advance of the frontier has been looked upon at St. Petersburgh as an approximation to India. But the thread of the narrative here becomes far too complicated to be pursued with minute accuracy. It must suffice to delineate it with some few general strokes, which may possibly induce the reader to enter upon the investigation for himself, while we will at least enable him to comprehend the aim of the policy at this moment pursued by the Emperor Nicholas. act of Russia has been an act of treachery. As an example, let us by way of digression relate the unhappy story of Captain Vicovich. At the time that our Indian government had dispatched its agent to Kabul to negotiate with Dost Mohammed Khan, Russia considered it for her interest to have an agent there, and Captain Vicovich was sent in that capacity. Furnished with an autograph letter from the emperor and very considerable supplies of gold, he assailed our political agents and inflamed the In the east Russia has always considered her- Affghan chiefs with the most rancorous hostility self emancipated from the sway of all moral and towards this country. Having been made aware political principles, has hesitated at no act of base- of his proceedings, the British foreign secretary ness, has shrunk from the avowal of no treachery wrote to Count Neselrode, to demand, categoriwhen it was safe to make it, has invaded friendly cally, whether the individual we have named was countries in the midst of peace, has set neighbor an accredited agent of the Russian government or against neighbor, friend against friend, subject not. No menace was added, but Russia understood against sovereign, corrupting, purchasing, degrading, calumniating, and practising every diabolical act and machination within the reach of profligate ambition. what was implied, and it not being then convenient to engage in war with Great Britain, Captain Vicovich was recalled and strangled in prison. No comment is necessary; we return to the progress of affairs in Persia. We suppose that if Niccolo Michiavelli were consulted he would advise all governments to avoid, if possible, placing on its frontier a number of subjects analogous in religion to the inhabitants of a neighboring state, jealous or inimical. When Catharine died Paul had first seemed desirous of acting upon more just principles, but soon relinquished his intention. Alexander followed in his footsteps, and the present emperor evinces no inclination to behave more justly or generously. No one who has visited Persia, even the more secluded provinces of the south, can The Georgians, after a fashion, were Chrishave failed to encounter these Russian spies and tians, and therefore it was the more easy to seduce emissaries, ostensibly travelling for the purpose of them from their allegiance to a Mohammedan serving the cause of science. Some are antiqua-power. The same remark precisely applies to ries, some geologists, some botanists, some geogra- the Armenians, from among whom Russia has phers. They study the nature of the country; long been in the habit of selecting its agents and they discover over what roads artillery may be emissaries. At first the Georgian prince was taken; they make sketches of passes; they take flattered by receiving a golden crown from St. plans of fortifications; they scatter money liberally Petersburgh, but he soon found that this nominal among the humbler classes, and intimate adroitly sign of sovereignty was in reality the badge of how much happier they would be under the gov-slavery, since his power was circumscribed by ernment of the czar. This course was pursued one encroachment after another till it was at last by a well known agent amongst the Turkomans to dispensed with altogether. He then too late unvery little purpose as it turned out, for the agent derstood the policy of which he had been the is now in disgrace in Europe, and the Turkomans victim, and retiring into obscurity died there of as inimical as ever to Russia. vexation. His widow had more heroism: she With what object these expensive enterprises contended long against the Russian general, and are undertaken we well know. Persia is scarcely one day at a conference, having been roughly worth conquering, except as the highway to India, treated, chafed, and insulted, she drew forth a towards which, from the moment in which the dagger and stabbed him to the heart. Prince Nassau Sieger presented his plan, to the Still worse was the fate of the Mohammedan present hour, Russia has been advancing with un-chiefs in the subdued provinces. Russia boasts wearied patience and steadiness. Above all other of her toleration, but all who have tried it well European powers, therefore, we are interested in know her practice is never consonant to her theory. arresting her progress, because, though others have At first the professors of El Islam were coaxed, much to lose, they have not like us to contend for flattered, and induced to believe that they had the empire of Asia and supremacy in the councils risen from servitude to independence. But the of the whole civilized world. At the same time price of treachery must be paid sooner or later. there is no European state, however small or in- They had been false to their country, and to the significant, which must not feel itself compromised interests of their creed, and speedily