official member of the Liberal party in the House of Lords. Though his voice was weak and his delivery affected, Earl R. was an admirable and successful debater; and his speeches sometimes rose to a high order of oratory. His indomitable self-reliance and tenacity of self-assertion were sarcastically painted by the Rev. Sydney Smith, who called him the Lycurgus of the Lower House.' Since the works mentioned above, Earl R. published his Recollections and Suggestions (1875) besides selections from his speeches and despatches, and various addresses; and, in 1873, the veteran statesman entered fearlessly on a new field, and gave us his Essays on the Rise and Progress of the Christian Religion in the West of Europe. RUSSIA, EMPIRE OF, extending over a large proportion of the northern regions of the globe, includes the eastern part of Europe, the whole of Northern Asia, and a part of Central Asia. Lat. 38° 30'-78° N.; long. 17° 19' E.-190° E. (170° W.). The portion of North America which formerly belonged to R. was ceded to the United States in 1867. R. is bounded on the N. by the Arctic Ocean; on-the E. by the Pacific Ocean; on the S. by the Chinese empire, Turkestan, Caspian Sea, Persia, Asiatic Turkey, and the Black Sea; and on the W. by Roumania, Austria, Prussia, the Baltic, and Sweden. The area of R. amounts to more than 8,000,000 square miles, and is more than double the entire area of Europe. The empire thus covers nearly 4th of the surface of the globe, and more than th of the land super-cating with the former by the Strait of Kertch, and so shallow ficies of the planet. The population of this vast area, including recent extensions in Bessarabia, Armenia, and Central Asia, was in 1879-80, officially estimated at 98,356,100 (of whom 83,600.000 were in European R., and 14,700,000 in Asiatic R.). The following table gives the figures for 1870: 286,595 14,006 10,550 3. Bessarabia. 4. Courland. 5. Don Army, Province of the. 61.900 6. Ekaterinoslav. 26,128 7. Esthonia. 8. Grodno. 9. Jaroslav. 10. Kaluga. 11. Kazan.. 12. Kharkov. 13. Kherson 14. Kiev.... 15. Kostroma 16. Kovno.. 17. Kursk.. 18. Livonia. 19. Minsk. 7,607 30,796 12,847 46,288 24. Olonetz 25. Orel 26. Orenburg 27. Penza 28. Perm 29. Podolsk 50,470 18,024 The Russian Sea-board.-The northern shores of the Russian territories, which are washed by the Arctic Ocean, are deeply indented. The White Sea (q. v.), an immense arm of the Arctic Ocean, penetrates 350 miles into the mainland, and is sub-divided into the gulfs of Onega and Archangel or Dwina. The other chief inlets on the north of R. are the Kara See and the gulfs of Obi and Yenisei. Westward from Nova Zemla (usually, but less correctly, spelled Zembla), the Arctic Ocean is navigable for three months of the year; east from that island, the sea, even at the mildest season, is encumbered with floating icebergs. The chief islands in this ocean are the Kolguef, Waigatz, Nova Zemla, and Spitzbergen Isles. The eastern shores of R. are washed by the Pacific, subdivided into the Behring, Okhotsk, and Japan Seas; and the islands belonging to this country in these seas are Sakhalin, and the northern part of the Kuriles. On the south are the Black Sea (q. v.) and the Sea of Azov (q. v.), the latter communithat it is navigable for small craft only. Of the Caspian Sea, R. commands the whole, with the exception of the south shore, which belongs to Persia. The northern and eastern banks of the Caspian are the seats of the chief fisheries of the empire. On the north-west of R. are the Baltic Sea, with the gulfs of Riga, Finland, and Bothnia; and in these waters, the islands of Aland, Esel, and Dago belong to the empire. The freezing of the water near the shores of the Baltic renders the navigation of this sea impracticable during five months of the year, although a few ports are accessible throughout the whole year. Possessing means 281,112 of easy communication with the most fertile governments of the 601,514 interior, and sustaining chiefly the commerce of the Russian em1,078,932 pire with the other parts of Europe and with America, the Baltic 619,154 is of the highest commercial importance. Population 1,086,264 Surface, Hydrography, and Soil.-European Russia consists of 1,352,300 a vast plain bordered with mountains. On the east are the Ural 323,961 Mountains (q. v.), forming a broad range of no great elevation, 1,008,521 ending on the north on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and on the 1,000,748 south in a range of elevated plains on the left bank of the Volga. 