that? That is but a white-washing of the sepulchre; a cleansing of the outside of the platter, I'm sure. Better she would go to chapel; but even when the great Mr. Hollow was down from London, she never went, though I sent to say that she might sit in our seat."

"On that evening," said the quiet little lady, "I happen to know that Mrs. Selby was with the poor woman whose child met with so dreadful an accident from the fire."

"Well, I'm sure," said Mrs. Cooch, "I would not be uncharitable, but I must say it was an opportunity which I would not have missed for worlds. I was so happy! I was in such a heavenly frame of mind, that I seemed to forget the world and all belonging to it! Oh, he is a wonderful man! How anybody can refuse to go and hear Mr. Hollow, I'm sure I don't know! And his manner in the pulpit is so good!"

"Well," replied the little white lady, "I must allow that I think Mrs. Selby might go to chapel sometimes, even if she prefers going to church. As for me, I am happy to say I have not entered a church for more than forty years, and I always feel sorry to see people preferring the cold, formal, printed prayers used there, to the outpourings of the spirit in our places of worship.

"I think it is awful!" said Mrs. Cooch; "but, as I say to my husband, I trust no coldness will creep into our little favoured Zion-that we shall have no backsliders among us. As I tell Mr. Cooch, I hope we shall have a rattling of dry bones among us soon, for it is time. The last time I called at that Mrs. Selby's," she continued, "I found her reading a sinful book, called the New Monthly Magazine! I told her I hoped she would not put such things into the hands of my children; for no one ever came to any good who read such carnal-minded books as those; and she smiled, and said she always attended to Mr. Cooch's wishes with regard to their education. I-I suppose-am of no consequence;-my opinions are not to be considered! Only last week, too, I found a piece of music in Emily's drawer, called The Overture to Der Freischutz,' or some such worldly thing, with a most awfully sinful picture upon it of little imps and evil spirits dancing! But I cut it out-yes, I cut off the picture, and burnt it before Miss Emily's face! She cried, and said it was Mrs. Selby's, and that I had destroyed a great part of the music with the picture; and I was pleased that I had; for I was not at all sorry to give Mrs. Selby a hint of what I thought of her."

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"You were quite right-quite right," said the ladies. And one or two, heaving deep sighs very much like groans, said, "It is a sinful world; it is awful to see the hardness of heart, the spiritual blindness around us."

"But where can Mr. Thomas, our young preacher, be?" said Mrs. Cooch; "I never knew him so late; he rarely misses the tea-hour. What a gifted young man he is! How beautifully he reads, and how gracefully he hands the bread and butter! I declare, I could scarcely help crying at hearing him read about the hardships that our missionary and his wife went through in the East Indies, and how the lions and tigers go roaming about the streets all night in Madras, and how the poor slaves have never anything to eat but boiled rice, without even salt, and how

they cannot go out all day long for fear of being roasted in the sun, or stung by adders! If Mrs. Selby would only have grace to read such books as that, it might tend to wean her from the things of this world. But here he comes."

And a tall, fat, pale-faced, whiskerless young man, with great eyes and a very tight white neckcloth, entered the room, and was greeted as Mr. Thomas. The younger ladies simpered and bridled, the elder ones made quite a bustle in getting the young man the most comfortable seat by the fire, the book was produced, and for the remainder of the evening Mrs. Selby's name was left at rest.

Happily, Mrs. Selby knew nothing of the kind things which these ladies said of her; her time passed quietly but contentedly away, and month after month glided on with but one or two events of any importance to mark their progress. One of these was the removal of the boys who had been entrusted to her care, and the arrival of others in their places; the other was a visit which Mrs. Burrow, the rich aunt, paid to a friend in the neighbourhood of St. Bennett's. She called to see Mrs. Selby, dined with her once or twice, frightened little Nelly by the deep rough tones of her voice, scolded her for stooping and for laughing too loud, and accused Mrs. Selby of extravagance in getting for dinner a couple of roast ducks, with green peas. In vain did Mrs. Selby explain, in an apologetic tone, that poultry was cheap and plentiful in Cornwall.

"I call it extravagance, said Mrs. Burrow, in reply; "I never dream of such indulgences-I can't afford them."

Mrs. Selby certainly did feel much put out, but she did not show it, and when the visit was over, she returned to her usual habits, and could describe laughingly to Dr. Barfoot what pains Mrs. Burrow had taken to assure her that she should leave all her wealth to her late husband's relatives.

"She was quite right to tell you of it," said the doctor; "I was almost afraid that my little Nelly might be led to consider herself an heiress."

