BLACKWOOD’S

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

No. CCCCLXII. APRIL, 1854. Vol. LXXV.

THE COMMERCIAL RESULTS OF A WAR WITH RUSSIA.

After the enjoyment of nearly forty years of peace, during which two generations of men, whose fate it was to live in more troublous times, have passed to their account, we are entering upon a war which will inevitably tax all the energies of the country to conduct it to a successful and honourable conclusion. The enemy against whom our arms are directed is not one whose prowess and power can with safety be slighted. A colossal empire possessed of vast resources, wielded by a sovereign of indomitable character and vast ambition, who has for years been collecting strength for a gigantic effort to sweep away every barrier by which the realisation of that ambition has been impeded, is our opponent. The issue to him is most momentous. It is to decide whether he is hereafter to be a controlling power in Europe and Asia, to rule absolutely in the Baltic, to hold the keys of the Euxine and the Mediterranean, and to push his conquests eastwards, until he clutches Hindostan,—or to be driven back and confined within the limits of the original empire which Peter the Great bequeathed to his successors. Such a struggle will not be conducted by Russia, without calling forth all the vigour of her arm. An issue so far beyond her contemplation as defeat and extinction as a first-rate power in the world, will not be yielded until she has drained her last resources, and exhausted every available means of defence and procrastination. Russia possesses too in this, the climax of her fate and testing-point in her aggressive career, a mighty source of strength in the enthusiasm of her people, whom she has taught to regard the question at issue between herself and Europe as a religious one, and the war into which she has entered as a crusade against “the infidel” and his abettors. The result may be seen in the personal popularity which the Emperor enjoys, and the ready devotion with which his efforts are aided by the Christian portion of the population of his empire.

On the other hand, Great Britain enters into the struggle with every recognised prestige of success in her favour. She has, as her active ally, the greatest military nation in the world, whose soldiers and sailors are about, for the first time for many centuries, to fight side by side against a common enemy. Little as we are disposed to decry the strength of that navy which Russia, by her wonderful energy, has succeeded in creating during the past few years, it would be absurd to compare it with the magnificent fleets which England and France combined have at present floating in the waters of the Black Sea, and about to sail for the Baltic. A comparison of our monetary resources with those of our opponent would be still more absurd. Another feature in our position as a maritime country at present, is the vast facilities which we possess, by means of our mercantile ocean steamers, of transporting any required number of troops to the locality where their services are required, with a rapidity and comfort never dreamt of during the last European war. A veteran of our Peninsular Campaigns, witnessing the splendid accommodation provided in such noble vessels as the Oriental Company’s steamer Himalaya at Southampton, the Cunard Company’s steamer Cambria at Kingston Harbour, Dublin, and the same Company’s steamer Niagara at Liverpool, and acquainted with the fact that each of these vessels was capable of disembarking their freight of armed men within five or six days of their departure hence in any port of the Mediterranean, must have been struck by the marked difference between such conveyances and the old troop ships employed in former days. Moreover, there is scarcely a limit to the extent of this new element of our power as a military nation. We enter, too, upon the approaching struggle with Russia backed by the enthusiastic support of all classes of our population. It is not regarded with us as a religious war, or one into the incentives to which religion enters at all. It is scarcely regarded by the mass as a war of interest. With that sordid motive we cannot as a nation be reproached. It is felt only that an unjust aggression has been committed by a powerful state upon a weak one; that the tyranny of the act has been aggravated by the gross breaches of faith, the glaring hypocrisy, amounting to blasphemy, and the unparalleled atrocity, by which it has been followed up; and that we should prove ourselves recreant, and devoid of all manhood, were we to stand tamely by and see a gallant people, differing though they do from us in religion, overwhelmed by brute force, and exterminated from the face of Europe by such butcheries as Russia has shown us, in the memorable example of Sinope, that she is not ashamed to perpetrate in the face of the civilised world, and in the name of Christianity.

