Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Volume VIII, Number 10, 6 March 1869 — Russia. [ARTICLE]

Russia.

IV NMkn Dw. 17,19«$ } Tho destre ior gmihi chan®cs whieh for yt?*rs has beca agiiatmg the thin upp?r laycr t i Kusst« ?ociety, thc laycr contaiding a!I its iiH»rv i>p lew civt!i*ed and progressive eleiucnts, eonunuea to itsoif in iis pe* <uhar cr«Je anii eccentric manoer. We hear o('sociaiisuc conspirticies eroana(iug frotn the % *«ihtlistic" centres ot Moscow and K«ev. Lndtes of h»gh r*nk are agtt4tiog foi tbe g( « Woinan* Uni\*ursity. At tl«e same tmM> the fuvonte orgu»s of both i«(tic«t and U>luonal»!e c»rcles not oniy ap> pbud tho t*rxtv»de wtifntHl by the (iovemmenl ajraiii>t e verthui» or Cathol«c, a$ well «* ihe restnction of the C*enn«n<

■ ProfesMnt «nd Je*rish popu!at»ons, but vebemently condemn the "!eniencr" with whieh the work of Rossification is managed in the empire; and this at a momeni when the | Pojish priests transported to Siberia nre b?mg removed to more remote regions of wi!derne?«: when ihe ten< of thous\nds of Liehuanians canied there a fe\v years p<io are de- , ciared to be Siberian "sett{ers" for ever ; \ when the PoSish students of Wiln are eompelled to exchange their prayer-l>ooks for others in Russian in whieh prayers tor the , Czar aresubstituted for patriotic iovocations; j when the Catholic vtllngers of Grodno and j Kovno are being escorted by military force • into the churches to listen to a Russianized |ritual, and similarmeasuresaredai»y decreed jand executed in every part of the western provinces-measures the like of \vhich have ; not been attempted since Philip 11., extirpated the religion and nationality of the Moriscoes. • Dr. Vamberv. the celebrated Hungnrian : tntveiler, announced, some weeks ago, in a letter to the London Times, that the arriral at St. Petersburg of an envoy from the ; Khan ofKohkand,a region of Eastern Turke* Btan, was dtie to the fact, notthat this poten- | tate Joved Rus«ia, but that he is threatened ! with dethronement by an unpieasant person • named Yakoob Kooshbeghi, who holds sway jin Chinese Tartury on his eastern frontier, and who is stirring up against him all the , furious fanatics of his own dominions. The ienvoy of the Khan has, of course, been recieved right royally, and the acquisitiori of | Khokand as fief will bring the Russiaa troops :»o the feet of the Karakorum Pass in the ■ Eastern Himalaya?. More recently has eome | the news, whieh is now throwinj* British ! j lndia inlo a ferment, that the Eastern Him--1 alayas, whieh were supposed to be impassj able for an army, have been discovered by jMr. T. D. Forsyth, a civil servnnt, to be , very passable indeed; that the grades by one i pass at (east —Chanchemoo-are so easy that | a railroad might be made over it, while by j that of Karakorum troops ean readily pas» | with artillery, andeastern Turkestan is found j to be so rich, that an army moving southward ean advance in plenty to the fott ofthe i mountains. It is the ruler of this very region who is now inaking his submission at St. j Petersburg. Aloreover, the Chinese, who are • ho\vever, \ve rcgret, on their account, to say, ! suspected of lying, assert the Czar iias alrendy ! secured a cantonment at a plaee called Gurm- ! ah, whieh coinrnands all the passes. Sir l iJohn La\vrence, the Viceroy accoTdingiy deliberating \vhether it is time to fight now j or to negotiate, the danger being that Kussia :mßy use her position in the Himalayas to paralyze British resistance to her designs on • Constantinop)e. The nuthorities at homeare |alarmed that the new tninistry have determj ined-so say the latest telegrams-to subject .' poor Lord Mayo to the humiliation of a reeail nimost before iie reaches India ; to retain j Sir John Lawrence in the Govemor Genj eralship one year ionger; and then to repiace ;him by a reajly ablc man, the Earl of Salis- ; bury. There is talk, too, of a convuntion of ! soine kinil with Russia, to fix the possibie iboundaries between the tvvo empires.