According to the latest official reports, the total of the population through all parts of the Russian empire amounts to about sixty-seven million of inhabitants.

The military force of Russia is very large, and may be set down at 800,000 men. The emperor's guard consists of 50,000, and the Cossack force, in time of war, is estimated at 50,000 horsemen.

The Cossacks, who have several particular appellations with reference to the parts of the country where they live, (for instance, Cossacks of the Don, Cossacks of the Ural, &c.,) and who number upon the whole about 600,000 men able to carry arms, are genuine Russians, as well as the great mass of the nation, but with the difference, that they, since the year 1654, enjoy many political and social privileges. They are freemen, without any exception, (thus: no Cossack is liable to bondage, and there. are actually no serfs among them); and possess the right of selfgovernment, being, for the rest, under the immediate sway of the emperor. Moreover, they are free from taxes, and are not liable to recruiting or conscription. But their whole political and social organization is on a military footing, and in case of war, or on other similar occasions, they are bound to active service in the army as horsemen.

The naval force of the empire is 50 ships of the line, 25 frigates, 12 steamships, and many small vessels.

The Russians are divided into four classes: 1, the nobles; 2, the clergy; 3, the burghers, merchants, and farmers; 4, the peasants, serfs or slaves. Of this latter class there are forty millions, glebæ adscripti, attached to the soil. One-half belong to the crown, the other to the nobles.

Previous to the sixteenth century, the peasantry of Great Russia retained the privilege of moving from place to place, held the free disposal of their persons, and sold their services for a term of years. In 1598, when Boris Gudenof ascended the throne, and sought the support of the nobles, he made a law by which the peasant was bound to the soil, and became the property of the noble.

They dwell principally in log cabins, and live on bread, vegetables, &c. They may, any of them, attend school, and some are licensed by their masters to live in towns, and oftentimes accumulate large property. Brandy, made of corn, is drank in immense quantities by the peasants, over 80,000,000 gallons being consumed annually.

Owing to the immense landed estates of the nobility, and the arbitrary exercise of the power they possess, agriculture is generally at a low ebb. Similar causes, connected with the slavery

of the peasants, have retarded the advance of manufactures. In certain departments, however, Russia is equal, or even superior to other countries. Her leather is excellent, and for some purposes, such as book-binding, is better than any other. Owing to some undiscovered reason, none of the attempts to produce Russian leather in foreign countries have ever succeeded.

Since 1836, lectures have been instituted in all the Russian universities, for the instruction of manufacturers and workmen in mechanics, chemistry, &c. In 1841, the total value of manufactures was about 650,000,000 of roubles, or over $100,000,000. Moscow is the chief entrepôt of the interior commerce of the empire. Great fairs are held each year at several of the towns, where goods of immense value are offered for sale. That of Nijni Novgorod is celebrated all over Europe. In 1839, the value of exports was estimated at 332,002,258 roubles, or nearly 70,000,000 of dollars, of which those from Petersburgh amounted to nearly one-half.

In another place, we have mentioned the great railroad improvements made in Russia. (See p. 477.) The gold mines of Russia, the mines of Siberia, from their number and richness, are one of its most distinguishing features. They yield gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, zinc, and quicksilver, and an inexhaustible abundance of that most useful metal, iron. The iron mines are in the far east, that is, the nearest approaching our far west; they are at Nertchinsk, on the headwaters of the Amour, a noble river emptying into the Pacific by a mouth nine miles wide, and, for a large part of its course, full fifteen hundred miles navigable by steamboats. Our accounts of the Siberian gold mines are fragmentary-still enough is known to show their high importance. In 1847, the produce was $25,000,000. In 1848, it was a fraction short of $20,000,000. These mines are wrought by private enterprise, and a single family, the Demidoff, married to a niece of Napoleon, is said to have long received every year the enormous sum of $2,000,000 in gold and other metals.

There is a lump of gold in one of the cabinets of St. Peterssburg, weighing 78 pounds, the largest in the world, worth, at $16 the ounce, full $15,000. The government receives fifteen per cent. for transporting the metal, coining it, and delivering the coin. At the date of March 31, 1847, the gold bullion entirely unproductive in the imperial treasury amounted to $85,000,000. By an order then issued, $22,500,000 were invested in public stocks-mostly French and English. And again in May, 1848, there was lying idly in the vault $82,000,000.

The great extent of the Siberian placers is worthy of special study, as regards their bearings on the history of the future. They

are larger than those of California, even according to our widest calculations. Sir George Simpson says, "The whole surface of the country, from the Uralean mountains to the Yablonnoi chain, would appear to be one vast bed of the precious metals.

TURKEY.

The population of Turkey consists of many separate nations, differing in origin, manners, religion, and mode of life. The provinces of Wallachia, Moldavia, and Servia, though nominally connected with the Porte, and paying tribute to it, are in reality nearly independent, having for some years been under the protection of Russia. According to the estimate which is considered most probable, the inhabitants of Wallachia amount to about 2,500,000, those of Moldavia to 1,500,000, those of Servia to 900,000, the Bulgarians to 2,000,000, the Albanians to 1,600,000, the Greeks to 900,000; and these, together with the Bosniacs, Herzegovinians, Croats, Montenegrins, Armenians, Jews, Gipsies, and Franks, make up a total population of 14,500,000. The number of the true Turks, or Osmanlies, who have for about four centuries been the dominant race, is only about 1,000,000. The Turks are bigoted mussulmen; the Moldavians and Wallachians, who are descendants of the ancient Dacians, and the Servians and Bulgarians, who belong to the Slavonic race, profess the religion of the Greek church; the Bosniacs are mostly mussulmen, though of Slavonic origin; the Jews number about 250,000.