996,252 On the south-east of the great plain is the lofty range of the Cau1,704,624 casus (q. v.), crossed by the Pass of Derbend and the so-called 1,698,015 Military Georgian Road. The Crimean Mountains, a continuation 1,596.809 of the Caucasian chain, rise to 5000 feet in their highest summit. 2,175,132 The districts in the south-west of R., between the Vistula and the 1,776,097 Pruth, are covered by hilly ranges from the Carpathian Moun 1,156,041 tains (q. v.), which in Poland are known as the Sandomir Moun 1,954,807 tains. The Finland Mountains, on the north-west, are ranges of 1,000,876 granite rocks, embracing numerous lakes, and not rising higher 1,182,230 than 600 feet. The Alaunsky tableland, which connects itself 947,628 with the Ural Mountains by a chain of hills in latitude about 62° 1,772,624 N., is the key to the configuration of European Russia. From 1,271,564 this table-land, with an elevation of about 1200 feet, the country, 1,011,445 with gradually declining slopes, falls away in four directions296,392 north to the Arctic, north-west to the Baltic, south to the Black, 1,596,881 and south-east to the Caspian Seas. The sloping country on the 900,547 north of the Alaunsky heights is called, from its eastern and 1,173,186 western limits, the Ural-Baltic table-land; that on the south of the 2,198,666 same dividing heights is called, for the same reason, the Ural1,933,188 Carpathian table-land. The Alaunsky heights form the great 2,102,614 water-shed, and regulate the course of all the great rivers of the 775,701 Russian empire. To the north, they throw off the Petchora, the 1,477,433 Northern Dwina, and the Onega; to the south, the Dniester, Bug, 1,325,471 Dnieper, Don, and Kouban; to the south-east, the Volga, with 1,837,081 its great affluents the Oka and Kama. The Western Dwina, the 1,751,268 Niemen, and the Vistula, fall into the Baltic Sea. The important 19,093 1,205,881 rivers of R. receive separate notice under their own names. 21,536 1,140.015 the foot of the north-west slope from the central terrace, is the 25,514 2,150.971 lake-country of European Russia, and the great lakes (which are 23,596 704,997 noticed separately) are Ladoga, Onega, Ilmen, Peipus, and Pskov. 20,238 1,659,600 The plain of European Russia naturally divides itself into three 11,940 1,167,878 tracts or zones, each of which differs from the others in the nature 25,781 1,528,881 and quality of its soil. The northern zone extends between the 1,364,925 Arctic Ocean and the Ural-Baltic table-land, the middle zone be2,406,024 tween the Ural-Baltic and the Ural-Carpathian table-lands, and 1,001,909 the southern zone between the Ural-Carpathian table-land and 17.425 888 727 the Black and Caspian Seas. The soil of the northern zone is 18,797 1,259,923 marshy, and the climate inclement. In its middle part, between 27,709 1,704.018 the rivers Onega and Mezen, and especially along the banks of 154,971 1.003.039 the Northern Dwina, forests of fir-wood and large tracts of fod25,427 2,152,696 der-grass occur. Toward the east of this tract, the woods disup 15,127 19,225 16,240 30. Poltava 31. Pskov.. 32. Riasan.. 33. St. Petersburg. 17,056 34. Samara 64,953 RUSSIA. pear, and vast marshes, frozen the greater part of the year, cover the country. The middle zone reaches south-west to the government of Volhynia and the south of Poland, and north-east to the Ural Mountains. In the west, it consists of an extensive hollow, covered with woods and with marshes, the chief of which are those of Pinsk (q. v.). In the middle part of this zone, the soil is partly heavy and covered with mould, and toward the north, sandy. Beyond the Oka, luxuriant meadows abound; and on the east, beyond the Volga, this tract forms an extensive valley, covered with a thick layer of mould, abounding in woods, and rising into hills in the vicinity of the Ural range. The southern zone consists of steppes extending along the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas. The steppes of the Black Sea have mostly a mouldy soil, covered with grass, but in the south-east, shifting sands and salt marshes predominate. The steppes of the Caspian consist of sand, salt marshes, and salt lakes-the Elton lake, yielding nearly 4,000,000 puds (about 1,290,000 hundredweights) of salt annually, being the most remarkable. 