with the Russian Government. In the last time of the Crimean War for not supporting century, during the reign of the Empress us more efficiently. When Englishmen talk Catharine, the Kalmuks were driven by the of Circassia, they use that term for the Cautyranny and petty persecutions of Russian casus, which they consider as one country; officials to migrate from the shores of the whereas the Eastern and Western Caucasus, Volga, and to seek refuge in the Chinese do- which are divided by the pass of Vladi-Kavminions. When they set out, they filled kas, are entirely distinct, and the Eastern twenty-eight thousand tents; but only half and Western Caucasians again are subditheir number reached the Chinese territory. vided into nations which are by no means In considering these acts of systematic homogeneous. The error of the prevailing barbarity perpetrated by the Russian Gov- ideas respecting the Caucasus will be underernment, it is impossible not to remember stood at once if we imagine ourselves as conthe expulsion of the Moors from Spain in sidering the inhabitants of Chamouni, the 1610. History has already condemned the Tyrolese, and the people about Laybach as severity and impolicy of that measure. Ac- one nation, from whom a common and comcording to the most trustworthy calculations, bined action was to be expected. Four disof more than a million of Moors who were tinct languages are spoken in the Alps expelled, only a fourth survived. The Jews between Geneva and Laybach, and in the were driven from Spain in 1492, by a decree greater range of the Caucasian chain the 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 Eu-acteristic of the Caucasians is personal courrope.

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

various dialects are far more numerous. Sheik 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 Sheik 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 char

age, 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 | dependence, or for the immediate object of to deliver them up, and readers of the news-carrying on the war. In the spring of 1854, papers may remember how they refused to a military officer, a colonel in the Bolivian surrender and were all killed, after having service, was appointed British Commissioner destroyed many times their own number of to the Circassians, and proceeded to ConstanPrussian soldiers. For many years the Rus- tinople. His qualifications for this appointsian post from Georgia had to be escorted ment were summed up by a diplomatist in through the pass of Vladi-Kavkas by a these words: "that the Andes are very strong detachment with artillery. The strug- high mountains in Bolivia, and that the gle between Russia and the mountaineers Caucasus is also a chain of very high mounhas, as is well known, been going on for tains." Whilst at Constantinople, the colonel many years, and although the stronger na- had interviews with some of the Circassian tion has been gradually advancing, yet ex- envoys, upon whom he tried to make an imcept when the Russians have succeeded in pression in the following manner: He laid taking a village the loss has always been a dollar upon the table, and then attempted greater on the side of the aggressors. Last to transfix it with a Sheffield bowie-knife. year some cannon and ammunition were in- The first attempt was more detrimental to troduced into Abkhasia, and though the peo- the embassy mahogany than to the dollar. ple were not able to make much use of the After these diplomatic arguments, not taken artillery from want of practice, the stimulus from precedents in Wicquefort, the colonel given by this encouragement and succor was proceeded to the Crimea, where he was seized such that after receiving it they won nine with cholera, and returned to Therapia to successive victories over the Russians. Nev- die. A captain in the navy was next sent ertheless, since that time murrain amongst out. This appointment was not much haptheir 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.

pier than the former one; for the captain had no knowledge of the country or its people, and was physically incapacitated for the rough life in Circassia. His diplomatic education seems to have been derived from the same In considering the political state of the source as that of the colonel; for on arriving Caucasus, two questions present themselves in Circassia, he, with much pomp and circumWhy has England abandoned the Circassians, stance loaded a six-barrel revolving rifle before in spite of the sympathy wrung from us by the assembled Circassians, and fired it off. their perseverance in a patriotic struggle? All the six barrels, it is said, went off at and why has Russia persisted so long, and at once, and the Circassians raised a shout of such an expenditure of men and treasure, in derision. Now these mistakes arose from the attempt to extend her dominion over bar-national prejudice, and the European would ren mountains, the inhabitants of which be at a disadvantage in both cases; for Caucould not leave their strongholds to attack her, even had they the desire to do so?

