ALAM)-THE BALTIC IN 1854. 



BY THE LATE COLONEL CHARLES HAMLEY, E.M. 

 [MAG A. JUNE 1855.] 



I. 



AT the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia, and about 

 midway betwixt the coasts of Sweden and Fin- 

 land, covering much of the intervening space with, 

 a network of islands, stands the Aland group. De- 

 tached from the great thoroughfares of the world, 

 unimportant in itself, offering few facilities for com- 

 merce, and apparently no temptation to conquest, this 

 little spot would, it might be thought, have retained 

 the seclusion which nature had assigned it. Man's 

 history, however, proves that no isolation of position, 

 no poverty, no obscurity or inoffensiveness, is security 

 against the aims of ambition or the aggression of 

 power. A country may lie apart from the great 

 tracks and roadways its people keep aloof from the 

 great conflicting interests and great struggles, and 

 yet attract the desires of some conqueror, as an out- 

 work to his possessions, or a pasturage for his flocks ; 