747 body, headed by a marshal, chosen by and from themselves. Till 1871 they were also free from the conscription. Functionaries, officials, artists, and clergy possess almost as many privileges as the nobility. In 1868, a most important measure was passed, by which the clerical character was declared to be no longer hereditary, and the sons of the secular clergy, hitherto bound to some ecclesiastic or monastic service, were set free to choose their own career. The next class is that of the merchants. The burghers and peasants constitute the lowest class, and are subject to claims of service, and to personal taxation. Each class enjoys, to a certain extent, the right of self-administration in its own affairs. Each apportions its taxes, and chooses some of its own functionaries. The recent emancipation gave freedom to 20,000,000 peasants or serfs, who, prior to the year 1861, being governed exclusively by their owners, enjoyed very limited civil rights. Communal government is the fundamental principle of all the rights of the peasant class. In general, the lands allotted to the peasants are not their individual property, but belong to the commune, and are shared among all its members. REVENUE. 1. Direct Taxes (including Poll-tax)....... 2. Indirect Taxes (including those derived from Constitution and Administration.-The government is an unlimited monarchy, the head of which is the emperor, who unites in National Debt.-The national debt must be regarded as divided himself every authority and power-that is to say, is the head of into two parts, one of which represents the loans made abroad, the military, the legislative, and the judicial systems, and is also and the other the loans made at home. Its total amount was the ecclesiastical chief of the orthodox Greek Church. The order given in 1878 at £350,000,000, about half of which was contracted of succession is by primogeniture, hereditary in heirs-male, and abroad. Several recent loans have been raised in order to tide in females in default of males. The expenses of the imperial over the terrible financial stress produced by the late war with house amount to about £1,500,000 annually; the private property Turkey, the expenditure for which has been officially stated of the imperial family, yielding about £1,000,000 annually, is ex-(greatly understated, it is believed) at £130,000,000. cluded from the budget. Every military or civil officer of the Revenue and Expenditure.-The following table shows the crown is required to take an oath of allegiance. The council of amount and the details of the revenue and expenditure for the state is the highest branch of the executive, and comprehends the year 1872: legislative, judicial, and administrative powers. The president and members—among whom are always included the ministers of the crown-are appointed by the emperor. A secretary of state, whose duty it is to report the opinion of the council to the emperor, is attached to this body. The estimates of expenditure and income, and every proposition introducing an addition to, or a modification of, the laws, is considered and revised by this council, which, for the more orderly discharge of its functions, is divided into three sections: 1. Law; 2. Civil and Ecclesiastical; 3. Economy and Finance. The main function of the council is that of superintending the general administration, of watching over the execution of the laws of the realm, and of proposing alterations of the same when necessary. The second of the great boards of government is the senate, whose functions are partly deliberative and partly executive. It is the High Court of Justice for the empire, controlling all the inferior tribunals; and besides its legal duties, it examines into the state of the public revenue and expenditure. The senate is divided into seven committees or departments, of which five sit at St. Petersburg and two at Moscow. The third college is the Holy Synod, superintending the religious affairs of the empire. Its decisions have no force till approved by the emperor. 3. State Monopolies (drawn from Mines, Money, 4. State Domains... 5. Miscellaneous Receipts.. 6. Revenue of the Trans-Caucasus. 7. 8. Extraordinary Receipts.. Total... EXPENDITURE. 1. Public Debt........ 2. Superior Institutions of the State 4. Ministry of the Imperial Household Foreign Affairs. War.. Marine.. Finances.. 5. 66 6. 66 7. 