15 APRIL 1854, Page 18

COLE'S RUSSIA. AND THE ntrssiaxs.* bus volume has been prompted

by the present appetite for in- formation about Russia, and owes its attraction to the same cause. It is, however, more readable, and not less useful, than a work of greater elaboration and ambition. The house of Romanoff, not the history of Russia, is the topic. It is treated curtly to the time a-Peter the Great, and not very fully to the time of Catherine ; the personal characteristics and fate of the sovereigns being chiefly touched upon. The madness and death of Paul—the mixed cha- racter and unscrupulous diplomacy of Alexander—are exhibited in greater fulness than the features of the preceding reigns. The domestic character of Nicholas is slightly alluded to, and with greater praise than some later -writers hold that it deserves. The foreign policy of Russia, especially in regard to Turkey, is traced ; and the whole book seasoned on fitting occasions with expositions of the grasping nature of Russian ambition, remarks on the mili- tary power of Russia, and the author's opinion on the conduct and prospects of the present war. There is no research in the book; but Mr. Cole has consulted works of repute for his materials, and put together what he has collected cleverly if not strikingly. He has the advantage of some military experience and an actual observation of the Russian armies in what may be considered their most palmy day, at the dose of the .last European war, when they had been trained by several campaigns . and fed by Continental contributions and British subsidies. In the passage from which the following ex- tract is made, Mr. Cole has been speaking of the difficulty Russia has always found in congregating very large numbers .of effective troops on any given point. "At Borodino, in the heart of their vast empire, retiring on their re- sources, and resolved at last to make a final stand to save their capital, and fight for independence, one hundred -and twenty thousand was the fullest extant of their muster-roll. Neither did they ever exceed this aggregate in the-successive invasions of France, in 1814 and 1815. Moreover, the Rus- sian contingent would_never have arrived at all but for the subsidies of Eng- land. M. Schnitzler, whose work is generally correct and authentic in facts, I asit is often sound in opinions, has been misinformed, or is tinctured with I prejudice, when he says, 'The assemblage in the Plaine des Yertus, (10th September 1814,) of a Russian army of one .hundred and- sixty_thousand men ready for the field, struck with amazement the diplomatic corps of Eu- rope, who were _present at the imposing-spectacle, ; but such an exhibition of the, military strength of a vast empira alarmed them much less than the in- Visible power and perfect -moral influence which the greatness of soul and

well-known principles of monarch who now reviewed his troops had created.' 1-cannot tell what were the _impressions of civilians and diplo- matists to whom I hacl no -access, but -happening, to-be an insignificant unit among many hundreds of military, men of all nations who were looking on, I can testify, that as a mere military display we were neither petrified with amazement nor awe. Ncr mistakes are -so easily made as calculations on the

numbers of troops estimated from a- coup ; the general belief was, that =AIM occasion they did not amount to ninety thousand,_ and the entire Rus- sian -contingent which marched up to Faris, subsequent to the battle of Waterloo and the second abdication of Napoleon, I was assured by an officer of the Russian staff, never exceeded, even on paper, one hundred and ten thousand. At this vaunted review, which had been long in preparation, and lasted three days, little or nothing-was done to illustrate strategy or capa- bility of rapid movement. !Three days previous to the commencement of the4isplay were required to place them on the ,ground. On the first day of action, the operations consistedin marching pastin. review order ; on the-se- cond they were confined to performing worship according to the rites of the Greek Church ; and on the third, the whole force marched off again to the cantonments from -whence 'they-had been -summoned. Not long after this, in an ,after-dinner conversation, arising ,incidentally, the Duke of Wellington_ proposed to the Allied Sovereigns, or they suggested to him, to show,them the British army with their allies in British pay, including the Hanoverian and .Danish division, amounting in all to more than eighty thousand men. A representation of the principal manceuvres and incidents of Salamanca, as nearly as the ground permitted, was afterwards stated to have been the programme agreed on for the.evolutions of the day. There was no previous announcement or rehearsal. At nine at night, the orders were sent round to the different brigades, and ,by eight on the following morning the whole were drawn up in two lines, the left resting on Mont- martre, and the right on-the -Seine, with St. Denis a little in-the rear. The Sovereigns with a gallant escort, comprising many of the leading generals of the day, rode hastily along the front. -All were then put in motion; the en- tire day was occupied in a series of complicated ,movements, and at seven in the evening the corps marched past the assembled potentates, and returned to their several quarters. 'The quickness and precision of the evolutions, the martial bearing and exact discipline of the men, and especially . the equip- ments of the horse artillery, excited the loudest approbatiou. It was a proud day for Britain, as showinga solid exhibition of her power."

fEhe assassination of Paul is narrated in detail ; -differing some- what from other accounts we have -read. His -mad freaks are also exhibited pretty fully. The closing anecdote of Nicholas in this extract is quite as wild as anything recorded of his father in a humorous way.

