draft Constitution, the chief provision of which was that Iceland should in future be connected with Denmark by a personal union only, and be governed by a Yarl (viceroy) with three Ministers responsible to the Althing. Immediately after the close of the meeting the members of the Althing assembled at Reykiavik. Some of the followers of Jan Sigurdson, the leader of the Icelandic opposition, and founder of the secret society Pyodvinafelag, kept their seats when the usual cheers were given for the King, but no other disloyal manifestation was made. Jan Sigurdson was their elected President, and nearly all the Bills brought in by the Government were rejected. The draft Constitution was referred to a Committee, which on the 28th of July reported in its favour, and added a resolution to the effect that the King should be requested to approve the following temporary arrangement as soon as possible, and not later than next year:-1. That the Althing be at once invested with full legislative powers, and a new Budget be submitted for its approval once in every two years, on the principle that no tax or impost shall be levied in Iceland for defraying expenditure incurred by the Danish Government. 2. That a special Minister be appointed for Icelandic affairs, and that he be responsible to the Althing. 3. That this arrangement be valid for six years only, after which the entire Constitution shall be laid before the Althing for its approval.

The Crown Prince of Germany visited Copenhagen in August, on the invitation of the Crown Prince of Denmark; and his visit gave rise to some excitement in political circles, as surmise chose to place it in connexion with a conversation lately held by Prince Bismarck with Herr Kryger, the Deputy for North Schleswig in the German Diet, in which the Prussian statesman was reported to have expressed his willingness to consider the decrees of the Danish Schleswigans for reunion with their former nationality.

RUSSIA.-Khivan War.

CHAPTER V.

TURKEY.-Lahéj Expedition-International Tonnage Commission-Egypt.
GREECE.-Schemes of National Improvement-Laurium Mines.

NORTH AMERICA. UNITED STATES.-Credit Mobilier Scandals-Trials of Stokes,
Tweed, and Hall-Close of Forty-second Congress-General Grant's Inaugural
Message Purchase of Samana-Modoc War-Dissensions in Louisiana-Financial
Panic-Affair of the "Virginius."

MEXICO.-Church Legislation.

SOUTH AMERICAN STATES.-BRAZIL.-BOLIVIA.- PERU.

ASIATIC AND AFRICAN STATES. PERSIA.-CHINA.-MOROCCO.

RUSSIA.

THE expedition undertaken by the Russian Government against the Khan of Khiva towards the close of 1872 met with a serious reverse. Colonel Markosoff, who was the officer in command, had nearly reached the city of Khiva when, presuming on the apparent absence of opposition, he carelessly allowed himself to be surprised by a body of Khivan light troops, and was forced to a rapid retreat. An Imperial Council was called in St. Petersburg on the receipt of this intelligence, and a vigorous campaign to conquer Khiva was decided upon, in spite of the dissentient opinion of Prince Gortschakoff, who declared himself opposed to any further extension of the Russian boundaries in Central Asia.

The negotiations that took place between Russia and England on the subject of the proposed Khivan expedition have found mention in another part of our volume. Here we are only concerned with the course of the enterprise itself.

The expeditionary force set out in two main divisions, advancing against Khiva from Turkestan on the east, and from Orenburg and the Caucasus on the west. It was subdivided into five or six columns, of which the principal one moved from Djisak, on the 15th of March, under the personal orders of General Kaufmann, who had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the whole invading army. Having pursued its way along the northern confines of Bokhara, this column arrived on the 22nd of April at Aristan Bel, and two days later at Khalaat, where it awaited the junction of another force advancing from Kasalins, by way of the Bukan hills. This junction took place about the 12th of May, and the troops united at Khalaat amounted to about 5000. On the 16th of May the advanced guard of the force attacked the Khivans on the left bank of the Oxus or Amoo Darya, and the whole division crossed the river at Cheicharyk from the 18th to the 22nd. On the following day

the Russians advanced to Khaspar Asp, and, after a short skirmish, made themselves masters of the place.

At Khaspar Asp General Kaufmann remained three days, in order to make commissariat arrangements. Leaving camp on the 8th of June, he arrived at the capital city of Khiva on the 10th, at eight o'clock in the morning; but found that that place had already been occupied three hours previously by the combined Orenburg and Mangischlak detachments, under Generals Verovkine and Lomakine. The history of their advance was as follows:General Verovkine, in command of the Orenburg column, began to move as early as February 25th, and arrived at the Emba Port on March 30th. On the 17th of May he reached Urgu, in the Khivan territory, and there expected the junction of the Mangischlak or Kinderli detachment. That detachment, commanded by Colonel Lomakine, had started for the Steppe on the 26th of April. Near Lake Aibugir a special messenger reached Lomakine, telling him that Verovkine was awaiting him near Urgu. He immediately hurried on with his cavalry, leaving his infantry to follow; and, boldly quitting the line of wells before him, struck right through the desert in the direction of Kungrad. The march was one of great difficulty and privation. For three days no water was found fit for man or beast to drink. The men were on horseback for twelve hours at a stretch, exposed to the most trying vicissitudes of heat and cold. On May 26th the desired junction with the Orenburg column was effected, and the combined forces at once proceeded to attack and capture Kungrad, the most important post on the lower course of the Oxus, after which the fortified places of Chodscha-Sei and Mangit successively fell into their hands. Verovkine had at this time expected news from Kaufmann, but not receiving any, he marched with Lomakine straight upon Khiva. The capital city of the Khanate presented the appearance of a strong fort, guarded by numerous bastions. The Khivans, though they were greatly demoralized by their late fruitless fights against the invaders, had proved themselves by no means despicable in their military tactics; and when the Russians pitched their camp against the city, it seemed that the strength of the walls, which were studded with vast artillery defences, inspired the defenders with a momentary access of resolution. However, their cannon fired at too high a range, and did not prevent the approach of the enemy, while the Russian bombardment took decisive effect. When the gate and barricade in front of the city were battered down, all serious resistance ceased. Next day, the 10th of June, the Russians entered the city in storming parties. But few shots were fired at them. A few hours later General Kaufmann arrived with his column, and a triumphant entry of the united forces took place. The loss of the Russians was very trifling. In the engagement of the 9th two men had been killed, and five officers and forty-five rank and file wounded.

