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and, whether a force be acting on the offensive or merely the defensive, it would be as unsafe to neglect any one of them, as it would be in the valleys of Switzerland: indeed, it is necessary to possess oneself of nearly the whole of them, in order to secure the principal roads being kept open, to provide shelter for the soldiers in so sevère a climate, and to enable them to avail them

ing many partisan exploits of a clever and dashing kind, and losing the battle of Oravais by a too rash pursuit, and one of those turns of a minute, which are all-powerful in war, were pressed out of the country step by step.

According to the account of the "officer of selves of some of the local resources which are rank," (who, however, may be suspected of rendered indispensable by the rapid and decisive strong Russian leanings,) great gallantry was system of warfare adopted in the present day; displayed on both sides; though with the exand these precautions are indeed doubly neces- ception of Oravais the Russians seem generally sary, by the circumstances of the habitations be- to have been beaten when fairly met. The ing but thinly scattered over the face of the coun-two great elements of Russian success in the try, the villages in general inconsiderable, the Finnish war, as in the Turkish war of 1828-29, country itself unproductive, and deficient in the means of transport. There is but little danger of being beaten in detail in Finland, and it would very rarely be possible for a superior force to meet with ground on which a great number of fighting men could be drawn up. Each detachment of 1000 or 1500 men forms, in fact, a small army; and its commander ought to possess a certain degree of talent, as he must be capable of creating resources for himself, and will often be compelled to act without waiting for orders from his superior officers. The history of the engageprove that the victories alternately gained by each party, were far more due to the constant relays of troops, and to the talent and resolution of their chiefs, than to any numerical superiority on the

ments we shall have occasion to describe will

field of battle.

were corruption and audacity. By corruption (unless we are to assume senility amounting to insanity) Sweaborg with its stores, its arsenal, its ships, and its command of the coast naviga tion, was surrendered to the Russians. The audacity our author admits in terms, and in one of his criticisms censures it as having been too riskful. In fact, "audacity" or imposition seems to be a genuine Russian practice — wrong according to our ideas, even on the principle that all is fair in war; but not wrong, even in theory to a Russian; just as respectable dealers in this country have one fixed price for their goods, whereas a similar class abroad will take anything they can get. The number of troops finally occupied in the conquest of Finland, was sixty or seventy thousand men ; but the Russians began the campaign with only sixteen thousand, and scattered them over a large extent of country, imposing upon the Swedes the idea that their resources were immense.

The single facts in the following extracts may be small, but they are collectively important, from the light they throw upon the " dacious" tactics of the enemy.

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Count Bouxhoevden was appointed by the Emperor Alexander to the command of the army. The Russian Government had succeeded in givof the force, by skilfully displaying their resources ing an exaggerated idea of the numerical strength to the best advantage, and making great demonstrations of activity in military preparations and the movement of troops in the capital. The Swedish Ambassador at St. Petersburg could not fail to participate in the general error, and it rapidly found its way to Stockholm.

The present importance of the book, however, arises from the glimpse it gives of those tactics which may be called peculiarly Russian, and the application which may be made of that knowledge to actual affairs. Everybody knows that the seizure of Finland by Alexander was the result of an iniquitous compact between himself and Napoleon, at the treaty of Tilsit. It is possible that neither political foresight nor military skill and decision could have eventually resisted the power of Russia; but it should not be forgotten that Russia was engaged in other wars, and, as seems always to have been the case, her resources when put to the strain, seemed hardly equal to the enter prize, small as it was. The most tangible cause of the ill success of Sweden, was Gustavus the Fourth; whose conduct, in fact, compelled his subjects to dethrone him before the termination of the war. He took the war into his own hands; gave his personal directions* to the general in Finland; and laid down a course of tactics that he should only act upon the defensive - as it turned out, the worst tactics that could have been adopted. Instead of supplying the army with reinforcements in the spring, on which supply the whole of his system was based, he kept a large body of troops under his immediate command, and wasted their energies in desultory attacks. The consequence was, that the inferior forces of the Swedes, after gaining several battles, perform

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After having thus advanced as far as he considered advisable with his left column, Count Bouxhoevden felt the necessity of losing no time in compelling Count Klingsporr to evacuate Ta vastheus. He rapidly brought forward all the columns of his little army to bear upon the town, and advanced to within a short march of it. Their total strength did not exceed 9,000 men ; the rest of the troops being absorbed by the detachments, the guards of the magazines, and the number of men left before the various places they had invested. But few had fallen in the skir

mishes that had taken place, and the number of the sick was inconsiderable.

them constantly on the alert. This system was carried out; constant alarms were raised, sometimes in the daytime, but much more often during the night. Sometimes it was a party of drums and riflemen; sometimes one or even two field-batteries would take advantage of the shelter of the rocks to creep along the ice, even within the range of grape-shot.

