rows light from a proximate constellation, and extreme Siberia awaits its new intelligence, like the day spring from on high to visit it.

"Far as Angola's sands and Zembla's snows,"

we trace the beams of civilization, expanding from centre to circumference. In either Indies, the mind of man appears prepared to undergo a portentous change-the Mahommedan power totters before the march of the Cross,

Deeply as Russia is indebted to the genius of a Peter the Great -and little as it can be disputed that he did more for his country than ever monarch did before-we must ascribe the first impulse of its prosperity-the earliest symptoms of a destiny to emerge from obscurity to the refinements of civilized life-to the influence of foreign connexion before his time. The germs of incipient civilization in Russia are to be dated from the first treaties with queen Elizabeth, with Edward VI, and James, of England-the establishment of a British factory under the Muscovite Company, and, subsequently, the settlement of German adventurers, French refugees, and ingenious emigrants of various denominations, throughout the provinces. Voltaire, in his His

* To Ivan Vassiliewitch belongs the merit of first receiving new impressions of national improvement, with the foresight and candor suited to their importance. Accident drove a British ship into one of his ports, since called Archangel. She formed part of a squadron of four, sent from England in 1550, under the directions of Sebastian Cabot, to discover a north-east passage to China and the East Indies. A furious tempest carried her, after being separated from her companions, into the White sea and to the mouth of the Dwina. As she was the first vessel that had ever appeared in that quarter, information of the circumstance was communicated with all possible speed to the czar, then at Moscow. Her captain, Richard Chancellor, was invited to the capital, where he was most graciously and warmly received, with great magnificence and demonstrations of respect. Every encouragement was held out for the immediate establishment of commercial relations between the two countries, and the fortunate navigator was charged, on his return, with a letter from the czar to his sovereign, of the most munificent purport. Chancellor made a second voyage to Russia in 1555, with suitable instructions from his government, and obtained in favour of his countrymen a license, or formal patent, authorizing them to establish themselves, and carry on trade in any part of the Russian empire, with an exemption from taxes, duties, and imposts of whatever description.

The alacrity and liberality with which Ivan seconded this great behest of fortune, redound much to the credit of his discernment, and prove a singular enlargement of mind. He seems to have distinguished at once its unrivalled importance, not only with a view to the development and fructification of the natural resources of his country but to her advancement and civilization. The connexion to which it led, did indeed, much to animate her industry, benefit her agriculture, and unfold her capacity for naval skill. Ivan studied to improve to the utmost this new and auspicious alliance. He it was who first drew a number of artificers and artists, of every description, from England, and sent thither an ambassador, accompanied by twelve of his nobles. The English company of " Merchants' Adventurers for the discovery of lands unknown," obtained from him the exclusive privilege of transporting merchandise through his empire, by the Caspian into Great Buckara and Persia. By such measures did this sagacious and profound prince, even in that unfriendly period for the attainment of his wishes, aspire, in endeavour, to raise his people to a condition of excellence and elicity. Walsh.

tory of Peter the Great, would impress us with his magical descriptions that the czar had created a people and an empire. Hackluyt shows, that the materials with which Peter wrought his wonders were previously ready to his hand. The trade, the revenue, wealth, export, to which he succeeded, were generated by the growth of exterior relation, and the disseminated example of settlers. Unquestionably his personal travels through Europe, his practical study of the mechanical arts, his importation of foreigners into his empire, and encouragement to settlers of every description, contributed materially to call forth the capabilities of Russia, to instruct her mechanics, to stimulate her miners, reform her military, introduce new modes of policy, and teach the proprietors of the land to improve cultivation. He had wisdom to decide for himself, and, by a searching knowledge of men, an appreciation of the causes that lead to eminence in other states, and a devotion to the welfare of his own, he showed what monarchs can effect when they apply themselves earnestly to improve the opportunities of their station.

If, from this truly great man, we turn to his successor Paul, we must see reason to regret that among other legacies to his country, the great Peter had not bequeathed to it a liberal constitution. To curb the eccentricities of a frail descendant, happy had it been if some executive power, armed with experience and authority, had existed, to interfere between the impetuous sallies of his caprice and the concern of the realm. But autocracy unhappily debauched its supporters, whereby, if some good has attended, at least equal detriment has arisen to the interests of the empire. The universality of qualification necessary in one man will be rarely found existing in a degree to supply fully the public exigencies. The magna charta of Russian liberties will be the dawn of her greatness. Power must be delegated before it can become effectual. When we have seen travellers detained at Cronstadt in 1813, until their passports could be signed by the emperor, then in Germany, what must we think of the inconveniences of centering all authority in one individual, and imposing on a monarch the duties of a private secretary? If minor considerations such as these beset the mind of supreme power, what room can there be for other interests, weighty and pressing?