casian daggers and swords are of better temper than the Sheffield blades; Lesghi gunIt will be remembered that shortly after barrels are famous throughout the Caucasus the Porte declared war against Russia in and in Persia, and a Circassian horseman, 1853, news arrived that the Turkish troops even at full gallop, would use his rifle with had taken Shefketil, or Fort St. Nicholas, the more effect than would most Europeans. nearest Russian military post to the Turkish Towards the end of the summer of 1854, frontier; after that, a British naval force however, a better appointment was made, and acting with the Circassians reduced the other Mr. Longworth, whose character and previous Russian forts along their seaboard; and, career fully qualified him for the post, was lastly, Anapa was taken, and the moun- sent to Anapa. As this town is at the taineers came down into that place, which, western extremity of the Caucasus, he could however, was restored to Russia at the peace. have no communication with the Daghestanlys Let us now recall what was done by the under Sheik Shamyl at the other end of the British Government with regard to Cir- chain. It is necessary to bear this absence cassia, either with a view to securing its in- of communications in mind with reference to

a Circassian girl lives in a state of slavish dependence on her father and brothers; her position is therefore raised when a man demands her in marriage, and stakes his fortune to obtain her. The Eastern girl sees in her purchase-price the test of her own value; the higher the offer, the greater her worth. The purchase of women being the common practice among the Circassian tribes, the slave-dealers, to whom they are sold, are to be regarded simply as agents, who dispose of them in marriage in Turkey. Their parents know that a better lot awaits them there than at home, and the girls willingly go to Turkey, where, as this traffic has existed for years, they constantly meet their kindred.”

the peace made by Sheik Shamyl with the | On the part of the woman no shame is atRussians; for it was alleged in the House of tached to the transaction, but rather a sense In her own country Commons as the reason why no provision of honor. 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 sufficiently. Meantime, other circumstances operated so as to neutralize 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 We are, therefore, not surprised when the Porte, notwithstanding that this was more baron tells us that on one occasion when he prominently put forward by the Circassians was himself present, a vessel having been capthemselves than by the Porte. But the most tured with some Circassian girls on board, impolitic measure of all was that at this time the girls were offered their choice,―to be sent some good people thought the opportunity back to their own country under safe escort, one not to be neglected for putting down to marry Russians or Cossacks of their own what they called the Circassian slave-trade, free selection, to go with the baron to Gerand pressure was put upon the Porte, and a many where all women are free, or to acfirman obtained prohibiting the trade. The company the captain of the ship, who would consequence was intense disgust at Constanti-sell them in the slave-market at Constantinople, which was, perhaps, felt still more nople,-unanimously, and without hesitation strongly by the Circassians, who considered they exclaimed, "To Constantinople to be that the western Allies were interfering with sold!" them, and were as little friendly to them as the Russians. Even if the trade had been such as the Allies supposed, surely, this was not the moment to raise the question. But the fact is, this interference arose from the misapprehensions which grow out of names wrongly applied. Europeans have given the name of slave to the Circassian damsels who come to Constantinople, and have invested them with that interest and compassion which justly belongs to those victims whom no law protects from the caprice of a master in the United States of America. The truth is far otherwise.

"The purchase and sale of women," says Baron Haxthausen (p. 8), " is deeply rooted in the customs of the nation; every man buys his wife from the father, or from the family.† *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.

The Circassian buys his wife; but at the same time he is obliged, pro forma, to steal her, and carry her off privately. This is the only reputable manner of obtaining possession of the bargain.

