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Beginning in 1727, with one regiment of hussars, in the Ukraine, the Servian colonists were soon enrolled for that purpose throughout the district. Other lines of colonies were similarly formed along the banks of the Dniester and Dnieper, so that, in general, all the Cossack armies destined for the protection of the frontier, can be considered as military colonists. This colonization of Cossacks was continued under Catharine II., by an Ukase of July 1, 1742, and they were re-organized like those of the Don, under the denomination of Cossacks of the Black Sea. These Cossacks form a population of 60,000 males, and furnish to the army one division of Cossacks of the Guard, twelve regiments of cavalry, nine battalions of infantry, and three batteries of horse artillery.

But military colonies, as they actually exist in Russia, do not reach back farther than the year 1810, and the principal objects sought for in their establishment were the following, viz:

1st. To facilitate recruiting.

2d. To maintain the army as cheaply as possible in time of peace.

3d. To foster agriculture, by not withdrawing from it so many men, who, instead of being absorbed in the military service, could add their own labor to the productive industry of the country.

4th. To people large and waste districts.

5th. To insure the soldier a home and independence at the expiration of his term of service. (Colonists only serve twenty years; the Guard twenty-two; all others twenty-five years.)

The Russian colonies now or lately in existence consist of those of the Ukraine, in the government of Kharkow, with eight districts; those of Southern Russia, in the government of Khersow, with twelve districts; those of the government of Kiew and Podolia, with five districts and two sub-districts. These colonies furnish a contingent of thirty-five regiments of cavalry, nine of infantry, and three battalions with fourteen batteries; thus forming two hundred and forty-two squadrons of cavalry, and thirty battalions of infantry, with artillery, amounting in all to 82,260 men.

AUSTRIAN MILITARY COLONIES.

The Austrian military colonists in the Banat, aside from the protection to the frontier which they are designed to afford, are also connected with the customs, and perhaps on this account more than all others have been retained for the additional purpose of enforcing a most rigid system of quarantine along the whole Turkish border. They form a true cordon sanitaire throughout the Illyrian provinces, against the importation of the plague, and were once even so employed against the cholera. However this may be, every soldier in the Banat spends ninety days a year on duty, as a sanitary picket (seven days at a time). The usual number kept on watch on the Danube and Save is six thousand, which is increased on emergencies to double that number. These frontier soldiers -- or milites limitanei, as they might with great propriety be called -- amount in all to sixty thousand. The Austrian military colonies, as a class, seem better to fulfil the idea of agricultural soldiers than those of Russia; for, not only are they self-supporting, but they even pay into the public treasury over a million florins annually. This speaks well, not alone for their industry, but more still for the system of government, almost patriarchal, which administers their affairs with so frugal a hand.

From these lessons of European experience, we may infer that systems of military colonization, when properly conducted, are not of impracticable execution, nor entirely void of financial results. If, with the indifferent roads and obstacles to easy transportation which prevail in the Austrian Banat, the colonists can become, not simply self-supporting, but able to pay an annual contribution into the treasury of the nation from their agricultural gains, how much easier would it not be for American colonists, settled along the line of our southern and western frontier, to do as much, if not better than this? The exuberant fertility of our soil, and the richer staples like cotton, sugar, tobacco and hemp which it produces in those latitudes, renders it certain that the smallest application of industry to the cultivation of land would yield abundant and lucrative harvests. Throughout the broad steppes, or basins of our western territories -- on the banks of most of the tributaries of the Mississippi -- and in the vicinity of the already surveyed routes of the Pacific railroad, are districts of country fertile in all natural resources, and which would afford most excellent fields for colonization. The immediate consequence of settlement would be to increase the value of all surrounding lands; and the Government, by judiciously retaining certain portions immediately adjoining its colonies, would be able to fully reimburse itself for those sections given away. From having originally been established as military colonies on the frontier, these settlements would soon assume the character of large villages, towns and commercial entrepots, and, in the course of another generation, everything of a purely military character would have passed away. In fact, the history of most of our western settlements has been that of semi-military colonies. They were all as much founded with the rifle as with the axe, and owed their permission to grow, during the perils of their infancy, more to the prowess of their inhabitants than to the mechanical or agricultural abilities possessed by them. Yet all these settlements have flourished and ultimately become large towns and cities, deriving, meanwhile, no direct assistance or support from the General Government; and except here and there, where an old block-house still remains to remind us of the dangers to which the early settlers were exposed, nothing would indicate the originally military character of the settlement, or the liability of its early inhabitants to sudden attacks from without.