broad and fair provinces of China within their
omnivorous grasp? The advantage of such an acquisition to Russia cannot
be over-estimated. The Russian press, it is true, deprecates the
acquisition of new territory, as being calculated to hinder the
economical development of the people, and seriously to increase the
present difficulties of the empire; and there can be little doubt that
the dominions of the Czar are far too disproportioned to the numerical
sum of his subjects to admit of their having realized, as they might
have done, the immense natural riches of the empire. But with the
acquisition of almost any part of China proper, Russia would gain
territory already thickly peopled to her hand, and possessed of rich
resources of every kind; and, could she approach the sea in any
direction, she would acquire--what is so important to her maritime and
commercial development--a coast-line that would go far towards giving
her the commanding position as a naval Power which has always been one
of her most cherished ambitions.

And what a glorious field would thereby be afforded her for developing
her political designs! Instead of beating her wings to her own
discomfiture against the bars which England must always throw about her
as long as she persists in her attempts to absorb Turkey, or exercise a
covert influence over the tribes on our Indian frontier, she would, if
she pressed China-wards in preference, find unlimited opportunities for
increasing her resources, enlarging her territory, and extending her
sway, no nation caring, or being called upon, to say her nay. That she
would prove the most suitable Power to be entrusted with so tremendous a
responsibility, is an assertion that few would care to hazard without
large qualification. The pitiless despotism which characterizes the
Russian rule at home, the unrelenting harshness with which she has
treated her Polish subjects, even to the studious stamping out of the
nationalism of the people, and the license which has distinguished the
grasp by Russian officials of civil power in Central Asia, scarcely tend
to render the prospect of the extension of her sway to China very
encouraging. But, as has been already advanced, a Russian administration
is not without its advantages, as compared to a Chinese, and, unless a
radical reform can be looked for in the existing system of government in
China itself, a prospect at best problematical, it may safely be said
that her people mig