IRLF 
 
 3E3 110 
 Second Edition. 
 
 THE 
 
 (RESOURCES OF RUSSIA,! 
 
 I.N 
 
 THE EVENT 
 
 A WAU WITH FRANCE ; i 
 
 : 
 
 WITH 
 A SHORT bESCRIPTlON OF THE 
 
 CQZAES. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, CORRECTED AND IMPROVED 
 
 WITH 
 AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING A SKETCH OF THE f 
 
 CAMPAIGN IN RUSSIA. 
 
 LT> 
 
 CO 
 
 0~- 
 LO 
 
 m 
 
 r;^ BOSTON, 
 
 Published at No. 4 Corn!:!!!, 
 I MUNROE AND FRANCIS, 
 
 1 
 
 March 1813. 
 

 
THfc 
 
 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA, 
 
 IN 
 
 THE EVENT 
 
 OF 
 
 A WAR WITH FRANCE; 
 
 WITH 
 A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE 
 
 COZAKS. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, CORRECTED 4NC IMPROVED. 
 
 \ t >*,* t \TiTH , '. , v , ", V) ^. 
 AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 CAMPAIGN IN RUSSIA. 
 
 BOSTON, 
 
 Published at No. 4, Cornhilh 
 BY MUNROE AND FRANCIS- 
 
 1S13, 
 
DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT ; 
 
 District Clerk's Office. 
 
 BE it remembered, That, on the ninth day of March, A. 0.1813, and in the 
 thirty-seventh year of the Lidepencknce cf the TJ.uted States of America, 
 MUNROE & FRANC T Sj rvf the said, district, h?ve deposited in this office 
 the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the 
 woras following, to vh ,'',] 
 
 " The RESOURCES OF'RUSSiAJ in!tte /r'eni of a \varwith France ; 
 with a short description of the Cozaks. Stcond edition, corrected and 
 improved. With an appendix, containing a sketch of the campaign in Rus- 
 sia/' 
 
 In conformity to the act of the congress of the United States, entitled, 
 " An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of 
 maps, charts, -,uid books, to the authors aud proprietors of such copies 
 during the times therein mentioned ;" and also to an act, entitled, " An 
 act supplementary to an act, entitled, an act for the encouragement of 
 learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors 
 and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned ; and 
 extending the b nefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and 
 etching historical and other prints.*' 
 
 WILLIAM S. SHAW, 
 
 Clerk of the District of Massachusetts- 
 
TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 ITH that pure and unfeigned joy, which the suc- 
 cesses of his country inspire, and which is superior 
 to every selfish gratification arising from the pride of 
 opinion, the author respectfully offers to the Ameri- 
 can public a second edition of the " RESOURCES OF 
 RUSSIA," enriched by copious extracts from Sir R. 
 Wilson's " Campaign in Poland during the years 
 1806 and 1807 ;" a work, which was not till lately 
 received from England, and which is, in every re- 
 spect, worthy of a distinguished officer and a sound 
 statesman. Sir R. Wilson served the whole cam- 
 paign with the Russian army ; and was then, as he 
 is now, an eye witness to the principal transactions, 
 that were taking place, His experience ; his not 
 being a Russian, and therefore less suspected of na- 
 tional partiality ; and his writing at such a distance, 
 and without the least concert, and yet giving the same 
 
 R62613 
 
IV 
 
 account of the Russian nation, will be considered as 
 great and conclusive authority, by all those with whom 
 the author of the " Resources" has the happiness to 
 associate; who have shared with him the hopes and 
 fears of Russia, and who have duly appreciated her 
 sacrifices and her unceasing efforts to repel the in- 
 vader. He also flatters himself that a sketch of the 
 present campaign, and of the causes that led to it$ 
 will not be unacceptable to the American reader. 
 
THE 
 
 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA, 
 
 JtiuSSIA, for some time past, has been the 
 sport of twofold injustice. The inconsiderate 
 zeal of some, who were exaggerating her pow- 
 er, and the rooted, persevering enmity of 
 many, who delighted in depreciating it, have 
 driven her, in the public opinion, from that 
 real intermediate station, which she might 
 claim of right, and fill without giving offence. 
 Both friends and enemies have wronged her ; 
 and both have finished by deserting her. The 
 former, disappointed and vexed> that she did 
 not reach the height they wished, gave her no 
 credit for the effort ; and, by filing unmer- 
 ited disgrace on her, sought to justify their 
 own unreasonable expectations. The latter, 
 on the contrary, whose joy at her mibfor- 
 
 A2 
 
6 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 tunes, could only be equalled by their grief at 
 her successes, Cl teve : steeled their breasts 
 agaidst 'every conviction in her favour ; and, 
 chasing from their cheek the conscious blush 
 of self-reproach, with triumphant alacrity 
 mounted the rostrum, or with exulting ea- 
 gerness seized the pen to declaim on her 
 political impotence. Like determined athe- 
 ists, they laboured wantonly to destroy the 
 only hope and consolation, which, in the pros- 
 pect of futurity, her existence presented to 
 the suffering nations. 
 
 The insufficiency of her resources, the 
 vacillation of her policy, -foreign influence 
 and corruption, and the defects of her mili- 
 tary system, form now a creed so general, 
 and so readily embraced, as to call loudly for 
 a candid and impartial examination of each 
 of these topics. In obeying this call, we 
 may possibly discover the true proportion be- 
 tween our hopes and fears ; fix the balance of 
 public judgment ; and relieve the general 
 anxiety, as to the result of the -war, which 
 seems now stealing upon the north, with the 
 cautious step of a midnight assassin, or of a 
 wary wolf, whose silent approaches in the 
 depth of darkness are only betrayed by the 
 portentous glare of his eye. 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. F 
 
 Whether the following sheets may prove 
 satisfactory or not,I shall find some consolation 
 in having attempted to perform my duty ; 
 and in having led the way for some abler 
 pen to undertake and successfully to execute 
 the task, in which it may be my misfortune 
 to fail. I must he understood to proceed 
 upon a general principle, independent of acci- 
 dent ; and not influenced by the question, 
 whether the expected war will or will not 
 take place ; and whether it may happen soon- 
 er, or later. Come when it will, the ability 
 of Russia to defend herself is the only ob- 
 ject of this inquiry. I must further premise, 
 that, in the progress of this little work, I have 
 entirely confined myself to the Russian au- 
 thorities ; and left foreign writers to reconcile, 
 as well as they can, their own contradic- 
 tions. I feel the more justified in this pref- 
 erence, as a complete statistical account of the 
 Russian empire has been published, as late as 
 the year 1808, under the sanction of govern- 
 ment, and with a free use of all the official 
 documents in the various departments of state. 
 The correctness of this account is unques- 
 tionable, and supersedes all foreign accounts; 
 inasmuch as these never could have been 
 
$ RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 made with the same advantages of necessary 
 information. 
 
 First then,tfs to the insufficiency of resources* 
 The population of Russia, as a source of 
 national strength, claims our earliest consid- 
 eration. The first computation was made by 
 order of Peter the Great, in the year 1719 ; 
 and the return was 14 millions of both sexes, 
 including the Ukraine, and the newly con- 
 quered countries of Estonia, Livonia, and 
 part of Finland. So small a return, notwith- 
 standing the considerable acquisition of terri- 
 tory, will not be surprising, when we reflect 
 on the anarchy, confusion, cruel wars, and 
 other calamities, which had, in the preceding 
 ages, desolated the Russian empire. 
 
 By the second enumeration, in 1743, there 
 appeared an increase of upwards of two mil- 
 lions ; and by the third, in 1761, of four 
 millions more. In the year 1781, when a 
 fourth report was made, eight millions were 
 gained ; and the fifth and last census, which 
 took place in 1794, by an accession of four 
 millions, gave the total at 32 million inhabi- 
 tants. About this time, from 1794 to 1795, 
 the annexation of Lithuania and Courland to 
 the Russian crown, brought in five millions 
 
fcN THB EVENT OF WAU. 9 
 
 more, and increased the whole population to 
 37 millions. 
 
 As no disastrous events have since impeded 
 the progressive operation of natural causes ; 
 and as the tables presented annually to the 
 synod,from all the parishes throughout the em- 
 pire, of births, marriages, and deaths, show the 
 regular annual increase of 500,000 for each 
 year ; we can, without fear of error, state the 
 present population of Russia, ending w r ith the 
 last year ( 18 i l),at 45 and half,or at 46 millions, 
 if we add the tract of country acquired from 
 Poland by the treaty of Tilsit. 
 
 This is a prodigious population, and infe- 
 rior only to that of France, swelled beyond 
 all proportion with the overflowing tribute of 
 her conquests. But the formidable magnitude 
 of numbers, with regard to Russia, does not 
 afford a safe ground for conclusion ; and like 
 the rising moon, reflected and magnified by 
 the floating vapours in the atmosphere, de- 
 ceives the eye, as to its real appearance. The 
 population to be efficient, must be in some 
 degree commensurate with the territory ; and 
 a single glance at the geographical situation 
 
 of Russia is sufficient to show how immensely 
 
 w 
 
 the latter exceeds the former. Her 46 miL 
 
10 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 lion inhabitants, if distributed over the surface 
 of no less than 340,000 geographical square 
 miles (16,000,000 square wersts, or near 
 11,000,000 English square miles), will appear 
 like a few solitary shrubs, scattered over a 
 vast desart to remind the traveller of helpless 
 weakness, rather than of energetic grandeur. 
 The proportion of 46 million souls to the 
 stated number of geographical miles, will be 
 only 129 souls to each square mile ; and 
 when it is considered that in France and oth- 
 er populous countries in Europe, each square 
 mile is supposed to contain about 2000 peo- 
 ple, the ability of Russia to make conquests, 
 and even to preserve her existence as a nation, 
 will appear a miracle, or one of those phenom- 
 ena in the political world, which set conjec- 
 ture at defiance, and mock every effort to 
 comprehend them. 
 
 The prospective contemplation of 875 
 millions of souls, which Russia ought to have, 
 in proportion to her territory and the popula- 
 tion of other countries, only heightens the sense 
 of her present deficiency ; and harasses the 
 mind with doubts whether, owing to the rigo- 
 rous climate and other causes, unfavourable to 
 her northern possessions, she can ever hope 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAU, 11 
 
 for such an increase as would place her in ev- 
 ery respect on a par with other powers ; and 
 whether it would not be best, for the peace and 
 happiness of mankind, that such a project 
 should never be realized. 
 
 In pursuing, however, this track of reason- 
 ing, we should escape one error only to fall 
 into another of a no less serious nature ; and 
 to appear as voluntary followers in the train of 
 those, with whom spots pass for eclipses, and 
 who find it painful to turn their eyes for one 
 moment from the unfavourable view of the 
 picture. 
 
 We have only to choose the middle way, 
 and the vast disproportion between the popu- 
 lation and territory of Russia, as well as the 
 apprehensions thereby excited, will be won- 
 derfully lessened by the discovery, that no 
 less than three fourths of her immense territo- 
 ry contain only one fifteenth part of her popu- 
 lation ; and that, consequently, fourteen fif- 
 teenths of her population are concentrated only 
 on one fourth of her territory. In other 
 words, to the 258,000 geogr. square miles 
 which Siberia contains, there are 3 million in- 
 habitants ; and to the 82,000 geog. square 
 miles of Russia in Europe, there remain 43 
 
RESOURCES OP RUSSIA 
 
 millions, which is more than one fourth of 
 160 millions, said to be the whole population 
 of Europe. Twelve persons in Siberia and 
 near 700 in the European part of Russia to 
 each geogr. square mile, must therefore be 
 a fair and correct calculation ; and though it 
 is much below the standard of European pop- 
 ulation, appearance, even in this case, is more 
 unfavourable than reality ; for, many parts of 
 European Russia, especially towards the north, 
 are very thinly inhabited, and bear almost the 
 same small proportion to the rest, as does Sibe- 
 ria. The thickest population of Russia is be- 
 tween 48 and 55 of latitude, and from 42 to 
 68 of longitude, comparatively on a small 
 space, including the governments of Moskow, 
 Wladimir, Riazan, Kursk, Orlow, Charkow, 
 Voronej, Penza, Kazan, Tamboiv, Poltava, 
 Tchermgoff, Minsk, and others; some of which 
 contain from 1300 to 2400 souls to each 
 square mile, and bring Russia nearer to an 
 equality with other powers, than may have 
 been at first imagined. 
 
 If the comparison should still be in favour 
 of France, it will be lessened by the conside- 
 ration, that her population is more numerical 
 than effective ; and that this last, as it appears 
 
M THE EVENT OF WAK. 13 
 
 at present, is better preserved in Russia, 
 where persons from 20 to 30 years of age 
 are not near so scarce as in France. Besides, 
 national strength, derived from population, de- 
 pends in a great measure on the peculiar char- 
 acter of that population ; and on the energy 
 of government in seizing and bringing that 
 character into action. Of the first, almost ev- 
 ery page of the ancient and modern history of 
 Russia presents us with the most pleasing 
 assurances ; as to the last, we have no reason 
 to be distrustful, since the contest, which the 
 Russian government is likely to maintain, will 
 be no longer for any foreign interest, but for 
 her own immediate defence and safety. The 
 question will not be whether Austria or Prus- 
 sia are to be assisted with her arms ; or 
 whether England is to be supported in her in- 
 tercourse with the European continent ; but 
 whether Russia shall exist, or be erased from 
 the list of nations. France cannot, as former- 
 ly, pretend that she entertains no direct hos- 
 tility, and no wish to invade the territories or 
 destroy the political influence of Russia. The 
 enemy's designs will be unmasked ; and his 
 arms openly pointed against the dearest inte- 
 rests of Russia. His assaults will have no 
 
U RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 other plea 5 than inordinate ambition ; an avow 
 ed object of enmity ; a manifest desire to mo- 
 lest and destroy ; and a premeditated, unwar- 
 rantable appeal to force : he, therefore, will 
 be opposed with corresponding vigour, and a 
 determination suitable to the pressing occa- 
 sion ; with a magnanimity and patience fully 
 proportionate to the magnitude of danger ; 
 and with that firmness and perseverance, 
 which, if protracted, will be finally crowned 
 with success. It would be no less unjust to 
 suppose the Russian government so wanting 
 in wisdom and foresight, as not to have be- 
 held the enemy's preparations with a suspi- 
 cious and jealous eye. Whatever may be 
 his success, it will not be owing to the chance 
 of surprise. 
 
 Nor are the pecuniary means, which are 
 emphatically called the sinews of war, so 
 scanty in Russia, as they have been generally 
 imagined. The comparatively low state of 
 her finances, if fairly viewed, may tend to 
 raise our confidence rather than depress it. 
 
 The following are the sources of the vearly 
 revenue of Russia, 
 
IN TUB EVENT OF WAR- 15 
 
 Roubles. 
 
 Poll tax 52,000,000 
 
 Duties on distilleries 25,000,000 
 
 Custom-House duties 13,000,000 
 Produce of the mines and the 
 
 mint - 10,000,000 
 
 Stamp duties 8,000,000 
 Fisheries, mills, forests and 
 
 post-offices 6,000,000 
 
 The tribute of subjected nations 1,000,000 
 
 Total 115,000,000 
 
 As this revenue is not dependent on the 
 fluctuating state of foreign exchange, it must 
 be calculated at par ; and is therefore equal to 
 15 million pounds sterling. Unquestionably 
 it makes no figure by the side of 30 millions 
 in the disposal of France, or 50 millions annu- 
 ally brought to the British exchequer ; but 
 then it should be considered, that the above 
 revenue of Russia is free, permanent, unin- 
 cumbered with heavy interest on national 
 debt, and has all those additional sources un- 
 touched, which in France and England are 
 nearly exhausted. 
 
 The system of taxation can scarcely be said 
 to exist in Russia. The poll-tax, amounting 
 
16 RESOURCES OP RUSSIA 
 
 to little more than one rouble per head, and 
 being nearly all the people pay, certainly de- 
 serves not the name of a system. The man- 
 ufacturing interest, if we except the articles 
 exported, is not burthened with taxes ; and 
 from its visible progress, as appears from the 
 yearly important diminution of almost 2 mil- 
 lion roubles in the imports of foreign manu- 
 factures, this branch of industry promises to 
 Russia, in the hour of need, no inconsiderable 
 support. 
 
 The produce and consumption of salt, 
 amounting yearly to 20 million pouds, up- 
 wards of 300,000 tons, formerly an important 
 branch of revenue to the government, but 
 now free and unproductive, may be resumed 
 on emergency, and under the auspices of the 
 superior administration now placed over it, 
 may be rendered more than ever profitable. 
 All the branches of agriculture, as regards 
 consumption at home, are free from taxes, 
 and may be made largely to contribute to the 
 relief of national necessities. Russia has not 
 as yet had recourse to duties on malt liquors, 
 the consumption of which is immense ; or on 
 houses, windows, dogs, coaches, and every 
 domestic and foreign luxury ; nor has she 
 wielded yet the potent engine of a funding 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 17 
 
 system. In short, she has the example of 
 France and England before her ; and if the 
 worst comes, she can but relieve herself in 
 the same manner ; though, I think, she is in 
 no immediate danger of being driven to this 
 extremity. 
 
 Her commerce, though small, when com- 
 pared with that of England, is profitable 
 enough to bear additional burthens ; and her 
 circulating capital, which is computed at 200 
 million roubles in specie, and 109 millions in 
 paper, exhibits at once the sufficiency of her 
 credit and the solid foundation of her pros- 
 perity. Add to this, that she never subsisted 
 on foreign plunder, as France has done, and 
 never counted it one of the principal sources 
 of her revenue ; the approaching annihilation, 
 therefore, of this source, in proportion as the 
 countries which supplied it became more and 
 more exhausted, may soon reduce her for- 
 midable rival to an equality with herself. 
 
 Granting, however, the balance at all events 
 to be against her, as to the relative means and 
 resources of France ;* the advantage of acting 
 
 * Russia is certainly competent to meet France 
 properly so called ; but here the question is, wheth- 
 B* 
 
28 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 on the defensive is more than sufficient to turn 
 the scale in her favour. In this point of 
 view, we have to consider, not whether she 
 can go as far as France in sending and main- 
 taining troops abroad ; but whether she has a 
 sufficient force at home to repel the enemy ; 
 and whether her internal resources are ade- 
 quate to the support, maintenance, and due 
 exertion of that force. This is a cheering 
 subject : and we shall take a short retrospec- 
 tive view of it. 
 
 A century ago, that is, in the year 1712, the 
 military force of Russia amounted in all to 
 107,350 men. As this muster was made 
 three years after the memorable battle of Pol- 
 tava, I cannot help observing here, that unless 
 Peter the Great had brought almost every sol- 
 dier he had into the field, a thing in its very 
 nature impossible, the statements of Swedish 
 and other foreign historians of 80,000 men in 
 one place, and as many in another, with 
 which Peter overwhelmed Charles, must ap- 
 pear to every intelligent and candid man, 
 
 er Russia can repel France supported by Austria, 
 Prussia, Italy, the Rhenish confederacy, and indeed 
 whole continental Europe, combined. 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 19 
 
 what it really is, an absurd and inconsistent 
 exaggeration. 
 
 At the death of Peter, the country inherited 
 from his genius and perseverance a well ap- 
 pointed and disciplined army of 200,000 men, 
 having almost doubled within the short pe- 
 riod of twelve years, that is, from 1712 to 
 1725, when that great prince died. In 1771 
 it was considerably augmented : and from 
 that time to 1794 it was increased to 
 312,785 men ; and now it is not much less 
 than 700,000 men. The following are its 
 component parts : 
 
 REGULAR TROOPS. 
 
 Rank and file 
 
 1. Life Guards (horse) consisting 
 
 of five regiments 3,316 
 
 2. do. foot, six regiments - 9,306 
 
 3. Field Cavalry, 46 regiments 49,788 
 
 4. do. Infantry, 130 do. 219,125 
 
 5. Garrisons, 19 do. 70,884 
 
 6. Artillery 42,963 
 
 395,381 
 Officers 12,709 
 
 Total 408,090 
 
RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 IRREGULAR. 
 
 Different regiments of Calmucks, 
 
 Tartars, Don Cozaks, &c. Sec. 98,211 
 
 Officers - - - - 2,189 
 
 Total 100,400 
 Invalids, including officers 24,660 
 
 Grand total 533,150 
 
 The provinces, which were mentioned be- 
 fore as the most populous in the Russian em- 
 pire, and which contain about 15 millions of 
 male population, by a new levy in 1806 of 
 one in a hundred, furnished an additional 
 number of 150,000 men ; which makes the 
 present force of Russia amount to 683,150 
 men. By deducting 70,884 for garrisons, 
 and 24,660 invalids, there remains 587,606 
 effective men ; or 487,206 regulars, and 
 100,400 irregulars, a force which, if assisted 
 by local advantages, can defy the united 
 efforts of all the invaders Europe can send 
 against her.* 
 
 * Sir Robert Wilson, in his brief Remarks on the 
 composition of the Russian army, speaks thus : 
 
 " THE INFANTRY is generally composed of ath- 
 letic men between the ages of IS and 40, endowed 
 
IN THE EVENT OF AVAR. 21 
 
 It is a consoling and pleasing consideration, 
 that the population of Russia has not since 
 
 with great bodily strength, but generally of short 
 stature, with martial countenance and complexion. 
 
 The bayonet is a truly Russian weapon. The 
 British alone are authorised to dispute their exclu- 
 sive pretension to this arm ; but as the Russian sol- 
 dier is chosen for the army, out of a numerous popu- 
 lation, with the greatest attention to his physical pow- 
 ers, the battalions of the former have superior advan- 
 tages. No man even with bad teeth is enlisted. 
 
 The untrained Russian also, like the Briton, un- 
 daunted, whilst he can affront the danger, disdains the 
 protection of favouring ground, or the example of 
 his adversary, and presents his body exposed from 
 head to foot, either to the aim of the marksman, or 
 the storm of the cannonade. 
 
 THE LIGHT INFANTRY is augmenting since 
 the late war ; and as Russia possesses a population 
 well adapted for this service in various parts of her 
 empire, she ought to extend it considerably. 
 
 The regiments of Light Infantry, hitherto formed, 
 are of an excellent description, and it is impossible 
 to imagine a more beautiful body than the Chasseurs 
 of the Guard, who, it is said, come chiefly from Sibe- 
 ria ; indeed, this is the province where the best 
 marksmen and of the hardiest race are recruited, al- 
 though, in general, the men are lighter. They 
 know their service perfectly : and as many of these 
 men, in common with other regiments, had marched 
 more than three thousand miles to join the army 5 
 
RESOURCES OP RUSSIA 
 
 been drained by fresh levies, as it has been iu 
 France by the system of conscription, enforc- 
 
 as the vicissitude of a Siberian winter, and the raging 
 heat of Asiatic deserts were familiar to them, they 
 possessed a natural training and stamina which qual- 
 ified them in the highest degree for the service they 
 were required to encounter. 
 
 GUARDS. It cannot be doubted but that the picked 
 nien of such a population as Russia, a country where 
 man is so well grown, must compose a superior body of 
 foot guards, whose numbers do not exceed 7000. There 
 cannot be a nobler corps, or one of more warlike des- 
 cription, and the simplicity of dress gives to the man 
 the full character of his figure and mien. On every 
 occasion the Guards have distinguished themselves : 
 and it is singular in this service that the whole army 
 prides itself in their majesty and excellence. All 
 extol ; all joy in their perfections ; and the sentiment 
 of jealousy is unknown. 
 
 At Tilsitz the guards of France, of Russia, and 
 some of Prussia, paraded in the same town. Those 
 of France, whatever may be their military merits, 
 made but a very indifferent appearance, and, being 
 generally small men, the grenadier high cap had an 
 effect contrary to ornament or grandeur Those of 
 Prussia were too much ruined to be estimated justly, 
 yet the stature and proportion were better than those 
 of France ; but the guards of Russia surpassed both 
 " as day-light doth a lamp." They exhibited a com- 
 bination of form and stature, of manly expression and 
 warlike simplicity, of martial character and beauty 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAK. ^23 
 
 cd and executed, with such rigour, in antici- 
 pation. Moreover, a militia was raised in the 
 
 which was not only unrivalled, but elevated above all 
 comparison. 
 
 THE RUSSIAN CAVALRY is certainly the best 
 mounted of any upon the continent ; and as English 
 horses never can serve abroad in English condition? 
 it is the best mounted in Europe. 
 
 Hungary and Turkey may perhaps produce horses 
 as well adapted for the hussar and irregular services, 
 but the heavy Russian horses are matchless for an 
 union of size, strength, activity and hardiness ; whilst 
 formed with the bulk of the British cart-horse, they 
 have so much blood as never to be coarse, and 
 withal are so supple as naturally to adapt themselves 
 to the manege, and receive the highest degree of 
 dressing. 
 
 They are chiefly bred in the plains of the Don and 
 the Volga ; but as the native breed of those countries, 
 and of the surrounding nations is of inferior size, it is 
 not improbable that they are descendants of the cel- 
 ebrated Cappadocian breed, introduced into Europe 
 by the Romans, and (which is remarkable,) into Nu- 
 bia, by a present of three hundred from the Emperor 
 Constantino to one of the African princes, where they 
 seem to have preserved all their character and pow- 
 ers, whilst the influence of European climate or food 
 has somewhat degenerated their stature, Bruce* 
 when in Nubia, first noticed this gigantic and pecu- 
 liar species, but the statement increased the charges 
 of invention against this much wronged traveller ; 
 atid Bruce, not recollecting the Roman present, da* 
 
24 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 same year (1806), of no less than 600,00$ 
 men, who were already in motion, and in con- 
 ted their introduction to the time of the Saracen con- 
 quests, which origin not being supported by any col- 
 lateral evidence, was too vague for such a remarka- 
 ble exception to the race of Arabia, Egypt, and 
 Abyssinia : but it was reserved for the period of the 
 Egyptian expedition to vindicate Bruce by the cor- 
 roboration of the fact of the existence of such a breed 
 of horses. 
 
 After the battle of Eylau, when the Imperial caval- 
 ry of the guards were ordered from St. Petersburgh 
 to join the army in Poland, the men were sent in 
 waggons as far as Riga, and the horses accompanied 
 at the rate of 50 miles each day. From thence they 
 were ridden, and proceeded to their station at the rate 
 of 35 miles each day ; after a march of 700 miles, 
 so conducted, they appeared not only in excellent 
 con parative order, but in such high condition, that 
 the regular garrisons of any capital in Europe could 
 not present a finer cavalry parade. The hussar horse 
 has nothing remarkable, except that he is generally 
 stronger loir.ed than the Hungarian, with equal blood, 
 and force oi constitution. 
 
 During Beningzen's retreat, and from that period 
 to the disappearance of the snow in June, no cavalry 
 ever encountered greater hardship. 
 
 For above six months in the severity of the ex- 
 tremest Poland winter, they were always at the piquet 
 post without any shelter ; and for three months or 
 more, they had no other sustenance than what the 
 old thatch, stripped ftom the roofs of the cottages* 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 25 
 
 dition to take the field. In consequence of 
 the peace of Tilsit, this force was dismissed, 
 
 supplied ; and in consequence of this necessity Po- 
 land was progressively rendered uninhabitable, and 
 war assumed her most frightful aspect. 
 
 The mortality certainly was great, but it did not 
 render the cavalry inefficient or feeble for the service 
 of the most ac.tive and laborious campaign which suc- 
 ceeded. 
 
 The appointments are of the best quality, superior 
 to most of the continental nations ; but latterly, 
 France has applied so much attention to the improve- 
 ment of her cavalry equipment, that she may dispute 
 the preference. The mode of hanging up the bit to the 
 check of the halter, or bridle, so as to loosen or sus- 
 pend it with rapid facility, is, however, a Russian im- 
 provement, not yet adopted by other countries. 
 
 In war they are alert and intelligent : in battle 
 brave and capable of every evolution and operation : 
 they charge with rapidity and union, and in all the 
 actions their loss from gallant enterprize and efforts 
 was considerable. At Eylau they sustained the tre- 
 mendous fire with heroic fortitude, and made some 
 desperate and successful attacks. At the battle of 
 Friedland, when Buonaparte, by the superiority of 
 numbers, had forced the Russian left, and gained 
 possession of the town of Friedland, with the bridg- 
 es over the Aller ; notwithstanding their losses on 
 a day where they had repeatedly charged ; notwith- 
 standing the position in which they were now expos- 
 c 
 
26 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 4 \vith the exception of those who wished to en- 
 list in the regular army, and with the reserva- 
 
 ed, and the ruin that threatened by delay in the field ; 
 animated with a generous resolution to save the 
 centre and right wing of their army, they rushed 
 across the plain, charged the advancing centre of the 
 enemy, and by their daring efforts and bold counte- 
 nance, enabled the retreat of the infantry, with all 
 their cannon, through an almost impracticable ford, 
 in the presence of Buonaparte and 80,000 men ; and 
 subsequently so covered the inarch upon the Aller, 
 which was to be passed again at Wehlau, and over 
 the Memel, (upon each of which rivers there is but 
 one bridge, and from Friedland, an intervening open 
 country of about 1 20 miles) that Murat and Buonaparte 
 could effect nothing against a defeated force, redu- 
 ced to 34,000 men, and after Lestocq's union, incum- 
 bered with above 500 pieces of cannon and 10,uOO 
 carriages, of which they lost not one, whereas the 
 French cavalry, who were obliged to remain united, 
 with all their caution, experienced loss and disgrace. 
 
 The officers of the Russian cavalry attend to their 
 various duties with great zeal and diligence, and the 
 whole interior economy is well regulated and admin- 
 istered 
 
 THE RUSSIAN ARTILLERY is of the most 
 powerful description. No other army moves with 
 so many guns, and with no other army is it in a bet- 
 ter state of equipment, or is more gallantly served. 
 
