INTRODUCTION.

My original intention was to have compiled a summary of the history of the Caucasus, where I spent nearly three years, and to which a short account of the Crimea would only have served as an introduction. The increasing interest attaching to the latter subject, however, made me pay more attention to it; so that I now offer to the public some notices on that country and the shores of the Sea of Azof, without being able to add anything upon what I hoped to make the main subject of my inquiry. Some chapters upon the Caucasus are already partly written, but I have not had sufficient time to prepare them for insertion in the present volume, although intimately connected with it. They relate to a country replete with the deepest interest, and I hope that, ere long, some more competent hand than mine may vindicate the character of those heroic mountaineers, whom many are accustomed unjustly to stigmatize as barbarians. Though unlettered, they possess equal claims to our admiration with our own Saxon and Norman ancestors, or with the Swiss in the days of Tell, for they possess that stubborn love of independence and that "spirit of divinest liberty," which is the root of all good.

When peace shall be made, it will be most fortunate should we be able to secure the freedom of the Eastern coast of the Black Sea by treaty, for the independence

of that country would form one of the best securities against Russian aggression. At the Caucasus Russia may be said to end, and a new class of nationalities to begin, and she can only desire to possess that mountain range with the intention of extending her conquests beyond it.

The Caucasus, that is, the mountain range itself, and the countries that lie at the foot of them, to the north and south, are the most convenient entrance to the heart of the great table-land of Asia, which, when once thoroughly subdued, might constitute an impregnable citadel whence Russia would be enabled to extend her influence and dominion in every direction. The Caucasus is the real citadel of Russian power in the South and East, although as yet beleaguered by the nations from which it has been partially wrested. Russia has surrounded it by an army of 170,000 men, and carefully keeps its inhabitants from communication with civilized Europe. We have never acknowledged the sovereignty of the Russians over this territory, nor over the Christian provinces to the south of the Caucasus. If her blockade were permanently removed from the eastern coast of the Black Sea, and the brave inhabitants of the mountains allowed to carry on a liberal commerce with Europe, their energies would be quickly turned from war to peaceful arts.

Those who designate the Circassians as mere warlike barbarians should remember that we ourselves were but warlike semi-barbarians in the early ages of our history, and that the manly character which made us so formidable in the days of the Plantagenets enabled us ultimately, with better directed energies, to raise our great

This was the strength of the army in 1846, when I left it.

commercial empire in the eighteenth century. The Circassians and the other mountain tribes resemble us in many particulars: they debate every great affair in a national council; they venerate the ancient usages and ordinances which form their constitution; and they have the same gradation of ranks and aristocratic feelings which distinguish ourselves.

Above all points of resemblance to us, they have clung to their independence with Anglo-Saxon tenacity; and shall we, when peace shall be made, allow their rude and gigantic enemy again to surround them with her liberated forces, till she exterminate them by brute power, and no memorial be left of unsuccessful virtue save that which history will assuredly record in their favour?

We acknowledged the independence of the Colonies of Spanish America while they were still struggling with the mother country; we went still further with Greece, for we gave them active assistance, having not only the French, but the very Russians themselves for our allies. Surely, then, there exist far more cogent reasons for assisting the Circassians, who have never been conquered by the Russians. Up to the breaking out of the present war the Russians had only an ever-disputed possession of the actual ground occupied by their fortifications and protected by their cannon, and they have been constantly resisted by the mountaineers, who have ever refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Emperor.

The coast of Circassia is now free, and all that is required is that it should be kept so, without being again subjected to a barbarous blockade. If a consul

were placed there, and merchants encouraged to frequent it, its gallant inhabitants would soon yield to the civilizing influences of Europe, and engage themselves in developing its boundless resources.

We may rest satisfied that the freedom of the Caucasus will form an important element towards the diminution of Russian influence in the East.

I agree with Mr. Gladstone in thinking we must look for future security not only by reducing the power of Russia, but by raising that of Turkey and the other independent peoples bordering on the Black Sea. Free communication and free trade once firmly established there, the question might be considered as in a great measure settled. It is true that you cannot impose free trade upon Russia, who occupies half the coasts of the Black Sea; but you may claim your right to traffic with the Circassians on the east coast of that sea, and protect your commerce there by an authorized agent. So great are the advantages of unrestricted trade-so much does commerce strengthen and civilize, that the liberal tariff of Turkey, and the opening of the Principalities (as stated in App. E), have been, in an indirect manner, the cause of the present war; for, with freedom of trade, the Christian subjects of the Porte, for some years before the commencement of hostilities, had so much increased in importance and wealth, that they excited the jealousy of Russia, and she feared that if she did not claim in time a closer protectorate over them, they might escape her altogether. I say this, assuming it to have always been a cardinal point in the politics of Russia, in due time, to advance her empire to Constantinople and Athens.

Although I believe the whole Russian nation to be bent upon certain measures of territorial aggrandizement, I have not failed to acknowledge in my notices the general pacific character of the people. They are not a martial nation; that is, they are not a nation which takes delight in war for the sake of braving its dangers and revelling in its excitement; but theirs is the patient, enduring, indomitable courage which will face any dangers to compass certain ends. The Russian nation has been misdirected by its rulers as to the true objects of national glory, and by an exorbitant tariff and other measures has been kept from mixing with other European nations, lest it should learn juster ideas of the points in which true glory and prosperity consist, and become impatient of a military organization, the object of which is to carry out indefinite schemes of conquest.

I have lived among the Russians, and I have learnt to respect them as a strong, earnest, unprejudiced people, with a great principle of growth in them, and who will work out the defects of their character, and become some day an honour to civilization. They were the only nation in the world, I believe, with whom we had never been at war. None can more deeply regret than I do that we have been obliged now to try their mettle.

We must remember that we have a Court to deal with which combines the deep calculation of Europe with the wiles of Asiatic intrigue, and that we shall assuredly be over-reached, if we do not insist upon sufficient guaran

tees.

a

We must also remember that the conquest of

I do not reckon as a war the short period of misunderstanding with them in the reign of the Emperor Paul.