Our own traveller Mr. Oliphant says of some Circassian damsels whom he saw at their mountain-home,

But we

"We laughingly asked some of these young ladies if they would come with us to Stamboul; and their eyes sparkled with delight their willingness to do so. at the idea, as they unhesitatingly expressed A Circassian young lady anticipates with as much relish the time when she shall arrive at a marketable age as an English young lady does the prospect of her first London season. have prevented the possibility of their forming any more of those brilliant alliances which made the young ladies of Circassia the envy of Turkeydom. The effect is, in fact, very much the same as that which an Act of Parliament would have in this country, forbidding any squire's daughter to marry out of her own parish, thus limiting her choice to the curate, the doctor, and the attorney, and the result in all probability will be anything but beneficial to the morality of the community."

The truth is, that the Circassians are in

But to return to the inquiry why the Russians have spent so much blood and treasure in conquering the barren Circassian mountains. The mountains of the Caucasian chain are of no value in themselves, and their acquisition can only be looked upon as a means to an end. A wide extent of territory inhabited by Tatars intervened between the Caucasus and the provinces inhabited by a Russian population, so that the Russian Empire had no danger to apprehend from the Circassians; but Russia had obtained by fraud the Christian kingdom of Georgia.* The Russian yoke is not sufficiently light to reconcile a nation to submit to it forever, especially a nation which has a history and a church dating from the fourth century, and has maintained its separate existence through the wars of Timur and of the Persian monarchy; and Russia has reason to fear that Georgia will reassert her independence under some one of

Having effected this sentimental reform, we left the Circassians to their fate. The causes which led to their abandonment by England may be summed up in these words: absence of policy on the part of the government, and ignorance and indifference on the part of the nation. As we have seen, no means were taken by a judicious choice of agents to ascertain the condition of Circassia, and to direct public opinion towards what ought to have been done for that country and what it was practicable to do. The Turkish army was uselessly detained in the Crimea, instead of being left free to act in a conge- the surviving heirs of her ancient kings. nial field of operations; and when at last it was permitted to leave Sebastopol, the season was already too far advanced, and the rains compelled Omer Pasha to put an end to his campaign in Mingrelia, which had begun favorably. When the period of negotiation arrived, it is singular that whilst we were tenacious as to Bolgrad and in keeping Russia away from the mouths of the Danube, not a word was said about stipulations binding the Russians not to resume their blockade of the Circassian coast, and preventing their rebuilding the forts which had been destroyed. Such policy was like leaving one door open whilst making great efforts to close the other. No voice was raised in behalf of the Circassians at the Congress; the opportunity was lost for recognizing their rights as a free and unconquered nation; they were abandoned by England, after all the encouagement she had given them, and her silence confirmed the privilege claimed by the Muscovites of hunting down one of the noblest races of mankind.

*The first attempt that was made, perhaps from benevolent motives, but certainly under a thorough mistake, to interfere with the so-called Circassian slave-trade, was in the time when Lord Ponsonby was our ambassador at Constantinople. It is said that he replied that he did not well know how he could execute his instructions; for the Turkish foreign minister and two of the other ministers were themselves Circassian slaves, and it would be difficult for him to tell them, or to make them understand that they held a degraded position.

With the Caucasus for a bulwark and its mountaineers for their allies, the Georgians might have again enjoyed national independence; but their chances of success will be very much diminished when the Caucasus shall have been depopulated, or its population so reduced as to be no longer capable of offering any resistance. But it is not merely for the sake of holding Georgia that the czar seeks to rivet his chains upon that country. Russia has no superabundant population to dispose of, and Siberia affords her a means of getting rid of disaffected subjects, so that her army of the Caucasus is not a political necessity for her, but only an expedient, and the advantages to be derived from the revenues of Georgia cannot be such as to counterbalance the expenditure for an army seldom less than a hundred and fifty thousand men, unless there were another object in view. This army in Georgia is a menace against Turkey and Persia; it presses especially upon Persia, and the continual fear of Russia has checked the progress and development of that country, which in the last few years, since it has been left more to itself, has laid down telegraphs, and in other respects has been steadily advancing. Friends