 The piece is well formed, and the carriage solid, 
 without being heavy. The harness and the rope-tack- 
 ling is of the best quality for service, and all the ap- 
 
IN THE KYKNT OF WAK. 2? 
 
 tion of 200,000 men, for any future emergen- 
 cy ; so that with this ample reserve, and in 
 
 purtenances of the gun complete and well arranged. 
 The draught horses are small, but of great muscular 
 strength, strongly loined, and with high blood. Four 
 draw the light field-pieces, and eight the twelve 
 pounders ; the latter have sometimes indeed ten 
 horses ; but then the roads must be such as are only 
 to be met with in Poland before the frost sets in, or 
 when it breaks up, and which, during the last cam- 
 paign, were in such a state that Buonaparte said he 
 had discovered, by crossing the Vistula, the new ele- 
 ment of mud. The power of these animals is howev- 
 er so great, that, on taking up positions, they will 
 plunge through the ditches filled with yielding snow, 
 although so deep as to cover their back, and bury the 
 guns altogether ; and when the center and right wing 
 retired through the Aller, after the battle of Fried- 
 land, at a point discovered on the emergency, they 
 were partly swimming, and afterwards compelled to 
 ascend the banks, which were almost perpendicular. 
 If the horses had possessed less strength or activity, 
 the whole must have fallen into the hands of the ene- 
 my ; but the Russians seem well aware of the impor- 
 tance of horsing their artillery well, and the Russian 
 government is wise enough to spare no expense that 
 may be necessary for its efficiency and security. 
 
 The drivers are stout men : like all other drivers? 
 they require superintendance in times of danger, to 
 prevent their escape with the horses, but on various 
 occasions they have also shewn great courage and fi- 
 
28 RESOURCES OF UUSStA 
 
 consequence of the natural progress of popu- 
 lation in five years, or the great number of 
 
 delity ; and they have the essential merit of carefully 
 providing subsistence for their horses. 
 
 When the Russian army was in Poland, above 500 
 pieces of field-cannon moved with it generally, and 
 were actually in the battle of Eylau. Beningzen had 
 indeed left in his previous movements towards the 
 Bug 120 pieces, chiefly of 12 pounders in reserve, 
 which fortunately escaped Bernadotte's column, and 
 only entered the field in the evening before the gene- 
 ral action. Its safety may indeed be owing to the 
 capture of the courier, which gave Beningzen notice 
 at Mohrungen of Buonaparte's intention to assemble 
 his army and attack him, whilst by the interception 
 of the despatches Bernadotte's orders to manoeuvre 
 on his right and in his rear were delayed two days 
 important days, for they preserved the Russian army, 
 as well as the reserve cannon, by enabling them to 
 reach Eylau without such further impediment. 
 This number was certainly out of proportion to the 
 infantry, which at the outset never amounted to 
 80,000 men, and was particularly inconvenient and 
 embarrassing in countries and seasons when forage 
 was not to be assured. In the latter part of the cam- 
 paign, when the infantry was by sanguinary actions 
 greatly reduced, the number of guns was a real dis- 
 advantage, and endangered the safety to the army by 
 the delays it occasioned. 
 
 During the late campaigns the Russians lost very 
 little artillery. At Pultusk some few after the action 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. ^ 
 
 those who have attained the proper age for 
 service, Russia bids fair to maintain the con- 
 were completely smothered in the mud, and the 
 French lost as many of theirs in the same way. 
 
 In the retreat from Yankova to Eylau, notwith- 
 standing the daily serious conflicts, they did not lose 
 ten pieces. At Eylau, they left the next morning 12 
 pieces that had been damaged, but withdrew above 
 30 of the enemy's guns. At Heilsberg they lost in 
 the retreat of Prince Bragration, and previous to the 
 attack on the position three or four, at Friedland only 
 17. And at Austerlitz their cannon fell into the en- 
 emy's hands, from an error in the road, and not from 
 the achievements of victory in that field, although 
 Buonaparte in his despatches announces their capture, 
 as so many trophies gained on that clay. According 
 to the French bulletins indeed, the Russians lost 300 
 pieces of cannon from December to June,^p^w1uch 
 above 200 pieces were lost at, and previous to the 
 battle of Eylau ; but the falsehood was so gross, that 
 to account for their disappearance, he shrewdly order- 
 ed them to be melted for the erection of a bronze 
 statue to the memory of General Haultpoult, an ex- 
 cellent officer of cavalry, killed at Eylau, but the 64th 
 bulletin of the French army, out-herods herod 
 << On this subject it has been remarked, that the Em^ 
 peror has never lost any cannon in the armies he 
 commanded, whether in the first campaigns of Egypt, 
 whether with that of the Army of Reserve, with tha t 
 of Austria and Moravia, or in Prussia and Poland." 
 If this fact is to rest on French authority, certainly 
 c* 
 
30 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 test without resorting to any extraordinary 
 measure, and exhausting those regular and 
 main sources of strength, which in the last ex- 
 tremity must still prove her safeguard. She 
 may still present what imperial France can- 
 not the cheerful countenance of man. From 
 St. Petersburgh to Moskow, and from Mos- 
 kow to the Euxine, the traveller may still see 
 that active and smiling industry, which nei- 
 ther feels nor fears the hostile sword but 
 which, in the regions of France, shrinks with 
 
 none was or ever will be lost ; but a more impudent 
 falsehood was never published for French credulity. 
 
 The Russians, however, wisely do not attach too 
 much reputation or disgrace to the possession or loss 
 of a gun. They think that it is better to fight it to 
 the last moment, and let an enemy gain it dearly, than 
 withdraw it too soon for a preservation that also pre- 
 serves the enemy. 
 
 The Cozak artillery, worked by Cozaks, which is 
 a late institution, consisted of 24 pieces extremely 
 light, and the carriages were fashioned with a care and 
 nicety which did great credit to Russian workman- 
 ship. This park joined at Heilsberg, after the battle 
 of Eylau, and in a march of 3000 wersts, one werst -| 
 of an English mile, in the course of 14 weeks, not 
 one horse was disabled or died, and it was soon after- 
 wards brought into action, and did considerable exe- 
 cution oh the enemy near Allerstein, nor was one 
 piece lost during the whole campaign. " 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 31 
 
 the chill blast of war, and withers in the mer- 
 etricious embraces of a hollow peace. The 
 tearful eye, the mournful visage, the wide 
 spreading desolation,* and the melancholy 
 spectacle of helpless infancy, and tottering 
 age, torn from their natural prop of manhood ; 
 all the calamities, which France in the fulness 
 of her pride and the wanton exertion of her 
 power has brought upon herself, while wish- 
 ing to afflict others, are yet unknown, un- 
 felt, and unseen in Russia : and may remain 
 so, though hosts of foes should conspire her 
 ruin. 
 
 The natural situation of Russia is such, that 
 she can with ease and convenience maintain 
 and support while on her own ground, not 
 only the formidable force she possesses, but 
 double that number, if necessity should re- 
 quire it. All her means are within herself ; 
 and no country in the known world is so lit- 
 tle dependent on commercial or any other in- 
 
 * The author's personal experience, and all recent 
 accounts of France confirm the desertion of roads 
 even in the vicinity of Paris ; and the difficulty of 
 meeting, out of the army, young persons from 17 to 
 30 years of age. Boys, women, and old men are the 
 only beings that present themselves to the sight of a 
 traveller. 
 
32 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 tercourse with foreign nations. Could com- 
 modities or the necessaries themselves be 
 transported with the same facility as money 
 which represents them, she might provide for 
 her armies, at any distance from home, better 
 than any power in Europe, France herself not 
 excepted. There is nothing relating to the 
 maintenance of an army, but what she can 
 dra\v from herself, find on her own land, and 
 manufacture with her own hands ; an advan- 
 tage which she preeminently enjoys, of which 
 no external cause can deprive her, and which, 
 as long as it is enjoyed, must render her, on 
 her own territory, invincible. Food, cloth- 
 ing, and ammunition of every kind are amply 
 supplied to her by art and nature ; and placed 
 at her absolute disposal. 
 
 From the report of the minister of the inte- 
 rior on agriculture, for the years 1802, 1803, 
 and 1804, it appears, that, after all the exports 
 to foreign countries, and all the deductions 
 for distilleries, and those provinces or govern- 
 ments which are unfavourably situated, and 
 where annual harvests are not sufficient to 
 maintain the inhabitants ; there remained, as 
 an average suiplus of corn for each year, 50 
 million tchetwerts, or 450 million pouds, 
 about 7 million tons ; which, if sold at the 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 33 
 
 usual price of 4 roubles per tchetwert, would 
 bring Russia 200 million roubles a year, al- 
 most twice as much as the whole revenue of 
 the empire. Those who calculate the resources 
 of Russia only by their nominal representation, 
 money, will do well to pause and reflect 
 awhile on the above prodigious source within 
 herself, which must increase with the popula- 
 tion, and outrun, for whole centuries to come, 
 the demand at home, by reason of the vast 
 superabundance of soil, and which may, ere 
 long, be converted into the circulating medi- 
 um. 
 
 The cloth manufactories of Russia, accord- 
 ing to the report of 1804, were 1553 in num- 
 ber, containing 2428 looms ; and employing 
 28,689 hands of both sexes. The quantity of 
 cloth, manufactured that year only for the ar- 
 my, was 1,806,632 arshins, orabout 1,405,158 
 English yards. 
 
 The leather manufactories, 850 in number, 
 which, besides domestic consumption, ex- 
 ported in the year 1804 to the value of 1,786,871 
 roubles ; as well as the linen manufactories, 
 285 in number, employing 23,711 hands, and 
 enabling Russia annually to make consider- 
 able exports, are too well known to suppose 
 
3* HF.SOUKCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 the Russian soldier can ever be in want of 
 things so necessary to his health and comfort. 
 
 The manufactory of arms in Tula, from 
 1770 to 1780, produced upwards of 162,500 
 muskets, and 63,000 pair of pistols, besides 
 the correspondent number of swords, sabres, 
 and other arms, at the low rate of 4 roubles 
 per musket, and the rest in proportion. The 
 annual produce of this manufactory must have 
 materially increased since 1780, though no ac- 
 count of it has yet been published. There are 
 besides, several other manufactories of less 
 importance, which however furnish a conside- 
 rable quantity of arms every year, and secure 
 Russia against any want in articles of such 
 indispensable utility. The Russian soldier 
 has not, as yet, used any other arms than what 
 were manufactured at home. A small supply 
 from England, in the last war, had for its ob- 
 ject to assist Prussia, and was not received in 
 time. 
 
 The copper mines of Russia, through the 
 means of her founderies, can always supply 
 her with the requisite proportion of cannon. 
 Her iron mines are too well known to need 
 any comment ; and the produce of her gold 
 and silver mines is nearly the whole circula- 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 35 
 
 ting specie, the amount of which has already 
 been mentioned. Her lead mines are also 
 sufficient to supply her wants ; and the fol- 
 lowing is the annual quantity of metal in 
 pouds, and value in roubles. 
 
 Pouds. Roubles. Coprcks. Value in roubles. 
 
 Gold 40 1 6,000 pr. poud 600,000 
 
 Silver 1300 KOOO 1,300,000 
 
 Lead 50 ; 000 4 400,000 
 
 Co/ifier 185,000 20 7,000,000 
 
 Iron 8000,000 4,80 14-.000000 
 
 Total 8s236,340 Total 20,400,000 
 
 Owing to the natural abundance of all the 
 necessary materials, the quantity of gun- 
 powder manufactured in Russia has always 
 been more than sufficient not only for public 
 purposes but for the private use of individu- 
 als. The frequent fire- works, being the fa- 
 vourite amusement of the Russians in general, 
 are supposed to consume more gunpowder 
 than would supply the army of a moderate 
 power. For want of documents to ascertain 
 the exact quantity with which Russia is yearly 
 furnished ; we must take its cheapness as the 
 criterion of its abundance. The foreign sup- 
 ply of powder as well as lead, which was 
 drawn from England during the late war,, was 
 
36 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 merely on account of the ships of the line 
 which were at a distance from home. 
 
 It does not come within my present object 
 to give a statement of all the manufactures in 
 Russia, which, generally speaking, are such 
 as to make her independent in all the necessa- 
 ries, and in some of the luxuries of civilized 
 life ; and it was sufficient to mention -jnly 
 those which are intimately connected with the 
 maintenance of her military force, in order to 
 shew that her efforts are not likely to experi- 
 ence a check from any failure of natural or ar- 
 tificial resources, as regards her own defence 
 and protection. We shall, however, be fur- 
 ther convinced of this by considering at what 
 small expense her armies are supported, and 
 how ample are her nominal or pecuniary 
 means, in relation to the real commodities or 
 necessaries, which she can always purchase 
 from her own subjects, and obtain from her 
 own soil. 
 
 The whole of her regular forces cost in 
 time of peace only 10,683,711 roubles ; 
 which, in proportion to her revenue, being a 
 little more than a 15th part of the whole, is 
 certainly cheaper than in any military nation in 
 Europe. In time of war, the additional ex- 
 pense is only 200,000 roubles ; and if we add 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 
 
 the irregular troops, which, with the excep- 
 tion of officers, receive their pay only for the 
 time of actual service, we cannot be far from, 
 truth in stating the whole expense at 11 mil- 
 lion roubles ; a very small portion, which can 
 be easily spared from the revenue of 115 mil- 
 lions. 
 
 The first idea that occurs on seeing this 
 statement is, the miserable, starving state of 
 the soldier ; but the advantage of possessing 
 real means will soon banish this idea, and 
 shew the Russian soldier, though apparently 
 worse paid, yet substantially better maintained 
 perhaps than in any other country. The ave- 
 rage sum, which he receives, about 12 roubles 
 and 50 copecks a year, is certainly a trifling 
 pay ; but then he is provided with flour and 
 other articles of provision, which are sufficient 
 to support him through the year, and enable 
 him in some measure to consider his pay as 
 mere pocket money. His clothing, which is 
 entirely at the expense of government, costs 
 only 12 roubles extra ; and affords an addi- 
 tional proof that a government, possessed of a 
 revenue so large in proportion to its expenses, 
 can raise, in self-defence, increase, and main- 
 
UKSOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 tain a force adequate to every political emer- 
 gency. 
 
 How far we may rely on the moral charac- 
 ter of the Russian population, under a well 
 directed government, history can furnish 
 facts on which it will be perfectly safe and 
 just to reason. 
 
 During the period of terror and desolation, 
 which terminated in the election of Michael, 
 ancestor of Peter the Great, to the Russian 
 throne, the reins of government were aban- 
 doned to the uncontrolled rage of anarchy 
 and lawless faction, and Russia, torn by inter- 
 nal and external wars, was neither able to 
 crush the domestic traitor that fed upon her 
 vitals, nor resist the insolence and wanton 
 cruelty of the foreign invader. Impostors 
 multiplying fast, and rebels springing up on 
 all sides, harassed her provinces and preyed 
 upon her towns ; while the ferocious Tartar 
 ravaged her fields, and spread, far and wide, 
 the torrent of destruction over her dominions. 
 The rapacious Pole found way to Moskow, 
 and held it firmly in his grasp ; and the 
 Swede,in the seeming garb of a deliverer, per- 
 fidiously seized on Novgorod, and unblush- 
 ingly extended his usurpations to other cities. 
 
IN TOE EVENT OF \\All 
 
 The empire was assailed in all its points at 
 once. Serpents nestled in its bosom, and its 
 extremities were lacerated with the edge of 
 the enemy's steel. No arm was uplifted in its 
 defence ; for the few, that were faithful to its 
 cause, had been dispersed and exterminated. 
 National spirit was subdued, national efforts 
 were paralyzed ; and the country was sinking 
 apparently to rise no more. The whole space 
 of Russia was within the city- walls of Nijney- 
 Novgorod ; and there also was her final de- 
 liverance. 
 
 Kuzma Minin, a person of mean condition, 
 by trade a butcher, in spirit a patriot, and in 
 deed a hero, suddenly appears in the market- 
 place with all his property at his feet. He 
 calls on his townsmen, he paints in true col- 
 ours the miseries of their country, points to 
 his bare arms,and swears to exert them for its 
 deliverance or lose them ; he points to his 
 property, swears to sacrifice it in the common 
 cause ; and his manly appeal thrills like an 
 electrical shock, through every heart, and in a 
 thousand breasts at once kindles the noble 
 flame of patriotism. The citizens hear him, 
 and vow to conquer or to die. They follow 
 his example, they bring all their property to 
 
4Q RESOURCES OP RUSSIA 
 
 the common stock, they seize their arms, they 
 raise a number of warriors from the sale of 
 their effects, they enlist their children and ser- 
 vants, they place the gallant Pojarsky, a no- 
 ble veteran, at their head, they march against 
 the enemy, they drive him as the rising tem- 
 pest does the autumn leaves ; and in a few 
 weeks, the impostors, the rebels, the Tartars, 
 the Poles, and the Swedes, were seen no 
 more. Russia, astonished and rejoiced, could 
 only observe, by the bloody track left behind, 
 which way her enemies had disappeared. She 
 looked back with the assured eye of experi- 
 ence, respired with conscious gratitude under 
 the protecting shadow of the family of Ro- 
 manow, and with prophetic delight contem- 
 plated her future greatness. 
 
 So small were the means, arid so great was 
 the event ; yet nothing in all this was extra- 
 ordinary or miraculous. The whole was the 
 natural result of the inherent energies of Rus- 
 sia, which did not break forth only for want 
 of proper excitement. Russia was not pros- 
 trated or undone ; she slept, and had only to 
 wake in order to shake off her ignominious 
 fetters. It was a giant stumbling over the 
 rock of faction, somewhat hurt, but not crush- 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAK. 41 
 
 ed ; a feeble hand chanced to bind his 
 wounds, and helped him to rise and his first 
 step was a total destruction of his foes. It 
 was a dormant mass of combustible ingredi- 
 ents, pent up for years within the bowels of 
 the earth, which wanted only the help of a 
 spark to throw off in an instant the cumbrous 
 weight that pressed it down. 
 
 Such was, and still is the character of the 
 Russian people. Instead of degenerating, it 
 has improved with the general civilization and 
 social order since that time introduced, and 
 till now happily maintained. What benefit 
 has been subsequently derived from a charac- 
 ter so improved, we may judge by the glori- 
 ous and unprecedented reign of Peter the 
 Great, who with only 7 million of male pop- 
 ulation, and 8 million roubles of revenue, 
 was enabled to fortify the boundaries, to build 
 fleets, to raise cities, to maintain armies, to 
 subsidize his allies with troops and treasure, 
 to unite the Caspian and Black Sea with the 
 Baltick, by means of prodigious canals the 
 completion of which is reserved for the happy 
 reign of Alexander to make head against his 
 combined enemies, and finally to come off a 
 D* 
 
42 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 conqueror from the protracted and sanguinary 
 contest of twenty years. 
 
 And shall the increased resources of Russia 
 shall her prowess, so often tried and grown 
 to maturity, be now deemed so little, as to 
 excite no respect, and no confidence ? Shall 
 her advantages and her reputation, the labori- 
 ous acquisition of years, be in a moment sur- 
 rendered at the shrine of that terrific idol, 
 which the name of France has set up for uni- 
 versal worship and adoration ? Has the pros- 
 perity, bequeathed by Peter the Great to his 
 country, so little solidity in it, that the first 
 bold invader may, if he pleases, pull it down, 
 like some gorgeous overgrown fabric, too 
 heavy for its puny and slender foundation ? 
 No ! Impossible ! The enemy that hopes to 
 conquer Russia, on her own territory, must 
 be prepared to pay in tenfold measure for 
 each drop of blood she sheds, and for each 
 groan that may be extorted from her. Before 
 she falls, every one of her 700,000 warriors, 
 and more, if necessary, must be destroyed ; 
 and every one will be preceded by many a foe 
 to his grave. The Russian soldier, ever since 
 he has been invested with that name, has not 
 
IN THE EVF.NT OF WAIi. 4 
 
 once yet flinched from combat,* and ere 
 he dies, in a cause so dear, will execute such 
 
 * The individual superiority of the Russian soldier 
 cannot be doubted by those, who are in any degree 
 acquainted with his character. The physical strength 
 of man is nearly the same in all countries ; yet there 
 are various and powerful causes, which, in the exer- 
 tion and application of that strength, may produce a 
 considerable difference between the natives of one 
 country and another ; local connection ; local preju- 
 dices ; the imperceptible influence of a peculiar con- 
 struction of laws ) and a peculiar formation of society ; 
 temporary enthusiasm ; principle ; and habits of life ; 
 are so many causes whose operation is very powerful 
 in producing that difference. Thus a Frenchman's 
 superiority consists at present in temporary enthusi- 
 asm^ created by the revolution, and maintained by 
 Buonaparte's subsequent victories ; that of an En- 
 glishman in principle, a cause whose action is per- 
 manent , as far as the stability of the human mind can 
 go. Habits of life are to the body what principle is 
 to the mind. The union of both must make the pos- 
 sessor doubly strong, and their operation must be 
 more powerful and lasting in proportion. The Rus- 
 sian soldier is the only one, perhaps, in whom these 
 two causes are closely united. The habits of his 
 life are such, that there is no soldier in the world 
 whose wants are fewer, and who can bear fatigue and 
 the hardships of war with equal fortitude. He is 
 truly indefatigable. He can brave hunger, thirst* 
 weather, want of rest, unusual toils, and extraordina- 
 
44 RESOURCES OF UUSSIA 
 
 revenge, as in a short time will leave the ene- 
 emy no victims to feed it. 
 
 ry privations, to the utmost and almost incredible 
 stretch of the physical powers of man. It is by no 
 means an uncommon thing for a Russian soldier to 
 march three days and nights almost without inter- 
 ruption ; engage the enemy immediately ; fight again 
 for as long a period of time, and come off victorious. 
 It was this extraordinary physical strength, that is 
 acquired and improved by habit, which prevented the 
 otherwise cenain junction of Moreau and Macdonald 
 in Italy ; who never believed, never thought it was 
 possible for one of them to be separated from the 
 other, and defeated by an enemy so distant from both. 
 
 The f.assive strength of a Russian soldier, or the 
 ability of suffering long all bodily inconveniences, 
 owing to the same habit, is almost unexampled. As 
 to his firincijile, it is exclusively calculated to make 
 him invincible. 
 
 That firincifile is founded upon religion, and sacred 
 devotion to duty. He goes to battle with an almost 
 certain anticipation of his end ; 10 meet which he is 
 not only resigned, but even determined. To die in 
 battle, he thinks, is a straight road to Heaven ^ 
 Death, therefore, which is the only enemy that 
 could make him shrink from combat, is the very one 
 whom he seeks to encounter, and who, so far from 
 being an object of fear to him, is that of a joyful ex- 
 pectation of a glorious reward hereafter. The only 
 danger he knows and fears, is to disobey his officer's 
 commands. Such is his sense, opinion, and convic- 
 tion of duty, which is constantly uppermost in his 
 
tes THE EVENT OF WAIl. 45 
 
 Of the pretended vacillation of policy, with 
 which Russia has been charged, I have only 
 
 thoughts, excluding every idea of peril and danger, 
 that to fulfil it, to execute his orders, or do nothing- 
 contrary to them, is his only system, admitting of no 
 modification in peculiar cases of imminent danger, of 
 no exception, no allowance whatever. To perform 
 whatever he is commanded, or to die, is the only al- 
 ternative he adopts. Were one officer, and one sol- 
 dier only, left on the field, out of a whole Russian ar- 
 my, and surrounded by thousands of the victorious 
 enemy, the soldier would not lay down his arms, if 
 the officer commanded him not to do it. Indeed, 
 there have been instances approaching to this as near 
 as possible. 
 
 Sir Robert Wilson says, the Russian soldiers are 
 " inured to the extremes of weather and hardship ;. 
 to the worst and scantiest food ; to marches for days 
 and nights, of four hours repose and six hours pro- 
 gress ; accustomed to laborious toils, and the carriage 
 of heavy burthens ; ferocious, but disciplined ; ob- 
 stinately brave, and susceptible of enthusiastic excite- 
 ments ; devoted to their sovereign, their chief, and 
 their country. Religious without being weakened 
 by superstition ; patient, docile, and obedient ; pos- 
 sessing all the energetic characteristics of a barbari- 
 an people, with the advantages engrafted by civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 Nature has provided in them the most excellent 
 materials for a military establishment. No genius 
 
4o RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 to trace the origin to that political and self- 
 conscicus delinquency, which had no other 
 means to screen itself from the piercing eye 
 
 is required to create, method is only needed to ar- 
 range, and ability to command. 
 
 No carnage intimidates the survivors ; bullets 
 may destroy, but the aspect of death awes not, even 
 when a commander's evident error has assigned the 
 fatal station. Comrades, go not forward into the 
 trenches," cried out a retiring party to an advancing 
 detachment ; " retreat with us, or you will be lost, 
 for the enemy are already in possession." " Prince 
 Potemkin must look to that, for it was he who gave 
 us the order : come on, Russians," replied the com- 
 mander. And he and his men marched forward, and 
 perished, the victims of their courageous sense of 
 duty. 
 
 When Beningzen retired from Yankova, on the ap- 
 proach of Buonaparte, and sought to evade the ene- 
 my by forced marches in the dark nights of a Poland 
 winter, although 90,000 men thundered on in close 
 pursuit, the Russian murmur at retreat was so impo- 
 singly audacious, the clamour for battle so loud and 
 reiterated, the incipient disorder was so frightfully 
 extending, that Beningzen was obliged to promise 
 acquiescence to their demand ; and to soothe their 
 discontents, by an assurance that he was marching to 
 reach an appropriate theatre of combat. Gratified in 
 this request, they fought six long days to secure the 
 undisturbed march of six longer, more painful, and 
 more terrific intervening nights ; but in which alarm> 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 4? 
 
 f public inquiry ; and which by a short 
 statement of facts may still be forced from its 
 
 anxiety, and disorder mingled to such a degree, and 
 so shattered the military frame, that victory might 
 have been achieved against them without the glory of 
 a subdued resistance ; yet when this army, wearied, 
 famished, and diminished by the loss of 10,000 men, 
 entered at Eylau, their alignement for battle, order 
 regenerated as with the British at Corunna : the 
 memory of former glories, and the confidence of ap- 
 prociching victory cheered even the most exhausted ; 
 and a spectator would have supposed that the joyous 
 acclamations commemorated a success, instead of be- 
 ing an anticipation of the most sanguinary trial that 
 was yet upon the records of this bloody war. Such 
 was their vehement ardour to retrieve imaginary dis- 
 grace, and profit of a liberty to engage, that when in 
 the evening before the battle, Beningzen ordered the 
 village of Eylau, which had been abandoned by mis- 
 take, to be recovered, and the columns were in mo- 
 tion to the attack, animated by an expression in the 
 command, " that the Emperor expected his troops 
 to execute the orders," but afterwards thinking it ad- 
 visable, as the enemy was greatly reinforced, to de- 
 sist from the enterprize, he sent his officers to coun- 
 termand the service, " No, no," exclaimed every 
 voice ; the Emperor must not be disappointed." 
 And they rushed forward, sheltering theiv gallant 
 disobedience under the authority of an illusion crea- 
 ted by their commander. 
 
 The desolating misery of a night passed without 
 food, without any moisture to quench drought but 
 
4S RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 dark retreat, and dragged into open day, from 
 whose light it shrinks with such unequivocal 
 terror. 
 
 In the war which terminated in the peace of 
 Tilsit, the emperor of Russia appeared only 
 in the character of an ally, ready in conjunc- 
 tion with England to assist the weaker pow- 
 ers threatened by France ; the sudden disper- 
 
 the iced snow, without any shelter, without any cov- 
 ering but the rags of their garments, with bare and 
 wounded feet, without fuel, without any consolation, 
 and sleep interrupted by the groans of the dying, or 
 preparations for action, not all this complicated bitter- 
 n-Jas of condition could humble the spirit or weaken 
 the ardour of this illustrious host. Ere morning; 
 dawned they stood to their arms impatient for action ; 
 and in that most memorable day established a repu- 
 tation, which immortalized their courage, and great- 
 ly influenced the preservation of their army, when 
 its reduced numbers were unequal, without such im- 
 pression, to secure its protection. Their valour, in- 
 deed, on that day had accomplished the prayers of 
 mankind, and Buonaparte had been on the next an 
 hopeless fugitive, if Beningzen had yielded to the 
 intreaties of every general in the field ; but although 
 the fruits of victory were by that decision wrested 
 from their possession, not Buonaparte, nor France^ 
 can pluck the laurel from their brows, which truth 
 and time will to the latest hour preserve with undi- 
 imnished verdure." 
 

 IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 49 
 
 sion however of the Prussian armies, and the 
 apathy of Austria who remained an indifferent 
 spectator, drove the whole storm of war upon 
 Russia, and her sovereign became, against his 
 inclination and original intention, a principal 
 in the contest for which he had not been pre- 
 pared. It was certainly in his power to re- 
 cede, since he wanted neither the tempting 
 opportunity of doing so, nor a combination of 
 circumstances to justify the step ; but the 
 principle of honour was paramount to all other 
 considerations, and he resolved on a strict and 
 faithful adherence to those pre-existing en- 
 gagements with England, which, though on 
 her part yet to be fulfilled, it was repug- 
 nant to his feelings to doubt ; and which, he 
 hoped, might yet inspire Austria with confi~ 
 dence, and rouse her into activity. Such 
 were the sentiments, and such were the mo- 
 tives that determined Alexander to continue 
 the war in which he had no immediate interest, 
 and by declining which he might have spared 
 much horror and bloodshed, and yet gained 
 the same final advantages of additional security 
 and protection to his frontiers. 
 
