"Her acquisitions from Sweden are greater than what remains of that kingdom. "Her acquisitions from Poland are nearly equal to the Austrian empire. "Her acquisitions from Turkey in Europe are of greater extent than the Prussian dominions, exclusive of the Rhenish Provinces. "Her acquisitions from Turkey in Asia are nearly equal in dimensions to the whole of the smaller states of Germany. "Her acquisitions from Persia are equal in extent to England. "Her acquisitions in Tartary have an area not inferior to that of Turkey in Europe, Greece, Italy, and Spain. "The acquisitions she has made within the last sixty-four years are equal in extent and importance to the whole empire she had in Europe before that time. "The Russian frontier has been advanced towards Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Vienna, and Paris, about 700 miles; towards Constantinople, 500 miles; towards Stockholm, 630 miles; towards Teheran, 1000 miles. 'It is to be borne in mind that the Russian tariff of exclusion has been extended to all those acquisitions where formerly British merchandise was freely sent." The empire of Russia, including the greater part of the ancient kingdom of Poland, Finland, and the Isles of Aland, &c., which formerly belonged to Sweden; the ancient kingdoms of Astracan and Kazcan, conquered from the Tartars; the Crimea, Little Tartary, Bessarabia, and a portion of Moldavia, taken from the Ottoman empire; the encroachments over the regions of the Caucasus on the possessions of the natives, and on the dominions of Turkey and Persia; that vast region extending east from the confines of Europe to the Pacific and to Behring's Straits, and north from the confines of Persia and Tartary to the Arctic Circle; also a great, valuable and undefined extent of country along the north-west coast of America -occupies altogether even a greater portion of the surface of the globe than the vast but widely-spread British empire. The natural resources, in respect to soil and productions, are exceedingly varied, and in many portions of the empire of very great importance. The severity of the climate in the most northerly parts precludes cultivation; and, excepting in the most southerly provinces, the frost is severe during the winter, and locks up the sea, river and lake navigation in icy fetters from two to seven months. Although many swampy and sandy tracts extend over the temperate regions of the empire, and although in the northern parts grain will not ripen, Russia comprises vast plains and great valleys, which may be considered eminently favourable to the cultivation of all kinds of green and white crops, and to the breeding of horses, horned cattle, sheep, goats and swine. The numerous and great forests of Russia produce valuable timber of different kinds. The iron and copper-mines are not only abundant, but the ore is of the very best quality. Gold, silver, platina, antimony, cobalt, quicksilver, precious stones, marble and malachite are foundsome of which in great quantities. Russia has several of the largest rivers in Europe and Asia flowing through her dominions; and the internal navigation of the empire has been unlocked, and the Caspian, Baltic and the White Sea have, since the beginning of the reign of Peter the Great, been actually united by the completion of a vast plan of canalisation. Great variety of fish abound in all these rivers and lakes. Russia has about thirty good seaports, but most of them are for several months obstructed or closed in by frost. The gigantic extent of this empire has magnified her power unto the utmost stretch of exaggeration. In appreciating Russia, we write without any national bias; we state facts; we will not join in slanderous personal attacks against the Emperor. He may greatly err in judgment, but can surely pursue no policy except in the belief that he is promoting the power and the welfare of his vast dominions. Nor should we forget what Russia was 150 years ago, in judging of her condition at present. If we reason without bias, it is impossible to pass over the moral and physical elements with which the Emperor has to act. We must therefore bear in mind that the greater part of the empire (without including the frozen region) is wilderness, thinly inhabited by a people, the nobles excepted, living nearly all in the sertage state; that her widely spread dominions weaken instead of strengthen her offensive power; that her ports in the Baltic are frozen up four months of the year, that of Archangel eight, those in Asia or North America for two or three; that, although her harbours in the Black Sea are only partially closed by climate, her merchant shipping in that sea, were it not for the free mercantile egress and ingress she has acquired through the Dardanelles, would be locked up for a certain period every year. Her climate, with the exception of part of the most southern provinces, will only ripen the common productions of the north, and more than