its obnoxious features. The first sitting of the Supreme Executive Commission was held March 16th.

A ukase was issued in the latter part of August, appointing General Loris-Melikoff Minister of the Interior, abolishing the Supreme Commission and the Third Section of the Privy Chancellery, and creating the post of Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, to which Mr. Makoff, hitherto Minister of the Interior, was appointed. The decree was received with great satisfaction, it was said, as a public announcement of the close of the era of domestic tronbles and extraordinary measures." General Loris-Melikoff, on the 25th of August, held a reception of the officers of the Ministry of the Interior, and made an address soliciting their cooperation and assistance. At the request of General Melikoff, and the Minister of Justice, the Czar gave his assent to a measure for a revision of all branches of administration in the provinces, one of the features of which was a provision securing to subordinate officers the right to appeal to a higher authority against their dismissal by their superiors. The Czar, also, in a rescript announcing the investiture of General Melikoff with the insignia of the order of St. Andrew, expressed his warmest thanks for the energy which that officer had displayed in the discharge of his functions as President of the Supreme Executive Commission.

The editors of the chief Russian journals in St. Petersburg, who had become outspoken in their demands for liberal reforms, were called before General Loris-Melikoff during September, and told that their continued discussion of the subject of a constitution for Russia had highly displeased the Czar and his court, and that nothing more on that subject would be allowed to appear in print. The Minister, at this interview, described the programme of the policy of the Government to be: 1. The better guarantee of the public and corporate institutions in the enjoyment of their rights, and the extension of the latter as may seem necessary. 2. The bringing of the police department into harmony with the new state of affairs. 3. The enlargement of the competency of local institutions, with a view to decentralization. 4. A thorough inquiry into the necessities of the local population. 5. The according to the press of liberty to discuss the various measures and ordinances of Government, but with the condition that it should not agitate the public mind with illusory dreams.

The Mayor of St. Petersburg was authorized by General Melikoff, in October, to abolish the system which had been introduced by General Gourka, in 1879, under which all the householders of the city were required to station doorkeepers as watchmen outside their houses during both the day and the night, but was instructed that it would be necessary to increase the police force.

The representatives of the principal newspa

pers of St. Petersburg, on invitation, met the committee appointed by the Government to inquire into the press regulations, November 17th. They suggested that charges against the press should be subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary legal tribunals. General Melikoff discouraged impatience on the subject, but was believed to be in favor of emancipating newspapers from all arbitrary and oppressive restrictions.

An official project for the readjustment of taxation, which appeared in December, proposed that incomes derived from capital, trade, commerce, labor, land, and property, should be taxed according to an equal percentage; that all foreigners living in Russia should be taxed equally with Russians; that all Government securities should be taxed without distinction, but that foreigners permanently living abroad should not pay the tax upon incomes derivable from the paper securities upon which Russia bound itself, at the time of their issue, to pay interest abroad. Foreign bondholders, who might wish to avail themselves of this immunity, would, however, have to certify to the bankers that they were not Russian subjects.

Michael Dragomiroff, formerly professor at the University of Kiev, a member of the revolutionary organization, addressed a letter to General Loris-Melikoff, in April, stating the conditions on which the Revolutionists would "conclude an armistice" with the Government. They were: 1. The dismissal of all the governors appointed with arbitrary powers since the attempt of the 2d of April, 1879. 2. Abolition of all the measures ordered by them, and also of the exceptional decrees of 1873. 3. Abolition of the special tribunals established for the hearing of political trials. 4. An amnesty and restoration of rights to those persons who had been deprived of them in consequence of the arbitrary measures above referred to. 5. Abolition of the Third Section, with all its agents; guarantees against imprisonment without trial. 6. Grant of freedom to the press, the right of meeting, and the right of forming societies. Mr. Dragomiroff added that, if these conditions were not accepted, the contest would be pursued by the Revolutionary party with all the means at its command. New Wladetskis and Solovieffs would arise, and, "instead of the single Executive Committee of the year 1878-79, there will be a whole confederation of political societies to carry on the struggle for the liberation of the people from tyranny." A few days afterward the "Bereg," the newlyestablished semi-official journal, published what it called the programme of the Revolutionary Executive Committee. It was as follows:

First, the Government being regarded as an enemy, the end justifies all means that may be employed for its overthrow. Secondly, all elements of opposition, though not actually allied with us, will have our assistance and protection. Thirdly, persons and social groups knowingly aiding the Government in our struggle with it, and exceeding the bounds of neutrality, will be treated as enemies.

The trial of eleven prisoners, seven men and four women, charged with being Nibilists, and with being concerned in Solovieff's attempt on the life of the Czar, and in the assassination of General Mesentzeff, was begun at St. Petersburg May 18th. Among the prisoners was Dr. Weimar, who held a high office at court, and who was charged with having lent his carriage to the murderer of General Mesentzeff, with having procured for Solovieff the revolver which he fired at the Emperor, and the poison which was found in his possession, and with having, three years before, assisted in the flight of Prince Krapotkine, who was charged with Nihilism. All the prisoners were found guilty. Two of them were sentenced to be hanged, the others to terms of imprisonment and laborDr. Weimar to fifteen years of labor in the mines. The sentences were afterward all commuted, the sentences of death to terms of labor in the mines, the other sentences to shorter terms.

Twenty-one persons were convicted at Kiev of forming an illegal society with the object of forcibly overthrowing the existing order of the state, and sentenced to death and imprisonment. Their sentences were also commuted in accordance with the new policy adopted by the Government of mitigating the severity of its administration. The Czar had previously, in April, granted a full pardon to three students of the University of Kharkov, who had been sentenced to exile in Siberia for carrying on a revolutionary propaganda, with the effect of producing a more favorable impression on the students of the university. A trial was begun before the military tribunal of St. Petersburg, under the presidency of Major-General Leicht, November 10th, of sixteen prisoners, among whom were the supposed authors of the explosions in the Winter Palace and under the railway at Moscow, and the man who was accused of having prepared the mine near the Alexandrovsky station on the Sebastopol Railroad. The presumed author of the explosion in the Winter Palace was a peasant from the government of Viatka, named Stephen Chaltasen, who was employed as a carpenter in the palace under an assumed name. The mine near the Alexandrovsky station was laid in 1879 for the purpose of blowing up the imperial train, but had only recently been discovered, on the occasion of the train passing the spot. It was divided into two partitions, each filled with dynamite, and connected by a wire with the roadway adjacent to the railway track. On the approach of the imperial train a carriage drawn by three horses came rapidly up on the roadway, but drove off after the train had passed. It is supposed the carriage contained an electric battery, and that the attempt proved unsuccessful on account of the wire having been accidentally cut. Another of the prisoners was charged, upon the confession of the actual murderer, with being concerned in the assassination of General Krapotkine, the Governor of Kharkov.

The prisoners were permitted to address the Court in their own defense. Several of them admitted that the charges against them were substantially true, but maintained that their acts were justified by the coercive measures of the Government. One of them asserted that it was no crime to belong to a secret society, inasmuch as there was no other country in the civilized world where meetings were not allowed. Another one told the judges that the struggle would not be finished with the death of the prisoners. Five of them were sentenced to death, the others to various terms of impris onment and servitude. Three of the capital sentences were commuted, but two of the convicted persons were hanged November 16th.

A Russian named Hartmann was arrested in Paris in February on a supposition that he was the owner of the house in Moscow whence the mine was laid in 1879 to blow up the railway train carrying the Czar. Although no extradition treaty existed between the two countries, the Russian Government asked the French Government to surrender him. The French Government, after examining the case, declined to give up the prisoner, on the ground that the evidence of his identity and participation in the offense charged against him was not clear enough to justify it, and permitted him to go to England. The refusal caused a temporary coolness of feeling.

After negotiations extending over several months, a preliminary agreement has been concluded between Russia and the Vatican referring to the ecclesiastical organization of the Roman Catholic bishoprics in Russia. It deals with the position of the bishops, the regulation of several dioceses, the control of the bishops over ecclesiastical seminaries, and the instruction of the clergy. The Holy See was, in November, about to examine the question of providing for the vacant sees in Poland, in view of the recommendations of the Russian Government concerning the choice of the new prelates.

An imperial decree, published in May, relieved Count Tolstoi, at his own request, of the posts of Minister of Education and Supreme Procurator of the Holy Synod, and appointed him a member of the Council of the Empire. Privy Councilor Saburoff, Curator of the Dorpat Educational District, was made Minister of Education, and promoted to the rank of Secretary of State, and Privy Councilor and Senator Pobedonosszeff was appointed Supreme Procurator of the Holy Synod. The new Minister of Education, immediately after his appointment, gave notice that all religious instruction in the elementary schools would in the future be given by lay teachers. The first stone of the University of Tomsk, in Siberia, was laid September 7th.

Mr. Greig, Minister of Finance, resigned his office in November, and was succeeded by Mr. Abaza, who, on assuming office, stipulated for a more complete control of the spending power

of his department. Mr. Bunge, a professor in the University of St. Vladimir, was appointed Vice-Minister of Finance. He was regarded as the superior in intellectual position and attainments of any officer who had ever been placed in this post, and was well known in Europe as a scientific man and political economist. He had had much experience in financial management as Director of the Branch Bank of Russia, at Kiev, and had spent much of his life in aiding and fostering industries.

The Czar, accompanied by General Melikoff, went to Livalia in September for a few weeks' sojourn. The railway was carefully guarded along the whole line of his route by forty thousand men, selected for that duty from among the peasantry, the police, the soldiers, and the gendarmes. Watchmen were stationed along the line at distances of thirty paces from each other; bodies of infantry were posted at the more important points; every bridge was examined; the carriages of the train were carefully inspected; and the houses along the railway were jealously searched. The journey was made in safety. The Czarevitch and Czarevna joined the Czar in October, for the purpose, it was understood, of arranging for the future position of the Princess Dolgorouki whom the Czar was about to marry morganatically, and her children. The Czar returned to St. Petersburg in December, General Melikoff having been sent for to escort him. The railways were guarded as before. Servant-trains were arranged to run on parallel lines, and the train which carried the Emperor was kept unknown. The Czar arrived at St. Petersburg December 3d. On the 8th the festival of St. George was celebrated at the Winter Palace by a dinner at which three thousand knights of the order were present. The first toast was proposed to the health of the German Emperor, by the Czar, who recapitulated the military services of the Emperor, and bore witness to his unfailing friendship for Russia and its sovereign. The health of the Czar was proposed by the Grand Duke Nicholas.

According to the Russian official journal, some very extensive operations in draining marshes have been executed within a few years. At the end of 1879 twenty million acres of the Polessié marshes had been reclaimed, with six hundred and thirty-two miles of canals, the more important of which were made by the state, the others by resident proprietors. Half a million of the reclaimed acres were already arable land, and were the means of adding fourteen million rubles to the national wealth. Great drainage-works had also been carried out in the governments of St. Petersburg, Olonetz, and Yaroslav, with very satisfactory results. Preparatory works have been set on foot on the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas, in the provinces of Kherson and Catherinoslav, for the drainage of the marshes in those regions. The surveys cover a surface of 12,500 acres, while it is intended

that the works shall ultimately spread over a surface of five million acres. It is also proposed to explore parts of the provinces of Voronezh, and Samara, with the object of irrigating the steppes of the Calmuck nomads. In this way it is hoped that the great barren belt which disfigures and impoverishes southern Russia may by degrees be brought under cultivation.

General Loris-Melikoff entered in April into negotiations with a number of eminent and influential Poles, among whom were Count Wielopolski, Count Zamoyski, Count Ostrovski, and Mr. Krasnevski, the author, with a view of endeavoring to conciliate the Polish nationality, and bring about an understanding with it. The Polish negotiators demanded, as the basis of any understanding, that their nation should be placed in political and constitutional relations absolutely on a par with the Russians, and that the political disabilities under which they now labored should be abolished. General Melikoff advised the Polish gentlemen to draw up a memorial explaining what reforms they demanded, counseled them concerning the nature of the demands which would be most prudent, and engaged to lay the memorial before the Minister of the Inte rior.

The fiftieth anniversary of the Polish revolution of 1830 was celebrated in various parts of Europe, November 29th, by banquets, at which patriotic speeches were delivered. The "Golos," in an article on these celebrations, said: "We may view the celebration with calmness, Russia being so strong that she can not be disquieted by any foreign manifestations. Polish society has made sufficient progress to understand the importance of its relations with Russia, especially on the eve of the approaching administrative reforms."

Forty-two thousand people had emigrated from the province of Kars from the time of the Russian occupation up to October 13, 1879. The emigrants were said to have received half a million rubles on account of expropriation, which were contributed in nearly equal shares by the Government for their land and by private buyers of houses and property in Kars. A correspondent of the "Cologne Gazette,' writing from Moscow in January, observed that that part of Asia Minor-comprising Batoum, Kars, Olti, and Artwin-which had been acquired by Russia under the Treaty of Berlin, was a district very rich in natural productions, and capable of great development under an efficient administration. Its agricultural productiveness was not great, but it had an abundance of wood and metals, and its climate and soil were well suited for the cultivation of silk and tobacco. The natives appeared reconciled to the new state of things; they had ceased to emigrate into Turkish territory, and hoards of money which had hitherto been concealed had made their appearance in the towns. Batoum, thanks to its great advantages as a harbor,

was increasing in size, while Poti, notwithstanding its dockyard and railway, was gradually declining. In December, 1878, the customs receipts at Batoum amounted to 480 rubles; in October, 1879, they had increased to 7,000 rubles. The German consul at Batoum made a statement somewhat at variance with this in his report on the trade and industry of the Caucasus. During the past twelve months, he said, adverse economic conditions

SARGENT, EPES, author, was born at Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1812, of a family well known in literary circles of New England. He entered Harvard College, but left before graduating. He was a persistent worker in the under walks of literature. In his early boyhood he conducted a paper called the "Literary Journal." He connected himself with Mr. S. G. Goodrich in the management of "The Token" and "Peter Parley's Magazine." Together they compiled the Peter Parley series of school-books, which have had so wide a circulation. In 1836 he produced his first play, "The Bride of Genoa," which was followed the next year by "Velasco," a tragedy written for Miss Ellen Tree, and played both in America and England. He edited the "New England Magazine," the "Boston Daily Advertiser," and the "Atlas," the "New Monthly Magazine," and the "Boston Transcript." He wrote a comedy, various juvenile tales, novels, lives of Henry Clay and Benjamin Franklin. He also published a volume of verses, among which "A Life on the Ocean Wave" is well known, and will probably live. He edited a number of the lesser English poets, and wrote their biographies, besides which he prepared for the press "The Modern Standard Drama," in seven volumes. He wrote much on spiritualism, in which he had a devout belief. He was a voluminous contributor to the periodical literature of the day, especially "The Knickerbocker" and the "Atlantic Monthly." But his most remunerative labors were in the preparation of readers, speakers, spellers, and other educational works. He died in Boston, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.

scrip might be taken in payment for the labor of the convicts was rescinded. A report of the Directors of the Penitentiary shows the number of convicts leased to be 306 out of a total number of 593, the hire being from $3 to $5 per month. The office of Railroad Commissioner was abolished.

The consolidation of the Augusta, Knoxville, and Greenwood Railroad Company, and the Augusta and Knoxville Railroad Company, of Georgia, was authorized, and the Blue Ridge Railroad was chartered.

On the 1st of September the Governor, W. D. Simpson, resigned his office to take the Chief Justiceship, and Lieutenant-Governor T. B. Jeter was installed as Chief Magistrate of the State. At the opening of the regular session of the Legislature in November there was a discussion upon the right and propriety of Governor Jeter's receiving a seat in the Senate to which he had been elected and acting as pro tempore President of the Senate while discharging the functions of Governor. The new Governor, Hagood, was inaugurated on November 30th. He called attention in his inaugural address to the fact that the accounts of the State had been cleared from all confusion or uncertainty, and a true and accurate account of the actual state of the treasury laid before the people. The Assembly passed a resolution to submit the question of calling a Constitutional Convention to the people at the next general election.

The condition of the State debt at the close of 1880 was as follows:

Consols...

Deficiencies..

State scrip (Agricultural College).
To be funded, principal and interest, ante-bel-

lum...

To be funded, principal and interest, post-bellum..

To be funded for bills, bank of the State...... Total bonded debt.......

$5,210,798 82 564,855 98 191,800 00

In this statement the estimate of invalidity in part of the debt and of the amount of the bills of the Bank of the State to be funded is an approximation.

INTEREST ON THE DEBT.

The appropriation to meet the interest on the debt for the year 1879-'80 was $515,508, of which there was paid up to October 31st,