was called the Ukraine. The beginning of regular
transportation to Siberia was made by the Czar Theodore Alexeiwich, who
ordered in 1679 that malefactors should be sent with their families to
settle in Siberia. About this time many serfs escaped to Siberia from
service in Europe, and stringent measures were adopted to reclaim the
fugitives, and prevent such an offence from being repeated and
continued. In 1760 a ukase was issued permitting landlords and communes
to send to Siberia, and have entered as recruits, all persons guilty of
offences of any kind or degree. In 1822 another ukase allowed the crown
serfs of the provinces of Great Russia to emigrate to Siberia, where
they became free, a privilege which they still enjoy. The main part of
the present inhabitants of the country is composed of the descendants of
these colonists and exiles, of the banished Strelitzes, and of the
captured Swedes and Poles. The varied habits, customs, creeds, ideas,
costumes, and dialects of these motley races have by long contact with
each other become reduced to something like unity. The former extreme
rudeness of the people has also of late years undergone a great
improvement from the influence of new-comers. Still, however, Siberia is
socially any thing but a tolerable country, even in comparison with
Russia, and vices which in enlightened lands would be thought monstrous,
are not occasions of any astonishment or special remark to the mass of
the inhabitants.

* * * * *

A work by WILLIAM HUMBOLDT, just published at Breslau, excites a good
deal of attention in Germany. It is called _Notions toward an attempt to
define the Boundaries of the Activity of the State_. It was written many
years ago, at the time when the author was intimate with Schiller, who
took an interest in its preparation, but other engagements prevented its
being finished. It is now published exactly from the original
manuscript, under the editorial care of Dr. Edward Cauer. Its doctrinal
starting point is found in the nature and destiny of the individual. Its
philosophy is essentially that of Kant and Fichte, and is of course
liberal in its tendencies, though by no means satisfactory to the
democracy of the present day.

* * * * *

The _Journal of the Russian Ministry for the Enlightenment of the
People_, for December last, reports a statement made by Mr. Kauwelin to
the Russian Geographical Society in