The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-12-06

u,
or in some manner disappear from the roll of effective
men. Now, Russia could no more manage to march
two hundred thousand men from the shores of the
Caspian than she could manage to eXtricae her feet
from the Black and Baltic Seas, where in the event
OF war it wouldbe corked up" by our Terrbles and
RetrlbutiOns.
The Algemeine Zeitung, the leading journal Of
Continental Europe, CHOW that there is no French
press,) has recently published remarkable article
on the military power of Russia The Russian army,
on its nominal war footing, consists of 049 900 men,
who are divided as follows:-
Infantry. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 624 600
Irregular cavalry (Cossacks) .... l35 900
Gendarmes, or military colonists," !. 10000
Men OF Especial arms" ............... $1,000
Total. 100000
At the very first glance the reader will see that
great many OF these are mere "men in buckram."
The Augsburg editor disposes Of third Of them
very summarily, and yet by very rational process.
He shows that out Of the 600 men whom the
Emperor Alexander counted on paper only 400 900
were effective men," By the same rule out of the
present Cars million Of men only 675 900 viii fight.
Further, the Emperor Alexander could only oppose
100000 men 10 the frat onslaught OF Napoleon's
army. And this was in a defensive war--defensive
against blow struck at the heart Of the empire.
Clausewz, the Russian staff officer, who is the au-
thority for this says that two months after
wards Alexander " would have been able " to
urius $4,000 men into the field by exhausting
all his resources. OF Cossacks there were never
at any time, he says, more than 10000 in arms.
lGdeed, this German editor quite pooh poohs these
terrible Cossacks, whom he pronounces to be of
little account, however convenient 10 defensive war;"
How, we wonder, will the Cossacks like being
made q convenience Of in this way by fellow Of
an editor? But he this editor, goes to show that
ii the Russians could concentrate APO 600 men in
Poland they would be doing the best that their his
torical antecedents lead him to suppose they could
do, and here we may remark that doing their best
in Poland and doing their best on the shores OF
the Caspian tw very different things. Finally
the editor asserts that the largest army that could
ever under the most favorable circumstances, cross
the frontiers Of Russia for aggressive purposes would
be 100000 men, 1t was even with ~ great effort
that the Gear poured 100000 men into Hungary to
put down friend Kossuth And then our respected
contemporary at Augsburg makes the profound re-
mark that an army is !" an expensive affair."" To
which we would respond /" rather"
This is the substance Of what the German editor
says, and we think that thus far he may be relied
upon. He manages to grow very comfortable over
his deductions, arguing himself into the belief that
Europe has nothing to fear from Russia, and that
the premises of the Algemeine Zeitnng will never
be invaded by the Cossack. How he gets up this
stock Of assurance we shall not inquire. To US it
the Cossack. If we were at Augsburg instead Of
at Delhi, we should be the last person to snap
fingers at threats Of Russian aggression. But it is
"iar cry" from Muscovy to Ind, and hence our
For if Russia only march $50 900, or say 800.
600 men into Europe, she certainly cannot march
half that number into Asia. Still less, having
marched them could she provide for their sustenance
along the dreary wilderness which they must pass
before reaching the confines of India. The case Of
the expedition to Khiva bas been well worked as an
ILLUSTRATION of the fate that would be in store for
such an army. Yet let us grant that 100 900 fight
ing men survived the horrors Of the march, and de-
ployed on the parade ground at Psshawur. We say
they wonld be ignominiously beaten, and that not
ten Of them would ever see Russia again, except
through that clemency which the British always OK
n nd va aoll v ohaUnn al
OF our countrymen in India that one has to vindcate
such belief.
India herself, alone and without aid from England,
could with her present peace establishment face those
insolent Russians with 20 600 British and 100 600
sepoy bayOnets, to say nothing of artillery, Of which
India has the best in the world and Russia the worst
And months before the Ccssack vanguard had en-.
tered Afghanistan on one side, the passes leading
from Affghanistan to India would have been
closed on the other. Are We such despsers of his
tory that we have forgotten the lines Of Torres
Vedras2 Woe to the wretched Russian Massena
who should attempt to force the Khyber when
Britons defend it!
Come, now we have got up little national spirit,
we are ready to beat the Russians with our own
sepoy bsyoIet t. aye and sepoy generals But Eng.
glory of that achievement would not expose us to is
peril Before Russian army had reached Khiva,
twenty thousand, fifty thousand, any required mum.
at Kurrachee. Never but once in history were
fifty thousand British troops drawn up in one array
and then it was for the gala show OF peaceful
field day. This is because such British army was
never yet needed. The Duke generally found twenty
thousand Englishmen sufficient for his business,
as Marlborough had done before him. But
because England has hitherto found q small
army quite sufficient to vindicate her honor are we
to infer that she could not raise large one If the oc.
casion demanded it2 We should just like to see Eng
land playing at beggar my neighhor' with Russia,
soldiers being the cards, and the Peshawur plain the
card table. We venture to say that every Russian
soldier who might be placed on the board would be
incontinently snapped up by an Englishman, and
another Englishman looking on all the while to SEQ
the sport Not England only but the Australian colo
nes would send US hordes Of soldiers or of the raw
but true stuff that * ldiers are made Of and there
would be time to drill the rawest recruits into an army
twice over before the infatuated invaders made their
appearance.
There scores Of other considerations, the very
thought of which makes the idea of q Russian inva.
sion appear to MS pre-. eminently absurd