SCEIBNEB, CHAELES. 



SHAMYL. 



695 



was accepted by the deputation, who, however, 

 asked for a statement in writing of the intentions of 

 the Government on the subject. But Prince Gort- 

 schakoff was averse, he said, to " all unnecessary 

 written declarations," and he considered it sufficient 

 to have stated the convictions and principles of his 

 Majesty. The meeting then separated ; and the 

 prince observes, in conclusion, that he did not per- 

 ceive in the delegates " any signs of irritation, though 

 the consciousness of failure was evident." Notwith- 

 standing this, two English and two American mem- 

 bers of the deputation, whom he met on the follow- 

 ing day, "fervently expressed their recognition of 

 the way in which they nad been received, and said 

 that they had just telegraphed to the Times an ac- 

 count of their impressions, and of the confidence 

 with which they had been inspired in the lofty qual- 

 ities of his Imperial Majesty." 



It was announced at the close of the year, 

 that, beginning on January 1, 1872, all the ad- 

 ministrative functionaries serving in the Baltic 

 provinces must address the central authorities 

 in St. Petersburg in the Bussian language ; that 

 the Imperial Government would declare the 

 Bussian language the only one to be used in 



the drafting of public decrees, and in the law 

 courts and churches of the provinces subse- 

 quent to New Year; and even that the German 

 university established at Dorpat would be re- 

 moved to Wilna, and Bussianized completely 

 as an educational institution, in its curriculum 

 of teaching, professorships, and library. An 

 imperial ukase, published in December, makes 

 compulsory the use of the Bussian language 

 in the schools of Poland. 



The official journal of the Bussian Govern- 

 ment in December announced the removal 

 of Minister Catacazy from Washington, owing, 

 it is said, to personal differences which might 

 prejudice the good relations existing between 

 Bussia and the United States. 



In April the city of Odessa was the scene 

 of a violent outbreak against the Jews. They 

 were despoiled, and great devastation was 

 committed. The rioting lasted three days, and 

 was only put down at the point of the bayo- 

 net. 



S 



SCBIBNEB, CHARLES, an American pub- 

 lisher and importer of books, born in New 

 York City, in 1820; died in Lucerne, Switzer- 

 land, August 26, 1871. He was educated at 

 Princeton College, graduating thence in 1840, 

 studied law for three years, was admitted to 

 the bar, but never practised his profession. In 

 1846, having determined to enter into the pub- 

 lishing business, he formed a partnership with 

 Mr. Isaac D. Baker, and commenced business 

 in the old Brick Church building on the present 

 site of the New Yorlc Times office. Mr. Baker 

 died in 1850, and Mr. Scribner carried on the 

 establishment alone until 1857, when he pur- 

 chased the English importing business of Messrs. 

 Bangs, Merwin & Co., and took Mr. Charles 

 "Wilford as a partner in that branch of the 

 trade. His business enterprises proved re- 

 markably successful, and from 1857 to his 

 death they had been continually enlarging. 

 He had undertaken, in 1862, the great work of 

 issuing an American edition, translated, edited, 

 and enlarged in this country, of the voluminous 

 Biblical Commentary of J. P. Lange, which 

 will probably extend to thirty octavo volumes 

 or more; and, soon after, commenced the pub- 

 lication of a full series of school-books. His 

 judgment in regard to the success of the 

 works he accepted was almost infallible, and 

 his taste was correct and pure. In all the 

 relations of life, as a publisher and man of busi- 

 ness, a partner, a husband, father, and friend, 

 as well as in his religious character, he was held 

 in the highest esteem by all who knew him. 

 His health had been impaired for some time, 

 and his death was the result of an attack of 

 typhoid fever, contracted while travelling in 

 Switzerland. 



SHAMYL, or SCHAMYL, " the warrior-proph- 

 et of the Caucasus," a Circassian chief and re- 

 ligious leader, born in June, 1797, at the Aoul 

 of Hemri, in the north of the Caucasian dis- 

 trict of Daghestan; died in March, 1871, prob- 

 ably at Moscow, though some reports said that 

 his death occurred at Medina, Arabia, whither 

 he had, it was alleged, gone on a pilgrimage. 

 From early youth he was noted for his ambition, 

 his fine mental powers, his partiality for athletic 

 sports, his skill in the use of arms, and his emi- 

 nence in all qualities and accomplishments be- 

 coming to young Circassians of noble rank. 

 His teacher was the learned mollah, Jellal-ed- 

 deen, whose daughter he afterward married. 

 From him he learned the principles of that 

 sublimated Mohammedanism which, under the 

 name of Murdism, appeals to the higher con- 

 sciousness and the spiritual meaning of the 

 Koran, and seeks to educe from its precepts a 

 purer worship and loftier hopes than its sensu- 

 ous paradise and its dark-eyed houris can in- 

 spire. When Schamyl, in 1824, first took part 

 in his country's defence, the leader of the war- 

 like Lesghians was Kasi Mollah. From that 

 time till his capture, in 1859, Schamyl became 

 the most troublesome enemy whom the Bus- 

 sians had to encounter in their constant irrup- 

 tions into Circassia, and the exploits attributed 

 to him would fill a volume. In 1831, in a battle 

 with the Bussians, the Murids (as the Circas- 

 sian troops were called), under Kasi Mollah, 

 were slain almost to a man, and Schamyl, 

 pierced by a ball, lay at his dead leader's feet ; 

 but he escaped in time to present himself at 

 the first meeting of the discomfited tribes held 

 after the battle. To Schamyl properly belonged 

 the leadership, as the favorite and acknowl- 



