The oasis of Merv was annexed to Russia in Asia in 1884, the Akhal-Tekke country having been annexed in 1883. In 1884 the province of Batum and the Sukhum district were included in Kutais. The Trans-Caspian region, which is under the Governor of the Caucasus, has been divided into the districts of Mangishlak, Mikhailovsk, and Akhal-Tekke.

According to official returns the total numbers of births, deaths, and marriages in Russia in Europe (except Poland and Finland and Bessarabia) were as follows in each of the years from 1871 to 1878:

On the average of these years about 3 per cent of the births

were illegitimate.

The following are the statistics for 1880 and 1881 :-

lity was in Perm (42) and in Moscow (40); and the minimum in Astrakhan (18). Of boys only 48 per cent. reach 21 years, and of these 32 per cent. are too weak for military service.

According to official statistics there was in Russia in Europe an excess of emigration over immigration in the case of Russians of 352,000 in ten years; but the statistics are incomplete, taking no account of the considerable number of emigrants who leave the country without legal authorisation. There is a great current of emigration from Russia in Europe to Siberia, Caucasus, and the government of Orenburg.

The great majority of the population of Russia are devoted to agricultural occupations, and dwell in villages, spread thinly over the vast area of the empire. The following are the populations of the principal towns, mostly according to estimates of 1881-83:

In the larger towns a considerable proportion of the trading and industrial population are either aliens, or of foreign extraction.

The population of Russia Proper is composed of three groups: Great Russians, or Veliko-Russ; Little Russians, or Malo-Russ; and White

Russians, or Bélo-Russ. The first, numbering about 35,000,000, Occupy the central provinces; the second, numbering about 11,000,000, compose the bulk of the population of Poltava, Kharkof, Chernigof, Kief, Volhynia, Podolsk, Ekaterinoslaf, and Taurida; the White Russians, about 3,000,000, inhabit the provinces of Mohilef, Minsk, Vitebsk, and Grodno. Besides these three

of Russians proper, mostly Slav, there is a great variety of ethnical elements in the general population of the Russian Empire. It is estimated that of the total population of the empire 88 per cent. are Aryan, 4 per cent. Turanian,' 4 per cent. of Uralo-Altaic Stock, 3 per cent. Semitic. Of the Aryan population, 81 per cent. are Slav, 3 per cent. Lithuanian and Lettish, 1 per cent. Teutonic, 1 per cent. Græco-Latin. Of the Slavs, 743 per cent. are Russian, and 6 per cent. Polish, while of the former, about one-half are 'great Russians. Of the population of European Russia, 13 per cent. are Tartar, 1 per cent. Bashkir, and 13 per cent. Finns. About 40 languages or dialects are spoken in Russia.

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Previous to the year 1861, the greater portion of the inhabitants of the empire were serfs, belonging either to the Crown or to private individuals. The number of the latter class was estimated in 1861 at 22,000,000, who were the property of 109,340 nobles and other private persons. By an imperial decree of March 3, 1861, coming into final execution on March 3, 1863, serfdom was abolished, under certain conditions, within the whole of Russia.

Since the Emancipation Act of 1861 the cultivable lands of Russia proper in Europe have been approximately distributed as follows:

other proprietors, or not surveyed
Cossacks and nomads of Astrakhan
Bashkirs

It will be seen that about one-third of the cultivable land in Russia proper is held by the State; one-fifth by landed proprietors; and more than one-fourth by the peasantry. Thirty-six per cent. of the population are landed proprietors,-23,000,000 of peasants and 320,000 landed gentry and nobility.

Trade and Industry.

The commerce of Russia with foreign countries is officially divided into trade with Europe and trade with Asia; the former being subdivided into trade through the Baltic ports, through the White Sea

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ports, through the Southern ports, and over the European land frontier. The immense extent of the Empire, and its ever-changing limits eastward, make it difficult to obtain exact returns of the aggregate amount of its foreign commerce, which must be partly estimated. According to official statements, the total value of imports in the five years 1878 to 1882 was as follows ::

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The following table shows the value of the commerce of the Russian Empire (exclusive of Finland) by the three principal routes in 1882 :

Food material and animals 12,131,600

Raw and half-wrought materials 28,041,800 -350,500

239,800 2,497,200 14,868,600

Manufactured goods

Total imports

11,662,900 967,300

434,200 28,826,500 354,000 12,984,300

51,836,300 1,557,600 3,285,400 56,679,300

In addition, gold and silver were imported to the value of 977,4007., and exported to the value of 8,051,9007. ̈ The value of the imports of Finland in 1882 was 6,682,1771., and exports 4,794,9257.

According to ports the trade was divided as follows in 1882 :Baltic ports (without Finland): Imports, 19,050,000l.; exports, 20,504,000l. Land frontiers: Imports, 26,873,500l.; exports, 18,054,1007. Black Sea ports: Imports, 5,830,2007.; exports, 19,655,5007. White Sea ports: Imports, 82,600l.; exports, 853,7007. The four principal articles of import are raw cotton, iron and