RUSSIA AND HER DIFFICULTIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 337, 23 January 1856, Page 6

RUSSIA AND HER DIFFICULTIES.

Le Nokd has a c<in-e«p<indent at Hamburg, who ha* iiiiifr liv d in Russia, ami who now feels specially called upon to reply to the " msinua l'u>a* and misrepresentations" 5 of the French -anti EiiifHsh press, more particularly as to the effects of die wmt mi Kn.-.si;i. He ".says :—"People fosrn ii» c-rrotiei.ii-. idea of tin- effects that the war is pr^iueir-r in the iut-nor of the country, and the reason oj'thrir M , do-n-r is hecatise they persist in applying [,j Hu^ia the standard which obtains in Mm.- West. A <iejrree of rnnifriai sufrerinjr !!!;:;«-,,;,!<] a jv»ear 'ii f ,sup|iottahU- to En«rl«)Ki or France will ui.tkf. lim iittift itnpreKsiosj on th- rijifk hid..: of a jirNitlr- iess acivauced in civiiizjiii.jii. ALu-riai mijf^.i.,.^ ,-,i.----always in r.:tio to wa:,:s ; ai;d wt-xAhosi-wanls «re less li.ere is cou-cquenUv itss j.rivi,tion. Wiih !.:.(• t-x<-e;i::<>!i of ;< « ; |';,t S sin,-,]; „, re>p»'-ct l<> uuuihi-r-. ■■i l -i:ns\nui<:<i iv inxtiiv. (•,<■ rest o! the Uusviaii ;>■,;.ulaiioit s:iJ iiv*-«"wiiai we i)\aty call a ininiinve sort nf ]\\' t . X>.,:\ ii.« wur (idi-s iiul ;ijlt:::! ih<- uauisof the t a:-.[ hull, of the n;itioii ; or, if it h-.,-. >■ any <>\'.- ( .-1 «),;,;. ever, it is ratiitr thai ,>i jeuucn- ii ;c j,, ;4 ; v < 01:

all articles of first necessity, seeking that commerce no longer possesses a market for them abroad. It is precisely on account of this fall in prices, profitable in one sense to the people at large, that the proprietors .'.sutler in their revenues. There can be no doubt that the land owners have great sacrifices to support; uo^douht the recruitment weighs heavily on the country ; but there is a wide difference between this slate and a total prostration of strength—that exhaustion, in short, on which some persons seem to depend as a means of conquering the resistance of Russia. Weighing tilings impartially, my conviction is. th:it the dearness ol corn and the embarrassments under which trade and industiy labour in England and France, in consequence of the war, are heavier to bear than the ills that weigh tin Russia. The nioifc delicate ami complicated, the more"' sensitive is the organization. Now I think England and France are far more delicate than Russia. The being so advantageous in one way, disadvantageous in another, in time of war the disadvantages, it seems to me, outweigh the advantages. But if I admit that what people say about the precarious condition—dej*perate if ihev like—of Russia is all true ; admit that the people there are suffering as much as human nature can endure, that the land owners are ruined, that the finances are exhausted —must Ijabsolutely conclude from all this, that the Government either is, or will be, that it must be ready to submit to the conditions of its enemies? And if the sa;d Government should take a fancy to hold out ; if it should argue to itself that in this exceptional struggle, unparelleledjiu history, the palm will belong !o!.iru that is most patient, and if it were to take it into its bead to be more patient than the others, no matter what the reverses of its arms, what the sufferings of its people—who is there to prevent it so doing? Russia has no Parliament. There is in that Empire neither a peace party nor a war party, for the very simple reason that neither the one nor the oihercan have any organ there. In the country of the West, in England especially, when the war shall have grown unpopular, everything is said. There is a rebellion in the press, the Government sees itself paralized, and ends by yieldinir to the pressure from without. But in Russia, where there are no hustings nor opposition benches, no meetings, no powerful newspapers, the Government has the power to use its own will as long as it thinks proper. I conceive, then, that i have both reason and logic on my side when I deny the conclusions, even had I admitted the asseilions, which I have not done, finding them, as I do, exaggerated in (he highest degree."