suppose that the depopulation by Russia of the regions lying about those venerable mountains has only now begun.

After the Allies left Sebastopol, the Tatar population of the Crimea found their condition unendurable, and they were the first to fly from the Russian yoke, and to seek refuge on the hospitable soil of Turkey. They did not come in very large numbers, so that this emigration was comparatively manageable, and a number of them were located in the Dobroja, in a new town or settlement called Mejidieh, where, on the whole, they have prospered.

Next came the emigration of the Tatars of the Kouban in 1861-62, caused by an order given by the Russian Government. This order was one of unexampled and needless severity. A large population was compelled to leave the Russian territory at a fixed date. These unfortunate people were compelled to abandon their homes, to travel with their wives and children, and to land in a new country in midwinter. The fixing of a term at the expiration of which they were obliged to depart had the effect of depriving them of all their property, for they could obtain no price, or but a vile price, for their cattle and such things as their neighbours saw that they must abandon, since they could not transport them. They landed at Constantinople and other parts of Turkey in the midst of snow, sleet, and rain, and the mortality among them was excessive. At that time it was not possible to take a walk in the afternoon at Constantinople without meeting numerous coffins of little children. Those Turks who were familiar with the exaggerated statements of the Russian organ Le Nord,' and with the humanitarian cry so sedulously fostered by Russian diplomacy, for edicts giving equality to the Rayahs, made bitter remarks upon the reciprocity shown by Russia, and upon the indifference of Europe, and asked if the humanity of which they had heard so much ought not to have interfered here. This expulsion of the Tatars was unnecessary, for they were a harmless and pacific people. The pretext assigned by Russia for the measure was, that they maintained communications with the mountaineers, and assisted them in defying the Imperial power; for these Tatars occupied the country to the north of the Caucasus, between it and the river Kouban, and their expulsion was a strategic measure taken with a view of circumscribing and hemming in the mountaineers of the Caucasus. Other Tatars, however, besides those of the Kouban, have been driven away or have followed their brethren, and the Muscovite proprietors of the Southern provinces of Russia complain of the loss of

a sober

and

and industrious agricultural population whom it is not easy to replace.

These 'wholesale expulsions are traditional with the Russian Government. In the last century, during the reign of the Empress Catharine, the Kalmuks were driven by the tyranny and petty persecutions of Russian officials to migrate from the shores of the Volga, and to seek refuge in the Chinese dominions. When they set out they filled twenty-eight thousand tents, but only half their number reached the Chinese territory.

In considering these acts of systematic barbarity perpetrated by the Russian Government, it is impossible not to remember the expulsion of the Moors from Spain in 1610. History has already condemned the severity and impolicy of that measure. According to the most trustworthy calculations, of more than a million of Moors who were expelled, only a fourth survived. The Jews were driven from Spain in 1492, by a decree of Ferdinand and Isabella; many of them found shelter at Constantinople, and to this day half the Israelites in that capital and in Smyrna speak the Spanish language; the other half, who also fled from persecution, are of a later immigration, and speak Polish. But with the severity of these measures the parallel ends: the Russian Government cannot plead in excuse the fierce fanaticism which animated the Inquisition before whose mandates the Spanish monarch found it necessary to bow. Spain, moreover, was ejecting those whom she considered as intruders in spite of eight hundred years of occupation of the soil; but Russia is herself the intruder into the Tatar steppes and Circassian mountains, and if there is any teaching in the progress of time, the Muscovite Government, at the end of two centuries and a-half, is far less excusable than that of Spain. It may not be too much to say that the indifference of Europe to the expulsion of the Kouban Tatars emboldened Russia to proceed to the conscription at Warsaw, by which she forced the Poles into insurrection, and thereby furnished herself with a pretext for the extensive deportations of Poles to Siberia-to be followed, shortly, perhaps, by the expulsion of the population from whole provinces, if it should appear that there is no limit to the apathy and endurance of Europe.

From ignorance of the ethnography of the Caucasus, much misapprehension exists with regard to the Circassians, and consequently blame was unfairly cast upon them at the time of the Crimean War for not supporting us more efficiently. When Englishmen talk of Circassia, they use that term for the Caucasus, which they consider as one country; whereas the Eastern and Western Caucasus, which are divided by the pass of Vladi-Kavkas, are entirely distinct, and H 2

the

the Eastern and Western Caucasians again are subdivided into nations which are by no means homogeneous. The error of the prevailing ideas respecting the Caucasus will be understood at once if we imagine ourselves as considering the inhabitants of Chamouni, the Tyrolese, and the people about Laybach as one nation, from whom a common and combined action was to be expected. Four distinct languages are spoken in the Alps between Geneva and Laybach, and in the greater range of the Caucasian chain the various dialects are far more numerous. Sheikh Shamyl is usually spoken of as a Circassian, whilst in reality he had no relations with the Circassians. He was himself a Tchetchen, and had united the Lesghis, the Tchetchenes, and the Daghestanlys in a confederation against Russia; the proper name for the region of his exploits is Daghestan, which is a general expression for the Eastern part of the Caucasus, and there is little communication between Daghestan and Circassia or the Western part of the Caucasus running from Anapa to Batum, so that during the war it would have been very difficult for any one from the West to reach Sheikh Shamyl. The name Circassian is derived from Tcherkess, and designates the people dwelling in the mountains overhanging the Black Sea, and Mingrelia, or the country watered by the Phasis. These are the tribes whose unfortunate fate we have now to deplore.

