SAX DOMINI ;o. 



731 



bio for him to convoke the four estates (nobility, 

 clergy, burghers, peasants) during the first 



- of his ~eign, but he had, neverth 

 prepared in the mean time drafts of several laws 

 and other administrative matters, to be laid be- 

 fore the Diet. He declares it to be his desiro 

 that hereafter no loan shall be contracted with- 

 out the participation of the estates of the Grand 

 Duchy, unless a sudden invasion of the country 

 or some other unforeseen public calamity should 

 make it necessary. He further announces that 

 the levying of new taxes will be proposed to 

 the Diet to promote the material prosperity of 

 the nation, and to extend the blessings of pub- 

 lic education, and he declares it to be the task 

 of the Diet to decide upon the urgency and ex- 

 tent of these measures." He concludes with 

 recommending to the representatives of the 

 Grand Duchy "to prove, by the dignity, the- 

 moderation, and the calmness of their delibera- 

 tions, that in the hands of a people determined 

 to act in concert with their sovereign for the- 

 development of their prosperity, the liberal in- 

 stitutions, far from being a danger, become a 

 guarantee of order and prosperity." At the 

 opening of the Diet there -were present 141 

 deputies of the nobility, 32 deputies of the 

 clergy, 30 representatives of the burghers, and 

 48 deputies of the peasant-;. 



On January 21, 1864, the official journal of 

 St. Petersburg published an imperial ukase for 

 the organization of the provincial and district 

 representations of Russia, with the exception 

 of the western and Baltic provinces Arch- 

 angel, Astracan, and Bessarabia. Toward the 

 close of the-vear the first elections for the new 

 Provincial D^iets were held all through Russia, 

 and the opening of the first of the diets was 

 announced to take place in March, 1865. 



On December 6, an imperial uk..- 



ordering the Senate to promulgate tho 

 law relative to the new organization of tho 

 courts of justice, the new penal code, and tho 

 laws upon the procedure in civil and crimi- 

 nal affairs, and the powers of justices of tlio 

 peace, all these laws having received the em- 

 peror's sanction. 



oral governments (provinces) of I: 

 suffered frightfully from incendiary fires, which 

 occurred from April to August. The work of tho 

 incendiaries commenced at the end of April in 

 the government of Kalouga by the destruction 

 of 54 houses ; next at Okhansk 204 houses wero 

 burnt. The fires continued in succession at 

 Scrapoul; at Serdobsk, where four-fifths of the 

 town were destroyed ; at Mozir, one-half of tho 

 houses ; at Mologa, more than 200 ; and at tho 

 fair of Xijni-Xovgorod 1,500 booths and 143 

 houses. At Patrofsk there were as many as 

 six fires in the month of June alone, and entire 

 districts of the town were consumed. Tho 

 powder magazines of Kazan and that of Okhta, 

 near St. Petersburg, were blown up; at Riga 

 two fires occurred one after the other; the 

 same at Tuuien, where the finest quarters of tho 

 town were entirely destroyed. At Orenburg 

 600 houses were burnt, and Baki is now only a 

 heap of ruins. During the same space of time 

 four conflagrations took place at St. Petersburg. 

 A great incendiary fire also occurred at Sim- 

 birsk. The place was burning for three days, 

 and on the 21st of August the whole was in 

 ruins ; the cathedral, the churches, the House 

 of Assembly of the nobles, with its magnificent 

 library, the house of the governor, all the courts 

 of justice, with their archives, etc. ; in fact, a 

 great town, inhabited by thirty thousand peo- 

 ple, was entirely destroyed. 



S 



SAX DOMINGO, or the Dominican Repub- 

 lic, a State of the West Indies, occupying the 

 eastern portion of the Island of Hayti. The 

 Dominican Republic claims as her possession 

 the extent of territory defined by the treaty 

 of limits between Spain and France in 1777. 

 According to these limits it comprises about 

 22,000 square miles, and is divided into the 

 following five provinces : 



Popnlation. 



San Doinin:ro 



Aznadelomfostela. U 



8sbo 20,000 



Santiago de los Cabelleros. : ' 



Conception de la Vega ?3,000 



126,500 



According to other accounts the population 

 exceeds 200,000. 



The Dominicans, declared themselves inde- 

 pendent of Hayti in 1844. In 1850 their in- 

 dependence was acknowledged by the European 

 Powers generally, and in 1855 by Spam. In 



1861 the once popular but xmprincipled Presi- 

 dent, Santana, privily sold the Republic to the 

 Spanish Government for his own benefit. The 

 inhabitants never gave their consent to this 

 sale. They have made an unrelenting r 

 ance * to the army of the invader. Too weak 

 to make any other than a guerrilla warfare, they 

 yet succeeded in compelling the Spaniards to 

 confine themselves to the possession of a few 

 seaport towns. They were powerfully aided 

 by the malarious climate and the mountainous 

 character of the country. The Spanish troops, 

 swept off by fever, shot down in the woods, 

 starved in the town, perished almost as fast as 

 they arrived. 



"When the Provisional President, General 

 Salcedo, showed himself inclined to negotiate 

 with the Spaniards about submission his action 

 was promptly repudiated by the principal offi- 



* See A>-XUAL CYCLOP.EDIA for 15C3, pag> S2i. 



