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    S80 angl i l i l A Df B, (ftAOTSft&r,

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    STATE OF POPULAR FEELING.; TffE occurren...

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    The New Czar And His Constituents. Alexa...

    ^ ssaannation . Tne'epigraim of TAUGETRAito may riot be the Iwstoiy of NiCHOiAs ; the poison " winch rain in Peter ' s veins may have been transmitted in disease to his successor 5 < but even in Rttssia , absolutism is not pure autocracy . The ruler must conform to the character of Ins Tealm . A calculation of the chances bf the Fctture is reduced , liherefore , to a comparison between iihe elements which render ¦ peace / possible , or -war inevitable . AH that -concerns the fortunes of this earth , is not yet confined to the plans of Emperors , or to the ark of'their covenant , the secret cabinet of diplomacy . too

    The elements of this uncertainty are varied ,, too powerful , and too mysterious to be balanced by any calculation . But there is one bbvious probability in" favour of war . A tremendous weight of material power has been stored tip by successive Czars within the southern provinces of Russia , and the confines df Asia . From those wildernesses , unv'isited "b y human culture , the devastators of ^ Europe " have sprung . Their swarming Tartar tribes Lave been the scourges of the West . Their pastoral life is the influence which nurses ^ a legion of centaurs ready to pour , at any invitation , over every frontier within reach . The Cossacks , trained in St . Petersburg , hardened in loyalty , welded into masses , and dead to

    personal feeling , return to their waste fatherland , and decoy their former compatriots into the service . During the huge levies that Tiave lately been frequent in Russia , hundreds of Siberian tribes have been allured to the martial joke , chained to it by discipline , and accustomed to obey the steThest articles of war in the military code of Europe . Of jsuch forces the desert breeds an inexhaustible supply . They have already magnified the imperial army list , And are among those new corps tramping eternally towards the citadel of Warsaw , or the passes of the Caucasus , or the avenues of the Crimea ,

    These multitudes , astonishing in numbers , are not insignificant in efficiency . Thousands of drill-sergeants have been despatched from ¦ Moscow and from , the posts on the Don , and even within a day '« march of the Chinese - frontier large Russian battalions haverehearsed sorties for the defence of Sebastopol . To such preparations did the policy of Nicholas exlend . He and his ancestors conquered deserts Ahat these might supply troops for the conquest

    of fertile provinces , ; they seized territories not worth the cost of governing , that the rapacious and destructive races inhabiting them , with itheir energies concentrated and their fury ( Curbed , might shed their cheap blood in the assault of Silistria , or in the bayonet charges « r f Inkerman . The process of forming such armies has been urged on for upwards of ten years ; German travellers have witnessed their exercises , and heard boasts of their mission to roll like a flood over the earth . More than one

    Slavonian writer warns the nations of the West that they forget too early the last-wave of the Asiatic inundation . The hordes -which Genghis and TrMOCit led have transferred their allegiance to Russian Czars , and millions of them- * thirsty devotees of the sword—are incorporated with the mass of the Russian Empire . Among their leaders exist the hope , armed with prophecy , that their great race

    will swell its limits , and succeed the Turks , as possessors of the [ Levant . Here is one augury against a speedy peace , and it is well to note it . Already has a small voice exhorted Englishmen not to be misguided by irrational hostility against Russia . One eye Eufiices , however , to watch the morris-dance of diplomacy 5 there are forces which diplomacy cannot control . Could a Vienna treaty disperse to harmless occupations the fanatntc levies df the dead'Czar P or lay a new foundation for

    the House of Austria ? or appease the exasperated spirit df Hungary ? or console the Lombard people ? or fix the basis of tottering thrones , whether in central or eastern Europe ? Humanity is too great for its governors . Even Alexander the Second has factions to influence him , and the vast party to which his serfs which

    are linked , by bigotry and vanity , is that cries for war . The Russians , in general , are like the Chinese . They know little of other nations , and despise them . We are anxious about them—they are totally indifferent about us ; for they learned from Nicholas to believe that their strength would overwhelm the enemies of the orthodox faith , including a

    large proportion of mankind 1 It was that sovereign ' s pretence that he ¦ would mediate between Europe and Asia ; that he would open an intercourse between them across his borders % that he would quicken Asia with the activity of Europe , and invigorate Europe with the youthful life of Asia . Was not the style of his manifestoes a direct appeal to the Asiatic passions , and to the ignorance of his people—people who in their village schools learned that Napoleon Bonaparte was a general who fought under their Majesties the Bourbon kings of France ? The Czar ' s correspondence with the Western

    Governments was in one language ; his official journal was habitually written in another ; but for his proclamations was reserved jthat flatulent rhetorio , that reverberating bombast , which excited the fury of the serfs . These credulous slaves were told that " surrounding nations contemplated with awe his colossal power , and knew tibathis vast armies only awaited the signal for pouring like a deluge over the states and kingdoms of the world . " Diction such as this animated to frenzy the very tribes of Russian subjects , which once constituted the finest soldiers of the Ottoman army . r ~ ~~