The approach to Tavastheus was disputed inch by inch. Gen. Klercker, a man of seventy years of age, but full of energy and military ardor, had made every preparation for a general action; and Klingsporr, on his arrival from Sweden, found a garrison of 5,000 men. The new commander-in-chief was very little younger than Col. Argoum of the artillery distinguished himhis predecessor. For a moment he appeared un- self particularly in these expeditions. He was a decided what steps he should take; but the positive reveillon to the garrison. He continually rapidity of the movements of the Russian army, varied his stratagems, and the time and place the idea entertained of their great numerical su- where the attack would be made never could be periority, and the fear of the heavy responsibility foreseen. he would incur by going counter to the instruc-* * tions he had received from the king, weighed upon the mind of Gen. Klingsporr; he followed the advice of his council, and hastily abandoned

Tavastheus and its citadel.

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Under the veil of military politeness, the Russian officers took care to supply the Swedish Admiral regularly with the newspapers and gazettes they received from the continent. At this time *they were filled, for the most part, with disastrous accounts of everything in Sweden. The bulletins of the Russian army, the proclamations, the letters from families dispirited by the loss or absence of their heads, everything that could tend to depress the spirits of the garrison, and that it was to the advantage of Russia should be believed and discussed in Sweaborg, was transmitted there daily, and received with the eager curiosity naturally felt by men cut off from all other intercourse with the rest of the world.

The early days of the Russian invasion were distinguished by masterly arrangements in the marches and disposal of the troops, and by a degree of energy and perseverance only to be met with in the people of Northern countries, when surrounded by icy frosts and deep snows. As their detachments advanced at the same time towards the south, the centre, and the north of this vast country, they appeared to be the heads of so many formidable columns, to which common report assigned an exaggerated degree of strength."

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In the North, at a later date, Kamensky's success on a particular occasion," was merely negative, but he had escaped a defeat;" yet (we are quoting the Russian officer of rank) Kamensky had the audacity to summon the Swedes to surrender." At Sweaborg, affairs took a more theatrical demonstration. As our author maintains that the charge of treason against Admiral Cronstadt was not true, and that the Russian general Suchtelen was too much a man of honor to offer a bribe, or Admiral Cronstadt to take one, the idea of complicity must be abandoned. At any rate, the proceedings look more like the stratagems of ancient times than the strategy of modern war.

A personal acquaintance with some of the superior officers enabled the Russian generals more and more to appreciate the characters of those with whom they had to deal. Colonels who for twenty years had been assiduously occupied in who had never seen the face of war; a sort of rithe cultivation of their military farms, subalterns valship between the Swedes and Finlanders; the number of women, the dissatisfaction of many, the prodigal consumption permitted by inexperience of the provisions, always so precious in a besieged place; the firm belief entertained of the superiority of the Russian forces, - such were the principal elements of the perplexity and anxiety which distracted the minds of the Admiral and his officers.

sian war or diplomacy tell the same story, from Every fact and every book relating to Rusthe time of Peter the Great to the latelyraised siege of Silistria. To undervalue an enemy is proverbially dangerous; but it may

Various parleys took place on different occa-1 sions; in the course of which Gen. Suchtelen be as destructive to success to overvalue him. thought he observed that the moral vigor of some of the chiefs was hardly what might have been We seem to have been going on long enough expected from the material strength with which in a credulous belief of the power and rethe fortress was provided. His plans for accele- sources of a state which, when fairly met, has rating the surrender of the place were based upon been beaten ; which, when brought to a test, this hint he considered that one means of suc- has always failed; and whose success, when incess would lie in keeping up a constant anxiety vestigated, has been proved to arise from its and alarm among the garrison, composed of good mendacious arts, and the timorous credulity troops, but who were little accustomed to war, of its dupes.

and in fatiguing and harassing them by keeping

THE SOVEREIGN OF POTSDAM.

The may cost him a crown. In this country, at King of Prussia is pursuing courses which any rate, they would render him liable to be DXXXVIII. LIVING AGE. VOL. VI.

33fined five shillings.

Punch.

From the Examiner, 5 Aug. FOREIGNERS DISABLED FROM OBTAINING COPYRIGHT IN ENGLAND.

DR. JOHNSON had a notion that the judges of his day were rather shallow on the question of literary property. "Sir," he said, when asked what he thought of certain opinions just handed in to the house of Lords, "they make me think of our judges not with that respect which I should wish to do." If he could read the opinions handed in the other day to the same high court by the same learned dignitaries, he would hardly be more complimentary.

