contained at the same date 5 generals and 508 staff officers; the marine artillery, 4 generals and 197 staff officers; the navy engineers, 6 generals and 139 staff officers; and the navy architect corps, 8 generals and 48 staff officers. Regulations have been published sanctioning the formation, as a permanent part of the forces of the empire, of a "volunteer naval militia," to consist of able-bodied men of all classes. Those desirous of joining this force are to make a declaration to that effect to the Minister of War, when their names will be inscribed on its lists, and in time of war they will be appointed to ships of the regular navy. They will be required to serve as long as hostilities continue, but will not be retained in the service in time of peace. While serving, they will be subject to naval law and all the regulations in force on board men-of-war, and, if wounded, will receive the same pensions as sailors of the regular navy. Owners of vessels, or societies, who may be willing to place their ships at the disposal of the Government in the event of war, may also make known the fact with its conditions to the Minister of War, when, if the Admiralty approve, the ships will be inscribed on the list of Russian men-of-war, and in the event of war breaking out will pass at once under the control of the Government. Further steps have been taken to supply the want of sailors, which is felt to be the chief obstacle to making permanent additions of vessels to the navy, by the establishment of schools for the training of seamen. Ten such

COUNTRIES.

metres in operation. On the same date there were 1,709 kilometres in course of construction. Of these railroads the Russian Government owned 61 kilometres in Russia and 780 kilometres in Finland.

The number of post-offices in 1877 was 3,678; of letters sent, 90,704,555; of postal cards, 2,490,406; of wrappers, 6,641,194; of registered letters, 4,130,630; of newspapers and printed matter, 81,130,872; of parcels, 2,092,937. The money sent through the post amounted to 2,016,592,379 rubles.

According to the latest report of the Minister of Education, the number of elementary schools in the empire, excluding the Caucasus, Finland, and the Baltic provinces, was 25,077; the number of pupils attending the schools was 1,036,851, of whom 856,139 were boys, and only 180,712 were girls. One school existed for every 3,070 of the inhabitants, and the proportion of children attending school was 1.3 per cent. Assuming that the insufficient number of schools and pupils proves that the schools do not yet exercise any considerable influence over the masses, the report enforces the necessity of "the compulsory sys1em as the only. measure which can direct public education in the right channel, and give it the importance which it should possess in the eyes of the people." The Minister has since called for reports from all the managers of elementary schools on the question of compulsory education.

The decisions of the Congress of Berlin were not well received by the Russian people. The "Golos" described the impression produced upon the public as a crushing one, saying that it was felt that Russia had not attained her object, that she had been deceived by her friends, and that she had foolishly helped her enemies with her victories. M. Aksakoff, the Panslavist leader, made a violent speech at Moscow in July against the resolutions of the Congress, asking: "Has victorious Russia really volunteered to play the part of the vanquished, to do penance like a criminal for the holy work she has done, and to beg pardon for her brilliant victories? Germany and the Western Powers, ironically praising her political wisdom, gently withdraw the wreath of victory from her brow, and set up in its place a cap and bells." The "St. Petersburg Gazette," defining the position of the country after the war, said that the Russian public might be divided into two classes: those who wished to continue the military and political action of Russia in the East, on the ground that the decisions of the Berlin Congress were unsatisfactory, and that the external greatness of Russia was its most important interest; and those who thought Russia had done too much already, and should now devote itself exclusively to its internal development. In November the papers were semi-officially advised to moderate their language in reference to foreign Powers, on the ground that these

attacks were in opposition to the Imperial policy.

An Imperial commission sat at Odessa in June to inquire into frauds which had been committed during the war in connection with the commissariat department of the army. The investigation disclosed that the evils of corruption and venality were more widely spread than had been anticipated by any one. Among the persons arrested in connection with the inquiry were forty staff officers. As the facts were brought to light public indignation became pronounced against the corruption which was disclosed, to which were attributed in a large measure the extraordinary losses which the armies suffered during the war. Corruption in common civil life is also revealed in a report of Prince Volkonski on the district of Ranenburg. This report, the main assertions of which are substantiated by facts cited in detail, is to the effect that the present self-government, instituted under the emancipation act, is permeated with bribery and venality, and that the dissipation of communal or public funds is one of the prominent features of the peasant life of the country.

