Daily National Intelligencer

CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING RUSSIA, &C.

We have before us a pamphlet under this title, the joint production of R. G. Harper and Robert Walsh, Junior, Esquires. The correspondence was occasioned by the Cossack speech of Mr. Harper at the Georgetown Russian Festival, and relates principally to the last winter's campaign in Russia. Both the gentlemen are Federalists: but the talents and political sagacity of Mr. Walsh, his judgment, his comprehensive historical knowledge, his views in relation to the politics and governments of Europe, are manifestly superior to those of Mr. Harper. To many of the opinions of Mr. Walsh, we most cordially subscribe. Mr. Harper's Russian attachments and French hatreds are so great that in his speech and letters he speaks of Alexander and the Russian nation as almost models of perfection, and of Bonaparte as a "vile coward" and a man of no uncommon genius. Mr. Walsh thus replies to these allegations of his loquacious friend

Whig.

"That which to me appears most exceptionable in the speech—but which, no doubt, was proper for the occasion—is its tendency to inspire too lofty an idea of the general worth of the Russians, and too humble an opinion of the genius and resources of Bonaparte. I must think, notwithstanding the great deference I have for your authority, that the former do not shine, even as to the military virtues, with so much genuine lustre; and that, in regard to those of any other kind, they are not greatly superior to their antagonists. There is no government or people on record, whose history is more atrocious in almost every stage. It is, particularly until the commencement of the last century, one shocking tissue of cruelty, perfidy, ruthless vengeance and insatiable ambition; the people brutal, ferocious and slavish to the last degree; the government fitted in every respect to foster their vices; wildly sanguinary and anarchical within; not less arbitrary than mutable both at home and abroad; always prone to plunder and oppress. Such rulers as Peter and Catherine and Alexander, anomalies in the system, serve to exhibit both government and people under a better and delusive aspect. Without doubt, these monarchs have not labored in vain for the improvement of their subjects. Much more has been accomplished by them than the nature of the case seemed to admit: But, the fundamental character remains.

"Does not the intelligence given in the gazettes of this day, respecting the battles of Bautzen and Wurtzen, afford melancholy proof, that you have underrated Bonaparte as to his genius and resources? If he did not actually defeat the Russians, in these engagements—and of this you are the best judge—he has not certainly been discomfited. What a stupendous effort of genius and resolution and power, to have collected, within so short a time—after so terrible an overthrow—means sufficient to place him on a footing, even of equality, with the allies; and to regain so much of the ground and influence he had lost! I could not myself but regard the organization of such a force, as that which he carried with him into Russia the last autumn, and his plan of penetrating to her capital, thence to dictate terms of submission to her fears and hopes, as fresh indications of a mind of the most gigantic dimensions, and of an intrepidity and hardihood of soul never surpassed. Even his precipitate flight, which you stigmatize as an act of vile cowardice and treachery, I was disposed to deem an additional evidence of his extraordinary sagacity and fortitude.

"When he saw that his presence was no longer available for any purpose, with his ruined army, he hastened at once to search for means of retrieving his fortunes, where alone those means could be found. In so doing, he braved dangers quite as terrible as the many from which he is imagined to have fled. To re-enter France in the circumstances under which he escaped from Russia, was an enterprize that implies, in my mind, more courage, more force of resolution, than was required to share the fate of his soldiery in the snows of Minsk. I say nothing of the liability to those imputations, which his flight would naturally induce, and to which we cannot suppose a mind so proud as his to have been insensible. The vigor with which he seized the reins of empire, immediately on his arrival at Paris; the instantaneous and utmost exertion of the most hateful of the expedients of his despotism, for the accomplishment of his purpose of renewing the contest; the wonderful success with which he drew forth and marshalled his resources; the promptitude, spirit and effect with which he has appeared again on the theatre of action; all argue prodigious faculties of every kind, while they prove that France was not, previously, so much drained as is alleged, and that his tyranny is much more firmly fixt at home, than was generally admitted."