"Ale sledge of Count Razumouaky, who had offended him, -was, by the Ruiperot/e order, broken into small pieoes, while.he stood by and directed the work. It happened to be of a blue colaur, and the Count's servant wore red

e'Rustiaandthe.Basaalans; comprising an Account of the CaarNicholas and the House of Romanoff; with a Sketch of the Progress and Encroachments of Russia,

from the Time of theEseprosseatherine. Coler:H.,T.,Twenty,first.Pusi- leers. Published by Bentley. liveries. Upon which an Ukase -was immediately published, prohibiting throughout the empire Of All the Russiaa, the use ef blue in ornamenting sledges,-and of red liveries. In consequence of this sage decree, the 'British Ambassador and many others were compelled to change their equipages. One evening, at his theatre in the palace of the Hermitage, a French piece was performed in which the story of the English gunpowder plot was intro- duced. The Emperor was observed to listen to it with earnest attention, and as soon as it was over he ordered all the vaults beneath the palace to be searched.

"His wild eccentricities would have been sometimes amusing, but -that they were never divested of cruelty or mischief. Coming down the street called the Perspective, he perceived a nobleman who was taking his walk, and had stopped to look at some workmen who were planting trees by the monarch's order. 'What are you doing ? ' said the Emperor. Merely seeing the men work,' replied the nobleman. 'Oh, is that your employment. Take off his pelisse and give him a spade ! There, now work yourself!' "The present Emperor Nicholas, some time since, driving along in his droshky, observed an English gentleman move down another street, appa- rently, as he thought, to avoid him. He sent an officer to ask why he had done so when the Emperor was coming. The answer was, 'that he did not see his Imperial Majesty." Then desire him to wear spectacles in future,' was the immediate command ; with which the delinquent was forced to com- ply during the remainder of his residence in St. Petersburg, much to his own annoyance and the amusement of his friends, for he was a remarkably well-looking man, and piqued himself on his clear sight."

A French author of the polished age of Louis le Grand has re- marked that the history of England was so characterized by slaughter that it ought to be written in blood by an executioner. The wars of the Roses, the tyranny of Henry the Eighth, and the public execution of a crowned head, can be outdone by many pe- riods of French history, even if St. Bartholomew and the great Revolution were left out of the catalogue. For the death of its male monarchs (the females seem to have managed better) Russia has the worst eminence. Such a list as the following account of a century cannot be prepared from the annals of any European kingdom, and scarcely perhaps from an Asiatic monarchy in ordi- nary times.

1718. Alexis, son and heir of Peter the Great, executed by order Of his father.

1730. Peter the Second, son of Alexis, "died suddenly, deposed and murdered" : with him ends the male branch of the house of Romanoff.

1740. Ivan Antonovitch, an infant, succeeded his aunt Anna in 1740.

In a year he Wati deposed by his cousin, the Empress Eliza- beth, who confined him in various prisons. In 1764 li•:P was made away with by Catherine the Second, during an insurrec- tion.

1762. Peter the Third murdered by his wife, the Empress Catherine the Second.

1801. Paul, her son, murdered by a conspiracy of his nobles.

1825. Alexander, supposed for a time to have been made away with by the conspiracy which broke out on his death ; but later discoveries—from Russian sources, however—throw doubts on this rll111011r.

"That is something like reigning!" exclaimed the youthful Louis the Fourteenth, in reference to the absolute power of the Turkish Sultan. "But, Sire, several of these Sultans have-been strangled in my time," said an old noble who dreaded the impres- sion. Still Russia is supereminent in the annals of despotism : every Emperor or male heir from Peter the Great to Alexander removed!