The Circassians proper are Mussulmans, as are also the Lesghis and Daghestanlys; there are some Christians among the Ossetes, and some of the mountaineers are said to be in a primitive state of ignorance, but it would perhaps be more correct to say of those whose creed is doubtful, as of the Arnauts, that their national sentiments weigh more with them than those of religion. The chief characteristic of the Caucasians is personal courage, and indifference to enormous odds against them in a fight. It happened some years ago that nine or ten Circassians in the Russian service escaped into Prussia, where they thought themselves safe, but on their being claimed as deserters, the Prussians undertook to deliver them up, and readers of the newspapers may remember how they refused to surrender and were all killed, after having destroyed many times their own number of Prussian soldiers. For many years the Russian post from Georgia had to be escorted through the pass of Vladi-Kavkas, by a strong detachment with artillery. The struggle between Russia and the mountaineers has, as is well known, been going on for many years, and although the stronger nation has been gradually advancing, yet except when the Russians have succeeded in taking a village the loss has always been greater on the side of the aggressors. Last year

some

some cannon and ammunition were introduced into Abkhasia, and though the people were not able to make much use of the artillery from want of practice, the stimulus given by this encouragement and succour was such that after receiving it they won nine successive victories over the Russians. Nevertheless, since that time murrain amongst their cattle and famine have utterly ruined their cause; they have not been conquered, but have been reduced by starvation to the lamentable condition which is exciting the pity and horror of Europe.

In considering the political state of the Caucasus, two questions present themselves: Why has England abandoned the Circassians, in spite of the sympathy wrung from us by their perseverance in a patriotic struggle? and why has Russia persisted so long, and at such an expenditure of men and treasure, in the attempt to extend her dominion over barren mountains, the inhabitants of which could not leave their strongholds to attack her, even had they the desire to do so?

It will be remembered that shortly after the Porte declared war against Russia, in 1853, news arrived that the Turkish troops had taken Shefketil or Fort St. Nicolas, the nearest Russian military post to the Turkish frontier; after that, a British naval force acting with the Circassians reduced the other Russian forts along their seabord; and, lastly, Anapa was taken, and the mountaineers came down into that place, which, however, was restored to Russia at the peace. Let us now recall what was done by the British Government with regard to Circassia, either with a view to securing its independence, or for the immediate object of carrying on the war. In the spring of 1854, a military officer, a colonel in the Bolivian service, was appointed British Commissioner to the Circassians, and proceeded to Constantinople. His qualifications for this appointment were summed up by a diplomatist in these words— 'that the Andes are very high mountains in Bolivia, and that the Caucasus is also a chain of very high mountains.' Whilst at Constantinople the Colonel had interviews with some of the Circassian envoys, upon whom he tried to make an impression in the following manner. He laid a dollar upon the table, and then attempted to transfix it with a Sheffield bowie-knife. The first attempt was more detrimental to the Embassy mahogany than to the dollar. After these diplomatic arguments, not taken from precedents in Wicquefort, the Colonel proceeded to the Crimea, where he was seized with cholera, and returned to Therapia to die. A Captain in the navy was next sent out. This appointment was not much happier than the former one-for the Captain had no knowledge of the country or its

people,

people, and was physically incapacitated for the rough life in Circassia. His diplomatic education seems to have been derived from the same source as that of the Colonel, for, on arriving in Circassia, he, with much pomp and circumstance, loaded a six-barrel revolving rifle before the assembled Circassians, and fired it off. All the six barrels, it is said, went off at once, and the Circassians raised a shout of derision. Now these mistakes arose from national prejudice, and the European would be at a disadvantage in both cases; for Caucasian daggers and swords are of better temper than the Sheffield blades, Lesghi gun-barrels are famous throughout the Caucasus and in Persia, and a Circassian horseman, even at full gallop, would use his rifle with more effect than would most Europeans. Towards the end of the summer of 1854, however, a better appointment was made, and Mr. Longworth, whose character and previous career fully qualified him for the post, was sent to Anapa. As this town is at the Western extremity of the Caucasus, he could have no communication with the Daghestanlys under Sheikh Shamyl at the other end of the chain. It is necessary to bear this absence of communications in mind with reference to the peace made by Sheikh Shamyl with the Russians, for it was alleged in the House of Commons as the reason why no provision had been made for the Circassians of the Black Sea coast in the stipulations of the Treaty of Paris, that they had not assisted us efficiently. Meantime, other circumstances operated so as to neutralise the advantages which might have been derived from the Circassians, and such as diminished both their energy and the sympathy felt for them in England. In the first place, no proclamation or manifesto was put forth calling upon them to co-operate with the Allies, and promising to include them in the negotiations which should take place at the end of the war. Some jealousy was shown by the allies with regard to the supremacy of the Ottoman Porte, notwithstanding that this was more prominently put forward by the Circassians themselves than by the Porte. But the most impolitic measure of all was that at this time some good people thought the opportunity one not to be neglected, for putting down what they called the Circassian slave-trade, and pressure was put upon the Porte, and a firman obtained prohibiting the trade. The consequence was intense disgust at Constantinople, which was, perhaps, felt still more strongly by the Circassians, who considered that the Western Allies were interfering with them, and were as

*This was after he had arranged the ransom of his son in exchange for his prisoners the Georgian Princesses and their French governess, whose account of that transaction has been published.

little