A portion of ancient Greece has become independent of Turkey, and comprises the Morea, Livadia, Negropont, Eubea, and se veral smaller islands, with a population of about 900,000. The number of inhabitants in Athens is 17,000. Agriculture is backward, but the commerce is improving.

Turkey in Europe has a population of 9,500,000. The population of Constantinople is about 550,000, Adrianople 120,000.

DENMARK.

The peasantry of Denmark were formerly in the most depressed state imaginable, being absolute slaves. But since 1788, when they were finally emancipated from political bondage, their condition has been gradually improving. Nearly half the country now belongs to peasants, who have purchased small portions of the soil by their earnings. The population of Copenhagen is about 120,000, Altona 26,500. Denmark has a population of more than 2,000,000. The horses and cattle of the duchies and

Q

of West Jutland are among the best any where produced, and great numbers are annually exported. "Hamburg beef" is supplied by the marsh-land oxen, and is considered excellent. Pigs are raised in great numbers, and quantities of bacon are sent to Norway, Holland, &c. The imports are manufactured goods, hardware, wine, oil, fruit, timber, iron, salt, coal, hemp, flax, &c. The possession of the island of St. Croix, in the West Indies, is of considerable importance to the commerce of Denmark. This small, but well cultivated island produces annually about 25,000,000 lbs. of sugar and 1,400,000 gallons of rum. Some curious facts are related of Iceland (which belongs to Denmark) by a German traveller. Of the climate, he says, that, "though of course in the main determined by its geographical position, it is considerably modified by the character of the neighbouring seas and the currents prevailing in them. In the surturbrand (a sort of bituminous coal existing in large beds) there are found well preserved. impressions of the leaves of the oak, willow, and beech. Steenstrup, who visited the island on a commission from the Danish government in 1838, found in some of the tuff strata the impressions of ten different kinds of trees of extinct species, which may be compared to those found in Canada and the United States. The leaves of the birch, willow, elm, maple, and liriodendron, as well as the cones and needles of various coniferæ, place this view beyond a doubt." They are found in positions which show that they could not possibly have drifted thither, but that they must have grown on the island, so that a milder climate must have prevailed during the tertiary period than at present.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

THE JEWS.

The following interesting statistics of this remarkable people are from Burden and Weimer:

It only remains to give the best estimate we can afford of the number of the Jews, now dispersed throughout the four quarters of the world. Such statements must of necessity be extremely loose and imperfect. Even in Europe it would be difficult to approximate closely to the truth; how much more so in Africa and Asia, where our data depend on no statistic returns, and where the habits of the people are probably less stationary.

It is calculated that there exists between four and five millions of this people, descended in a direct line from, and maintaining

the same laws with their forefathers, who, above three thousand years ago, retreated from Egypt under the guidance of their inspired lawgiver.

In Africa, we know little more of their numbers than that they are found along the whole coast, from Morocco to Egypt; they travel with the caravans into the interior: nor is there probably a region undiscovered by christian enterprise, which has not been visited by the Jewish trafficker. In Morocco, they are said to be held in low estimation, and treated with great indignity by the Moors.

In Egypt, 150 families alone inhabit that great city, Alexandria, which has so often flowed with torrents of Jewish blood, and where, in the splendid days of the Macedonian city, their still recruited wealth excited the rapacious jealousy of the hostile populace or oppressive government.

In Cairo, the number of Jews is stated at 2000, including, it should seem, sixty Karaite families. The Falishas, or Jewish tribe named by Bruce, inhabit the borders of Abyssinia; and it is probable that in that singular kingdom, many Jews either dwell or make their periodical visits.

In Asia, the Jews still, most likely, might be found in considerable numbers on the verge of the continent; in China, where we are not aware that their communities have ceased to exist, and on the coast of Malabar, in Cochin, were two distinct races, called black and white Jews, who were visited by Dr. Buchanan. The traditions of the latter averred that they had found their way to that region after the fall of Jerusalem, but the date they assigned for their migration singularly coincided with that of a persecution in Persia, about A. C. 508, from whence, it is probable, they found their way to India. The origin of the black Jews is more obscure; it is not impossible that they may have been converts of the more civilized whites, or, perhaps, they are descendants of black slaves. The Malabar Jews were about 1000; they possessed a copy of the Old Testament. Many are found in other parts of the East Indies.

In Bokhara reside 2000 families of Jews, in Balkh 150.

In Persia, they have deeply partaken of the desolation which has fallen on the fair provinces of that land; their numbers were variously stated to Mr. Woolff at 2974 and 3590 families. Their chief communities are at Shiraz and Ispahan, Kashaan and Yazd. They are subject to the heaviest exactions and to the capricious despotism of the governors. "I have travelled far," said a Jew to Mr. Woolff; "the Jews are every where princes in comparison with those in the land of Persia. Heavy is our captivity, heavy is our burthen, heavy is our slavery; anxiously we wait for redemption."