The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1854-08-30

Marrow Escape Of the Russian Empe-
TOR from being made an English
Prisoner.
The Gar of Russia lately had d most
narrow escape from being sent to En-
gland as a prisoner ofwar. The danger
occurred at Cronstadt. A little En-
glish yacht had ventured too near the
town, when a small Russian steamer, hav-
ing on board the Gear NICHOLAS and sew
eral members of the Imperial family,
started off in pursuit. An English
steamer, seeing the danger of the yacht,
came to its relief, which it accomplished,
but did not pursue the Russians, which
it is supposed it might have overhauled,
on account of certain orders which had
been given the vessels of the feet not to
venture too neal the Notifications of
Cronstadt. In commenting upon this
occurrence, the London Times of August
5th, remarks:
Gould tie English bit hare Kalo1cn
tie UaluabIe freight qchich that little
yacht continucd-could the English cap
tain but have known that by capturing
her, or sending her to the bottom, peace
would have been restored to Europe; and
probably a million of human lives, first
and last, be saved, we have no doubt
that he would have carried one or the
other of the alternatives into effect. even
though his own destruction, that of his
ship, and of every soul on board of her
had been the inevitable consequence,
Littls DID heSuppose, at Tie moment,
that lie had lost probably tie greatest OPP
pOrtumitp for obtaining personal dStinc-
ti0n 2chSch had eUeg- been M1OaOn IN the
acay Of single man. The English nation
venerates the name of Lord Nelson for
the sake of certain little affairs in which
he was engaged off Cape ST. Vincent at
the Nile, at Copenhagen, at Trafalgar,
and elsewhere, but not all these wonder
full, important, and heroic achievements
combined would have had such an impor-
tant influence on the history ofthe world
as the capture of that little Russian ship.
It was given to the captain of a small
steamer to change the face of Europe in
ton minutes well employed, but in pure
innocence he missed the chance.
y
On the political consequences of such
an event, we must scarcely venture to
speculate. The imagination of the his
torian who is called upon to write the
history of the events which did not oc-
cur may fairly recoil from the magnitude
of the subject. The little petty ques-
tions, such as those connected with the
Sulina mouths of the Danube, the navi-
cation of the Black Sea, the freedom of
the Circassian mountaineers, the restora-
ton of Finland to Sweden, &C., sink in
to comparative insignifcance by the side
of the chapter which might have been
written on the result of the Cars
yachting expedition off Cronstadt. The
wonder of it is, that all this time we are
not dealing with a fable, nor with the
result of a drunkard's inspiration, but
with the sober and serious fact. The
Gear of Russia, the Archduke Constan-
tine and the Archduchess were, the 9th
er day, as near capture and transmission
to England as it is possible to be with
out having actually incurred such a cat
astrophe. Such is life and history-such
a strange mixture of chances and impro-
babilitiesl What an end to the Russian
war and to think, in all soberness OF
thought, that it might really have come
to pass, had the captain of a little Eng
lish steamer known who were on board
the Russian steamer the other day of
Cronstadt.