316 Russia in 18*2. [MARCH, 



of her corps diplomatique, by which Russia shines not less than by her 

 armies in the field, are enormous ; and, although the expenses of the 

 imperial court are reduced to the "juste necessaire," they make a large 

 figure in the budget ; independent of these fixed and unavoidable items 

 of expenditure, there must be added the enormous sums annually laid 

 out by the government in the construction of roads, canals, and other 

 public works. The national debt of this vast empire has been variously 

 estimated by different writers, who have treated the subject of Russian 

 finance. Hassel rates it 500 millions of florins ; Balbi at 1,300,000,000 

 francs : in these two estimates, that scarcely differ, the Polish debt is in- 

 cluded ; still, on deducting the amount of this last, we are rather in- 

 clined to consider the estimates of these two authors as over-rated. In 

 the reign of Catharine the national debt of Russia amounted to about 

 one million sterling ; but, like the debts of other states, it has gone on 

 progressively advancing. The principal elements which now compose 

 it are as follow : 



1st. The debt to Holland 47,600,000 in paper. 



A temporary debt of 3,026,000 in silver. 



And of 31,162,466 in assignats. 



A perpetual debt bearing 6 per cent, interest 20,620 roubles in gold. 



Of 8,831,112 in silver. 



And of * 229,465,611 in assignats. 



A temporary debt bearing 5 percent, of.... 79*677*200 roubles in silver. 



To these must be added the foreign loans of the years 1817, 1818, and 

 1822, the exact sum of which, as they figure on the public books, we 

 cannot ascertain ; but on the 1st of January, 1824, by the report of the 

 minister of finance, we find the amount of the national debt of Rus- 

 sia, bearing interest, to be 874,341,010 roubles; to this must be 

 added again the loans since contracted, to meet the exigencies of the 

 Turkish and Polish campaigns, amounting to nearly twelve millions 

 sterling ! 



If our readers have the courage and the patience to follow us through 

 these dry and uninteresting statistical details, they will arrive at the 

 graSfying conclusion, that the financial means of Russia in no way cor- 

 responds with her gigantic military resources; and that, although in 

 times of peace, by dint of the strictest economy, the annual expenditure 

 may be fully met by the revenue, still, the slightest extraordinary 

 expense would produce a deficit, and that, consequently, Russia is 

 utterly incapable of engaging in any protracted enterprize without the 

 foreign aid of loans, and the most extraordinary sacrifices thus far 

 proving how utterly baseless are the fears entertained of Russian power 

 and aggression. 



Nothing has contributed more to the exaggerated fears of Russian 

 aggression than the numbers and composition of her armies. Every 

 faculty of the government has been brought into play to bring it to the 

 highest degree of perfection of which it is susceptible ; and if they have 

 not yet succeeded in imparting to it the science of the Prussian, and 

 that superior intelligence of mind so eminently diffused through the 

 French armies, yet, for organization and discipline, numbers and com- 

 position, docility and hardihood, both as to courage, and the faculty 

 of supporting hardship and privation to an astonishing degree, it must 

 be confessed that the Russian army is superior to all others. 



It would be foreign to our subject to enter into details on the origin 