One detachment of the Russian expeditionary force only had failed of success. It was that commanded by Colonel Markosoff,

and called the Krasnovodsk column. It had left Tchikishlar on the 5th of April; and, in the southern part of the Steppe which it had to cross, met with such excessive heat that man and beast succumbed, after vainly struggling against it for several weeks. The men, from sheer inability to carry sword or rifle, threw their arms away; sixty died of sunstroke; the rest became helplessly invalided; finally, in order not to sacrifice his whole force, Colonel Markosoff found himself compelled to turn back when he had performed not more than a third of the distance before him.

On the approach of the victorious columns to Khiva, the Khan had fled, but a few days afterwards he returned from his place of refuge, gave in his submission to General Kaufmann, and concluded a Treaty of Peace, by which it was stipulated that Khiva should pay a war indemnity of two million roubles, by instalments extending over seven years, and that as a guarantee for payment, the Russian troops should occupy Schurahan and Kungrad. The independence of the Khanate under the rule of the Khan was to be maintained; but the boundary of the Khanate was to be formed by the river Amoo-Darya, the Khivan possessions situate upon the right bank of that river being ceded to the Khan of Bokhara, as an indemnity for the assistance rendered by him to the Russian troops.

As a further concession to the wishes of the Russian Czar, the Khan soon afterwards proclaimed the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade throughout his dominions.

Thus the Russian expedition against Khiva had proved a signal and brilliant success, and too much praise could not be accorded to the admirable military arrangements by which it had been carried out. Rewards were showered on the triumphant commanders. General Kaufmann remained some months in Khiva to reorganize the humbled Khanate, and in August he made an attack upon the Turcomans, finding it requisite to break the power of those predatory tribes in order to leave the Sovereign of Khiva free to fulfil his treaty obligations to Russia.

This was also the apology brought forward, later in the year, for a new treaty with the Khan of Khiva himself, whereby it was decided to annex to the Russian dominions a certain portion of territory between the Amoo and Sir Darya rivers, and to erect a line of fortifications on the right bank of the last-named stream. Not only this, but the Khan declared himself "the obedient servant of the Emperor of all the Russias," and renounced all right of making wars or treaties save with Russian sanction. Those English politicians who had given a sanguine interpretation to Count Schouvalow's personal assurances to Lord Granville at the beginning of the year, found their eyes opened in rather an unwelcome manner; but defenders of the Russian action could answer that the unambitious view intimated by the Russian Ambassador was no pledge as to future action, but only an intention, which subsequent political exigencies might modify.

R

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TURKEY.-GREECE.

In TURKEY some Ministerial changes occurred this year which are scarcely worth special record. A dispute with Austria on the subject of the Bosnian Christians threatened at one time serious complications, but a mutual understanding was arrived at by both parties, and Europe was saved a revival of the ever-impending "Eastern Question.' A collision seemed also near taking place between the Government of the Porte and that of Great Britain, when in the autumn the Governor of Yemen, in Arabia, a province under the Turkish dominion, advanced troops against the Sultan of Lahéj, a small state adjoining Aden, and under British protection. The Sultan of Lahéj demanded aid from the garrison of Aden, and some British troops were accordingly advanced into his territory. But the Turkish Government had no wish to provoke war with the protecting power, and orders were sent to the Governor of Yemen to withdraw his forces immediately, and not interfere with any of the tribes in alliance with England.

During the three last months of the year, an International Commission sat at Constantinople to determine the rate of tonnage for the Suez Canal. Its report was given in in December, and, to quote the words of a journalist, "On the whole, the work of the Commission has proved eminently successful. It has laid the basis of an international tonnage; it has solved a question which harassed the diplomacy of the East; it has satisfied the pecuniary necessities of the Suez Canal Company, and will enable the shipping interests connected with the Indian and China trades to carry on business without being continually disturbed by changes in the tolls imposed by the Canal Company."

In the autumn Sir Samuel Baker returned to Cairo, having succeeded, to a certain extent, in the expedition which he had undertaken on the authority of the Khedive, for the coercion of the slave-dealing tribes to the south of Upper Egypt. That his success has been such, however, as materially to check the practices which have so long prevailed among those barbarous people seems, to say the least, improbable.

In GREECE the fifth Parliament of King George's reign was opened in February with a remarkable Royal Speech. The Government, it was said, would propose many important laws for the improvement of the kingdom. The roads which the Bavarians decreed as indispensable for the progress of Greece, and which ought to have been commenced in 1833, were to be commenced in 1873. Schools of agriculture were to be established to instruct the cultivators of cereals. Various measures for the extension of commerce, the improvement of agriculture, the establishment of banks, and the construction of railways were ready for the Chamber. With this summons to work patriotically the new Chamber proceeded to business.