two-thirds of the soil of her vast dominions is occupied by rocks, swamps, pine-forests, and sterile deserts; yet the resources of the remaining onethird, and of her mines, are of immense value: and were it not for the pernicious fiscal system and anti-commercial tariff of prohibitions and high duties-now, with the exception of that of France, the most illiberal in the world-Russia might| always have an ample revenue, and a commerce of vast extent in supplying timber, corn, tar, pitch, hemp, tallow, etc., to foreign countries, in exchange for manufactures, at a cheap rate: such as those which have been attempted to be forced into existence by means of the skill of foreign artisans brought into the country to employ serf labour. The Russian empire may be considered as a confederation by compulsion of heterogeneous states, each under the immediate rule of a local absolute government, and all held under the sway of military authorities, the chief of which is an hereditary absolute monarch. This general form and principle of administration is, in respect to some of the provincial and other local governments, allowed some exceptional modifications. The geographical divisions of Europe and Asia are not regarded in the administrative divisions of Russia. The best authorities divide the empire into forty-nine administrative governments, and twelve smaller provinces (oblasts) or dependent governments. To these we must add the kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Finland, the vassal states of Georgia and Siberia, and several petty states bordering on Asia, which are, except in a military view, perfectly independent of the general government. The forty-nine administrative governments are each divided into circles, or arrondissements, and two or more of the civil governments are united under one military chief. For example, Okhotsk and Kamschatka are joined under the general military chieftainship of Eastern Siberia; Tobolsk, Tomsk and Omsk, form the military government of Western Siberia. The administrative governments of Courland, Esthonia, Livonia and Pskov, form one military chieftainship; St. Petersburg, Moscow and Finland, are, again, of themselves each a military government. The exceptions to the whole empire being immediately, as well as supremely, under military rule, consist chiefly in the Grand Duchy of Finland having a limited local constitution, in Poland having a senate, the members of which are nominated for life, and an elective chamber of 120 members, sixty of whom are called nuncios, elected by the nobility, and sixty deputies, named by the people, not serfs; and, further, in Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia retaining several of their ancient privileges. The Cossacks of the Don, and on the borders of the Black Sea, may also be considered within themselves as forming military republics. The imperial government overrules all by its ukases or decrees. In Russia, all power emanates from the authority of the Emperor. His qualification as Samoderjetz, or Autocrat, indicates that he is only second to God alone. The mere act of election in 1613 of Michael Romanoff, conferring on him and his descendants the crown of the Tzars or Czars, consecrated, instead of limiting, absolute power; and from that period the Czars have been supreme heads of the State and Church. There is no representation of the people, either in the local or the general government. A senate is nominated by the sovereign to form and promulgate ukases. The minister of finance publishes an account of the condition of the bank, and a specious financial statement, which appears to us unsatisfactory. The treasury-that is, the Emperor's revenue-has been so greatly enriched by the gold-sands of Siberia, as to create a general belief in Europe of the formidable wealth, and consequently aggressive power, of Russia. But a careful examination of the best accounts of Russia will lead to a very different conclusion. Aggressively, one irruptive campaign south into Europe would extract all the convertible financial resources of the empire, unless it were a mere campaign to overrun and occupy the Danubian states, now under the titular sovereignty of the declining Turkish Empire. Aggressively, the other states of Europe have little to fear from the power of Russia. Within the imperial dominions, in Poland, in the Asiatic Astracan provinces, and on the Caucasian frontier, there are abundant elements of just resistance, against which Russia must long be prepared to combat, unless salutary remedies are applied to the social and political maladies of the empire. The Emperor may seize on Moldavia and Wallachia, and Turkey cannot prevent him. The Hungarians, on effecting their independence, might more naturally add those principalities, as well as Servia, Bulgaria, and also Transylvania, to the kingdom of Hungary, to which those countries naturally appertain. The fertile regions extending from the borders of Lower