480 EUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



to £2,000,000. As in all absolute monarcliies, the Budget is also burdened with 

 lieav}^ charges for pensions and grants to the bureaucracy. 



The Russian Budget slightly exceeds that of Great Britain, but, including the 

 special budgets, it is inferior to those of France and Germany. The debt, how- 

 ever, is still smaller than those of the three great Western powers, and the vast 

 natural resources of the country have been little utilised. On the other hand, 

 the future is too overcast, and the stability of the present order too doubtful, to 

 restore the credit of Russia in the European money market. Hence its foreign 

 loans are still contracted under great disadvantages, and the national debt 

 amounted in 1879 to £606,453,000, including the paper money in forced circu- 

 lation, and now greatly below par.* Though still bearing the name of " silver 

 rouble," this paper, which in 1879 amounted to £120,000,000, is really worth 

 little more than one-half of its nominal value. 



]>^OTE. — The social state of the empire as above depicted receives a startling 

 illustration from the tragic fate of Czar Alexander II., the news of whose assas- 

 sination on Sunday, March 12th, 1881, was received after these sheets had passed 

 through the press. The significance of this event seems to lie in the fact that the 

 conspirators found it possible to make such arrangements for carrying out their 

 fell purpose in the very heart of the capital as must have, on this occasion, precluded 

 the possibility of failure. It is stated that even had the second bomb proved 

 ineffective, the road to the "Winter Palace was lined with so many other determined 

 " Nihilists," all armed with the same terrific engine of destruction, that escape 

 must have in any case been impossible. What has been done once may, of course, be 

 done again ; and should the attempt be repeated, as is already threatened, the whole 

 fabric of society as at present constituted may be shaken to its very foundations. 



The late Emperor was born on April 19th, 1818, married the Princess Marie 

 of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1841, and succeeded his father, Nicholas I., in March, 1855, 

 towards the close of the Crimean war. His reign must be ever memorable for the 

 emancipation of the serfs, one of the most momentous events in the history of 

 humanity. The credit of this wise and bold act is due entirely to the Czar, who, in 

 the face of much opposition, not only gave freedom to 40,000,000 serfs, but made 

 them communal proprietors, and released them from the penal jurisdiction of the 

 great landowners. Nevertheless the later years of his reign were passed amidst 

 wars, threatened revolutions, frequent attempts on his life, and domestic troubles, 

 the latter due especially to his unhappy relations with the Princess Dolgoruki. 

 He is succeeded by his son Alexander III., who was born on March 10th, 1845, 

 and married November, 1866, to Maria Dagmar, daughter of the King of Denmark, 

 and sister of the Princess of Wales and of the Queen of the Hellenes. His eldest 

 son and heir apparent is Nicholas, born May 18th, 1868. 



* This is the value in paper roubles : in silver the debt only amounts to £306,000,000. Included in 

 the latter amount are £116,000,000 advanced to railway and manufacturing companies. 



