[42] Now about 80,000.—Ed.
[43] The government of Odessa includes the island of Taman, and part of the Caucasian line, inhabited by the Cossacks of the Black Sea, who were settled on the Lower Kouban by Potemkin, as a defence against the incursions of the Circassians; forming a chain of intrenched villages, sufficiently near to communicate by signals, and supported by some regiments of infantry and artillery. The Circassians have never been able to make any serious impression on this line; and the Russians, whose object was purely defensive, never even crossed the Kouban with an intention of permanently establishing themselves beyond the river till the conclusion of the last Turkish war, during which Anapa, and all other forts possessed by the Turks on the Black Sea, were ceded to Russia. The Circassians had only tolerated these nominal dependencies of Turkey, as affording convenient points of trade and export for the slaves captured from Russia and Georgia, as well as those taken during their own domestic wars. The natural strength of the country and its deadly climate have hitherto checked the Russian conquests, but, sooner or later, it must yield to a power capable of sending unlimited reinforcements, while every action permanently diminishes the strength of the mountain tribes. The war, which has now lasted sixty years, can have no effect on the prosperity of the southern provinces of Russia, nor is it felt twenty miles from the frontier. The few Circassians that have been educated in Russia are not permitted to return to the tribes. The Caucasian guard formed by Prince Paskewitch in 1830, and who return periodically to their own country, may have a much greater effect; they are taken indiscriminately from all the tribes, Circassians, Lesghis, Chechens, and Ossatinians, forming a body of about two hundred men, in some measure resembling the Mamelukes of Napoleon.—Editor.
[44] Vide art. Pozzo di Borgo.
[45] 64 millions sterling.
[46] Ministres secrétaires d'état.
[47] Vide art. Pozzo di Borgo.
[48] Vide articles "Pozzo di Borgo" and "Richelieu."
[49] Count Capo d'Istria was murdered in September, 1831, by the brother and son of a Mainote he had imprisoned.—Ed.
[50] Quære, Coyne?—Editor.
[51] This assertion is untrue, and not borne out by any evidence.—Editor.