 But Alexander was deceived. The desti- 
 nies of England were no longer in the same 
 E 
 
oO RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 hands ; and the illustrious son of Chatham 
 was no more. The man, whose active genius 
 was the shield of protection, and whose word 
 was the rock of confidence and the rallying 
 standard of the oppressed nations, was gone ; 
 and with him public integrity, generosity, and 
 honour, which bloomed on the brow of Eng. 
 land, descended to the grave. His unostenta- 
 tious firmness was succeeded by arrogant im- 
 becility ; and his skill and experience gave 
 place to a splendid pageantry of pretensions, 
 ivhieh the first experiment dissolved into a 
 mere noxious vapour. The restless dema- 
 gogues, who clamoured during his laborious 
 life, seized on his armour, even before the 
 body that wore it was laid in the earth ; but 
 they found it more ponderous than they ex- 
 pected, and staggered under its weight. They 
 clothed themselves in his plumage : but a 
 jackdaw could not be long concealed under 
 the borrowed feathers of a peacock. They 
 found that it was much easier to censure and 
 declaim with vehemence, than govern and act 
 with energy ; and that it was less difficult to 
 command a " keen encounter of tongues," 
 than to hurl the thunderbolt of destruction 
 upon the foe, and direct a mighty conflict 
 
IX THE EVENT OP WAR. .51 
 
 between powerful nations. Instead of a sup- 
 ple and elastic body,which moved, contracted, 
 or expanded, with a single effort, they brought 
 one of monstrous size, disjointed, and so con- 
 structed, that one muscle hindered the motion 
 of another, and each limb served a separate 
 head. On the fading traces of a constellation, 
 removed to another and a happier sphere, they 
 came like fleeting, illusive meteors, which it 
 would have been certain destruction to fol- 
 low. In short, the men who at that time 
 governed England, under the modest assump- 
 tion of " all the talents," had neither candour 
 to disavow their engagements, nor honesty to 
 fulfil them ; neither boldness to proclaim their 
 wishes and predilections, nor magnanimity to 
 retract those wishes and subdue those predi- 
 lections ; neither fear of the success of 
 France, nor assurance of the effectual resist- 
 ance of Russia ; neither sense and virtue to 
 be just to others, nor policy and generosity to 
 assist their friends, and thereby render justice 
 to themselves. 
 
 To expect from men like these any efficient 
 cooperation, or an honourable discharge of the 
 obligations into which they solemnly entered, 
 was perhaps the only weakness that could ex- 
 
52 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 pose Alexander to censure ; for, through the 
 flimsy texture of their promises, it was easy to 
 perceive they never meant to perform them ; 
 and that their first determination, on hearing of 
 the fate of Prussia, was to abandon the field to 
 .France, and to throw no obstruction in the 
 progress of her arms. In vain did the empe- 
 ror of Russia remind them of what was ex- 
 pected from them. His applications and re- 
 monstrances were answered with soothing 
 words, that meant nothing, and cost nothing ; 
 or softened with the truly consoling presence 
 of an agent,* who, instead of money, brought 
 
 * It was said with some reason, that Lord Hutch- 
 inson, encouraged by Mr. Windham, had really en- 
 tertained a notion of being, at least virtually, com- 
 mander in chief of the Russian forces ; and finding 
 his very moderate expectation disappointed, and his 
 bringing off the British troops from Egypt, (after 
 Abercrombie's death had sealed their victory,) not 
 considered by the barbarous Russians so great an ex- 
 ploit as he fondly imagined it, he grew morose, sul- 
 len, and but too well complied with the wishes of his 
 ruling friends at home, in sending them despatches 
 without a single white spot in them, and of so 
 black a complexion, that it was deemed imprudent to 
 publish them ; as in such case, it would have beea 
 necessary to produce the despatches of Sir Robert 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAtt. 53 
 
 with him pride enough to imagine himself the 
 supreme dictator, and colours dark enough to 
 paint things in the only light in which his 
 employers wished them to appear. Like a 
 boding raven, he hovered near the Russian 
 troops ; and his croakings, though at variance 
 with each succeeding event, were hailed at 
 home with that unfeigned joy, which the mere 
 
 Wilson,* who was also with the Russian army ; and 
 who, not having the honour of being one of the " tal- 
 ents," and therefore not keen or profound enough to 
 see things differently from what they were, used 
 much less ink in his compositions, than the depraved 
 consistency of the party required. The whole of this 
 conduct was so preposterous, so palpably unjust and 
 impolitic, as to be generally believed ; for the great- 
 er its absurdity, the more it was palpable and charac- 
 teristic of the party, possessing among other pecu- 
 liarities an uncommon sagacity in the choice and ap- 
 pointment of agents and ministers, who, from the 
 great Lord Hutchinson down to Mr. Erskine (the 
 remaining twig of the talents) have always proved 
 themselves of the genuine stock, and by their mar- 
 vellous independent self-acting, and self-sufficient 
 wisdom, have seldom failed to widen the breach 
 which it was their duty to mend, and to irritate the 
 wounds they were sent to heal. 
 
 * The author did not know that Sir Robert Wilson would 
 publicly and in spite of all opposition, do justice to the Rus- 
 sian nation, by his history of the campaign in Foland. 
 
 E* 
 
54 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 possibility of doubting the prowess of Russia 
 was sure to inspire. 
 
 One battle followed another ; yet not a jot 
 of the promised supplies was obtained by the 
 emperor. Even when the chief object of his 
 being so urgent was understood to be the re- 
 lief of a distressed ally ; the same niggardly 
 economy, the same ungenerous, penny-wise 
 policy, was still pursued on the part of the 
 British administration ; as if to exhibit a 
 striking contrast between his disinterestedness 
 and their meanness, between his noble perse- 
 verance and their sordid obstinancy. 
 
 They left nothing undone to probe his feel- 
 ings to the utmost, and bring his magnanimi- 
 ty to the most desperate trial ; still he remain- 
 ed faithful to their cause. 
 
 Scorning the idea of subsidy, he, at length, 
 applied for a loan of five millions sterling, of- 
 fering ample securities for the payment of in- 
 terest and principal ; and though he was re- 
 fused, still remained faithful to their cause. 
 
 To the injury of refusal they added insult 
 by pretending to grant the loan, but declining 
 to be security to the British stockholders, 
 who, of course, could not, without such secu- 
 rity from their own government, gratify their 
 own wishes by complying with those of the 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAK. 55 
 
 emperor ; still he remained faithful to the 
 cause. 
 
 In the attempt to relieve Dantzick, they 
 prevented him from employing his ships, by 
 promising to send their own, which promise 
 not being performed, Dantzick, so important 
 to future operations, fell into the hands of the 
 French ; still he remained faithful to the 
 cause. 
 
 Instead of making a descent on the coast of 
 the Baltick, they thought of conquests for 
 themselves ; and sent out their puny expedi- 
 tions to Egypt and Constantinople, as if to 
 convince the world, by a succession of ill luck, 
 of their eagerness for political depravity, and 
 of their want of ability to execute even their 
 own schemes ; still the emperor remained 
 faithful to their cause. 
 
 They suffered him to be lampooned, and 
 laughed at his simplicity in fighting for no ob- 
 ject at all ; still he remained faithful to their 
 cause.* 
 
 * It is highly gratifying to the feelings of the au- 
 thor that his uniform prediction of the Prince's not 
 admitting these men to his confidence, have been 
 verified. In excluding them the Prince Regent has 
 evinced his consciousness of their shuffling policy and 
 dishonourable conduct towards the Russian govern- 
 
06 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 In the face of the world, in the august 
 presence of parliament, they dared to plead 
 the necessities of Russia in defence of their 
 deserting her ; and to assume as the ground 
 of such desertion, her being forced to fight in 
 consequence of their " bringing war to her 
 door ;"f still he remained faithful to their 
 cause. 
 
 By their withholding all assistance, and 
 thereby extinguishing all hopes, till then in- 
 dulged, of effectual cooperation from England* 
 Prussia was not able to collect even the 
 wrecks of her army ; and Austria, who by 
 interposing her forces between France and 
 Buonaparte, might have decided the fate of 
 Europe, remained irresolute, and lost the on- 
 ly opportunity she ever had of recovering her 
 
 ment ; and has given a fair pledge of his disposition 
 to do Russia justice whenever a fit opportunity should 
 present itself. 
 
 t The speeches and sentiments of Mr. Whitbread, 
 a prominent star in the " talent" firmament. It is 
 difficult to decide whether iniquity or folly was the 
 parent of such sentiments ; for, on one hand, there 
 was an unprincipled desertion of a friend in distress, 
 by the very persons who had contributed to that dis- 
 tress ; on the other, there was an infatuation which 
 blinded them as to the possibility of his relieving 
 himself at their expense. 
 
*N THE EVENT OP WAR. T 
 
 independence. In consequence of this the 
 emperor of Russia found himself alone, and 
 deserted by the very powers for whose partic* 
 uLir interest he entered the lists with France ; 
 -'Still he remained faithful to the cause. 
 
 While he was shedding the dearest blood 
 of his subjects, the ruling party in England 
 had the cruelty of pretending to doubt the 
 sincerity of his professions, and the hardihood 
 to disregard the strongest proofs that can be 
 given by a sovereign loving his people ; still 
 he remained faithful to their cause. 
 
 Buonaparte, possessing all the wisdom they 
 wanted, and much more, perceived at once 
 the situation of Alexander ; and finding his 
 own invinciblcs sufficiently feasted on hard 
 blows, professed his friendship for Russia, 
 disclaimed every purpose of hostility, sought 
 every opportunity of reconciliation, urged the 
 criminal duplicity and selfishness of the Brit- 
 ish administration, and the self-immolating in- 
 difference of Austria, offered even a share of 
 his conquests,* and, in short, exerted all his 
 
 * It is certain that Buonaparte offered to Russia 
 all the country eastward of the Vistula ; but Alexan- 
 der declined it, and accepted a small portion merely 
 for the sake of a more regular boundary. 
 
 Sir R. Wilson, though an English officer, writing 
 
58 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 means, and they were great, to detach Russia 
 from a cause ro unprofitable and hopeless : 
 still the Russian emperor hesitated to comply, 
 still he would have persisted in his sacrifices ; 
 but at this time he had arrived at a point be- 
 yond which patience was a crime, and perse- 
 verance nothing less than treason against his 
 people. He therefore yielded ; and at Tilsitz 
 concluded that peace, which in justice to his 
 own interests ought to have been made much 
 sooner. 
 
 Then it was, that " all the talents" were 
 confounded and astonished, exclaiming, with 
 a vacant stare, " who would have thought 
 it ?"# Then it was that the people aw r oke 
 
 at the time of war between his country and Russia, 
 has the following remark on the peace of Tilsitz. 
 
 " If it were permitted to detail the political history 
 of the preceding immediate causes which occasioned 
 the treaty of Tilsitz, and the emperor's conduct on 
 that occasion, the sentiment of resentment would be 
 driven from every English breast. Never was a 
 prince, until that fatal moment, more honest, more 
 loyal, more devoted to the common cause : Never 
 did a prince struggle with greater difficulties to di- 
 rect perseverance ; and when he yielded, he yielded 
 only in the hope of serving his country." 
 
 * Mr, Sheridan on a former occasion related 
 story, which he little expected would so soon apply 
 
IN THE, EVENT OF WAR. 69 
 
 from their lethargy, drove these pretenders 
 from their seats, and filled them with men 
 who talked less but performed more, and who, 
 by coming in one month sooner, might have 
 yet preserved the friendship of Russia. 
 
 But, though this change of men and meas- 
 ures came too late to retrieve the mischief, it 
 was not too late to call its authors to an ac- 
 count. In vain the great Lord Hutchinson 
 committed a breach of confidence by disclos- 
 ing the private conversations he had with the 
 emperor Alexander. His own vanity was 
 gratified in being known to have conversed 
 with an emperor ; but his friends were ill 
 served, and driven to extremity. Bad was 
 made worse, and they had to choose between 
 humiliating confession and open dereliction of 
 principle ; which last, having dared already to 
 boast of it, their pride induced them to main- 
 
 to his own political friends. A good housewife, he 
 said, to prevent a cat from doing mischief, shut the 
 poor grimalkin in a closet full of china and various 
 dainties ; and when, on opening the closet, she found 
 her fine china scattered in fragments, and the dain. 
 lies some gone, and some polluted with " touch im- 
 pure," she was petrified with grief and horror ; her 
 arms were extended, her eyes rolled wild, and she at 
 length exclaimed : who would have thought it ?> ' 
 
Q2 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 tain without hesitation. They nobly resolved 
 to shift ail blame upon Russia, to call her con- 
 stancy vacillation of policy \ and to defend 
 their own conduct on the ground that Russia 
 had neither strength, means, nor skill to resist 
 France ; and that they, foreseeing her certain 
 defeat, like honest patriots and wise statesmen, 
 thought it was best to. keep the promised 
 sums at home. 
 
 However, as the three successive battles of 
 Pultusk, Eylau,and Friedland,the most bloody, 
 protracted, and obstinate the French ever 
 fought, stared the plotting junto in the face* 
 and proved to the world that Russia wanted 
 neither strength, means, nor skill ; and as the 
 terrible defeats foretold by these inspired seers 
 had not yet taken place, they set about to dis- 
 prove facts by speculations, and to convince, 
 whom they could, that what has happened 
 ought not to have happened. But even in this 
 they had not the merit of originality ; for 
 Voltaire, in his tale of Zadig, had long ago in- 
 troduced a certain quack personage, who find- 
 ing that, contrary to his prediction, Zadig re- 
 covered one of his eyes, wrote a large volume 
 to prove that the patient OUGHT certainly tv 
 have lost it / 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 61 
 
 The separate peace, which Russia made 
 with France, they tried to convert into a 
 measure brought on by wavering policy, and 
 enforced by fear and necessity ; whereas they 
 well knew it to be their own work from letters 
 received in London long before the battle of 
 Friedland, in which letters the departure of 
 Alexander for the army, and the probable 
 event of peace, in consequence of their own 
 neglect and equivocation, were commented 
 upon, and foreseen with more certainty than 
 what was found in their own gloomy prophe- 
 cies of the fall of Russia. From the empe- 
 ror's requiring their aid and assistance, they 
 endeavoured to establish the conclusion, that 
 they were right in supposing Russia destitute 
 of resources, and unable to resist the enemy ; 
 but they took good care not to explain, that 
 the emperor required, what was in some 
 /measure his due ; that he was not acting in his 
 own defence ; and neither surprise had allowed 
 him time for preparation, nor the foreign inte- 
 rest, for which he took up arms, made it wise 
 or just to waste his internal resources. 
 
 In short, they set every engine in motion to 
 coin the basest metal into their defence. 
 Pamphleteers, newsmongers, editors, travel- 
 
6 : RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 iers, agents, reviewers, and whomsoever they, 
 could press into their service, were sent to hunt 
 in every direction and every corner, from the 
 palace to the cottage, for any thing, ever so tri- 
 fling, which might vilify the moral and physi- 
 cal character of the Russian nation, fix on its 
 sovereign the stigma of dishonest policy, and 
 support the doctrine of its political impotence. 
 Nay, with eagerness which betrays itself, they 
 went so far as, through some of their mouth 
 pieces,* openly to insult the bleeding victims 
 of French oppression with an insinuation, that 
 it is much better to b& enslaved, prostrated, 
 trampled upon by France^ than to hope or seek 
 for consolation and deliverance in the suspend- 
 ed, but not yet palsied, efforts of Russia. 
 
 I must dismiss the disagreeable subject, as 
 1 cannot, I own, even at this distance of time, 
 treat it with becoming temper ; I will, there- 
 fore, proceed to the next, of foreign influence 
 and corruption. 
 
 * Vide the concluding part of the Review of Dr. 
 Clarke's " Travels in Russia" in the Edinburgh Re- 
 view. 
 
 Sir R. Wilson positively denies all the infamous 
 and libellous charges against the Russian nation, de- 
 tailed by Dr. Clarke, and backed by the Edinburgh 
 Reviewer^ 
 
I-N THfc EVENT OF WA1K 
 
 Fears and apprehensions on this score are 
 not only exaggerated^ but appear to me totally 
 groundless. Foreign influence and corrup- 
 tion, and their offspring treason, have visited 
 every country ; yet that such visitors were 
 l&ver treated with more welcome in Russia, than 
 in any other country, is an opinion not sup- 
 ported by facts and experience. Ever since 
 the time of Peter the Great, who had estab- 
 lished the government on a solid foundation, 
 traitors have been scarce and harmless in 
 Russia. The so-much-dreaded French influ- 
 ence, which carries deadly corruption on its 
 tongue, has not yet reached her ; for, what 
 appears influence at present is only the com- 
 mon effect of peace^ caused by the preceding 
 enmity of that faction, which had unfortunate- 
 ly governed Great-Britain. During the last 
 and the former contest with France, some in- 
 stances of mismanagement may have appear- 
 ed ; but not a single one of treachery ; which, 
 until it is established, cannot be without fla- 
 grant injustice imputed to any of the Russian 
 subjects. 
 
 The truth is, that in Russia, while the pow- 
 er of the sovereign is more than sufficient at 
 any time to crush treason in the shell, and 
 
64 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 while the motives to cherish foreign influence 
 and corruption are as few as in any country 
 whatever ; the means of spreading such influ- 
 ence and corruption are very difficult, and, I 
 may say, impracticable. There are no politi- 
 cal parties, no factions to agitate the mass of 
 the people, or give to the public mind any 
 general impulse inconsistent with the interest 
 of government, which is always the interest 
 of the country, both being permanently united. 
 Nor is there the least chance of success in 
 propagating any specious doctrines, pregnant 
 with latent mischief, through some surrepti- 
 tious means or underhand channel ; for no 
 press can be hired to publish treason, no hands 
 can be found to distribute its poison, and, if 
 the vigilance of government should be so far 
 baffled by a kind of miracle, the people at 
 large will neither read nor understand the jar- 
 gon submitted to them. The Russian peas- 
 antry would laugh at the French rhapsodies, 
 which have misled and ruined so many na- 
 tions ; I say they would laugh, because they 
 have actually done so, whenever a few partial 
 attempts have been made to seduce them 
 from their allegiance. The sword is the only 
 weapon which can be used in penetrating into 
 Russia. 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 66 
 
 The two most important departments, civil 
 and military, where influence and corruption 
 are most to be dreaded, are chiefly in the 
 hands of the nobles and the sons of clergy. 
 The former enjoy so many immunities, such 
 legitimate influence, and such vast posses* 
 sions, that, independent of family pride and 
 domestic partialities, their very interest, being 
 identified with that of the sovereign and 
 country, makes them proper and safe guar- 
 dians of national welfare. Their yielding to 
 corruption would be digging a grave for them- 
 selves, and inviting the first murderous blow 
 of treason to their own heart. Accordingly, 
 they have always been ready to shed their 
 blood in the preservation of their country ; 
 and in the records of history they have always 
 filled the first rank among the Russian patri- 
 ots. Any peculiarity, or difference of politi- 
 cal sentiment, which may have induced them 
 to act under the appearance of some secret 
 foreign influence, has nothing in common with 
 corruption ; and only shews that freedom, of 
 which they cannot be easily deprived, and 
 which strangers afiect to discredit ; but which 
 nevertheless is actually enjoyed under the mo- 
 narchical government of Russia. 
 F* " 
 
66 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 The clergy, as a distinct body, share with 
 the nobility some of the most important priv- 
 ileges, such as exemption from taxes, and 
 from all the burthens of military service, and 
 also a right to be judged in criminal cases by 
 their peers in the ecclesiastical court ; but 
 their sons, who are employed in the most la- 
 borious and important offices 'under govern- 
 ment, besides the rights inherited from their 
 fathers, have [the prospect of nobility before 
 them. Their education in colleges, and after- 
 wards in universities, confers on them person- 
 al nobility, and if they do not choose to return 
 to the profession of their fathers, a few years of 
 faithful service and irreproachable conduct 
 makes their nobility hereditary, and opens the 
 way, on a level with the most ancient and ex- 
 alted families, to the highest trusts, dignities, 
 and honours in the empire. This class, which 
 has the greatest share of talent and youthful ac- 
 tivity, has also the greatest losses to fear, the 
 greatest advantages to gain, and the strongest 
 excitements of ambition to be honest ; and, 
 therefore, being triply fortified, is inaccessible 
 to corruption. 
 
 Nor are the other classes debarred from all 
 these advantages, provided they are inclined to 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 67 
 
 enter the service, and had received an educa- 
 tion to qualify them for these honours. It is the 
 happy feature of the Russian government, en- 
 forced and perpetuated by the immortal ex- 
 ample of Peter the Great, that the nobility, 
 though entitled to all their special and indi- 
 vidual privileges, are excluded from official 
 precedence, unless they obtain it, like the rest, 
 by personal merit or service ; so that the son 
 of a clergyman, merchant, or even a peasant,* 
 by a higher advancement in office, obtains a 
 positive preeminence over the son of a noble- 
 man ; and a prince or a count, both in milita- 
 ry and civil service, is often placed under the 
 immediate command of a person of low ori- 
 gin. This produces an equality of chances 
 and advantages, in the preservation of which all 
 ranks,more or less, are interested and united. 
 
 The Russian merchant, though enjoying 
 many important privileges, gives himself up 
 to trade and industry, and never meddles in 
 politics. A shield of national prejudice 
 guards him from all foreign influence and cor- 
 ruption ; and he is thrown into the mass of 
 
 * A cerf becomes free the moment he enters the 
 service, and the road of honour is open to him on 
 an equality with the rest. 
 
68 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 population, which, besides the same prejudice, 
 has loyalty interwoven with its very nature, 
 habits, and religion. 
 
 That class of peasantry, which Europeans 
 call slaves, and on whose impatience they cal- 
 culate the enemy's success, are not numerous 
 nor important enough to endanger the safety of 
 the empire, even were they inclined to do so ; 
 but they view their own happiness without 
 borrowing the eyes of strangers, and have in 
 no instance as yet failed in loyalty, or appeared 
 inferior to other classes in their attachment. 
 The glorious little band, which had saved 
 Russia under Pojarsky and Minin, as has been 
 stated in a preceding page, was chiefly com- 
 posed of this class of men. They have, at all 
 times, furnished the bravest and the best sol- 
 diers for the Russian army soldiers, who, 
 according to the enemy's own account, when 
 prostrated on the field of battle, and while a 
 single spark of life is remaining in them, al- 
 ways, before they expire, cast a lingering look 
 of farewell towards their beloved country.* 
 
 * Sir R Wilson says : "Amidst the Russian qualities, 
 the love of country is also pre-eminent, and insepar- 
 able from the Russian soldier. This feeling is par- 
 amount> and in the very last hour his gaze is direct- 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR, <J9 
 
 Even the Polish peasantry of the same condi- 
 tion, and so lately subjected, have completely 
 disappointed the views of Buonaparte, whose 
 public proclamations, preceding the last war, 
 prove how much, and how prematurely, he 
 had relied on their co-operation. 
 
 From men so devoted, what cannot be ex- 
 pected, when their unchangeable loyalty is 
 further strengthened by uncommon love and 
 attachment to the person of Alexander, who 
 like a benignant deity smiles upon them, and 
 by sure and gradual steps leads them all to the 
 temple of freedom ?f 
 
 ed towards its nearest confines. The wounded drag 
 their mangled bodies over the field to expire with 
 more satisfaction in the effort of approaching them." 
 t It was reserved for this truly benevolent prince 
 to complete the happiness of Russia by devising a 
 plan, which in a short time will emancipate every 
 portion of its population. He has caused a consid- 
 erable fund to be laid apart and augmented every 
 year from the general revenue, for the sole purpose 
 of taking on mortgage and redeeming the estates 
 with peasantry ; and of purchasing such as are offer- 
 ed for sale, by means of agents established for that 
 end in every province of the empire. The success 
 has answered the most sanguine expectations ; and 
 several hundreds of thousands have already been eman- 
 cipated, and restored to their proper rank in so- 
 ciety. 
 
70 RESOURCES OP RUSSIA 
 
 In short, among the causes which may ope- 
 rate against Russia, foreign influence and cor- 
 ruption, which to be effectual must be exten- 
 sive, are the least to be feared ; while on the 
 opposite side, she has many sources yet unex- 
 plored,and perhaps unsuspected. It is proba- 
 ble, that the extremity of distress would only 
 make Russia better acquainted with her own 
 strength ; at all events, she is certain of com- 
 manding all that invincible force, which en- 
 thusiasm can impart and exalted patriotism 
 can inspire. 
 
 During the last war, no sooner had the 
 government proclaimed the project of raising 
 militia, than 600,000 men were immediately 
 enlisted and equipped for the field. The no- 
 bles set the first example, and the ardour 
 thereby excited in all the ranks was incredi- 
 ble. The spirit of emulation removed all 
 distinction between the prince and the peasant; 
 and conferred it only on those, who made the 
 greatest sacrifices. For two or three years 
 afterwards, the public papers teemed with the 
 names of those patriots, who had contributed 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR, M 
 
 their mite to the common stock. Some gave 
 all their personal effects, and some disposed of 
 their houses, in order to enlist and maintain 
 their new character; while others parted with 
 all the} 7 possessed in order to bring the pro- 
 duce into the public fund which was raising for 
 the support of this new race of warriors. In- 
 stances occurred of gentlemen selling their 
 whole estates, that they might raise whole regi- 
 ments at their own expense, and, at the head of 
 them, present themselves to the delighted eye 
 of their monarch. After this, it would be an in- 
 sult to suspect among the nobles, or any other 
 class of the Russian people, the existence of 
 foreign influence and corruption. 
 
 With regard to the defects of the military 
 system of Russia, I know not on what ground 
 this opinion has been permitted to prevail ; or 
 why the successes of Russia have been over- 
 looked and forgotten, as if they were merely 
 accidental ; and her failures uniformly attribu- 
 ted to some permanent defects in her military 
 system, such as want of skill in officers and 
 discipline in soldiers. 
 
 Wliile other European nations, who have 
 opposed France with much less effect, and 
 have been crippled and ruined, still were al- 
 
T2 RESOURCES OP RUSSIA 
 
 lowed to retain, in the public estimation, their 
 original military character ; Russia alone, af- 
 ter sustaining several contests without being 
 either crippled or ruined, cannot, it seems, 
 lose a battle, or a single inch of ground, with- 
 out losing at the same time her military fame, 
 and exciting distrust as to the skill of her offi- 
 cers and the discipline of her soldiers. If the 
 French are beaten, it is considered as the effect 
 of accident ; but if the Russians fail, they are 
 instantly deprived of all the indulgence, which 
 might be claimed from the unforeseen opera- 
 tion of chance. 
 
 An army, equal and even inferior in skill 
 and discipline, may beat another, better 
 equipped, merely by the temporary superiori- 
 ty of its general and the adventitious aid of 
 numbers, without depriving, however, the 
 vanquished of the credit due to them ; yet, 
 with regard to the Russians, no allowance is 
 made in this respect, though it is well known 
 that the French, whenever they opposed 
 them, had the double advantage of an able 
 and experienced general, and of numbers 
 greatly superior. If Massena at the head of 
 a French army engaged Buonaparte at the 
 head of another French army, and either of 
 them were defeated, as both could not be vie- 
 
IN THE EVENT OP WAR. ?3 
 
 iorious; the comment would be, that the con- 
 queror was a better general or had a superior 
 force, or that both were in his favour ; and 
 none would say, that the beaten army wanted 
 good officers and discipline ; why then the 
 reverses of the Russians, under similar circum- 
 stances, should be viewed in a different and 
 less favourable light, appears to me a mani- 
 fest injustice, and mysterious, incomprehensi- 
 ble infatuation. 
 
 In all the sanguinary battles, which took 
 place in Poland, the Russians were decidedly 
 inferior in numbers, and their general was by 
 no means equal in reputation to Buonaparte. 
 Moreover, they fought fair, breast to breast, 
 and face to face, in an open field, without any 
 local advantages to counterbalance the disad- 
 vantages under which they laboured to speak 
 more technically, they fought general engage- 
 ments or regular pitched battles, one after 
 another, and upon the largest possible scale ; 
 yet, far from being dispersed, routed, or disa- 
 bled from action, they firmly maintained their 
 ground, and whenever it was necessary, re- 
 treated in perfect order, retreated before a 
 veteran and more numerous army, command- 
 ed by Buonaparte and the greatest generals of 
 
F4 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 the age ! How could the Russians have done 
 this, if they had not skilful officers to com- 
 mand every movement, and execute every or- 
 der with promptitude and habitual intelli- 
 gence ? If they did want such officers and 
 good discipline, in addition to all other disad- 
 vantages ; then Napoleon, his generals, and 
 his army, are not deserving half the credit giv- 
 en them ; for they ought, in an instant, to 
 have annihilated their weak adversaries. But 
 if Napoleon, his generals, and his army, be 
 fairly entitled, and I think they are so, to all 
 their fame and renown ; then the Russians, 
 who could oppose them with such well direct- 
 ed efforts, and with such well regulated brave- 
 ry could fight in retreating, and, for a series 
 of days, disputing every inch of ground with 
 the enemy, without the least disorder or any 
 other loss than was occasioned by death, 
 must have had officers and discipline of no or- 
 dinary kind, but such as were grown with 
 years, and matured by experience ; such in 
 short, as cannot be easily arrested in their 
 progress, and must continue unimpaired by 
 any temporary or accidental advantages of the 
 enemy. 
 
 The first attempt of the first regular Rus- 
 sian army failed at the battle of Narva ; but 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 75 
 
 Peter the Great, who had formed that army, 
 soon placed it on a foundation not to be easily 
 shaken. The very men, who had thus fled at 
 the sight of an enemy, in a short time were 
 able to face him, and beat him upon equal 
 terms. The Swedish general Schlippenback 
 in Livonia, and another Swedish general, 
 Crooniort, in Finland, only two years after, 
 were each defeated with a terrible loss in a 
 pitched battle ; and were the first to feel the 
 valour of the Russians, directed by skill and 
 discipline. At the action of Czarnapata, 
 prince Galitzin, with only 8 battalions and 13 
 squadrons, completely defeated and routed a 
 Swedish force of 5000 men, commanded by 
 general Rosen, and the best in the king's ar- 
 my. At the battle of Lezno, Peter the 
 Great, who commanded in person, with 10 
 regiments of horse and 10 battalions of foot, 
 attacked, routed, and took 20 Swedish regi- 
 ments, amounting in all to 16,000 men, 
 whom general Lewenhaupt was leading to 
 the king's assistance : the general himself, 
 and about 50 men more, were all that escap- 
 ed. At the memorable battle of Poltava, 
 where the Russian force was divided into 
 three lines, so as to form a kind of reserve to 
 
76 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 each other, the first line of foot, 10,000 men 
 strong, was the only one engaged in the main 
 action, and had the honour of defeating a most 
 formidable enemy, before it was necessary to 
 bring the rest to its assistance ; a wonderful 
 progress of skill and discipline* in nine years, 
 
 * The fallowing anecdote will further convince us 
 of the loyalty and discipline of the Russian soldier. 
 Peter the Great, at an interview with the kings of 
 Denmark and Poland, hearing them boast of the su- 
 periority of their soldiers, instead of disputing the 
 point with them, proposed an experiment which was 
 immediately assented to, and which was, to order a 
 grenadier to jump out of a third floor window. The 
 king of Denmark tried the experiment on one of his 
 bravest and most loyal soldiers, who on his knee re- 
 fused compliance. The king of Poland waved the 
 trial altogether, conceiving it to be hopeless ; when 
 Peter ordered one of his soldiers, the least promis- 
 ing that could be picked out, to descend the window. 
 The soldier merely crossed himself, touched his hat 
 according to form, boldly marched to the window, 
 and had already one of his legs out, when the empe- 
 ror stopped him, and told him he was satisfied. The 
 kings were astonished, and each made the soldier a 
 present of 100 ducats, requesting Peter to promote 
 him to the rank of an officer. The czar answered, that 
 he would do so to oblige them, but not to reward the 
 soldier ; for all his soldiers would do as much, and 
 by rewarding them in the same way he would have no 
 soldiers left. 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 77 
 
 and perfectly authenticated by the official ac- 
 count of that battle. 
 