Austria to the mouths of the Danube, and south of the Carpathians to Fiume and the Balkan, would then constitute one, if not the most important of kingdoms, if wisely administered, in the world. In the probabilities of the future, this arrangement is far from being impossible. According to the published statements of P. D. Koeppen, and the maps of Lieutenant-General Schubert, the areas of the Russian dominions in Europe comprise a surface of 4,360,358 square wersts, or 91,117 German square miles, or 1,555,700 geographical square miles, being nearly ten times the area of France and sixteen times the area of the United Kingdom. In 1846 the population of the 49 provinces of European Russia amounted to 54,092,300; of Russian Poland to 4,857,700; of the Grand Duchy of Finland to 1,412,315; of the northern Asiatic provinces to 2,937,000; of Tiflis and the three other TransCaucasian Governments to 2,648,000, and Russian America to 61,000; being a total of 66,008,315 inhabitants. Of these, 49,000,000 were estimated as belonging to the Russian Greek Church; 7,300,000 to the Roman Catholic; 3,500,000 as Protestants; 2,400,000 as Mohammedans; 1,200,000 as Jews; about 1,000,000 as Armenians; and 600,000 as idolaters. Of the population, 16,486,834 were tenants or serfs of the Crown. The total revenue of Russia is never explicitly revealed. In 1850 the Customs yielded nearly 30,000,000 of roubles, or about £4,000,000 sterling. The importations were valued at 96,000,000 of roubles, and the exportation to about the same amount; but the imports embraced no more than had actually passed through the Customs, which it is well known does not amount to as much as the quantity smuggled into the country by contrabandists. The public debt was set down at 392,000,000 silver roubles, or about £52,000,000 sterling. But these statements are considered as greatly underrated. A return of the military forces divides the whole of the Russian infantry, cavalry, artillery and engineers as follows:-17 corps d'armée, distributed over 104 military districts, and classed under 74 divisions, consist of 241 brigades, 322 regiments, 889 battalions, 325 batteries, 1,469 squadrons, 4,900 companies, 18 great arsenals, 7 ordnance-factories, and 50 pieces of artillery. The navy of Russia looks formidable on paper. In 1851 the number of ships of the line were, however, reduced by rotting or by being wrecked from 56 ships, in 1848, to 48, 24 of which were stationed in the Baltic, and 24 in the Black Sea; 45 frigates, of which 25 in the Baltic and 20 in the Black Sea. The whole number of steam-ships amounted to 32, the best and largest of which have been constructed and completed either in England or Scotland. It was one of the mad and ambitious projects of Peter the First to make Russia a great naval power. It was with this view that he built a new capital upon a marsh near the Finns, and in the worst situation in Europe. All the Russian sailing-vessels have been wretchedly constructed, the crews are mostly untrained sailors, the officers are generally ignorant of nautical science, and both officers and sailors are miserably disciplined. In respect to the navy of Russia, Baron Custine observes "that, although the present emperor perseveres in attempting to realise the object of Peter the Great in rendering his navy powerful, he must, sooner or later, acknowledge that nature is more powerful still. The ice is the most terrible enemy of the Russian navy; and the idea of so many vessels being lost in a few winters suggested to my mind, not the power of a great country, but the misfortune of those wretched people who were condemned to labour to sustain the imperial extravagance. Lord Durham describes the fleet as the plaything' of the Russian sovereigns. During three months of the year, the naval pupils venture to Cronstadt, where they perform their nautical evolutions, some as far west as Riga, and a few to Copenhagen, and occasionally we hear of a solitary ship straying into the Atlantic. To admire Russia in approaching it by water, it is necessary to forget the approach to England by the Thames; the first is the image of death, as the last is of life." On the Russian Naval List there are 63 admirals, not more than one-third of whom have been to sea, and the others hold commissions merely to give them rank. There are 72 captains of the first class, 80 of the second, and 211 lieutenants. By ukase, 50,000 men are decreed for the service of the fleet, but not more than 10,000 of that number have ever been abroad as sailors, and both officers and marines are believed to possess little or no knowledge in the art of gunnery. Russia may be said to prohibit the importation. of every material like those which can be drawn, by the labour of her serfs, from her mines and forests; and of every manufactured article, in order that the labour of those serfs, with the aid of machinery either imported or made in the country, and directed by skilful foreign