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The Russian Autocrat

The Russian Autocrat image
Parent Issue
Day
5
Month
December
Year
1846
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The Russian dominions now com)ose about oneseventh of the habitable globe, extending from the Daltic sea, cross the whole breadth of Europe and f Asia, to Bheeriug straits ; and from ie eternal ices of the northem pole to ho sunny clime of the pome'graniie and ie fig. The Emperor Nicholas reigns .ith uulimitcd sway over about seventy millions of the human family ; a populaion considerably exceeding that of Engand, France, and the United States com)ined. He has a militia consisting of eighteen milüons of well-armed and resTectably disciplined men. Hehasastandng army of highly disciplined treops, mnny of them veterans in tiie hardships and horrors of war, consisting of one nillion of men, twohundred thousandof the.e beingcavalry, perhnps unsurpassed by any olher body of meunted troops in the world. Ilis navy, consiiing of forty or fifty shipsof line, witfi frigates, sloops, floating battenes and gun boats alrno&t without number, is now m'annod by nbove sixty thousand men, daily exercised in all ihe arts of war. And the shores of the Euxine and the Baltic incessantly resound with the blows of the ship carpen!cr, as month nftor month new ships are launched upon thcir waters. The annual revenu'e of the Emperor is about fifty millioíís of dollars. - Such is the gignntic power" now overshadowing the north of Eurone, nnd apparentljr aimincc at the sovereignty of ihe world. The Emporor Nicholas is about fortyfive years of age, in the very prime of his iutelleclual and physical vigor. He is, in all respects, one of the most e.tr.iordinary men now on the busy stage oí life. Itis said that he is in form and ieature one of the handsomest men on the continent of Europe. Lord Londonderry, who not long ago returned from a visit to his court, says that if all the seventy rriillions, who composc the subjects of the Emperor of Russia, were a-sembled together, Nicholns is the one, who, from his commanding figure, his symmelrical and jnU-llectual features, and his princely bearing, wouldbo solected, from them all, as formed by the God of nature, for theircbieftain. Ilis rnind is of the highest order, uniting in that wonderful combination which made Napolen the rnastcr spirit of his age, the comprehensiveness of the man of genius, with the practical man's minutest acquaintanee with details. He is alike at home everywhere, in the army, in the navy, in the cabinet. His diplomatic corps is, by general consent, the ablest in Europe. In England,as in America, a man is appointed to au important mission, not because he is the most suitable man, but because there are certain interests which must be conciliaied, or particular friends wlio must be rewarded. But Nicholas feels none of these trammels. He reigns in unlimited despotism. Dukes and Barons are nothing tohim. He cares not whowasa man's falher, or where he was born. Looking simply at the qualifications of the individuals selected as the instrumente of his government. he has gathered around him from all the nations of Europe the most brilliant and comprehensive talent, and no ca'jinet in the Eastern hemisphere is probably equal to the associated diplomática of Nicholas.