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ON THE POLICY AND THE POWER OF RUSSIA.* 



IN the short period of 120 years from the battle of Pultawa to 

 the peace of Adrianople the armies of Russia have marched as con- 

 querors over more countries and kingdoms than the ancient Romans 

 did in the first 400 years of the Republic, although the latter had to 

 contend with barbarians alone, while the former have been opposed 

 by the policy and power of states highly civilized. 



The Titan spirit of Russia is awake to a sense of her own strength; 

 she sees clearly the position in which her ingenuity has placed her ; 

 she is armed with the indefatigable perseverance of the people of the 

 North, and her Roman policy is assisted by her punic want of faith. 

 Through the operation of the principles of autocracy and theocracy 

 combined, the energies of a whole nation of sixty millions are cen- 

 tred in the will of the emperor alone, who is bent on the prosecution 

 of objects equally flattering to personal ambition and popular vanity. 

 Such demonstrations, therefore, ought long since to have excited the 

 distrust of other states, whose strength is not so concentrated as in the 

 powers of a dictator. 



Already her black eagles have winged their flight close to the 

 minarets of Constantinople, Ispahan, and Teheran ; and her legions 

 live on the hope to advance to the sacred waters of the Ganges, and 

 to startle the sepoys in the streets of Calcutta. 



The conquest of the Swedish provinces on the Baltic, the founding 

 of Petersburg and Constadt, were the first signs of life exhibited by 

 the Russian empire as an European state. The adhesion of the Cos- 

 sacks and the conquest of the Crimea and Tauris added to her mili- 

 tary power the formidable and indefatigable cavalry of the Don and 

 the Black Sea. The boundaries of her territory are thus secured on 

 the south and south-west against the Poles and Hungarians, and the 

 road is thrown open for the future possession of the dominions of 

 Persia and Turkey upon which we have seen the grasp of the Auto- 

 crat so ready to close. In a very short time, unless a vigorous police 

 be adopted by England and France Istambol and Ispahan will be 

 the quarry of the Russian eagle ; and then, will not the plains of 

 India tremble with the thunder of the Muscovite guns ? 



The spirit in which the punic policy of Russia took advantage of 

 the weakness of Poland, led her victorious armies to the banks of 

 the Oder and the Spree, to the capital of the kingdom of the great 

 Frederick, and enabled her to effect finally the sinful partition of the 

 ancient realm of the Piasts and Jagellors ; by which the last bulwarks 

 of Europe against this Scythian intruder were annihilated. Hence 

 the fields of Germany, Italy, and Switzerland were trodden by the 



* England, France, Russia, and Turkey. Third Edition. James Ridgway 

 and Sons, London. 