 The same progress was visible at sea ; for 
 the first regular fleet which Peter had built, 
 and fitted out under his own command, attack- 
 ed a Swedish fleet commanded by vice-admi- 
 ral Ehrenchield ; and, though the Swedes 
 were much older sailors, their metal heavier, 
 and their commander an officer of great skill 
 and experience, they were completely defeat- 
 ed, most of their ships taken, and the admiral 
 himself made prisoner. 
 
 Was all this the effect of chance ? Has the 
 art of war, since that time, been less cultivated 
 by the Russians ? Or has their military char- 
 acter degenerated ? Frederick the Great, 
 and the inhabitants of Berlin, who saw the 
 Russian eagles planted on their ramparts, can 
 testify to the contrary. The young tree, 
 planted by the care and genius of Peter, had a 
 soil too congenial and well chosen not to thrive,, 
 It has cast a deep root, and is still in its vig- 
 our ; and though the storm may bend it, and 
 the frost may strip it of its leaves, the chilling 
 hand of decay has not yet touched it. 
 
 I will pass the victories over the Turks and 
 Poles, and bring Russia into contact with 
 G* 
 
78 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 France, the terror and the scourge of the 
 present age. 
 
 From the year 1799, when the contest first 
 began between France and Russia, to the 
 treaty of Tilsitz, there had been seven great, 
 regular, or pitched battles, fought in Italy, 
 Switzerland, Germany, and Poland, and with 
 what success may be seen from the following 
 comparative statement. 
 
 IN FAVOUR OF RUSSIA. IN FAVOUR OF FRANCE 
 
 The decisive baffle of The battle of Zurich, 
 Cassarco,where theFrench under Massena, decisive, 
 under Moreau were de- and destructive to the 
 feated by Suwarow. Russians, who were com- 
 
 manded by Korsakoff. 
 
 The battle of Trebia, 
 fought by the same gen- 
 eral, which lasted three 
 days, and terminated in None. 
 
 the total destruction of 
 the enemy, commanded 
 by Macdonald. 
 
 The battls of Novi, the 
 most bloody and obsti- 
 nate in Italy, which final- 
 ly ended in the decisive None. 
 victory of Suwarow over 
 
 the French generals Jou- i 
 
 bert and Moreau. 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 
 
 79 
 
 The battle of Pultusk, 
 where general Beningzea 
 repulsed Buonaparte with 
 great loss. 
 
 The horrid, sanguinary 
 battle of Eylau, where 
 Beningsen commanded, 
 and which, for its obsti- 
 nacy, slaughter, and a 
 series of bloody actions, 
 that for fourteen days 
 preceded it, has no par- 
 allel in the history of 
 modern warfare. It com- 
 pletely arrested the prog- 
 ress of the French, and, 
 in spite of Buonaparte, 
 drove them back into 
 winter quarters. 
 
 The bloody battle of 
 Heilsberg, where the 
 French under Buonaparte 
 were repulsed with great 
 slaughter. 
 
 The battle of Auster- 
 HtZj in which the Rus- 
 sians attacked Buona- 
 parte ; but were driven 
 back with loss, though 
 they still kept their first 
 position. 
 
 The battle of Fried- 
 land, in which, after 
 fighting for sixteen days 
 incessantly, Buonaparte 
 succeeded in driving the 
 Russians from their posi- 
 tions ; and gained ground 
 without any other advan- 
 tage than the possession 
 of Konigsberg. 
 
 None. 
 
 From this statement, of the correctness of 
 which any one may judge, the events being 
 within his memory, there is a clear balance of 
 three battles in. favour of the Russians ; and a 
 
SO RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 general balance of decisive and destructive 
 termination of their victories. It also appears 
 that, even in carrying on an offensive war, the 
 Russians with Suwarow and equal numbers, 
 were more successful over the French, than 
 the French with Buonaparte and superior 
 numbers were over the Russians. But when 
 all minor actions are considered, in which the 
 Russians had generally the advantage, such 
 for instance as the exploit of prince Bagration, 
 who, before the battle of Austerlitz, while the 
 Russian army was retreating, with six thous- 
 and men, and in sight of Napoleon, cut his 
 way through a French army : and, above all, 
 when we reflect on the unprecedented passage 
 of Suwarow over the Alps, which, from his 
 first entrance into Switzerland to his quitting 
 it,* was a constant chain of brilliant achieve- 
 
 * The Austrian army, under the Archduke Charles, 
 in Switzerland, which, in conjunction with the Rus- 
 sians whom Suwarow was coming to take under his 
 command, kept Massena in check, was ordered to 
 withdraw ; and the Russians, left to the mercy of the 
 enemy, more than double in numbers, were attacked 
 and defeated. The victorious enemy then turned his 
 main forces upon Suwarow, cut off his communica- 
 tion with the fugitives, and surrounded him on all 
 sides. No alternative remained apparently, but to 
 
W THE EVEST OF WAR. 
 
 Hients, and an uninterrupted series of splen- 
 did triumphs over the foe, over the perfidy of 
 
 surrender at discretion, or starve by famine. The 
 enemy already made sure of his prey. At one time, 
 Suwarow was represented to fight as a de-vil^ (Vide 
 Massena's bulletins to the Directory ;) at another, 
 to have lost the whole of Jiis army (which, indeed, 
 was scarcely equal to one fourth of the enemy's force,) 
 in killed and prisoners, being himself among the lat- 
 ter. But Suwarow was no ordinary being. With 
 a handful of men, who thought nothing impossible 
 under their general, and who by death alone could 
 be parted from him, he forced his way sword in hand, 
 and led his victorious few through the hostile ranks 
 that vainly opposed them. The enemy, who the mo- 
 ment before, confident in his numbers, was boasting- 
 ly anticipating the fall of Suwarow, was defeated, 
 and, by yielding four thousand prisoners, added one 
 more to the already numerous trophies of the aged 
 hero. This action, the last, but perhaps the most 
 splendid of all the preceding, closed the long and 
 brilliant career of the illustrious Veteran, and secur- 
 ed him the title of " Invincible," due to him in the 
 strictest sense of the word, for he never lost a battle. 
 It is but justice to acknowledge here, that Suwar- 
 ow acquitted the Archduke Charles of any ill inten- 
 tion or equivocal conduct towards the Russians, well 
 knowing that the Archduke could not have with- 
 drawn his forces so prematurely from Switzerland, 
 and expose4 them to a defeat, without previous or- 
 ders from his Cabinet j it being the established rule 
 
RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 an ally, and over nature herself; the balance in 
 favour of Russia will be prodigiously increas- 
 
 the Austrian government, a most preposterous 
 and fatal rule to her interests, that no commander in 
 chief can resolve upon any measure of importance, 
 though on actual service, and at a distance from 
 home, without receiving orders for that purpose, 
 from the Council of war at Vienna ! Suwarow 
 was only five days' march from the Russian army, 
 which was defeated in Switzerland. Had the Aus- 
 trians therefore waited only five days longer, he 
 would have effected a junction with it, and Massena 
 would have shared the fate of the French generals in 
 Italy. 
 
 Sir Robert Wilson thus speaks of the Russian Vet- 
 eran : 
 
 " Suwarow was affectionately endeared to every 
 soldier as his parent ; and national pride and per- 
 sonal admiration have deified him as the still pre- 
 siding god of their battles. 
 
 An acquaintance with the composition of his ar- 
 mies, a knowledge of their insignificant numerical 
 strength,* the assurance of the internal impediments 
 that he had to encounter, certainly so augment the 
 merit of his exploits, that he is entitled to the repu- 
 tation of one of the first captains that ever appeared. 
 His very eccentricities were characteristic of his su- 
 periority of intelligence. They affected his estima- 
 
 * Never exceeding 35,000, although operations were con- 
 ducted on the scale for 70,000 ; and the court proclaimed, 
 ami the public believed the existenccof that force. 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. i> 
 
 cd ; and though she may be now depressed 
 by bting deprived of her best general, while 
 France is raised by possessing her's, the 
 assurance vviii still be sufficient to console 
 us, that, if Suwarow could not conquer 
 France, Napoleon cannot conquer Russia ; 
 that the latter on her own territory is, like the 
 former, invincible ; and that a single genius 
 may produce many important changes, with- 
 out their being connected with any difference 
 or permanent defects in the military system of 
 either. It is impossible to repel this assurance 
 
 tion amongst superficial observers ; but he disdained 
 the sneer of the less enlightened, and steadily perse- 
 vered in the course that his wisdom had traced for 
 th? attainment of his patriotic ambition. Such was 
 their enthusiastic affectio i for hi? IK that when the 
 coffin, in which his body was conveyed into the 
 church of the citadel to be deposited near the re- 
 mains of tne great Catherine, fixe ! in the door-way, 
 and instruments were ordered to wrench a passage 
 one of the grenadier bearers, indignant at the 
 check, exclamied " What is all this ? Nothing 
 could resist Suwarow living, and nothing shall stop 
 him dead.'* The sentiment was hailed as a just trib- 
 ute to the invincible character of their chief. That 
 consciousness supplied strength to zeal, and the re- 
 mains of Suwarow were forced triumphant to the 
 grave 1" 
 
24 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 while we behold Spain and Portugal with no 
 government, no resources, and no regular 
 foree but what their ally furnishes them, suc- 
 cessfully defying the utmost efforts of gigan- 
 tic France, 
 
 The last campaign in Poland, distressing as 
 it was to the French, is nothing to what they 
 must experience, if they dare again to invade 
 it. At that time the sudden overthrow of 
 Prussia enabled them to seize on many fine 
 and fertile provinces, which furnished them 
 with necessary supplies ; but which are now 
 exhausted, or will be prevented from furnish- 
 ing any. The more men Buonaparte brings 
 with him, and the farther he penetrates into 
 Russia, the nearer he will draw to the fate of 
 Charles XII. Again the Russian peasants 
 will be removed, again their habitations will 
 be destroyed, and again whole fertile regions 
 will be, for safety, converted by the Russians 
 into a barren wilderness. The French, if 
 they advance, will see nothing but the Russian 
 bayonets bristling in front, and receding only 
 to strike with surer aim ; nothing but fugi- 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. *5 
 
 tive Cozaks* hanging on their wings, who, 
 used to this distressing mode of warfare, will 
 
 * The name Cozaks is general, and applied to all 
 those tribes, which follow the same irregular and al- 
 most optional method of warfare. The particular 
 bodies of the Cozaks are distinguished from each 
 other, not so much by the different nations which 
 compose them, as by ,he places they respectively in- 
 habit. Thus theDon-Cozaks take their name from 
 the river Don ; the Ouralian Cozaks^ from the Oura- 
 lian mountains ; the Cozaks of the Ukraine, from the 
 name of the country ; and the Zafioravtan Cozaks^ 
 from the cataracts of the Dnieper, as the word Za- 
 fiora-uian, or more properly Zafiorostzi^ signifies in 
 the Russian language, " people living beyond the 
 Cataracts." The two former are chiefly the colo- 
 nists of great Russia, and the two latter are formed 
 of Malo-Russians ; these wear no beards. The Za- 
 poravians shave even their heads, and leave only a 
 small piece of hair upon the crown, long enough to 
 reach the nose, priding themselves upon every thing 
 opposite to civilization, and to the common feelings 
 of man. There was a time, when no woman whatev- 
 er was permitted to live in their society ; and though 
 they began lately to have more intercourse with the 
 sex, still they retained strongly the marks of their 
 former ferocity ; and might be called with great 
 propriety, a gang of desperate outlaws, of robbers, 
 and all sorts of public offenders, who were suffered 
 to exist merely on account of the mischief they did 
 H 
 
86 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 harass them by clay and night ; and nothing 
 behind or around them but sterility, famine, 
 and desolation. 
 
 The French soldiers feel this ; Buonaparte 
 knows it too, and hence is his delay ; for Rus- 
 
 to the enemy. They are now abolished, or sunk into 
 the more civilized race of Tchernomorskie Cozakie. 
 
 The Cozaks of the Ukraine, and the Don-Cozaks, 
 are more advanced in civilization ; the latter are 
 seen sometimes with and sometimes without beards ; 
 but the former exist now merely in name, applied 
 indiscriminately to all the inhabitants. There are 
 also Cozaks formed into regular regiments, but of 
 these we need not speak. Excepting the Cozaks of 
 the Ukraine, and the Zafiora-vians, the Tartars and 
 Calmuks are so interspersed with all other Cozaks, 
 as to form the most conspicuous and prominent fea- 
 ture in them. The Calmuks seem to be the real 
 descendants of the ancient Scythians, who dwelt on 
 the borders of the Don (Tanais.) Their features are 
 broad and flat, with a pair of small, fiery, and pierc- 
 ing eyes. They are of small stature, very robust 
 and active, and expert in the use of the bow and ar- 
 row, which they to this moment manage with aston- 
 ishing dexterity. They are extremely skilful in 
 taming wild horses, and are hired expressly for that 
 purpose by the* horse-contractors for the army, who 
 have to choose these animals out of the wild studs 
 bred chiefly by the land proprietors in Little Russia. 
 A Calmuk rides into the midst of these ungoverna- 
 ble creatures, and after a horse is singled out, which 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAlt. 8j 
 
 sia has taken a decisive stand against him, 
 ever since she refused to adopt his conti- 
 
 is to be taken, he throws a loop -round his neck with 
 such expertness, that, though the distance is conside- 
 rable, as the ferocious animal will not suffer any one 
 to approach near him, he seldom misses his aim. 
 No sooner does the loop fall upon the horse's neck, 
 than the Calmuk fastens with amazing rapidity the 
 other end of the rope to the saddle he sits upon, in 
 such a manner as to prevent all possibility of the 
 horse's escaping. The unruly savage, thus surpris- 
 ed, struggles hard, but the other horse, which the 
 Calmuk rides, takes such a position by the direction 
 of the rider, that the strength of the captive is ex- 
 ,hausted, and he, at length, suffers himself to be led 
 away, and is soon tamed. The Tartars, who are like 
 Calmuks in their persons, are so intermixed with 
 them as to be seen every where together. They eat 
 horse flesh, without any other preparation than the 
 warming it under the saddle they ride upon. For 
 th^s reason, they have in general two or three horses 
 with them ; so that their provisions and the means of 
 travelling proceed with them without any incum- 
 brance. Both these nations or tribes are extremely 
 numerous among the Don-Cozaks ; and all together 
 form those terrible warriors, whose aspect alone is 
 sufficient to dismay an enemy not accustomed to such 
 a sight. 
 
 The Cozaks are a valuable appendage to a regular 
 army ; they are its guides and satellites. It is their 
 particular business to obtain intelligence from the en- 
 emy, which they do sometimes in the manner that a 
 
38 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 nental system, the darling child of his 
 
 tion, and the constant object of his dreams and 
 
 Calmuk takes a wild horse. As soon as a Cozak 
 comes near enough to the object of his search, he 
 throws a loop round his waist, fastens it to his saddle, 
 and gallops off with the prisoner. All the outposts 
 are forme;! chiefly of the Cozaks. They are constant- 
 ly upon the look-out, and cut a conspicuous figure 
 in skirmishes. The lucre of gain, or the prospect of 
 booty, is the main spring of their actions ; and a Co- 
 zak will seldom flinch from attacking two opponents, 
 if he sees the probability of plunder. Their chief 
 and most destructive weapon is a long lance, suspen- 
 ded upon a sling from the waist. When they are 
 upon the attack, they let the lance down to a level 
 with the stirrup horizontally, and, after drawing it 
 back with the right foot, to which the butt-end is 
 fastened, they hurl it forward by the same foot, with 
 such force and destructive aim, that it generally 
 proves fatal to the enemy. They are, besides, armed 
 with a gun, a brace of pistols, and a sword, some- 
 thing in the shape of a Turkish sabre. Though in 
 their military appearance they preserve a certain de- 
 gree of uniformity, still their dress, according to their 
 fancy or means, makes the scene, whenever they 
 march in a body, chequered and truly grotesque. 
 Though they are irregular troops, still they have a 
 certain order, a certain principle of rude discipline, 
 with officers regularly appointed and obeyed. Their 
 horses are so diminutive and apparently weak, that 
 they seem more calculated to be carried than to car- 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 89 
 
 visions. His character is too well known to 
 suppose he would not have long ago marched 
 
 ry ; yet a Cozak, whether through prejudice or real 
 conviction of their excellence, never will, never was 
 known to part with his horse, nor exchange it for one 
 ever so valuable, unless it is of the same breed. 
 These horses are a race altogether anomalous, for 
 whether fed luxuriously, or sparingly, they maintain 
 invariably the same niggardly appearance, and, like 
 the Russian soldier, can exist almost upon nothing, 
 which may perhaps account for the Cozaks* attach- 
 ment to them. Such is the thirst of Cozaks for war, 
 that when the number required is inconsiderable, and 
 they must cast lots who shall go, a serious quarrel 
 is frequently the consequence of not being includ- 
 ed in the number. He that returns home without 
 booty, or has not been in action, is viewed by the wo- 
 men in a despicable light ; so that their manners 
 and mode of living all tend to make them warriors. 
 They think it charity to kill their own comrades, 
 when wounded past recovery, or likely to falljnto the 
 hands of a merciless enemy. They disperse in such 
 small parties, that it is almost impossible to stop their 
 incursions, and for this reason they are the most dan- 
 gerous set of men that can enter a hostile country. 
 Nor are they less so to a routed enemy ; for, though 
 they do not fight in the line, they are the first in 
 pursuit, and the last in desisting from it. They per- 
 formed wonders in Italy, under the command of Su- 
 warow ; who knew, better than any other Russian 
 general, how to employ them to the best advantage. 
 EL* 
 
90 lIKSOriiCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 his mjTmidons against Russia, if he were not 
 somewhat deterred by the hazard of the un- 
 
 Their officers have lately received a regular pay ; 
 but the men are only paid during actual service. 
 
 The following description of the Cozaks is from 
 Sir R. Wilson's Campaign in Poland. 
 
 " The Cozaks of the Don and the Volga still pre- 
 serve a constitutional independence, which is posses- 
 sed by none of the other provinces of Russia. Reg- 
 ulated by their own laws, exempt from taxes, and 
 governed under the immediate authority of their 
 own Attaman, or chief, chosen from amongst them- 
 selves, they are relieved from all impositions of con- 
 quest, but the obligation for every male to serve 
 gratuitously for five years with the Russian armies, 
 and some interior services connected with their own 
 police. Blessed with a country of rich plains and 
 noble rivers, which nature covers with the glorious 
 canopy of a fine climate, and fills with redundant 
 food, the Cozak still maintains his warlike charac- 
 ter, and unites with the most enthusiastic admiration 
 of his country, and a disposition to profit of its en- 
 joyments, the ambition of martial service, and an 
 errant spirit of adventurous and foreign enterprize. 
 In the land which gave him birth he is the peace- 
 ful and civilized inhabitant, natural in his affections, 
 and domestic in his habits ; but in other countries 
 he is the lawless Scythian, respecting no property or 
 Tights. 
 
 Proud of his national comparative freedom, he 
 bears himself as one conscious of superiority and 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 91 
 
 dertaking. The policy of Russia, on this 
 occasion, seems replete with wisdom. While 
 
 privilege, and yet he tempers the haughty sense 
 of these advantages with an Asiatic grace of manner 
 that renders the expression inoffensive to his asso- 
 ciates and grateful to the stranger. 
 
 In the qualities of private character, the Cozak is 
 to no man inferior affectionate to his family ; faith- 
 ful to his friend ; hospitable to the stranger, and 
 generous to the distressed ; with graceful simplicity 
 of manners, and a candour that commands confidence. 
 His military virtues are splendid in common with 
 the Russian nation ; but hereditary habits of war, 
 and perhaps a natural talent for that species of it in 
 which they are engaged, adds an acute intelligence 
 and capacity that is not generally shared. By the 
 stars, the wind, and an union of the most ingenious 
 observations, he travels over countries unknown to 
 him, through forests almost impervious, and reach- 
 es his destination ; or tracks some precursor, that he 
 is directed to pursue, with the assurance and the in- 
 defatigable ardour of the instinctive blood-hound. 
 Nothing can elude his activity, escape his penetra- 
 tion, or surprize his vigilance. Irreparable disgrace 
 would dishonour the Cozak, whose negligence offer- 
 ed an advantage to the enemy. The crimes of the 
 passions, cowardice itself would not attach so fatal a 
 stigma ; for, in the words of their Attaman, This 
 offence would not only sacrifice the army to the 
 swords of the enemy, but entail a reproach on all, 
 and distrust of all, that no valour or service could 
 retrieve." And such is the general impression of its 
 
92 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 she is conscious of her own strength, she 
 leaves to him the choice of war, and preserves 
 for herself the incalculable advantage of not 
 
 base character that no instance of a surprise is on re- 
 cord. 
 
 Mounted on a very little, ill-conditioned, but well- 
 bred horse, which can walk at the rate of five miles 
 an hour with ease, or, in his speed, dispute the race 
 with the swiftest with a short whip on his wrist (as 
 he wears no spur) armed with the lance, a pistol 
 in his girdle, and a sword, he never fears a competi- 
 tor in single combat ; but in the late war he irresis- 
 tibly attacked every opposing squadron in the field. 
 Terror preceded his charge, and in vain discipline 
 endeavoured to present an impediment to the pro- 
 truding pikes. The Cuirassiers alone preserved 
 some confidence, and appeared to baffle the arm and 
 the skill of the Cozak ; but in the battle of Pruess 
 Eylau, when the Cuirassiers made their desperate 
 charge on the Russian centre, and passed through 
 an interval, the Cozaks instantly bore down on them, 
 speared them, unhorsed them and, in a few moments, 
 five hundred and thirty Cozaks re-appeared in the 
 field equipped with the spoil of the slain. 
 
 When Murat, after the battle of Eylau, advanced 
 with the French cavalry to menace the Russians, and 
 induce Beningzen to evacuate Konigsberg, the Co- 
 zaks attacked his posts in every direction, killed a 
 very considerable number, and made prisoners, in 
 the course of the succeeding 16 days, of 1,600 dra- 
 goons and hussars, which loss obliged Murat to re- 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 95" 
 
 appearing the aggressor, but of appealing, 
 with a resistless voice, to her people in self- 
 tire, and Buonaparte to abandon Eylau and the open 
 country in front of Guttstadt. They afterwards, in 
 the Russian retreat, (being supported by some squad- 
 rons of regular cavalry,) made such desperate at- 
 tacks, that Buonaparte was obliged to form squares 
 with his infantry, and was himself in such danger 
 that the whole French cavalry was brought down in 
 full gallop to cover him. 
 
 It was in this retreat that their Attaman Platow 
 evinced a trait of that superior mind which attained 
 his station, and which, if he had received a liberal 
 education, would have rendered him one of the first 
 men of the age, as indisputably he is one of the 
 most eminent warriors. After Buonaparte had 
 brought up a second corps of his army, supported by 
 the whole body, he advanced with rapidity, resolved 
 to overwhelm the rear guards of Platow and Bragra- 
 tion, before they passed the bridges of the river, 
 which flowed behind them, and to which they had 
 to descend. 
 
 The Cozaks saw the impending danger, and be- 
 gan to press back in confusion. Platow checked, 
 but found the disorder increasing. He immediately 
 sprang from his horse, exclaiming to the Cozaks, 
 " Let those, who are base enough, abandon their Atta- 
 man." The corrected lines paused. He gradually 
 moved ; with a waving hand kept back those who 
 trespassed ; sent his orders with calmness ; reached 
 the town in order ; halted at the bridge until every 
 man had passed, destroyed it, and still on foot, pro- 
 
94 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA. 
 
 defence, and in revenge of that violation of sa- 
 cred engagements which France in attacking 
 her must necessarily commit. Whether Rus- 
 
 eeeded on the other side of the town, struggling 
 above ancle deep through the heavy sand ; nor could 
 the most tremendous cannonade, and the incessant 
 fire of the French battalions, crowning the opposite 
 heights, and who commenced their vollies as they 
 formed successively, accelerate his pace, or induce 
 him to mount his horse, until the object was attain- 
 ed, and superior duty obliged him, for the direction 
 of other operations. His mien, his venerable and 
 soldier-like appearance, his solemn dignity of man- 
 ner, combined, with the awful incidents of the scene, 
 to render this one of the most imposing and interest- 
 ing sights that could be witnessed. 
 
 The following is an instance of the Cozaks' inge- 
 nuity : The French cavalry were afraid to remain at 
 night in the out-posts, and withdrew, to the long mor- 
 tification of the Cozaks, who thus had no opportunity 
 to achieve any enterprize against them. A party 
 came one day to the officer of artillery and reques- 
 ted a loaded shell, which was given them. They 
 went when night fell, and having observed where 
 the enemy's posts by day lighted their fires, they 
 buried it under the ashes. The unsuspicious foe 
 returned in the morning, and, after their patroles, 
 rekindled the usual flame, round which they collect- 
 ed ; in a short time the fuze was enflamed, and the 
 fatal explosion killed and desperately wounded seven 
 men, whilst the exulting Cozaks rushed from their 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. St5 
 
 sia repents of her alliance or not, her strict ob- 
 servance of the treaty, and her steady adhe- 
 
 ambuscade to secure the horses of those who could 
 not escape. 
 
 The equipment of the Cozak's horse is light ; a 
 snaffle, an halter, of which the rein is always 
 held in the hand, that he may be instantly attached on 
 dismounting', or be led with facility, the tree of a 
 saddle, on which is bound a cushion stuffed with the 
 Cozak's property, and on which he rides, form the 
 whole of his accoutrements and baggage. 
 
 His dress is equally simple ; a blue jacket, (with 
 a white frog on the cuff or cape,) fastened with hooks ; 
 a pair of loose trowsers, plaited so as to cover and 
 conceal the opening in front ; a pair of short boots, a 
 black cap made of the unborn lamb, from which de- 
 pends a red pandour sack, a plume on the side of 
 the cap, or, what is more common, except in the At- 
 taman's regiment, merely a cloth cap with a kind of 
 sack hanging behind, in which he stuffs his provi- 
 sion or other articles and a white or black hair 
 Circassian short cloak, is the costume of the Co- 
 zak on service and of his country. 
 
 But still an Asiatic taste for the embellishment of 
 warlike accoutrements is blended with the simplicity 
 of his equipment. He disdains the ornament of ar- 
 tificial metals, and solid silver is wrought throughout 
 upon his arms and appointments. 
 
 Amongst the common Cozaks is also frequently 
 found a chivalresque spirit, a delicate sense of honour 
 that would grace the very age of chivalry, and be 
 
'96 RESOURCES OF RUSSIA 
 
 rence to her promises, while they shew the 
 value and constancy of her friendship, and 
 cover with confusion those who doubted it ; 
 teach Europe to rely in future on her fidelity 
 and perseverance, and may possibly raise 
 
 worthy the records that eternize illustrious actions 
 of fidelity and valour. 
 
 When a British officer- was observing the retreat 
 of Marshal Ney from Guttstadt, his dress and teles- 
 cope attracted the attention of the enemy, who direct- 
 ed some cannon at him : the first ball struck the 
 moist earth under his horse, and covered the animal 
 and rider with the sods ; a second ball was fired 
 with sim lar accuracy, when the attendant Cozak 
 rushed up to him with resentment in his features, 
 and pointing at his helmet, desired him to change it 
 with his cap ; and on the officer's refusal, he attempt- 
 ed to snatch it from his head and substitute his own, 
 but during this contest a shower of musquet balls 
 rendered the horses wild, and they flew apart. 
 When the Cozak was afterwards asked by the Atta- 
 man, with feigned anger, for his own explanation of 
 such disrespectful conduct ; he replied, . I saw 
 that the enemy directed their fire at the English 
 officer on account of his casque and plume I was 
 appointed by you to protect him I knew you had 
 marched with many Cozaks, but only one stranger ; 
 it was therefore my duty to avert mischief from him, 
 by attracting it to myself, and by so doing preventing 
 the sorrow you and every Cozak would feel at the 
 loss of a guest perishing in your service/' 
 
IN THE EVENT OF WAR. 97 
 
 against France powerful and determined ene- 
 mies, even where they are least expected. 
 
 Let, therefore, France buckle on her ar- 
 mour ; and in hostile array march against 
 Russia. Let clouds, portending disaster, gath- 
 er on ; and the threatening tempest again 
 spread wide its rapid wings, and pour its de- 
 luge upon the north : Russia undismayed, 
 awaits, nay, invites the blow. Next to Prov- 
 idence, she relies on the tried heroism of her 
 people ; and on the prayers of the suffering 
 millions, whose champion she now stands 
 forth. Her struggles will be against universal 
 tyranny ; and her success will be the deliv- 
 erance of all. Her safety will be the protec- 
 tion, and her independence the relief and se- 
 curity of the oppressed. Her cause is the 
 cause of freedom ; and every soil, trod by the 
 foot of a freeman, shall yield to it a tribute 
 of sympathy. Her cause is the cause of 
 humanity ; and wherever man draws the 
 breath of life, blessings shall be its enviable 
 portion. 
 