found, what, by the adoption of such political principles as Rus- had they possessed the slightest prudence, they sia has always acted on. Her successive contests might have foreseen, that Russia would prove a with Turkey have unveiled her iniquity not a little; far harder task-master than the shah with his but it is in Persia that it stands forth naked and fluctuating and capricious despotism had ever unblushing in all its hideousness. From the mo- proved. One by one they were removed from all ment the Russian missionaries made their appear-offices of trust; their authority was undermined; ance in Ossetia down to the siege of Herae, every their dependents were encouraged to treat them with insolence, while the Russian officers lorded |hammedans, in spite of all we may wish to persuade it over them with a pride and arrogance altogether ourselves to the contrary, is held infinitely more intolerable. Everything connected with their sacred than houses or land-we mean their wives religion was treated with ridicule and scorn. Their sacred edifices, in which they had probably offered up to God a much purer worship than that of the Russians, were converted into stables or taverns, so that horses neighed and drunkards revelled and brawled where their prayers were wont to be offered up, or the truths of their faith explained by the Moollabs. Such indignities were not patiently to be endured. Taking up arms, therefore, the last resource of the oppressed, they sought to throw off the Russian yoke; but in vain. Like the horse in the fable, they had taken a master upon their backs which it soon appeared they would never be able to shake off. and daughters; under Persian rule these at least were left to them. Their private honor was not invaded by the shah. The laws of nature, the morals of the country, the tenets and precepts of their religion, teach the Muslims to respect each others' wives. But with the Russians all these reasons have no weight, and the scenes which took place in the conquered provinces in the sacred recesses of the harems filled the cup of bitterness for the vanquished to the brim. If terrible deeds of vengeance followed we cannot wonder; we must rather wonder that the whole population did not rise like one man and make a Sicilian vespers from the Araxes to the Kuban. In Georgia and followed. Upon this topic, however, we cannot here enlarge; it may be sufficient to say that there are few families of distinction in the Caucasian provinces which have not unpardonable injuries to revenge, and that the entire population pants for the day when they may wash out these stains with blood. In some cases we meet with curious illustra-Mongrelia, fathers and husbands were more comtions of the way in which these poor Mohamme-plaisant, and allowed their daughters and wives to dans, child-like in the midst of their violence and waltz with the Russian officers, which the Muswretchedness, labored to ensure the clemency of lims looked upon as the ne plus ultra of female their conquerors to enjoy their protection during degradation, which indeed in most cases inevitably life they named certain powerful Russian nobles as their heirs. But instead of thus bettering their condition they held out a premium to the worst of crimes, as was exemplified in the instance of Medhee Khan. This unfortunate chief, in obedience to the policy we have just described, selected a Russian for his heir, in the vain expectation that he should thus ensure his gratitude and friendship. He quickly discovered his error. The Russian who was to succeed him in his property quickly began to think he lived too long, and to regard him in the light of an enemy, for spitefully continuing to exist when his death would be far more profitable to his successor. Means were therefore taken for hastening his exit. Poison seems not to have been thought of, or else it was found inconvenient to administer it. The means taken, therefore, were these-Medem Khan had an enemy, that is to say, a man with whom for some time he had not lived on friendly terms, though it was not to be inferred from this that he was disposed to make an attempt upon his life. The Russians, however, determined to suppose what they pleased, and at night stationed a body of men, whom they caused to attack the khan's enemy as he was travelling from one part of the country to another. The khan was accused of the crime, of which, however, it would have been easy for him under ordinary circumstances to clear himself; but considering who were to be his judges, who the witnesses against him, and who his prosecutors, he came to the resolution, innocent as he was and perfectly free from all reasonable grounds of apprehension, to fly into Persia, and throw himself upon the mercy of the sovereign whom he had betrayed, rather than abide the justice of the new friends for whose sake he had betrayed him. The khan was pardoned by the shah, but the Russians did not pardon him; his escape from their hands and confiscation of his estates were all they wanted. It would be easy to render this more revolting, both in a public and private sense, by entering into details on the subject of Russian encroachments and atrocities in Turkey. But these have been perpetrated more within the view of Western Europe, and are therefore better known to the public. Most readers of history may