RUSSIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1674, 22 December 1883, Page 27

RUSSIA.

General Gourko, after reviewing .75,000 troops in Poland, severely commented on their inefficiency, and emphasised the urgent necessity for important reforms. The Russian Press attacks fiercely the enterprise undertaken by a mixed company of American, French, and Russian capitalists to establish grain elevators throughout the Empire. The projectors have a very large capital at their back, but the Press is jealous of the enterprise because it is iri a measure foreign. The first aumber of a Socialist paper, " The Will of the People," printed abroad, reached St. Petersburg on the 22nd. It contained a letter from the Nihilist, prisoner Netschapiff to the Czar. Netschapiff was condemned 10 years ago and was supposed to be dead. It is a written complaint; of his terrible treatment. The journal adds that the letter was originally written in blood. It has created great excitement among the Nihilists of St. Petersburg. The Tagblatt of 'Oct. 24 says the Czar has decided to grant Russia more freedom, and such reforms as are suited to the spirit of the people. Ha has entrusted to Count Lstoi (?) arid Count J£atgoff the task of preparing the Constitution. The latest Nihilist proclamation demands that the Czar summon the representatives of the people, and aaks that for a full amnesty, freeqom of the Press, freedom of speech, and the right to bold public meetings, as the only means of preventing revolution. It is rumoured that the Princess Amelia, eldest daughter of the Comte de Paris, will shortly be married to the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia. The Czar's advisers favour the union, thinking- it will facilitate the restoration of the Orleanists, and the alliance between France and Russia.

The London Standard's St. Petersburg correspondent Bpeaks of the Nihilists as badly demoralised and miserably weak in men and means. The recent'arrest of Vera Philipert, the actual head of the Executive Committee, is the worst blow of all. She has written a voluminous confession. '

"Rouohon Bats."— Clears out t&te, mice, roaches flies, ants, bed-bug's, beetles, 'insects, skunks, Jack, rabbits, jrqpjiera. Druggists : Mosus Moss and Co Sydney, General Agents.— (Apvr.)