The internal condition of Russia during 1878 was one of continuous uneasiness, growing out of popular dissatisfaction with the political and administrative policy of the Government, and discontent at the social condition of the country, quickened by the agitations of the Socialists and Nihilists. Vera Sassulitch, a young woman twenty-eight years of age, was tried at St. Petersburg in April for an attempt to assassinate General Trepoff, one of the chiefs of the secret police. The circumstances of the case involved points which were given a political bearing; and the result of the trial was an unwelcome surprise to the Government, and excited comment throughout Europe. The prisoner had been under the surveillance and displeasure of the Government for about ten years, having been arrested in 1867 as the friend of the sister of a young man who had been engaged in a political conspiracy. She was kept in prison for two years, and was then liberated, but was arrested immediately afterward and taken to eastern Russia, where she was carried from place to place until 1876, when she was set free. In July, 1877, she learned that a political prisoner named Bogohichoff had been flogged by order of General Trepoff, in punishment for having refused to salute him. Vera Sassulitch, supposing, as she alleged, that the act of Trepoff would not be noticed by the Government, determined to commit a deed that would compel attention to it. She accordingly called on General Trepoff at his office, and shot him, wounding him seriously but not fatally. The case was brought to trial on the 12th of April, before a court which was opened to the public, and was attended by a crowd of persons of high social standing. The jury was composed of educated men, of whom eight held Government employ

ments or decorations, two were merchants, one was a nobleman of independent position, and one was a student. The prisoner avowed her act and its motives. The Government confidently counted on a conviction; yet the jury unhesitatingly gave a verdict of acquittal, and their decision was received with applause in the court-room and public commotion on the streets. The result was approved by the newspapers so heartily that four of them immediately received warning for their comments upon it, and was generally accepted as an expression of the public opinion of the nation condemning the whole system of police. The Government was offended at the demonstrations, and, while it was impelled to retire General Trepoff from his position as chief of police, it promoted him to be a general of cavalry. The newspapers were placed under a censorship, meetings were forbidden, the students were subjected to surveillance, many officers of liberal views were dismissed, and the intention was announced of abolishing trials by jury for political offenses of a grave character and for assaults on functionaries while engaged in the discharge of their duties. Vera Sassulitch escaped from notice for a short time after the trial, and orders for her arrest and imprisonment were issued without delay. An official order was published, near the beginning of June, directing that political offenders be tried, according to their character, either before the tribunal by which the indictment may have been drawn up, or by the Supreme Court of Justice. On the 1st day of June the Supreme Court of Revision, having before it the case of Vera Sassulitch, directed that her acquittal should be canceled, on the ground of informality in the procedure.

The confidence of the Government received another shock on the 16th of August, when General de Mesentzoff, the successor of General Trepoff as chief of the secret police, was stabbed at St. Petersburg while taking his morning walk, and died at five o'clock in the evening of the same day. General Makaroff, chief of the corps of gendarmes, who accompanied General Mesentzoff and tried to arrest the murderers, was fired upon by them. This attack and other similar attacks upon officers of this branch of the service were ascribed to the Nihilists, who manifested renewed activity soon after the close of the war, and whose operations became more threatening and open as the year advanced, until at last they seemed to be about to expose the Government to embarrassment if not to danger. A secret association, calling itself the "National Government," published a circular in April, containing a revolutionary programme, and calling upon the people to take up arms. The arrival of fifteen students of the University of Kiev, who had been sentenced to exile for breaches of public order in "the cause of the truth," as their partisans represented it, gave the signal for disturbances at Moscow on the 15th of April.

Shortly afterward a ministerial order was published calling attention to the law which prohibited assemblages of people in public places where disturbances would be likely to be created. An account of the organization of the Nihilists at the time of the assassinations of the police officers, and of their connection with the assassinations, was given in a letter from Odessa, which was published in the "Neues Tagblatt" of Vienna, as follows: "The Nihilists may be regarded as the front rank of the malcontents in Russia; the innumerable forces of the opposition who are behind them do not actively support them, but tolerate them as the champions of a cause which is to some extent their own. In a meeting of the so-called Constitutionalist party at Kiev it was expressly stated that, although the ideals which the Nihilists have in view can not be accepted, their efforts to overthrow the existing order of things must be regarded with sympathy. This is the universal feeling of all people in Russia who think.

The citadel of Russian despotism which alone had not been undermined by the waves of the revolution is the third division of the State Chancellery, or secret police, and the Nihilists determined to attack it.. War has been declared against the blue uniform, and the first victims have been, besides General Mesentzoff and the police agent at Rostov, the chief of the gendarmes in Kharkov, the chief of the secret police at Taganrog, and a colonel of gendarmes at Pultava. The organization of the party is a very powerful one; each government has a principal committee, and sub-committees which are called 'Krushki.' These sub-committees exist even in the Caucasus. The leaders of the committees are not known even to their members, and the central committee at St. Petersburg, which calls itself the 'National Government,' is shrouded in impenetrable secrecy. The central committees obtain printed orders, arms, and plans of operations direct from St. Petersburg. At Odessa alone there are several thousand members of the society. The panic in Government circles is indescribable; the organization is said to have penetrated the schools, universities, and even military academies; and the police do not venture to lay hands on the Nihilists, fearing the secret sentences of the revolutionary tribunals." correspondence added that the organization had powerful supporters in the highest ranks of society, and that a lady who was one of the leaders of Russian fashion had been arrested a few days before, upon the evidence of a number of letters found in her house from the chief of the Nihilist Committee at St. Petersburg.