remember, for example, the terrible massacre of the Krimea, as well as those repeated ministrations which Russia has inflicted upon the Sublime Porte, merely because she had the power to do so. Her object is, and has been for nearly two centuries, to reduce Turkey to the condition of a province, and it conceived that the present would have supplied an opportunity favorable to its most ambitious views. In conjunction with Austria, it had suppressed a formidable insurrection in Hungary, and under various pretexts pushed forward large bodies of troops into the Transdanubian provinces. Paralyzed by revolutions or by the apprehension of them, it believed Western Europe to be in no condition to engage in a war. It therefore calculated that the moment was at length arrived for extinguishing the Turkish empire and seizing upon its territories without the slightest regard to justice or the common laws of nations. It commenced by offering the sultan so grave an insult that it was hoped he would not forgive it. A number of Polish and Hungarian exiles had taken refuge in his dominions, where, as the czar well knew, they were protected by those laws of hospitality which from the earliest ages have been held sacred in the East. Under similar circumstances Russia had refused to yield up refugees to the sultan, There is yet another possession which among Mo- and consequently must have felt that it was on no grounds of reciprocity he addressed his demands to the Porte. What he knew, however, was this, that the sultan's refusal would afford him a plausible pretext for hostilities, while his compliance would be a convincing proof that he was in no way prepared for war. Invasion, therefore, under any circumstances, was resolved on, and it was evidently with extreme surprise that the Emperor Nicholas found himself thwarted in his designs, by the combined interference of Great Britain and France. Up to the moment in which we write the affair is still in suspense; but whichever way it may terminate, the lesson to be drawn from the transaction will be the same; videlicet, that Russia is insolent and overbearing to the weak, but mean and cringing to the powerful. It dreads Great Britain single-handed; much more must it dread it therefore when united with France, whose military and chivalrous character will never be forgotten in the north. Of course, in conformity with the views of our age, we set a proper value on peace; but it may be doubted whether at certain epochs hostilities be not desirable. There are two classes of wars-those into which nations are forced by necessity, and those which they undertake through policy to guard against the occurrence of some evil, regarded by statesmen as more disastrous than war itself. Now it will be for the governments of France and Great Britain to determine whether the present moment be not favorable for a war of policy, which, though it may be postponed, must inevitably occur sooner or later. The only question to be decided is whether Western Europe be better fitted now for carrying on a great and decisive struggle than it is likely to be in a few years' time. That struggle whenever it occurs will assume the most awful character, since it will be in reality for the empire of the world; not in the vulgar sense, but intellectually, through the influence of statesmanship and freedom, or despotism and terror. England is great only through her institutions, which, by awakening the spirit of industry, by encouraging trade and commerce, by tending to the planting of colonies and multiplying of distant dependencies, have developed in a manner almost without example the energies and resources of the nation. Russia is great through organized brute force, through repressing the spirit of freedom and independence in her subjects, through the prevalence of a terrible centralization which bows the will of sixty million human beings, and renders them subservient to the determination of an individual. Between these mighty representatives of liberty on the one hand, and despotism on the other, an internecine contest must, we say, sooner or later, inevitably take place; and the only consideration now is, whether or not it be desirable to put off what we must no doubt call the evil day, for by much evil it will be attended, whatever principle may triumph in the end. For ourselves we cannot for a moment doubt the issue of the struggle, since all the tendencies of civilization, all the aspirations of human nature, all the laws of society, and, if we may venture to say so, all the designs of Providence, point steadily to one result-the triumph of right and liberty over oppression and arbitrary power. Looking at the physical means of the two nations, we think it is not too much to say that those of Great Britain are infinitely superior to those of her rival. The very scattered nature of our empire renders it almost impossible to vanquish it. Almost anywhere on the surface of the earth we may take up our stand, and feel ourselves at home, though the altars of our Christian vesta, the palladium of our empire, and the cradle of our race be on the banks of the Thames. We have never put forta all our power, never collected our resources into one heap, which would be like piling Pelion upon Ossa-never concentrated all our energies to be directed in one impetuous torrent against