The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1866-04-19

must conquer Poland and Sweden.
Thus he secured the frontiers, and the
Caucasus leagued him with Asia.
What he began was finished by Catha-
rine [, whose husband was a son of the
mother of Peter and Charles Frederic,
Stettin, on the northern coast of Ger
many, in 1923, and commenced her reign
in l762, when she was crowned at Ms
cow.
Her inst acts We're to regulate the
provincial governments, increasing,
rather than diminishing, their liberties.
She employed men to travel through
the whole empire to study the geog-
raphy, climate, soil, maladies, religion,
manners, legends and monuments, and
sent ships to navigate all the seas. She
recalled eXiles, and invited foreigners to
her dominions, offering them great in
ducementS.
In 1865, twenty-three thousand emf
grants arrived from Germany, and
settled along the Volga, forming a hun
dred villages. We have often met these
German Volgaists travelling in the
father land. In 1850 arrived thirty three
thousand Moravian brethren, who es-
tablished commercial houses in all the
large cities, and built factories in which
are now produced the beautiful silks,
Velvets, and eottons for which Russia is
renowned. Those who became agri-
eulturists had the land secured to them
and their children. She invited authors
and artists from all countries, and bought
millions worth Of pictures in Holland
and France. The commerce Of Russia
quintupled during her reign.
st. Petersburg was surrounded by
marshes, which she caused to be drained
and converted into model farms, and
connected with them an agricultural
school. Every noble could send one
peasant, and every priest two sons, to be
instructed gratis.
She divided the empire into forty
four districts, and established court of
equity in each, composed of a president
and six assessors, two OF whom were
mobiles, two bourgeois, and two peasants,
with a governor general for several dis
tricts united. In each district was es-
tablished an imperial college, with
apothecaries and physicians instructed
to correspond with each other through
out the empire. She distributed hum
dred thousand volumes in different IL
braries, and appropriated four thousand
dollars year for the translation of for
eign books. She instituted savings
banks, which few may be aware origi-
HduCu WIFI ICE, dllu IGCTGtLlS 1OI lu6
widows and the aged.
The Sclavonic race is remarkably pro-
life, fifteen and twenty children being
often seen in single family Of the same
marriage; but notwithstanding this, the
population did not increase rapidly,
because Of the poverty and ignorance of
the people. They died from cold, from
eating bad food, and from contagious
diseases. She invited foreign physicians,
and established manufactures of surgi-
cal instruments and medicines, and in
each commune a school.
She established normal school for the
education of teachers, and a school for
Greek youth, who were received by the
Russian consuls, and when educated
became officers in the navy.
She had also agents in all parts of the
empire to seek people who needed work,
and to provide it for them. Boys who
had talents FOR +inc arts, or any profess
siul, We're educated ut h2r expense, and
When they had distinguished themselves
she gave them lands and titles. There
were wise men among her counselors,
and some became also eminent for their
good works.
1t is now just century since all these
works were commenced and we do not
suppose Bussia has stood still, though
she has not advanced with the strides of
Young America. The Empress Catha-
rine reigned twenty-nine years, andper-
formed only what a despot can perform
in so short a time. France tried to cripple
her by embroiling her with Turkey land
forcing her into an expensive war, but
she came out triumphant and more
glorious than ever.
England and France thought to humble
and check Russian power by destroying
Sebastopol; but ere long Turkey will
become tributary to the Gar, and half
Asia will call him master. All the other
nations of Europe are old and over
stocked, burdened with debts and weigh
ed down with taxes, and their vitality
too exhausted to resist these destructive
influences.
A Virginia delegation, headed by Col
j. A. Parker, visited the President and
thanked him, in the name of the people,
for his effort to preserve the Constitution
and bring back true peace and prosperity
to the country.
The N. Y, courts have decided that a
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