THE AGGRANDIZEMENT OF RUSSIA.

from the New York Times

The press of Western Europe and America is accustomed to watch and denounce the progress of Russia toward universal dominion as manifested in Europe. The skill, patience, firmness and success of Russian diplomacy in that quarter of the world, and the fact that the Czar alone, of all the powers, great or little, has really profited by the last revolution, and that he now virtually rules in Italy and Germany, on the Rhine as well as on the Danube, is repeated and commented on till it is almost wearisome. The universe of Editors, even in California, Oregon and the Sandwich Islands, finds in it a standing subject of discussion.

But the growth of Russian power in Asia is a topic which has not yet occupied public attention to any considerable extent, for the reason that the facts have been little known, except to the Government of St. Petersburg itself. Of course that Government, always jealous of publicity, and careful to conceal its movements as far and as long as possible from the world, has taken care to envelop its march in Central Asia in a double obscurity, a design which circumstances have favored. Inhabited as that vast region is, by nomadic tribes, that have no fixed government, no well-defined territory, and no intercourse with civilised nations, it has not been difficult for Muscovite craft gradually to extend the imperial boundaries into the deserts ranged by these savages, and without waking their jealousy or provoking them into hostilities, to make sure the preparations for still further aggrandizement.

Whether the cabinet of the Autocrat judges the work sufficiently advanced to cast off the mask, or whether the secret is revealed by accident, we do not know, but we have now before us some documents which cast a clear light on the process of annexation and extension, political and commercial, which has been going on for years, in the country known in our geographies as Independent Tartary. These documents consist of letters from a Polish geologist, whom we judge to be an officer in the Imperial Engineers, employed in seeking for coal beds on the shores of the Sea of Aral, and in the vicinity of the Caspian, and of an account furnished to a Russian periodical by a Russian merchant, of his journey, on business, from Petropavlosk, in the Siberian Department of Omsk, to Tashkend, an important city about midway between the former and southern boundary of Siberia and the northern limit of Afghanistan, and between the Sea of Aral and the Chinese dominions.

Take any recent and reliable atlas, and turning to the map of Asia, you will find the river Ural laid down as the dividing line between Russia and Tartary, the towns on that river being Guriew at its mouth, and Uralsk, and Orenburg farther up, where the stream issues from the Ural Mountains, with Orskaia also lying on the river, but still further to the east among the mountains. All these are frontier towns. From Orskaia the line—on maps sufficiently definite—runs north nearly to 55 degrees, and then to the north-west along the Tobol river till that river forks and the frontier of Siberia begins. Thence it goes south-east to the point (which is disputed,) where it meets the north-western province of Chinese Tartary. Now draw a line from the mouth of the Ural across to the head of the Sea of Aral, then down to the mouth of the Sir-Deria or Sir-Sihoun (the ancient Iaxartes) the western affluent of that sea, then from its mouth to the point where its line bends toward the south, and thence west to the Chinese frontier, and you have the boundary of the Russian Empire in Asia, as we know that it actually was a year ago. The addition includes the entire territory of the Kirghis or Kirguis, a tribe of warlike Tartars some 1,200,000 strong, who have long been partly in Russian pay, and who doubtless saw no reason to object to the building of the line of forts which now extends through their deserts—and about half of Kokand, a district occupied by some three millions of Usbecks, Tadshiks, and Kirguis together. The whole territory annexed is about a thousand miles long by four hundred broad, and is little known to Europeans. It contains a large proportion of sandy wastes, but a great deal of it must be valuable for grazing. The wealth of the Kirguis consists in herds of camels, horses, sheep and goats, for which they find pasturage by moving from place to place. Streams and lakes not yet known to geographers, are frequent, and game of new species is found in abundance. It is a matter of course, that among such a population as these Tartars, when living without restraint, tends and robberies should constantly be going on. But since the building of the Russian forts, these have disappeared, and the country is now more safe and peaceful than it has been for three centuries. The forts are garrisoned by Cossacks, and the trading caravans which go regularly through the region pass in perfect security. The Kirguis find their account in this, for they get their chief income by hiring out their camels to the merchant caravans, which are now larger and more frequent than before. Thus is civilisation, or rather the beginning of it, penetrating among the ancient seats of these races, which have more than once poured forth their hordes to affright and subdue the world.

