RUSSIA, AS IT REALLY IS. 425 



obtained some partial advantages over the uncivilized nations of Asia 

 the Persians, and the Turks, the malady of Russo-phobia has reached 

 so great a height, that a credulous portion of the British nation has 

 been infected by its influence, and this infection seems to be on the 

 increase in consequence of some alarmists, who for the last two years 

 have been so warmly and so repeatedly declaiming against the future 

 universal supremacy of Russia, both through the public press and in 

 the English senate, and in consequence what is in truth only a chi- 

 merical supposition, has almost become a reality in the opinion of 

 not a few Englishmen : and thus Russia is at present the Great 

 Bug-bear of England. 



We beg to be allowed to relate here an a propos anecdote which 

 happened in Paris in 1831. 



One evening in a political circle, some French gentlemen tainted 

 with Russo-phobia seriously discussing the,* subject of the projected 

 universal supremacy of that country, by their plans, reasonings, 

 and stratagems, proved to their own satisfaction, that within half a 

 century from that period Russia would not only conquer the whole 

 of Asia-Minor, the Persian and Turkish dominions, and the Anglo- 

 Indian possessions, but that it would also completely subjugate the 

 south and west of Europe. General Lamarque, who was present, 

 did not utter a word during the debate, but having been asked his 

 opinion, said " Messieurs, tout eveilles que vous etes, il me semble 

 qu'un Cauchemer Russe vous fait deraisonner : ce que vous supposez 

 de la future toute puissance de la Russie est tout-a-fait impossible." 



We will not give the same laconic answer to the English alarmists; 

 but we will endeavour to prove that Russia can never become so 

 formidable a power as to be an object of dread either to free and 

 industrious England, or to the civilized continent of Europe. 



We acknowledge that during the last and the present century 

 Russia has greatly extended her dominions both in Asia and Europe ; 

 we admit that the cabinet of St. Petersburg is intriguing, cunning, 

 deceitful, and ambitious ; and we do not deny that if the conquest 

 and oppression of the whole world depended solely on the will and 

 pleasure of the Russian autocrat, the dreadful and brutalising era of 

 the middle ages would again soon be renewed. Still in the present 

 advanced state of liberty and civilization of the English and French 

 nations, which possess the right of constitutionally controuling and 

 even directing the acts of their governments, neither the stratagems 