After a dozen years of agitation and uncertainty, of decisions directly in the teeth of each other, of contradictory judgments pro and con, the effect of which has been now to beggar this bookseller and now to enrich that, the question whether a foreigner can hold copyright in England has been-brought back to precisely where it stood before the twelve years' agitation commenced.

and in short, generally as that decision was believed in at the time, we ventured to assert the probability that the House of Lords would overturn it.

This has proved to be the case. After receiv ing the opinions of the judges, of whom six held the foreigner entitled to copyright, and four affirmed that he could not claim it, the House of Lords has announced its agreement with the minority, has reversed Lord Campbell's judgment in error, and has finally declared the law of this country to be, that a foreigner, not resident in England, cannot obtain a copyright by any first publication of his book here. The principle which appears to have governed the decision may be thus stated: That the right as claimed by a foreigner is not one existing at common law, but created by the legislature; that legisla tures only legislate for their own subjects; and that unless a foreigner be resident amongst us, and so far, though for ever so short a time, in allegiance to our laws, he cannot claim the protec tion meant only for subjects of the realm. If he comes over to England, and publishes his work At that time the weight of authority was here (it not having been published elsewhere, and against the foreigner's claim. Then, in D'Al-being actually published before he claims such maine and Boosey, it was unexpectedly held that property in it), the copyright is his, and he may the law would protect an assignee of foreign co-assign it, though he may continue in this counpyright. Soon after, in Chappell and Purday, the try only till he has done so. But in no other same court confirmed that judgment, with the way can a foreign author or composer obtain proviso that a distinct priority of publication was copyright in England. Such is the law as necessary. Next came Cocks and Purday, over- it now exits, and which nothing but a forthrowing the proviso, and declaring a mere si- mal and specific act of the legislature can multaneous publication sufficient. But hardly change. had this taken effect when, in Boosey and Pur- Our present object is not to criticise the judg day, the same court reversed all these decisions, ment of the House of Lords, but to announce it. restored the law which they had unsettled, and In the opinions of certain of the judges, as delionce more pronounced the foreign assignee dis-vered before the House some weeks back, there entitled. Very naturally this was extremely would be much to except to, if this were the startling to the plaintiff, and he carried the case time; but it may be important at once to remark into the Court of Error. Here, through Lord that the question of whether copyright could exCampbell, a majority of the Judges in Error re- ist at common law, as to which we see much nonestablished the decisions so lately overthrown, and again gave the plaintiff what he asked. At the same time, as if to complete the confusion, the latter judgment confirmed the extreme doctrine of Chappell and Purday as to the meaning of the words "first published," which the immediately preceding judgment had discredited in favor of the more moderate doctrine laid down in Cocks and Purday.

sense promulgated, is really not disposed of on the present occasion. The grounds of the decision announced expressly are, that even if such a common law right exists, a foreigner resident abroad has no claim under it. What is of most concern just now, however, is that the final judg. ment or construction of the statutes thus arrived at, should be known as widely as possible to all whom it may affect. The officers of customs But as the plaintiff had had his writ of will require especially to be put upon their guard. error, the defendant was resolved to have his A traveller, whose American, French, or Brusalso, and a writ was sued out in the highest sels editions of books by American citizens, may court. Some serious questions of property and hereafter be detained at the Custom house has "piracy" being now at issue, arising out of the only to seek his remedy before any London malatest Exchequer judgment, the counter judg-gistrate. An American writer no longer proment of the Court of Error had caused great tects himself, even if he elects to publish in Engconsternation. Public meetings were held, and land without committing an act of publication in an agitation commenced of which the object was America. His books are feræ naturæ on the to urge legislative interference. We then took English soil. He has no property in them, and occasion to say (in June 1851) that we thought property cannot accrue from them to any all such agitation premature. We pointed out one else. His only hope now lies in obtaining that the question was strictly one of law, and re- the sanction of his countrymen to that convenmained still undetermined in the last resort; tion of International Copyright which every Engthat though in principle and equity the decision lishman is eager to see adopted, not less an act in error might be preferable to that which it dis- of fairness and justice to American than to Eng placed, it might yet itself be found untenable;lish authors.

