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General Gomte Stackelberg , we believe , was tlie officer apx ? ointed by the Emperor to prosecute an inquiry into the existence of the military college : and all the researches of that careful officer got no further than the discovery of a few very doubtful vestiges of creation of such an institution . He found , in the environs of Tomsk a few young peasants , who were got up with some ingenuity , btit w ^ ose appearance and occupations were strangely inconsistent with the education of cadets . The result of this commission , conducted on the spot by Comte Stackelberg ,
was the further appointment of General Annenkof , Minister of the Council of the Empire , to proceed to . more special investigations , the result of which was , that Prince Crortschakof was found to have been conscientiously and calmly sharing the sums hypothetically devoted to the military college with a subordinate officer , by name Shrairim , to whose intimate relations this benevolent Prince , it was whispered , entertained a close but clandestine attachment . Prince Grortschakof was ' broke ; ' his friend and partaker ,
Shranim , dismissed the service in disgrace , and the military college ceased to decorate the list of the military defences of the Russian Empire . Now , Sir Ilarry Lester , in the Game of Speculation , whose salt-marsh was " about the coast , " and who " borrowed money on the sea , " was a marvel of simplicity and uprightness , compared with this admirable type of Russian , probity and patriotism—Prince Grortschakof . If such is the morality of Russian Princes , what may that of Russian Barons be ?
General Politkowsky , Governor of thelnvalides , committed suicide not long since , after having pocketed 3 , 000 , 000 roubles . As the culprit had shot himself out of the tigly scrape , the Emperor made an example of his corpse , which was degraded and denied Christian burial . It was on this occasion that General X / iiders , Grabbe , and Sass were brought to trial . Where the guilty 3 iad escaped , it was probable that the accused were innocent . But their innocence , did not prevent their being tried and condemned for infringement of the general orders . The Czar offered to pay
their iine , confidentially . General Grabbe refused a surreptitious atonement forinjxisticc ; and the curious letter he wrote to the Emperor on the subject was for some time the whisper of the salons at St . Petersburg . Tins General Grabbe , it may be well to remember , is the same who "burnt to the ground a town in Hungary , where a Russian oflicer or two had been killed by the Honvcds . General Sass has distinguished himself for rapine in the Caucasus . Ilis illustrious Asiatic campaigns consisted in pillaging and razing inoffensive Circassian villages , on the pretext that they were ready to revolt .
. Prince Paskiewitch is the enfant gate of the Czar . He received a million of roubles for his Persian campaign . AVith that sum he sought to purchase the famous domain which was granted lioRoumiawzoft'by Catherine IX , in . consideration of hia A'iotorios over the Turl < s . Eul , the domain was worth thrico a million of roubles . Prince Pa . skiewil . ch mortgaged his purchase , and the Emperor remitted him half , and , subsequently , the whole amount .
Prince Woronkzof is , or was , a sovereign in the Caucasus . 11 . o permits no reports to be addressed directly to himself : his court is w orthy of Darius for luxury and splendour , and presided over , with infinite grace , by a , distinguished Counter , -whose name belongs to the old aristocracy of France . The . Prince's recreation has consisted in organizing imaginary expeditions against the Circassians , for the sake ; of his favourite oilicers , who im . nl for promotion . This inimitable composer of bulletins has been in the hahit of destroying more Circassians in one year than sire born in ' ten .
General K . Icinmichel , ' M hunter of Ways and Communications , is the man \\ ho made the ' following renly to the Czar , who had expressed his fears about the safety of the route to Moscow , as the Empress was departing to that city . " Hire , " said the adroit courtier , " wo will lick the road with our tongues . " And the amiable K leinmiehel , whose- domestic felicity is annually twice * blessed by his master , and whose home in a nursery of Imperial foundlings , scoured the empire / for snow to make a , sale sledge-way of the road to Moscow .
