ain that the Russians have many Asiatic words in
their vocabulary, which must necessarily have occurred from their being for
more than two centuries sometimes under Tatar, and sometimes under Mongol
domination; and the origin of this word _tsar_ or _car_ may leave to be
sought on the plateaus of North-east Asia. In the Shemitic tongues (Arabic,
Hebrew, Persian, &c.) no connexion of sound or meaning, so probable as the
above Indo-European one, is to be found. The popular derivations of
Nabupolassar, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, &c., are not to be trusted. It is
remarkable, however, that these names are significant in Russian. (See "N.
& Q.," Vol. vii., pp. 432, 433, _note_.) The cuneatic inscriptions may yet
throw light on these Assyrian names. In Russian the kingdom is _Tsarstvo_,
the king _Tsar_, his queen _Tsarina_, his son is _Tsarevitch_, and his
daughter _Tsarevna_. The word is probably pure Russian or Slavic. The
Russian tsar used about two hundred years ago to be styled duke by foreign
courts, but he has advanced in the nomenclature of royalty to be an
emperor. The Russians use the word _imperatore_ for emperor, _Kesar_ for
Caesar, and _samodershetse_ for sovereign.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

In Voltaire's _History of the Russian Empire_, it is stated that the title
of Czar may possibly be derived front the _Tzars_ or _Tchars_ of the
kingdom of Casan. When John, or Ivan Basilides, Grand Prince of Russia, had
completed the reduction of this kingdom, he assumed this title, and it has
since continued to his successors. Before the reign of John Basilides, the
sovereigns of Russia bore the name of _Velike Knez_, that is, great prince,
great lord, great chief, which in Christian countries was afterwards
rendered by that of great duke. The Czar Michael Federovitz, on occasion of
the Holstein embassy, assumed the titles of Great Knez and Great Lord,
Conservator of all the Russias, Prince of Wolodimir, Moscow, Novogorod,
&c., Tzar of Casan, Tzar of Astracan, Tzar of Siberia. The name of _Tzar_
was therefore the title of those Oriental princes, and therefore it is more
probable for it to have been derived from the _Tshas_ of Persia than from
the Roman Caesars, whose name very likely never reached the ears of the
Siberian Tzars on the banks of the Oby. In another part of Voltaire's
_History_, when giving an account of the celebrated battle of Narva, where
Charles XII., with nine thousand men and ten pieces of cannon, d