There is one consideration, however, connected with the present warlike temper of our population, which cannot with safety be permitted to escape remark. We have already stated that two generations of men have passed away since this country was in actual war with an enemy in Europe. The bulk of the present race of Englishmen have never experienced the inconveniences, and occasional privations, which attend upon war even in countries, like ours, which are happily free from the affliction of having an armed enemy to combat upon its own soil. We believe most firmly that we are not a degenerate people. We see evidence of this in the ready zeal with which large numbers of our hardy and enterprising youth are everywhere flocking to be enrolled under the flag of their country, both for land and sea service. We trust that this feeling will endure, and that we shall be found willing to bear up cheerfully under any temporary sacrifices which we shall be called upon to make; but we cannot blind ourselves to the fact that a great change has taken place in our social condition, in our traditionary instincts, in our pursuits, and in our institutions, during the forty years of peace which we have enjoyed. We have become more essentially a manufacturing and commercial people. A larger number of our population than formerly are dependent for their daily bread upon the profitable employment of capital in our foreign trade. The more extensive adaptation of machinery to manufacturing processes of every kind has led to the aggregation of large masses of our population in particular districts; and such masses, ignorant as we have unfortunately allowed them to grow up, are notoriously subject to the incendiary persuasions of unprincipled and bad men, and have been sedulously taught that cheapness of all the necessaries of life can only be secured by unrestricted communication with foreign countries. Moreover, we have had a large infusion of the democratic element into our constitution. Our House of Commons no longer represents the yeomanry and the property classes of the country; but, instead, must obey the dictates of the shopkeeping and artisan classes of our large towns. It is no longer the same body of educated English gentlemen, whose enduring patriotism, during the last war, stood firm against the clamours of the mobs of London, Manchester, and other large centres of population, and turned a deaf ear to the persuasions of faction within its own walls; but a mixed assemblage of a totally opposite, or, at all events, a materially changed character, so far as regards a considerable number of its members. We have in it now a larger proportion of the capitalist class—men suspected of being rather more sensitively alive to a rise or fall in the prices of funds, stock, railway shares, &c., than to any gain or loss of national honour; more wealthy manufacturers, who would be disposed to regard the loss of a fleet as a minor calamity, compared with the loss of a profitable market for their cottons, woollens, or hardwares; and, lastly, more Irish representatives of the Maynooth priesthood, ready to sell their country, or themselves, for a concession to Rome, or a Government appointment. The honourable member for the West Riding—Mr Cobden—showed a thorough appreciation of the character and position of a portion of the House, and of his own constituents, when he wound up his speech on the adjourned debate upon the question of our relations with Russia and Turkey, on the 20th ult., with these words, which deserve to be remembered:—“He would take upon himself all the unpopularity of opposing this war; and, more than that, he would not give six months’ purchase for the popularity of those who advocated it on its present basis.”

Under such circumstances it is material to examine what is the amount of interruption to the commerce of the country, which may be assumed as likely to occur, as the result of a state of war with Russia. What, in other words, is the amount and the nature of the pressure, to which the masses of our population may be called upon to submit, to prepare them for the purposes of those persons—happily few in number at present—whose voice is for peace at any sacrifice of the national honour, and any sacrifice of the sacred duties of humanity? We shall perhaps be excused if we examine first the nature of the pressure which is relied upon by such persons; and we cannot exemplify this better than by a quotation from the speech already referred to by the same Mr Cobden—their first volunteer champion in the expected agitation. The honourable gentleman remarked:—

“He could not ignore the arguments by which they were called upon by honourable and right honourable gentlemen to enter into a war with Russia. The first argument was one which had been a dozen times repeated, relative to the comparative value of the trade of the two countries. We were to go to war to prevent Russia from possessing countries from which she would exclude our commerce, as she did from her own territory. That argument was repeated by a noble lord, who told the House how insignificant our trade with Russia was, compared with that with Turkey. Now, that opinion was erroneous as well as dangerous, for we had no pecuniary interest in going to war. Our interests were all on the other side, as he was prepared to show. The official returns did not give him the means of measuring the extent of our exports to Russia, but he had applied to some of the most eminent merchants in the City, and he confessed he had been astonished by the extent of our trade with Russia. He used to be told that our exports to Russia amounted to less than £2,000,000. Now, Russia was still under the Protectionist delusion, which had also prevailed in this country in his recollection. (A laugh.) Russia still kept up her protective duties upon her manufactures, but he would tell the House what we imported from Russia, and they might depend on it that whatever we imported we paid for. (Hear, hear.) He had estimated the imports from Russia as of much greater value than most people thought, and he was under the impression that they might amount to from £5,000,000 to £6,000,000 per annum. Now, here was a calculation of our imports from Russia which he had obtained from sources that might be relied upon,—

Estimated Value of Imports from Russia into the United Kingdom.
Tallow, £1,800,000
Linseed, 1,300,000
Flax and hemp, 3,200,000
Wheat, 4,000,000
Wool, 300,000
Oats, 500,000
Other grain, 500,000
Bristles, 450,000
Timber, deals, &c., 500,000
Iron, 70,000
Copper, 140,000
Hides, 60,000
Miscellaneous, 200,000
£13,020,000