Prince Mensehikof is almost more renowned for his bitter and caustic wit in the saloiiH , than for his diplomatic conquests . Since the death of tUo Grand Duko Michael , he Jiiih been without a
rival in jeux d'esprit . But General JBibikof , Minister of the Interior , is our trump card . He sent a certain M . Pissaref , his chef de cliancellerie , to Kief , as Civil Governor of Siberia . Domestic sympathies , as usual , facilitated the promotion of M . Pissaref by his patron : and the obliged husband bettered his instructions . The public virtue , so conspicuous in every other department of the Russian administration , sinks into insignificance compared with the systematic and ostentatious honesty ^ of M . Pissaref . The Ministry of the Interior itself is pure by contrast . Such are a few of the notabilities of the Russian army . No wonder Riissia has won more victories with her gold than with her guns !
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SC 0 " : CH EVICTIONS . Hithekto , under the influence of ignoranceeducated as well as uneducated ignoranceagricultural improvement has involved two important classes of mistake . It has been assumed that the grand object was , not the welfare of the people , but the prosperity of the estates , which is literally to mistake the means for the end . And it has been supposed that it is a better
plan to drive the people like sheep , than to guide them by sound instruction . The improvement of machinery , a better distribution of the population , and new methods of cultivation , are essential to agricultural improvement : but all can be brought about better by guiding ' the people than by driving them . One auxiliary to improvement is emigration , which carries off a mass of useless labour ; but it is not to be forced in the old Scotch and Irish
fashion . We say " old , " though it is still continuing . Down to this very autumn we have had evictions from the Scotch highlands , of which our contemporary , the Scotsman , furnishes an authentic and connected account . Knoydart , a district of Inverness , is a wildly mountainous country , "in the possession of the house of Clanronald , famous in Highland story . Here a numerous body of cottiers' sons , or near relatives , had built themselves houses on their friends ' crofts , and were riot rented to the estate . They maintained themselves by fishing or by labouring
for a portion of the year in the eastern and southern counties . Glengarry , the owner , having died in 1852 , the managing trustee , Mrs . M'Donnell , on behalf of the heir , a minor , issued to the small tenantry notices to quit , together with a notice that they must prepare to go to Australia , or to leave the estate ; their passages to be paid , and their arrears forgiven . May the 10 th brought these peoplo a letter from Mrs . M'Donnell , announcing that " for good and
sufficient reasons , " Canada muni be their destination . In default , the people were threatened with eviction . The crofters had requested the Rev . Mr . M'Donald , a Roman Catholic clergyman , to intercede on their behalf ; but a resolution bad boon taken that the estate should be cleared of all small tenantry and cottiers , at whatever expense or hazard . It was done . On the 9 th of August , a ship sailed for Montreal with U 31 men , women , and children . Twenty families who refused the assistance Mrs . M'Donnell had
offered , were evicted a fortnight after the departure of the emigrants . Five cases , where- sickness was iu their houses , remained exceptions to this wholesale deportation . Little discrepancies in payments on the part of the tenants—the demoralizing of customers who purchased whisky by the sale , of that liquor—the want of sites for farm offices at some future—the having received relief from the poor funds , served jib pretexts for warranting this cruelty . The desolate habitations , the- sufferings of sickly women and children , and the
fate of the evicted , are told in n long list of sickening incidents . Three poor women arc turned out after an occupation of a hut for ill teen years . Three families at Douno were exposed to the weather for four weeks . ( ) ne woman endured premature labour , brought on by her sufhvrinjjrH . ftho was found by the reporter l y ing under n , hush , a , keen northerly wind blowing , and heavy shomvrs falling . A . wall wjih her next shelter . These are a few of tho incidents , not perhaps tho worst in their accumulated suffering .
Tho refinemenl , of obedience to instructions wan exhihited in the case of a , poor woman , who , being found in bed , was suffered to remain then ? with only ho much of the walln and roof of tho habitation , an sheltered , her bod .
