778 



SERVICE, UNITED STATES MARINE HOSPITAL. 



commuted to one of hard labor in the mines. 

 Tury Tarkhoff, his principal accomplice, was 

 sentenced to labor in a fortress for ten 

 years. 



Another attempt upon the life of the Czar 

 was made on December 2d, when a mine was 

 exploded under the railroad with the intention 

 of blowing up the train on which he was en- 

 tering Moscow. His Majesty, however, was 

 not in the train which was blown up, and es- 

 caped. The mine which exploded had been 

 dug out from a house near the line of the rail- 

 road which had been bought by the young 

 man who occupied it about three months be- 

 fore, and was worked from the house by gal- 

 vanic wires. The Czar, it was said, had been 

 warned that an attempt would be made upon 

 him, and changed the arrangement of the trains 

 so as to mislead his assailants. 



Minister Valuieff prepared in the earlier 

 part of the year and submitted to the Czar 

 a draft for a constitution, containing provi- 

 sions for the formation of a central Assem- 

 bly at the capital, to be composed of a cer- 

 tain number of state functionaries sitting ex 



officio, and of deputies elected by the provin- 

 cial and district Assemblies already in exist- 

 ence. The scheme did not contemplate that 

 this Assembly should enjoy the right of pro- 

 posing new laws ; but it would be empowered 

 to discuss projects of laws submitted to it from 

 above, and its members would be entitled to 

 question high officers having seats in the 

 Chamber, and to criticise generally the action 

 of the Government. In November Prince 

 Gortchakoff decided to retire from the office 

 of Chancellor of the Empire, and Mr. Valuieff 

 was designated to succeed him. It was be- 

 lieved that the Czar had at last determined to 

 institute the reforms which had been demand- 

 ed for so long a time, and that he had given fa- 

 vorable consideration to the plans of Mr. Va- 

 luieff. Before there was time to take definite 

 action on the subject, however, the attempt 

 was made to blow up the Czar's train at 

 Moscow. The Czar's mood was immediately 

 changed ; he rejected Mr. Valuieff's schemes, 

 saying that he wanted the plans of men of ac- 

 tion, not of sentimentalists, and dismissed his 

 newly appointed Minister. 



s 



SERVICE, UNITED STATES MARINE 

 HOSPITAL. The Marine Hospital Service of 

 the United States was established by an act of 

 Congress passed July 16, 1798, for the relief of 

 sick and disabled seamen. This act was passed 

 after the subject had been before Congress for 

 several years ; and while it appears to have 

 originated in a memorial of the Boston Marine 

 Society, yet " hospital money " had been col- 

 lected in the colonies since 1730, and the system 

 must have been more or less familiar to Con- 

 gress. The first building known to have been 

 set apart as a hospital exclusively for seamen, 

 among English-speaking peoples, was the pal- 

 ace commenced by Charles II. at Greenwich, 

 which after the battle of La Hogue (1692) 

 was ordered by Queen Mary to be completed 

 " as a retreat for seamen disabled in the service 

 of their country." (Macaulay.) After the death 

 of the Queen, King William caused to be erect- 

 ed, under the superintendence of Sir Christo- 

 pher Wren, the magnificent " Royal Hospital 

 for Seamen at Greenwich," which Macaulay has 

 alluded to as "the noblest of European hos- 

 pitals." The seamen of the American colonies 

 were taxed to support this hospital by an act 

 of Parliament passed in the second year of the 

 reign of George III. Instructions given to 

 Patrick Gordon, Esq., Deputy Governor of the 

 Province of Pennsylvania, February 2, 1729- 

 '30, show that the sum of sixpence per month 

 was required to be deducted from the wages 

 of all seamen, English subjects, sailing in and 

 out of American ports. Four receivers were 

 appointed for Pennsylvania : Richard Fitzwil- 

 liam and John Moore, Philadelphia; Alexan- 



der Keith, Newcastle; and Henry Brooke, 

 Lewes. (" Pennsylvania Archives," vol. L, p. 

 251.) 



This lesson was not lost on the colonies, for 

 as early as October, 1780, the Commonwealth 

 of Virginia enacted that the sum of ninepence 

 per month should be collected as "hospital 

 money " from the pay of all seamen and ma- 

 rines in the State. The naval officers were con- 

 stituted the collectors of the tax, and a com- 

 mission of five per centum was allowed on the 

 moneys collected. In October, 1782, a law 

 was passed changing the amount of the tax 

 from ninepence to a shilling per month. On 

 December 20, 1787, a law was passed estab- 

 lishing a marine hospital, and authorizing the 

 appointment of a commission by the Govern- 

 or to select a site in the town of Washing- 

 ton, county of Norfolk, Virginia. (Hening's 

 " Statutes at Large," vol. xii., p. 494.) The 

 State of North Carolina enacted a law provid- 

 ing for the creation of a hospital fund in 1789, 

 and by a subsequent act (1790) the commis- 

 sioners of the poor at the different ports of 

 entry were empowered to act as collectors. 

 (Haywood's " Manual of the Laws of North 

 Carolina," Raleigh, 1801, p. 350.) The tax was 

 a capitation tax. Captains on arrival from a 

 foreign voyage were required to pay 5s., mates 

 2s. 6^., and each member of the crew Is. 6d. 



On August 28, 1789, a bill was introduced into 

 Congress providing for the establishment of hos- 

 pitals and the adoption of harbor regulations, 

 but was indefinitely postponed. To the Boston 

 Marine Society is due the credit of presenting 

 the first memorial to Congress on this subject. 