 It is with Russia that the fallen nations can 
 even hope to rise. The frowning idol, under 
 whose iron foot numberless victims daily ex- 
 pire, may yet be hurled from its ensanguined 
 
fc RESOURCES OF RUSSTA, &c. 
 
 throne, and awe the world only by its tremen- 
 dous ruins I The overgrown colossus, from 
 whose fatal grasp Europe in vain strives to 
 free herself, can only on its own element be 
 crushed. The thunder of Albion has only 
 struck at its shadow on the ocean ; but the 
 huge substance, in which all the ingredients 
 of mischief are consolidated, still remains the 
 same. Some of the distant sparks have only 
 been intercepted ; while the main furnace, 
 wherein such horrid conflagrations are engen- 
 dered, still remains unextinguished. Even in 
 the regions of the now respiting Lusitania, 
 only some of the monster's limbs have been 
 shattered ; the enormous body is still anima- 
 ted with life and vigour, is still fed by daily 
 torrents of human blood, and endowed with 
 the unnatural power of renovating and increas- 
 ing its strength at pleasure. To assault its 
 extremities is only to provoke its rage and 
 Fury ; but to encounter it at once,in all its di- 
 mensions, heart to heart, is the only chance of 
 destroying it. This may yet be hoped from 
 the invasion of Russia. 
 
 {The preceding pages lucre printed in a pamphlet, with the exception of the 
 extract* from Sir Robert Wilson's work, previous to the declaration of war 
 tetween France and Russia. PUBLISHERS.} 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 HOW far the statements and opinions, 
 contained in the preceding pages, have been 
 justified by subsequent events, it is now in 
 the power of every man to decide of every 
 man, whose judgment is not warped by prej- 
 udices, or who has not sworn, under the illu- 
 sion of Gallic enchantment, to believe Napo- 
 leon infallible, and exempt from all the vicis- 
 situdes of human nature. The immense ar- 
 mies, raised by Russia to match a world in 
 arms, show the extent of her resources, and 
 the sufficiency of her population ; the noble 
 perseverance of Alexander proves how unjust- 
 ly he was distrusted and blamed ; and the 
 voluntary sacrifices, and indissoluble union of 
 the Russian people of all classes, while they 
 furnish a severe satire on the officious moral- 
 ist, who pretended to pity their fancied misery 
 
100 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 and prescribe rules for their imaginary happi- 
 ness, cover with shame and confusion the ea- 
 ger slanderer, who, judging perhaps from his 
 own disposition, doubted their loyalty, and 
 conceived treachery to be their inmate. How 
 little was Russia understood ! and how little 
 was it anticipated, that she should give poster- 
 ity the unprecedented example of a nation of 
 more than 40,000,000 souls without a single 
 traitor ! Such,however, is the fact. She alone 
 was proof against that contagion of French in- 
 fluence, which has penetrated into every other 
 part of the civilized world ; and which, if it 
 really was exerted in Russia to the extent 
 stated, failed where it was most expected to 
 succeed. Not a solitary instance of treason 
 has occurred, and even the famous plot of 
 Speransky, so much spoken of, on inquiry 
 proved groundless, and the supposed culprit, 
 whose innocence was afterwards clearly estab- 
 lished, was endowed with a pension of 20,000 
 roubles a year.* But the Russian talent and 
 
 * This ought to be an instructive lesson to all 
 those, who in England and here talk of French 
 pimps, varlets, actresses, musicians, and spies of eve- 
 ry denomination, crowding to St. Petersburgh, to 
 corrupt the Russian emperor and his ministers !!! 
 If it be true, that creatures of this kind have been so 
 
SKETCH OF TftK PRESENT ^CAMPAIGN. 101 
 
 national character have in no instance been 
 more strikingly illustrated .than in /ifrs .con- 
 duct of Count N. Romantzow, the Russian 
 chancellor and prime minister. 
 
 This distinguished nobleman, son of a hero 
 whose name will ever shed a lustre on this 
 Russian history, though of acknowledged probi- 
 ty and honour, was suspected, even by some of 
 the Russians, of being a French partizan, as 
 far at least as he was influenced by his own 
 political sentiments and predilections. His 
 apparent cultivation of the French interest, his 
 seeming preference of those who were sup- 
 posed employed in misleading him, his affec- 
 ted hostility to Great- Britain, and, above all, 
 his journey to Paris, which looked like a slavish 
 homage toBuonaparte,had exposed him to such 
 undisguised obloquy and such galling and dis- 
 graceful aspersions, as none, but patriots like 
 himself, could have had the courage and mag- 
 nanimity to endure with patience. In pro- 
 portion to this public denunciation were pub- 
 lic gratitude, astonishment, and joy, when k 
 
 employed, they must have served the Russian gov- 
 ernment with more fidelity than their own, and the 
 French chief has derived but little profit from their 
 labours. 
 I* 
 
102 SKETCH OF THE- P'UESENT CAMPAIGN'. 
 
 was found, from the diplomatic correspond- 
 ence bVnifeeri hitii and the' French minister,that 
 his deportment was only modified by circum- 
 stances, but wholly rested on the firm principle 
 of pure patriotism ; that, by exposing and 
 humbling himself, he was securing and rais- 
 ing his country ; that, while the crafty French- 
 men considered him their tool, they were 
 caught in their own toils ; and that the fruits 
 of his profound policy, were, finally, the con- 
 quest of Finland, the most precious gem in 
 the Russian crown ; a formidable army, pre- 
 pared, increased, and organized under the 
 auspices of the treaty of Tilsit z, which was so 
 much censured because so little understood ; 
 and a glorious peace with Turkey, at a most 
 critical juncture, when Russia wanted every 
 soldier at home a peace, which annexed to 
 her empire the Moldavian provinces as far as 
 the Pruth ; which secured her triumph over 
 all the counteracting influence of the French ; 
 and shewed, that the Turkish divan had a bet- 
 ter knowledge of the means of Russia, than all 
 the cabinets of Europe, and that it acted with 
 better policy and foresight as to the issue of 
 the impending contest. 
 
 Alexander himself is intitled to equal cred- 
 it for having, by a temporary humiliation, 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 103 
 
 consented to an interview on the Niemen, the 
 object of which interview was the ultimate 
 salvation of his country. He was suddenly 
 involved in a war, in which, through the ne- 
 farious conduct of the British " talent" admin- 
 istration, he beheld himself abandoned by 
 those very men by whose solicitation, and for 
 whose interest, he had recourse to arms ; and 
 while he alone had to withstand the gigantic 
 force of France, bringing in her train all the 
 subjugated nations of Europe, his prospect of 
 relief was yet distant, as his armies, scattered 
 over the face of his vast empire, could not be 
 collected in time enough to arrest the progress 
 of the enemy. Thus circumstanced, he ac- 
 cepted of the peace of Tilsitz, which added to 
 his territories considerable possessions ; and, 
 strange as it may seem, secured to him all its 
 essential advantages, inasmuch as Buonaparte, 
 though the eclat of the negociation rested 
 with him, lost thereby the favourable opportu- 
 nity of invading Russia, and allowed Alexan- 
 der all the necessary time to strengthen him- 
 self against such an attempt in future. At 
 the very moment that the submission of the 
 Russian emperor was a theme of universal 
 reprobation, and with many an object of 
 
104 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 senseless and unceasing clamour, he was con- 
 templating the approaching crisis of his em- 
 pire, and was preparing for a contest, in which 
 there would be no compromise, and in which 
 Russia was to conquer and be the first power 
 on the European continent, or to fall, and be 
 erased from the list of nations. No sooner 
 had he finished his preparations, no sooner had 
 he surveyed with an eye of intelligence his 
 own resources, and the unanimous exertions 
 of his people, determined to support him to 
 their utmost, than he took an elevated 
 ground from which France could not drive 
 him, but by force.* He sought no war, but 
 
 * It must not be inferred from this, that Alexan- 
 der was the aggressor and violator of the peace of 
 Tilsitz. Whatever were the motives that led to 
 that peace, his observance of it was so sacred, that, 
 though the enemy's preparations were carried on upon 
 the Vistula with increasing vigour, and though pol- 
 icy commanded to check them by the seizure of all 
 the magazines and stores collecting for the French 
 army, in direct contravention of subsisting engage- 
 ments, he forbore to execute that measure, and gave 
 up all the advantages which caution demanded, and 
 which his power might secure, merely to preserve 
 his honour, and his reputation for good faith, unsulli- 
 ed. Very soon after the peace, Buonaparte gave 
 such glaring proofs of his duplicity by continuing 
 his troops in Prussia, contrary to the articles of the 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. IfiJ 
 
 was determined rather to encounter it, than to 
 recede an inch ; and far from fearing it, he 
 left the choice of it to his adversaries. Nay, 
 he sent forth a noble defiance in the person of 
 the duke of Oldenburgh, who, being deprived 
 of his dukedom by Buonaparte, was invited to 
 Russia, and received the hand of Alexander's 
 sister, the very princess who was refused to 
 the French emperor. Finding such une- 
 quivocal tokens of the resentment of Russia, 
 Napoleon \vas willing to appease her by in- 
 demnifying the duke of Oldenburgh ; but 
 she would not even listen to his proposals, 
 unless they should be preceded by his with- 
 
 treaty, and by his spoliation of the duchy of Olden- 
 burgh, as to justify Alexander's resentmen , and fur- 
 nish him with every possible excuse for his prepara- 
 tory measures. It was then that Buonaparte found, 
 though too late, that he mistook the Russian empe- 
 ror, and relied rather too much on the terror of his 
 own name. He found, what he did not perhaps ex- 
 pect, that Alexander was not to be appeased by 
 hollow professions, and offers of indemnity, or to be 
 subdued by threats of invasion. In short, he was, 
 by his own imprudence, forced to undertake the exe- 
 cution of his threats, at a time when his affairs in 
 Spain dictated a different line of conduct. Hence 
 his rage was only to be quelled by the total annihila- 
 tion of the Russian empire. 
 
106 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 drawing all his troops from the Prussian terri- 
 tories. This fixed demand, an unequiv- 
 ocal proof of confidence and readiness to meet 
 the foe of deliberate resolution, not of des- 
 pair and necessity, to confront the danger, that, 
 by a trifling compromise, might early have 
 been averted, was too galling to Buonaparte's 
 pride ; and his refusing to comply, produced 
 the extraordinary campaign which has com- 
 pletely verified the fourth section of the pre- 
 ceding tract, relating to the military powess* 
 
 * Among the most remarkable features of this 
 campaign are, the orderly and masterly retreat of 
 the Russians, heightened by the contrast exhibited 
 afterwards in the shameful flight of the French ; the 
 uniformly correct conduct of the Russian generals 
 and officers, not one of whom seems to have com* 
 mitted a single mistake for which he was censured 
 or superseded ; while in the French army Davoust, 
 Junot, and Sebastiani were severely reproved, and 
 Jerome Buonaparte was actually dismissed, and sent 
 home in disgrace ; and that, while honours came 
 thick upon Kutuzow, Wintenstein, and other Russian 
 generals, the French officers experienced but few 
 if any favours, from their own emperor. There are 
 other facts, not immediately connected with this 
 campaign, which make the contrast still greater, and 
 deserve to be mentioned here. In all the various 
 encounters, between the Russian and French gene- 
 rals, the former have had the advantage ; and there 
 
SKETCH THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. Itf 
 
 of Russia, and of which a sketch is attempted 
 here, as far as the scantiness of information 
 
 are only two among the latter, that have not always 
 been worsted. Massena was only once out of three 
 times successful ; and Buonaparte himself only 
 twice out of five : that is, Massena, with numbers 
 more than treble, defeated Korsakoff at Zurich, but 
 notwithstanding the same numerical superiority, he 
 was defeated afterwards by Suwarow in Switzer- 
 land, and again by Essen, near Warsaw ; while 
 Buonaparte was victorious at Austerlitz and Fried- 
 land (in the last he had 90,000 men against 40,000 
 Russians) but was unquestionably foiled at Pultusk, 
 Eylau, and Borodino, (smaller battles, such as took 
 place at Ostrowno, Smolensk, and even Heilsberg 5 
 being only preludes to greater, are not included.) 
 With these two exceptions, every other French gen- 
 eral was successively defeated, in spite of the uniform 
 advantage of sup rior numbers. The illustrious 
 Moreau, and he need not blush at the recollection, 
 yielded only to Suwarow ; but others, for example 
 St. Cyr, Oudinot, Davoust, Victor, Murat, Eugene 
 Beauharnois, Regnier, Bernadotte, Juuot, and Sebas- 
 tiani, were in every trial beaten by Wintenstein, Ba- 
 gration, Miloradowitcz,Sacken, and Burcley de Tolly, 
 the pupils of Suwarow. I make no mention of 
 prince Kutuzow, Platow, and Beningzen, because 
 these were the fellow soldiers of the veteran Rus- 
 sian hero. 
 
 Such palpable and constant difference in favour of 
 the one, and against the other, cannot be accidental, 
 and must proceed from some substantial, and perma- 
 
1&8 SKETCH OF THR PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 from official sources, and the author's mode- 
 rate abilitieSjCoukl favour such an undertaking. 
 The forces collected by Buonaparte, and 
 brought against Russia according to the 
 French 12th bulletin, amounted to 680,000 
 men, and, according to the English accounts, 
 
 Rent cause, not to be found in the mere physical 
 strength of the Russian soldier, inasmuch as soldiers 
 are an artificial body, and must be supported chiefly 
 by the skill of the commanders. If justice, there- 
 fore, bid us to acknowledge, that this superiority 
 must rest with the officers themselves, it will be 
 asked, why was it generally denied or discredited ? 
 The answer is, that in the imposing splendour of the 
 French revolution, and Buonaparte's successes, in 
 which every soldier appeared a hero, and which 
 magnified the prowess and skill of France, beyond 
 ah natural and just proportion, the previous claims 
 of Russia to military fame were entirely overlooked 
 and forgotten. Nobody thought for a moment, that 
 she had consummate generals, long before the 
 French revolution had brought forth her infant brood; 
 and that, in France, the present proportion of officers^ 
 properly educated, to those who arose from the 
 ranks of common soldiers, (well versed in practice, 
 but deficient in theory, and able when commanded, 
 but less capable to command,) is far greater than is, 
 in Russia, the proportion of officers without educa- 
 tion, to those, who from their Infancy enter the mili- 
 tary school, and with subsequent experience unite a 
 previous knowledge of tacdcs. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 109 
 
 to 493,000. The first is undoubtedly an ex- 
 aggeration, as the French will not tell a plain 
 fact, even when it is very favourable to them- 
 selves ; and the latter seems to be much nearer 
 to truth, except that the contribution of Poland, 
 in the enumeration of the component parts of 
 the army, is stated at 60,000, a thing abso- 
 lutely impossible, when it is considered that 
 the Russians had previously carried off all the 
 disposable force, and that the greater part of 
 Poland still remained in their hands, leaving 
 to the French a reduced population, not in 
 condition to furnish 5000 effective men. The 
 term, Poland, in the English enumeration, is 
 evidently meant to apply to the Russian posses- 
 sions, as the aid furnished by Austria and Prus- 
 sia was distinctly marked, without any allusion 
 to their respective shares in that country ; 
 and Napoleon, at least over the Austrian part, 
 could not, and did not, exercise the right of 
 conquest. In truth, Austrian and Prussian 
 Poland, united, could not furnish half the num- 
 ber stated ; we shall therefore take Alexan- 
 der's statement in his proclamation after the 
 battle of Borodino, as the most moderate, and 
 entitled to credit, and which makes the French 
 
1 10 bKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 force amount to 300,000 men ;* a force 
 which has not been matched since the in- 
 troduction of the modern system of warfare, 
 and one half of which, in prowess and ex- 
 pense, is at least equal to one million upon the 
 ancient scale. 
 
 At the head of this vast and prodigious 
 body, containing the essence of sixty millions, 
 Napoleon, its animating soul, entered Russia 
 in June last, preceded by the terror of his 
 name, and followed by famine and desolation. 
 
 * The emperor evidently alludes to the force that 
 had actually entered Russia proper, and consequent- 
 ly Macdonald's, prince Swartzenburg's and Regnier's 
 corps, which had not passed the Dwina, as well as 
 the llth corps under the duke of Castiglione (Auge- 
 reau) which remained in Prussia, to be called in as 
 occasion required, are not included in the account ; 
 and when added together, must make an increase of 
 at least 100,000 men, thus bringing the whole 
 near the ^amount stated by the English, after a due 
 allowance for the exaggerated quota, said to have 
 been furnished by Poland. Therefore, we shall es- 
 timate hereafter the whole French force at 400,000 
 men ; the more so as Napoleon, knowing the milita- 
 ry strength of Russia, would not dare to invade her, 
 unless his own means were superior, or at least equal : 
 for, it is a solemn fact , that he never has yet dared 
 to meet an enemy on equal terms, and uniformly 
 misted to his superior numbers. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. Hi 
 
 Flushed with past triumphs, proud of his 
 present might, and elated with the idea that 
 his greatest efforts must be resistless, he fan- 
 cied himself a god, and pronounced his fiat in 
 the following remarkable sentence : " the des- 
 tinies of Russia must be accomplished." The 
 modest Alexander, apparently yielding to the 
 shock, but deriving his firmness from better 
 sources from Providence, the love of his 
 people, and the justness of his cause, replied, 
 that " he would not sheathe his sword as long 
 as a single enemy remained on his territories'* 
 and the contest became mortal. 
 
 It seemed for a while, as if marching to ei- 
 ther of the Russian capitals depended only on 
 the will and choice of Buonaparte. Though 
 he made demonstrations of moving towards 
 St. Petersburgh, and publicly announced such 
 to be his intentions, yet there were some 
 who suspected he would prefer the road to 
 Moskow ;* and that his taking at first the 
 
 * The author was always of this opinion ; and his 
 reasons were, that Moskow, besides being nearer^ 
 presented a greater facility of supplies from the 
 surrounding fertile country ; and, with a view to the 
 final conquest of Russia, to be effected only by the 
 destruction of her moral as well as physical force, 
 was far more important than St. Petersburgh, being 
 
112 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 northernmost course was probably a mere 
 military manoeuvre to deceive. This suspi- 
 cion was fully verified ; for no sooner did he 
 perceive an opening between Bagration's 
 corps and the main Russian army, than he 
 made a dashing movement to the right be- 
 tween them, and was so sure of intercepting 
 the Russian general, as to announce the fact 
 before it was accomplished. Bagration, how- 
 ever, eluded his pursuit, and disappointed all 
 his calculations. After an extraordinary 
 march of more than 20 miles per day, for 20 
 days successively, in which he often turned 
 like a lion on his pursuers, he made his retreat 
 good, without any loss whatever, and joined 
 the main body at Smolensk, after a series 
 of triumphs, which excited the world's admi- 
 ration, and for which marshal Davoust, (duke 
 of Eckmuhl) who unsuccessfully pursued 
 
 the very heart of the Russian empire. For the rea- 
 sons above mentioned, it seems improbable, that 
 Buonaparte, as some supposed, was diverted from 
 his course by Bagration, who manoeuvred for that 
 purpose. On the contrary, it is more likely, that the 
 French emperor, with his usual promptness, wished 
 to profit by the state of uncertainty, into which, by 
 concealing his movements, he thought he had thrown 
 the Russian general. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 113 
 
 him, was publicly censured by his master, and 
 accused of want of activity. Buonaparte, 
 however, seems to have so far attained his ob- 
 ject, as to derange the Russians in their plan 
 of operation ; and to compel them, perhaps 
 sooner than they otherwise would have done, 
 successively to abandon Drissa and Polotzk, 
 and to fall back from Witepsk, where they 
 intended to make a stand, to Smolensk, in 
 order to get the support of Bagration, who 
 could not join them in the former place, as 
 was concerted. This accelerated movement 
 of the whole Russian army was preceded 
 by the affair of Ostrowno, and many sangui- 
 nary skirmishes, in which Sebastiani was 
 surprised, Junot made " a false movement,' 7 
 and Jerome lost his cavalry so as to yield to 
 the retreating Russians the palm of victory, 
 and provoke Napoleon's anger and displeas- 
 ure. Though the Russians had no intrench- 
 ments near Smolensk, and therefore were 
 more exposed than at Witepsk, yet they 
 awaited the enemy with confidence. The 
 attack \vas general upon all points ; but the 
 French did not get possession of the towiv 
 until the Russian generals, after a council o 
 
 \var, agreed not to defend it It was accord- 
 K* 
 
114 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 ingly entered by sufferance ; and the Rus- 
 sians retreated farther. It appears from a 
 passage in Kutuzow's despatch, after the bat- 
 tle of Borodino, implying the abandonment of 
 Moskmv to be merely the rtsult of the aban- 
 donment of Smolensk, that, had he been then 
 in command, he would have defended the 
 town to his utmost power ; but, be this as it 
 may, the Russian generals abandoned it mere- 
 ly in pursuance of a previous system of re- 
 treating and destroying all supplies, a system 
 which was wisely adopted, and successfully 
 executed. At this time, the French army 
 was extended from the Dnieper to the Dwina, 
 and, on both sides of this last river, as far as 
 Daunberg, and thence along its left bank as 
 far as the extremity of Livonia and Courland, 
 where Riga was threatened, and Mittau be- 
 sieged, by Macdonald. Witepsk and Polotzk 
 were in the enemy's possession ; but Win- 
 tenstein, who had fought several successful 
 battles withOudinot on the 30th and 31st of 
 July, and between 16th and 18th of August, 
 about the time that Buonaparte was engaged 
 at Smolensk, maintained his position on the 
 lower Dwina, against the utmost efforts of the 
 enemy,so obstinately, as to leave him but small 
 advantages from the occupation of the towns 
 
SKETCH OF THE PUESJENT CAMPAIGN. 115 
 
 and other places higher up the river. This 
 was a serious check ; but Buonaparte disre- 
 garded it, and pushed forward, trusting all to 
 fortune, and calculating, in his usual manner, 
 that one desperate blow would repair all the 
 rest. The action of Volontina, which he cal- 
 led a skirmish of the first order, in contradis- 
 tinction of the battle of Smolensk, the first 
 that deserved to be so named, closed his ca- 
 reer, which by its uninterrupted rapidity, di- 
 verted the public attention from details, cov- 
 ered smaller disasters, and, in the general pros- 
 pect of success, obscuring all minor objects, 
 presented Russia as already conquered ; the 
 more so, as a distance of nearly 150 miles, 
 from Smolensk to Mojaisk, was traversed by 
 the French in about 14 days, without meeting 
 the least resistance. 
 
 It was however at this moment of inactivi- 
 ty, apparently auspicious to Buonaparte, and 
 ominous to themselves, that the Russians 
 were preparing to give a mortal blow to all his 
 hopes and projects. For it was at this inter- 
 val, that Barcley de Tolly, minister at war, 
 an Officer of acknowledged talents, who had 
 so much distinguished himself at Pultusk, 
 Eylau, and Finland, by whose wisdom and 
 
116 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 exertion the staff and the commissariat* were 
 brought to the highest state of improvement, 
 and to whose genius were ascribed the orig- 
 inal conception and mature digestion of the 
 daring and extensive Russian system of self- 
 defence, resigned the chief command, which 
 he held for a time, to Kutuzow, an illustrious 
 veteran of 75, fellow-soldier and admirer of 
 Suwarow, beloved by the Russian army, and 
 commanding the confidence of all the classes, 
 particularly of the nobility, of whom he was 
 one, and of the inhabitants of Moskow, where 
 he was impatiently expected from Moldavia, 
 after a successful termination, by peace, of 
 his campaign in that country. The Russians, 
 united and inspired with the presence of their 
 beloved leader, were now determined to con- 
 quer or to die ; but he evidently aimed only 
 to cripple the enemy, whose forces, being su- 
 perior, he could not hope to disperse with 
 one effort. Moskow, though its destruction>on 
 
 * In this last department some defects and abus- 
 es existed, which Sir Robert Wilson has justly 
 censured, but which, by the good administration 
 of the minister, have been completely removed ; so 
 as to secure to the Russian army advantages in eve- 
 ry respect equal to those of the enemy. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 11? 
 
 a certain contingency, had been predetermin- 
 ed, was not to be given up without a struggle ; 
 and honour did not allow the Russians to aban- 
 don their ancient capital, without making the 
 enemy pay dear for it, and without showing 
 him, they could, if they picased, successfully 
 dispute with him the field of battle. For these 
 reasons, Kutuzow awaited the French at 
 Mojaisk, (or rather at Borodino, a small vil- 
 lage in front) and for these reasons alone ; for, 
 otherwise, he would have still delayed the 
 dreadful encounter, as the position was not 
 very favourable, though the only one that 
 could be obtained between Smolensk and 
 Moskow. Two days previous to the battle, 
 the prince, in his despatch to the emperor, de- 
 scribed this position as a strong one, except 
 the ground, on his left, which was disadvanta- 
 geous, and could only be maintained by his 
 best troops. Accordingly, the gallant, ever- 
 to-be-lamented Bagration was posted there 
 with his brave companions, the flower of the 
 Russian army. This self-devoted band, that 
 never yet flinched from superior numbers, 
 and sought nothing but victory or death, sus- 
 tained the shock of the whole French army ; 
 as Buonaparte, aware of the weakness of their 
 position, directed his main force against them, 
 
118 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 We may judge with what heroism they with- 
 stood for a whole day the repeated and concen- 
 trated attempts of the desperate foe, since, out 
 of the whole corps, amounting to 30,000 men, 
 only 8,000 are said to have escaped unhurt ; 
 but they justified the high expectations of their 
 country, and of their beloved chief, Suwarow's 
 favourite pupil, who was himself mortally 
 wounded, but had lived to see victory perch 
 upon his standard, and expired afterwards, re- 
 joicing that he proved himself worthy of his 
 great master, and that his death would add 
 fresh lustre to the glory of the Russian nation. 
 The battle commenced on the 4th of Sep- 
 tember, and lasted with various success till the 
 7th, when it assumed its final and horrible 
 aspect, turning the actions of the three preced- 
 ing days into mere skirmishes, or sportive tri- 
 als of strength. Since the introduction of 
 modern tactics, there has never been a battle 
 like this, as to the prodigious extent of forces 
 engaged on both sides, the skill of the respec- 
 tive commanders and officers, the bravery and 
 discipline of the troops, and the horrid slaugh- 
 ter of men, falling like a ripened harvest be- 
 neath the sweeping hurricane. Each moment 
 a thousand mouths, as the 18th bulletin says, 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 119 
 
 scattered death on all sides, and with torrents 
 of human blood deluged the earth. In short, 
 the horrors of this sanguinary day, surpassed 
 the horrors of the 8th of February 1806, as 
 much as this last (the battle of Eylau) surpas- 
 sed, in destruction, all the intermediate and the 
 preceding battles recorded in the annals of the 
 civilized world. There is only this resem- 
 blance in them, that the Russians in both 
 fought against superior numbers, and in both 
 remained masters of the field, though the ar- 
 mies, on each side, were so disabled as to un- 
 dertake nothing of consequence for a long 
 time after. The essential advantages, howev- 
 er, of the battle of Borodino, were evidently on 
 the side of the Russians ; and a few facts will 
 convince every impartial reader of the truth of 
 this assertion. 
 
 The Russian accounts, which by their 
 modest and temperate tone, when contrasted 
 with the inflated strain of the French bulletins, 
 created at first despondence, but now are enti- 
 tled to additional confidence ; expressly an- 
 nounced, that Buonaparte was driven back 
 about 3 o'clock at noon, and that the battle 
 was won by the Russians, who, according to 
 Subsequent reports, remained for two days on 
 
120 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 the field, removing the wounded, and burying 
 the dead, and only quitted it after a deliberate 
 consultation ; in other words, in compliance 
 with their original system. The French 18th 
 bulletin^ in describing this battle, evidently 
 accords with the Russian accounts, if not in 
 terms, at least in matter implied. It ack- 
 nowledges the action was over, early in the af- 
 ternoon, suppressing merely, that, though it 
 was over with the French, it was not not so 
 with the Russians, whose fire had not ceased 
 till night. But the date of the bulletin is con- 
 clusive, being on the third day after the bat- 
 tle ; that is, as soon as the Russians, at the ex- 
 piration of two days claimed by them, had 
 retired,and gave theFrench an opportunity of da- 
 ting their bulletin on the field of battle. It is well 
 known that the French, as well as other gene- 
 rals, if victorious, always date their despatches 
 immediately after a battle ; and accordingly 
 the Russian general issued his own the next 
 morning, on the 8th of September, while 
 Buonaparte deferred his till the 10th, a cir- 
 cumstance which no sophistry can reconcile 
 with his pretensions to victory. So desirous 
 was he to repel the suspicion of having failed, 
 that not being able to state the subsequent 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 121 
 
 positions of the Russian army, as is generally 
 expected from a victor, and warranted by 
 Buonaparte's former practice, he employed a 
 Polish renegado in reconnoitring \\\e fugitives; 
 and for the first time was obliged to substitute 
 the supposed information, given by Russian 
 sergeants and recruits, for that which, if he 
 had conquered, he had completely in his 
 povver to furnish in a manner much more 
 entitled to credit. Indeed, sometime or oth- 
 er it will appear in history, that the mere 
 desire of concealing his defeat, induced him, 
 contrary to the advice of his best generals, to 
 advance at all hazards ; and approach that 
 gulph of destruction, which he otherwise 
 would probably have avoided. * 
 
 Thus far the honour of the day remained 
 with the Russians ; and their victory could not 
 be denied by any of those, with whom the 
 mere keeping of the field is the best criterion 
 of success ; but there are many, who, with 
 more propriety, judge of the success by the 
 consequences, and who will naturally ask, 
 why did Kutuzow retire, if he were success- 
 ful, and give up Moskow to destruction ? 
 The answer is, that Napoleon's advancing was 
 a proof, not of his victory, but of rashness^ 
 
122 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 the fatal effects of which he soon experienced ; 
 and that Kutuzow's retreat was the result of 
 wisdom, which suspended, for a moment, his 
 triumph, but soon more firmly established it, 
 and in more striking colours displayed it to 
 the world. As to the destruction of Mos- 
 kow, there are facts enough to justify us in 
 making the Russian general speak for him- 
 celf, and thus he must have reasoned : 
 
 " I know, that the enemy cannot easily re.- 
 eover from the severe blow I have inflicted on 
 him ; but I am also sensible, that, in the strug- 
 gle, I have myself been much weakened. I 
 have done enough for the honour of my coun- 
 try, and for my own reputation ; and it is 
 time to think of means, sure, yet the least ex- 
 pensive, to finish the work, which cost so 
 much in the beginning, but whose progress 
 is now rendered less difficult. If I resolve on 
 another battle, I must sacrifice a great many 
 brave men, and my utmost success can only 
 be, to drive the enemy back upon his rein- 
 forcements, which may sustain him, and ena- 
 ble him to renew his efforts ; but if I retard 
 the hour of decision, until his festering wounds 
 spread a mortal languor over his whole body, 
 I shall ensure success, and save my soldiers, 
 whose lives are of more importance to the 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. Us, 
 
 country, than the destruction of the capital 
 the mere destruction of a certain kind of prop- 
 erty all measures having already been taken 
 to remove the inhabitants, with their personal 
 effects. It is true, that the preserving of the 
 city might not materially impede the final is- 
 sue, on which I calculate with confidence ; 
 but, as it is intended to starve the enemy in 
 his new quarters, by destroying these, I wish 
 only to preserve the lives of the citizens, who 
 otherwise may probably remain there, and 
 share the fate of their invaders. Besides, the 
 nobility, the merchants, and other classes,being 
 willing to make this sacrifice, I shall choose 
 the least of evils, by allowing the enemy to 
 enter Moskow, whither, I doubt not, his 
 rashness will lead him, but where he will 
 give me an opportunity of encompassing, 
 more effectually, his ruin." 
 