" Twelve houses were completely destroyed—the roofs thrown down , the walls levelled , the furniture scattered about , and the inmates left exposed on the moor to the weather , which at the time was cold for the season . The most stringent orders were issued to the paupers that they should not give shelter to any of the ejectedpeople under penalties sufficiently terrifying to them . " On the third evening , when returning to Inveree , the factor ' s party came upon a small boathouse erected on the shore , at Doune , which they had overlooked . In this the ejected families had huddled together at night for two nights , not daring to put up any artificial shelter . Fire was immediately applied to the roof , and the structure burned down . This
completed the work of destruction , and eleven families were left absolutely without shelter—for unfortunately for them the coast of Knoydart has no caves in which protection from at least the rain might have been found . This state of matters remained unaltered until early in the present month , when one of the families obtained service and shelter from Mr . Macleod , Scotus , and three others obtained possession of bothies , after exposure for four or five weeks , in weather singularl y cold , wet , and stormy . Weekly , during that period , acting on the peremptory orders of his superiors , the local manager had gone the round of the townships , and overturned the frail coverings of blankets and turf which the people had constructed . "
The Scotsman enters into calculations to show that a poor-law would have afforded the means of rescuing these people from the depth of misery , and of effecting the change without such cruelty . It is possible also that the simple furnishing of information to the people would have done it . Some of the emigrants who have gone out to the north with Glengarry have done very well ;
indeed , accounts from them have come over froni time to time , showing that they had better opportunities than they had at home . Emigration to Australia is of course not less promising . The most stupid people can understand such facts when they are plainly stated ; or , if some were too old and too bigoted to understand , surely the State could bear the burden of the ignorance which it has suffered to continue in existence . There is
many a thriving settlement peopled by such men and women as those from J £ noydart ; but they can be transferred without such barbarity as that which has attended these evictions ; or if they cannot be transferred , " enlightened " economy might be ashamed to hunt ignorance , age , and feebleness out of bed , and to persecute them with paltry tortures like those which our contemporary so properly exposes .
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DIVORCE A LUXURY FOR THE RICH . It is probable that Mr . Henry Fitzroy ' s Bill , for checking aggravated assaults upon women , may not bo without much useful effect , but we are not certain that it will be all gain . Those who aro not the worst or the bravest amongst tho wretched cowards that habitually beat their wives , may be frightened or shamed into better behaviour , but there are some to whom the being called to account , in court , may act as a new offence , to be visited by retribution on the wife ; and three cases that we mentioned last week ,
seemed to be beyond the pi-obability of being effectually checked by such a law . The mama that appears to have visited Crinney will inevitably be checked by no Jaw at all , and the two tailors , who exercised their prowess upon their wives , in Now-cut , Gravol-lano , and in Goodman ' H-yard , Goodman Wields , evidently regarded legal interference only as an impediment to bo overcome . Curtis , the . hero of New-cut , would
threatened his wife that if who hallooed , lie dance upon her till she burst ; and Wright , the hero <> f ( jioodnmn ' s-yard , said , as ho wan going to the station-house , that , "if he got over this , ho would Hinash his wife ' s brains out . " Ho J »» - ( l already made conh ' idurable progress towards thai / result . " Mrs . Wright is secured aga , h ) Ht domestic murder for six months , and Mrs . Curtis may enjoy , for mi equal upac . e , a , holiday from beating . ' But how a , t tho end of that time P Mrs . W ' rxtfrt
has boon married to her huBlmnd for throe , years , and'ho has benton her every month since she married him . Curtis ' s treatment of his wife it is dillieult to realizo to the inuigination ; but any tangible conception of it shows us that tho horronj vvhieh that woimuunust go through , daily , excee < l any description in I Suite ' s nieturc of the uifornai regions . He had frequently struck her ; ho n " thrown boiling wator upon her , from tho teapot he had repeatedly used upon hoi- a thick miuai " stick ; the blows " from that stiek wore hoard , (> y a policeman ,, before ho could ibrco an oniry in | - <> tho room where Curtis waa ill-using his wiio .
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1166 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ;
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 3, 1853, page 1166, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2015/page/14/
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