682 



EOSSE, WILLIAM P. 



RUSSIA. 



issued on the 22d of last May, the Diocese of Podla- 

 chia, in the kingdom of Poland, its college of canons, 

 its general consistory, and its diocesan seminary were 

 utterly abolished, the bishop of the diocese was torn 

 from his flock^ and compelled at once to quit the dio- 

 cese. And this decree is similar to that which was 

 published on June 3d, last year, which we were un- 

 able to mention, as we knew not of it. By this clause 

 the Government, of its own will and power, abol- 

 ished the Diocese of Kamenicz, dispersed its college 

 of canons, its consistory and its seminary, and re- 

 moved the bishop from the diocese by force. 



As every means of communicating with the faithful 

 is obstructed, and in order not to expose any one to 

 imprisonment, exile, or other punishment, we have 

 been obliged to insert in our newspapers the docu- 

 ment by which we decided on providing for the ex- 

 ercise of legitimate jurisdiction in those vast dioceses, 

 in order that, by aid of the press, notice of our de- 

 cision might reach thither. Every one sees at a 

 g'ance in what spirit and for what object the Eussian 

 overnment issues these decrees. To the absence of 

 many bishops it now adds the suppression of dioceses. 



But our affliction is yet increased by another decree 

 of the same Government, promulgated on the 22d of 

 last May, by which a college was constituted at St. 

 Petersburg called the Eoman. Catholic Ecclesiasti- 

 cal College, over which the Archbishop of Mohilew 

 presides. All petitions appertaining even to matters 

 of faith and conscience which are sent to us and this 

 Apostolic See by the bishops, clergy, and faithful peo- 

 ple of the Eussian empire, and of the kingdom of 

 Poland, are first to be transmitted to this college, and 

 the college has to examine them and decide whether 

 the petitions exceed the power of the bishops, in 

 which case it is to see that they be forwarded to us. 

 And when our decision arrives'thither, the president 

 of the college is bound to forward it to the Minister 

 for Homo Affairs, that he may decide whether any 

 thing be found in it contrary to the laws of the state 

 and the rights of the sovereign, and may execute it 

 at his pleasure and discretion should nothing of the 

 sort be found in it. 



You see clearly, venerable brethren, how worthy 

 of blame and reprobation is this decree issued by lay 

 and schismatical authority. It destroys the Divine 

 constitution of the Catholic Church, it subverts ec- 

 clesiastical discipline, it inflicts a great injury on our 

 supreme pontifical power and authority, and on the 

 power and authority of this holy see and of the 

 bishops, it impels the faithful toward a fatal schism, 

 and violates the very law of nature as to matters 

 which concern faith and conscience. 



Moreover, the Catholic Academy of "Warsaw has 

 been destroyed, and ruin impends over the Euthe- 

 nian Diocese of Chelm and Belz. Most of all have 

 we to lament that a certain Priest Wajciki, a man of 

 suspected faith, despising all ecclesiastical penalties 

 and censures, disregarding the terrible judgment of 

 God, has dared to accept from the civil power the 

 government and administration of that diocese, and 

 to issue sundry ordinances opposed to ecclesiastical 

 discipline, and furthering a fatal schism. 



ROSSE, Right lion. WILLIAM PARSONS, third 

 Earl of, an eminent astronomer and physi- 

 cist, born at York, England, June 17, 1800; 

 died at Monkstown, County Dublin, October 31, 

 1867. He was educated at Dublin University, 

 and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took 

 high honors, being first in inathematics in 

 1822. He was a member of Parliament for 

 King's County, Ireland, from 1821 to 1834, and 

 succeeded his father in the earldom in 1841. In 

 1845 he was elected a representative peer of 

 Ireland in the House of Lords. Since 1862 he 

 had been Chancellor of the University of Dub- 

 lin. Of late years lie had directed his attention 



to the local interests of Ireland, and had pub- 

 lished a very valuable pamphlet on the state 

 of that country. During his long parliamentary 

 career in both Houses, he never distinguished 

 himself by any active efforts or speeches. He 

 was a Conservative in politics, and voted with 

 his party, but very seldom spoke on any ques- 

 tion. His whole thoughts were concentrated 

 on astronomical science, and the appliances for 

 increasing the discoveries in the realms of 

 space. In 1831, while a member of Parliament, 

 and during the exciting controversy which 

 preceded the passage of the first Reform Bill, 

 he was constructing his first gigantic telescope, 

 the speculum of which had a diameter of three 

 feet. This was set up at Barr Castle, Parsons- 

 town, before the close of that year, and the re- 

 markable discoveries made by means of it ex- 

 cited his ambition to attempt the construction 

 of a still more gigantic instrument. He was a 

 most skilful and ingenious mechanic, and all 

 the more delicate operations, and much of the 

 severe labor for this work, he undertook to do 

 with his own hands. His new speculum, six 

 feet in diameter, required a rare combination 

 of metals for its greatest perfection, and the 

 highest care and skill to grind and polish it, so 

 that it should be true, and an exact segment 

 of a sphere. It was mounted on a telescope of 

 fifty-two feet in length, and the difficulty of 

 constructing machinery, for the facile movement 

 of such a ponderous instrument was happily 

 overcome by' his lordship's inventive genius. 

 Great results were achieved with this instru- 

 ment, whose space-penetrating power was for 

 many years unrivalled. New nebulse were re- 

 solved into stars, and new nebulous mist was 

 revealed to the observer. It opened the way 

 to the construction of other instruments, both 

 refractors and reflectors, of equal power, and 

 astronomical science was largely the gainer. 

 Sketches of some of the more remarkable of 

 the nebula?, together with accurate descriptions 

 of the telescopes, and the modes by which they 

 were constructed, were published in the Phil- 

 osophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 

 Of that society Lord Rosse had long been a 

 fellow, and, from June, 1849, to 1854, was its 

 president. In 1842 the University of Cam- 

 bridge conferred on him the degree of LL. D. 

 lie was also elected a member of the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg in 

 1853, and made a Knight of the Legion of 

 Honor by the Emperor Louis Napoleon III. in 

 1855. 



RUSSIA, an empire in Europe and Asia. 

 Present Emperor, Alexander II.,' born 1818; 

 succeeded his father in 1855. Heir-apparent, 

 Alexander, born in 1845. The area, in 1862, 

 was estimated at 7,770,882 English square 

 miles. Large additioas have been made to it 

 in Central Asia, but, on the other hand, the 

 Russian Possessions in America have been sold 

 to the United States. 



The population, at the close of the year 1863, 

 was estimated as follows 