The expedition which accompanied the officer from whose letters we draw the most important of these facts, set out from Orenburg about the middle of May last. It consisted of 7,000 camels, with 3,500 Kirguis as drivers; 3,500 wagons driven by Bashkir serfs; a corps of some thousand Cossack horsemen, and a body of artillery and infantry, the whole under the command of a General officer. The forces were intended to relieve the garrisons on the route, as well as to escort the expedition. In case coal were discovered, it was intended to put steamers on the Sea of Aral. No coal was found, however, what had been taken for beds of coal on the shore of the sea proving to be a layer of decaying vegetable matter mixed with black earth and partially hardened. The search was not prosecuted at any distance from the shore on the western and northern sides, for fear of some predatory bands reported to be out in that quarter, the expedition having crossed the sea in a small craft without any escort. The explorers arrived at Orenburg on their return in the beginning of November, and expected to undertake the same search on the Ural River and about the Caspian Sea, where the Imperial Government also desires to establish steam navigation.

The journey from Orenburg across the steppes is described as exceedingly monotonous and wearisome. The weather is changeable beyond parallel; at noon the heat sometimes rises to 150 degrees while at night the cold is so piercing as to be almost insupportable. No shade but his tent prospects the traveller and the only fuel is the dry dung of camels and horses which is found in abundance. On the 5^th of June while the plain was yet burning under the beams of the noonday sun, the expedition was visited by a storm of rain, hail and snow which lasted three hours and covered the earth with a wintry mantle. Of course no fire could be made nor food cooked till the surface was dry again. Often for great distances water is entirely wanting; elsewhere when found it is apt to be slimy, brackish and unwholesome. The garrisons in the forts, as well as travellers, who are not well provided with necessaries, suffer from scurvy and other diseases incident to the privations of the country.

The trading caravans for Tashkend set out from Siberia and take a less painful though rather longer route. Tashkend does not seem yet to be in Russian possession, but as the line of forts is on the river below it, and comes within some seventy miles or so, it cannot fail of being soon annexed; indeed, as a centre of commerce it is doubtless a chief object of Russian ambition. It contains about four thousand houses, built in Asiatic fashion, with the close clay walls of their courtyards on the streets, which thus wear a most dreary appearance. The houses are in the rear, and generally have gardens attached to them. There being no pavement, in the spring the mud is as deep as on a Michigan causeway, and is impassable by vehicles, mounted horses even sinking to the knee. The streets are also very crooked and so narrow that two wagons cannot pass each other. The people live in a manner which is savage rather than barbarous. Glazed windows, tables and chairs are unknown luxuries, and for beds they use coarse carpets spread on the floor. The government is absolutely despotic, and its head, whose title is the Bek, can seize the property of his subjects without giving any other reason than that it is his pleasure. This peculiarity will render the Russian rule welcome to the inhabitants because it will give a greater degree of security to property. From Tashkend caravans start every week for Cashgar, Buchara, Chiva, and other places, taking cloths, plush, cottons, and iron articles of Russian manufacture and distributing them to the most remote regions. In fact the commerce of Central Asia is already in the hands of Russia. Into Chinese Tartary her traders have opened new routes, now traversed by their caravans to China. Afghanistan already buys Russian wares instead of English. Persia, as is well known, has long been merely a Russian province; and unless England wakes from her sleep and bestirs herself more effectually than ever, it cannot be long before the Muscovite, peerless alike for cunning and persistence, obtains complete possession of the Oxus, has Chiva and Bucharia perfectly under his control, and may establish his frontier posts in the fastnesses of the Hindoo-Coosh and Paropamesan Mountains.

The length of time through which Russia has pursued the objects she has now so nearly gained, and is so sure of gaining completely, justifies our admiration for her tenacity. It is near fifteen years since she first put the Shah of Persia up to the futile attempt to seize Heart in north-western Afghanistan with a view to render it a centre of Russian influence. Then an attempt was made by a Russian expedition under Gen. Perowski to open a passage and take possession of the country between the Caspian Sea and the Aral, but this failed. And now finally the end is gained by taking the rout east of the Aral and following the path of the old Mongol and Tartar conquerors. On that path went forth Ghengis-Kan, Tamerlane and Babur; under them and their descendants, the Tartars seeking for universal dominion, conquered China, India and the Byzantine Empire, and threatened to overwhelm Europe with their hordes. Christendom alone they were unable to conquer.

Russia too, aims at universal dominion. Her armies are larger, her courage as desperate and fanatical, her resources greater, her faith in her destiny more deeply rooted, her wisdom a thousand times shrewder than that of her predecessors in this career; and her commerce a means they did not possess.

Will she succeed where they did, and succeed, too, where they failed? That question the future will answer. For our part we have no anxiety as to the result.