Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

REINDEER.

countries on earth, may be considered peculiar to them. With little property they seldom have disputes requiring the intervention of courts. They contrive to settle personal controversies among themselves. Without the means of payment, they are not the subjects of taxation to any extent, and their diminutive size excuses them from military service in the armies of Sweden and Russia. Men and money being the principal objects for which kings desire territory, Lapland is of trifling account to either of those powers, and serves little other purpose than to add square miles to their dominions.

REINDEER. One class of this people are denomicated mountain or reindeer, and the other fishing Laplanders, according to their different places and modes of living. The mountain Laplander has no fixed habitation, but wanders about in quest of food for his reindeer. The people usually lodge in tents or temporary huts. They use a kind of long skates in descending their hills in winter, and with their assistance go down with almost fearful rapidity.

[graphic]

The reindeer subsist on the bark and twigs of trees, and on moss which they obtain by removing the snow. These animals furnish the only mode of transportation, and the principal means of support to their owners. A Laplander's wealth is estimated by the number of his reindeer. The richest have nearly a thousand. The fishing Laplanders have more permanent and comfortable dwellings on the coast, and subsist principally by what they obtain from the water. Some trade is carried on between them and their more southern neighbors, consisting in the exchange of their fish for corn and other necessaries. In this

RUSSIA.

description of Lapland, it is to be understood, that there is a gradual diminution of the intelligence and size of the inhabitants, as well as of their comforts and means of subsistence, from latitude 60° to the most northern inhabited region.

RUSSIA. The empire of Russia extends over nearly half of Europe, the whole of northern Asia, and a portion of the northwest coast of America, from latitude 38° to 75° north, and from 19° east longitude easterly to the 130th degree of west longitude, embracing 211° or considerably more than one half the circumference of the earth. It is bounded north by an ocean of ice extending to the north pole, west by Sweden, the Baltic, Prussia, and Austria, south by Turkey, the Black sea, Persia, and China, and east by the British possessions in North America. The southern boundary of the Russian possessions in America, was settled by a convention between Russia and the United States, to be the line of the 55th degree of north latitude. The whole territory of Russia is computed to be 8.000,000 of square miles, equal to one seventh part of the habitable globe; and its population 57,000,000.

In

The Russian navy consists of thirty-two ships of the line, twenty-five frigates, one hundred small vessels of war, and one hundred and fifty gun boats and floating batteries. The army, at the lowest peace establishment, consists of 650,000 men. addition to this force, Russia has a military colony system, singular in its character, and calculated greatly to increase her power.

On the termination of the war with Napoleon, the finances and military means of Russia were much exhausted; and the emperor, desirous of increasing his force without further burthening the revenue, determined, on the recommendation of his minister, to quarter a portion of the soldiery on the crown peasants, and to build military villages, allowing to each house a certain portion of land, each soldier composing the colony to become a crown peasant, and each crown peasant a soldier; and both to provide for their own support by cultivating the land assigned them. The whole male population of proper age to be drilled and kept in readiness as a reserve for field duty. A system of laws was framed, adapted to this condition of the colony. The whole military force which it was thought necesary to maintain on the southern frontier of the empire, was constructed on this plan. It not only promoted the population and agriculture of the country, but provided for the support of the families of the soldiers who might be called into actual service, and constituted a standing army without expense to the crown.

In this manner the emperor had in 1824, established a military caste, or a kind of belt, extending along his southern border from the Baltic to the Black sea, constituting in effect, and without expense to the crown, a standing army. In this region all

DIFFERENT GRADES OF INHABITANTS.

GOVERNMENT.

males are born soldiers, and at the age of seventeen are placed under the military standard. As soldiers they cease to be boors, and are divided into regiments and companies, and a portion of crown lands set apart for their support. From these lands the soldiers, when not on actual service, must provide for themselves, their families, and their horses. It is estimated that the number of these agricultural soldiers, when the system is completed, will amount to 3,000,000, one half of which can be called into immediate service, constituting in effect a permanent standing army of 1,500,000 men. From this detail of the military system of Russia. the friends of liberal principles in Europe, when they see it in the hands of a despot, the head of the holy alliance, determined to suppress in every nation any attempts of the people to ameliorate their condition, may learn the difficulties to be encountered in the progress of civil liberty.

DIFFERENT GRADES OF INHABITANTS. The inhabitants of Russia, as to their political condition, exclusive of the army and agricultural soldiery, are divided into three classes or orders. The lowest, and by far the most numerous, are the boors or peasants, amounting to 30,000,000. Though not precisely in the condition of the African slave, their situation is not much better. They are considered as the property of the crown, or individual landholders. The lowest grade are transferable with the soil, and though not compelled to constant daily labor for their masters, the latter take their earnings and require their services at pleasure. The next grade are citizens, not nobles nor clergymen, enjoying generally the same privileges as persons of that description in other despotic countries; with the exception of paying to the government whatever the emperor requires, they are allowed to enjoy the fruits of their own earnings. The highest grade of subjects are the nobles, of which there are about 150,000 families, enjoying some undefined privileges and exemptions.