artisans, shall be made to produce articles either similar to, or that may be substituted for, those of foreign manufacture. We readily admit that this prohibitive system, so generally injurious to the empire, may be very profitable to the nobles of Moscow and elsewhere, who are the proprietors of the cheaply and coarsely fed and clad serfs. Russia, for the purpose of supplying and carrying on her manufactures and sciences, permits the importation of mathematical, optical, astronomical, and agricultural instruments, newly-invented machinery and models of machines, mules and all raw materials enumerated hereafter in the Imperial Tariff, if required in the arts. Cotton twist, still required by her, and sheep's wool, and several other articles, are admitted at nominal duties. A recent relaxation of the rigidity of her commercial legislation has been generally promulgated as a return to liberal trading principles; but, on examining the prohibitions abolished, we discover that they are either of no great importance, or that the duties substituted are so high as to preclude any profitable legitimate importation into Russia of manufactured goods. Before 1805, woollens, cottons, and silk goods were allowed to be imported for consumption generally, on paying either fixed or ad valorem duties, varying from five to forty-five per cent. On the 19th of March that year, the ad valorem duties on woollens were changed into fixed duties, and a new tariff promulgated, admitting generally all goods for consumption. Prohibitions were afterwards substituted, and manufactured articles are generally prohibited by law. In other European countries, almost every statement respecting Russia is exaggerated, and especially so in England and France. If we merely take the direct legal trade between the United Kingdom and Russia, the amount of the imports from Russia into Great Britain would appear to be about three times the declared value of the exports. But, with the exception of tallow and timber, the chief articles we import from Russia are admitted for consumption in the United Kingdom, duty free. Hemp, wool, corn, and bristles are the commodities we chiefly require from Russia and although the importation may appear large, it is known that, directly or indirectly, British manufactures find their way into Russia to the full value of our imports from that empire. The articles and commodities prohibited by the custom-house find admission otherwise, by Jew smugglers, through Germany and the Danubian provinces; and the officers of the revenue, clandestinely, and participating in the gains, allow contrabandists to carry on a profitable commerce. At one time it was dreaded that the agriculturists of these kingdoms would be ruined by the importation of wheat from Russia; and the present head of her Majesty's Government threatened the farmers with an importation of 39,000,000 quarters from the province of Tamboff alone. According to Kortsakoff, the area of this province is 1,568,000 acres, which, if one great corn-field, would require to produce twenty bushels per acre to yield 39,000,000 of quarters. But, unfortunately for the assertions of the then sturdy Protectionist Lord, and now the compromising Prime Minister, a great portion of Tamboff happens to be covered with pineforests, swamps, heaths, marshes and water, exclusive of towns, roads, and buildings. We also find that the corn-crops of Tamboff consist chiefly of rye, and that the wheat produce does not, on a yearly average, exceed 35,000 quarters. independent naval flag, and the duchies of Livonia, Courland, and Esthonia, and some few parts of the Crimea, Odessa, and a few small places west of the Danube, it will be discovered that Russia has no maritime population of any importance. Briefly, as to the efficient manning of a fleet with skilful, brave sailors, Norway alone is far more powerful than the whole empire of the Czar. Those who have visited St. Petersburgh, or who have been present at the gorgeous reviews of cavalry in South Russia, have been dazzled with the splendid uniforms and the showy trappings of the regiments trimmed up on those occasions; but those who have more thoroughly examined the real material organisation and physical strength of the Russian army, and of the Russian ordnance, and more especially the Russian commissariat, have formed an estimate of the aggressive power of that empire which brings us to the conclusion that the wise, nay, even the conservative policy of the cabinet of St. Petersburgh, is peace with all neighbouring states, internal improvements, the framing of just laws, the equitable administration of those laws, and the gradual enfranchisement, instruction, amalgamation and civilisation of the In estimating the political and military power of Russia as bearing aggressively on the statu quo of European powers, an inquiry into her financial condition is indispensable. Great stress has been laid on the treasures drawn from the mines