426 RUSSIA, AS IT REALLY IS. 



of the Russian cabinet, nor the will of the Muscovite despot can suc- 

 ceed; because Russia of 1836, according to our opinion, is neither 

 stronger nor richer than it was in 1812, notwithstanding its new 

 conquests in Asia and its smuggled possession of the unhappy duchy 

 of Warsaw : and now we will briefly submit to our readers, why 

 we think that all dread of the future power of Russia and of its 

 military sway is quite chimerical and paradoxical. 



Let us at first dispassionately examine the disproportionate geo- 

 graphical extent of the Russian empire, its vast uncultivated and 

 almost deserted tracts of territory, the scantiness and heterogeneous 

 mixture of its semi- barbarous inhabitants, differing in manners, lan- 

 guage, and religious creed, its natural poverty, and the brutalizing 

 system of its government; and then we may reasonably form a just 

 estimate of its real power. 



According to the best geographers the Russian dominions spread 

 over an area of about 7,000,000 of British square miles ; but within 

 these stupendous limits scarcely sixty millions of inhabitants are con- 

 tained, and supported with great difficulty. The Russians are 

 divided into four classes, I. the NOBLES, who are the slaves of the 

 Autocrat, but the tyrannic irresponsible masters of the life and pro- 

 perty of their vassals, II. the CLERGY, who worship and teach their 

 flocks to worship the Autocrat, who according to their catechism is 

 a God upon the earth, III. the BURGHERS, or merchants, over whom 

 the emperor has the divine right of life, and property, whenever it 

 may be his pleasure to take both or either of them, notwithstanding 

 that they are freemen and can possess landed property, IV. the 

 PEASANTS, or rather the slaves and serfs of the crown, and the nobi- 

 lity, who enjoy nearly the same privileges that the cattle and other 

 animals enjoy in other civilized countries. According to Malte 

 Brun this class amounts to nearly thirty-six millions. 



To keep in subordination his diversified conquered subjects, and to 

 protect the frontiers of his empire, the autocrat is obliged in time of 

 peace to maintain a standing army of 500,000 men, and during war 

 nearly 800,000 ; and such was its size at the epoch of the gigantic 

 but imprudent invasion of Russia by Napoleon. Some writers, how- 

 ever, assert that the autocrat can raise an army of above a million of 

 soldiers ; but they do not explain in the mean time how he could keep 

 it ? Certainly not with the resources of his finances, even if all the 

 military colonies established by Alexander towards the south of 



