for ships to arrive. When the ships of all nations sail up to the
capital, then the ideas of Peter the Great, when he laid the foundations
of St. Petersburg, will be realized. St. Petersburg will be no longer an
inland port. It will, with its ample harbor and numerous canals among
its streets, become the Venice of the North. Its era of commercial
greatness is now about to commence. The ceremony of letting the waters
of the canal into the new docks was performed by the Emperor in October,
1883. The Empress and heir apparent, with a large number of the Court,
were present on the occasion. The works on the canal, costing about a
million and a half sterling, were begun in 1876, and have been carried
out under the direction of a committee appointed by the Government,
presided over by his Excellency, N. Sarloff. The resident engineer is M.
Phofiesky; and the contractors are Messrs. Maximovitch and Boreysha."

We heartily congratulate the Russian government and the Russian nation
upon the accomplishment of this great and useful work of peace. It will
certainly benefit English trade. The value of British imports from the
northern ports of Russia for the year 1883 was L13,799,033; British
exports, L6,459,993; while from the southern ports of Russia our trade
was: British imports, L7,177,149; British exports, L1,169,890--making a
total British commerce with European Russia of L20,976,182 imports from
Russia and L7,629,883 exports to Russia. It cannot be to the interest of
nations which are such large customers of each other to go to war
about a few miles of Afguhan frontier. The London _Chamber of Commerce
Journal_, ably edited by Mr. Kenric B. Murray, Secretary to the Chamber,
has in its May number an article upon this subject well deserving of
perusal. It points out that in case of war most of the British export
trade to Russia would go through Germany, and might possibly never again
return under British control. In spite of Russian protective duties,
this trade has been well maintained, even while the British import