[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "]
Sra,—It is constantly said that it would be too great a humiliation for the Czar to stop the present war without further and further efforts, and that he should risk the overthrow of his person and dynasty rather than give way to Japan. Now the present war has not the same meaning for the two combatants. To Japan the war has literally been a war of life and death. To Russia it is a mere colonial war,— a mere frontier war. And is the Emperor Nicholas a greater man than the Emperor Augustus that he should disdain to • follOw the example of the latter ? The defeat of Yarns taught Augustus that the Rhine was the true frontier of the Roman Empire, and that to push on to the Elbe would be a mistake. Why should the Emperor Nicholas be above learning a similar lesson from the overthrow of Varus-Kuropatkin in the Teutoburg Forest of Manchuria? Rome, too, in her palmiest days was repeatedly defeated by the Parthians, who per- manently chocked her eastward expansion. It is absurd to
say that the defeat of Russia by Japan brings lasting disgrace on the Russian name, and eliminates Russia from the rank of the Great Powers. Whatever the end of the present war, Russia is, and remains, one of the Great Powers,—one of the mighty Seven. Every expanding Power must have limits to its expansion, and must expect occasional reverses as it feels its way to these limits. For two hundred years Russia has expanded enormously in all directions—north, west, south, and east—surrounded as she has been by a ring of decaying forces,—Sweden, Poland, Turkey, Persia, the Central Asian khanates, and China. Now for the first time she comes in contact with a Power which is capable of stopping her attempted advance in its direction, and which does stop it. To refuse to read aright the lesson of the battle of Mukden, and to require more Mukdens and more Oyamas and more Togos to rub the lesson in, involves a far greater, humiliation for the Czar than a frank adoption on his part of the Augustan policy.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