any enemy, and whenever the proper occasion for doing so shall arrive, we feel persuaded we shall be found invincible. Taken all together we amount in round numbers to 250,000,000, that is, about one fourth of the inhabitants of the globe. There is not a man in this mighty aggregate whose whole mental and physical resources would not be placed heartily at the command of the government in a struggle with Russia for supremacy in the councils of the world. We may have our little dissensions and disputes at home, but we know how to lose sight of these when there comes to be a dispute about the influence or honor of the British empire. We instantly forget all party considerations, and present to the foe one firm, compact body, more tremendous by far than the Macedonian phalanx, since it has never known defeat, never shown its back to an enemy. Our standard has waved triumphant wherever civilized armies have met in conflict; in the centre and both extremities of Asia; and at the aspect of one of our war steamers ploughing the waves of the sea of Marmora, the Turks recently felt their enthusiasm kindled to the highest pitch. They saw the flag of St. George streaming at the masthead, and felt its presence to be an assurance that where it was there would be no defeat. Should the autocrat of Russia therefore succumb, he will succumb to that ensign which in all likelihood is destined for many ages to be the most portentous and powerful in the world. SPORTING "FACE.”—Mr. Gurney (Mrs. Fry's father) was a strict preserver of his game. Upon one occasion, while walking in his park, he heard a shot fired in a neighboring wood; he hurried to the spot, and his naturally placid temper was considerably ruffled on seeing a young officer, with a pheasant at his feet, deliberately reloading his gun. As the young man, however, replied to his rather warm expressions by a polite apology, Mr. Gurney's warmth was somewhat allayed; but he would do if he caught a man trespassing on his could not refrain from asking the intruder what he premises. "I would ask him in to luncheon," was the reply. The serenity of this impudence was not to be resisted. MR. EDITOR,-It is a common practice with sceptics, and other narrow-minded persons, to reJect as fabulous every fact, however well authenticated, for which they are unable to account, and to bestow sundry hard epithets upon those who are weak enough to believe that there are things, both in heaven and earth, which are not dreamt of in our philosophy. As one of the latter class, I must, of course, be content to be pronounced credulous and imbecile, for entertaining a firm belief in many things which the wise men of this generation will probably pronounce incredible, or set down to the account of some morbid affection of the mind; but having a great faith in human testimony, when it is honest, disinterested, and consistent, and when the facts recorded fell under the immediate observation of those by whom they were related, and who could have no possible motive to embellish or mislead, I must be excused for not suffering any antecedent improbability, resulting, in a great measure, if not altogether, from the imperfection of our knowledge, to weigh against such unexceptionable evidence. In my view of the matter, nothing can be more unphilosophical than to refuse assent to a statement merely because it is extraordinary or uncommon, and although the testimony in support of it be ever so clear, consistent, and trustworthy; for, admitting that a statement of this kind will require more evidence to authenticate it than one of an opposite kind, and in some measure conformable to our previous experience, it does not surely follow that mere abstract improbability, which is only relative, is sufficient to neutralize all evidence, and destroy every ground of reasonable belief. This were, indeed, to cut off one of the most important sources of human knowledge, and, by leading us to make our own experience the measure of our faith, to seal up the instruction derivable from history, and to oppose an effectual bar to human improvement. No fact is better authenticated than this, that many men, distinguished for personal bravery, and the most intrepid contempt of danger in its most appalling forms, have, on the eve of battle, been overwhelmed with a fatal presentiment that they would not survive the combat; and, that, in no instance, so far as I have been able to learn, has this presentiment been falsified by the event. The self-doomed victim has, in every case, fallen as he had foretold and anticipated. I shall mention a few of the numerous accounts of this prophetic anticipation of death which have come to my knowledge, and then adventure a few remarks on a phenomenon as singular as it is interesting. A young officer of great merit, belonging to the 92d Regiment, was observed, on the day before the battle of Corunna, to be peculiarly low-spirited and dejected; which was the more readily remarked, as he was in general gay, cheerful and full of spirit. Several of his brother officers inquired the reason, and received no answer; but on getting an opportunity of conversing alone with one of them to whom he was much attached, being of the same name, and from the same part of the country, "M." said he, “I shall to a certainty be killed to-morrow; I know I shall, and you will see