and the whole world. It is the Russian empire on which it would unceremoniously bestow Turkey in Europe; and it defies the world to prove that this aggrandizement would in any respect augment the power of Russia.

That power, if consulted on the importance of Constantinople, would hold a very different language, for its Cabinet is too enlightened and far too experienced to hope that its words would obtain credit, if it were to speak lightly or with disdain of a position which commands an entire sea and the vast countries which it bounds. Russia may disavow, with plausible reasons, the projects imputed to her by public opinion; she may vaunt her disinterestedness, and inquire, with map in hand, whether so vast an empire requires new conquests. She cannot assert, like the "Courier," that the possession of Turkey would add nothing to her power. Constantinople, whenever its occupier chooses to make it so, will be the absolute Queen of the Mediterranean. From this fortress, flanked by two vast and unassailable continents, fleets, superior in force to all those which England could oppose, might issue at her orders. As to superiority of discipline, it is a merit to be acquired by practice, and the Sea of Marmora is a field for exercise, whose equal may in vain be sought for throughout the world. Thirty thousand unemployed Greek sailors, thirsting for glory and plunder, would not long be inferior to the English; and on this theatre, which is their own, they would soon profit by the lessons of their masters.

On the other hand, Constantinople is the road to India. It may be said that it is distant, and the proposition may be disputed. But, in political affairs, distances are not calculated by space. A power which holds in her hands the existence of several others advances without putting herself in motion. Is Persia, like the Ottoman empire, which is surrounded by seas, free to communicate whichever way she pleases? Enslaved, surrounded, she has no exit but by the Euxine and the Persian Gulf. If one of these ways is closed against her, one half of Persia is paralyzed in her existence, and is forced to fall at the feet of him who holds the keys. How tremendous a means of action is the exclusive possession of the channel which supplies the food of millions!

We think it superfluous seriously to discuss the assertion of the

"

Courier," that the commerce of England with Odessa is more considerable than that of England with any town of the Ottoman empire. The respective importance of the places suffices alone to show the utter absurdity of this joke, and we may without exaggeration offer to prove to the " Courier" by figures, that the value of the commercial intercourse between England and Constantinople could hardly be equalled by the relations of one hundred towns like Odessa. Russia, we must acknowledge, favours by noble encouragment, and wise financial principles, the increase of commerce, which finds in all parts of her territory a beneficent protection. But, has England, in this respect, to complain of the Ottoman empire? The Sultan's Ambassador in London has recently set forth in the speech to the King, published by the "Courier" itself, the generous facilities which the commerce of Great Britain had invariably received in Turkey. The Envoy pronounced the word "reciprocity" on the part of England. Why, then, did not the "Courier" seize the opportunity to expose the futility of the words of the Turkish representative, and to bring forward the grievances of Great Britain?

That journal sums up its own grievances in these words:"Our ancient allies are incorrigible barbarians." Incorrigible! If the Turks were to amend, as Europe would have them do, they would adopt the vices which abound there: financial aberrations, which agitate every portion of its surface, and which give rise to the expression-old Europe. Then the Turks, indeed, would be called regenerate. Unhappy, indeed, would be their fate, if they should ever be impelled into the fatal path of abandoning their national wisdom, their religious principles, and their financial doctrines! It is for the Ottomans, in contemplating civilization, in witnessing its inconsiderate animosities, its predilections for forms, without examining their principles; the existence of galley slaves, which is imposed on men in civilized climes by the absence of real philosophy, and by the miserable ambition which aspires only to material enjoyments-it is for the Ottomans, in hearing the "Courier" raise the cry of inquisitor, and on seeing it suddenly retrograde six centuries, to say in the accents of profound grief" Christians, you are incorrigible."

ON THE SYSTEM OF RECRUITING IN THE

RUSSIAN EMPIRE.

Voluntary enlistment is hardly known in Russia, and throughout the whole empire hardly more than a few hundred individuals enrol themselves in the line, for we must not consider as voluntary engagements those which are made by the subjects who enter the corps of instruction and the schools, because they are certain of becoming officers after a short apprenticeship.