66 Imperial Domains. Interior.. Public Instruction. The fourth great board of government is the Committee of Ministers, the highest administrative body. It is divided into nine departments, which have under their management the Court; Foreign Affairs; War; the Navy; the Interior; Public Instruc- 9. tion; Finances; Crown Domains; Public Works; and has besides 10. a general board of control. All of these great boards center in 11. the private cabinet of the empire. Except the departments of 12. Foreign Affairs and the Imperial Court, all these branches of the | 13. central administration are represented in the provinces. European 14. Audit of the Empire.. Russia is divided into 50 provinces, over each of which is a gover- 15. General Direction of Studs. nor, appointed by the emperor, and who is the head of the civil administration of the province or government. Some provinces, 17. although administered by governors, are united under the superintendence of a governor-general. This arrangement is rendered necessary owing to the immense extent of the empire, and the governor-generalships are generally remote frontier regions. Of late years (especially since 1862), reforms have been effected throughout all the various branches of the government. Reforms in the municipal and rural administration of the provinces have given increase of self-government. A new legal system, including oral testimony, trial by jury, and publicity of courts, was introduced in 1864. By the Russian law, capital punishments are only inflicted for high treason. The severest punishments inflicted for violations of the law (see KNOUT) are labor in the galleys, in the public works, deportation to the mines of Siberia, &c. The audacity of the revolutionary party known as Nihilists (see NIHILISM) has caused of late increased rigor and frequency of political punishment. Repeated and fatal attempts on the life of high-placed officials, and the acquittal by a jury of one of the most notable assassins, led in 1878 to the withdrawal of trials for political offences from juries; such trials are now conducted by courts-martial. Distinctive Rank of Classes.-The nobility occupy the highest place in the social scale, enjoy many special privileges, such as freedom from poll-tax, and form in every province a separate Total.... 111,222 769,955 136,986 2,664,150 948,674 £68,056,509 There is usually a large deficit; though the budget often promises better things. Thus, the budget for 1880 stated revenue at £95,207,500, and the expenditure at a little less. The debt in 1880 was upwards of £350,000,000, besides paper money in forced currency. Army. The regular standing army dates from the close of the 17th c. Before that time, military levies were raised for longer or shorter periods. Till lately the army was raised by conscrip tion; but in 1870, an imperial ukase announced the principle of universal liability to military service and another in 1874 reorganized the entire military system. There is an annual conscription to which all men who have completed their 21st year, and are not physically incapacitated, are liable. Substitution is prohibited. The period of service in the army is fifteen years, six in active service, and nine in the army of reserve. During the latter period, the soldier is liable to service only in time of war. To enable the educated classes to free themselves from compulsory conscription, young men, sufficiently educated, may enter on a short period of service from their 17th year. On the 1st 20.376 primary schools, attended by 670,186 boys and 169,379 January 1863, the standing army, including the guard, consisted girls. of 31,110 generals, staff, and commissioned officers, and 818,105 privates and non-commissioned officers. This force was divided into 608 battalions of infantry, 313 squadrons of cavalry, and 182 batteries of artillery. Besides this establishment, there were 300,000 irregular troops, consisting of Cossacks, Kirghiz, Circassians, and other contingents, who are liable to military service in lieu of paying taxes. The law of 1874 thoroughly remodelled the whole military organization of the Cossacks, who now form in time of peace a perfectly organized body of men, easily attached to the cavalry division in time of war. In peace they have 21 regiments and 8 horse-batteries, increased in war to 62 and 22 respectively. The grand-duchy of Finland has a military system of its own. The Russian army, on the peace footing, consisted, in 1879, of about 770,000 men, of whom about 470,000 belong to the regular army, and 300,000 to the reserve. In time of war the number can be raised to 1,500,000. (For further details see ARMIES, MODERN.) The expenditure for the army, as set down in the estimates for 1880, was £27,095,900. Literary and Scientific Institutions, Museums, Press, &c.