 The council of war sanctioned this res- 
 olution, and the Russian general, like a skilful 
 hunter, who had mortally wounded a fierce 
 animal, stepped aside to wait merely till his 
 ferocious prey should be ensnared by its own 
 rage, and exhausted by its fruitless exertions, 
 so as to be destroyed, at the end, with more fa- 
 cility and less sacrifice. Every thing was ac- 
 cordingly foreseen ; every necessary measur e 
 
124 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 adopted ; all calculations made with wonderful 
 accuracy ; and all expectations were crowned 
 with perfect success. 
 
 The flames, which illuminated Buonaparte's 
 entrance into Moskow,on the 14th of Sept. en- 
 lightened him, for the first time, on the reality 
 of his perilous situation, and on the Russian na- 
 tional character; which he had so far misconceiv- 
 ed, as to flatter himself, that, from its supposed 
 instability, from the fancied disaffection of the 
 nobles, and the presumed weakness in the gov- 
 ernment, Russia, overcome by the spirit of in- 
 trigue, and ensnared in his artful negociations, 
 would not hesitate to commit at length the 
 monstrous crime of suicide. It was in the 
 smoking ruin of the ancient city of the czars, 
 that he beheld a funeral pyre, on which were 
 consumed all his hopes of dividing the Rus- 
 sian people, and either of alluring the peasantry 
 with the glittering toys of French liberty, or of 
 intimidating their emperor with the glare of the 
 Parisian sword. It was there that all his im- 
 aginary projects of fresh triumphs, and of new 
 conquests, in an instant vanished ; and the 
 dark September-night, brooding over the vast 
 conflagration, as if to conceal it from the eye 
 of vengeful heaven, was but a faint image of 
 
SKETCH OF TIH3 PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 125 
 
 the tyrant's frowns, and that outward gloom, 
 beneath which raged the various contending 
 passions of his soul. With fury he saw him- 
 self defeated in the field and the cabinet ; and 
 with terror he discovered himself on the verge 
 of that precipice, into which he vainly and dar- 
 ingly laboured to plunge a loyal nation, which 
 was at peace with him, and which, though 
 brave and powerful, was moderate in its pre- 
 tensions. His inconceivable imprudence, per- 
 haps the result of too much confidence, in ex- 
 tending his line from Smolensk to Moskow, 
 before he had driven the Russians from the 
 Dwina and Riga, and over a tract of land, very 
 little wider than the road on which he passed, 
 to the unusual distance of 200 miles, without 
 any intermediate fortresses to secure the 
 communication by strong links, soon placed 
 him in the power of the Russian generals, who 
 from different points acted in perfect concert 
 against him. Kutuzow, by his admirable po- 
 sition on the right wing of the French army, 
 menaced its flank with up wards of 100,000 men; 
 and Winzingerode, communicating with him 
 through Mojaisk, directly across the French 
 line, from the opposite side on the enemy's 
 left, was very active at the head of 30,000 
 L* 
 
126 SKETCH OF THE PHESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 men : while Wintenstein, with 60,000 men, 
 annoyed the rear ; and Tchitchagoff, with 
 80,000, instead of marching from Moldavia to 
 Moskow,as was expected,was pushing towards 
 Minsk, to drive away the united corps of Reg- 
 nierand Swartzenburg, and to intercept the 
 whole plan of French operations. Buonaparte's 
 main army, at Moskow, was thus inclosed on all 
 sides; his regular supplies were at once cut off ; 
 and the u tug of war" was commencing at the 
 very moment, which, he fondly expected, 
 would terminate it.* If he marched towards 
 Toula and Kaluga, he had Kutuzow's whole 
 army in his front, and exposed his rear to 
 Winzingerode, acting on the Twer road, and 
 to Wintenstein, who, by maintaining his posi- 
 tion on the Dwina, kept in check St. Cyr and 
 Victor, on his right, and threatened the 
 whole French line, on his left ; but if Buona- 
 parte marched to St. Petersburgh, he again 
 exposed his rear to Kutuzow, without being 
 able to change his line of operation, confined to 
 Smolensk by the gallant conduct of Winten- 
 
 * Kutuzow, in his interview with Lauriston, who 
 was sent to request an armistice, some time after 
 the French had been at Moskow, expressly declared, 
 that the campaign was just begun with the Russian*. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN, 127 
 
 stein, who, in protecting the Dwina, made any 
 movement that way impracticable. In this 
 distressing dilemma, a new enemy, Famine, 
 appeared in its most frightful aspect ; and 
 added to the dangers, and the complicated diffi- 
 culties of the French at Moskow. True, the 
 surrounding country was fertile ; but small 
 foraging parties were destroyed, as soon as 
 they appeared, and larger detachments were 
 inexpedient, as they would have diminished 
 the main army to a degree inconsistent with, 
 its safety, in presence of the imposing force 
 of Kutuzow. Buonaparte had no alternative 
 but that of speedy and disgraceful flight, or of 
 seeking a general engagement. The first his 
 pride was not yet humbled enough to permit 
 for a moment ; and the last, if successful, 
 would have retrieved his affairs in an instant, 
 and relieved all his distresses. What could 
 then induce a man, till now so eager for bat- 
 tle, to avoid it at the moment when imperious 
 necessity, no less than the salvation of his ar- 
 my, demanded it ; and when inactivity, of 
 all the evils, appeared the greatest ? What 
 could check his attempts to advance at least 
 about 100 miles to the south, where Kaluga 
 would give him its granary, and Toula the ar- 
 
128 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 moury of the Russian empire ; or to the 
 north of Moskow, where Twer, about the 
 same distance, would deposit at his feet the 
 immense supplies carried from the southern 
 to the northern regions of the empire, and re- 
 lieve his soldiers from the miserable fate of 
 starving, while beholding, like Tantalus, the 
 waters of the Volga, charged with plenty, flow 
 within their reach ? It would be impossible 
 to answer these questions, if we had not shewn 
 before, that he was completely disabled in the 
 terrible battle of Borodino ; for, though by 
 artfully glossing over his defeat, he succeeded 
 in imposing, for a time, upon the world, Tie 
 could not impose upon himself, or conceal 
 from his own knowledge, that he had paid so 
 dear a prize, to save appearances, as to make 
 himself a bankrupt and a ruined man. The 
 Russian general,who could notbedeceived,was 
 so conscious of his own advantages, that, at the 
 moment the world doubted his ability to con- 
 tend with Buonaparte's troops, he was already 
 planning how to intercept them, and ordered 
 the army from Moldavia, that very army 
 with whose assistance, it was supposed, he 
 could not dispense, to proceed with all pos- 
 sible speed to the north of Poland. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 129 
 
 It cannot be said, that Buonaparte did not 
 seek battle on the supposition, that Kutuzow 
 would not give him the opportunity ; because 
 the latter was at a short distance, professing 
 his readiness to meet the enemy ; and at all 
 events, the attempt was worth much, as the 
 mere retreat of the Russian general, further 
 into the interior, might have procured to the 
 French many of the wished-for advantages. 
 It would be equally erroneous to suppose, that 
 Napoleon's long stay at Moskow, proceeded 
 from confidence in his own strength ; because 
 this tardiness naturally explains itself by his 
 extreme reluctance to confirm, by such a 
 step, the complete failure of his object. 
 Moreover, he still entertained some hopes of 
 reinforcement, the appearance of which, be- 
 tween Smolensk and Moskow, induced the 
 Russians, already impatient for combat, to end 
 his indecision, by the brilliant attack of Octo- 
 ber 18th, on Murat's corps, which was com- 
 pletely defeated, by the renowned Beningsen. 
 
 The immediate consequence of this victory 
 was the evacuation of Moskow, and the reoc- 
 cupation of it, on the 22d, by the Russians. 
 Buonaparte, after the lame apology, that he 
 was going to winter quarters, though he held 
 
130 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 out winter quarters at Moskow ^ as a chief in- 
 ducement to his soldiers, before the battle of 
 Borodino, quitted the city, whose ruin he had 
 indirectly achieved,* and the destruction of 
 
 * The attempt to clear Buonaparte from having 
 caused the conflagration of Moskow, because he did 
 not apply the match himself, is unworthy of honest 
 and reflecting men. As well it may be maintained, 
 that he is guiltless of shedding human blood in so 
 many battles, because he only, in pure innocence^ 
 brought a few thousand men together, in such a 
 way, that they could not help themselves, and were 
 obliged to butcher each other ! ! The wanton bar- 
 barity of blowing up the Kremlin, and the unprofitable 
 cruelty in attempting to demolish, in the same way, 
 the cathedral of Smolensko, plainly shew, that the 
 timely sacrifices of the Russians, in their own de- 
 fence, had only robbed his fury of the objects on 
 which it would vent itself. The cant, about his sav- 
 ing Vienna, Berlin, and other capitals, is truly hypo- 
 critical ; inasmuch as he never was driven, an enrag- 
 ed fugitive, from those cities. The Russians, by do- 
 ing themselves, what they knew him capable of do- 
 ing, had the advantage of exhibiting a pledge of 
 persevering resistance, which appalled him ; and of 
 raising a monument of patriotism, whose splendour 
 shall increase with each succeeding age. Mr. 
 Whitbread labours to depreciate the loyalty and 
 voluntary offerings of the Russian people, by saying, 
 that Moskow was destroyed by military command ; 
 and that the Russians exerted themselves altogether 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 13J 
 
 whose remaining part he had savagely order- 
 ed. His course was directed back towards 
 Mojaisk, the place ennobled by his memorable 
 
 from their sense of subordination. This is say- 
 ing, that the execution, (>y the military, of what 
 was resolved by the citizens, is tyrainy and op- 
 pression ; and the love of country ceases to be such, 
 the moment it becomes well regulated. Certainly, it 
 does not resemble that love, which Mr. Whitbread 
 is constantly spouting in Parliament ; and which, like 
 froth, on the surface of some fermenting fluid, 
 can be skimmed off in an instant. Has this sense- 
 less declaimer, the worthy associate of the profligate 
 Cobbet, ever heard of the Russian peasantry, of both 
 sexes, voluntarily arming themselves, swearing on 
 the altar of their God to perish for each other, and 
 attacking the enemy, without even an officer to lead 
 them ? If he has not, let him hear it now, and be 
 silent for his own credit. Has he ever heard of the 
 Russian convicts executing faithfully the task as- 
 signed to them, when all authority that might enforce 
 their obedience was removed, and when to obey was 
 death ? If he has not, let him learn now, that even 
 the Russian convicts are more honest and loyal, than 
 the clamorous patriots of his own fashion, whom no 
 prudent man will dare to trust so far. Has he ever 
 heard of gentlemen in Russia, offering, as did Mr. 
 Mamonoff, their whole estates in gift to the govern- 
 ment estates, the annual income of which would at 
 least be estimated at 100,000 roubles ? If he hears 
 this for the * first time, let him give as much to his 
 
132 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 defeat on the 7th of Sept. ; tho' he manoeuvred 
 so as to make the object of his movements at 
 least doubtful. Being acquainted at this 
 time with another disaster, of Oct. 18th, simul- 
 taneous with Murat's discomfiture, and second 
 in the scale of fatality to that of Borodino 
 the storming of Polotzk, and the total defeat 
 of St. Cyr in consequence of which marshal 
 Victor, who had advanced from Smolensk to 
 the assistance of the main army, was compell- 
 ed to fall back with precipitation and hearing 
 also that the principal part of Kutuzow's army 
 was marching to Malojaroslavitcz to intercept 
 him, Buonaparte, left now altogether to his own 
 resources, and bereft of all hope of speedy 
 assistance, ordered Davoust to dislodge some 
 of the Russians from this town who had al- 
 ready entered it on the 23d : But they, after a 
 tremendous conflict,lasting the whole next day, 
 when the town was taken and retaken eleven 
 
 own government, and so purchase the right of ques- 
 tioning the loyalty and devotion of the Russians ; or, if 
 this please him not, let him ask his friend Napoleon's 
 opinion of them, and publish it for the edification of 
 Dr. Clarke, the Edinburgh Reviewers, and all those 
 less significant? though still more zealous calumnia- 
 tors and defamers of the Russian nation, both in Eng- 
 land and in America, with whose names it would be 
 aYi insult to the reader to stain these pages. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 133 
 
 times, firmly maintained their ground ; and on 
 the 25th, when Buonaparte himself joined in the 
 attack, the Russians^being also reinforced,drove 
 him back with disgrace to the main road from 
 which he had started, and where, on the pre- 
 ceding day (24th), at the small village of Grid- 
 nevo, he had already a sample of the barba- 
 rous enterprize of the Cozaks, who, " though 
 they make nothing but noise," contrived to 
 break into the very centre of his columns, and 
 take six pieces from his park of artillery. 
 
 Whether Buonaparte, by making this at- 
 tack, intended to pass through the southern 
 provinces, or merely to secure his retreat to 
 Smolensk, which place the Russians might 
 have reached by a shorter way, through Malo- 
 jaroslavitz, it is certain, that he was obliged to 
 retrograde to the main road, and thus confirm 
 his defeat by a total failure in his object. The 
 obstinacy of the attack was however so great, 
 as to excite Kutuzow's principal attention to 
 the safety of the southern provinces, in conse- 
 quence of which, Buonaparte gained two 
 or three days' march ; but, at the moment 
 that this was extolled on his part as an ex- 
 cellent military manoeuvre, which succeeded 
 in deceiving the Russian veteran, General 
 M 
 
134 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Miloradowitz, on the one hand, and Platow 
 on the other, convinced the enemy that his 
 hopes, and those of his supporters, were ill 
 founded ; that deceivers often deceive them- 
 selves 5 and that it was not easy, even for the 
 " flying" French columns, to run away from 
 the Russians. Indeed, from this time, the 
 French retreat was converted into a flight, and 
 their rout became general. Buonaparte, with 
 his guards, had gone a head ; but the corps of 
 Davoust, Ney, and Eugene were overtaken, 
 broken, and pursued through Medin, Wias- 
 ma, and Duchovshtchina, between which 
 and Dorochovitchna, the viceroy's corps 
 (Eugene's) was separated and dispersed on 
 the 8th of November, by the indefatigable 
 Platow. A series of disasters, which now 
 followed the French, and of which, every inch 
 of the road they left, presented dreadful tokens, 
 in the sick and wounded abandoned, horses 
 dead or dying by hundreds, baggage, ammu- 
 nition, and cannon, thrown away in the great- 
 est disorder and confusion, cannot be better 
 described, than in the intercepted letters of 
 Eugene, and in the 29th bulletin itself. It 
 was a scene of horror, not to be mitigated 
 even by the reflection, that it was also an 
 evidence of the retributive justice of heaven, 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. v!35 
 
 frowning upon the lawless and unprincipled 
 invader. 
 
 While such was the progress of the Rus- 
 sians in this quarter, and while count Winten- 
 stein* was following up his successes in 
 another a part of his army having retaken 
 Witepsk, on the 7th, and made the governor 
 and some of the garrison prisoners he him- 
 self crossing the Dwina, and pursuing St. 
 Cyr to Lapelle ; the Russian army, under 
 Kutuzow, was marching in a southern direc- 
 tion, parallel to the main road, with an inten- 
 tion of occupying Krasnoy, in front of Smo- 
 lensko ; and thus of intercepting the enemy's 
 retreat. Buonaparte, however, got the start 
 by several days; and on the 9th, when the Rus- 
 sian guard reached Elna, he was already at 
 Smolensk ; which place he would have left 
 immediately, were it not that the shattered 
 condition of his troops prevented them from 
 keeping pace with him, and compelled him 
 to wait for them three days, with the utmost 
 
 * The author regrets extremely that he cannot 
 communicate any particular intelligence concerning 
 this brave and meritorious officer ; his own deeds, 
 however, speak for him, and are the best comments 
 upon his talents, so forcibly displayed on every occa- 
 
136 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 anxiety and apprehension, as every moment 
 of delay \rendered his situation more critical, 
 and even his personal safety, at best, doubtful* 
 It will be recollected, that Buonaparte af- 
 fected to consider his retreat from Moskow 
 as a mere political measure, calculated to 
 bring him nearer to St. Petersburgh, and to 
 his own resources ; intimating thereby, that 
 Smolensko was his place of destination and 
 " land of promise." This wonderful im- 
 provement in military science, this new meth- 
 od of advancing by going backwards, or of 
 approaching a certain point, by actually reced- 
 ing from it, was reserved for the inventive 
 genius of Buonaparte ; for, Smolensko being 
 only 20 miles nearer to St. Petersburgh, and 
 the distance from Moskow to Smolensko be- 
 ing about 200 miles, he must have, of course, 
 marched 180 miles farther from his object, in 
 search of a worse road, and at a season too, 
 when any military movement must be the 
 result of dire necessity ! ! ! Absurd, ridic- 
 ulous, and childish as this protest was, Napo- 
 leon's creatures seized it with avidity ; and, 
 willing to be cheated, in order to cheat others, 
 they received it, even with gratitude, as a to- 
 ken of his kindness and condescension ; their 
 disappointment, chagrin, and vexation, there- 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN,, 137 
 
 fore, on hearing of his removal from so eligible 
 a spot, were so great, that they would not be- 
 lieve even his own confession, which truly 
 stated, that the Moldavian army advancing to 
 Minsk made Smolensko untenable ; and that, 
 notwithstanding the lateness of the season, 
 and the inclemency of the weather, he was 
 compelled to decamp, in order to avoid being 
 surrounded and cut off by Kutuzow in the' 
 rear, Wintenstein in flank, and Tchitchagoff 
 in front. Having at length conjured up a new 
 phantom of " winter quarters at Wilna," 
 which consoled and satisfied his unbelieving 
 friends on both sides the Atlantic, he left 
 Smolensko, on the 13th, with about 50,000 
 men, marching to Krasnoy, apparently in the 
 following order : Eugene, who seems to have 
 escaped w T ith the shattered remnant of his 
 corps reduced to about 10,000 men, formed 
 the advanced guard ; Buonaparte, with his 
 own guards, and Duvoust, were in the centre 
 with 25,000 ; and Ney brought up the rear 
 with 15,000 men. A small Russian party, 
 which had already occupied Krasnoy, imme- 
 diately evacuated it ; and Eugene, it seems, 
 passed on with, comparatively, a small loss ; 
 but the centre was stopped by Miloradowitz,, 
 
 M* 
 
138 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Bagration's worthy successor, whose activity 
 in having outsped the enemy,* and brought 40 
 
 * The rapidity of this movement, so fatal to the 
 enemy, and the astonishing vigilance and dexterity 
 displayed in the whole pursuit of the French, again 
 prove how unjustly the Russians, among other faults, 
 were charged with want of activity ; and were allowed 
 no other good quality, but that of passive valour, the 
 result of slavish fears, rather than of true courage. 
 The ungrateful world forgot, that Suwarow's march 
 to the river Rimnick, by which he saved the Austrian 
 army from destruction ; and his march to Trebia, in 
 Italy, which prevented Macdonald's junction with 
 Moreau, have no parallel in history ; and, indeed, 
 his whole Italian campaign was a scene of activity 
 altogether unexampled. The present campaign in 
 Russia will thus revive, by new feats, the remem- 
 brance of former achievements. Bagration's march 
 to Smolensko ; Oertil's expedition to Slutzk, when he 
 marched upwards of 24 miles for several days with- 
 out intermission, in the hottest season, and often 
 without food or water ; and particularly colonel 
 Tchernishew's journey, at the I ead of a small cavalry 
 detachment, from Volhynia to the Dwina, a distance 
 of 500 miles, traversed in five days, will live for ever 
 in the memory of man. This last appears so ro- 
 mantic and incredible, that lord Cathcart's despatch, 
 by announcing it, was nearly deprived of its offi- 
 cial authentic character ; but if the reader bears in 
 mind the extracts, given in the preceding tract, in 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 139 
 
 pieces of cannon to bear, is as honourable to 
 himself, as to the foresight, judicious arrange- 
 ments, and well-timed orders of the venerable 
 commander in chief, Kutuzow. In the ac- 
 tion thus forced, which took place on the 
 17th, Buonaparte and Davoust (the latter was 
 wounded) saved themselves only by flight ; 
 and left 20,000, nearly the whole corps, kil- 
 led, wounded, and prisoners, in the hands of 
 the Russians. Ney came up, the next day, 
 (18th,) and shared the same fate. Forty pieces 
 of cannon opened upon him, at the distance of 
 250 yards,in consequence of which 12, 000 men 
 laid down their arms ; and the rest being nearly 
 destroyed, the marshal, who was himself 
 wounded, with the greatest difficulty escaped. 
 
 which are mentioned several feats performed by the 
 Russian cavalry, without any apparent diminution of 
 power in the horses, he will have no doubt, that the 
 journey was actually performed ; the more so, as 
 colonel Tchernishew is renowned for exploits of this 
 kind, having once gone from St. Petersburgh to Par- 
 is in 14 days, the quickest travelling ever known. 
 
 The author himself has more than once travelled 
 
 ~in Russia upwards of 120 miles in one day, without 
 
 changing the horses ; and on one occasion, he owed 
 
 his life entirely to this prodigious strength of the 
 
 Russian horse. 
 
140 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Thus, out of 85,000 effective men, composing 
 the grand army at the time of leaving Moskow, 
 as appeared from the returns of the French 
 commissary general, who was made prisoner, 
 38,000 were destroyed or taken between Mos- 
 kow and Smolcnsko, from October 22d to 
 November 9th ; 35,000 between Smolensko 
 and Krasnoy, on the 16th, 17th, and 18th of 
 November ; and 12,000 only escaped, being 
 Buonaparte's guards, and the remnant, still 
 further reduced, of Eugene's corps. 
 
 Oudinot, who resumed the command after 
 St. Cyr, and Victor (duke of Belluno), all this, 
 while remained near New Lupelle, collecting 
 all the forces they could from East Prussia, 
 and the different garrisons in Poland, in order 
 to relieve Buonaparte, of whose dangerous 
 situation they were fully informed. As Win- 
 tenstein's position prevented them from being 
 of any immediate service to their master, and 
 endangered the contemplated retreat of the 
 grand army from Smolensk, Buonaparte, be- 
 fore he left that place, had ordered them to 
 drive the count back across the Dwina ; but 
 Victor, who on the 14th attempted to exe- 
 cute these orders, w r as repulsed with great 
 loss, and, followed by Wiutenstein, fell back 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 141 
 
 towards the Beresina, with a view of being 
 supported by the duke of Reggio (Oudinot.) 
 Here, a few days afterwards, some time be- 
 tween the 22d and 24th, these two French 
 generals were joined by the imperial fugitive, 
 who, after the battle of the 17th, had escaped 
 to Orsha ; and left this last place on the 20th, 
 bringing with him the miserable wrecks of his 
 army, constantly pursued by the tremendous 
 Platow. The French force, thus united, was 
 estimated at upwards of 70,000 strong ; and 
 most of the troops being either just arrived, 
 or exempt from the sufferings of the main 
 army, were in good condition, and so well 
 supplied with cavalry and artillery, as to 
 make the odds rather against the Russians, 
 harassed with fatigue, and exhausted in the 
 incessant pursuit of the enemy. But at this 
 critical juncture, admiral* Tchitchagoff 
 
 * Admiral Tchitchagoff is upwards of 40 years of 
 age, and was captain of a first rate man of war, 
 when he had scarcely passed the age of twenty. As 
 a volunteer in the British service, he was much dis- 
 tinguished for his talents and activity, and was unan- 
 imously considered by the British navy as one of the 
 first naval officers in Europe. By his own merit he 
 rose to his present rank, and was for some time 
 minister of the marine, in which important office ho 
 
142 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 whose advanced guard, under count Lam- 
 bert, had already defeated Dombrowsky on 
 the 21st, and expelled him from Borissow af- 
 ter the loss of 3,100 prisoners, and 1,000 
 killed appeared in that town, on the 24th, 
 with the rest of his army ; and thus posses- 
 sed himself of the road, by which Buona- 
 parte intended to pass. In consequence of this, 
 the contest in detail became very desperate ; 
 but altogether against the French, as in the 
 different attacks, from the 24th to the 27th, 
 Wintenstein alone had taken from the enemy 
 upwards of 13,000 prisoners, including Pan- 
 toureaux's division of 8,000 men, which, ac- 
 cording to the 29th bulletin, had " missed its 
 
 acquitted himself with great credit and ability. The 
 want of opportunity to act on his own element ; the 
 desire of contending with Buonaparte, of whose mil- 
 itary talents he had an exalted idea ; and, above all, 
 the ardent wish to serve his country, induced him, 
 it seems, to seek the field of glory ; and his offers of 
 service being immediately accepted, his new career 
 proved as successful, as if he were a veteran, bred up 
 in the camp. It may be truly said, that he is a man 
 of few words, but eloquent in deeds ; dignified to his 
 superiors ; familiar with his friends; and affable to his 
 inferiors. Russia cannot boast of a son more con- 
 spicuous for brilliant endowments, noble spirit, inde- 
 pendent mind, and indexible integrity. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 143 
 
 way," and caused " the cruel loss of 2,000 
 infantry." 
 
 Buonaparte made several efforts to pass the 
 Beresina at Borissow ; hut having foiled in all, 
 he went about ten miles higher, and finally, 
 on the 27th, effected his passage with Oudi- 
 not's corps ; leaving Victor behind, on the left 
 bank of the river, to protect the bridge which 
 was thrown over. At this time, Platow was 
 at Borissow, in the rear of the French army ; 
 Wintenstein on the left bank of the Beresina, 
 watching Victor's corps ; and Tchitchagoff 
 occupied the opposite bank, on the same side 
 with Oudinot and Buonaparte. The three 
 Russian generals being in communication 
 with each other, Platow as it were forming the 
 centre, and the other two the right and left 
 wings, concerted a general attack, and, on the 
 28th, successfully carried their plan into exe- 
 cution. Tchitchagoff, being the nearest to 
 the enemy, was the first to commence the at- 
 tack upon Oudinot ; Wintenstein, about half an 
 hour after, fell upon Victor ; and Platow co- 
 operated with both, as occasion required. 
 The battle terminated in a terrible and deci- 
 sive defeat of the French. It was a finishing 
 stroke to their hopes and fortunes ; and the 
 last expiring effort of the vanquished. 
 
144 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 The 29th bulletin, in vain labours to con- 
 ceal ihis last overthrow of Buonaparte, by 
 pretending, that he found another shorter and 
 better way to Wilna. It was evident, that, 
 as his object, acknowledged in the same bul- 
 letin, was to go to Minsk, which commanded 
 the main, and indeed the only road to Wil- 
 na or Warsaw, he was driven from it by 
 Tohitchagoff, and compelled to fly across the 
 country, where the elements for once be- 
 friended him ; for, if it had not been for the 
 severe frost, he could never have passed the 
 lakes and morasses, situated that way, and 
 must have fallen into the hands of the Rus- 
 sians. It was also evident, that the doleful 
 tone of the bulletin was caused by some new 
 misfortunes, left untold, and subsequent to the 
 battle of the 28th. Accordingly, by the later 
 arrivals, we see the whole mystery develop- 
 ed ; the curtain is drawn up, and we are 
 presented with a consummation of French 
 disasters a consummation which, were it 
 not for the bulletin itself, the modesty of the 
 preceding Russian accounts* would never 
 
 * Admiral TchitchagofTs despatch of November 
 29th, says, that he drove the enemy back about 13 
 wersts, and was marching to Ostrowitz ; and it is 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. UJ> 
 
 have led us to anticipate. TchitchagoflF, hav- 
 ing driven the French army across the country, 
 was pursuing them by the main road to Molo- 
 detchina ; and Wintenstein, on the opposite 
 side, was pushing through Velika to Wil- 
 na, in order to annoy the enemy in flank, and, 
 if possible, to intercept him. Well might the 
 bulletin be silent, as to the events that follow- 
 ed ; for the passage of the Beresina alone cost 
 the French 20,000 men ; and the flight to 
 Wilna, and its capture, cost them 20,000 
 more, besides the immense stores, magazines, 
 upwards of 200 pieces of cannon, standards, 
 and colours in abundance. Waggons, tum- 
 brels, gun-carriages, carcasses, and wrecks of 
 every description, in many places, choked up 
 the roads, so as to make them absolutely im- 
 passable, and serve the enemy for a temporary 
 defence. Buonaparte narrowly escaped with 
 his life; and having, on the 5th of December, 
 fled in disguise from the village of Teberhetzi, 
 (Paris accounts agree exactly as to the time of 
 his leaving the army, though not as to the 
 circumstances,) the Russians, on the 10th of 
 December, entered Wilna, as it were " on 
 
 only by finding this place on the map, that his 
 marching is ascertained to be in fact pursuing the 
 enemy with irresistible vigour. 
 
