The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-10-20
RUSSIAN EXTENSION.

as Gen. Cushing.
Salem, Oct. 8, 1859,
RUSSIAN EXTENSION.
We noticed yesterday the progress of Russia,
by the conquest of Circassia, which carries the
Cossacks more fully and freely down upon the
| frontiers of Persia, and nearer to India; and
day before yesterday we noticed the Cars pro-
jected telegraph line to the Pacific, across his
whole empire to the Amoor, and consequently
| to the frontiers of China. Nothing annoys the
| English more than these Russian movements.
England fights and conquers and colonies for
the benefits of trade and commerce. She is
truly, as the Frenchmen say, a nation of shop
keepers. That little island, which otherwise
would be unimportant on the map of the world,
is great workshop, in which is concentrated
the mechanical genius of this age and of all
ages-the power of invention, and Of human
industry aided by inventions, of which the
steam engine is the great representative. To
have markets for her productions, England
holds colonies that in themselves would be
worthless to her; maintains immense war fleets
in every sea and bay and at the mouth of every
river; supports armed forces in the distant
parts Of the earth; and negotiates treaties in
all languages and with all peoples, civilized and
n
nation is a mammoth manufacturing and ira
ding corporation-as much without soul as
any petty corporation ever was, and governed
simply by the rules of arithmetic that show the
profit or loss in her accounts
For the third time, now England wars with
China, that thereby she may monopolize Chi.
nese trade. In l84I-'42, she battered down
Canton, to find market for opium grown by
compulsory cultivation in India. Again, in
| 1857, she favored the opening of other ports,
and of the internal commerce of the empire
The navigation of the Yang -tse- Kiang--the
third river in size on the face Of the globe, flow
ing through valley of vast extent and fertility
for $500 miles, the original seat and cradle of
Chinese civilization, which goes back of the
civilization of the Nile or the Euphrates, and
which had eliminated before Rome was built
on the Tiber, and where to-day are millions of
| inhabitants clothed in silks and cottons, the
products of the country-this navigation was
to be free. English eyes fired in looking at
their prospective wealth therefrom but one
| thing troubled the denizens of London and the
! workers of Manchester Leeds, and Birming-
ham-the news of the ratification of the treaty
was known whole month in St. Petersburg
before it was announced to the British Minis
try. How was that? 1t informed the English
that the market opened was nearby some
means unknown-to Russia, while it was dis
tant to them. The London Times walked up,
and shook its head ominousIy saying, I" St.
| Petersburg is month nearer to Pekin than
London; we must bestir ourselves, or we
Westerns shall be shut out of the new game. I"
This year, another war comes between Eng
land and China. On the way to ratify at Pekin
the treaty referred to, the British Commodore
either blunders into fight, or the Chinese give
new proof that they are treacherous and false,
| in an 1nprovoked attack. Be. it whichever it
will, the battle has been fought, and the result
has been announced to the world. How? Again,
three weeks in advance of all others, the Gar
has the dispatch. Nor is this all but the Eng
lish say that Russians manned the fort at the
mouth of the Peiho, and shot down in winrows
the sailors and soldiers that were struggling
through the mud and over the bitches to storm
the defences. If this be so, Russia is not only
a month nearer to China, but she has absolutely
penetrated the Empire through the back door
and become silent partner in the concern,
while the French, English, and Americans,
have sought to climb in by another way. This
leads the British in particular to hesitate a mo-
ment, and calculate anew.
| How the thing has been managed, we cannot
tell, for Russia is more close in her national
affairs than any other people. If she makes a
treaty, it is for herself, and known only to her
self. If she surveys her Territories along the
Arctic, or districts on the Pacific, or in the hid
den interior, she does it for her own benefit, and
the maps are quietly laid away in the archives
of the Government. If she conquers an Asiatic
tribe, and annexes the lands of that tribe, it is
her private business, and she does not put it in
the newspapers. Therefore, it is with difficulty
that we learn her operations and progress but
we see, from the growth of the Empire, and
from facts like those to which we have referred,
that her operations are constant, and her prog
| ress steady and rapid. Here is one fact: while
other nations wait for months to hear from Pc
kin, there is a regular communication between
the Chinese capital and st. Petersburg, in
twenty-six days. We have hesitated for years,
and till thousands of people have persisted, in
building a wagon road over an open country,
| from the Eastern to the Pacific States, some
three Thousand miles; but Russia, that we have
esteemed semi-barbarous, has one of the finest
roads in the world through the Siberian wilder
ness, from Moscow to Irkutsk, macadamized
| for the whole distance of four thousand miles,
so that it is passable for horses that are ex-
| changed every twenty-four miles, in eighteen
| days From frkutsk to Pekin, the Journey is
but eight or nine days so that, in fact, western,
civilized Russia is near neighbor to China,
and feels the first throb that affects the Celes-
tails. While England is going round and fight
| ing the way up for her Minister to carry bis
treaty, Russian agents are living by the side of
| the palace, and have the ears and eyes of the
| Emperor, that he sees only through Russian
| glasses, and hears only through Russian me-
| dums.
| Two other facts have become known first,
that the Russians, through their exclusive In
| huence, have acquired an immense overland
trade with China; and second, that they have
| also acquired territorial extension in that re-
gion. We walked up only the other day, as it
were, to learn Of the river Amoor and the Rus
| sian settlements there. The boundary line of
| Siberia, on the Pacific, was not well defined
but we have discovered sort of Russo Chinese
| region, where the two peoples intermingle, and
| where the aggressive Russian power has steam
boats on the lakes and rivers, by which it easily
| penetrates into China proper. Towards this
region to-day the railways are permeating, and
| thither they are hurrying the Geographic line.
The Gar does not mean to be outdone by the
Western nations and when there is falling
| to pieces of the old Empires of China and Per
| STA, he is to have his part. The allies may cut
| him off from Constantinople for time, but be
| will not be impeded on the other side, where
| the outgrowth of his Empire is as great as the
| increase of our States in America.
| 1t was for long time supposed that Mount
| Washington, of the White Mountain group, was
| the highest peak east of the Rocky Mountains.
But this honor must now be definitely conferred