LAND BLOCKADE OF RUSSIA.

Ix is not only in this country that a sense of unfairness exists and is expressed on account of the position in which the trade of RUt3- sia is placed. The same feeling manifests itself in St. Petersburg amongst our own countrymen. It is well known that English firms have long been established there in connexion with firms in this country, and time has been allowed for those firms to wind up their affairs, or indeed to abide in case the war should come to a speedier conclusion than is anticipated. Such allowances are always made in civilized countries. The feeling is, that by the effect of our Orders in Council, liberalizing the treatment of an enemy's goods in foreign ships, a permission is given for an unfair use of the " neutral "; and it follows that those who obey the law in its spirit as well as its letter suffer an injury, for the ad- vantage of those who evade the law. It is tme that the coma' plaint partakes of the vexation of the legitimate trader at seeing the profit made by the smuggler. It frequently happens that honesty requires a sacrifice, and it is usually reckoned that in the long run its sacrifices are repaid to it. There is, however, poor comfort in telling the trader, when be says that we positively en- courage smuggling, that he will have compensation in the tranquil conscience of old age or in the other world. Commercially, the assurance would not bear a premium in the market. We have already stated that a large proportion of the Russian produce finds its way through Prussia. Such is the present fact. An able paper in the September number of the Journal of the Statistical Society of _London shows, that in this adaptation to a channel the Russian exports are following an. altogether natural' course. In many respects the trade of that country is totally in like any other., It is to a large extent carried on with British capital, in the form of advances. The surface of the lanais for a vast proportion otiteextelitoentioely flat;oand, cluringithadvinuea moths idle travered ihrsledgentvited- sapid halityintukyldirhetituo irrespecitivelyord, rdids. Politieal reisonahlura.adnoeditheRiaal sian 'GoYeitimerit)te.diVert thaounrseodf tradwasimuila naipaisillers to the port. of BtePeter sburff and baithate of_111iga Riga' beingfnaila esnecially intended : to: rival- the rinathrsil pcntai abitaltisidnia Thad natural ports Of Russian Poland;fiadeed, -are Me lievennotbittr: strip-of:Prussian territorylwhich)intervenespbettreen the fonnem kingdoni and the ,sere--,,Danizio,i tElbingi Keinigeberg, and Meniehl The Vistulaais a :natural path-for "the whole' of Roland, uacliforw much of Russian Grodno but event-lie tradeorthedistriot whictri has Moscow: for its centre, and that vihith forocid-to: the lipottinf St. Petersburg,' can With- equEd faeility direeted to -thelhinsilliao frontier. ! .What.is lost by au increase of land-darriageriegainedata seat in:a!great number of eases for lexaniple, theaverageldisbatreeic

will increased 'from 630 miles to 8O0, but thdre

a saving of a00,miles.' CraceavandPeiland areidreadyiwithinthal limit of the CoritinentaLrailway system ; lEuidlitienJprojeeted,fromil Dantzic and Posen and (from'Posen' to Cracow 'wig/aeon be 'coin, ,r pleted Prussia therefore, is the natural outlet of a large propori'a

tion ofnutward trade: • '

To any' natural commerce ':between Russia and Prussia on the one side, and to -Prussia...and the'rest -of the world, outhe other, politi- cal free: trade would find. some scruple in offering, anobjeaden. It is true, that during avartisni3'inilitarytoonsideivetioes,,thust prevail above all others ; and that:even-in the interest 'of :Commerce, since commerce is chiefly to:be benefited' by closing theatres-as:speedily and effectually' as possible..,' In this respectthe protzacted war :for the partial .indulgence of commerce is something -like:au ineorsed system 'of- credit; the ,cost being as it *ere endured by instalment, althoUghthe loss isigreater in the long inn 4,Pronipt ac- quittance of the obligation. The trade, hoiveverilat present -carried on between this country and Russia-by the- agency of Prussia, is far from being the trade lusually.ondlegitinigely assigned to a neutral. The principle of permitting . the goodef oAcauatmemy to pass free in neutral vessels, of-course applies to !goods,ayhich have come in the ordinary course of trade into tha hands of neutrals. Connected, as all civilized nations are by commerce„ there must be

few in which some produce of , any one is. not tan found among trading stores, itheJilaina. fide property, of , Now, if

the Prussian merchapt had really been, . Rasaian goods' , and afterwards had set himself to trade, with on ,Engliah market, the English Customhouse-officer, acting under !military, orders, would not needlessly tease, the- subject-of a friend tai,ower-by askinga,„ hina.w.here he originally bought his goods„ inior ertrodiagover the,. hostile taint, .But.that is not the ease at presentaa The: fact is . proved-by the sudden and wholesale transfer of aucutiresomnaerce. Pfoperly ePeaking, a large proportion, of the .trg,e thaareaching us is not Prussian trade at all; it is Russian trade, pal/sing

through Prussia merely for the name. , Existing, arrangements, do not admit anyil ppage.of that trade. It is not arrested by the blockadcip ca'Which-

stops only, (me species of outletfor Russian coni q,block- ade five liundred miles 'of her ,frentier, and le* O: a09.14W1.(1 miles unblockaded ; and the natural iSsue of ,alargetpNoporg passively protected against our blockade by a. ilemmAldwA "ty. Under these eirearastances, there would. appeur,onlY.Ape.jiwo alternatives for putting a stop to this trade whach,vio,,Intend to arrest. It is necessary that we should stop 4,,,lasiajgea.nanf,alant-

ting up the resources of the enemy, and as aninft# raaTis thoge whom our blockade injures, and to wham aa-,,

should render the blockade effectual. One course w 9#411 the last war, to require a ,geilafieateid

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some difficulty in so far retracing reeepit ktepS,;itin impossible, if on military grounds conadlal? 'of ,equcarr of France. The other plan would be, tn„arl 1111 LIP, al lute account, and to drive her from heppref,e could then March across-to her North-casterrn

f

the land outlets as well as the marine outletkof

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