-Many of the most important institutions in R., as the Academy of Sciences and the Pulkova Observatory, flourish in or near St. Petersburg (q. v.). There are, however, throughout the empire numerous institutions and societies for the promotion of the arts and sciences. The Imperial Library at St. Petersburg, with upwards of a million volumes, is one of the finest in the world. The press of R., not yet much developed, is subject to special censorship, which, though rigorously exercised under the reign of Nicholas I., became, under the milder government of Alexander II., considerably less strict. Each year gives evident proof of the rapidly increasing taste for literature and mental culture in Russia. In 1863, there were published within R. and in the Russian tongue, 1652 volumes. In the years 1873 and 1874, 5206 books were published in Russia, of which 447 were translations from other languages. Charitable Institutions are for the most part supported by gov ernment; and although their number is increasing annually, the Navy. The Russian boundaries were first advanced to the sea scarcity of large national institutions-especially public hospitals under Peter the Great, and from the genius of that monarch the-is painfully felt. Medical assistance can only be obtained in Russian navy sprang. Besides the naval depôts on the Baltic, the the provinces with the greatest difficulty, owing to the distances Black, and the Caspian Seas, there are also naval establishments of the towns and the sparseness of the population. The found on the shores of the North Pacific and on the Amur. In 1875, ling hospitals of St. Petersburg and Moscow receive annually Russia had 137 war-vessels in the Baltic Sea, 31 in the Black Sea, about 15,000 abandoned infants and orphans. and 55 on other waters. In all, there were 223 ships with an ag- Public Roads, Railways and Canals.-Good roads and ready gregate burden of 190,000 tons, 29 being iron-clads. The expen- means of communication are a great want in R., where the disditure for the navy was, in 1880, estimated at £4,078,000. tances are so great, and the population so scanty. To keep the Religion and Churches..-Toleration of all religions which do not roads in repair, is a work of the greatest difficulty here, for two violate public morality or good order, exists in R., and not to reasons-the first, a difficulty in concentrating a sufficient amount profess the orthodox Greek faith, the national religion, does not of labor where the laborers are so few, and so widely dispersed; disqualify for the enjoyment of any civil rights. The law does and the other, the melting of the snows and overflowing of the not allow those who already belong to the established faith to rivers in spring. During four or five months of the year, the secede from it; and if, in a household, either of the parents be a soil is thickly covered with snow, which, when it becomes hardmember of the Greek Church, all the children must be brought up ened by the frost, offers an excellent, an easy, and a universal within that communion. The emperor is head of the church, the means of transit. On the return of mild weather, however, the affairs of which he directs by means of a synod composed of the snow melting, sinks into and softens the earth, which is also overchief prelates, who are summoned from their dioceses to attend flowed by the rivers. The roads being thus flooded, are rendered its meetings (see RUSSIAN CHURCH). The direction and regula- almost wholly impassable for traffic till the soil dries. In autumn, tion of all other religious communities emanates from a depart- the usual rains fall, and the earth is again soaked, so that the ment in the offices of the Minister of the Interior. In 1871, there time for easy communication during the summer is very short. were in European R., exclusive of Finland and Poland, 53,139,247 In 1856 only 784 miles of railway had been opened, though a orthodox Greeks; 922,079 Raskolniks; 37,136 Gregorian Armeni- large extent was being constructed; but in 1882 there were 14,100 ans; 2,882,991 Roman Catholics; 2,234,112 Protestants; 1,829,100 miles in operation (besides 540 miles in Finland), and 1100 miles Jews; 2,358,766 Mohammedans; and 255,503 heathens. In 1861, in construction. Several of the chief cities of the empire are there were 614 orthodox convents, 137 of which were occupied by connected by means of macadamized causeways, which are now Women. There were 5648 monks, and 4879 lay-brothers; 2931 generally kept in good repair. The other towns are connected nuns, and 7669 lay-sisters; 50,394 priests and deacons, and 63,421 by ordinary track-roads, which are generally impracticable in other persons, who were employed in religious services in the spring and autumn. Owing to the generally bad character of the 50,165 orthodox churches. For the education of the clergy, there surface, and to the abundance of the rivers which traverse it, the are 4 academies, 50 seminaries, and 201 schools, in which 54,000 water-communications of this empire are very important as compersons are trained. The churches, convents, and the ecclesiasti-mercial highways, though the vast transit-trade of the country is cal departments in general, are maintained by government. Public Instruction.