Russie' of M. Haxthausen an account of the Russian navy and army, adding matter acquired from other trustworthy sources. To the above-named book and that by M. Tegoborski," both standard works on the internal economy of the Russian empire, I am much indebted; and although I think their accomplished authors write under a strong bias, yet their works are indispensable to those foreigners who wish to study the resources and organization of the Russian empire. M. Tegoborski has not been allowed to state his whole opinions upon some subjects, and the Censor has obliged him to make material alterations, particularly where he speaks of the condition of the peasantry. I have likewise alluded to a discussion which took place last year in the 'Revue des Deux Mondes,' in which this gentleman took a part. In the course of last summer a very able article appeared in the French Moniteur,' on the subject of Russian Finance, in which it was attempted to be proved that Russia was very weak on this point, and could not hold out for any lengthened period against the Western Powers. The subject was followed up by M. Léon Faucher in the Revue des Deux Mondes,' in a damaging article on Russian resources and finance. Soon afterwards an answer to this was sent from Petersburg, written by M. Tegoborski, who is an employé in the Bureau des Finances, and it appeared in the November number of the Revue, with a rejoinder by M. Léon Faucher, written just before his lamented decease. Notwith

Etudes sur les Forces Productives de Russie, par M. L. de Tegoborski, Conseiller Privé et Membre du Conseil de l'Empire de Russie. 3 vols. Paris, 1852-54.

standing the truth of M. Tegoborski's observation, that Russia cannot be judged by the same rules as other European nations in matters of finance, owing to her totally different state of civilization, I think he fails to prove the main object of his article, that Russia can stand many more such campaigns as that of 1854. Russia must have little hope of persuading us of her power by other means, when she is obliged to have recourse to an article in a foreign periodical in the midst of a deadly struggle.

I have borrowed much from the work of M. and Madame Hommaire de Hell," and would refer any reader who wishes for vivid descriptions of Southern Russia, full historical information, and accurate scientific knowledge, to the original French work of this distinguished engineer and his accomplished wife. M. H. de Hell spent five years in the country to ascertain the difference of the levels between the Black Sea and the Caspian, and his work is accompanied by an atlas of rare merit.

I am indebted to many friends, and, among others, to Mr. Yeames, late Consul-General at Odessa, Mr. Crawfurd, and Mr. Blackmore, late chaplain at Cronstadt, for many valuable suggestions and corrections; and Mr. Lander has been good enough to revise the chapters on the shores of the Sea of Azof, with which no man is better acquainted. This accomplished gentleman was born in New Russia, and for many years has conducted the house of Yeames and Co. at Taganrok; and I may

Les Steppes de la Mer Caspienne, le Caucase, la Crimée, et la Russie Méridionale. 3 vols., with an Atlas. Paris, 1845.

say with truth, that the eighteenth chapter is rather his than mine.

In Chapter V. I have especially to acknowledge several pages of valuable matter relating to the Asiatic races of mankind, for which I am indebted to a note by Dr. William Smith, inserted in his recent admirable edition of the great work of Gibbon. My little book pretends to be scarcely more than a compilation, and if I have anywhere else omitted to acknowledge assistance, it has not been from the wish unfairly to appropriate the labours of others.

I have also to thank the Rev. Walter Sneyd for the sight of a translation of a curious Italian MS. in his possession, describing the travels in the Crimea of one Nicholo Barti of Lucca in the seventeenth century.

My notice on the Russian Budget in Chapter VIII. is not so full as I could wish it to have been, and perhaps I may have made too high an estimate of the military expenditure. The other facts relating to it are taken principally from M. Tegoborski's writings.

I have endeavoured, in the following pages, to be as accurate as possible, but more leisure than I have enjoyed would have enabled me to go over the ground still more carefully than I have done, and verify my statements upon various subjects by information gathered from other scattered sources.

I am fully alive to the defects and incomplete character of the sketches which I now venture to present to the public; and I ask, therefore, for indulgence if I have not contributed as much as I might have done to the instruction or amusement of my readers.

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

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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.