Some of our readers may have been surprised at what we have on several occasions said respecting the anxiety of Russia to involve the United States, in her sense, in the affairs of Europe. Those opinions did not result from any private intelligence as regards the present moment, but from the nature of the case. The United States have commerce and subjects on the soil of Europe, in the dominions of the Sultan, on the shores of the Baltic, and their men-of-war navigate those seas. As Russia's plans are based upon infractions of law, which other nations tamely endure, or submission to international compacts drawn up for her peculiar advantage, to which the other Governments of Europe have meanly and traitorously adhered, it is essential for her to place the United States in a similar position, for otherwise the most trifling incident might blow up the whole scheme. How singularly is this judgment confirmed from the mouth of Pozzo di Borgo, in 1825, when he recommends making the Cabinet of the United States their confidant. Seeing how perfectly the plan of operations then suggested has been followed at present, is it not probable, if not certain, that the Cabinet of St. Petersburg has proposed to the United States that role of mediatrix, which Austria has been subsequently forced to accept? For this conclusion we have more than inferential grounds.

One word as to Sweden. Besides the United States, that

دو

was the only Government whose "self-love" was worth flattering; but nevertheless " precautions were necessary in Finland, so that there was one insecure point throughout the Russian dominions.

Intelligence from the Black Sea, yesterday, reached London, to the effect, that from on board the Russian squadron the native Russian sailors and the Poles had been discharged, and that the crews remaining were exclusively composed of "Fins and Greeks," that is to say, that the fleet which holds in check the united navies of England and France, is manned by the inhabitants of a province, the tenure of which Russia herself holds to be insecure, and by those of a foreign country, in protection of which those squadrons of the West are assembled at Besika Bay. Again we say, who would not be a Russian?

159

RUSSIA AND CHINA.

September 12th.

At no moment can it be more desirable than at the present, to view the position of Russia, in reference to her world—not that bounded by the Euxine, but that of the globe itself.

Something has been said of plans respecting Little Thibet, but they have been treated as extravagant and visionary. It is not however contested, that communications have been made by the Court of St. Petersburg to that of Pekin, with reference to the insurrection ;-that these consisted in offer of support upon conditions, and that the conditions were, the cession of Little Thibet. They were made in the month of October last, long before our residents in China had any suspicion of what was in progress. That the Indian Government has received communications from Thibet itself, bearing upon the same matter, is equally true, although it could not clearly understand or believe what they meant. We have therefore this inference at least to draw, that Russia is not indifferent to the extraordinary events now occurring in the Chinese Empire, and that she is seeking to take advantage of them to extend her own dominion over the stupendous plateau of Western Tartary and the Inter-Himalaya, or the monntains of TsongLing, Pamer, and Kien-Lung, the real Indian Caucasus of the ancients the country of wild horses and camels, and therefore of conquerors, and probably the cradle of the human race.

It is from the side of these mountains that in all times have descended the subduers of the world, but along their flanks have been marked "nulla vestigia retrorsum." China on the east, India on the south, Russia and Europe on the west, have thence, from the dawn of history, been periodically replenished, colonised, and devastated; such events must have likewise occurred before there were pens or chisels to relate them. But the sources were hidden, the effects were patent, the causes unknown, and the Tartarian lands remained generation after generation, a marvel and a mystery,

However, in the course of the last century, and while England was establishing her rule in Hindostan, the Chinese, or their Mantchu rulers, were making their way upwards towards these fabulous summits, and the great Emperor KienLung established his authority in the ancient Tartar capital of

Ouguz-Khan, Kashgar. Incredible as it may appear, the force under the command of the Chinese general who effected this conquest did not exceed 400 men; and it increases the surprise which such a feat was calculated to excite, that these Western Tartars were Mussulmen, while the Eastern Tartars were Buddhists. At the time, they appealed to Russia for support, but it was denied them. Amiot declares his conviction that Russia might easily have frustrated the Chinese invasion, and seized the opportunity of establishing there her dominion, or, at least, her paramount influence. It seems, however, that she only bided her time.

These past circumstances will throw light upon those mysterious communications which our statesmen are pleased to disregard, because they believed the supposed end impracticable. How would they have treated, had they lived at the time of the expedition of a few hundred Cossacks under Yermaloff, which ended by putting her in possession of Siberia ?