"Oh! there is no fear of that," replied Mrs. Selby; "Mrs. Burrow took great care that we should be dispossessed of the notion if we had ever entertained it. She said, My husband's relations are all rolling in riches, and don't want my money; but they know how to take care of it, and they will have it among them.'

"I am glad of it," said Dr. Barfoot-" I am glad my little Nelly will not be spoiled by expectations of inheriting wealth, which might, after all, be disappointed. I would rather teach a child to beg its bread than to look forward to riches which can only be attained by the death of a fellow-creature. Mrs. Burrow did very wisely to guard against such an evil."

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

THE MILITARY RESOURCES OF RUSSIA.

PETER THE GREAT had only one boat as a nucleus for a fleet, which, at the time we write, consists of forty-five ships of the line and thirty frigates. The same creative genius had only one company of regular soldiers-the Potiaschni-who mounted guard at the palaces of Moscow, as a nucleus for the enormous army of Russia as it has since grown up. But while Napoleon adopted as a device "After me the deluge," Peter laboured avowedly for posterity. Hence the ever increasing power of Russia; everything is done with a view not so much to the present as to the future. Russia does not raise a militia because a warlike cloud overhangs a neighbouring country; Russia does not extend and diminish her military resources according to the political aspect of Europe. From her eyrie in the Neva she has to watch over Europe, Asia, and part of America. Chinese, Tartars, Persians, Turks, are as much to her as Germans, French, and English. Her army is ever increasing in numbers, and her power is ever developing itself further and further in the acquisition of new territories, the colonisation of old, the subjugation of populations, and above all, as Mr. David Urquhart explains at length in his work on the "Progress of Russia," by opening the sources of opinion, and appropriating the channels of wealth and power. Long and not uninteresting would be the chapter we could devote to the latter subject; perchance we may have an opportunity of doing so yet.

*

What a development, then, has the kernel sown by the boatman of Saardam assumed! It has produced a tree, which now spreads its branches over three continents. Who will venture to lop off one of

those branches? The Turks are prepared to try: it will be soon seen with what little chance of success. Peter the Great had, before found

ing the old guard, to disembarrass himself of a feudal army of irregulars, strongly imbued with the military manners of Asia, and gathered around a small body of permanent troops-the redoubtable Strelitz-the Prætorians of Russia. An act of decisive energy, such as was afterwards put in force by Muhammad Ali against the Mamluks, and by Mahmud against the Janissaries, carried into execution in the midst of one of the most difficult wars Russia had till that time been engaged in, rid him for ever of this arrogant and domineering soldiery. The very successes

of Charles XII. of Sweden served to instruct Peter and to aggrandise the army. Even disasters with such a nation only turned to the profit of their patron deity, Ruski-Bog; and in nine years' time they were prepared to take their revenge at Pultava for their defeat at Narva.

After the death of Peter and of his great general, Gordon, the Russian

* Progress of Russia in the West, North, and South, &c. By David Urquhart. Trübner and Co.

Oct.-VOL. XCIX. NO. CCCXCIV.

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army found in Keith, Munich, and Mentschikoff, men equal to the task of continuing the work of the great founder. But even in the time of Frederick the Great, the Russian army, with its vast bodies of Cossacks roving around the regular troops, was still looked upon as something like those great Asiatic hordes which, from the time of Xerxes, had ever been more formidable to the people among whom they moved, than to the trained bands of more civilised nations. The battle of Zorndorf first showed the conqueror of Rossbach and of Leuthen which of his enemies were the most formidable on the field of battle. Keith wrote to Frederick: "To conquer the Russians, you must make a breach, and then demolish them as you would a fortress." The reputation for an almost invincible obstinacy has ever since remained to the Russians, and that reputation was only increased by the great defensive battles fought against Napoleon. Suwaroff has, however, shown that the Russians are also capable of taking the offensive. The assaults of Ismaïl, of Praga, and of Urnerloch, as well as on the lines of Warsaw, and the march across Switzerland, sufficiently attest what can be done with Russian troops under a good general.

No trouble, no expense, have been spared since the great wars of Europe to strengthen and discipline the army of Russia. For twentyfive years has the present energetic and soldier-like emperor toiled at that great object. Even the expedition into Hungary taught the Russians that some little modifications might be introduced into their system with advantage, and they were at once adopted. The Russian army is now, in consequence, in point of number, organisation, and instruction, a totally different force to what it was in the time of the great wars. Nor in any other country of Europe have the military forces increased since the peace of Paris as they have in Russia. The bravery and the discipline have remained the same, while the efficacy in organisation and science has become quite a different thing.