-The department of public instruction in R. is presided over by a ministry, although many of the schools are directed by other departments. The greater number of these establishments are supported out of the imperial treasury. Russia in Europe, excepting Finland, is divided into nine educational districts-namely, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Dorpat, Kiev, Kharkov, Kazan, Odessa, Wilna, and Warsaw-each, Wilna excepted, having a university. Of the students-who do not reside within the universities-the poorest are allowed stipends for their maintenance, and the candidates for admission as students must have passed satisfactory examinations in the courses of instruction gone through at the gymnasia. Degrees are conferred in law, medicine, philology, mathematics, natural history, and the oriental languages. Degrees in theology are granted at Dorpat to students of the Lutheran faith. The professors are appointed and paid by the government. Four institutions, the law school and lyceums of St. Petersburg, Nijni, and Jaroslav, are specially devoted to legal science. The gymnasia, schools of the second class, about 130 in number, are found in the provincial towns. Besides the universities and gymnasia, there are numerous districts schools; but the means of instruction, though rapidly increasing, are very insufficient. In 1853, there were only 3000 village schools; in 1863, the number had enormously increased. There are also numerous special schools for instruction in mining, in wood-craft, civil engineering, navigation, &c. The military schools form a separate system. The cadets are transferred from the military gymnasia to the military schools,' in which they qualify to fill the posts of commissioned officers. Three academies, for the staff, the engineers, and the artillery, are devoted to the higher branches of military science. Theological education for the orthodox church is superintended by the clergy. According to the report of the minister of public instruction, there were in 1875, in the nine educational districts, not confined to them alone. The transport of merchandise across the broad expanse of the empire, is much facilitated by canals, which have here become an important and a peculiar institution. The four seas surrounding European Russia are connected by canals: 1. The Caspian is connected with the White Sea by the canal of the Prince of Wirtemberg, between the river Scheksna, an affluent of the Volga, and the upper waters of the Northern Dwina. 2. The Caspian and Baltic are connected by three systems of canals. See VOLGA. 3. The lack Sea is connected with the Baltic by three lines of canals-those of Beresina, Oginsky and Dnieper, and Bug, between the affluents of the Dnieper and those of the Western Dwina, Niemen and Vistula. Postal Service.-This service was inaugurated in 1664. In 1875 there were forwarded 63,244,156 letters, 1,419,094 post-cards, 42,776,220 newspapers and stamped periodicals, and other packets, amounting in all to 121,517,735. The number of offices was 4458 in 1880, and of letters, &c., 227,000,000. Electric Telegraph.-Notwithstanding the immense extent of the surface of R., and the distance from each other of its principal towns, these are now nearly all united by lines of electric telegraph. In January 1875 upwards of 40,000 miles of telegraphs had been laid by the Russian government, and 13,000 miles by private companies. In the end of November 1871, the telegraphi line through Siberia, connecting St. Petersburg with China and Japan, was finished, and a telegram forwarded from Nagasaki to the Russian capital. In 1878, there were sent 4,374,500 telegraphic messages to places within R., 470,000 to places abroad, and 373,000 official. In 1880, there were 7,300,000 messages. Population. The population of the empire is spread with great irregularity over the surface. In European Russia, its average is less than 37 per Eng. sq. m.; in the Caucasus, more than 28; in Siberia, ; in Poland, 112; and in Finland, 14 per Eng. sq. mile. These figures, however, cannot be taken as a correct illustration of the actual distribution of the masses over the enormous surface |