heir Struggle for
Liberty with the Russians--(_Die Volker des Caucasus, &c._) By
Friedrich Bodenstedt. Second Edition. Frankfurt am Main, Lizius;
London, Nutt.]

The author has evidently lived for some time in the region which he
describes, or in the bordering districts along the Caspian, both in
Georgia and in North Daghestan, His acquaintance with Asiatic and
Russian languages and customs appears to have been gained both by
study and from intercourse with the natives of the south-eastern
frontier. He is not ignorant of Oriental writings that refer to
his subject; and his Russian statistics prove an access to official
authorities which are not to be found in print. These, however
obtained, can scarcely have been imparted to him as one of those
writers whom the Court of St. Petersburg hires to promote its views
through the press of Western Europe. His sympathies are declared
against Russian usurpation; and the tendency of his essay is to prove
how little real progress it has yet made in subduing the Caucasus, the
enormous waste of money and life with which its fluctuating successes
have been bought, and the fallacy of expecting a better result
hereafter.

What it has cost in life on the Russian side to attack-hitherto with
no lasting effect--the handful of Caucasian mountaineers, may be
guessed from a single note, dated 1847: "The present Russian force in
the Caucasus"--including of course, the armed Cossacks of the Kuban
and Terek--"amounts to two hundred thousand." Taking into account the
numbers yearly cut off by disease, more fatal even than the mountain
war, every step of which must be won by the most reckless waste
of life,--the "Russian Officer" may perhaps truly affirm that the
_annual_ expenditure of life by Russia, in her warfare with Schamyl,
has for many years past exceeded the whole number of the population at
any one time directly under the rule of that chieftain.

We have said that the most instructive part of Herr Bodenstedt's essay
is his sketch of that politico-religious scheme which made Schamyl
formidable to the Russians. This system, it is to be observed, arose
and has since been fully developed only in the Eastern Caucasus, where
of late the main stress of the war has been. The western tribes (our
"Circassians") who took the lead at an earlier stage of the contest,
were not then, nor have they since been, inspired by the fanatic zeal
which united the tribes of Daghestan. They fought from a mere