are acquainted with the laws, good and bad, of their own country; and have probably influence enough to get the duty on one article increased, and on another diminished, as their interests may require. They have the natural good-will of the government and of the country in their favour. If a company of wealthy foreigners, ignorant or not, were to land in England, with men and machinery, to possess themselves of our Cornish mines, and set about working these, would they succeed?-would they carry off the prizes?

In the expectations which our companies have formed-in the arrangements they have made, and in the failures which they have encountered, they have already exposed a measure of ignorance and absurdity which will surely satisfy every reflecting mind, that we are the last people who are capable of carrying off the mining prizes of America-that our share in that lottery is a blank.

We have possession of some mines, it is true, and it is reported that we are gradually succeeding in draining the water from a few of them, and in obtaining ores-but at what price are the ores rising, and at what expense is the water sinking?

Supposing even, for a moment, that after paying all our expenses, we should succeed in procuring silver at less per ounce, than we can here purchase it at our markets, is there no chance that we might, by so doing, excite the jealousy of the natives, or the avarice of the government? Might not the open enmity of the one, or the secret impositions of the other, rob us of our profits? If property could possibly exist in England under circumstances at all similar, would it not, by every prudent man, be considered in fearful jeopardy? Ought we to be satisfied with the mere countenance and professions of any government, or any people, unless they could offer us security which neither could dare to attack?

But it is argued that our city mining companies have gone too far to retract; that several of them have already spent from eight hundred thousand to a million of sterling money; that they, therefore, must proceed; and the shareholders are generally not unwilling to cling to a doctrine which tends to save their shares from annihilation-for we all know now that shares may flutter about the Stock Exchange, though the speculation to which they belong has been long defunct. We must humbly remind these shareholders that the subject is one which cannot much longer be veiled in ignorance; and that, if they have no rational hope of succeeding, they may increase their loss-they cannot hope to retrieve it; that to abandon a bad undertaking is one of the first axioms among miners; and that when the simplest Cornishman has taken a pitch' which ceases to be kindly,' he abandons his work, and pays his forfeit.

Το

To conclude we have avoided, as much as possible, alluding either to any particular company, or to any set of individuals; and we withhold from publication many curious enough facts which we possess, solely because they might tend to injure the interests, or hurt the feelings, of particular individuals. Whether the direc tors of one or two of these companies have acted honourably or not-whether they have given to their shareholders correct or incorrect pictures of the reports actually transmitted to them by their commissioners-these are matters which we have no desire to discuss. It is sufficient to inform the reader, that if he takes a particular interest in such details, the works named at the head of this paper are full of them.* We have levelled our observa> tions at the system in general; and we have done so, because we believe it to be one which is bringing not only great loss, but very serious discredit, upon this country.

ART. V.-1. Voyage d'Orenbourg à Boukhara, fait en 1820, à travers les Steppes qui s'étendent à l'Est de la Mer d'Aral et au-delà de l'ancien Jaxartes. Rédigé par M. le Baron Georges de Meyendorff, Colonel, &c. Paris. 1826.

2. Voyage en Turcomanie et à Khiva, fait en 1819 et 1820; par M. N. Mouraviev, Capitaine d'Etat-Major de la Garde de S, M. l'Empereur de toutes les Russies, &c. Paris. 1823.

WE think it but fair to apprize our readers that, if they expect

us to supply much amusement out of the two publications whose titles we have transcribed, they will suffer a disappointment-both of them being, in fact, as dry, as cold, as uninviting, and nearly as barren, as the desert regions over which the journies of our two Russian authors and envoys were respectively destined to be performed. These volumes contain, however, a few valuable details on points of physical geography, and embrace questions relating to foreign policy, in which England is, or may be supposed to be, essentially interested: and, at any rate, they afford us a glimmering of light respecting countries that have not been recently visited by Europeans.

Since the days of Peter the Great, and more particularly since the development of the ambitious projects of Catharine, some of our politicians and statesmen have been subject to a sort of periodical remittant, or nervous apprehension, for the safety of our Indian dominions against Russian aggression. The rash and unequal war which Persia has just now unfortunately been induced

Captain Head's explanation of his personal history throughout these transactions will be found exceedingly interesting. Indeed, it is almost as lively reading as his Rough Notes. to

to wage with Russia, and out of which she will certainly not escape without the sacrifice of a considerable extent of territory, has once more brought on an aguish paroxysm among the subjects of our Eastern empire, exciting the fears, or elevating the hopes, of the few native powers still remaining in India, according as these are favourably disposed or otherwise towards the British rule. Already the cry has gone forth into the East of the Cossacks are coming a name of ominous import in that part of the world, where the term Kaissac' is synonimous with that of robber.

These alarms, we confess, are to us little more than mere bugbears though they may not be so to all the near neighbours of that gigantic power, whose sceptre sways one-tenth part of the habitable globe; that power which has already swallowed up the Crimea and Finland, partitioned Poland, dismembered Persia, and torn Turkey limb from limb. It is natural enough that every movement of such a government should be regarded with suspicion by the feeble and disorganized nations with whom she is placed, almost on all sides, in immediate contact.

