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Leader (1850-1860), 28th August 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 14, THE AMERICAN LINK AND THE RUSSIAN CHAIN....

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      Borough Elections. Three Of Our Smaller ...

      mainly with his lordly brother , who , since the extinction of the more potent influence of the Somers family , considers the nomination of the member for Beigate as one of his political perquisites . Lord Monson tried to exercise his pretended right last time wlien Sir Henry Eawlinson and Mr . Delton resisted the attempt , and the former , after a sharp struggle , was returned . Both these mar-plots being now out of the way his lordship looks upon the course as clear . If Mr . James resolves on going to the poll , we cannot doubt that he will prove a formidable antagonist ; but it is no part of our duty to prophesy results ; and we know too much of the power of proprietorial iufluence , to say nothing of corruption , in a small constituency , to teei any confidence as to the issue in question .

      As at Guildford and at Reigate , so likewise at Ijeominster there is a lord paramount , who reigns over votes and rules over elections . Lord Bateman "boasts tlat he is absolute sovereign of the suffrages of the pseudo-independent borough ; and he has in the present instance ordained that his brother shall be returned as his representative in the Lower House of Land-Lords . Some stupid folks who talk at random about things they don't understand , imagined that Mr . Wilde ,. Q . C ., might have a fair chance as a Liberal candidate , because Mr . John G . Phillimore happened to have got in for Lord Baleman's borough m 1852 . But a preserve is not the less a preserve because it is sometimes poached on ; nor is it the less hazardous to intrude within the sacred line of aristocratic demarcation because one nimble fellow has ( partly perhaps by good luck ) escaped the gins and snares with which all ground of the sort is thick-set . . For " our parts we like calling things by their right naSrhes . We like to see a fair race whenever ruin ; and we are not factiously devoted to ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ any interes + j or sworn to bet on this colour and against that . We hare always kept clear of those whom our contemporary the Daily HFeics calls * ' the rival election brokers of Pall-mall ; " and we shall ever feel profound indifference as to the state of the

      Oligarchic odds , and the relative winnings of mere Whiggery and mere Toryism . But we cannot allow close borough contests or rotten borough wrangles to pass for appeals to public opinion . If the three lords we have named were to return three of their liveried lacqueys for Guilford , Leominster , and Keigate , it would prove nothing tliat thinking men are not already convinced of . Elections for such constituencies as little express the fluctuations of the national mind as the admission by a docile Chapter of a courtier Dean , in obedience to a conge tPelire , expresses the opinion of a diocese .

      3?0 The Leader. [No. 440, August 28 1s5s

      3 ? 0 THE LEADER . [ No . 440 , August 28 1 S 5 S

      The American Link And The Russian Chain....

      THE AMERICAN LINK AND THE RUSSIAN CHAIN . Ix is a circumstance rather remarkable-and highly interesting to notice , that the means of intercommunications are making their most rapid strides at once towards the west and towards the cast-While the electric telegraph is successfully laid to unite America more closely with the Old World , the Russian empire is engaged in a vigorous effort to extend the system of iron railways eastward and southward . It is true that in the degree of

      completeness and rapidity with which the Russians tire now filling up the general scheme of machinery for intercommunication , they are infinitely behind us of Western Europe or of America , and we shall have a word to say on that presently ; but they arc performing one of those duties wliich appears to be half unconsciously fulfilled in the effort to promote their own advantage , and at the same time extending the machinery available for tho human race at large . If we glance at Mercator ' s chart we shall see at once the relation which these Uyo endeavours pear to each otbeT , and the sequel which they must nave . J

