with a warning to the Nicaraguan Government,
that "while the claims of the British
remain unsettled, there is no hope of a ship
canal." And that is every syllable we find.
Not a word more is said of surveys or
diggings. The whole of the great undertaking
is settled down to negotiation and letter-
writing; and is, in short, hopelessly tied up
in red tape.

A SPECIMEN OF RUSSIAN JUSTICE.

AMONGST the French prisoners taken at the
battle of Vitebsk, during Napoleon's disastrous
retreat in Russia, was a French general, who
was accompanied by his wife and daughter.
Being badly wounded, he was removed to
the military hospital; but the ladies were
received into the private house of Madame
Strognof, whose husband held at that time,
a subordinate appointment under the Russian
Government.

A certain Botwinko was then Procureur at
Vitebsk. Without the Procureur's sanction
nothing can be done in his department; for he
represents the Emperor himself, and is usually
called "the eye of His Majesty." His salary
is only about twenty-five pounds a year; but
he makes, usually, a good income by receiving
bribes. Amongst other duties, he had to
visit the hospitals daily, and to report upon the
condition of the prisoner patients. He paid
great attention to the unhappy General, who
required every consolation; for, despite his
own deplorable condition, it was decreed that
he should outlive his wife. That lady caught
a contagious fever, which was raging at that
time at Vitebsk, and died in a few hours.
This event so distressed the General that he
soon departed this world, with the only
consolation, that Procureur Botwinko, a married
but childless man, would adopt his daughter.
This promise was actually fulfilled, and the
little orphan was taken from Madame Strognof,
and established under the Procureur's roof.
Her parents' property—consisting of a
carriage, horses, jewellery, and no small sum of
ready money—was also taken possession of by
Botwinko in quality of guardian to the little
orphan.

As the girl—whom they called "Sophie"
—grew up, she became very engaging, and
was kindly treated by Mr. and Madame
Botwinko. She never lost an opportunity,
when any visitors were in the Procureur's
house, of praising her protectors for their
kindness to her; and this, connected with
other circumstances, contributed to the
promotion of Mr. Botwinko; who obtained the
more profitable situation of Procureur-General
at Vilna, the capital of Lithuania.

Removal from their old connections, and
from those who knew all the circumstances of
little Sophie's history, produced a change in
the treatment of the new Procureur-General
and his wife towards the child. Their kindness
rapidly diminished. Sophie was not
allowed to appear in the drawing-rooms, in
their new residence at Vilna. They
incessantly found fault with her; and, ultimately,
she was not only sent to the kitchen under
the control of the cook; but, on the census of
the population being taken, in 1816, her name
was inscribed on the books as that of a serf.

As the poor girl grew up she became
used to the duties imposed upon her.
Associating constantly with the servants, they
considered her their equal, and taunted her
when—relying on her infantine recollections,
she laid claim to noble descent—by calling her
in derision "Mademoiselle French General."
She knew full well that she was entitled to
better treatment; and, that in the absence of
paternal authority, she had the right of
disposing of herself according to her own will.
A strong inducement to alter her condition
was presented in the person of a young
clerk in a government office, whose duty
sometimes brought him with papers to the Procureur
for signature. Whilst Botwinko was
engaged with his breakfast and the perusal of
the papers, this clerk was sometimes kept
dangling for hours in the antechamber. After
a time, these hours were agreeably spent in
the society of Sophie; to whom he eventually
made a proposal of marriage. She consented;
but, unwilling to leave her guardian like a
fugitive, she apprised him of her determination,
and humbly requested an account of the
property which she had been informed he
had taken charge of at her parents' death.

The Procureur-General at first excused
himself from giving her an immediate answer.
The next day he presented himself at the police
office, the whole of whose functionaries were
under his control. What he said or did is not
known; but the result was that Sophie was
taken into custody by the police, and
committed to gaol.

Many months elapsed before her fate was
known at home. It was stated that she
absconded. The clerk, banished the Procureur's
house, could not discover the cause of
the girl's disappearance; and as all Russian
criminal proceedings are conducted with great
secrecy, he only ascertained by a mere
accident that the girl had been sentenced, by a
superior court, to receive a certain number
of lashes by the knout, and to be sent to
Siberia. The crime of which they accused
her was that of attempting to poison her
master and mistress.

Alarmed at this information, the young
man, without waiting for more particulars,
addressed a petition to the war governor of
Vilna, the old General Korsakof; whose power
in that province was almost omnipotent, and,
if not misdirected, was very often beneficial to,
the inhabitants. The petitioner requested
the General's interference and an investigation
of the case; assuring him that the girl
was innocent, and that the legal authorities
who condemned her had been corrupted.