Mr. Bell on the growing power of Russia. 25] 
the Step of Boudjak, now denominated the government of Cher- 
son, and containing a surface of 26,000 square miles. 
The whole of Eastern Moldavia and Bessarabia, including a sur- 
face of 20,000 square miles. 
In Asia, she has obtained the whole tract from the ene to the 
Black Sea, taking in the whole western range of the mighty Cau- 
casus, from the remotest source of the Kooban, in Mount Elboors, 
the highest point of the range, till its termination near the Isle of 
Laman, a space of 300 miles in direct length, N.W. and S.E. by a 
medium breadth of 100 British miles. in addition to this, Russia 
has obtained the district of Guriel, on the south of the Phasis, reaching 
south to the range which bounds the valley of the Apsarus, a tract 
of perhaps 4000s square miles, and the whole comprehending a space 
of 35,000 square miles, exclusive of Mingrelia and Immeretia, be- 
tween the Phasis and the Enguri rivers, which Russia had_ pre- 
viously acquired by treaty with Persia, and by cession from the 
native princes. We cannot define the ameunt of territory she has 
acquired in the Pashalick of Tchildir with any thing lke precision, 
from our ignorance of the topography of that district, as before 
stated ; but the whole of the cessions made by Turkey at different 
periods, may be roughly calculated at 146,000 square miles, name- 
ly, 86,000 on the side of Europe, and 60, 00 on the side of Asia. 
What additional population she has eained by these various ¢es- 
sions, it is 1mpessible to state ; but it can hardly be less than 
2,000,000, including the Nogais, Circassians, and Abkhas of the 
Western Caucasus. 
On the side of Persia, the acquisitions are equally considerable 
in point of political importance, population and territory. 
Though Russia was compelled, from dread of the celebrated 
Nadir Shah, to restore all the provinces on the Caspian Sea, yet 
the distracted state of that country, consequent on his death, and 
the division of the monarchy into Eastern and Western Persia, and 
the deplorable mis-gevernment of the reigning dynasty, have. reti- 
dered that country totally incapable of oppesing Russian aggran- 
dizement. By a chain of posts, erected at convenient distances 
from the mouth of the Terek west to the Sea of Azoff, Russia had 
been enabled to preserve a communication between both seas, a 
protect her southern frontier from the incursions of the Caucasiaz 
tribes, and maintain a permanent footing on the western side of “a 
Caspian. By the increasing weakness cf Persia, Prince Heraclius 
had become independent of “Persian power, and to secure himself 
against all future attempts of the Persian severeigns to regain their 
influence-in Georgia, had declared himself a vassal of the Russian 
empire, and ebtaied a bedy ef Russian troops to maintain his au- 
thority, which was so fettered by the feudal nobles of Georgia, that 
in a military oy, he could do almost nothing. This conse- 
quently produced a close and constant corre espondence between 
Russia and the e country to the south of the Caucasus. The inva- 
VOL. I. 2K 
