ness of the people. In order to avoid notice, he dressed himself in Algerian costume, and in company with some friendly natives, made the journey without molestation.

When M. Arago called on the French consul at Algiers, that functionary was much astonished to see him dressed like a Mussulman; at the same time gave his learned guest a hearty reception. Through his official position, the instruments were claimed, and ultimately delivered up. But it was chiefly on account of the Algerians finding them made of brass, and not of gold, that this was done. Even then it was a difficult matter to get them restored, so that M. Arago was detained six months at Algiers. By that time, the French consul had obtained permission to leave that consulate; and on appealing to Paris, the Emperor gave orders that a ship of war should convey him, his family, and M. Arago to Marseille. They set sail with a fleet of merchantmen under convoy, and arrived in sight of that port. Here an English squadron blockaded the passage, ordering the French vessels to proceed as prizes to the island of Minorca. obeyed the order except the ship in which M. Arago was, which, by a slant of wind, got safely into harbor.

All

Thus, after many "hair-breadth 'scapes by flood and field," this hero of science returned to Paris, where he received the reward of his genius and indomitable perseverance, in being appointed Astronomerroyal, which post he filled to a venerable age, and obtained a European reputation. Though he encountered more of the vicissitudes and dangers of travel than any of his colleagues in the expedition, yet he suffered less in health. One member, M. Chaix, fairly succumbed under the fatigue, and died at the town of San Felipe, in Spain, where he had retired to recruit his strength. M. Biot suffered also from the exigencies of the expedition. His exposure on the island of Formentera brought on an attack of fever, which laid him prostrate for twelve days. After recovery, he embarked in a small Algerine vessel at Iviza, to return to Spain. On the passage, it was seized by a privateer of Ragusa, on the Dalmatian coast, sailing under the English flag with "letters of marque." The captors declared this a lawful prize, and would have taken the vessel into the port of Oran, in Algeria;

but on M. Biot exhibiting his safe-conduct pass from the British government, and his scientific instruments, he and his companions were allowed to proceed on their voyage. However, they kept several ounces of gold, which M. Biot had with him, and he thought himself lucky in getting off so easily. At last, he arrived safely at Denia, in Alicante, where he passed a short quarantine in an old château, formerly the residence of the Dukes of Medina-Cæli, during the time of their puissance in Spain. From thence he passed without hindrance into France, and reported the progress of his operations to the Institute.

Besides the observations made by triangulation to ascertain the exact measurement of a great arc of the meridian, it was necessary to find the variation of gravitation at different latitudes. This was done by means of the pendulum, according to the length of the seconds, which differ in ratio as they are computed at stations between the poles and the equator. Accordingly, M. Biot, while at Formentera, made a series of pendulum observations there, from which he ascertained the intensity of the gravitation at the extreme southern point of the great arc. On his return to Paris, he repeated these experiments, assisted by Dr. Mathieus, a learned physician, and extended them to Bordeaux, Figeac, Clermont, and Dunkirk, finding the variation of gravitation along the great arc of the meridian. The measurements given from these observations on level ground gave a value of very little difference from those of the degrees of latitude. Consequently, the length of the pendulum strokes at Paris was taken as the basis of metrical measurement.

Not only was the mètre made the standard of linear measure, but of all measures of capacity, divided into the largest or smallest proportions by the decimal system. Thus also a centimètre cube of pure water, taken at a temperature giving its greatest density, weighed in a delicate balance, became the standard of all weights, measured by the gramme. The advantages secured by this metrical system are found in the unalterable basis from whence it is derived from nature, and being united to decimal computation

advantages which cannot be affected by the revolutions of states, or the arbitrary weights and measures of former ages.

How little we know about the youngest of European nations! We look at the map of Europe, and we see that Russia occupies more than a half of it. We know that the Russian Empire stretches far away into Asia; how far exactly, the Royal Geographical Society itself is probably unable to inform us. Of its history we have but a vague notion. We get a few and far between glimpses of the hideous atrocities of Ivan the Terrible, the suitor of our own Elizabeth; of Peter the Great, with his iron will and his iron walking-stick; of Catherine II., "the Messalina of the North"; of Alexander I., who figured in the streets of Paris and London as the conqueror of Napoleon; and of yet another Autocrat of All the Russias, who towered above his fellow-men by the head and shoulders, and who was the bugbear of Europe,-the Tsar Nicholas. This is a fair summary of the amount of our fathers' acquaintance with the great Northern empire. But the Crimean war supervened, and our interest and curiosity were thoroughly aroused. The Russian power was but a vast, dim figure, shrouded in Arctic mists and screened by impenetrable forests—a shadow, it is true, but one of gigantic bulk and threatening aspect. The fall of Sevastopol rudely tore away the mantle which had hitherto enwrapped this mysterious form. The bursting of the bubble of Russian military glory is only to be paralleled by the collapse of French military power in the present year. But great events sprang from it. A new era dawned upon Russia. The death of the Emperor Nicholas seemed to remove an incubus from his people. It was like the sudden slaughter of some huge dragon that had long kept the land in terror by sacrificing the inhabitants to satisfy the cravings of its own monstrous appetite. The overthrow of the old system was complete. Everything has to be reformed in the most liberal acceptation of the term. At first there seemed scarcely a trace of even the old habit of thought. But before long this effervescence began to subside. The old

*Modern Russia. By Dr. Julius Eckhardt. London: Smith, Elder, and Co.

