to govern in the name of the King the conquered provinces, how long, even in the compact country of France, would the throne hold out against the spirit of Vendée and the attempts of the republicans?

Let us imagine the Viceroy of Hungary to be as powerful in troops and in funds as the Emperor of Austria; and blood to have been already shed; let us imagine that by a natural consequence the Sovereign, and he who imagines himself to be the Sovereign, were to stand on their guard one against the other, thus exhausting their respective strength, we should be glad to know to what lengths the ardour for insurrection would spread over Austrian Italy.

In the vast Russian empire, formed like Turkey, of different populations, let us imagine the Governor of Southern Russia, being to the Czar what Mehemet Ali is to the Sultan- would the refugees of Poland long remain absent from their hearths?

Spain offers us the spectacle of two rival powers. Under this excitement, what energy has not the resistance of Navarre displayed?

Certainly you will not dare to assert that the King of England and his Protestant subjects must disappear, in order to yield the field to Catholic Ireland; that in France, the King, and the mass of the nation which supports him, are to be supplanted by Vendée or the republic; that the Austrian Nationality is called upon to make way for the Italian provinces of that empire; that the Emperor and his millions of Russian subjects are to retire behind the snows of the Arctic regions, to give breathing room to Poland; that, in fine, Queen Christina and the defenders of her cause are to evacuate Spain, that the political religion of Navarre may rest at ease on the soil.

Observe, however, the point to which your argument tends, if you are consistent! and if you are not consistent, by what right do you assume to instruct public opinion?

Far be from us the idea of opposing accusation by accusation, and of retorting on other governments the reproaches which are addressed to that of Turkey. We show that every state has its

living, bleeding, wound; that it is everywhere difficult to satisfy every interest at once; to respond, at the same time, to the regrets of the past and the exigencies of the future; to calm the ardour of the passions; to repair every error; and to provide, without painful operations, against the numerous maladies which affect the social body. If it were granted to the Chief of a Nation to distribute happiness in equal doses, as an engineer levels the inequalities of the soil, administrative science would no longer be so valuable, and those who have possessed it would not have been entitled to the immortality of illustrious men.

Far, then, from being astonished that there is discontent in Turkey, it would be fair to ask how, with the state of things created in these countries by European policy, it has not long since been entirely engulphed in universal anarchy. Under the influence of the same circumstances, the strongest powers of Europe would have succumbed. Yet Turkey still stands erect, and only requires to gain one point, to acquire in a few years indestructible solidity: that point is, that Europe should renounce the false idea she has formed of her instability, and that, consequently, she should grant to Turkey security for her national existence. If this truth be questioned at the present day, the reason is, as we have said, that people have never investigated by what elements of secret vitality the Ottoman empire has sustained itself against such innumerable blows from every quarter of Christendom.

We conclude at the point where the "Courier" commenced, and we believe we plead the cause of Russia equally with that of Turkey, in repelling with all our strength the scandalous proposal which involves the destruction of the one for the advantage of the other. If Turkey is interested in defending herself against the propagation in Europe of the idea of its extinction, Russia is no less so in not allowing unmerited suspicions to rest on her good faith; suspicions, which, by obtaining credit, may excite a political crisis, the consequences of which are incalculable.

The position of Constantinople is regarded by the Courier" as insignificant. According to it, the sooner the Ottomans are deprived of it, the better will it be for the commerce of England

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. 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.

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