386 



RUSSIA. 



were sent on by the king to the seat of the 

 local Russian government, and, at the time of 

 writing, were waiting at Khojend for an inter- 

 view with the general accordingly. This, if 

 true, would show not only that the sovereign 

 of the once extensive principality of Khokan, so 

 long known in India as Sir John Lawrence's im- 

 portunate suitor, dispatching urgent embassies 

 one after the other to implore his aid against 

 the advancing Russians, has not only reconciled 

 himself to circumstances, and submitted to that 

 which can no longer be resisted, but even finds 

 it worth while to court Russian favor by trans- 

 ferring or transmitting the allegiance of his 

 own outlying tributaries. In this way the 

 farthest southeastern extension of Russian influ- 

 ence would speedily become all but actually con- 

 terminous with the elastic northwestern fron- 

 tier of the English feudatory, the Maharajah 

 of Cashmere's most recent territorial acquisi- 

 tions up the Gilgit valley, being separated from 

 them by barely a hundred direct miles, so far 

 as one can tell. 



The Friend, of India (January 2, 1868), in its 

 review of the year 1867, thus refers to the prog- 

 ress and the plans of Russia in Central Asia : 



In the course of 1867 the whole of Eussian Tur- 

 kestan was reorganized, being placed under a gov- 

 ernor-general no longer subject to Orenburg, but re- 

 ceiving orders from St. Petersburg direct. When the 

 Eussian troops were at their weakest they were 

 attacked by tribes in the pay of Bokhara. A brief 

 campaign ended in the formation of a Eussian en- 

 campment almost under the walls of Samarcand. 

 Throughout the year, however, the Eussians were 

 harassed by the hordes. The Bokhara ruler, who 

 instigated them, was most unpopular with his own 

 people, and lost such provinces as Shuhr-i-Subz, 

 which became independent or tributary to Eussia. 

 He sent an envoy to Calcutta, who, while courteously 

 treated by the Viceroy, was reminded of the fate of 

 Conolly and Stoddart, and received no promise of 

 assistance. A belief spread among the natives of 

 Central and Southern Asia that the Czar had formed 

 a secret league with Persia, by which the Shah would 

 be presented with Bagdad, where lie the bones of 

 Husain and Hasan, in exchange for her claims to 

 Herat and for a province on the shores of the Persian 

 Gulf. 



The Russian Government, in 1867, estab- 

 lished a military school at Orenburg, on the 

 frontiers of Turkestan, for 200 pupils, 120 of 

 whom are to be selected from the sons of Tar- 

 tar and Kirghis chiefs. As Russians and Tar- 

 tars generally get on well together, the new 

 school will probably confirm the good relations 

 between the two nationalities in the border 

 country. 



The Government was greatly displeased with 

 the resolutions passed by some of the provincial 

 assemblies. An imperial decree, dated January 

 30th, closed the provincial estates of St. Peters- 

 burg, relieving the president and the committee 

 of their functions, and dismissing the members, 

 on the ground that they have adopted an atti- 

 tude opposed to the laws and hostile to the 

 Government. 



In January, Prince Dadian of Mingrelia, in his 

 own name and in that of his successors, volun- 



tarily ceded his sovereign rights to Russia, in 

 consideration of an indemnity of one million 

 rubles. In March a decree of the Government 

 declared serfdom in Mingrelia abolished. 



The diplomatic intercourse of the Govern- 

 ment with the Pope remained interrupted 

 throughout the year. The Russian Govern- 

 ment, in August, published rules for regulating 

 the relations of the Russian and Polish Catho- 

 lic clergy and laity to the Holy See. The for- 

 mer relations of the Russian Government with 

 the Pope will be carried on through a Roman 

 Catholic college in St. Petersburg. In the 

 event of questions . arising which cannot be de- 

 cided by the college, its president will ask the 

 opinion of the Pope, and the reply of his Holi- 

 ness, before being carried into effect, will have 

 to be submitted to the Russian Minister of the 

 Interior. The decisions of the Holy See may 

 be observed in Russia so long as they do not 

 come into collision with the institutions of the 

 country, or the rights of the chief of the state; 

 in the contrary case, all Papal bulls are to be 

 considered null and void. 



An imperial decree, issued in July, orders the 

 introduction of public and verbal judiciary pro- 

 cedure before the military tribunals the same 

 as exists in the civil courts; such procedure, 

 however, to be subject to any military regula- 

 tions that may be rendered necessary by the 

 requirements of discipline. 



An official report, published at St. Peters- 

 burg, shows the condition of the Russian serfs 

 at the close of the year 1867. It appears from 

 this report that there are still 3,629,382 serfs 

 not emancipated. The number of the emanci- 

 pated serfs is now 6,146,635, including 1,168,- 

 150 in Lithuania. Of these only 548,529 have 

 obtained their emancipation by voluntary agree- 

 ments entered into with their masters. The 

 remainder have become proprietors through 

 the intervention of the Government, which has 

 assigned 414,275,707 rubles as compensation 

 to the old landholders. Up to the 1st of Janu- 

 ary last, 7,240 estates, inhabited by 66,754 

 people, have been transferred to the state, at a 

 cost of 7,683,665 rubles. In the governments 

 of Jaroslav, Kalooga, Kasan, Moscow, Orel, 

 Riazan, St. Petersburg, Samara, Saratov, Sim- 

 birsk, Tambov, Toola, and Voronej, where 

 there are 15,672 villages, with 3,087,845 inhabi- 

 tants, the peasant proprietors have already been 

 charged with the ground-rent of their estates. 



Railways are rapidly on the increase. In the 

 course of 1867 the Ryasan-Morschansk line, a 

 portion of the Moscow-Volga line, was opened, 

 150 miles long. The Moscow-Odessa Railway 

 was nearly finished, and the works between 

 Poti and Tiflis a line which, after its exten- 

 sion to the Caspian harbor of Baku, will mono- 

 polize a considerable portion of the Persian 

 trade begun. For these extensive enterprises 

 the funds are supplied by the Russian Treasury 

 and the German and Dutch money markets. 

 The shareholders, being guaranteed by the 

 Government, have the additional attraction of 