The possession of Siberia has made Russia and China neighbours, and brings the frontiers of the former all round Tartary. She has even encroached upon the proper Tartar territory, and established her city of Albasgna in the centre of Mantchuria itself. This district had indeed never belonged to China, but was considered the private domain of the Imperial Mantchu family, after it had succeeded to the throne. The Chinese, after various failures, succeeded in capturing Albasgna, carrying as prisoners to Pekin, its Cossack defenders. But this disaster has become the foundation of the action of Russia upon the whole Chinese empire. The Cossacks were settled at the capital, where their descendants are to be found to this day, and furnished the pretext for the establishment of that Russian monastery at the capital, where no foreign establishments of any description are admitted.

In the wars and negotiations from the year 1688, Russia will be found, under the greatest disadvantages, steadily pursuing two ends-the opening of the Chinese trade, and the obtaining possession of the district of the Amour, both of which are directly connected with the development of the resources of Siberia. The Chinese trade confers no benefit

on Russia Proper. "The Government,", says Haxthausen, supports it for the future, and Russia herself is sacrificed in order to elevate Siberia." The great want of that country is water communication, and the main channels of that

enormous district pass by the Amour to the Pacific. Now, the early conquerors of Siberia had gained possession of this district, but Russia had been forced to cede it back. "The loss of the Amour," says the same authority, "is so serious for Siberia, that it is easy to see that Russia, by fair means or foul, will soon get possession of it. What the shores of the Baltic are for Russia itself, the district and mouths of the Amour are for Siberia. When this is gained St. Petersburg will easily be connected by water communication with the Pacific, and the grand idea of Peter to open a way to India, Japan, and America, will be carried out." An English authority-Cottrell confirms the same view, stating that a canal of 300 miles would enable vessels to pass from St. Petersburg to the Pacific, a distance of 10,000 miles.

We have italicised the word Japan, as indicating the connexion with those projects of the movements of the Russian vessels actually in those seas, the only ones of Europe there to watch the operations of the Americans.

In the meantime her measures are pushed in the intervening districts with sequence and comprehensiveness. The Persian flag has been excluded from the Caspian; she is actually engaged in forcing the cession from Persia of a district on the south-east of that sea and of the fort of Astrabad. Steamers are being constructed, or are already completed, for the navigation of the Aral and Syraria, which will bring her in direct communication up to the neighbourhood of Kashgar. On the other side, she is in possession of Okhotsk, into the sea of which the Amour enters; both which positions may very possibly fall to her through the present convulsions of the Chinese Empire.

It would be indeed not very "pleasant" if at such a moment any circumstance should constitute the Euxine "the horizon bounding the circumference of her world," the necessary effect of any incidents in the Levant which might shake the treaty of 1841, and enable an English squadron to appear in the Black Sea. In the meantime, we may well ask how it happens that nothing is done to promote the cutting of a canal at Suez, by which the whole of these ambitious projects would be quietly laid to rest; as also why, wholly irrespective of the Ottoman Empire, and entirely for the security of our own possessions, we do not insist on the free entrance into the Euxine?

COMMERCIAL DIPLOMACY.

September 12th.

There have been two ancient, respectable, and standing maxims in England-the first, to abstain in India from conquests; the second, to avoid in Europe continental alliances -maxims which have been honoured in the breach and not observance. In respect to the first, there may have been, up to a certain point, justificatory reasons and profitable results. The most dexterous special pleader would be hard put to it to show a reason for any alliance which we have contracted, or any war which we have made for the last three-quarters of a century, and still more so to discover the advantage we have gained. It is in consequence of this maxim that England has always abstained from treaties of guarantee, a rule departed from only on three exceptional occasions-Portugal, Denmark, and Persia—which had reference to the curbing of the ambition of great States-Russia and France. But even from these bonds we are now disentangling, and by a curious process, not the abrogation of the treaties, but their violation by England herself, who, in 1813, took to herself a portion (Heligoland) of the territories she had guaranteed to Denmark, who, in 1827, violated her treaty with Persia, refusing the stipulated aid in her war with Russia; and in the events of 1847, by interposing to support in Portugal internal despotism, passed by the obligation of supporting her against external violence. There remains, therefore, no political system of alliances for English diplomacy to prosecute; and, in fact, by the repeated violatious of the treaty of Vienna, there is no public European law even to maintain. Laboriously searching for what possible legitimate object there may be in keeping gentlemen at foreign Courts to have interviews with its Ministers, and to entertain the society of the place at dinners. we are reduced to Commerce. Here indeed we have a wide field.

England is the workshop of the world, but, with the exception of iron, she draws from other countries the raw materials; cotton, silk, hemp, hides, &c., come to her from the distant regions of the earth; so also do dye-stuffs, tanning, oil and tallow used in their preparation; the sugar which she refines, the timber for her navy, as well as the principal objects of consumption for her people, including at present a