From The Athenæum. IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT DECISION.

rative of the facts of the case, said that the right in dispute was not the right to publish, or to refrain from publishing a work which had not yet

THE "glorious_uncertainty" has gained ano-been given to the world, but was the right to ther illustration. Jeffreys versus Boosey has come have the exclusive power of publishing such to an end :-and the House of Lords has revers- given work. Now, copyright in this way defined ed the jugment of the Court of Exchequer Cham- was, if not the creature of the statute law, at ber. Copyright, as regards foreign works in this least a right regulated by that law. The legislacountry, is again an abeyance, and dire is the ture, prima facie, must be taken to legislate for consternation in the publishing world in conse-its own subjects only, and the object declared by quence thereof. Our newest decision-pro- the preamble of the act must be taken to be a nounced by a tribunal from which there is no ap- merely natural object. A foreigner, of course, peal-would seem to cancel all agreements, de- who was not a resident abroad, but was a resi stroy all assumed copyright of aliens in this dent in this country, and therefore subject to its country. We say would seem:-as it would ill laws, was for the time in the condition of a nabecome one of the laity to assert anything other- tive born subject, and if he came to this country, wise than doubtfully on a point so often estab- and published his work here, he would be within But, if at the lished and reversed by the great legal tribunals. the protection of the statute. This last reversal of judgment was made at one time of such publication he was residing out o'clock on Tuesday, in the House of Lords-a of the kingdom, the statute did not protect him. reversal which, among other things, in effect, up- Lord Brougham said that the right of an author sets all American copyrights, and before six prior to publication was unquestioned; that he o'clock that day the printers in London were en- had the exclusive right in his own manuscript; gaged in reprinting cheap editions of American that he might communicate it or withhold it, or works. Messrs. Low and Co., alarmed for their that he might exercise his discretion as to whom property in "Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands," he would communicate it. Then came the quesrushed to their printers to order a cheap edi- tion as to the right of publication. The statute tion:-they found them already engaged on a of Anne had been passed for the purpose of encheap edition for another house! By aid, how-couraging learned men, and with that view that ever, of the Messrs. Clowes, Mr. Low hopes to act had given them the exclusive right in their This, howforestall the reprinters, and we cannot but trust publications for twenty-one years. that he will succeed, seeing that he had already ever, was clear, they had no copyright by comembarked capital in the production of the work, mon law, for if they had, there would have been in a belief that his property was protected by no necessity for the passing of that statute. It law. The mails will carry out bad news to Ame- could scarcely be said that the legislature had rica; this decision puts an end to all negotia- decided a century and a half since that an act tions between the authors of that country and was to be passed to create a monopoly in works the publishers here. Mr. Bentley, we believe, solely for the benefit of foreigners. In the prehas just concluded a treaty with Mr. Prescott, sent case he was clearly of opinion that the cothe historian, for his "Philip the Second" at a pyright claimed did not exist, and therefore that thousand pounds a volume. It is now waste pa- foreign law should not prevail over British law, pcr. The American historian is now in the where there was such diversity between the two. same position as regards England, as the Eng- Lord St. Leonards fully concurred in the opinions of the Lord Chancellor and of Lord Broughlish author is as regards America. The decision of the House of Lords this week am, remarking that the common law of England in the appeal case, Jeffreys vs. Boosey, has a was wholly out of the question, in the case of a much wider importance than in regard to the foreigner claiming a copyright by first publishspecial subjects brought up-the judgment rul- ing in England, he at the time residing abroad. ing the right of copyright of all foreign works The common law did not extend to foreigners of literature and art, as well as of musical publi- residing out of this country, and owing no allecations in England. The particulars of the case giance to the British crown. He was perfectly upon which final judgment has now been given, clear that if it were necessary as he held that it The was, that Bellini must have resided in England we have on former occasions recorded. complaint originally was, that Mr. Jeffreys had in order to possess the copyright, he had no legal published part of Bellini's operas in London of power to assign that copyright as regarded this which Mr. Boosey claimed to have the sole co- country, and, the assignment not being valid, the pyright. Without following the history of the right of action was not maintainable, and therelawsuit in the Court of Exchequer, and in the fore the judgment of the Court of Exchequer Court of Exchequer Chamber, it is sufficient to Chamber ought to be reversed. The judgment state the general principles on which the judg- of the Court of Exchequer Chamber was therement of the House of Lords, after giving a nar-upon ordered to be reversed.

From The Spectator, 5 Aug.
PRUSSIA.