Is it to a negligence, of this origin, that we are to attribute the tardy expansion of native intellect? the necessity of a reliance chiefly on foreign sources to supply the common demands of navigation, medicine, engineering, and all the more useful attainments necessary to a nation? Foreign talent has indeed done much for Russia, and may, advantageously, do far more. Native capacity slumbered till it felt its vivifying power, and was long supposed incapable of successful effort. The chilling influence of climate was adduced to account for the undeniable fact of a dormant lethargy in genius and in thought. Common industry, too, seemed wanting, as, in the absence of encouragement was to be expected, so as to amount almost to an impossibility of subserving national advancement.

But the evil was rooted in the institutions of the country, and it was but doing imperfectly, when natives were not left unshackled to pursue the impulse of foreign example.

Models for imitation alone perhaps were wanting to rouse curiosity and direct interest to its natural pursuit. When afforded, Russian ingenuity was found to imitate closely, and to be equal to the most curious copy; but the contracted policy of the government, in confining its attention to St. Petersburgh and Moscow, partially, precluded the general dissemination of improvement in rapid strides through the empire. French, German, English, Swiss engineers are extensively employed in the interior, and must continue to be supplied from abroad, till schools for instruction are opened to afford a knowledge of the necessary sciences. If predial servitude oppose this devotion to study, how can Russia hope to cultivate native talent, or aspire to rank among the enlightened of the earth? Does she seek to be a naval power, and neglect the reward of its native ornaments? When the Scottish admiral of the Russian fleet resigned his command at Lisbon on the rupture with Great Britain (of which he is a subject) because placed in the predicament of an officer fighting against his country, the loss of his services, if felt at all, must evince the necessity of a stricter cultivation of home experience and the development of indigenous skill.

That England views with solicitude the growth of maritime power in Russia, may be inferred from her negociations with the Porte-her bounties, her persuasions to procure the close of the Dardanelles to the navigation of foreign powers, that forbidden pass, the key of which would be the grand palladium of Russian sovereignty in the Mediterranean.

The words even of Nelson himself, in 1800, betrayed his foresight and distrust of a new flag upon the ocean---a navy then rude as the boors with which it is manned, but which, if cherished with fostering care, and guided by experience, may one day dispute the empire of the seas. On a public occasion, soon after his return from Copenhagen, this great man, who certainly had his vices and his littlenesses, observed to a few by-standers, privately, but with his usual seaman-like non-chalance, "Those young Russians," said he, "the admiralty will have placed on board my ship, and circumstanced as we are with Russia, we admit them into the fleet, but when they have served their appointed time, and they come to me for a certificate, I take care how I recommend. To a stupid fellow, I give a flaming certificate."

When we consider the geographical situation of this empire -its commodious harbours in the Baltic and in the Black sea-its natural productions, furnishing every material for the construction and equipment of vessels, we cannot withhold a belief that, under a wise administration, it may soon exhibit a formidable marine. Its mines of iron and copper, its inexhaustible forests of timber, its pitch, turpentine, masts and spars, its staples of hemp and flax, firm this assurance. Whilst other nations import their naval

stores, this exports to all, and has itself a superabundance. So dense are the forests, that the traveller drives through a region of one hundred miles, thickly wooded, the resource of ages! Since Poland is now incorporated with Russia, the importance of its products to commercial and naval purposes will begin to be felt. It produces ship timber in vast abundance, and of very great age, as appeared by the report of the master mast-maker at Toulon, who was sent purposely to examine the forests of that country. The salted provisions of the Ukraine are equal to those of Ireland, and from the low price of both cattle and salt, in Moldavia and the Crimea, they may be shipped at any of the ports on the Black sea one half cheaper than they can be procured on the spot in Ireland. Hemp, fur, sail cloth, saltpetre, tar, tallow, may be obtained in inexhaustible supply.

