RUSSIAN VIEWS OF THE WAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 35, 22 March 1856, Page 6

RUSSIAN VIEWS OF THE WAR.

A correspondent of the Neio York Tribune writes from St. Petersburg, under date of the -20th September, as uuder :— "Russia is strong —great is the Russian god," is all I hear around me; every hostility toward the Government is silenced in face of the common danger. Russia always begun its campaigns badly; the distances are our plague; but we shall rise as one man, and then, woe to the enemy! Count Soukhazonet is appointed to the Crimea, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of General Read. He is very old, but a very learned artilleryman, who distinguished himself at the battle of Leipzig, and has since'acquired the reputation of being a professed gambler. Now we see our mistakes ; it was a great one not to be prepared in the Crimea to repulse the disembarkation ; a greater one not to hare fortified the entrance to the Sea of Azoff. The Government thought that it would cost more than all the vessels of that sea are worth, and now we perceive the fault; but, alas! when it is too late to make amends. We have sacritied our best men through useless sorties atSebastopol; but human life is very cheap in Russia. It is repeatedly said everywhere here that we are undergoing a second edition of 1812. A geutlemau added— " and it wiil be the last." He was summoned to General GalakhoJf, the great chief of police, and desired to explain his meaning. '' I mean,' said be, " that after this war all the Powers engaged in it will become bankrupt, and unable to carry on another war." Being a young man of good family, he was not prosecuted, but were the late emperor living he would of coarse have had to repent his saying. The Government wishes to increase the patriotism uf its subjects and permits conversation on the probable emancipation of the serfs. When JUsseieff left Paris, where he was our minister, he said—" Well, if we are to be defeated, we shall gain the sympathies of Europe now bestowed upon the Poles and the Hungarians." I think we possess already those of your countrymen, and it is no more a shame to be a Russian. The Russian party was greatly opposed to the intervention in Hungary in 1849, but Count Ncsselrode wanted to "save the Austrian monarchy. Now he reaps the bad fruits of his policy; for .Austria cannot pardon us her weakness and her salvation, while the Magyars justly make us share a part of their hatred towards Austrians. Yet our officers fraternized with them everywhere they could, and openly expressed their contempt against Austria. Thai is what the Austrians cannot forget. \\ c should not always be blamed fur om want of liberalism, for we are, next to the Americans, the youngest nation, and we had not the experience your forefathers brought with them from England. But J must tell you two facts. In Poland our officers said to "the Poles:—"Fight we must, but we are ready to assist you if you behave yourselves well." In Hungary a Russian Colonel offered to Georgey to go over to him with 20,000 men. What did the Hungarian general? He denounced the Colonel to General Rudiger, and the conspirator was shot. I can assure you that the Polish .peasants are happier with us than they were under their aristocratical masters, and as to our own revolutionists abroad, we charge ihem with want of moderation. They don't know where to stop, and will destroy family and church, which is not liked by the majority with us nor anywhere else. Our present Emperor is frondhearted, but you cannot form an idea of the luxury and debauchery of our higher classes at least in the two metropolises, and if iliev are now visited with some hard trials, it is but justice. Revolutions are not happy things, as some people would like us to suppose, but epochs of blood and ruin, and though yours succeeded, .are there not many which b'ive failed ?"