The gross receipts of the Zollverein for the same period in 1861

The above figures show an increase of imports of 668,328 thalers, and a decrease of exports and transit dues of 26,673 thalers as compared to 1861, but a total increase of gross receipts to the amount of 641,655 thalers, or 91,6651.

The subjoined table shows the distribution of the sums received as import, export, and transit dues, in the first six months of 1862, between the various states composing the Zollverein :—

The same dues during the same period of 1861 were.

Showing an increase in receipts to the amount of

Thalers 12,026,204 11,389,031

637,173

Which gives an increase in the receipts equal to six per cent.

The mercantile navy of Prussia consisted, in 1859, of 1,642 vessels, of 348,686 tons burthen. Of this number, 88 were steamers, of 12,000 tons. The increase in tonnage amounted to 25.4 per cent. during the last ten years. Of vessels which arrived and left

Prussian ports in 1859 there were 18,313, of 2,886,124 tons; showing an increase, in ten years, of 38.7 per cent. in the commercial activity of the kingdom.

The following is a general survey of the vessels which arrived at and sailed from Prussian harbours during the years 1860 and 1861:

The above list comprises 1,319 steamers, of 188,787 tons burthen, which arrived at and sailed from Prussian ports in the

year 1861.

RUSSIA.

Reigning Sovereign and Family.

Alexander II., Emperor of Russia, born April 17 (April 29 new style), 1818, the eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I. and of Princess Charlotte of Prussia; educated, under the supervision of his father, by General Moerder, a learned German, and the Russian poet Joukowski; entered the army, 1831; nominated colonel in the regiment of grenadiers, 1835; chancellor of the university of Helsingfors, Finland, 1837; travelled in Germany, 1840-41; superintendent of the military schools of the empire, 1849; appointed to a command in the Caucasian army, 1850. Succeeded to the throne, at the death of his father, February 18 (March 2), 1855; crowned at Moscow, August 26 (September 7), 1856. Married, April 16 (April 28), 1841, to

Maria, Empress of Russia, born August 8, 1824, the daughter of the late Grand-duke Ludwig II., of Hesse-Darmstadt. Offspring of the union are:-1. Grand-duke Nicholas, heir-apparent, born September 8 (September 20), 1843; general in the Russian army. 2. Grand-duke Alexander, born February 26 (March 10), 1845. 3. Grand-duke Vladimir, born April 10 (April 22), 1847. Grand-duke Alexis, born January 2 (January 14), 1850. 5. Grandduchess Maria, born October 5 (October 17), 1853. 6. Grand-duke Sergius, born April 29 (May 11), 1857. 7. Grand-duke Paul, born September 21 (October 3), 1860.

4.

Brothers and Sisters of the Emperor.—1. Grand-duchess Maria, born August 6 (August 18), 1819; married, July 2 (July 14), 1839, to Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg; widow, October 20 (November 1), 1852. 2. Grand-Duchess Olga, born August 30 (September 11), 1822; married July 1 (July 13), 1846, to Prince Charles, heir-apparent of Würtemberg. 3. Grand-duke Constantine, born September 9 (September 21), 1827; high-admiral of the Russian navy; married, August 30 (September 11), 1848, to Princess Alexandra of SaxeAltenburg, of which union there are issue four sons and two daughters, Nicholas, born February 2 (February 14), 1850; Olga, born August 22 (September 3), 1851; Vera, born February 4 (February 16), 1854; Constantine, born August 10 (August 22), 1858; Dimitri,

born June 1 (June 13), 1860; and Viatscheslav, born July 1 (July 13), 1862. 4. Grand-Duke Nicholas, born July 27 (August 8), 1831; general in the Russian army; married, January 25 (February 6), 1856, to Princess Alexandra of Oldenburg, of which marriage there is one son, Nicholas, born November 6 (November 18), 1856. 5. Grand-duke Michael, born October 13 (October 25), 1832; married, August 16 (August 28), 1857, to Princess Cecilia of Baden, of which union there are issue three two sons and one daughter, namely, Nicholas, born April 14 (April 26), 1859; Anastasia, born July 16 (July 28), 1860; Michael, born October 4 (October 16), and 1861; George, born August 11 (August 23), 1863.

The reigning family of Russia descend, in the female line, from Michael Romanof, elected Tsar in 1613, after the extinction of the House of Rurik; and in the male line from the duke Charles Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp, born in 1701, scion of a younger branch of the ducal family of Oldenburg. The union of his daughter Anne with Prince Charles Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp formed part of the great reform projects of Peter I., destined to bring Russia into closer contact with the western states of Europe. Peter I. was succeeded by his second wife, Catherine, the daughter of a Livonian peasant, and she by the grandson of Peter's elder brother, with whom the male line of the Romanofs terminated, in the year 1730. The next three sovereigns of Russia, Anne, Ivan III., and Elizabeth, of the female line of Romanof, formed a transition from the native to. the German rulers of the empire, whose reign commenced with the accession of Peter III., of the house of Holstein-Gottorp. All the subsequent emperors allied themselves into German families, thus gradually becoming completely Teutonic, in blood as well as origin. The wife and successor of Peter III., daughter of the Prince of Anhalt Zerbst, general in the Prussian army, left the crown to her only son, Paul, who became the father of three emperors, Alexander I., Constantine, and Nicholas, and the grandfather of a fourth, the present Alexander II. All these sovereigns allied themselves to German princesses. The Emperor Paul gave his hand, first, to a princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, and next to a princess of Würtemberg; his successor, Alexander I., married a princess of Baden; the next emperor-ruler for seven days, December 1 to 8, 1825—Constantine, united himself to a princess of Saxe-Coburg; while Nicholas I. selected a daughter of the King of Prussia. All the matrimonial alliances of the imperial family are exclusively with the Protestant houses of Germany.

The emperor is in possession, de jure and de facto, of the whole revenue of the Crown domains, consisting of more than a million of square miles of cultivated land and forests, and valued at 40,000,000 roubles, or about 5,700,000l. In the budget for the year 1862, the

first ever published, the civil list of the emperor is not included, although 495,000 roubles are set down as allowance for the empress and children, and 4,574,146 roubles for the expenses of the imperial court. The latter sum, however, is known to be quite insufficient to defray the cost of maintenance of only the imperial residence at St. Petersburg. The boundless pomp and splendour displayed on all occasions by the imperial court requires, probably, not less than the expenditure of the whole 40,000,000 roubles derived from the Crown domains.

The following have been the Tsars and Emperors of Russia, from the time of election of Michajlo Romanof. Tsar Peter I. was the first ruler who adopted, in the year 1721, the title of Emperor.

The above list shows that, notwithstanding many vicissitudes in the succession of the crown, the average reign of the sovereigns of Russia, for the last two centuries and a half, has been close upon fifteen years.

Constitution and Government.

The government of Russia is an absolute hereditary monarchy. The whole legislative, executive, and judicial power is united in the emperor, whose will alone is law. There are, however, certain rules of government which the sovereigns of the house of HolsteinGottorp have acknowledged as binding. The chief of these is the law of succession to the throne, which, according to a decree of the Emperor Paul, of the year 1797, is to be that of regular descent, by the right of primogeniture, with preference of male over female heirs. This decree annulled a previous one, issued by Peter I., February 5, 1722, which ordered each sovereign to select his successor to the throne from among the members of the imperial family, irrespective of the claims of primogeniture. Another fundamental law of the realm proclaimed by Peter I., is that every sovereign of Russia, with his consort and children, must be a member of the orthodox Greek Church. The princes and princesses of the imperial house, according to a decree of Alexander I., must