146 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 the shoulders of the enemy." So rapid was 
 their progress, that the French had not one 
 moment to halt in the city, or to destroy their 
 stores and magazines, collected there ; and 
 \vhen Davoust's aid-de-camp was sent with 
 orders to the rear, he found the whole captur- 
 ed and replaced by the Russian advanced 
 guard, which made him also prisoner. Nay, 
 scarcely had these fear-stricken fugitives left 
 the to\Vn, than they were again overtaken by 
 Platow, were cut off from the road to Warsaw, 
 and beaten at Kawno with the loss of 6,000 
 prisoners ; so that, whether they direct their 
 march to Konigsberg, or to the interior of 
 East Prussia, .and whether their number is 
 more, or less than 13,000 men, as long as 
 they march in a body, they will be pursued, 
 and must eventually surrender, or perish, be- 
 fore they reach the Vistula. It is impossible 
 for any, but the stragglers, to escape beyond 
 that river ; and the final doom of the melan- 
 choly remnant, now wandering at random, 
 will be fixed before the new year can witness 
 their misery. 
 
 The Baravian division, which was attached 
 to Oudinot's corps, has already surrendered to 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 147 
 
 major-general Kutuzow.* Regnier's corps 
 is also said to have been taken ; and Macdon- 
 ald, who had not moved from Courland, till 
 the 12th of December, was already inter- 
 cepted, and his Prussian troops remained 
 with the Russians : the rest, if there be any 
 left, will also fall into the hands of the con- 
 querors. The prince of Swartzenburg is the 
 only general, that may hope to save his men ; 
 but as these are altogether Austrians, they 
 are equally lost to Buonaparte. In short, 
 the French army, the most numerous, and 
 best appointed, that ever appeared, has been, 
 in a little more than five months, swept from 
 the earth. It exists no more,and is only remem- 
 bered by the awful traces it left behind ; by 
 the instructive lesson it has bequeathed to the 
 
 * This gallant officer, probably a relation of the 
 field-marshal's, succeeded in command the brave 
 Winzingerode, who was so active against Mojaisk, 
 and who retook Moskow ; but, urged by feelings 
 of humanity to spare the garrison, imprudently ad- 
 vanced to a parley, and was treacherously seized. 
 He was escorted by the French to Germany, when 
 colonel Tchernisheif, in his extraordinary expedition 
 from Volhynia to the Dwina, fell in with the escort^ 
 rescued the noble prisoner, and brought him to St. 
 Petersburgh. 
 
148 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 World, and by the manifest and wonderful in- 
 terposition of Providence, infavour of a people 
 struggling in defence of their just and sacred 
 rights. 
 
 It seems, as if the magnitude of object, and 
 the immensity of preparation, were only de- 
 signed to make failure and destruction pro- 
 portSonably extensive. No phenomenon was 
 ever so portentous in its beginning, and so 
 auspicious in its termination. Its first appear- 
 ance was that of a baleful comet, or the huge 
 eclipse, shedding " disastrous light" on the 
 affrighted world ; but its exit left a mild 
 and unexpected radiance behind, which re- 
 joices, and will continue to rejoice ? the now 
 respiring nations. No spectacle, at first so 
 dismal and terrible,was more magnificent in its 
 progress, and none was ever more brilliantly 
 closed. The very ground which, five months 
 since, had trembled beneath the daring and 
 lawless foot of the boasting, insulting, and re- 
 morseless invader, now reposes beneath the 
 congenial and well known tread of its legiti- 
 mate owners. Poland receives again the 
 Russian armies, and again sees their stan- 
 dards wave on her ramparts ; but she ex- 
 pects peace and happiness, and fears not to be 
 deceived. Instructed by the painful expert 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 149 
 
 ence of the past, she returns to the bosom of 
 her natural protector, with whom by custom, 
 religion, language, and the same origin, she 
 is closely and inseparably united.* Ku- 
 tuzow, who entered Wilna on the 12th, 
 forms the prominent character in this last and 
 truly sublime scene. He seems the centre 
 of motion, and the soul of action, while all 
 around him is rapidity, order, harmony, and 
 activity -, a combination of skill, discipline, 
 and zeal, which makes each agent, in his par- 
 ticular sphere, equally great, and which ren- 
 ders any comparison, or discrimination of 
 merit, impossible. All have done their duty ^ 
 all have deserved well of their country ; all 
 have commanded the world's admiration ; and 
 all, through the various changes of time, with 
 joy and gratitude will be remembered by 
 posterity. 
 
 Thus ends the most eventful tragedy that 
 ever w^s performed on the world's stage ; a 
 tragedy, where nations were spectators, where 
 upwards of 700,000 men appeared as actors, 
 where reality surpassed the poet's fruitful 
 imagination, and where the invisible hand, 
 which directed all, had disposed time, plot, 
 
 * It is a well known ct, that the Russian govern- 
 ment always has been the most popular in Poland* 
 
 N* 
 
150 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 and incidents according to the established, 
 and most approved rules of the drama. The 
 previous correspondence, and the proclama- 
 tion immediately preceding, form the pro- 
 logue to the bloody business. From the 
 middle of June, to the middle of August, the 
 various movements and manoeuvres, on both 
 sides, make up the first act, and lay the foun- 
 dation of the plot. From the 18th of August, 
 beginning with the battle of Smolensko, to 
 the 6th of September, is a second act ; where 
 the plot is rising, and beginning slowly to 
 shew itself. The third act commenced with 
 the horrid battle of Borodino, on the 7th 
 of September ; and though the change 
 of fortune has actually taken place ; yet 
 hopes and fears are so artfully balanced, 
 that the interest increases, and expectation 
 becomes more and more excited. The 
 fourth act begins with Murat's defeat on 
 the 18th of October, and the consequent 
 evacuation of Moskow. Here, the great 
 reverse assumes a decisive character ; the 
 plot is ripened into explosion ; the causes, 
 leading to the main catastrophe, are boldly 
 and openly brought into action ; incidents 
 thicken on incidents; events follow each other 
 in rapid and brilliant succession ; and the act 
 
SKETCH OF THE PKESEVF CAMPAIGN. 151 
 
 concludes with Buonaparte's entrance into 
 Smolensko, on the 9th of November. The 
 audience are now impatient for the fifth act ; 
 and at length it appears with the retreat from 
 Smolensko, and the destruction of Davoust 
 and Ney's corps, between the 17th and 18th 
 of November. This is, as it ought to be, by 
 far the busiest act. It impels the specta- 
 tors along, and, gathering strength in its ac- 
 celerated progress, it hurries them from scene 
 to scene, until they reach the final catastrophe, 
 scarcely sensible of the distance they have 
 traversed. Here they pause, and here the he- 
 ro of the piece delivers his last speech and 
 confession (29th bulletin) retires to die (polit- 
 ically) behind the scenes, and leaves the sub- 
 ordinate actors to shift for themselves ; who, 
 one by one, quit the stage, and go where they 
 can, stripped of their false ornaments, divest- 
 ed of their scenic grandeur, and restored to 
 their native and original obscurity. 
 
 If a recapitulation of the principal events, 
 and their effects, exhibited in the play, may 
 with propriety enter into an epilogue, the 
 tragedy in Poland will not be deficient in this 
 particular ; and here is the proof : 
 
152 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
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SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 155 
 
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154 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 The Russian returns seem to support this 
 calculation ; but though it is impossible to 
 make it accurate, without having all the items 
 at command, yet, as the number of killed, and 
 of those who perished by disease, famine, and 
 cold, is not extravagant in proportion to the 
 number of prisoners, which is more easily ascer- 
 tained, there cannot be any material error as 
 to the issue. The Russian accounts make 
 also the number of cannon taken somewhat 
 greater ; but the variation is not of sufficient 
 importance ; and it is better to fall short, than 
 to overrate the real amount. Waggons, bag- 
 gage, standards, colours, and other trophies, 
 taken in great quantities, could not be well 
 enumerated, and are accordingly omitted. 
 The loss of horses was not stated for the 
 same reason, though, according to the 29th 
 bulletin, 30,000 of them perished in a few 
 days, and though the total loss, throughout 
 this memorable campaign, could scarcely 
 have been less than 150,000 ; 170,000 horses 
 being the assumed proportion to 498,000 men, 
 the amount, according to some calculations, 
 of the whole French force, which is now no 
 more. The llth corps, under the duke of 
 Castiglione (Augereau,) is supposed to have 
 gone into Russian Poland at different times, to 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 155 
 
 reinforce the French armies. This supposition 
 is very probable, from the good state of the 
 French soldiers before the battle of Borissow^ 
 when they appeared quite fresh, and increased 
 the French force beyond what was warranted 
 by the knowledge of the small remains of the 
 main army, and of repeated defeats, which re- 
 duced Victor's and Oudinot's corps to almost 
 half their original numbers. If the llth corps 
 remained all this time in Prussia,then 400.000 
 men is not a sufficient estimate of the French 
 army ; and, in such case, this same corps, 
 distributed along the Vistula, might give pre- 
 text for stating the various positions* of the 
 
 * Paris papers pretend to give positions of the 
 different corps, as if they had actually escaped ; but 
 the slightest examination of the map will convince us 
 that, either these corps are mere skeletons, consisting 
 of a few officers, or that the statements are barefaced 
 fabrications. Macdonald's corps, for instance, is pla- 
 ced on the Niemen, when, by his own account, all his 
 Prussian troops had surrendered, or gone over ; and 
 they, as can be proved from the former bulletins, 
 composed his whole corps, with the exception of the 
 staff and officers. From Wilna, which the French 
 left on the 10th, to Warsaw, which is the nearest po- 
 sition stated, the distance is about 280 miles, and to 
 Marienwarder, the farthest position, about 420 miles. 
 The account is dated at Konigsburg on the 3 1st of 
 
156 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 grand army, that was. Such was Buona- 
 
 December ; allowing, therefore, 3 days for Berthier 
 to receive reports from the different corps, there re- 
 main only 17 days, to perform the march of 350 
 miles, taking that to be the average distance to the 
 Vistula. At a season so severe, a body of men, ex- 
 hausted and deprived of the proper means of convey- 
 ance, whose quickest march from the Beresina to 
 Wilna, was only at the rate of ten miles a day, when 
 comparatively in a better condition, never could go 
 over the distance of 350 miles, at the rate of more 
 than 20 miles a clay. It is impossible ; and the ne- 
 cessity of such a fabrication confirms, if any confir- 
 mation were wanting, the total annihilation of the 
 French armies. It is but a few weeks, since Paris 
 papers announced, that Victor was at Myr and Slonim, 
 and Buonaparte took Toula and Kaluga !!! 
 
 In proof of our statement of the numerical force 
 of the French grand army, as it entered Russia, we 
 give the names of the commanders of the 1 1 corps, 
 each of which consisted of between 30 and 40,000 men: 
 King of Naples (Murat, prince JoachimNapoleon.) 
 Viceroy of Italy (Prince Eugene Beauharnois.) 
 Prince Eckmuhl (Marshal Davoust.) 
 Duke of Belluno (Marshal Victor.) 
 Duke of Castiglione (Marshal Augereau.) 
 Duke of Dantzic (Marshal Lefebre.) 
 Duke of Elchingen (Marshal Ney.) 
 Duke of Istris (Marshal Bessiers.) 
 Duke of Reggio (Marsha! Ouclinot.) 
 Duke of Tarento (Marshal Macdonald.) 
 Duke of Treviso (Marshal Mortier.) 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN, 157 
 
 parte's own expression, when he announced 
 the annihilation of Moskow. 
 
 NOW that the spectators have retired 
 with different impressions, according to their 
 feelings, passions, and interest, it may not be 
 improper or presumptuous to cast a look 
 into futurity, and to discover, if possible, in 
 the regions of Time, as yet unexplored, the 
 different routes and paths, which various na- 
 tions will probably take, in consequence of 
 the great events they have witnessed. The 
 questions, which naturally suggest themselves) 
 are these : 
 
 1. How far will Russia follow up her suc- 
 cesses ? 
 
 2. What will be the conduct of the Euro- 
 pean nations ? 
 
 3. How far will Buonaparte be able to 
 check the Russians, and preserve his allies ? 
 
 FIRST, then, how far will Russia follow 
 lip her successes ? 
 
 The policy of Alexander is open and man- 
 ly, soaring above mean intrigue, and low 
 
 subterfuge. He honestly declared to the 
 o 
 
158 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN 
 
 world, that the restoration of the Prussian 
 monarchy to its independence and integrity 
 was essential to his interests, as it would 
 form a bar of separation between his and the 
 French empire. He also made it known 
 through Kutuzow, that no peace can, or shall 
 be made, until the French have repassed the 
 Vistula. Therefore, when it is considered, that 
 this comes from an emperor, who has just re- 
 deemed the pledge, given to his people, of 
 " never sheathing his sword, as long as a single 
 enemy remained on his territories ;" it cannot 
 be doubted, but he will pursue the enemy be- 
 yond the Vistula, to Berlin, and further, if 
 necessary, to rescue, in the first instance, the 
 king and kingdom of Prussia from thraldrom ; 
 and thus inflict a noble vengeance on the shade 
 of Frederic the Great, whose jealousies and 
 hatred of the Russian nation, and whose un- 
 worthy conduct towards the founder of the 
 Russian empire,* are an indelible stain on his 
 own memory. 
 
 * There is scarcely a story, ever so absurd and 
 humiliating to Peter the Great, which Frederic had 
 not invented or circulated, and forced into public be- 
 lief by the weight of his own authority and charac- 
 ter. It seems, he foresaw, that Peter's works would 
 prove much more solid than his own ; and full of en- 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAKiX. 159 
 
 The well-known disposition of Alexander, 
 whose ambition is,to be the pacificator, and not 
 the conqueror of the world ; his extreme id/ 
 luctance to shed human blood, even in cases 
 of necessity ; and the vast expenses and sac- 
 rifices attending a foreign war, might induce 
 us to believe, that he would not in an} 7 event 
 advance beyond the Elbe : but, on the other 
 hand, his wisdom, and the dearest interests of 
 his country, will not permit him to throw 
 away the advantages he has acquired ; to allow 
 the enemy to recover breath ; and be, at the 
 end, compelled to go through the same pro- 
 cess, in order to re-purchase the same advan- 
 tages. Delay, being favourable to the enemy, 
 is of course prejudicial to himself; and, in the 
 present circumstances, would be a griev- 
 ous fault, almost irreparable. It is probable, 
 therefore, that the Russian emperor will pur- 
 sue the war, until the Rhenish confederacy 
 is broken, the duke of Oldenburg restored to 
 his dominions, Holland rescued from her bon- 
 
 vy and malice, set every engine at work to defame 
 his deeds, and tarnish his character. The injury he 
 had thus committed on the Ynemory of a man, far 
 greater than himself, was so great, that not ail his 
 subsequent half-way recantations could ever repair if 
 
140 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 dage, all the ports in the north of Europe arc 
 opened to commerce, and an honourable, gen- 
 eral peace is obtained and established on a 
 permanent basis. 
 
 The Rhenish confederates, who groan un- 
 der French oppression, are mostly related to 
 the emperor. The dukes of Weimar, Baden, 
 Mecklenburg, and others, connected with him 
 by family ties, which nothing but the predom- 
 inant power of France could break for a mo- 
 ment, all entertain strong hopes and expecta- 
 tions of being delivered by him ; and he will 
 not abandon them, when Providence has now 
 bestowed on him the enviable power to save ; 
 and when not to save, would shew his uncon- 
 sciousness of his great destiny. He will pro- 
 tect them for the same reason, that he protects 
 the king of Prussia and the duke of Olden- 
 burg, who are likewise his relations. 
 
 As to his views of conquest, they do not 
 extend beyond Poland. It would, however, 
 be a just reward for his exertions, and a bene- 
 ficial exchange to the inhabitants themselves, 
 to leave him in possession of the country, as 
 far as the Vistula, and of the Austrian part^of 
 Poland, He might then proclaim himself 
 king of Poland, unite and consolidate the peo- 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 161 
 
 pie, and gratify their pride by shewing to the 
 world, that, as a nation, they are still in exist- 
 ence. It is of the partition of their country 
 among the different powers, separating, as it 
 were, brother from brother, and father from 
 son, and not of dependence upon anyone in 
 particular, that they have chiefly complained. 
 It is also certain, that, if they were left to their 
 own choice, they would unanimously prefer 
 the protection of Russia, because she is more 
 able to defend them ; and because her govern- 
 ment, wisely and mildly administered,was ren- 
 dered still more popular by local prejudices, 
 in her favour ; prejudices, which arise, as was 
 already mentioned, from the similarity of lan- 
 guage, customs, and other circumstances.* 
 
 * This has been amply proved in the last and 
 present campaign, when the attachment of the Polish 
 peasantry to Russia withstood Buonaparte's most al- 
 luring promises, and when defection could not be 
 extended beyond the circle of nobles, who by. the con- 
 quest of Poland lost their power of oppression, and, 
 under the surreptitious form of liberty, excited the 
 sympathies of the world in favour of themselves, in 
 favour of cruel and multiplied tyranny, which had 
 the power of life and death over every poor vassal, 
 subjected to their despotic sway. The placing of the 
 Polish upon the same footing with the Russian cerfs, 
 
 was in fact a deliverance, a comparative liberty and 
 O* 
 
162 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Prussia, for the loss of her part, might be easily 
 indemnified in Saxony, whose king, if we ex- 
 cept the elector of Bavaria, is the most attach- 
 ed toFrance,and therefore may justly be treated 
 like an enemy. Austria also, would think herself 
 amply paid, for the loss of her share, by the re- 
 covery of her German and Italian states, which 
 she can easily do with the assistance of Russia. 
 To shew, that such an event is the most proba- 
 ble, it is necessary to mention, that in the last 
 campaign (1806, 1807) general Beningsen, on 
 his own responsibility, wished to proclaim Al- 
 exander as king of Poland : and his not doing 
 so, though it was uncertain whether the empe- 
 ror would, or would not, sanction the project, 
 was considered by many, as an unfortunate 
 omission, 
 
 happiness to the former : for the Russian cerf is 
 protected in his life, his religion, and his personal 
 property ; and any violation of the laws, which thus 
 protect him, subjects the violator, whoever he be, to 
 the same punishment, as if the injury were done to his 
 equal. In truth, the Russian cerf is only a tenant 
 for life : and even this restriction is now removing 
 by a gradual and wisely arranged system of emanci- 
 pation. Poland, therefore, in being conquered, has 
 been rescued from tyranny and miseries unexampled, 
 and, were it now in her power, nothing would induce 
 her to resume her former: condition. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 163 
 
 SECONDLY, what will be the conduct of the 
 European nations ? 
 
 Prussia will unquestionably join Russia, 
 both from good will, and from the force of 
 circumstances. From France she experien- 
 ced nothing but disgrace and oppression ; 
 from Russia, she has known nothing but kind- 
 ness and friendship, and now from her alone 
 she can expect safety, protection, and the res- 
 toration of her lost independence. She cannot 
 hesitate for a moment between a deadly foe, 
 who has thirsted for her ruin, and a faithful 
 friend, who has shed his blood in her defence. 
 The Prussians hold the French in abhor- 
 rence ; they do not think themselves fairly con- 
 quered ; and pant for an opportunity of vindi- 
 cating that military character, for which they 
 were so celebrated in Frederic's time, and 
 the supposed loss of which is most galling to 
 their pride a source of constant humiliation, 
 to remove which they would spare neither 
 blood nor treasure. 
 
 They are not, besides, 'corrupted by 
 French influence, like their German brethren ; 
 and sStill have virtue, talent, and patriotism 
 enough to deliver their country from ignomin- 
 ious bondage. They want but an impulse, 
 and Russia is destined to give it. D'Yorke's 
 
164 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 convention with the Russian general, is a cer- 
 tain pledge of their hearty co-operation in their 
 own cause, and it is not in the power of Buon- 
 aparte to check them. If he restores their 
 king, the presence of their sovereign, whose 
 present language is only the language of re- 
 straint, not of the heart, will animate them to 
 greater exertion ; but if the tyrant should re- 
 move him, they will be the more incensed, 
 and stimulated to revenge. Be it as it may, 
 they will receive the Russians as friends and 
 brothers, and will open to them their towns, 
 their houses, and their arms, with most cordial 
 welcome. Memel has already shewn the ex- 
 ample ; Konigsberg, Dantzic, and other towns 
 will shortly follow it ; and not a single Prus- 
 sian will, from choice, appear in arms against 
 his country's deliverers. The king, if he ever 
 should escape from the French guard, placed 
 over him, will prove worthy of his subjects, and 
 largely share in their ardour and sympathies. 
 If he ever erred,his misfortunes are a sufficient 
 expiation; and his personal attachment to the 
 emperor of Russia, strengthened by mutual 
 esteem and consanguinity, -will not suffer him 
 to relapse. It is true, however, that, like oth- 
 er men whom fortune has forsaken, he was 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 165 
 
 censured with more asperity than justice, 
 and was altogether denounced for the trans- 
 gressions of his father, who, it cannot be deni- 
 ed, did not faithfully adhere to his engage- 
 ments, and was in every respect a different 
 character. The present king, whatever may 
 be the standard of his talents, yields to none 
 in probity and honour. The downfall of the 
 coalition in 1805, so uniformly and unjustly 
 attributed to him, originated altogether with 
 Austria, whose premature opening of the 
 eampaign,and impolitic invasion of Bavaria, 
 which terminated in the cowardly and treach- 
 erous surrender of Mack, made it impossible 
 for the Prussians to arrive seasonably enough to 
 retrieve the destructive state of affairs. The 
 field, in fact, was taken long before the time 
 stipulated between the coalesced powers ; and 
 though the Russians, by forced marches, came 
 up sooner, yet the battle of Austerlitz, and the 
 weakness (not to say perfidy) of the Austrian 
 councils had decided the contest, before the 
 king of Prussia arrived. It was his sincerity 
 in the common cause, that provoked all his 
 subsequent disasters, by incensing Buona- 
 parte, and exciting him to that dreadful ven- 
 geance, which, in a short time, made Prussia 
 a dependent and mutilated state, and her mon- 
 
166 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN'. 
 
 arch a beggar and a prisoner. The principal 
 error this unfortunate king committed, was 
 precisely the same which, on the part of Aus- 
 tria, had ruined the above coalition ; that is, 
 being too confident, or too eager for glory to 
 divide it with the Russians, he met the ene- 
 my, before they came to his assistance. Ex- 
 perience has taught him now the value of his 
 friends ; and henceforth he will place implicit 
 confidence in their councils and professions. 
 It is only, as their steady and faithful adherent, 
 that he can preserve the interest and the safety 
 of his country. If he should however be carried 
 off, a measure rather probable in Buonaparte's 
 present desperate condition, Prussia, even by 
 a stronger link, will be united to the destinies 
 of Russia. 
 
 With regard to AUSTRIA, it is evident, 
 from the preceding paragraph, that a conjec- 
 ture on her future conduct would be very 
 hazardous ; not because a princess of her 
 house is married to Buonaparte this relation- 
 ship is more likely to prove a source of dis- 
 cord ; or, if not, Alexander's influence, from 
 the same source, is more than equal in Ger- 
 many but because,undcr the long and habit- 
 ual ascendency of the French, her sense of 
 honour is deadened, and she has, by degrees, 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 16f 
 
 accustomed herself to hear the clanking of her 
 chains with comparative indifference. Her 
 spirit is broken ; and she is in the situation of 
 a slave, who, instead of resisting the tyrant 
 that lashes him, finds his only consolation in 
 seeing others suffer like himself. She re- 
 sembles an abandoned woman, who hates 
 chastity in others, merely because she has lost 
 her own ; and it is therefore probable, that 
 the successes of the Russians, by reminding 
 her of her own defeats, may give her more 
 pain, than even the deep wounds which Buon- 
 aparte has inflicted on her. She cannot be 
 unconscious, that she is the principal cause of 
 her own and Europe's prostration, and may 
 prefer, perhaps, to fall rather by her own hand, 
 than be raised by that of another. The more 
 she knows her own defects, the more she 
 wishes to have them concealed, and the 
 greater is her mortification in being reminded 
 of them by strangers. Being the nearest of 
 the great continental powers, she was first 
 of all assailed with the poison of the French 
 revolution, with every subsequent exhala- 
 tion from that hot-bed of corruption ; and the 
 effect was no where so rapid, and so fatally 
 extensive. Her government, in a short time, 
 became a putrid mass, which infected all with- 
 
163 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 in its reach : and her nobles fell so low, from 
 their former pride and dignity, that a princess 
 of the imperial house stooped voluntarily, 
 nay, thought it an honour* to offer her person 
 to the polluted embrace of a vile usurper, 
 robber, and murderer ; while a prince, her 
 relation, and formerly a hero,f presided at the 
 
 * Louisa Theresa is said to have loved Buonaparte 
 before she saw him ! ! The Russian princess, 
 whom he first solicited, rejected him with indignation ; 
 and her conduct was approved by her mother (the 
 empress dowager) and her imperial brother. 
 
 t The Archduke Charles, who degraded himself for- 
 ever, by thus administering to the tyrant's ambition 
 and lustful pleasures. He, at least, might have de- 
 clined the office. What a contrast is this to the be- 
 haviour of the Russian generals ? After the peace 
 of Tilsitz, Buonaparte expressed a wish to see the 
 celebrated Beningsen, who so successfully opposed 
 him ; and being refused, he sent him the order of 
 the legion of honour, which the latter immediately 
 returned with this emphatic reply, " I am not con- 
 scious of having done any thing to deserve this honour." 
 
 Several French generals and officers wished also 
 to pay their respects to the venerable Platow, het* 
 man of the Cozaks ; but when they approached his 
 tent, and requested his permission to enter, he sent 
 them the following answer : " There may be peace 
 and friendship between the sovereign my master, 
 and the French emperor ; but there is no peace and 
 friendship between me and Frenchmen." Accord- 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 169 
 
 unhallowed rites, and personated the monster, 
 to whom she was sacrificed. It is true, that 
 this humiliation was not instantaneous, and 
 the remaining spirit of ambition occasionally 
 broke out in open resistance ; but it was the 
 struggle of a person, who expects to sink, and 
 who takes up arms with no resolution to per- 
 severe, and with no hopes to conquer, but 
 rather with a view to reconcile himself and 
 others to his final submission. It was the im- 
 pulse of the moment, subsiding almost as soon 
 as it was excited. Austria began sometimes 
 too soon, sometimes too late ; but always 
 finished at the critical moment, when it was 
 ruin not to go on. She slept on the high way; 
 awoke only with the rude shake of the intrud- 
 ing traveller ; and, at each interval, when he 
 relaxed his hold, she reclosed her eyes, and 
 dreamed away the time, which she should have 
 employed in activity.* There was a want 
 
 ingly, they were all turned off without seeing the he- 
 ro, except on the field of battle. The shrugging of 
 a shoulder, and " C'est un barbare," were the only 
 palliatives to their mortification. 
 
 * As an instance of this apathy, it has been said, 
 
 and generally believed, that while Alexander was 
 
 exposing his person in the cause of his friend, the 
 
 emperor of Austria, in .the battle of Austeriitz, the 
 
 P 
 
IrO SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 of foresight in her councils, languor in her 
 efforts, heaviness in her motion, unsteadiness 
 in her designs, and weakness in the execution. 
 Instead of forming a circle round her, which 
 none should approach with impunity, or of 
 being the lion in his own forest, she waited 
 till she was trod upon, and contented herself 
 with a temporary display of impotent anger, 
 tending to encourage, rather than repel, the 
 lawless aggressor. In short, insolence in 
 prosperity, meanness in adversity, and perfidy 
 in both,* have for the last fifteen years charac- 
 
 good emperor himself was seated on a beautiful 
 verdant bank, and amused himself the \vhole day 
 with fishing, until his sport was interrupted by the 
 unwelcome news of the battle having terminated 
 rather differently from what he expected ! 
 
 * Lest this language should be deemed too severe, 
 and not founded on justice, the reader must be re- 
 minded, that it was insolence^ which made her grasp 
 at conquests in Italy, when the Russians became 
 masters of that country in 1799 ; that it was mean- 
 ness, which made her since submit with patience to 
 every indignity from France ; that it was fierfidy in 
 firosfierity, which made her desert Suwarow in Swit- 
 zerland; and that it w&sfierjidy in acfoerszV?/, which made 
 her an indifferent spectator of the last, and an enemy 
 in the present contest in Poland ; a contest, which 
 threatened destruction to the generous ally, who 
 mover yet appeared in arms against her, but readily 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. l7l 
 
 terised her political conduct. Upon the score 
 of friendship, therefore, of good policy, or of 
 
 and repeatedly shed his best blood in her defence ; a 
 contest, in which she had it twice in her power, for 
 she was not, like Prussia, disabled, subdued, and 
 chained to the conqueror's car, to decide the fate of 
 Buonaparte, by interposing her force between him 
 and France ; a contest, indeed, the successful issue of 
 which would have sealed her own total and instanta- 
 neous annihilation ; and, therefore, by sacrilegiously 
 contributing her aid to it, she added madness to per- 
 fidy. But her base ingratitude to Suwarow, to him 
 who had saved her army on the river Rimnick from 
 certain destruction, and by whose arms she had re- 
 covered all Italy in one summer, never can, never 
 will, never ought to be forgotten. By mean intrigue, 
 she snatched him from the arms of victory in Italy, 
 and sent him over to Switzerland, at a most unfa- 
 vourable season, without provision, artillery, or 
 even draught horses, so that he was forced to employ 
 his cavalry for that purpose. For all these necessa- 
 ries, he was referred from town to town ; but every 
 where found nothing, but empty promises. To fin- 
 ish the whole, and to prove, that he was sent express- 
 ly to be sacrificed, the Austrian troops withdrew 
 from Zurich before he came there, treacherous- 
 ly abandoning the position, which it was under- 
 stood they would maintain until his arrival. In con- 
 sequence of this, he found himself, at the head of 
 16,000 men, surrounded by a French army of 
 at least 60,000, amidst mountains, and in narrow de- 
 files, where there was no path to choose, where eve- 
 
172 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 honour, nothing can be expected from her. It 
 is as likely, that she may take the part of her 
 direct foe against her best friend, as that she 
 may join the latter against the former. It is 
 
 ry pass was occupied by the enemy, and not above 
 four men abreast could march forward. Nothing but 
 Providence and his genius could have rescued him 
 from such a perilous situation ; and by these he was 
 rescued. His victorious and matchless retreat, by 
 far the most brilliant of his achievements, made him 
 conqueror of the French even after his death, by the 
 contrast it left to the miserable, disgraceful, and 
 destructive flight of the boaster, who has since, like 
 him, been called Invincible," but not, like him* 
 worthy of the title. Suwarow, anticipating a speedy 
 dissolution of the coalition, if the treacherous pro- 
 ceedings of Austria were divulged, concealed them as 
 long as was possible ; and his doing so was the chief 
 cause of the emperor Paul's displeasure. But when 
 the Austrian cabinet, perceiving the Russians upon the 
 retreat, became sensible of its folly, and archduke 
 Charles was commissioned to propitiate Paul, through 
 the medium of the Russian commander ; the first 
 time that the archduke requested an interview, Su- 
 warow replied, " At Vienna I shall throw myself at 
 his highness's feet, but here, I am field marshal like 
 himself ; only much older :" and when the second 
 request was made, he drily said, " An old soldier like 
 myself, can only once be deceived ;" and put an end 
 to all expectations of his interference. 
 
