The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-26
Foreign ItenIs.

"A new ukasC, directed against the Polish
landowners in Russian Poland has Just been
issued at st. Petersburg. Since the insurrection
these landowners have been forced to pay an
nual contributions i'm addition to the taxes
paid by the other inhabitants of the empire.
Hitherto these contributions" which have
varied IRON 3 to 80 per cent. on the landowners
income, have been levied by the military autho-
rites fines, but they have now been converted
by the new ukase into permanent tax recover
able by the ordinary collectors The landown-
ers are not to be taxed according TO fixed rate,
but are to pay among them a contribution of
2,500000 roubles (e400, OO0) a year to the impe-
rial eXchequer As the number of Polish land
owners is yearly diminishing, no Pole being now
allowed to acquire land in the Polish provinces
of Russia, the effect of this arrangement will be
to impose higher tax on each landowner every
year. The rate of dmmutiOn may be estimated
from the fact that in 1864 60 per cent. of the
land belonged to Poles, while in 1868 they were
in possession of 3S per cent. only.
General TOdlcben, says the West of st.
Petersburg, has prepared plan for converting
hieit into strong fortress capable of holding
from 80, 0O0to CO., coo men. This plan has been
approved by the Government and steps are now
being taken for carrying it out. The General
states in his report that the ortications of Kiet
are at present so weak that u hostile corps from
Galicia or the Black Sea could penetrate without
difficulty into the heart of the empire before Il
sufficient army could be placed so as to prevent
its further progress He therefore considers
1t absolutely necessary to make so important
a strategcal point as Kieh a strong garrison
fortress
The experiments lately made by the Bir-
mingham Chamber of Commerce as to the non
liability of percussion caps to explode en- 1ndSSe
merely confirmed the results of all previous cX-
pCrienCe on this suhicCt-rCsuts which are per-
tectly consistent with theory. The fact is, rs
has been over and over again established, that
percussion caps will not explode in bulk. One
cap may eXplode-two three, or more fifty or a
hundreds but each explosion is, so to speak, in
dependent of the other. 1t is not communicated
from one cap to another, and the explosion of
so many caps at once is merely the fortuitous
concurrence of u number of explosions of single
caps which have been subjected at one and the
same time to similar or separate Influences An
explosion of this character is not of a formda-
bic character. In the course of the trial which
TOOK place q few years ago with refer
ence to the destruction by nitro
glyGerine of the steamship European
at Colon, an attempt was made to fix the blame
on n small cargo Of percussion caps. but il was
e1ectually defeated BY the evidence which was
forthcoming on the side Of the caps and with
which the conclusions to be dawn lgom the late
experiments are in perfect accord In these cX-
perinents boxes containing caps were placed i'm
the fire, and there allowed to remain until one
by one the caps burnt out; half-hundredweigh
of caps were placed in rcd-hot chamber, with
out giving rise to any explosion; $4,000 caps
were placed in an ordinary packing case inside
Il furnace but no explosion occurred; heavy
masses of iron were allowed to fall on parcels
containing each 5000 caps, without producing
an explosion; a bag containing 20 600 was laid
on the rails of the London and North Western
Railway, and an engine passed over it without
causing an explosion: and even 100, 600 caps in
two wooden packing cases placed on the buffers
(nOt spring) OF an engine, and struck by train
OF several trucks, moving at twelve miles an
hour gave no explosion.