The regular troops which are not colonized are recruited by forced conscription, on the whole Christian and Jewish population, with the exception of the nobility and the clergy; but the summons are not fixed at any particular epoch, and all classes do not contribute to it equally. The citizens, the free artizans in the towns, and the peasants, called odnodworcy, are allowed to find a substitute, so that the weight of the conscription falls principally on about twenty-four millions of serfs, who belong as much to the crown as to the nobility.

The levies, in time of peace, are made every two or three years; they are only of one or two individuals for every five hundred, and they form altogether only a total of forty-eight thousand men ; but this number is often diminished by a fourth, as well from the scandalous traffic of the agents charged with recruiting, as by the diseases engendered by the fatigues and bad treatment which the recruits undergo in repairing from their homes to the army.

The levies, during war, amount to eight and ten in the five hundred. In 1812, the Emperor Alexander issued two decrees, one of which required ten men, and the other eight men, in every five hundred.

The levies of two and four men in the five hundred, ordered by VOL. IV.-NO. XXXI.

ΙΙ

the Emperor Nicholas in 1829, 1830, and 1831, did not furnish more than two hundred thousand soldiers, and have not filled up the deficit which the campaigns of Turkey and Poland have occasioned in the ranks of the army.

After the Ukase of the Emperor has determined the number of men to be furnished, the ministry fixes the contingent of every circle, and the governor, according to the instructions he receives, makes the distribution of them among the different classes of the population which are submitted to them.

The marshals of the nobility, in their turn, make, in each circle, the division of the contingent between the noble proprietors, who choose amongst their slaves the individuals whom they have to furnish. This care devolves on the agents of the crown for the peasants who belong to it. The freemen in the towns draw lots under the superintendence of the politzmeister.

The seigneurs on whom the recruiting devolves have no regard either to the age or to the social condition of the individuals subjected to the service, but only to their physical qualities; thus this mode of recruitment favours, in time of peace, the noble proprietors, who get rid of their ill-disposed people. Moreover, it permits them to tear away a father from his numerous family, an only son from his disconsolate mother, a husband from his wife, through any feelings of vengeance or avarice.

The men are received from eighteen to forty years of age. Some have been seen to reach the army as recruits, who were even above that age, which presents insurmountable difficulties in the way of instruction. If a seigneur wants money, it is sufficient for him to deliver to the governor of the province a serf fit for the service in order to obtain a receipt in anticipation of the next levy. This receipt has the value in the hands of the bearer of a bill of exchange, which is soon discounted by those who do wish to furnish men. In case of necessity, the Government may convert the obligation of service into a tax, which varies from eight hundred to two thousand paper roubles (francs) per man.

The recruits are collected in the chief place of the district and examined by a council of recruitment, composed of officers taken

in the battalions of the garrison, presided over by the governor of the province, or by the marshal of the nobility, and assisted by a physician. There every thing is venal. A great many individuals are thus received as recruits who are suffering under diseases or infirmities which ought to exempt them from service. The general-in-chief of the army may indeed reform the men unfit to serve, and summon to justice officers accused of prevarication; but this would occasion great expence, the recruits having already often marched more than a thousand miles, and cost the State a heavy disbursement.

Besides, the traffic is too general to be remedied by the punishment of a few individuals.

The period of the levies is critical, and pregnant with despair to the serfs, even to those who are most unfortunate. Some prefer death to the military service. They often mutilate themselves, cut off their fingers, pull out their teeth, or hide themselves in the woods, and one has only been able to diminish the number of those who seek to evade these extreme measures by rendering the villages responsible for these losses; when a man has mutilated himself, or fled, the inhabitants of his village must provide two in his stead.

When once the peasants have joined their regiments, they are dead to their native country and to their relations, with whom they have no longer the means of keeping up a correspondence, and whom they hardly ever see again, because, only a short time ago, they were obliged to remain a quarter of a century under their standards. And what soldier is there who, incurring the chances of war, can flatter himself with surviving twenty-five years of service? The small number of those who have outlived so many perils and fatigues have found, on returning to their firesides, their wives re-married and surrounded by another family, and they have esteemed themselves happy if by the decision of their seigneur they have been allowed to find shelter in the corner of the hovel which they had constructed with their own hands.

The military service is the greatest scourge that can be in