it." His friend and countryman tried to laugh him out of his notion, and said it was childish, and unworthy of a man who had so often beheld the eye of the enemy, to harbor such forebodings. The next day, after the heat of the action, the two young men met by accident, and he who the day before had derided the gloomy imagination of his friend, accosted the other with "What, M.! I thought you were to have been killed; did I not tell you that you should not?" The unfortunate young man replied that nothing could convince him that he would ever see the sun of that day go down; and, strange as it may seem, the words had scarcely escaped from his lips, when he was struck in the left shoulder by a cannon-shot, and instantly expired. There are few regiments in the service which have not some anecdotes of this sort to record. I shall mention one or two more, which were communicated to me by officers of great respectability and intelligence, who only stated such facts as were consistent with their own personal knowledge. A Lieutenant M'D., of the 43d regiment, felt this presentiment so strongly on the eve of one of the battles in the Peninsula, that he sent for an officer, (Captain S.,) a countryman of his own, but belonging to a different regiment, (the 88th,) and requested him to take charge of several little things, and see them conveyed home in safety to his relations, particularly his mother. Captain S., in surprise, asked him the reason why he, who was in perfect health, should think of making such arrangements? To which M'D. replied, "Yes, I am in perfect health, but I know I shall never return from the field of battle." Knowing M'D. to be a particularly brave man, (at that moment he wore on his breast several medals which had been given him by the commander-in-chief, in testimony of the high approbation which his conduct in the field had repeatedly called forth,) and never having heard him express himself in such terms before, Captain S. was lost in astonishment, and his first impression was, that poor M'D. had caught some febrile infection, and that his mind was wandering. He therefore proceeded to remonstrate with his young friend, though in the gentlest terms, and to endeavor, if possible, to rally him out of that desponding presentiment which appeared to have taken such deep hold of his imagination. M'D. heard him calmly, and, without taking any notice of what he said, repeated his request in such a cool and collected manner, as to leave no doubt that he was in the full and perfect exercise of all his faculties; Captain S. having therefore given him a promise that all his wishes should be complied with, they separated, and each went to his post. On the following day, after the tumult and melée of the battle had subsided, the British arms being, as usual, victorious, a number of the officers met, to congratulate one another on their safety. When Captain S. joined the party, he immediately inquired after his friend M'D., but none of the survivors had seen him, or knew anything of his fate. The conversation of the preceding day now rushed upon his mind, and, without saying a word, he instantly returned to the field to search for him among the wounded, the dead, and the dying. Nor was the search in vain. He found him already stript of part of his regimentals, but knew him at once, his head and face being untouched. Captain S. became deeply affected, and could not help melting into tears as he bent over the lifeless body of the brave and gallant youth, foredoomed to so premature a fate.. : The same thing happened in the case of Ser-out at once, man," said Mr. M. "It is borne in geant Macdonald, from Lochaber, one of the bravest upon my mind that I shall fall to-morrow," rejoined fellows who ever drew a sword or carried a hal-Mackay; "here are ten dollars; will you take bert, and who had been at least in ten or twelve charge of them, and send them to my mother? general engagements, in each of which he had dis- You know where she resides; and-and-if it tinguished himself. On one occasion, however, he were not too much trouble," he added, his voice was so greatly overwhelmed with the presentiment faltering, "you might tell her, her son never of death, that, on the day of battle, when his regi- ceased, till his last hour, to implore the blessing ment was ordered to advance, his limbs refused to of Heaven on her aged head, or to reproach himdo their office, and his comrades had literally to self with having disobeyed, and left her solitary support and assist the man to whom they had been and destitute." The tears now flowed down his accustomed to look up as an example and model of weather-beaten cheeks. Mr. M. was deeply afa brave soldier. In about an hour thereafter he fected, and, taking the money in silence, broke away was shot through the head, and died without a from Mackay, in order to conceal his emotion. Mr. struggle. M. retired to his quarters, oppressed with the melA private of the name of Mackay, a man of the ancholy feelings which this strange scene had ocmost reckless, daring, and eccentric character, used casioned, but anxious, at the same time, to perto be the delight of the bivouacs of the 42d, dur- suade himself that it was a mere hallucination of ing the Peninsular war. He had a great deal of fancy, and that the poor fellow's mind was touched. that coarse but