One of the most interesting studies of modern history is the gradual formation of the enormous Russian empire, and its rise in about four centuries from the Principality of Moscow, a snail and obscure inland state. The boundaries of this little kingdom, have, by " continuous outward movement, been extended until they in-elude the larger part of the continents of yTuropoand Asia, The shores of its territories aye been, for many years, washed by the Gasp ian and Black Seas, the Balticand the White Sea; and they extend for thousands of mile' along the frozen Arctic sows, found the" East Cape of Asia to the Pacific. Over two hundred years ago a treaty with China estab lished Russia upon the sea of Okhotsk and to the north of the Amur basin, Then forty years ago another treaty with the same covttry brought her to the Sea of Japan. Now but " few months she has been permitted to establish herself upon the Yellow Sea, and if the hole of her former precedents are followed she will dominate for a tine and then gradually absorb the rich lands of the ancient Chinese empire that bounds those waters. 5 But it is really the peoples of Russia much more than its territories that demand attention, and this will become very evident if the statistics of this Inst century are examined. At the commencement of this century Russia had under the jurisdic of its officials an area of just four millions of square miles. Some two million two hundred thousand square miles, ormorethan tthe half of Europe, are contained in the fifty governments of Russia Proper, together with Poland and Finland; the balance being composed of lands in Siberia. In the middle of the century by conquests in the moment by further increase of juris in Siberia, and acquisitions by conquests and treaties in the Caucasus, Central Asis, and the Amur provinces, the total area of the Russian empire hss become eight and a-half millions of square miles. Phis is one-sixth of the land surface of the globe, and. the territory in Asia alone is one-third of the continent. With the exception of the British empire it is in extent the greatest the world has ever seen. But the most remarkable feature about the Russian empire, and the one that distinguishes it' most from the British, is that a Russian soldier may march from Moscow to any part of it and entirely through the Czir's dominions. 1801 Alexander I reigned over sine thirty millions of people mostly Russians; who under Nicholas I had increased in 1850 to sixty millions. To-day Nicholas If is the Sovereign of one hundred and thirty millions of people. There are fully one hundred millions of people in Russia alone, and the population there increases at the rate of a million and a-half ansuall Russia's power and extent upon th land and her success in conqueringsemi. lised people have long azo been past dispute. Lately shy has shown many signs of the revival of an old ambition; that of being powerful also on the sea. rulers are of opinion that now her immense possessions hare been extended to the temperate patts of the Pacific Oce: fleets will be necessary to consol maintain them. The history and the particulars of all her former naval attempts ery well known; and now that she is plainly making strenuous exei to provide herself with a powerful modern navy it is interesting to take a glance at them. But to understand the subject properly it is necessary to examine into the modern origin of this powerful Ivan Vassilievitch became Prince of Moscow in 1462, his country together with all the other old Russian principalities having been subject to the Tartars since the time of Yaroslay IT in 1238. Teen being successful in a war with Novgorod, he determined to throw off this Tartar yoke if possible and openly revolting in 1478 he became completely victorious, and after Rank the seed founder of the Ras nom Ivan IIT married Sophia of the last. Emperor of Constantinople. He declared himself to be the heir of the Byzantine Emperors and of the Roman Craars, and he al -pred for the new arm: of Russia the two-headed Byzanti Thus Moscow succeeding tw By Byzantium succeeded to Rome became thie Metropolis of Orthodoxy to protect the Greek Christians of the entire East and to prepare the revenge against Islam for the work of 1433. As sven as Ivan TUE bad consolid ed his power at a rebellious allman of the Don Cossacks, 10 escape capture crossed the ral mountains into Siberia, at the heal of a baud of six thousand wild followers. He pressed forward as far as the Tobol, capturing on the Irtish the city adopted for the new territory. that he would not be able conquests, he returned in 1577 to Russi and laid them at the fect of Ivan IV, who not only pardoned his turmer crimes, but rewarded him handsome; ¢ him the Government of these new lands where he was ultimately drowned in the Irish in 1584, shortly after his atron's death, Ie was this adventure of an absconded eriminal that was the means of add ous empire to the Czir's domi time it brought to all th er crowns of isan IV the crown ¢ In the times of Feodor Ivanoviteh, Boris Godunoff, mudthefirst Romanofls, the Russiaussteadily pushed their conquests the farest Lauds of the new terri Tu 1632 the settlement of Yakutsk Lena; and in 1630 Irkutsk on the Angra, Two Cossacks, Pet off, had visited Peking Bvashko Peltlin arrived there on a mission from Tomsk. In 1639 Russian settlers were on the shores of the sea of Okhotsk, and the overland trade bette-n the two countries was steadily increasing. The Czar Alexis in 1653 accredited his envoy Baikoff to Shun Chih, who refused to receive him. As the number of Russians in Manchuria and Chihli was increasing and quarrels with the Chinese were frequent, negotiations were opened with the aid of the Jesuit Gerbillon who acted the part of honest broker with great tact and patience; a joint _commission of Russian and Chinese offici met at Nipchu close to Nerchinsk on the Argun, a tributary of the Amur, where om the 27th of August, 1689, the first treaty ever made by China with a foreign country was signed. The principal articles in i were the withdrawal of the Russians from Manchuria to the northern -side of the Amur, and the settlement of the boundary which was defined to run from the sea of Okhotsk along the Amur to Absigaituevsk close to Lake Hurun, thence almost west, south of the ' Baikal to the Altai mountains, Peter the Grost sent Isbrandt Ides to Kang Hsi wich the ratifications of this treaty. Ho reached Peking in 1692 after year's. travelling, Kang Hsi sent the Mancha Tulishan on a mission to Russia in 1712, In 1719 Peter thereat sent Ismailoft to Peking to arrange some trading disputes. Catherine I dispatched grand mission in 1727 under Count Viadislaviteh. Yung Ching who was, how.
feald of Jesuit influence welcomed this' mission, which was very successful nnd resulted in the establishment of the Russian college at Peking, which also i cluded an ecclesiastical mission the fi Archimandrite Hyacinth Batehourin atriving the following year. In 1730 Yung Ching again accredited Zeo Li-shan as his envoy to Peter LI at St. Petersburg. In 1730 further regulations were mutually agreed upon for the establishment Kiakhta and Muimaichin of two marts on the frontier upon the grent caravan route between Peking and Irkutsk. This treat of the 27th of August 1727 remained in force till it was superseded by that of June 1858, when Poutiatine succeeded in obtaining the immense province of Trimorsk an in changing the boundary at Kirma from the Amur to the Ussuri and down to the sea of Japan by the Tiumen Ula, Thus the Vindislavitch treaty of 1727 lasted for over 130 years, perhaps the Tongest on record. "A consideration of these few facts which can easily be corroborated by others, will make it quite plain that the six thousand odd miles between Moscow and the Lisotishan have been gradually brought under, Russian control and jurisdiction, and that it has taken considerably over three hundred years to do so. It is also quite evident that the Russians are not such strangers in Manchuria as they are generally supposed to be.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.