_ Mr. Bell on the growing power of Russia. 4933 
military power, within the bounds of the Celestial Empire ; and 
the Russians will have plenty of employment nearer home, in set- 
tling, and organizing, and strengthening their new acquired do- 
mains, before they think of crossing the Altai or the Beloor. 
Our India Company, and their friends, have been long alarmed 
at the prospect of an invasion of India, first by Buonaparte, and 
latterly by Russia. It is on this account that the political progress 
of Russia has been viewed with no ordinary feelings of anxious 
jealousy. Net a step can Russia make eastward or southward 
but what is viewed with dread, as always bringing them nearer 
India ; and our continental rivals, who know that we are exceed- 
ing sensitive on this subject, have taken good care to quicken and 
increase it, by always telling us ef every new conquest of Russia 
on the sides of Persia and Toorkistan, and how much nearer they 
are now than formerly to the shores of the Indus, and are evidently 
anticipating in their imagination the presence of the Russian eagle 
on the frontiers of Hindoostan. I have already stated my reasons 
for believing the conquest of Persia as no dithcult matter, and my 
belief that, at no very distant period, the Russian conquests will 
approach, if not approximate, the Indus. There is no immediate 
danger of a Russian army marching from the Araxes on the west, 
or from the deserts of the Kirguis on the north, to the banks of the 
Indus. The march is as possible as that of Alexander or Nadir 
Shah ; but by no means so probable or so easy, at least, as the lat- 
ter. In present circumstances such an expedition would be enor- 
mously expensive to Russia, and would not pay so well as the 
march to Tairis or Adrianople. Before ever Russia can ever think 
of such an expedition, she must have her Persian and Tartarian 
conquests consolidated ; she must have her rear well secured in 
case of a repulse, an event by no means improbable ; as otherwise, 
with a hostile population behind, and an army flushed with victory 
advancing on her rear, witheut fortresses and provisions to shelter 
and support them, complete destruction would be inevitable. In 
prospect of such an event, in the present extended case of our mi- 
litary force, it would be no very dificult matter for our army to 
cross the Indus, and secure the mountain passes of Afghanistan on 
the west, and those of the Hindoo Khoo on the north. With these 
passes well secured, under the command of brave and intelligent 
officers, well acquainted with the geography of the country, and all 
the mountain passes through which an army could penetrate,—it 
would be our business, in case of such an event, to secure the 
friendship of the Afghan tribes and chiefs previously, and in con- 
junction with them seize all the accessible posts and passes, and I 
am confident not a Russian would be able to cross the Hindoo 
Khoo, nor the mountains of Selyman. With a well disciplined 
army on the western bank of the Indus, and a chain of well chosen 
communications with our advanced posts on the mountains, to sup- 
port them if attacked, we would effectually secure ourselves from 
all fears of an invasion. I have no doubt of the ability of a Rus- 