effective wit and drollery, which On the succeeding day, however, when the remains never fail to call forth a peal of inextinguishable of the regiment were mustered, after the battle, laughter he abounded in anecdotes and stories, which had cost so many valuables lives, Mackay which he told with a remarkable degree of naiveté was missing; but the tears of his surviving comand humor; and often did he beguile the watches rades sufficiently indicated that his presentiment of the night, as poor Allan did to Mungo Park, had been fulfilled. He had fallen late in the ac"by singing the songs of our dear native land." tion, beside one of the redoubts, pierced with more The moment Mackay made his appearance, hunger, that twenty bullets. and thirst, and fatigue were forgotten; the soldiers The last instance of this kind I shall mention is clustered around him, like a parcel of schoolboys one which will probably make a greater impression eager to witness a cockfight, and, seating them- than any of the preceding, as it is derived from an selves around the watch-fires, thought only of lis-authority which, on such a subject, must, I should tening to the joke, the tale, or the song. Even suppose, prove decisive. Napoleon, on the 7th some of the officers did not disdain to mingle in of May, 1796, had surprised the passage of the Po these parties, and to acknowledge the powerful at Placenza, while Beaulieu was expecting him at fascination which hung on the lips of this unlettered Valeggio; and General Laharpe, commanding the soldier. Nor was his humor, mirth, and song, grenadiers of the advanced guard, fixed his headconfined to the march and camp; in the thickest of quarters at Emmetri, between Fiombio and the Po. the enemy's fire he was the same person as in the During the night, Liptay's Austrian division arrived bivouac. 16 Never," said the officer who commu- at Fiombio, which is only one league from the nicated to me these particulars, never shall I for- river, and having embattled the houses and steeples, get the impression made upon my mind by hearing filled them with troops. As the position was strong, Mackay's full and deep-toned voice pealing forth and Liptay might receive reinforcements, it became 'Scots wha ha'e wi' Wallace bled,' under the de-of the utmost importance to dislodge him; which structive diagonal fire from the enemy's artillery on was effected after an obstinate contest. Laharpe the heights above the village of St. Boes. A sol- then executed a retrograde movement, to cover the dier only knows the effect of such an incident at roads leading to Pavia and Lodi. In the course such a moment!" Yet this singular man was of the night, a regiment of the enemy's cavalry seized with one of those fatal presentiments of appeared at his outposts, and created considerable which I have been speaking. On the eve of the alarm, but, after a few discharges, retired. Nevbattle of Toulouse, he suddenly became thoughtful ertheless, Laharpe, followed by a piquet and sevand silent. His previous character rendered this eral officers, went forward to reconnoitre, and parchange more apparent, and his comrades crowded ticularly to interrogate, in person, the inhabitants round him to inquire the reason, being at first in- of the farm-houses on the road. Unfortunately, clined to gibe him with what they called his " meth- however, he returned towards the camp by a differodist face;" but, on observing his dejected look, ent road from that by which he had been observed the wild and unearthly expression of his eye, and to set out; and the troops being on the watch, and the determined obstinacy with which he resisted all mistaking the reconnoitring party for a detachsolicitations to join their party, as usual, they ment of the enemy, opened a brisk fire of musketry, stared at each other with astonishment, and ceased and Laharpe fell dead, pierced with the bullets of to annoy him. It was, moreover, his turn to go on his own soldiers, by whom he was greatly beloved. duty to the outposts, and he soon left them. On" It was remarked, that, during the action of Fiomhis way to his post he met a young officer, who bio, throughout the evening preceding his death, he had shown him much kindness, and whose life he had seemed very absent and dejected; giving no had been instrumental in saving. "Ha! Mackay!" orders, appearing, as it were, deprived of his usual said the officer, "is it you? Bless me, how ill faculties, and entirely overwhelmed by a FATAL PREyou look!—what is the matter with you-are you SENTIMENT. General Laharpe was one of the unwell? Stay-I will go to the colonel, and re- bravest men in the army of Italy; "a grenadier quest him to allow some one else to take your both in stature and courage; and, though a forduty.""I thank you kindly, Mr. M.," said Mac-eigner by birth, (a Swiss,) had raised himself to kay, respectfully saluting the officer; "I am not the rank of a general officer, by his skill and galunwell, and had rather go myself. But I have a lantry."* (Napoleon's Memoirs, III. 172.) favor to ask of you; you have been always kind- *Not remotely connected with this subject is the folvery kind-to me, and I am sure you will not re-lowing anecdote, upon the authenticity of which the reader fuse it."-"What is it? What is it? Speak it may rely: On the night before Massena's attack on Lord 66 |
