RUSSIA. 



711 



i:i would not be satisfied with merely pre- 

 ventive measures, but would still liolil in coii>i(l- 

 oration wliclhiT the existing difficulties could 

 not be peacefully solved by the concurrence of 

 tin; six great powers. Russia hud no selti>h 

 wishes, us the Czar had told Lord Loftus at 

 Livadia. It' the Knglish cabinet would now 

 publish tin- report of Lord Loftus, and if it 

 oould convince itself that Russia had the will 

 to go hand-in-haiid with it, then the principles 

 on which they were as one would be no dead 

 letter, and the threatening danger would not 

 hover over the peace of Europe. 



A decree was issued February 5th, abolish- 

 ing the office of Governor-General of the Bal- 

 tic Provinces, consisting of Esthonia, Livonia, 

 and Courland, which had been organized as a 

 single department by the Czar Paul in 1800. 

 The decree specified that the previous legisla- 

 tive organization of the provinces would re- 

 main unchanged. On the 15th of the month 

 the Czar explained to a deputation of lord- 

 marshals of the provinces the object of the 

 act. It was intended as a manifestation of his 

 trust in the Baltic people. Their devotion and 

 love of order were known to him, and his 

 good -will toward them was unaltered. A 

 separate administration, such as was still re- 

 quired in Poland, Siberia, and the Caucasus, 

 was no longer needed there. The cities of the 

 Baltic provinces had formerly been in posses- 

 sion of the so-called Magdeburg right, and it 

 had not been taken from them by the Polish 

 Government; but, in carrying out the new 

 plan of government, this institution was with- 

 drawn, and the Russian town-regulations were 

 substituted for it. 



The independent judicial administration of 

 Poland was abolished in July, by the opera- 

 tion of two decrees, one of which did away 

 with the governmental justice-commission, 

 and the other abolished the military commis- 

 sion of inquests at Warsaw. Direction was 

 made that the trial of state offenses be handed 

 over to the appropriate courts, and that the 

 requests of Polish exiles to be permitted to 

 return home be heard under the regulations 

 whicli were established in 1871. The opera- 

 tion of this act was also to abolish the depart- 

 ment for Polish affairs at St. Petersburg, 

 under the direction of Secretary of State Na- 

 boloff. Another consequence of the measure 

 was that the Russian language having been 

 made the official language, one thousand officers 

 of the Polish courts, who were not skilled in 

 the use of that language, lost their places and 

 were put on pensions. 



The Government has striven for a long time 

 to make the Russian language the exclusive 

 language of literature and of intercourse 

 among people of culture, and to confine the 

 use of tlie different dialects exclusively to the 

 common people. In pursuance of this policy, 



Km order was issued on the 80th of May, from 

 ihe Bureau of Affairs of the Press, prohibiting 

 ;ho introduction into the empire of books and 



pamphlets in the Little Russian dialect without 

 the permission of the bureau; also forbidding 

 the writing and publishing within the empire of 

 works in Little Russian, and translations into 

 that dialect. Historic documents and memoirs, 

 and works of tine literature, were exempted from 

 the operation of the rule, but under the con- 

 dition that the Russian form of writing should 

 be preserved. Theatrical programmes and 

 contracts in Little Russian, and the printing of 

 Little Russian texts to music, were wholly for- 

 bidden. The act was received with much dig- 

 favor by the 14,000,000 Little Russians of the 

 empire. 



The Senate of Finland, in February, granted 

 an appropriation of 200,000 rubles tor build- 

 ing a canal to connect the Baltic with the 

 White Sea. A Provincial Exhibition of the 

 Products of Finland was opened in July by the 

 Czar. 



The conquest of Khokan was completed 

 early in the year 1876, and the territory of 

 that khanate was annexed to Russia by an im- 

 perial decree, dated March 2d, and organized 

 as a Russian province under the name of the 

 Province of Ferghana. (For a more full ac- 

 count of the conquest and annexation of thU 

 district, see the article on TDRKISTAN.) 



The third meeting of the International Con- 

 gress of Orientalists was held at St. Peters- 

 burg, from August 30th to September 12th, 

 under the management of a committee of or- 

 ganization composed of Russians eminent in 

 literature and philological science. Most of 

 the sittings were held in the rooms of the Im- 

 perial Home-Office, assigned to the congress 

 by express command of the Czar. Prof. 

 Gregorieff, of the Imperial University of 

 St. Petersburg, presided. The congress was 

 formed into nine sections, as follows: 1. Sibe- 

 ria ; 2. Central Asia ; 8. Caucasus ; 4. Trans- 

 caucasia ; 5. Eastern Asia ; 6. India, etc. ; 

 7. Turkey ; 8. Archasology ; 9. Religious Sys- 

 tems, etc. Baron von Osten-Sacken was chosen 

 secretary of the congress, and Baron Victor 

 von Rosen assistant secretary. 



The first sectional meeting held was that of 

 the Central Asian section (2), under the presi- 

 dency of M. Ch. Schefer. Papers were read by 

 Prof. Sachan on his edition of the work of the 

 Arabian writer, Al-Biruni, the first part of 

 which had recently been published, under 

 the title "The Chronology of the Oriental 

 Nations;" by M. Tcharykoff, on "A Voyage 

 to the Uzbeck Country, by Pazoukhine," who 

 was sent thither by the Czar Alexis Mikhai- 

 lovitch in 1671 -'72; by Dr. MacNamara, 

 on "The Routes followed by Cholera in 

 its March from India to Europe;" by 

 Prof. Oppert, on "The Asiatic Tongues inca- 

 pable of being referred to either the Aryan or 

 Semitic Families, but which are found in the 

 Arrow-headed Texts," and which he styled 

 Su-.i-M.-dir languages; by the Rev. John Long, 

 formerly of Calcutta, on " The Aryan Race, its 

 Origin in Central Asia, and its Emigration to 