      Already it may be considered that the United Kingdom and the greator part cf French , German , Spanish , or Italian Europe—using those words in their largest interpretation—are amply supplied with railways . In the United States the network is far more extensive , although thcro are still some interstices to be filled up . It is comparatively a short time since the means of communication in this country bore no comparison to those which we now possess , —since the anxious correspondent wrote upon the back of his letter exhortations for the postman to haste for his life—exhovtations , probably , which the postman could not read , and which ho had little means of fulfilling -whilo ho only rode a

      sorry hackj with no machinery to expedite him on his road . We now have the penny post , which , within our own day , has been extended , with some imperfections , throughout what we will call , for the present , tlie commercial world- —that is , the better portion of Europe and the United States , with all the British Colonies in every part of the world . Railways exist in the same regions , and accompanying them is an extension of the electric telegraph , with apparatus by means of which messages are conveyed at the rate of about 500 miles

      an hour , more or less , the consumption of time being almost exclusively in the repetition of the message at the various stations . It is this system which Russia is trying to extend , and although to this point her efforts have not been very successful , it is manifest that many years will not elapse before we see the network of railways , accompanied by the apparatus of the telegraph , extended throughout every part of the llussian Empire vvhich can offer a sufficiency of commerce' to support the work . Indeed , tlie failures which the Imperial Government has heretofore encountered are as instructive as the

      degree of progress which she has obtained . Immediately after the termination of the war , the Russian Government fulfilled the project which had long been lurking in the mind of the circle of statesmen that reside at St . Petersburg-, by announcing the construction of railways for the whole of the llussian empire not including Siberia . The primary object of these works was to supply the Government with those facilities that the Romans constructed

      the moment they obtained possession 6 f any large provinces- —roads . In the days of Julius Coesar the Roman roads were the best known , and , to our own day , they have remained the most perfect specimens of works executed by any highway commissioner . But Western Europe has adopted the railway , and Russia , in order to have any equality in the race , must do the same . The Russian Emperor , therefore , called for roads exactly as the first Napoleon called for ships , colonies , and commerce . But pathways of this kind are as little to be obtained by the mere

      utterfor the present The want of roads iM CfenJ"J Russia is so $ reat that produce—grain &>* *™ T -rises in price 100 per cent , wiSnTa dLS * twenty miles . Branches , therefore , willleW , ° j to feed the traffic ; but the populationIS supplied with roads before it In a ^ tZtt thcm .-. another nistauce to teach martinet noEi economists how positively sometimes sitpp y S precede the demand . The great Rusaian mil therefore , with its capital of 44 , 000 000 / nf 1 i ^ it has raised 5 , 400 , 000 / ., and i " trS to ^ 5 , 000 , 000 ? ., promises to begin its SE & ton £ constructing the ends of jhc gre / K Vitf branches that will connect Theodosia wirh iL

      Meanwhile Austria is gradually extending rail ways through Hungary ; the iron rail has been « Ce » m Iivrkey , and is so much needed by the < nwrW prosperity of Bulgaria , and the fine prospects of Servia and the Danubian Principalities , tlat we mar look forward to . the extension of the iron network down to the furthest shores of Europe , accompany ing it , of course , b y the telegraph ; and those are now living ; who will probably see railway parcels and telegraphic messages exchanged between all quarters of Europe ; Spain , perhaps , being arnou * the latest to develop that system in its most com * plete form .

      But wh y exclude Siberia ? There is no more reason for it than for the exclusion of Rome , which a high spiritual power once desired to maintain-. Railways . -will of course extend throughout Italy * and in proportum to the commercial value of Siberia will they "be extended into that part of the Russian empire . Barbarous as the condition of Southern Siberia may be , it is gradually being filled up with an energetic population which has extended its explorations , perhaps its settlements , throwrh the

      ance of a . wish , as ships , colonies , and commerce . You cannot call for them as you would for a glass of ale at a tavern , and the Russian Government has been told so in very plain language . It lias always been reputed one of the richest in the world , but it could not spend 44 , 000 , 000 / . out of its own pocket for tlie purpose ; it has the highest credit in tlie world , yet it could not obtain tliat sum from the capitalists of Europe for the execution of its impatient desires . No 44 , 000 , 000 / . for a mere military road from St . Petersburg to Taganrog , Theodosia , or Scbastopol .