of the Ural mountains and the sands of Siberia. Reflecting on the effect of gold mines on the power of Spain, we might reasonably conclude that the labouring-population of the empire. Add to this precious minerals will not tend greatly to enrich or strengthen Russia. They may probably create a fallacious and perhaps fatal confidence. In all countries the true elements of power are produced by great national industry, commerce and navigation. No country in Europe, taking extent of area and number of inhabitants into our calculation, is so poor as Russia in those elements of strength and durability. The exceptions are local, chiefly at St. Petersburgh, Moscow, Nigny, Novogorod and Archangel. As to the maritime strength of Russia, it is notorious that, although the number of ships of war is much greater than at the close of the reign of Peter the Great, the real maritime power of the empire, especially with respect to seamen, has not increased since that period. reforming policy an equitable distribution of taxation, a prudent and intelligent system of finance, and sound commercial principles for the unrestricted interchange of commodities between every part of the empire without preference, and in every country in the world. By adopting such a course of policy, the Emperor may prevent the disinte gration of his dominions, maintain financial credit, preserve domestic tranquillity, promote the happiness of his people, and secure the loyalty of his subjects. By an unjust, aggressive war with any power, either for the acquisition of territory or subduing the liberties of mankind, the Emperor and the Russians will rouse the hatred and perpetuate against them the detestation of all civilised nations. * We exclude Kamschatka as being Asiatic; we may, on In fact, if we exclude Finland, which has an the same ground, exclude the Caspian." MONEY AND MORALS.* than the coin or the ingot-is that accumulating too? and how, and where, and by whom? These are questions which the author of the excellent, thoughtful, and manful volume before us does not answer, and which no man is in a condition to answer. But Mr. Lalor's book shows by a course of profound and practical reasoning from undeniable facts, that this country ought to be in a condition, and must be in a condition, to answer them satisfactorily, before her prosperity can be esta blished upon a permanent basis. THERE never was a time more appropriate than the present for inviting the attention of the public to the intimate relation subsisting between Money and Morals. Our merchants and manufacturers are making money faster than ever they did before; our middle classes are getting their share of it; and the needy, the enterprising, and the discontented are rushing off by thousands to the antipodal Ophir, in the hope of digging it in solid masses from the earth. But the moral principle which should guide and govern the use of it when obtained, and which is of infinitely greater value | The author declares at the outset that one object * Money and Morals: a Book for the Times. By John Lalor. London: John Chapman, 142, Strand. 1852. he has in view is to "overthrow one of the funda- | any clear solution of our problem be gained or not, their mental principles of the reigning system of poli-time will not be wasted. tical economy. That principle is, that the accu- The problem is then stated, viz., to determine mulation of capital cannot proceed too fast, and its by what steps the new gold can find its way into governing law is supposed to be that of uniform the currency. The gold as it arrives will be in the increase, retarded only by the diminishing returns hands of persons who will either employ it as obtained from new investments in the cultivation | capital or spend it as income. We must first deterof the soil. It is here attempted to show that the mine what is capital and what is income, the relatrue law is wholly different. The increase and tion that exists between them, and how far the changes of the capital, which consists of real com- increase of one is connected with the increase of modities, are entirely regulated by the fluctuations the other; and then how the influx of gold may in the quantity of that other kind of capital which affect both. Capital and income must both exist in is commonly known as money (quite a different the form of money; and therefore the first step in thing from the currency); and the law of the in- the inquiry is to determine what is money, which crease of money, where habits of thrift are so strong our author rightly defines as, "not simply gold or as they are in England, is, that it constantly tends bank-notes, but THAT, whatever it may be, which is to excess, which excess passes off periodically in money in the money-market and in the Stock some more or less delusive industrial excitement, Exchange-money with the draper, the grocer, and in the progress of which it, for a time, and only the butcher." for a time, disappears." So