 Of baron Thugut, the prime minister, and the sup- 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 173 
 
 equally probable, that her jealousy of Russia's 
 future progress may overbalance the pain 
 and mortification from the already experien- 
 
 posed cause of Austrian duplicity, Suwarow observed, 
 in one of his rhyming humours, 
 " He, worse than all the rest, 
 Keeps scribbling in his nest, 
 And thinks to do by writing, 
 What must be done by fighting." 
 The manner in which every treacherous attempt 
 turned to the advantage of Russia, and to the pun- 
 ishment of her false friend, shews the interposition 
 of Providence so clearly, that some instances deserve 
 to be mentioned here : 
 
 The desertion of Suwarow by the Austrians in- 
 creased his glory, and that of the Russian arms. 
 
 His death, accelerated by the chagrin of being 
 obliged, through the machinations of Austria, to 
 abandon the object of his brilliant, laborious cam- 
 paign, shewed the world, that Russia possessed 
 more than one great general. 
 
 The very French army, from the pursuit of which 
 Suwarow was prematurely recalled to Switzerland, 
 and whose destruction was thus left unfinished, de- 
 prived Austria, the next spring, at once of her 
 conquests and glory, on the plains of Marengo. 
 
 The ungenerous conduct of all the continental na- 
 tions, and chiefly of Austria, in forsaking Russia at 
 the moment of danger, only made the latter reap the 
 full harvest of glory, and possess the undivided 
 spoils of victory. 
 P* 
 
174 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 ced progress of France; and that she may 
 trust to the false promises of Buonaparte, more 
 than to the sincerity of Alexander, who has 
 never yet deceived any one. Some other 
 clue must, therefore, be found to her future 
 policy, and the probable conduct she may 
 adopt. It can only be found in her fears, 
 and in her inability to check the progress of 
 the Russians. Prussia, by operating against 
 her on one side, and Turkey on the other, 
 will confine her entirely to the defence of her 
 own territory ; and enable Russia to bend her 
 whole force to the prosecution of the war with 
 France. If Austria therefore takes the part 
 of France, her Polish possessions will be lost 
 without an equivalent : but if she thinks, that 
 her arms furnish better means to repossess 
 herself of the Italian states, and extend her 
 power to the Mediterranean, an object of 
 great interest to her, she will joinRussia,and 
 be, for once, on the right side of the question. 
 This is certainly the course of wisdom ; for 
 with Russia she can be what she was, and 
 with France she will be less than she is. Nev- 
 ertheless, as she may not wish to assist Rus- 
 sia, and will not dare to oppose her ; and as she 
 may hope, while the two great nations are 
 contending, to recover breath, and thus by de- 
 
SK&TCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 175 
 
 grees regain her importance among the na- 
 tions, the most probable conclusion is, that 
 she will remain neutral. 
 
 SWEDEN will pursue the same course ; be- 
 cause, in a country where a legitimate sov- 
 ereign was deposed on account of his warlike 
 disposition, a stranger, who succeeded him, 
 must altogether depend for his popularity on 
 his undeviating preference of peace. England 
 and Russia understood well the situation of 
 Bernadotte, and appeared perfectly satisfied 
 with his neutrality, as long as he made dem- 
 onstrations, which he did, of invading Germa- 
 ny, and thus, by distracting the force and at- 
 tention of the French, produced as much ef- 
 fect as, if he had actually embarked in the 
 projected expedition. If Sweden, however, 
 wishes to recover Pomerania, she must, of ne- 
 cessity, act with Russia and England : in- 
 deed, from her geographical situation, she has 
 no other choice than to be the ally of both, 
 and no other chance of prosperity. 
 
 DENMARK, whether she wishes, or not, 
 must follow in the train of the northern pow- 
 ers ; she will however wait, as long as she 
 can, to see which side is likely to prevail in 
 Germany. She has been a mere tool, a min. 
 iature of France and the satellite of Buona- 
 
176 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 parte, whose acts of plunder and piracy she 
 has been aping to the utmost of her insignifi- 
 cant power. It is of very little consequence 
 which way she goes,provided she does not con- 
 tinue privateering against the commercial prop- 
 erty in the Baltic for then she will find, to 
 her cost, that her power of doing mischief 
 is of short duration ; and that Holstein and 
 Norway, perchance, may be disposed of, not 
 exactly to her liking. 
 
 The RHENISH CONFEDERATION, or prin- 
 ces composing it, tho' they are tired of being 
 less than the prefects of Buonaparte, though 
 they hail with joy their prospect of deliverance, 
 and are inclined, from family connexions as 
 well as other motives, to favour the Russian 
 interest > are so weak, that they w r ill not dare 
 to stir, until the French shall have left them, or 
 the Prussians, if not Russians, shall have en- 
 tered their territories. Then they certainly 
 will. The fallen tyrant of Europe, as he re- 
 cedes towards France, will multiply his ene- 
 emies ; and Russia will find new friends, as 
 she advances from her own territories. 
 
 TURKEY, by her recent conduct, has most 
 unequivocally shewn her preference of Rus- 
 sian to French alliance ; and was the only 
 power, that did not desert Russia. As there 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 177 
 
 is no doubt but her adherence to the Russian 
 cause proceeded from an anticipation of its 
 success ; such adherence must be now 
 strengthened by the fears of provoking the 
 prodigiously augmented power of Russia ; 
 and by a desire of conciliating her emperor, 
 who knows how to estimate and remem- 
 ber good offices. The Turkish divan are 
 perfectly acquainted with the character of 
 Alexander ; and are aware, that to be upon 
 friendly terms with him is their best security ; 
 and that, as long as they do not compel him 
 to measures of hostility, he will not in- 
 jure them. For these reasons, Turkey cer- 
 tainly will be on the side of Russia ; and, as 
 was before observed, will take the field, 
 and is actually engaged, by treaty, to take it 
 against Austria, the moment the latter should 
 make a serious demonstration against Rus- 
 sia. If Austria, contrary to all expecta- 
 tion, should join France, the whole of Europe 
 will be in flames, and divided into two parties ; 
 that is, France and Austria, on one side, will 
 have to contend with Russia, Prussia, Tur- 
 key, and perhaps Sweden on the other ; Aus- 
 tria, however, with all her imprudence, is not 
 likely to take such a step. 
 
178 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Of GREAT-BRITAIN very little can be said; 
 her policy and conduct being less subject to 
 change and speculation. She is the natural 
 ally of Russia, and profits, more than any oth- 
 er power, by the Russian successes. All her 
 channels of European commerce will be re- 
 stored ; and her prosperity, from the inter- 
 course with the continent, will be revived 
 with greater vigour than ever, as the tyranny 
 of the French, and the desolation caused by 
 their wars and decrees, have annihilated conti- 
 nental manufactures, and therefore prodigious- 
 ly increased the demand upon England. The 
 groundwork of the restrictive system, operating 
 against her, will be entirely destroyed ; and it 
 will be completely in her power, by using her 
 advantages with wisdom and moderation, by 
 adding to her own naval power the influence 
 or mediation of Russia, to turn her enemies 
 to friends, or to entail on them exclusively all 
 the losses and calamities of war. 
 
 THE LAST QUESTION, how far France 
 will be able to check the progress of the Rus- 
 sians? it would take a volume to answer. Suf- 
 fice it therefore to observe, that France is not in 
 a condition to exert herself with her former 
 success. The incessant and ruinous wars, in 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 179 
 
 which she has been for a series of years in- 
 volved ; the enormous and wanton waste of 
 blood and treasure ; the total stagnation of 
 commerce, and the consequent reduction of 
 her national resources, at the moment when 
 her necessities have increased in double pro- 
 portion ; have so embarrassed her finances, and 
 exhausted her effective population, as to render 
 her efforts comparatively feeble, and unavail- 
 ing. This is no dream, no rash, vain, and 
 extravagant anticipation ; but an absolute 
 fact, which the first trial will establish beyond 
 all possibility of doubting. It will soon be 
 seen,that she is not half so able now to defend 
 herself, even at home, as she was ten years 
 ago. It will be seen, that her brilliant career, 
 rich in unsubstantial triumphs, but poor in 
 solid advantages, was undermining her vital 
 strength, and propelling her back to relative 
 impotence. It will be seen, that, by persecu- 
 ting commerce, she has punished herself 
 much more, than her tributary nations infi- 
 nitely more than England and has inflicted a 
 fatal blow on her own prosperity. The sys- 
 tem of exaggeration,* for many years success* 
 
 * Mr. D'Invernois, in his " Napoleon 1'adminis- 
 trateur," incontestibly proves from official sources, 
 from the payment actually made, that the French ar- 
 
180 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 fully pursued by her which overawed the 
 weak and timid, checked the strong and dar- 
 ing, and imposed upon the world at large 
 cannot last for ever ; and the illusion it crea- 
 ted will soon be broken, when her real 
 strength will appear much below its general 
 estimate. There was an artificial splendour 
 thrown around her, which bedazzled the 
 mind, and diverted it from contemplating the 
 substance itself. She appeared like some ob- 
 ject looming at sea, and diminishing in size as 
 it is approached ; or, to speak more pointed- 
 ly, she was in the state of the human body, 
 diseased with dropsy, where the enlargement 
 of external parts was mistaken For a symptom 
 of health and vigour. 
 
 mies, so often announced at 800,000 men, never ex- 
 ceeded 400,000 men ; thut, though their annual 
 maintainance increased in expense, owing to the de- 
 preciation of property, their numerical or effective 
 strength was not augmented ; and that, consequent- 
 ly, the military power of France was not greater then, 
 (before the last campaign,) than it was in the time of 
 Louis XIV. The aid of the allies, or rather the 
 vassals, may have swelled the number in appear- 
 ance ; but this is an aid, that requires as much to get 
 and keep it, as it is worth ; and is apt, as Buonaparte 
 soon will find, to break out in ulcers all over the 
 body. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 181 
 
 Her conscriptive system, the parent of 
 fallacious theories! which, even in the eyes 
 of distinguished men, men whose talents and 
 labours are an honour to their country, gave 
 her a magic superiority over all the rest, was 
 only the effect of unnatural irritation ; produ- 
 cing an extraordinary exertion, which must 
 inevitably be followed by correspondent lassi- 
 tude and weakness. It was the speed of a 
 race-horse, galled by the spur, or excited by 
 ambition, beating all the rest upon a short 
 distance, but finally giving way to a common 
 well-conditioned animal, proceeding with his 
 regular pace. A vast body of water can only 
 be kept together by an equilibrium, or by its 
 outlet being proportionate to its inlet ; but if, 
 by the breaking down of the bank, or any oth- 
 er cause creating an unusual impulse, its reg- 
 ular channel of egress should swell into an 
 overwhelming torrent, the streams, which feed 
 the main body, cannot supply the deficiency 
 quick enough, and the whole must be,sooner 
 
 t It is singular, that those, who, upon such theories, 
 supported the irresistibility of France, had entirely 
 overlooked that in Prussia the same system was rig- 
 orously and habitually enforced ; and yet no other 
 power, that pretended to military distinction, was ev- 
 er so easily and rapidly overthrown. 
 
I2 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 or later exhausted. So it is with the French 
 conscription, which becomes less and less 
 productive every year. In ordinary times it 
 has only been sufficient to repair the annual 
 losses of the army ; and in the late terri- 
 ble, though, in appearance, most prosperous 
 wars, it could only supply the deficiency by 
 anticipation. How impoverished then, and 
 how inadequate must be this source, after such 
 a campaign^ as the last ; a campaign, which 
 must accelerate the issue of the previous con- 
 current and debilitating causes ; terminate the 
 feverish energy, imparted by the revolution ; 
 throw France back> weak and exhausted after 
 the paroxysm, into her natural state ; and to pro- 
 duce that consummation of disasters, which 
 she was for some time approaching, but which 
 was hid from the inattentive spectator, by the 
 imposing splendour of her triumphs. 
 
 The consummation of disasters is not meant 
 here to imply the downfall and total dissolu- 
 tion of France ; but that critical state, in which, 
 her wings being clipped, and her claws 
 drawn out, the whole body is so enfeebled, 
 that years of peace and rest can only restore 
 her, and one violent attack more would be fa- 
 tal to her existence. The nation, which could 
 
SKETCH OF THi; PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 183 
 
 bear so much reduction, must still be strong, 
 like a man of robust constitution, who may 
 even in his illness overcome a healthy adver- 
 sary of weaker frame ; nevertheless, her pow- 
 er of conquest is destroyed, and her ability to 
 defend herself is so far impaired, as to render 
 her safety doubtful, and the capture of Paris 
 by the Russians much more probable, than the 
 marching of the French to St. Petersburgh. 
 For it cannot be doubted, but the Russians, in 
 case France persists in rejecting all terms of 
 accommodation, will pursue her broken le- 
 gions, even to her capital to the very heart 
 of her own empire. If they do so, and they 
 must, unless peace prevents them ; they must 
 conquer in spite of all predictions to the con- 
 trary, as the chances are reversed, and doubled 
 in their favour. France, in 1 799, was much 
 stronger than she is now, and her armies 
 were entire ; and yet the Russians, who invad- 
 ed her at that time, were prevented from 
 marching to Paris, merely by a disagreement 
 between Paul and the Austrian cabinet. Her 
 resistance, therefore, would be feeble indeed, 
 when, besides the invading force being ten 
 times greater, her own resources are dimin- 
 ished, and her armies swept from the face of 
 the earth. 
 
184 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 France cannot recover her loss in Poland. 
 It is not merely the men, who composed her 
 army, that she has lost ; but all the physical 
 and moral means, indispensable for its sup- 
 port, were also destroyed. It was a nation 
 sunk at once. It was embarking the capital 
 and the interest in a hazardous voyage, on 
 which no insurance was made, but all was 
 trusted to the superior strength of the vessel ; 
 and then losing both by a sudden wreck, 
 from which neither planks enough to build a 
 boat, nor men enough to navigate it, could 
 be saved. The ruined merchant, however, 
 has in this case, so far the advantage, that, if 
 his credit be good at home, he may get as- 
 sistance, embark in some new enterprize, and 
 by one lucky turn, recover all ; whereas 
 France, whose finances are too embarrassed to 
 relieve her poverty, has no credit whatever. 
 Who will trust her ? Of whom will she bor- 
 row, when her own merchants are ruined, and 
 and when strangers, whom she affects to 
 consider as friends, no longer dread her power, 
 which had already extorted from them the 
 greatest part of their property ? Will the 
 runaway dukes and marshals open their pri- 
 vate purses, and will Napoleon, or his rapa- 
 cious ex-empressJosephine, empty the treasure 
 
SKBTCII OF THE PitKS^XT CAMPAIGN. 185 
 
 out of their private coffers? They may do 
 so, rather than be driven from their " bud 
 eminence ;" but the resource is precarious, 
 insufficient, and at best, of a transient nature. 
 Unless, therefore, Buonaparte has the magic 
 power to make war without money, call up 
 his dead warriors from their graves in Poland, 
 or create new ones, by sowing the dragon's 
 teeth upon the field ; he can as easily stop the 
 motion of the earth, as check the progress of 
 the Russians, or, by preserving his allies, pre- 
 serve his own power.* Peace, speedy peace, 
 is his only remedy. 
 
 * Buonaparte's plain intimation, that he cannot 
 well defend himself, without the assistance of his al- 
 lies, is contained in the following extract from the 
 report of the French minister of exterior relations, 
 dated Paris, January 9th. " With the garrisons of 
 places in France and Italy, your majesty has there- 
 fore, in the interior of your states-, a force more than 
 sufficient to maintain the war with Russia for the 
 ajifir caching campaign ; and your intention, sire, was 
 not deemed any extraordinary assistance, if all your 
 allies, and especially Austria, Denmark, and Prussia, 
 remained faithful to the common cause" 
 
 The words Italy and states, mean, that France is 
 obliged to speculate on the assistance of nations con- 
 quered by her ; a most promising speculation ! I 
 The words, sufficient , with /taw/0, (instead of in Rus~ 
 
186 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 That he will endeavour to make a show of 
 force, in hopes of keeping his allies in awe, is 
 most certain ; but that he will dare to meet 
 the Russians half way, or that he can expect to 
 frighten them from their purpose, whatever it 
 may be, is extremely improbable. What 
 force can he now bring against them into the 
 field, with any prospect of success ? Of the 
 
 sia) afifiroaching) and extraordinary^ are all so many 
 admissions, that France apprehends an attack upon 
 herself, and dares not even think of an offensive 
 war. Indeed, since Buonaparte's return, he has not 
 given the least hint of such an event being contem- 
 plated, or even considered as possible. 
 
 The remaining part of the extract is a volume of 
 open confessions, and places the safety of France on 
 a contingency, which cannot, and will not take 
 place. What right has Napoleon to expect, that nations 
 trampled on by him, will continue faithful to hisinter- 
 est, when they can trample upon him in turn ; or 
 hat they have more dffection for their ruthless op- 
 pressor, than for their deliverer ? He may be as- 
 sured, that interest and natural passions are the same 
 in nations, as in individuals ; and that if his safety de- 
 pend upon Prussia, Denmark, and Austria, he is 
 gone past all recovery. His quick sensibility as to 
 Austria, and his extreme solicitude to convince the 
 world, that she received the British ambassador with 
 coolness, show his great fears of her desertion, and 
 even of her joining Russia in open war. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. l8f 
 
 whole French army, never materially exceed- 
 ing 400.000 men, 250,000 (the stated pro- 
 portion of Frenchmen) sacrificed in Po- 
 land ; 100,000 toiling in Spain ; and about 
 50,000 dispersed in various parts of Germany 
 and Italy, to keep the faithful allies in obedi- 
 ence, make up the whole number, and leave 
 scarcely the substance of a regular army in the 
 interior of France. The Spanish war, which 
 was undermining his resources, even before 
 he went to Russia, by being a constant and 
 heavy expense to him, without any plunder 
 in return, to enable him, as was the case in 
 other places, to rivet the chains of slavery by 
 the hands of the victims themselves ; must 
 still employ his famishing troops there, and 
 he dares not, at least, will not, recal them, 
 until he is driven to the last extremity of 
 confessing to the world the real incom- 
 petency of his means at home. He knows 
 too well, that by such a step, he would invite 
 lord Wellington's attack upon some vital 
 parts of France ; and therefore thinks it best 
 to defend himself in Spain ; cunningly turn- 
 ing the measure of necessity into an appear- 
 ance of defiance and triumph. The recal of 
 troops from that country, would be the most 
 conclusive, and the greatest proof imaginable. 
 
.18S SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPA1G M 
 
 of his despair, and of his want of confidence 
 in his 350,000 conscriptsand militia men, so ex- 
 ultingly announced in all the papers. 350,000 
 men, and no more, when a great " display of 
 force"* is so indispensable and when, ac- 
 cording to the constant practice of exaggera- 
 ting in prosperous times, and with less mo- 
 tive, the whole must have been estimated, at 
 least, one half above its real number is a piti- 
 ful force, and a terrible falling off from the 
 800,000 men,that had so often appeared on pa- 
 per, and made the world tremble. But let him 
 
 * In the same report of January 9th, the French 
 minister expressly says : " By this immense display 
 of forces, the interest, the consequence of France, 
 and the safety of its allies^ will be guarded against 
 alt > t's," implying thereby, the repetition of the 
 preceding sentiments and apprehensions, that the 
 safety of France is endangered ; that the faith of the 
 allies is insecure; and that France can scarcely hope to 
 defend herself at home against the storm which 
 threatens her. 
 
 As soon, indeed, as Buonaparte returned, the sen- 
 ate, in their address to him, on the 25th of December, 
 spoke of the zeal of Frenchmen being capable " to 
 snatch from the influence of their enemies, the dif- 
 ferent parts of the continent ;" which is a fair ac- 
 knowledgment, that the continent is, or will be lost to 
 them, in consequence of their inability to resist the 
 Victorious arms of the Russians. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 1S9 
 
 have it all as he states it ; let it be supposed 
 probable, that a man, who never told truth 
 when falsehood was altogether unprofitable, 
 should tell truth now, when falsehood is so es- 
 sential to his interest ; and what then ? Is 
 his militia, pompously called " cohorts," 
 and intended only for home defence, but now 
 forced to make an offer of their services for 
 other purposes, any proof of his being well 
 provided with regular troops, or of his being 
 able and willing to march against the Russians 
 far beyond his own frontiers ? Or are his 
 conscripts, forming the remainder, mere 
 boys, and raw recruits, the specimen of the 
 immense effective force still left him ? Can 
 these, with their looks, appal the victorious 
 veterans ? Will he dare to meet, can he hope 
 to overcome the Russian warriors, who have 
 destroyed his best troops, with these beard- 
 less striplings ; who, unless prevented by the 
 bayonet behind, will run away at the sight of 
 a Cozak ? No ! He must first raise them, 
 then drill them, and ask the Russians not to 
 kill the poor creatures, until they are grown 
 in size and discipline. 
 
 To RAISE THEM in numbers sufficient to 
 fill up the dreadful chasm, made by the last 
 campaign, is impracticable, on account of the 
 
190 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 previous great scarcity of young men, caused 
 by the merciless scythe of war and conscrip- 
 tion. But, supposing it to be practicable, the 
 measure itself is a very hazardous experiment, 
 being peculiarly oppressive at this moment. 
 The loss of 250,000 men, in so short a time, 
 must have made mourners of many parents ; 
 and yet, while their hearts are bleeding with 
 the wounds just inflicted, they are called upon 
 to deliver up their remaining sons to the same 
 untimely and horrible fate. It is not in 
 human nature to bear such misery with pa- 
 tience ; and there is no sacrifice, no self-de- 
 votion of which a parent is not capable, in de- 
 fence of his offspring. The young men too 
 must enter the service with prospects and 
 emotions very different from those, which 
 heretofore were wont to animate them. Their 
 confidence in their chief is now destroyed ; 
 and the magic spell of his name, which decoy- 
 ed them to the jaws of death, while it petrified 
 their enemies, is now dissolved forever. He 
 has been so completely disgraced, compelled 
 to so infamous a flight for there was nothing 
 in his retrograde progress deserving the 
 name of retreat that of his former military 
 reputation, he has not saved enough to assure 
 the soldier, that in case of adverse fortune. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 191 
 
 the talents of his general would, at least, save 
 his honour. A loss of name like this, is the 
 most grievous and fatal, that can happen to 
 any commander. The imagination of the 
 young conscript, under such an impression, 
 no longer soars like an eagle, over the ocean 
 of futurity ; but, like a timorous dove, hasti- 
 ly turns away, and scarcely dares to cast a sin- 
 gle look behind. His terror and despondency 
 are in proportion to that youthful ardour, that 
 fearless ignorance, and those buoyant hopes, 
 which were formerly his conductors to the 
 field of battle. He is now fully informed of 
 the danger that awaits him, and views it in its 
 real frightful aspect ; for there is no protect- 
 ing and kindly deceiving phantom to step be- 
 tween, and cover it with its gorgeous veil. 
 Instead of the wide and tempting road, be- 
 strewed with laurel leaves, and leading 
 through the golden regions of glory ; he sees 
 a rugged path, overgrown with prickly thorns, 
 conducting from one precipice to another, 
 and lost amidst the graves, from which the 
 spectres of his brethren and countrymen rise 
 up to warn him of his doom. Against the en- 
 emy, of whom he cannot now even think 
 without trembling, he expects no success ; 
 but if he should conquer, a still greater mise- 
 
19.2 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 ry awaits him on the snowy plains of Poland. 
 With such prepossessions, therefore, as 
 these, the conscripts will not be of much ser- 
 vice to Buonaparte. 
 
 To DRILL THEM, is also a difficult thou gh 
 indispensable task ; for the very sinews of the 
 army, its props, its guides, its instructors, its 
 moving springs, and its chief strength, are 
 gone with the inferior officers ; all those, who 
 connected the head with the extremities, or 
 the soul with the body, and made a harmoni- 
 ous whole. Another French army, so entirely 
 new, and raised, as it were, within one cen- 
 tury of the former, would be deprived even of 
 the benefit of tried courage, and the well 
 practised arm, by which an old soldier so of- 
 ten sustains his younger comrade, who has 
 not yet shaken hands with " grim-visag'd" 
 danger. Time alone can make such troops 
 efficient ; but then the Russians are not 
 complaisant or foolish enough to grant them 
 the wished-for indulgence. 
 
 The exalted idea, however, that many have 
 not ceased to entertain of the personal abilities 
 of Buonaparte, excites apprehension, that he 
 still will be able to repair his disasters, and 
 even to act with vigour on the offensive. 
 Some have gone so far, as to deem his person- 
 
SKETCH OP THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 19S 
 
 al escape sufficient to counterbalance the loss 
 of his whole army ; and some, advancing 
 still further, have declared, that of the two 
 alternatives, the safety of his army was less 
 dangerous to the world, than the safety of his 
 own person. To all these a very short an- 
 swer can be given. 
 
 Buonaparte is a mortal, and therefore cannot 
 do that, which omnipotence alone can effect...* 
 repair the unexampled disasters, that, with 
 one fell sweep, made his myriads disappear, 
 and his power vanish. As to his resuming 
 the offensive attitude, he himself has not dared 
 even to boast of it, though it would be for 
 his immediate interest so to do ; any expecta- 
 tion, therefore, of such an event, must be 
 groundless. It is as easy for Buonaparte to 
 replunge civilized men into barbarism, and 
 make them prefer the naked state of a savage 
 to the luxuries of an European, to turn the 
 merchant into a farmer, the farmer into a 
 manufacturer, and to reverse the habits of a 
 whole nation, acquired and strengthened with 
 years an attempt, which he indeed was pre- 
 sumptuous and tyrannical enough to make 
 as to appear against the Russians in the char- 
 acter of an assailant. This,, at least, is not in 
 his power. 
 
194 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 As to his personal safety, the ensuing 
 spring will convince the world, that it owes its 
 importance more to imagination, than reality. 
 It was France, that made him formidable ; 
 to break her power, to paralyze its systematic 
 exertion, as has been done, is not only to re- 
 duce him to a mere harmless man, but to pre- 
 vent her and her future rulers, from being 
 equally formidable. The will and means of 
 oppression were not created by him, but al- 
 ways existed in France, and formed a part of 
 her political system ; these may have been 
 directed by him with greater energy, but 
 undoubtedly would pass the same to his 
 successors. It is therefore of more conse- 
 quence to rifle the nest, where young vul- 
 tures are nursed, than to kill their guardian, 
 who may be succeeded by another ; or to 
 destroy the contents of the modern engine of 
 death, than to extinguish the match, which 
 may be relighted, and applied by another 
 hand. The escape of Buonaparte was even 
 necessary to complete the triumph obtained 
 over himself and France. Had he fallen on 
 the field, or been taken prisoner, the disasters 
 of the French would have been altogether 
 attributed to his absence ; and the idea, that 
 
SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 195 
 
 he could have averted them, would prevent 
 the world from appreciating the powerful ef- 
 forts of Russia ; nay, it would have blinded 
 all Frenchmen to the reality and extent of 
 their misfortunes ; so that, under the standard 
 of another, they still would enlist with unabat- 
 ed confidence ; and France might still inspire 
 that terror, of which she is now deprived. It 
 is only by shewing, that France, w r ith Buona- 
 parte himself for her ruler, can no longer main- 
 tain her ground of elevation, that mankind in 
 general will be convinced of the full extent of 
 what has been done by Russia ; and they, 
 at no distant period, will be convinced. Buon- 
 aparte may say, that his disasters were 
 owing to the elements ; but, had he been vic- 
 torious in the preceding battles, the elements 
 would have acted rather for, than against 
 him ; and the battles of Borodino and the 
 Nara, could not have compelled him to re- 
 main inactive, and then to retreat in a very 
 unfavourable season. Even when he was re- 
 tracing his steps, the elements were no 
 more inimical to him, than to his pursuers ; 
 therefore, the excuse will not pass. The 
 whole truth is, that he has been beaten in ev- , 
 ery encounter, each time with greater loss ; 
 
196 SKETCH OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN. 
 
 and the result is, that he is ruined ; that, 
 should he attempt to carry his unprecedented 
 conscription into effect, his personal safety 
 will be of short duration ; that his friends, if 
 he has any, disappointed in their hopes of his 
 recovering himself, will drop off; and that 
 peace, which is the darling object of Alexan- 
 der, and which must humble France, is the 
 only expedient, which can rescue Buonaparte 
 from impending destruction. 
 
 ERRATUM. Page 53, 16th line from bottom, for palpable, 
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