The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-11-24
RUSSIA.
Her Wants and Claims.


Her Wants and Claims.
There is at the present time, says tho
Cincinnati Commercial, q great amount
of loose reasoning in reference to tho
wants and claims of Russia in particular,
and the Eastern question in general
Lack of trustworthy information in TO
gard to the country of the Gar, It's re-
sources, population, government and
customs ; our own comparative slight
intercourse, coupled with the fact that
greater part of our information is viewed
through English spectacles and preju-
dices, are sufficient excuses for this.
There are many who believe RusaA
has hostile designs upon England's
power in India and the East others
that she desires to establish the Greek
Church to the exclusion of the Jesuits
in all Sclavonic countries and in Turkey.
While these might be more or less tho
remote effect of hostilities, and gen.
eral war, and even while they may now
cut no inconsiderable figure in tho
knotty Eastern problem, we are frank 10
confess that they do not compass or
fathom Russia's purpose, nor are either
of them sufficient to justify Russia's
taking up arms. It must be borne In
mind in the first place that Russia viii
not 60 to war for an idea, as England
did In the Crimean contest, for which,
according to John Bright, she paid 49,
600 lives, e100, 900, 900, and loaned to
insolvents in the Bosphorus as much
more and in the next place her finan.
cial condition is not such as would JUS
tify her in 30 doing. Russia's annual
deficit is larger than Austria's, her
finances are muddled, and her statesmen
lack the ability to straighten them.
In 1881, the total interest bearing
debt was f135, $50, 600; but in addition
there are upward of $50, 900, 900 reubles
issued in paper bills of credit, together
with large floating debt, the amount of
which is unknown. Therefore, lacking
the needful funds which are the sinews
of war, any serious interference with En-
glands India possessions may not be
looked upon as alarming at present
When it is considered that conquest
of India by Russia would involve long
and tedious marches over lofty noun
tain ranges, exposed to exhausting and
enervating climates, over poorly -watered
and trackless wilds of sand, for over
1000 miles away from any solid base of
operations at Oxenburg, some of the
difficulties will be seen. Then met by q
large force at the Indus, which could be
transported from England via Suez bet
ter than Russia could reach there by
land. Then defeat would be annihila-
ton, and victory might be stripped Of
any solid or abiding benefits.
/. Russia wants free and unrestricted
access to the ocean, in that her trade
and industry may be developed. As
Alexander /. expressed it, she wants
:" the keys to her own house." Peter
the Great thought he was amply repaid
for his long and bloody contest with
Charles XII, of Sweden, when he
gained the Baltic provinces. Now the
issue from the Baltic is blocked by the
power that commands the sound and
the belts, and departure from the Black
sea by the Turks at Constantinople.
These are Russia's two vital points, and
hence her interest in affairs at Copen-
hagen and Constantinople.
2. Russia wants an adjustment of the
Sclavonian question-that is, the strug-
gle of the Sclave people of Southeastern
Europe for unification and freedom
based on the principle of nationality.
The Sclaves number upward of 0,00O,-
900, protesting the same faith, speak
ing the same language. If we except
about 1000, 900 free Servians and 4,00O,-
900 Roumanians of the principalities
who are free, we have the balance who
are tryrannized over by all alien races.
Some are held under military sway in
Austro- Hungary, while $4,000, 900 in
Roumeha are lorded over by Turkish
barbarians. Is it strange that Russia
regards the condition Of the Sclaves
with feelings of more than ordinary in
terest9 Bound by ties of language, re-
igion, and propinquity of territory, her
opposition to the Turks, and aid to the
own-trodden Christians, means some
thing more than the establishment of
the Greek Church to the exclusion of
the Papal In May, 1867, M. BOLT, q
Oroatian agitator at a Pan-Sclavonic
meeting, honored by the presence
of Count Tolstoy, the Minister of
Education, M. Pogzeboff, the Mayor
of st. Petersburg, and other eminent
persons, used the following language:
&c The battle of Sadowa has decided the
destinies of the European East. In
consequence of it the German world has
been separated from the Sclavonian
what remains to be done is to solve the
Sclavonian question: task to be fut
filed by the Sclavonians themselves
and chiefly by Russia. Russia, gentle
men, is no longer Russian. it is Sclavo-
nian; nay, Pan-Sclavonian. The re-
sources at her disposal are material but
also moral. Sclavonic Russia is no mem
ace to civilization, but only prepares
Europe for Witnessing the reunion of the
Sclayonian family" If this means any
thing. it is that, since Austria is no
longer under the protection of Germany,
there is nothing to hinder Sclavonins
from utilizing her for these Pan-Sca-
vonic purposes under Russian auspicaa.
This. then, is what Roumelia means
when she declares for independence, and,
in the light of the above, the demands
of the Czar are something more than Tor
a mere extent of territory or the en-
broiling of humanity in contest over
cross or a crescent, st. Sophia or Ma
ho