that, if we understand our author aright, railway-manias, mining-manias, Mississippi schemes, joint-stock bubbles, and such like delusions, are to the rapid increase of capital what the wars, famines, and pestilences of Malthus were supposed to be to the geometrical-ratio increase of population; and in both cases a moral check is the only panacea. This law was first discovered by Lord Överstone (Mr. Jones Lloyd), and certainly the commercial experience of the last half century would seem to imply that it is the true one. The volume before us is divided into three parts. The first part treats of Dangers, the second of Precautions, and the third points out the Path to the Remedy. Some idea of what constitute the Dangers may be gathered from the opening chap ter, which propounds the problem, "How will the gold get into the currency?" a question which, while ten or a dozen millions of unwanted bullion are lying in the cellars of the Bank, it is not very easy to answer. It has long been a question of curious science, but it is now become one of very practical and urgent importance. For what, asks the writer, If that event which seems with so much reason to be expected, should involve great changes in the distribution of wealth in England, enriching some, impoverishing others, prostrating often the best, exalting others not the best, breaking up innumerable old relations and scattering disorder and destruction over many of those ancient ways in which the life of England has so long loved to tread ? This would indeed be much; but what if, beyond merely material changes, there should concur with them still deeper The second and third chapters are upon Money and Money Capital. Money is gold, notes, and bank-credits; it is not synonymous with currency in any shape, it is that which "closes transactions." Bills of exchange are not money-they never close transactions; they transfer banking capital, but do not enter into income. In a crisis, bills of exchange are the difficulty which has to be met by gold, notes, and bank credit. Money capital is dis tinct from commodities (which are specific capital), and has laws of its own. Exchanges among a people possessing a currency do not take place according to the same laws which would prevail in a state of barter. Specific capital is at a dreadful discount in times of commercial panic; then the men of supreme dominion are they who have neither factories, ships, nor merchandise, but who, in a dingy counting-house, have a strong box full of short-dated bills of exchange, and who can deliver the proudest from the jaws of ruin by a leaf from their cheque-book; who, according to De Quincy," have but to touch a spring in London to produce a vibration throughout the world." property of these potentates, who, though scattered through the earth, are all one body knit in close union, is of a nature too complex to be divested of its mystery by illustrations drawn from a state of barter. Money-capital originated in saving-in laying by a portion of the currency or paying-power. In a state of barter, the saving must have been commodities, or specific capital, more or less perishable, and more important changes of a moral kind, changes in the feelings, habits, and tastes of men, which would conand decreasing in value by accumulation. With a stitute that most awful of all events, a decay in the fibre of currency, the result of saving is directly the reverse. national character? This is indeed a question, the very Money-capital, or the paying-power, is the basis thought of which is enough to strike us pale, and to make of all commercial and industrial calculations, and this hand tremble as it writes. But such things are not impossible. The descendants of those who fought at Ma- its increase the end and aim of industrial enerrathon and Leuctra were the pliant sycophants and quacks gies. Capital goes to work to produce income. upon whom, even in the corrupter days of Rome, a Juvenal The income spent is the return-power to capital: could look down. Greater still, those same Romans, who income saved is transformed into capital, and compractised by a noble instinct the stoicism which the Greeks only sought--who also, true prototypes of the English, knew petes with that which previously existed. "If the both how to conquer and how to govern-that great nation amount of capital employed, or ready for employhad for its representatives none but liars, swindlers, and ment, be greater than the amount of income decowards, in the days of Luisprand, the Lombard. I cannot voted to expenditure, some of the capital must fail pursue this strain; it is enough to show that there is or of its return. From this conclusion there can be may be here a question of far higher moment than any which divides our parties. I invite all honest men to its no escape." Here we are led to the consideration consideration; I think I can promise them that, whether of the "general glut" habitual in England. Accu |
