704 



EUSSIA. 



The length of railroads in operation in 1882 

 was 732 miles, all except 20 miles the property 

 of the state. 



The number of letters transmitted through 

 the post-office in 1881 was 6,249,932, of news- 

 papers 7,790,439. The receipts were 687,400 

 marks ; expenditures, 585,486 marks. 



The revenue of the Government is set down 

 in the budget for 1883 as 38,019,135 marks. 



The public debt on the 1st of January, 1883, 

 amounted to 70,085,739 marks, including a 

 loan of 8,100,000 German marks issued in De- 

 cember, 1882, through the Bank of Finland 

 and Rothschild & Son, of Frankfort, at 4 per 

 cent, interest. 



The Senate of the Grand Duchy of Finland 

 has lately received the additional powers to 

 make over land to purchasers who are not 

 Finns, to establish all kinds of economical, 

 scientific, and literary associations, to raise 

 public buildings, to grant concessions for tram- 

 ways, etc., and to reduce the customs tariff of 

 the duchy. The central authority does not, 

 however, give the Finnish state the right to 

 issue passports to Finns for going abroad or to 

 naturalize foreigners. 



Coronation of the Emperor. From the begin- 

 ning of the year the approaching ceremony of 

 the coronation engrossed the thoughts of offi- 

 cial circles and of the general public, to the ex- 

 clusion of all other subjects. It was a subject 

 of anxiety to the loyal classes, among whom 

 the feeling of gratification over the end of the 

 anarchic interregnum, which would be signal- 

 ized by the appearance of the Emperor duly 

 crowned and anointed as the head of the na- 

 tion, was tempered by dread of the threatened 

 blow of the Nihilists. Such was the fear of 

 regicidal plots, that the date of the ceremony 

 was not publicly announced until a short time 

 before the event. On New-Year's day the 

 Emperor expressed the intention of assuming 

 the imperial crown at an early date. In Feb- 

 ruary he issued a proclamation announcing that 

 the ceremony would take place in the month 

 of May. He declared that he had postponed 

 the rite so long because it was not a fitting 

 time while feelings of grief and horror over- 

 whelmed the hearts of his subjects, and that he 

 had therefore determined to wait until the sen- 

 timents excited by the crime, of which his 

 father, the benefactor of his people, fell a vic- 

 tim, had time to subside. 



On April llth the imperial regalia were carried 

 in state from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The 

 preparations in the Kremlin and cathedral and 

 in the city of Moscow occupied several months. 

 The festival was planned on a scale of unusual 

 splendor and magnificence, but the most elab- 

 orate part of the preparations was the un- 

 wonted and ominous police precautions. Every 

 nook and crevice was searched for explosives, 

 the underground cavities and passages were ex- 

 plored, and every spot of earth sounded. Every 

 person had a spy to watch his coming and go- 

 ing. Each gang of workmen was guarded by 



an armed sentry. It was forbidden to use the 

 windows and balconies in the streets through 

 which the Emperor would pass, to view the 

 procession. The owners and occupants were 

 required to give guarantees that they would not 

 let them out for the purpose, or admit any per- 

 son into their houses. 



The sum appropriated from the imperial 

 treasury for the festivities was six millions 

 and a half of rubles. The Moscow author- 

 ities also voted large sums for the purpose. 

 Besides the gorgeous ceremonies of the corona- 

 tion and the courtly entertainments, popular 

 pageants were prepared and arrangements 

 made for feasting a million people on the Kho- 

 dynsky plain. The collection of booths and 

 barracks and of theatres in which free exhibi- 

 tions were given, erected there, resembled a 

 city. Electric lights, arc and incandescent, 

 were placed on the public buildings of Moscow, 

 and so disposed as to bring out their archi- 

 tectural outlines in a grand illumination. More 

 than 12,000 men from regiments whose loyalty 

 was unquestioned were in the city, and 40,000 

 were encamped in the vicinity. 



The Czar and Czarina left St. Petersburg on 

 the 20th of May. Their formal entry into Mos- 

 cow took place on the 22d. It was not until 

 the middle of the month that the date of the 

 coronation, May 27th, was officially announced. 

 Every country was represented by some royal 

 personage or dignitary of state : England by 

 the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh ; Ger- 

 many by Prince Albrecht Hohenzollern ; Aus- 

 tria by the Archduke Carl Ludwig ; Italy by 

 Prince Amadeus; France by M. Waddington ; 

 Spain by the Duke of Montpensier ; Denmark 

 and Greece by Prince Waldemar and Queen 

 Olga, brother and sister to the Czarina; and 

 Norway and Sweden by Prince Charles. Prince 

 Nicholas of Montenegro and Prince Alexander 

 of Bulgaria were present in person. The Khan 

 of Khiva came from that distant dependency, 

 while the Ameer of Bokhara sent his son. The 

 Shah of Persia was represented by his brother. 



The official entry was a striking spectacle, 

 from the great variety of races and costumes 

 seen in the procession, a picture of the ethnic 

 conglomeration which constitutes the empire 

 of the White Czar. The Emperor, mounted on 

 a white charger, was clothed in the sheepskin 

 caftan and other features of the old Muscovite 

 garb which he has revived in the uniform of 

 his army. Ceremonious adorations at the vari- 

 ous shrines of the Holy City characterized this 

 pageant. The next day the imperial standard, 

 which is renewed every successive reign, was 

 consecrated. Then the Czar and Czarina re- 

 tired to the Neskotchenaya summer palace, to 

 pass the three days before the coronation in 

 fasting and prayer. The approaching solem- 

 nity was proclaimed by heralds to the people. 

 On the 26th devotional exercises were gone 

 through in the Church of the Redeemer. 



The ceremony of the coronation was per- 

 formed on Sunday, the 27th of May, in the 



