc of slaves exiss and the liberty Of Eu-
rope drcaJs it, No wonder it excludes Rus
sin from the Mediterranean, and supports
and encourages the infdes of Turkey as 4
barrier against Christian empire.
And here it is, in this question Of the ex-
cluson of Russia from the Atlantic through
the well known channel of tho lleospJnt.
that we find the real apple Of ecord, tho
point both of interest aud honor on which Z
conf ct appears to be inevitabe,-so much GO
that i, seems impossible that any ingenuity of
the most pacific disposition can long prevent
il. With all her immense extent and ropula-
,on, and her apparent thousands of miles OF
sea-coasts, Russia is bu! a great imprisoned
monster shut out from the sea and she must
reach the s a,-hayc good, the beet possible
avenue to i,-bcfcrc she can expect the real
dcveopement of prosperity and power, both
as yet believed to be only IN the germ The
Arctic Ocean, porlcclly inpractcabIe and
useless from perpetual ice, profits her moth
NO her whole North Pacific coast ollsrs her
only the single outlet of the sea Of Ochoisk,
Hudson's Bay like gulf only navigable,
amidst bergs and foes, during two or three
months of midsummer from the Baltic,
which is frozen up three or four months every
year, she has tho only real channel she en-.
Joy, for her commerce ard naval vessels
through the narrow waters Of Denmark and
Sweden into the siormiest portion Of the Ger
man Ocean the llullcsponi presents an equal
ly natural and necessary outlet from tho Black
Sea - her Black Sea, rs it may be called
into the ever open navigation of the Mcdnter-
ranean and the broad and world.washing At
lan,ic. That outlet, however, i' shut against
Russia by the four castles VI the Dardanellos,
and the united JEALOUSY cf Tu,ks, and Tho