636 



ROMNEY. 



RUSSIA. 



sent in her own regiments 5,124, while 1,005 

 had enlisted in regiments belonging to other 

 States, and in the navy. 



This is a heavy draught, heing equal to nearly 

 one-third of the whole active male population. 



The State of Rhode Island suffered perhaps 

 more, proportionally to her population, than 

 any other State, by reason of the short supply 

 of cotton, and attention was immediately drawn 

 to the prospects of " cottoning " flax. The 

 Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement 

 of Domestic Industry offered $500 for the best 

 bale of flax cotton, fit for use on cotton ma- 

 chinery. In consequence, five competitors 

 claimed the amount, but the committee de- 

 cided that none of them met the requirements. 

 Some of their samples would work with wool 

 and in a small per cent, with cotton, giving 

 the cloth greater body. The difficulty was to 

 obtain a uniform, thickness. 



ROMNEY, is a village on the South Branch 

 of the Potomac, 190 miles northwest of Rich- 

 mond. It is the capital of Hampshire county. 

 A few miles from Romney, near Mill Creek, an 

 attack was made on a small body of Confeder- 

 ate troops by an Indiana regiment under Col. 

 Wallace. The enemy retired through Romney 

 on the road to Winchester. They abandoned 

 their tents, arms, uniforms, &c. Some prisoners 

 were taken, with a small loss on both sides. 



RUSSIA. The most extensive though not 

 the most populous empire of the world, possess- 

 ing vast tracts of territory in the three conti- 

 nents of Europe, Asia, and North America ; ex- 

 tending over 35 of latitude and 192 of longi- 

 tude, and having an area of about 8,000,000 

 square miles, and a population of 72,961,811 

 inhabitants. Much of its territory is sterile, 

 and either consists of snow-capped mountains, 

 elevated sandy plains, or frigid and ice-clad 

 wastes; but other portions are abundantly fer- 

 tile, and yield vast quantities of grains and 

 fruits; while its forests produce the best of 

 timber, and its mountainous regions are prolific 

 in mineral wealth beyond any other portion of 

 the globe. Gold, silver, platinum, iron of ex- 

 traordinary quality, copper, lead, tin, the pre- 

 cious malachite, beryl, onyx, agate, and other 

 gems exist in great profusion in the mines of 

 the Ural, the Altai, and the Siberian moun- 

 tains. 



The people are of numerous races and have 

 rather formed a conglomeration of nations than 

 a distinct nationality. In Russia in Europe the 

 Muscovite race is perhaps more numerous than 

 any other, but large portions of the population 

 are composed of Poles, Swedes, Germans, Jews^ 

 the Slavonic races, Lapps, and Finns; in the 

 south and southeast, Tartars and Turks of the 

 Asiatic tribes, Georgians, Circassians, Arme- 

 nians, &c., &c. In Asia, Tartars, Turks, Tun- 

 gouses, and Chinese predominate, but there are 

 many Persians of the old Aryan stock, as well 

 as Samoiedes, and other tribes of the Finnish 

 family ; while in America the Esquimaux and 

 other Arctic tribes of a similar origin are the 



principal inhabitants of the cold and cheerless 

 region belonging to Russia. 



The government is an absolute monarchy ; 

 the Czar or Emperor being in reality, as he is 

 by title, autocrat of all the Russias. The people 

 of European Russia have been divided into 

 three classes ; the nobility, who possess vast 

 landed estates, and some of them immense 

 wealth ; the middle class, composed mainly of 

 merchants, teachers, men of science, and master 

 mechanics ; and the serfs, who were slaves, but 

 of late years attached to the soil. These last 

 were again divided into two classes, serfs of 

 the nobility and serfs of the crown. The Rus- 

 sian serf possesses extraordinary mechanical in- 

 genuity, and a remarkable facility for tbe ac- 

 quisition of languages and literature, and has 

 extraordinary local attachments; but he is 

 crafty and deceitful, and ages of servitude have 

 developed in him the vices of the servile condi- 

 tion. The events of the year in Russia have been 

 deeply interesting. At its commencement there 

 were, perhaps, no more than the usual causes of 

 disturbance : the chronic difficulties growing out 

 of the forcible disintegration of Poland, which 

 at frequent intervals assumed tbe acute form of 

 insurrection or revolution ; the restless condi- 

 tion of the serfs as the time of their long- 

 looked-for emancipation drew nigh ; the dis- 

 affection of the Tartar or Turkish tribes in- 

 habiting the Crimean peninsula, who on some 

 real or fancied grievance, growing out of the 

 conflict of religions, they being bigoted Moham- 

 medans, left their homes in a body and precip- 

 itated themselves upon the Christian population 

 of Northeastern Turkey, driving them out, and 

 claiming the protection of their co-religionists, 

 the dominant power in Turkey the calm 

 preceding the storm, in the Caucasus, and 

 which some months later broke out in a re- 

 newed and severe conflict ; the occupation by 

 Russia of a considerable portion of Independent 

 Turkistan, and of the region south of the lower 

 Amoor, rather by virtue of the arts of diplomacy 

 than by the more costly method of invasion. 

 This was the condition of the empire at the 

 opening of the year. 



In Poland an outbreak soon occurred. In 

 1856, at the close of the Crimean war, and soon 

 after his own coronation, the Emperor Alexan- 

 der II. had promised to Poland a general am- 

 nesty ; liberty of conscience in religious mat- 

 ters ; the restoration of the Polish language in 

 the records and government of the kingdom, 

 and instruction in it in the schools ; and the 

 reestablishment of the suppressed universities. 

 These promises had for the most part remained 

 unfulfilled, and though the amiable and popular 

 Gortchakoff (see GORTCHAKOFF) had been install- 

 ed as Governor of Poland, and had done his ut- 

 most to beautify Warsaw, and restore it to 

 more than its former stateliness, and in many 

 ways the rigor of the iron-handed Nicholas 

 had been softened under the administration of 

 his successor, yet the Poles felt that they were 

 grievously wronged. 



