The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

480 RUSSIA IN EUROPE.to £2,000,000. As in all absolute monarchies, the Budget is also burdened withheavy charges for pensions and grants to the bureaucracy.The Russian Budget slightly exceeds that of Great Britain, but, including thespecial budgets, it is inferior to those of France and Germany. The debt, however,is still smaller than those of the three great Western powers, and the vastnatural 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, torestore the credit of Russia in the European money market. Hence its foreignloans are still contracted under great disadvantages, and the national debtamounted in 1879 to £606,453,000, including the paper money in forced circulation,and now greatly below par.* Though still bearing the name of " silverrouble," this paper, which in 1879 amounted to £120,000,000, is really worthLittle more than one-half of its nominal value.Note.—The social state of the empire as above depicted receives a startlingillustration from the tragic fate of Czar Alexander II., the news of whose assassinationon Sunday, March 12th, 1881, was received after these sheets had passedthrough the press. The significance of this event seems to lie in the fact that theconspirators found it possible to make such arrangements for carrying out theirfell purpose in the very heart of the capital as must have, on this occasion, precludedthe possibility of failure. It is stated that even had the second bomb provedineffective, the road to the "Winter Palace was lined with so many other determined"Nibilists," all armed with the same terrific engine of destruction, that escapemust have in any case been impossible.What has been done once may, of course, bedone again ; and should the attempt be repeated, as is already threatened, the wholefabric 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 Marieof 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 theemancipation of the serfs, one of the most momentous events in the history ofhumanity.The credit of this wise and bold act is due entirely to the Czar, who, inthe face of much opposition, not only gave freedom to 40,000,000 serfs, but madethem communal proprietors, and released them from the penal jurisdiction of thegreat landowners. Nevertheless the later years of his reign were passed amidstwars, 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 eldestson 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 inthe latter amount are £116,000,000 advanced to railway and manufacturing companies.