great reforms are noticeable under the present reign. The sale of
spirits has greatly decreased since the government took the monopoly
of the manufacture and sale of liquor. The French loans made the
establishment of the gold standard possible and speculation in Russian
paper money ceased.

The completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway aroused great expectation
for the future of Russia's commerce. The war with Japan has (p. 254)
prevented the possibility of estimating the effect it will have upon
oceanic trade. But Russia's manufactures have had a wonderful
increase; its effect is shown in the population of the cities. In
1870, Russia contained only six cities with a population of over
100,000; their number was doubled in 1897. Warsaw, the old capital of
Poland, had 243,000 inhabitants in 1865; in 1897, they had increased
to 615,000. Lotz, also in Poland, rose from 12,000 to 315,000. This
cannot fail to exert a powerful influence upon the future of the
empire; first, on account of the creation of a middle class which,
even at this early day, numbers nine per cent of the population; and
next, because the mechanics and factory hands are recruited from among
the peasants, who thus are brought into daily contact with more
intelligent people, and acquire new ideas and new necessities. The
official class is bitterly opposed to this new departure, because it
foreshadows the day when the drag upon Russia will be cast off.

Nicholas seems to have reversed his father's policy in the Balkan
States. He also acted in concert with Europe in 1896, when trouble
arose between Turkey and Greece. It began in Crete, where Turk and
Christian could not agree. Stories of massacres infuriated the Greeks
and the king had to choose between a revolution and a declaration of
war. In April, 1897, an army of 80,000 men under Prince George crossed
into Thessaly, but was driven back by a Turkish army of 150,000 men.
Prince George had invaded Crete in February, but the powers compelled
him to evacuate the island. The czar interceded with the sultan, and
the absurd war was ended.

The Slavophils, after their failure in the Balkan provinces had (p. 255)
excited the Armenians in the provinces near the Russian Caucasus. They
attacked the Kurds, a nomadic tribe of Mussulmans, when the Turks took
the side of their co-religionists and treated the Armenians with no
soft hand. The Panslavists demanded autonomy for Armenia, but this did
not suit Pri