GOVERNMENT. The government is an absolute hereditary monarchy. It has nothing in the shape of a charter, constitution, or states general, but is conducted by a council of empire, ministers and a senate, there being no representative body. Catharine II. in the early part of her reign, about the year 1770, called together a deputation from all parts of the empire, forming a states general or representative body, with a view, as she expressed it, of establishing a wholesome code of laws for her whole kingdom. They assembled at Moscow, and the empress opened the session in person, by communicating to them her wishes. After keeping them together a sufficient length of time to ascertain that no good could result from the confused deliberations of such an assembly, she dismissed them; since which, no attempts have been made to form a Russian constitu

COSSACKS.

tion; it being ascertained, that if such an extensive and diversified empire is held together, it must be by a despotic power. Russia has ever been governed by ukases, or sovereign edicts, made by the emperor alone, and executed by his ministers.

Punishments, especially for political offences, are severe in the extreme. A common one is that of the knout, by which death is inflicted in the most tragical manner. Another, almost equally dreaded, is banishment to the inhospitable regions of Siberia.

The inhabitants of this extensive empire, are as diversified in their manners and character, as is their climate and soil. Every grade of civilization is to be found, from the Esquimaux Indian, to the polished inhabitant of Moscow and Petersburg. Beginning at the northeast, Russian America is inhabited by the Esquimaux, the lowest, most ignorant, diminutive and degraded of American savages. The whole northern region of Asiatic and European Russia, to the extent of 2000 miles in length, and 300 in breadth, is inhabited by Samoides, of the same stature, features, character and manner of life, with the Laplanders of Europe. Next in grade are the Nomade Tartars, dwelling in tents and temporary huts, wandering over a considerable extent of country, where they can find subsistence for their flocks. Their occupation consists in tending their cattle, and their living depends upon them. A grade above these are the stationary tribes of Tartars, who dwell in permanent habitations, and subsist in part by agriculture. The whole Tartar population of Russia is estimated at 3,000,000, over which the government exercises but a partial control, and draws but little revenue.

COSSACKS. Next in grade of civilization are the Cossacks, a military colony, inhabiting the southern and eastern frontier of European Russia, in the region of the Black sea, and the river Don. Doing the duty of soldiers in guarding the frontier, they are not required to pay taxes in money to the government. The whole number of fighting men of this class, is estimated at 700,000; but not more than half that number are in actual service, and two thirds of these are employed as guards within their own territory; so that not more than 100,000 Cossacks can be counted upon for a foreign war. Each Cossack is liable to do military duty from the age of 18 to 50, and to furnish his own horse and armor. They form the irregular flying cavalry of a Russian army.

The next grade of inhabitants are those of European Russia, of the middle and higher classes, of the same state of civilization, manners and intelligence, with other inhabitants of Europe.

PETER I. CATHARINE 11.

PETER I. Previous to the commencement of the eighteenth century, Russia was a semi-barbarous power, of little consideration in the general system of European politics. In the course of a century she has become in a great measure, the arbitress of Europe. This has been effected principally by two sovereigns, Peter I. and Catharine II. Peter was born May 30th, 1672, and in June, 1682, was crowned emperor, in conjunction with Ivan, an older brother, who from weakness of intellect, took no part in the administration of affairs.

Peter seems to have inherited all the enterprise and talent belonging to his family. In April, 1697, he set out on his celebrated tour; not in the capacity of an emperor, but as an attachee of an embassy; which, according to an old Russian custom was to visit the principal courts of Europe. At Amsterdam, he worked incognito in a Dutch ship yard; from thence he went to the village of Sardam, and assuming the dress of his own countrymen, he engaged as a workman under the assumed name of Peter Michaloff. From thence he returned to Amsterdam, and both superintended and labored in the building of a sixty gun ship, which he sent to Archangel. From Amsterdam he went to London, and took a residence near the royal ship yard, often declaring that if he were not czar of Russia he would be an English admiral. He engaged at London upwards of 500 persons to go with him to Russia. He returned to Moscow, September 4th, 1698, having spent seventeen months in this extraordinary tour.

The city of Moscow being in the interior, was not suited to his views, as the capital of the empire. He thereupon built the city of Petersburg, at which he established his court. From the time of his return to that of his death in 1725, he was sedulously employed in improving the knowledge he had obtained in his tour, to the benefit of his subjects, and the aggrandizement of his empire.

CATHARINE II. The next distinguished occupant of the Russian throne, was Catharine II. born in 1729, married in 1745, to Peter, heir apparent to the crown, and who became emperor in fact in 1761, and was deposed, imprisoned, and assassinated in 1762, when the crown was placed on the head of his widow, under the title of Catharine II. Her reign, for a period of thirtyfour years, from 1762 to 1796, exhibited a continued effort to improve the condition of her subjects, to enlarge her authority, and extend her territory, without any regard to the justice of the measures adopted to accomplish the object, giving the fullest extent to the maxim, that "the end justifies the means.' "Under the operation of the plans adopted in the reigns of Peter I. and Catharine II., Russia rapidly rose to the rank of a first rate European power.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »