ers.

Among those that entered, there were 2,475 Russian, 2,365 British, 1,653 German, 1,476 Swedish-Norwegian, 1,896 Turkish, and 28 American vessels.

The commercial navy, in 1876, was composed of 1,785 sailing vessels, of 391,000 lasts, and 151 steamers, of 105,962 lasts.

On January 1, 1877, there were 20,879 kilometres of railroad in operation in Russia, inclusive of Finland, and exclusive of Caucasia. In the latter country, there were 1,004 kilometres in operation. On the same date, 2,136 kilometres were in course of construction. The number of post-offices in 1875 was

SACRED GATE OF THE KREMLIN.

3,412; of letters sent, 63,244,156; postal-cards, 1,419,094; wrappers, 3,636,508; registered letters, 2,984,787; valuable letters, 5,653,297; packages, 1,771,295; and newspapers, printed matter, etc., 42,808,598. The money sent through the mail amounted to 1,488,137,542 rubles, and the value of the packages sent was 49,509,105 rubles.

The telegraph statistics, according to a report of the American Secretary of Legation in St. Petersburg, are as follows:

Length of lines on January 1, 1876 (English miles)..

wires

1, 1876 (

Government, railroad, and private stations........
Inland dispatches sent in 1875
Foreign dispatches sent and received

54,168

74,542

The military preparations, begun in 1876, continued unabated in 1877. In the early part of January, the railroad companies throughout the empire received orders to have all transportation of freight cease by January 27th, so that the roads could be used exclusively for military purposes. The Grand-duke Nicholas, the commander-in-chief of the Russian forces, was afflicted during the early part of the year with a serious disease (it was termed by some inflammation of the bowels), so that he was forced for a time to leave the army, and on February 6th arrived in Odessa. In the beginning of March he was so far restored that he could again attend to his duties. Although a strong party in Russia was in favor of peace and disarmament, the mobilization of the army continued as vigorously as ever. On March 3d, the Emperor ordered that the divisions stationed in the military districts of St. Petersburg, Vilna, Moscow, and Warsaw be formed into nine army corps. This measure tended to increase the war excitement, although the Minister of War declared in his official organ, the Invalide, that it was only a necessary step

in the reorganization of the army planned over four years ago. Preparations continued throughout March and April, and on April 24th Russia declared war against Turkey, and the Russian troops crossed the Pruth. (See TURKEY.) In the beginning of May, the Emperor, who had reviewed the army at Kishenev previous to the crossing of the Pruth, returned to St. Petersburg. He was everywhere received with great demonstrations of joy, and particularly at Moscow, where he held a reception of the estates, whom he addressed thus: Six months ago I expressed a hope here that the Eastern Question would be peacefully solved. I wished to the extreme limit to spare my subjects' blood, but my efforts have been fruitless. God has decided otherwise. The Kishenev Manifesto announced to Europe that the foreseen moment had come. Entire Russia, and Moscow among the foremost, responded to my expectations. I am now happy to be able, in concert with the Empress, to thank the Muscovites for their patriotism, which they have testified by acts. The spirit of sacrifice and devotion of which Russia is giving proof exceeds my utmost hopes. May God help us to accomplish

our mission!

Quite a number of trials of socialists took place in 1877. The first of these was of a number of students, who on December 18, 1876, the name-day of the Grand-duke Nicholas, arranged a riotous demonstration in front of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Of the prisoners, 21 in number, 18 received various severe sentences, while three were acquitted.

This trial was followed by one in March of 150 persons of both sexes in Moscow. These persons had formed themselves into a secret brotherhood, known as the Propagandists. The real origin of the society, or rather its introduction into Russia, for it is undoubtedly an offshoot of the Commune of Zurich and Paris, is a matter of doubt; but as fast as members were enrolled they bound themselves to give all their property into the common fund, and devoted themselves to the making of converts to the doctrines of the Propaganda. These were simple in the extreme. First, everything was to be broken down. There were to be no individual property, no religion, no government, no laws, and no class distinctions of any tion of Adam and Eve, excepting in the matsort. Everybody was to return to the conditer of clothing. They all starting even, all were to work. Strange to say, the movement began among the higher classes and spread downward. Some of the wealthiest and proudest families of Russia were represented in it. While many of the members ostensibly retained their former habits of life, and sought to influence those with whom they came into contact, there were others who were too impatient for this kind of work, and sought employment as factory hands, spreading their doctrines among their companions in the night time. The first news received by the Government was from a workman in a factory near Moscow, who brought to the police authorities a number of

SAFVET PASHA, a Turkish statesman, was born in 1816. He entered the service of the Government, as a translator, at an early age, was afterward secretary to the Sultan Abdul Medjid, and then became an influential member of the Imperial Council. During the Crimean War he was Commissioner of the Danubian Principalities; in 1858 he acted as chairman of the commission which regulated the relations of Moldavia and Wallachia, and from 1865 to 1866 was Turkish embassador in Paris. He had previously been Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and after his return from Paris he was successively Minister of Commerce and Public Works, of Justice and of Education, and on several occasions Minister of Foreign Affairs. This position he held for the last time from 1876 to 1877, and in virtue of his office presided at the Conference of Constantinople held in December, 1876, and January, 1877. The reverses of Abdul VOL. XVII.-44 A

reported without work in April, the largest factories were almost all closed, and mercantile failures increased with alarming rapidity. In the manufacturing districts of Poland, over half of the workmen were also without work, and in consequence exposed to starvation.

Kerim, and the removal of the latter from the chief command, caused his retirement from office in July, 1877. He was succeeded by Aarifi Pasha.

SCHURZ, CARL, an American statesman, Secretary of the Interior. He was born at Liblar, near Cologne, Prussia, March 2, 1829. He was educated at the Gymnasium of Cologne and the University of Bonn, which he entered in 1846. At the outbreak of the revolution of 1848 he joined Gottfried Kinkel, Professor of Rhetoric in the university, in the publication of a liberal newspaper, of which for a time he was the sole conductor. In the spring of 1849, in consequence of an unsuccessful attempt to promote an insurrection at Bonn, he fled with Kinkel to the Palatinate, entered the revolutionary army as adjutant, and took part in the defense of Rastadt. On the surrender of that fortress, he escaped to Switzerland. In 1850 he returned secretly to Germany, and, with ad

mirable skill and self-devotion, effected the escape of Kinkel from the fortress of Spandau, where he had been condemned to twenty years' imprisonment. In the spring of 1851 he was in Paris, acting as correspondent for German journals, and he afterward spent a year in teaching in London. He came to the United States in 1852, resided three years in Philadelphia, and then settled in Madison, Wis. In the presidential canvass of 1856 he delivered speeches in German in behalf of the Republican party, and in the following year was defeated as a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor of Wisconsin. During the contest between Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln for the office of United States Senator from Illinois, in 1858, he delivered his first speech in the English language, which was widely republished. Soon after he removed to Milwaukee, and began the practice of law. In the winter of 1859-'60 he made a lecture tour in New England, and aroused attention by a speech delivered in Springfield, Mass., against the ideas and policy of Mr. Douglas. He was an influential member of the Republican National Convention of 1860, being largely instrumental in determining that portion of the platform relating to citizens of foreign origin, and spoke both in English and German during the canvass which followed. President Lincoln appointed him Minister to Spain, which post he resigned in December, 1861, in order to enter the army. In April, 1862, he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, and on June 17th assumed command of a division in the corps of General Sigel, with which he took part in the second battle of Bull Run. He was made major-general, March 14, 1863, and at the battle of Chancellorsville commanded a division of General Howard's corps (the 11th), which was routed by Jackson. He had temporary command of the 11th Corps at the battle of Gettysburg, and subsequently took part in the battle of Chattanooga. On the close of the war he returned to the practice of law. In 1865-'66 he was the Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune, and in 1866 he made a report, as special commissioner appointed by President Johnson, on the condition of the Southern States, which was submitted to Congress. In the same year he removed to Detroit, where he founded the Detroit Post, and in 1867 he became editor of the Westliche Post, a German newspaper, published in St. Louis. He was temporary chairman of the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1868, and labored earnestly in the succeeding canvass for the election of General Grant. In January, 1869, he was chosen United States Senator from Missouri, for the term ending in 1875. He opposed some of the leading measures of President Grant's administration, and in 1872 took a prominent part in the organization of the Liberal party, presiding over the convention in Cincinnati which nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency. He visited Europe in 1873, and again in 1875, being received with much

consideration in his native country. On his return he took part in the political canvass in Ohio, in which he opposed strenuously the increase of the national currency.

In the presidential campaign of 1876, Mr. Schurz made speeches in various parts of the country in favor of the election of Governor Hayes; and in March following he was made Secretary of the Interior in the President's cabinet.

SEMMES, RAPHAEL, an officer in the Confederate navy, died at Point Clear, Ala., August 30th. He was born in Charles County, Md., September 27, 1809, and entered the United States navy as a midshipman in 1826, became lieutenant in 1837, and commander in 1855. In 1834, while awaiting orders, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Cumberland, Md. During the Mexican War he served both on board ship, and as an aide to General Worth. On the outbreak of the civil war he resigned the secretaryship of the Lighthouse Board at Washington, took command of the Confederate steamer Sumter at New Orleans, ran the blockade at the mouth of the Mississippi, and in July, 1861, captured several American merchant vessels in the Gulf. He then went to Southampton, England, where he was for some time closely watched by the United States steamer Tuscarora. When he put to sea the Tuscarora was detained 24 hours by the British authorities; but she followed him to the Straits of Gibraltar, and so closely blockaded him in the port of Tangier that he sold his vessel and returned to England. In August, 1862, he took command of the steamer Alabama, built for him at Birkenhead, England, and manned by an English crew, and continued his career of capturing and destroying merchant vessels. On January 11, 1863, off Galveston, Texas, he engaged the United States gunboat Hatteras, and after a short action sunk her. On June 19, 1864, in an engagement nine miles off the harbor of Cherbourg, France, the United States steamer Kearsarge, Captain Winslow, sunk the Alabama. Semmes was taken up by the English yacht Deerhound, and carried to England. After the close of the war he entered upon the practice of law in Mobile, Ala. He was arrested and taken to Washington in December, 1864, but was imprisoned only four months. He delivered public lectures on his exploits, and published "Service afloat and ashore during the Mexican War" (1851), "Campaign of General Scott in the Valley of Mexico" (1852), "The Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter" (London and New York, 1864), and "Memoirs of Service afloat during the War between the States" (Baltimore, 1869).

SERVIA, a principality of Southeastern Europe. Prince, Milan IV. Obrenovitch, born in 1854; succeeded to the throne by the election of the Servian National Assembly, after the assassination of his uncle, Prince Michael Obrenovitch, June, 1868; was crowned at Bel