IN considering the position which Prussia at present occupies, we only continue to mislead

ourselves if we fix our attention solely or principally on the position of affairs in the East. With those affairs Prussia has only a secondary concern; they are an intrusion upon her. What

"is Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba?" King | again from France, to sustain the reverse of Frederick William has not troubled himself, and Jena, to groan under the grinding oppression of there is no aboriginal necessity why he should Napoleon, to see his territory reduced to half its be troubled, about the Sultan. He is drawn previous extent and his army restricted to the into the position by the necessities or the rest- paltry force of 42,000 men. And what reason lessness of other partics. He would naturally have we for assuming that the present occupant consider that his brother-in-law the Emperor of the throne is less vacillating and more to be has certain objects in Turkey which are not un- trusted than his father; or that the Prussian natural or objectionable in themselves. The Court has abandoned its long-sustained project Czar desires to promote Christianity and to en- of acquiring, by whatsoever title, the imperial hance his own influence; objects which Frede-sway in Germany? During the peace, Prussia rick William, the tolerant though serious sup- pursued her steadfast purpose through the Zollporter of Christianity and Christian movements vercin, notoriously the medium for commencing -who winks at the Archbishop of Cologne, aids a political union. In 1848, it was a question the completion of the cathedral for Catholic as whether or not King Frederick William should well as Protestant in that town, and lends his simply become the most purely German, and de arm courteously to Elizabeth Fry-would ac- facto the strongest Monarch within the purely count reasonable and laudable. He also desires German range, or whether he should be Emperto increase his influence and to promote Chris-or. A middle course was chosen, and the Archtianity; and the wishes of the Czar would not appear to him as interfering with any other Christian Power in Europe. If England objects, it must be either from selfish regard to the Overland passage and the Northern frontiers of India, or from the love of meddling, which has distinguished England on the Continent. If France interferes, it is love of military conquest, with which the tenant of Sans Souci has small sympathy. Both these Powers, indeed, have taken their stand upon grounds which technically he had not the means of denying; but of course he detests their cant, and while he admits their pleas he hates their policy. The case of Austria is different: he would sympathize with that Power in its conservative leanings and compromises; but, like all weak men, he would feel some degree of dislike for a Government which cannot maintain its own stand without troubling him, and making him, in part at least, partake its responsibilities.

But he has an older grudge against Austria. There was a time when the Duke of Austria was, first by election and afterwards by position, Emperor of Germany. The house of Brandenburg enlarged its possessions by one means or another, never by any perfectly honest acquisition. Nor was the ambitious pushing or the hereditary slipperiness of Prussia at any time more exemplified than during the period of the last war, which offers so many parallels and so many contrasts to the period now opening. When Frederick William the Second broke from the coalition against France, and withdrew his troops already drawn up before Dumouricz, he sacrificed his alliance and his faith with the hope of obtaining a larger slice in the partition of Poland. When France and Austria, after the compact of Campo Formio, agreed by a secret article to grant no compensation to Prussia for her losses already sustained, Prussia took Nuremburg as a material guarantee; and when Frederick William the Third, who had continued the alliance with France, broke through that to join the second coalition of the Powers, it was on the policy of hanging back and trimming until he could step in and offer his arbitration, and take a larger share of spoil out of the contest. Before the battle of Austerlitz, he astounded his allies by joining France, only to break away

duke John was appointed to be President of the German Council. The Archduke John was a respectable gentleman, noted for the intelligence and amiable character of his disposition, but not for any great power. Being a cadet of the Austrian family, of course his appointment was regarded as a concession to Austria, at the same time that its separate character distinctly marked a negative upon any new German pretensions of Austria. It was a compromise which satisfied nobody; and the office of the Archduke had shrunk to nothing before death removed him from the scene. That rivalry, therefore, was a drawn game; but the contest sufficed to prove the life which survived in the ambitious hopes of Prussia. In fact, although the reigning King has shown none of the military genius of his family, he has proved that he will not rest from aiming at a German supremacy, whether through the revolutionary action of his "beloved Berliners," to whom he can truckle when they are successful-through a joint action with Austria while Austria appears in the ascendant and there is a Hesse Cassel to put down-or, in short, through any mode by which the Imperial throne of Germany could be approached.

The present juncture offers a new opportunity. It was not fairly open to the aspirant so long as Austria remained in any degree allied with Russia. The circumstances of the two houses of Hapsburg and Hohenzollern then remained the same; both might count upon the patronage of Russia to resist any revolutionary movement, both could count upon the forbearance or the active alliance of France and England against revolutionary movements on the Continent. For if, as we saw in 1848, Austria could not always reckon on the course of English despatches, experience would lead her to reckon on the course of English action. In the present turn of affairs, however, the important interests of the time have compelled Austria to enter into a closer alliance with the Western Powers on behalf of Turkey. It is evident that the interest of Francis Joseph is, not so much to oppose the Emperor of Russia as to sustain the European system-a system without which the Austrian empire itself would be deprived of its tenure: but it happens that the system is threatened by that Power which was once thought to be the most conservative

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