      passes of i he frontier " mountain ' s , obtained some kind of footing on the A moor or Sagaiin river , and will probably be negotiating at no distant day with ' the Chinese empire to settle the boundaries between the two . Russia , indeed , has already completed her communications so far in that direction that her well organised couriers have outstripped our steamers and telegraphs by a month in announcing the satisfactory conclusions of the French ami English negotiations with Pekin . There is , moreover , nothing to prevent her ( as

      Mr . I * eterniann , the editor of the Mitthcilurrgcn , a German geographical journal , has pointed out ) from so extending her telegraphic lines from Moscow to Kiakhta as to obtain in Sfc . Petersburg intelligence from Pckin and Peiho in eight days ; and there is little doubt tluit before long we . shall hear that the necessary works are in progress . In the mean time an Asiatic Liverpool is rapidly growing up . Eight years ago the mouth of the Sagaiin , the spctou which Nicolayefsky now stands , was in the

      The Government , therefore , caused a commercial company to be formed , with names wliich we recognise as comprising some of the most intelligent aud active Russians , and some of the hi g hest commercial names in Europe , with , branches in the various capitals . The company consents to raise the-money by instalments of only 12 , 000 , 000 / . each , in shares of 20 / . ; and even of-the first instalmont it will take a payment of 6 / . per share , leaving the 14 / . to be paid up afterwards , though loyal Russians are expected lo pay the whole down on the nail . As many loyal Russians do so as car , ami the ' effect is ^ j r - - j - — — — — — — —r * -

      midst of a wilderness , it is now a thriving place of commerce , with steam-boats , Itussian and foreign , plying on its waters , and tile Russian Government is bent upon affording it every encouragement ^ For years we have heard of the mysterious NicohvvHsky ; it is to be mysterious no louder , but a plain i ' uet—a free port , a ' market for British commerce ; but , above all , a remarkable illustration of the new policy of Russia , the most interesting feature of the change being the perfect openness with which all these advances towards China arc being made .

      , ^^ ^ that at the end of the first season about five millions aud a half has been obtained on that first instalment—enough for the company to manage with to the end of the present season . But these operations have liitherto been very partial ; it has done little more than carry on the works alread y commenced in the upper part of Russia . Should it obtain any large proportion of the 12 , 000 , 000 / . for operations in ' 1859 , it . will have completed the communications between St . 'Petersburg , JDunulmrg , Riga , Warsaw , and the Russian frontier , with only intervals which , as the report , naively tells us , are ' Oiled up by an excellent highway of the ordinary kind . The company is bound , in obedience to the imperial

      For ourselves , we are to have consuls in Pekm and diplomatic agents , the pioneers of every conimcrcinl communication , railways anil telegraphs included . We have already seen that n railway can only extend itself through obedience to-the demands of commerce ; but . when once it approaches Hie frontiers of the Celestial Empire it will find most ot the conditions for its extension , a thick population and abundant produce , which can be increased , ana a trading : spirit , while the great obstacle , thocschisivcness ol the Tartar dominion , will have boon truinplcu down by Russia , broken through bv France ana

      wish ns the condition of its own existence , and begun the work of constructing the long railway , supplying Southern Russia with these facilities , and uniting Southern Russia with Northern Russia . But the larger half of the first instalment is still pending , and the company must raise it . It can only do so by holding out a prospect of returns ; it must , therefore show that the railways will luwo a sufficiency of traffic in proportion to their extension . No one expects the passage of imporinl 1 troops along ft groat line through un populous districts to pay , and tho need which tho inhabitant of those intermediate districts have for roads is bo excessive , that , strangely enough , it forbids the hope of return

      England , and , as it were , dethroned . China wo may nlready consider us the one spot in the vast commercial world whicli is yet unsupplird with railways and telegraphs , but tlie exercise of the Clui . sliitu religion , with the , tolerance which those principles arc calculated to induce , has already been admitted . Tho Chinese mind is opened . ' . Meanwhile the cubic Ims been laid 1 hroiif ? lu » 0 Atlimtio , the efforts to extend this species ot w »" nexion are proceeding in 1 ho Meditcrrannm , its laying in the Red Sea is only a question of tune

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1858, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28081858/page/14/