The

The "Official Messenger" of St. Petersburg early in September published an article declaring that the patience of the Government had been exhausted by the series of criminal acts committed by a large number of ill-disposed persons, culminating in the assassina

tion of General Mesentzoff, and that it would henceforward proceed with inflexible severity against all persons guilty of or accessory to machinations directed against the laws, the bases of public or family life, and the rights of property. A ukase was shortly afterward published, announcing that all state offenses and all assaults on public functionaries must be punished by military law. The pamphlet, "Life for Life," or "Buried Alive," published at St. Petersburg during September, was regarded as the manifesto of the Nihilist party. It declared: "We are Socialists. Our purpose is the destruction of the present economical organization and inequality, which constitute, according to our convictions, the root of all the evils of mankind. The question of the political form is entirely indifferent to us. It further threatened that "our daggers will never be sheathed until our oppressors, who strangle and gag us, are expelled from the country; and a terrible vengeance will be taken if the Russian nation does not put an end to this medieval barbarism." The Government seemed incapable of suppressing the revolutionary manifestations. The state of siege had been declared at St. Petersburg and other towns, the police was strengthened, and the streets were regularly patrolled; yet the efforts to discover the conspirators were fruitless. The walls were covered with inflammatory placards, which were removed as soon as they were seen by the police, but those who printed and posted them could not be detected. The agitation spread among the students at the universities. Early in September some students at Berlin who were suspected of Nihilism were arrested by the police of that city, at the request of the Russian Government. Toward the end of the same month a number were arrested in Odessa and Kharkov on the charge of being concerned in a conspiracy for breaking into the state prisons and freeing the Nihilists confined therein. Threatening letters were sent anonymously from Kiev to various eminent persons, and the police and gendarmes were authorized to enter factories at any time for the purpose of searching the premises in the presence of the owners, and of making arrests if necessary. A professor of the University of Warsaw was arrested for connection with the Socialists; and an order was issued warning employers against engaging workmen from abroad, especially from Germany, on account of the influence they might exert in promoting the growth of the Social Democratic party. The Minister Miliutin received instructions from the Czar to spare no pains and to use whatever means might seem proper for the suppression of Nihilism. The "Golos" was warned for an article which it had published against the German Anti-Socialist law, and another journal was warned for publishing a letter urging the chief of the secret police to deal leniently with political offenders. The agitation among the students became general

and serious in December. The disturbances began at the University of Kharkov, where the students of the Veterinary Institute chased an unpopular professor, then went in a body to the university to explain to the students their proceedings and invite cooperation. Several arrests of students were made, in consequence of which a breach took place between the body of the students and the civil authorities. The students sent reports to other university towns, relating what had taken place, and inviting cooperation. The students of the Medico-Chirurgical Academy, the University, and the Technological Institute at St. Petersburg determined to present an address to the Czarevitch reciting their grievances and asking his influence in their behalf. The committee who were appointed to prepare the address were arrested while at work. A second address was prepared by a part of the students, and a deputation went to the palace of the Czarevitch to present it. His Highness was absent; a military officer met the deputation and informed them that their action was illegal, but took charge of the address and promised to present it. The address stated that the prevailing agitation was not due to a few evil-disposed persons, but extended to all the educational establishments of the country, and had been spreading for several years. Its sources were to be found in the intolerable position in which the youth of Russia were placed It is charged that, notwithstanding the military officer assured the students at the palace that they should not be molested for what they had done, several of them were arrested and guards were placed around the colleges. The students of the University of Moscow made a protest against attempts which they alleged had been made to subordinate them to persons unconnected with the university. The Moscow "Gazette" charged that they also displayed an insubordinate spirit against their own proper officers. Instructions were sent to the Governors of the university towns to put in force to the fullest extent the laws relating to those institutions, even to closing them. An attempt made by a body of students of the University of Kiev to make a demonstration against the closing of the university resulted in a conflict with the soldiers, in which about eighty persons were killed and wounded on both sides. Orders were sent to the police at the frontier to exercise double vigilance in stopping the smuggling of revolutionary pamphlets and preventing the entrance of revolutionary emissaries from Germany. From the time of the breaking out of disturbances at Kiev in the spring till the end of the year, more than six hundred students of the Universities of Kiev, Kharkov, Moscow, and St. Petersburg were expelled imprisoned, or sent in exile to Siberia.

Count Pahlen, the Minister of Justice, who was dismissed from office after the trial of Vera Sassulitch, was a prominent Liberal and a sincere reformer, and had been for some time the