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south and west Russia, are said to have undergone no slight improvement. The forests cover 486,000,000 acres of ground, of which 326,000,000 are crown property,-notwithstanding, too, that vast injury has been inflicted upon many of them through immoderate or injudicious cutting. The average export of timber may be stated at £400,000 per annum, of which at least a moiety comes to ourselves. Manufacturing skill is in its transitionary state, perhaps requiring factitious protection, until the different products attain greater excellence. The number of manufactories has augmented prodigiously, from 2270 in 1801, to 3724 in 1820, to 6450 in 1837, and to 6855 in 1838, employing 412,931 masters and workmen. Of these establishments 606 were for woollen goods, 227 for silks, 446 for weaving, 1918 for leather-dressing, 444 for candle-making, 486 for metallic hardware, and the rest for saltpetre, sugar, potash, chemical, color, tobacco, and paper works. The internal trade circulates through the means of such busy and crowded fairs as are held at Novogorod, whither goods are often brought to the value of nearly £8,000,000, of which at least one-tenth comes from China! The five other fairs of Korennaja, Irbit, Rostow, Kretchensk, and Romny, in the governments respectively of Kursk, Perm, Poltawa, and Jakutzk, presented wares, taken altogether, in 1838, to the estimated amount of £2,500,000. The total of Russian imports from foreign countries for 1838 came to something under £11,000,000, of which one-twelfth came by land; one-fourth consisted of consumables, one-half was for the use of manufactories, and one-fourth was manufactured goods. The gross exports for the year 1838 came to nearly £14,000,000, of which a fifth passes through Riga, a tenth through Odessa, a twentieth through Archangel and Taganrog.

As to Foreign Policy, the able diplomacy of the cabinet at St. Petersburg has grown into a proverb all over Europe. It cannot be reproached with losing by the pen what was won 'with the sword.' Scions of the aristocracy must consult national and not class interests there, or else they quickly find their way to the snows and wildernesses of Siberia.

'Nature herself seems to have traced the boundaries of a stupendous empire within the Baltic, the Icy Sea, the Ural Mountains, the Caspian, the Caucasian range, the Black Sea, and the Carpathians: in the west alone she left it open for the arms and policy of nations to diminish or increase its extent: for Siberia Proper can only be regarded as a wide and waste court-yard attached to the main edifice of the Russian state: but southern Siberia is capable of improvement, and will probably serve as a base of operations from whence European culture may penetrate into central Asia, which, though now benumbed, is not hopelessly dead. When the Russian power reached the gates

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of the Caucasus, which were barred against it by the rude and proud independence of the mountain tribes, it could not but feel tempted both to burst through, and to pass round the obstacle. This natural boundary once overcome, the invading power flowed like water down its southern slope.'-pp. 93, 94.

Circassia still defies the Czar both in word and deed. General Weljaminow in 1837 demanded the unconditional surrender of her gallant inhabitants, assuring them that the British were deceivers, and asking them haughtily, whether they did not 'know that were the heavens even to fall, Russia had bayonets 'enough to prop them up? However the best generals and regiments have hitherto failed in crushing these noble mountaineers; but ultimately, without question, the latter will have to give way; upon which they will be swept into the mighty stream of European existence, by which they are on all sides surrounded, and against which they set themselves in solitary 'grandeur, like the giant pinnacles of their native land.' Cracow still floats upon the tide of affairs, as a fragment of Poland; or rather of what it once was. Meanwhile Moldavia and Wallachia, Servia, Bosnia, and Monte Negro, are falling more or less under Russian influences. Nesselrode keeps a watchful eye upon all the members of the great and increasing Sclavonic family. He will try and exclude Austria, as far as possible, from the embouchure of the Danube, and interpose between her and the main territories of the Ottoman Porte. Towards France and Germany there would appear to exist a mingled feeling. Newspapers, in both those countries, receive Muscovite bribes; and towards the eastern provinces of Prussia the Czar manifests no favorable commercial policy, at all events. He is shutting them up from the mouths and regions of the Polish rivers, by opening an enormous road from the south-west angle of Poland to the Baltic. A railway has also been commenced, which will convey to the harbors of Windau and Libau all the commodities which formerly found their way to Tilsit and Memel. Russia evidently takes for the type of all these efforts our own more fortunate country. We are to prove, beyond other nations, the rival she chiefly fears: nor is the idea uncommon amongst many circles within the two metropolitan cities, that what the ocean is to Queen Victoria, the vast European and Asiatic continent is to Nicholas the First,—an area of enormous extent, where suitable preparations may be made for future triumphs and aggrandizements. Diplomacy, however, having history for its principal study, will bear in its recollection that whatever people can continue dominant at sea, will always in the long run culminate as to the general objects of its policy on land. The conflict of interests, meantime, between Great Britain and Muscovy become daily conspicuous

enough. Sweden and Norway, Turkey and Persia, Central Asia, China, and Japan, are the geese to be plucked, one after the other, as the game goes on. It remains to be seen who will get the most feathers, make the best supper, and repose the most soundly afterwards. The press is issuing its paper missives, war is casting his largest cannon, steam is blowing up its preparatory fires, and ambassadors are sinking mines and countermines in every conceivable direction. The Ottoman power may probably be suffered, through the operation of various causes, to waste away in slow consumption: but the states of Middle Asia will have to undergo a struggle, at once violent, complex, and uncertain. Toryism, now once more at the helm of our own affairs, no doubt gloats over the anticipated result. A moral lift, as Canning used to say, may be given to that system which promotes strong government, at the expense of liberalism and democracy. Nevertheless we are slow to believe that what Tacitus said of the Romans shall ever be correctly applied to ourselves: ruitur omnibus in servitium! Our hopes predominate over our fears. In going over, once and again, the universal history of mankind,-in looking back upon past follies, and forward upon the glowing, though perhaps shadowy prospects ultimately opening over the world, we rest our hopes, under divine providence, upon the middle classes of this and other countries, who, armed with the power of knowledge, and held in check by their own interests, shall build up a glorious fabric amidst the overthrow of despotisms and aristocracies! And until that era arrives, the eloquent and imaginative author of Ion, one of the finest dramas of the age, has taught us what to guard against :