The Czar Peter was the first who opened the way to extensive conquests, though his views, as they regarded the Eastern world, would appear to have been directed rather to the extension of commerce than of dominion. Thus we should ascribe his movements in attacking the Persians in Shirvan and Daghestan, and in penetrating the destructive forests of Gheelan and Mazanderan, chiefly to the desire of getting possession of the western and southern shores of the Caspian, in order to have the command of the whole trade and navigation of that sea. With the same view of extending the commerce of his subjects, was his journey made to the eastward, when he paid a visit to, and coquetted with, the old chief of the Kerghis tribe of Tartars, and his wife, as narrated by that honest old traveller, John Bell of Antermony; nor can we dream that when he sent the unfortunate prince, Bekevitch, with an escort of soldiers, in the year 1717, in search of a mound or dyke, which the Khivians were supposed to have thrown up across the Amou-deria or Oxus, to turn the stream of that river from its ancient channel and divert its course from the Caspian into the Aral, he had any other object than to ascertain whether, by restoring those waters to their former channel, he might not be able to open a navigable communication with India from the gulph of Balkan on the eastern shore of the Caspian.

The Empress Catharine may fairly be suspected of having had higher and more ambitious objects in view-which were indeed intelligibly enough expressed by a caricature of her own time, in which her imperial majesty appeared in a truly feminine attitude,

namely,

namely, with one foot perched on the Kremlin, and the other on Saint Sophy. We recollect indeed to have seen a piece in the same taste, which exhibited a colossal portrait of the late Alexander, resting with one foot on the minarets of Teheran, and with the other on the battlements of Delhi-seizing with his right hand a pinnacle of the mosque of Saint Sophy, and with his left a five-clawed dragon on the roof of the imperial palace of Pekin. We may safely, however, acquit Alexander of any such ambitious projects as are insinuated by this caricature; though, while under the fascinating influence of Napoleon on the unfortunate meeting at Tilsit, he might seem to have listened to certain proposals for the conquest of Persia and India, we do not believe that he ever felt the least disposition seriously to engage in any such undertaking.

The views of Catharine were of a more decisive character than such as have been entertained by any other sovereign of Russia; for we reckon the vagaries of Paul to go for nothing. Not satisfied with the possession of the western shores of the Caspian, she aimed, as her great predecessor had done, at the exclusive navigation of this inland sea; and to forward this object she ordered Count Voinovitch, the commander of the Caspian squadron, to form an establishment on the eastern coast. This officer, having found a bay close to Astrabad suitable for his purpose, requested permission of Aga-Mahomed Khan, (the eunuch,) then ruler of Persia, to erect a factory on that spot. The khan, thinking it might not be quite so easy to drive away a whole squadron with troops on board, had recourse to dissimulation, and seemingly acceded to the request. The Russians immediately set about constructing a fortress to defend the harbour, on which were mounted eighteen guns. As soon as it was completed, Aga-Mahomed, who had closely watched the proceedings of the Russians, came down to inspect it, admired its construction, praised the activity of the workmen, and invited himself, with his attendants, to dine on board the frigate of Voïnovitch. The day was spent in great hilarity; and on going away, the khan engaged the commander, with his officers, to visit him in return, at his country-seat, near the foot of the mountains. They accordingly went the following day. The old eunuch ordered the whole of them to be seized and put in irons, threatening them with instant death if Voïnovitch did not sign an order forthwith to the commandant of the fort, to raze it to the ground. As soon as the work was demolished, and the guns re-shipped, the khan delivered the Russian officers over to his slaves, who, after treating them with every species of insult and indignity, drove them to the seashore, and compelled them to seek refuge in their ships.

With no better success were her attempts crowned when she undertook to form permanent establishments in China. This cautious nation, while not unwilling to open a trade with Russia, made it a condition, that her trading subjects should not approach the Celestial Empire, but confine their establishment to one spot on the confines of Mongul Tartary, where the Russian town of Kiachta stands on one side of a river, and the Chinese town of Mai-mai-chin on the other; and though, for the sake of a mutual understanding of each other's language, a Russian Archimandrite, with some half-a-dozen pupils, are allowed a residence in Pekin, yet so jealous are the Chinese of this powerful neighbour, that when a splendid embassy was sent from Petersburgh, loaded with magnificent presents, the ambassador was met on this side the Great Wall, and sent back without being permitted to enter the country, because he would not dismiss the greater number of his attendants.

The Russians have for some time carried on a petty commerce with the city of Bokhara, long celebrated as the most eminent seat of Mussulman learning in this region of central Asia, and perhaps of any now existing. To gain the respect and improve the friendship of the ruling powers of this eastern state, Catharine sent them a present of 40,000 silver rubles, to be expended in the building of a college, which they erected of brick, and which is said by M. de Meyendorff to be the most magnificent-as, indeed; it may easily be of the great number of mosques and colleges, mostly built of clay, which their famous city contains. Russia has also had intercourse with another Mahomedan state to the eastward, named Khokand, (or Fergana,) the capital of which is situated at the feet of the mountains that give rise to the Sir-deria or Jaxartes, and to the north-east of Samarcand. The sultan or khan of this state had sent an embassy in the year 1812 to the court of Petersburgh; and the two principal persons died on their way home again, one of a fever, the other in consequence of irregularities he had committed by falling into bad company. To explain these untoward circumstances, the governor of Petropovlosk, on the Issim, sent Mr. Nazaroff, the following year, with the surviving part of the deputation, who not only met with a most scurvy reception, but, as we have already stated in a former Number,* were kept for some time in prison.

The bad reception of Nazaroff, however, did not deter the Russians from sending another embassy, on a somewhat more extended scale, to the neighbouring state of Bokhara. M. de Négri was appointed chargé-d'affaires, with a secretary, a naturalist, a