The

spirit began to manifest itself again, and the battle between the old school and the new soon raged with great fury. disciples of the new school had generally much the best of it, though they were often worsted. Russia is a land of strange contrasts. Her aristocracy is, externally at least, the most brilliant and accomplished in Europe, while her peasantry is the most ignorant and degraded; her people are the most superstitious, and in all outward seeming the most pious in the world, and yet they treat their clergy with the most studied contempt; while the reforming sovereign who decreed the enfranchisement of five-and-twenty millions of serfs, could with the same pen refuse permission to his subjects to smoke in the streets of his cities.

It is with the reign of Alexander II. that Dr. Eckhardt, in the admirable book before us, concerns himself. His principal topics are the emancipation of the serfs, Russian communism, the orthodox Greek Church and its sects, and the Russian Baltic provinces. Our author has done well to put the emancipation of the serfs in the foremost place. The Tsar, from the moment of his accession, was credited with largehearted and liberal views, and the conviction was general that, with the remodelling of the agrarian laws, a new life, social and political, would be born in Russia. Dreamt of by one sovereign, coquetted with by another, it was destined to become a reality only in the reign of Alexander II. Various and minute were the investigations of the question in all its ramifications, and long-protracted were the negotiations with the proprietors; and it was only on the 19th of February (O. S.), 1861, that the decree was finally made law, and the peasant set free from the shackles by which the usurper Boris Godunof had bound him to the soil.

The old custom had been that a certain amount, usually a third, of every estate was reserved to the proprietor, the remainder falling to the use of the village community. But the peasants were obliged to cultivate their master's portion without wages, and three days a week were generally devoted to this service. The serfs were divided into two classes, those who tilled the soil

and the household servants, who were entirely dependent on, and supported by, their lord. The former possessed their land in common, which was divided anew, according to families, every nine years. It by no means followed that the head of a family received the same allotment at each recurring redistribution, and it frequently happened that the portions assigned him did not lie all together. The individual possessions of each man consisted of his house and garden, horses, cattle, and movable goods. Runaway serfs were severely dealt with, but any peasant desiring to quit his village and settle in the towns could do so by purchasing his freedom or by paying an annual tax to his lord. Many proprietors derived large sums in this way from serfs who had become wealthy merchants and tradesmen. By the Emancipation Act the freedom of the serfs, both agricultural and domestic, was assured, and the village communities were allowed to acquire absolute possession of the land by purchase, or to hold it under easy leases. Nothing else was altered. The household servants were to remain in their former positions, receiving fixed wages, until the 19th February, 1863, when they could terminate their engagements if they pleased. The serfs who were living in the towns remained for the same period under the old conditions, except that the tax paid to their lord was limited to thirty rubles (about £4) for a man, and ten rubles for a woman. At the same time, all obligations on the proprietor to provide for his serfs in sickness, scarcity, or old age ceased.

Previously to the Emancipation Act, it depended solely on the will of the proprietor as to what portions of his estate should be assigned to the village communities, the only rule being that each peasant was to receive four and a half dessiatins (about twelve acres) for his support. Here, then, arose a difficulty. It was the peasant's interest to get the cultivated and most productive part of the land, the lord's to keep in his own possession as much of those portions of his estate as possible. This question was left to the parties themselves to settle, under the supervision of officials appointed for the purpose and styled Peace Mediators. It was impossible, of course, to apply the same rules throughout such a diversified territory as the Russian Empire. It was therefore di

vided into three zones, each of which was subdivided into regions. Special regulations were drawn up for each of these divisions, according to the varying conditions of soil, climate, and agricultural life and customs. These regulations were most complicated, and the transition period during which they were to be carried out was originally fixed to terminate in the present year, but a much longer time will probably elapse before the land question may be considered as settled. Not the least difficult part of the business is to be found in the fact that the Russian peasant, as a rule, hates work almost as much as the negroes in the West Indies showed they did after their emancipation, and he is ready for the sake of immediate and temporary gratification to surrender all his prospects of future well-being and prosperity.

The serfs settled in towns were the first to recognize the benefits conferred upon them. They were no longer in danger of being recalled, at the caprice of their lord, from their lucrative occupations, to resume the old drudgery they had abandoned; and the tax which they were to pay for the next two years was a mere trifle. The lower orders of these, such as mechanics, droschky-drivers, and the like, after the fashion of true Russian peasants, immediately proceeded to get drunk, and paraded the streets in bands, shouting "Volyushka!" "Volyushka," "dear little freedom." The agricultural serfs, on the other hand, did not at first comprehend what had been done. Their ignorance was played upon by political agitators, and disturbances arose in various quarters. They thought that the real Emancipation Act of the Tsar had been tampered with in its transmission to them. They said, "We belong to the lords, but the land belongs to us," and they imagined that it had been the Tsar's intention to give them absolute possession of the land without any payment to the proprietors. These disturbances were, however, easily suppressed, though not without bloodshed, and the re-adjustment of the land tenure has since gone peaceably on. it is not until a comprehensive system of education-such as that now in contemplation-is in force throughout the land, that the Emancipation Act will bear the full fruits contemplated by its enlightened originators.

But