*The queen mother and her son King George XIII. were induced to leave Georgia and proceed to Russia, where this last of the Georgian kings surrendered his inheritance and the independence of his country to the Czar Paul; and in 1801, Georgia was united to Russia,

of Russia say that she has civilized Georgia ; | tations, Shamyl treated with the Russians, but beyond introducing the French language and, instead of dying at his post and beamongst the upper classes of Tiflis, and erecting a theatre there, it is difficult to say in what way Georgia has been benefited by the Russian occupation. What Russian civilization is there, may be learned from Lermontoff's "Life in the Caucasus," which has been translated into French and English, and of which it may fairly be said that it equals in iniquity the worst of French novels.

queathing to history an unsullied name, which would have ranked with that of William Tell, he unfortunately preferred to become a pensioned prisoner of the enemy, whom he had so long defied. If he had been only wearied with a hopeless struggle, and anxious to save his countrymen from further sufferings, it was open to him to have bid them make terms for themselves and to have taken refuge in some other part of Asia, closing his days in devotion, thus ending his life as he had commenced it. Again, although

But Russia has an ulterior object in subjugating the Caucasian mountaineers, and this ne more especially concerns England. So long as the Circassians and Daghestanlys Abd-el-Kader had been imprisoned in France could maintain their strongholds, and were in a position to occupy the passes of the Caucasus, Russia could not make use of Georgia as a safe base of operations against India; and of this we were repeatedly warned, whilst there was yet time to have done something by treaty stipulations to avert the evil. Alas! that the warnings should have been unheeded.

Although Sheik Shamyl is not a Circassian, and his people have never combined with the mountaineers near the Black Sea, yet as he has so long been the protagonist in the Caucasian drama, it would be impossible not to mention him in writing of the Cauca sus. His life offers a singular parallel to that of another man who has similarly occupied the attention of Europe. He and Abd-elKader both struggled at the head of their people for many years against overwhelming military force. Sheik Shamyl (or Shamuyl, as his name should be spelled, for it is the same as Samuel) has shown much more power of organization, and a higher military capacity than the Algerine Emir; but he had a mountain fastness into which he could retire to prepare for another blow, whilst Abd-el-Kader could only retreat into the shifting sands of the desert, and disperse his followers in order to reunite them at some other point. These two men have alike closed a noble career ingloriously, and the motive with both has been personal ambition. Sheik Shamyl was not the hereditary chief of the confederation of which he was the soul. He owed his authority solely to his religious character, and to his military capacity: he wished to bequeath this chieftainship to his The tribes were not willing to acquiesce, and being disappointed in these expecTHIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXVI. 1229

son.

in violation of the plighted word of a French general and of a son of the French king, yet when a sovereign of another French dynasty set him again at liberty, gratitude required him not to take part or to act against his liberator. These feelings did not, however, make it necessary for him to become a flatterer of the French, and an agent of France, on account of the prospect of the Government of Syria that was dangled before his eyes. In short, both Sheik Shamyl and Abd-el-Kader have preferred the part of Themistocles to that of Leonidas.

The prestige of the diplomacy of Russia is far greater than that of her army, and it has not been in any way lessened by the events of late years; whilst, on the contrary, the ideas formed of the Russian army in 1812 and 1815 have been materially modified. The almost uniform success of the Russian schemes has given rise to the erroneous belief that the generality of Russian diplomatic agents are superior to those of other countries, and particularly to those of England. The success of Russia is owing as much to her having an undeviating policy, and to the sleepless activity and concentrated attention of her Foreign Office, as to the somnolent indifference to the rest of the world. Russians as individuals are not only not superior, but they cannot claim to be equal to educated Englishmen their education does not admit of it, For instance, they pass for the first linguists of Europe, because they learn from their nurses and governesses to talk German, English, and French with fluency; but it is notorious that at the Court of the Emperor Nicholas, their own language was entirely neglected, and many ladies were actually unable to