"We must look within,

For that which makes us slaves; on sympathies
Which find no kindred object in the plain
Of common life,-affections that aspire
In air too thin,-and fancy's dewy film
Floating for rest for even such delicate threads
Gathered by fate's engrossing hand, supply
The eternal spindle, whence she weaves the bond
Of cable strength, in which our nature struggles !'

725

Brief Notices.

Forget-Me-Not; a Christmas, New-Year's, and Birthday Present for 1842. Edited by Frederick Shoberl. London: Ackermann and Co.

This volume introduces itself to our notice by a characteristic preface, in which the editor moralizes with a somewhat amusing gravity on the changes to which all human affairs are liable, and the extent to which his own work has participated therein. It claims peculiar interest as one of the flowers of the season, from being, to use the somewhat complacent language of Mr. Shoberl, in point of literary merit, as in age, the first of the annuals.' The present volume constitutes the twentieth of the series, and is in every respect entitled to the same patronage which has been extended to its predecessors. Two or three subjects amongst its illustrations are better selected than usual, and are of a somewhat higher character. We notice particularly The Surprise of Montrose and Louis the Eleventh at Plessis-les-Tours, which have been illustrated by Allan Cunningham and Miss Lawrence with considerable talent, though there is somewhat of caricature in the early part of the former paper. The engravings are entitled to much the same commendation as formerly, whilst the literary contents are distinguished by much variety and skilful penciling. It will suffice to mention the names of James Montgomery, Charles Swain, Calder Campbell, Mrs. Gore, and Mrs. Sigourney, to assure our readers that they will find both entertainment and instruction from the perusal of the volume.

The Christian Souvenir. Edited by the Rev. Charles B. Tayler-The Scripture Illustrations by the Rev. Thomas Dale. London: Tilt and Bogue.

This volume answers fully to its title, as the slightest glance at its contents will show. A spirit of unaffected and deep piety breathes through every page, fully bearing out the statement of the editor, that, though designed for the lighter hours of the reader, 'it has been borne in mind that in the lightest hours of the christian reader his heavenly Father's presence is never forgotten.' The engravings, which are twelve in number, are all on Scripture subjects; and some of them are executed with great spirit and effect. The contributors to the volume are mostly clergymen of the Established Church, whose names will be a sufficient guarantee for the literary and religious excellence of their papers. Indeed, we are somewhat apprehensive that the great prominence throughout the volume of the latter quality will militate against its extensive circulation. It gives to it a grave and practical character somewhat out of keeping with the feeling which leads our young people to take up illustrated works. Practical treatises on religious subjects are of the greatest value, yet we doubt whether much good is effected by seeking to introduce them under the beautiful and attractive guise which they here wear. We hope we may be wrong in this conjecture, and heartily recommend the volume as a safe and useful companion.

The Domestic Management of the Sick Room. By Anthony Todd Thomson, M.D., F.L.S., &c., &c. pp. 506. Longman and Co. 1841.

In the volume before us, which is intended more especially for the perusal, or rather study, of the softer sex, the author has endeavored to convey that information which is essential to aid the medical treatment of disease, not to cure it.' Much is to be done in the sick chamber by means generally regarded as extra-professional, which may be readily understood and easily practised by attendants of ordinary competency; and which are in many instances of as much value to the patient as the sagest nostrum that was ever prescribed, albeit under the auspices of a gold-headed cane. We do not mean to underrate medical science and skill, but we do mean to contend that these derive their full efficiency in the treatment of disease only as they have the co-operation of suitable domestic management; which, it is too obvious, is but little understood by those to whom it is usually assigned. Dr. Thomson's work is a plain and concise compendium of the duties to which we refer; we therefore recommend it as an available antidote for much of the embarrassment to which they are frequently exposed who have the charge of invalids; and as a book of reference in cases where medical aid is instantly required but cannot be as promptly obtained. The subjects of which our author treats are necessarily numerous, and generally of sufficient importance to deserve grave consideration; but we should direct the attention of the English reader more especially to the remarks on 'ventilation,' 'bathing,' and administration of medicines.' Dr. Thomson might have given the profession a more scientific work, but he could not have exerted his abilities with more advantage to the public at large.

A Dictionary of the Art of Printing. By William Savage, Author of Practical Hints on Decorative Printing, and of a Treatise on the Preparation of Printing Ink, both Black and Colored.' London: Longman and Co.

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This is a work of immense labor and of great utility, upon which the author has been employed, directly or indirectly, upwards of fifty years. His opportunities for collecting the requisite materials have greatly exceeded those of most men, whilst his diligence and skill are amply proved by the publication before us. The object of the volume, as stated by the author, was that of making a purely practical work : one that might meet every exigence of the printer whilst in the exercise of his art, and one that would serve as a book of reference to the author, the librarian, and in fact to every one interested in books or their production.' Every branch of the art of printing is treated with fulness, the details and illustrations being admirably adapted to subserve the practical aim of the author. Mr. Savage has supplied what was previously much needed, and his volume is so complete as to prevent all fear of his labors being superseded. We strongly recommend it as a book of reference to those who are interested in such matters.

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