RUSSIA. 



073 



the principal article 1 * being corn, 

 hemp, tallow, lla\, am! puta-h. At li'iira, 

 ..ilno of exports, during 1-stiU, amounted 

 to 80,577,011 riihli-s; of Imports, l*.:tl)3,889 

 rubles. At IVrii.iu, tin- value of exports 

 amounted to LV'iln/JS'J rubles; of imports, 

 1 I :._':; I rubles. Of tho smaller ports on tho 

 Baltic and of those on the Black Sea, no ro- 

 liablo reports wore funii.shed. 



In February, Mr. Burlingamo and tho other 

 Chinese ambassadors had their first audience 

 with tho Czar, to whom they were presented 

 by Prince Gortschakoff. Mr. BurlinuMino, in- 

 troducing his fellow-ambassadors, addressed 

 the Emperor as follows : 



SIRB : In the name of myself and my colleagues I 

 have the honor to present the letter of the Emperor 

 of China accrediting us to you, and expressing wishes 

 t'r tin- happiness and health of your Majesty and of 

 the imperial family, and for the prosperity of your 

 subjects. Permit me to recall to mind the services 

 of your able representative at Peking, General Vlau- 

 goli, whoso policy of equity and conciliation con- 

 tributed to inspire China with the wish to enter into 

 the family of nations, and leads her now, through us, 

 to declare her desire that the friendly relations 

 between Russia and China which have existed for 

 three centuries may be perpetual. 



To this the Emperor replied : 



It is agreeable to see you here, for you present fresh 

 proofs of the pacific relations which "unite Russia and 

 China, and which the negotiations you are about to 

 enter upon will draw closer. It is particularly agree- 

 able to see the interests of China intrusted to the 

 citizen of a state especially sympathetic with Russia. 



The embassy was received with all the 

 honors accorded to diplomats of the highest 

 rank. Mr. Burlingame died at St. Petersburg 

 on the 22d of February. The Kusso-Chinese 

 boundary question was practically settled, and 

 a new commercial treaty between the two 

 empires concluded for five years. The new 

 treaty is intended to regulate trade on the 

 borders of the two empires, and its chief stipu- 

 lation enacts that in future no duties shall be 

 levied for a distance of seven miles on each 

 side of the Russo-Chinese frontiers. On pass- 

 ing this distance merchants will of course 

 have to pay the legal duties. All tho ports of 

 each of the contracting parties are also opened 

 to the vessels of the other. 



An address from the Livonian nobility was 

 1'iv-M 'tiled to the Emperor in April, supplicating 

 his Majesty to allow the reintegration of the 

 German language and the fundamental auton- 

 omy of the Lutheran Church in that province. 

 A deputation of three members proceeded to 

 the capital to present the petition to the Minis- 

 ter of the Interior ; but the next day received 

 the document back, with an intimation, written 

 on tho margin by the hand of his Majesty, that 

 he was inflexible in his resolution to apply to 

 Livonia the laws and institutions prevailing in 

 the rest of the empire. The deputation also 

 received an order to quit St. Petersburg at once. 



It soon became apparent that the Russian 

 Government was more than ever intent upon 

 the complete extirpation of the German element 

 VOL. x.-- 43 A 



in tin- Baltic provinces; for, after disregarding 

 tho rights and privileges granted to these 

 provinces by their constitutions, it had at 

 last resolved to carry through the complete 

 Russification of the German schools in those 

 provinces. A correspondent of the Augsburg 

 Allgemeine Zeitung writes from Livonia, under 

 date of February 28th, that Governor Galkin 

 had at last succeeded in causing the removal 

 of Count Alexander Keyserlingk, for many 

 years "curator" of the university of Dorpat, 

 and one of the warmest friends and advo- 

 cates of the German element throughout tho 

 Baltic provinces. Under his administration, the 

 number of German schools in Livonia had in- 

 creased to 94, of which 4 were gymnasia; 8 

 district schools ; 21 elementary schools for boys, 

 and 5 district schools ; 20 grammar-schools ; 

 and 86 elementary schools for girls; while 

 there were only 4 schools exclusively Russian. 

 The successor of Count Keyserlingk, M. Ger- 

 vais, a descendant of French immigrants, is rep- 

 resented as a pliant tool in the interest of the 

 Moscowite element. He arrived in the prov- 

 ince in February, and immediately set out on 

 a tour of inspection, enforcing arbitrary rules 

 and regulations which must ere long result in 

 the resignation or removal of all the German 

 teachers. 



In April, the Esthonian Diet, following the 

 example of the Livonian nobility, sent a peti- 

 tion to the Emperor, invoking the imperial 

 protection for the provincial and national rights 

 of the Baltic provinces, endangered and disre- 

 garded on all sides by Russian governors and 

 officials. The petition was laid aside, not being 

 considered worthy of any notice in St. Peters- 

 burg. 



Serious trouble took place in the Polish 

 provinces, as an imperial ukase had com- 

 manded the introduction of the Russian lan- 

 guage into the Catholic churches, and the trans- 

 lation of the Catholic ritual into Russian. At 

 Vilna, the deacon Piotrovitch burned the im- 

 perial ukase in the presence of his congrega- 

 tion ; he then made an allocution to his parish- 

 ioners, warning them of the approaching dan- 

 ger, and urging them to oppose any infringe- 

 ment upon their sacred rights. After divine 

 service, he was conducted home by an immense 

 concourse of people, who had not proceeded 

 far when they were attacked by a battalion 

 of infantry and a squadron of Cossacks. About 

 60 of the crowd were more or less seriously 

 wounded, when the rest fled, and the soldiers, 

 taking charge of tho deacon, conducted him 

 to prison. 



In May rebellion broke out in tho Kirgheez 

 steppe between the Caspian Seu and Lake Aral, 

 and a body of 5,000 Russian troops was sent 

 from Orenburg to tho river Emba, and other 

 positions in the Western Steppe. After several 

 sanguinary engagements with the insurgents, 

 order was at last restored. 



In order to give a new impulse to the de- 

 velopment of the natural and industrial wealth 