The Russian army is, in the present day, composed of regular troops and of a feudal militia, which comprises the Cossacks and other similar troops, that mainly constitute the light cavalry. The regular army is disposed according to the geographical and political necessities of so vast an empire. This is one of the most important points in the organisation of the Russian army, and it is the more interesting to the stranger, as it is the one to which the existing emperor has most particularly devoted his attention. Every regiment is divided into battalions, or squadrons, on active service, and form part of an organised corps d'armée (Deistvouiouschtschiia), and of battalions of reserve (Sapasniia), or dépôts-a gathering-point alike for veterans and for young recruits. Other troops, belonging to the local garrisons, or to the irregular militia, are also attached to the great corps d'armée.

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Every corps d'armée is completely organised, has its own staff, engineers, artillery, and waggon-train. It is composed, with the exception of the guard, which constitutes a corps of itself, of a corps of grenadiers, of six corps of infantry, and of two corps of cavalry of reserve. corps so-called of infantry, corresponds to what Napoleon understood by a corps d'armée, that is to say, it is a corps composed of troops of all arms, but of which the infantry constitute the major part. The corps of cavalry in reserve is composed of cavalry and of horse artillery. The second of these corps is peculiar to Russia. It is composed of dragoons, which are

called upon to perform the service of infantry, of cavalry, and of artillery at the same time. By means of this peculiar corps, it is in the power of the commander to direct, with the utmost despatch, eight battalions of 600 men each, with 48 guns, upon the most distant points. The corps of the guard, and that of the grenadiers, is composed of picked men, and comprise the same number of battalions.

In general the army is disposed as follows: Four corps of infantry, under Prince Paskiewitsch, in Russian Poland, commonly called the Polish army; the 5th corps of infantry, on the Black Sea; the 6th corps, at Moscow, ready to reinforce the Polish or the Black Sea army; the corps of the guard and that of the grenadiers, stationed at St. Petersburg and at Novgorod; the cavalry in reserve is stationed chiefly in the military colonies of Kherson and of Kharkoff.

The guard comprises 3 divisions of infantry, subdivided again into 6 brigades, 12 regiments, and 37 battalions; 3 divisions of cavalry, composed of 6 brigades, and 12 regiments, with 60 squadrons of regular, and 17 squadrons of irregular horsemen. Add to this 1 division of artillery, of 5 brigades, and 15 batteries, 44 guns horse artillery, 72 foot artillery, 1 battalion of sappers and miners, and 2 squadrons of horse engineers, with pontoons, &c. The infantry of the grenadier corps is the same, but it has only 1 division of cavalry, of 2 brigades, or 4 regiments, comprising 32 squadrons of regular cavalry; also 4 brigades of artillery, with 14 batteries, and 88 guns; and 1 battalion of sappers.

Each infantry corps, or more properly speaking, each corps d'armée, comprises 18 divisions of infantry, 36 brigades, 72 regiments, and 294 battalions; 6 divisions of cavalry, 12 brigades, 24 regiments, and 192 squadrons of regular horsemen. To these are attached 6 divisions of artillery, comprising 24 brigades, and 84 batteries, 96 mounted guns, 576 foot artillery, and 6 regiments of sappers.*

The 1st corps of cavalry in reserve comprises 3 divisions of 6 brigades, 12 regiments, and 80 squadrons, with 1 division of artillery, comprising 6 batteries, and 48 guns. The 2nd corps of cavalry in reserve-the hybrid mounted infantry-and dragoon artillery, is composed of 2 divisions, 4 brigades, 8 regiments, and 80 squadrons, with 6 batteries, and guns. The division of light cavalry is also subdivided into 2 brigades, 4 regiments, and 24 squadrons, with 3 batteries, and 24 guns.

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Total Russian force: 24 divisions, 48 brigades, 96 regiments, 368 battalions of infantry; 16 divisions, 32 brigades, 64 regiments, 468 squadrons regular, and 17 irregular cavalry. Artillery: 11 divisions, 33 brigades, 128 batteries, 276 horse, 720 foot, or 996 guns.

It would result from this, that Russia can employ in an European war 368 battalions of infantry, 468 squadrons of cavalry, and 996 guns, without the reserve, the local garrisons, or the army of the Caucasus being in any way reduced. These troops, therefore, comprise neither

veterans nor recruits.

What is much more difficult to determine satisfactorily, is the numerical force of these divisions. Some writers go to an extreme in one

* When we read, then, that since the rejection of the Vienna note the third corps of the Russian army, under General Osten-Sacken, has received orders to march on the principalities, the reader will be able to understand that no less than 72 regiments of infantry, 24 of cavalry, with 96 guns, are meant.