But what nation, not possessed of colonies or trade, those nurseries for seamen, ever attained to naval preponderance? Is this a policy overlooked or projecting? Have the voyages of Krusenstern and Hagemaster been directed to the establishment of commercial intercourse, to colonial settlement, as well as to discovery, their professed object? Have commercial advantages been secured from France?-a favoured participation in the trade to her reclaimed possessions, as the price of efforts to be contributed for their restoration to legitimate dominion? The boon, for a term of years, beside recompensing the expense of the armament, would be followed by incalculable advantage to the enterprise, the experience, the commercial habits of the Russian people, then, for the first time, introduced upon a new theatre of the globe. It is not the bare calculation of profit and loss in an adventure of this kind that should regulate the resolves of nations; but the prospective habits to be engendered by a new commercial intercourse-by an admission into channels that have aggrandized other powers-by frequenting the richest portion of the Antilles, another Asia in the west.

If we turn to the military power and resources of this empire, we shall find the genius of the government-the habits of the people-the political institutions, all favouring the profession of war. In a country where the army is the sole passport to distinction, where military rank is esteemed the occupation most becoming the employment of the nobility-where decoration and orders for the rewards of merit descend in gradation to every rank, acting as a constant excitement to good conduct, a less population might, in time, become truly formidable. But when Russia is viewed, levying her conscriptions over forty-two millions of subjects, from the Baltic to the Pacific, and from the White sea to the Caspian; all these, acknowledging the absolute will of one homaged autocrat to whom they swear fealty, how vast is the engine of power, how ready the means offensive and defensive at disposal, waiting on the nod of pleasure to execute its summons!

We pass over the events of a war in which the rashness of an opponent in quitting winter quarters on the Vistula, to carry his eagles into the midst of a Russian winter, furnished to Alexander

a victim and an ally-a victim sacrificed to the ambition of hastening his bulletins from the ancient palace of the czars—an ally, in the cooperating rigours of season. The gigantic resources of a hundred provinces poured forth their tributes to swell the army of the north-the Cossacks of the Ural mountains, from the Don to the Baschkir-Tartary itself, issued at the call of the beloved Hetman Platoff, and the cry of "To Poland and to Paris!" resounded. from young to old, beyond the remotest Caucasus.

As partisans, the Cossacks are unmatched. The regular infantry and cavalry are highly disciplined. No soldiers in Europe display a nobler appearance. A military air-the step of grandeur and dignity, not the levity of foppery, mark the deportment of every member of the line. The officers are the sons or relatives of the nobility, possessing absolute command over their peasant slaves, whom they enlist. No discipline is spared, no severity of exercise omitted, to render the private a model of symmetry and grace in movement. The subalterns experience the same rigid drilling in their noviciate, and emulation of person and conduct incites the whole to prescribed uniformity. Lord Cathcart's admiration of the Russian artillery, perhaps the finest in the world, did not go unnoticed in the London Gazette. The Russian is a being seemingly unacquainted, by nature, with the principle of fear: when ordered, he will march to the cannon's mouth, as though unconscious of danger. Perhaps a superstitious persuasion of the joys of Paradise awaiting the departed souls of heroes slain in battle, may contribute to aid a temperament naturally phlegmatic, and not to be diverted from its purpose.

From Tooke we learn, that the Russian troops were pronounced, even by Frederic II, to be admirable soldiers. He observes: "The Russian will not fall back one step, while his commander bravely keeps his ground: he contents himself with a pay almost inconceivably small; and, with very slender diet, he is always cheerful. Hungry and thirsty, he traverses the heavy sands of the deserts, under the load of his accoutrements, without murmur or complaint; executes every command; reckons nothing impossible, or too difficult; does every thing that he is ordered, without shunning any danger; and is inventive of a thousand means for accomplishing his design. What may not be performed with such an army, when led on by experienced and valiant generals, in whom they have confidence? Let the soldier but see that he is spared as much as possible, he attaches himself with all his soul to his commander, and performs almost miracles. Well might the empress Catherine denominate the Russians an obedient, brave, intrepid, enterprising, and powerful people. In general, it may be affirmed that no army in Europe, proportionately, costs so little: and no soldier in Europe can subsist upon so little pay as the Russian. For what other European soldier will subsist on an annual pay not amounting to more than seven or eight roubles, or when in garrison only half that sum; and the allowance of grits and flour, weighed out to him with the utmost nicety."