    An Eastern spirit pervades the institutions of Russia . Its monarchs have usually secured their power by Asiatic methods , and atoned for failure by Asiatic penalties . Nothing is more precarious , at present , than the authority of Alexander . He depends on the grasp with which he is able to wield the moral forces of the State . For the nobles of Russia , although , like the" chiefs ^ 6 fna ¥ TASatio ~ kifflgdom 7- * hoy have little corporate influence , possess considerable weight , circle within circle , and the

    " emancipation of the serfs" is intended to neutralise this authority . Yet it exists , and inclines to war . Only the war-faction delighted in the late Czar ' s spread of policy in Asin . The wastelands of Southern Russia are prized as depositories of a vast material organisation alone . They are valuable for military purposes or for none . From them , and from Poland , Nicholas raised the levies which threatened Germany , and invaded the Ottoman Empire . Blood-alliances would not have made

    Frederick-William a viceroy of the Czar , had he not leaned on him for protection in the contingent discord of Europe . The " immortal" Cossack battalions effected the deliverance , and half-effected the subjugation of Austria ; and the same breeding-ground of human flesh and blood enabled one army to be lost on the Danube , another to be decimated to Asia , and one after another to march along that short but bloody way which leads from the

    batteries to the charnel-pit of Sebastopol . The East of Europe has been invested and besieged by forces from the neighbouring wastes of Asia . A sleepless vitality has been aroused ; and the Russian people look to their Czar for the triumph long-promised , prophesied , and postponed . A man ' s enemies may be they of his own house . Consequently , without calculating the warlike elements out of Russia , there are some within , which are potent , and perhaps irresistible .

    S80 Angl I L I L A Df B, (Ftaotsft&R,

    S 80 angl i l i l A Df B , ( ftAOTSft & r ,

    State Of Popular Feeling.; Tffe Occurren...

    STATE OF POPULAR FEELING . ; TffE occurrences of the last twelve months have aroused a spir it in the country "which it will be dangerous to slight , and difficult to allay . It is more than the war ' spirit , and will not be terminated by peace . It "would be a great mistake to suppose that cessation of

    hostilities , and therefore of extra taxation , would satisfy the want called forth by the pressure 01 taxes . During the last twelve months the people of this country have become aware that they have been embroiled with foreign enemies , and what is worse , embroiled with treacherous allies like Russia , embroiled , in military failures , and therefore in an excessive and useless

    taxation , not by any unavoidable calamities , not b y the crimes unaided of foreign kings or statesmen , but by the incapacity of their own rulers The governing classes have proved themselves to be incompetent as well as exclusive , mischievous as well as passive . We have not King Stork with his formidable but respectable rapacity , nor have we King Log , with hi 3 perfectly senseless tranquillity , but we have a cross-grained malignant King Log who will

    neither govern nor be quiet . Nor does the detriment to the governing classes cease with the war , for the incapacity existed before the war began ; it will continue after the war closes t and it is the exposure only that will cease , not the thing exposed . The public have become thoroughly impressed with this conviction ; the flame of war has cast a light upon objects which will not be forgotten ; the aristocracy is understood , and something else has also come to be understood besides the

    aristocracy . We have a report upon which we can perfectly rely as to the state of feeling in the cotton manufacturing districts . We are not unacquainted with the iron district , and we have some reason to believe that the other great manufacturing regions do not differ from the condition of that of which Lancashire is the centre . We speak , however , chiefly of North Cheshire , Lancashire , and the part of Yorkshire adjacent . In that tract of country the state of the people is anything but contented , or even resigned . We have heard the feeling It is

    likened to that which prevailed in 1838 . stillmorelifce that of 1842 .: probably it may not take the directly insurgent form which it assumed in that year of starvation . For the working classes have had many lessons besides those of 1848 . They have learned to emigrate , and have been departing from the country at the Tate of a million in three years . They have also learned to despise tbe aristocracy . They have learned a yet more ominous lesson ; they have found that the magnates of the middle class , the great factory lords , the millocracy , who raised them to help in dragging down the exclusiveness of our aristocracy , now

    turn round and maintain against the working classes the same exclusion in power and in trade which they charged upon the old ToneB and landed gentry . Dislike is a feeble expression for the feeling that these lessons have engendered . The glutting of the markets in America , India , and Australia , brought about by the reckless over-trading of the manufacturers , has entailed upon the manufacturing district a stoppage of trade . We have some right to the factory

    charge these consequences upon lords , since not only have they neglected proper steps for acting in concert to prevent any such suicidal over-trading , but many . < rt them wo know introduced the innovation ot directly over-trading in Australia in order to anticipate the market , where however they J » afl been already anticipated by local merch ants , ana where , therefore , they only heaped up the glut . They suffer from suspended profits ; the wotking classes from rihort time , which means suspended bread . Whicli is tihe worst ? When

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 10, 1855, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10031855/page/14/