rton's
researches, asserting that in the year 2170 B.C. the Pleiades were
"_exactly at that height that they could be seen in the direction of the
Southward-pointing passage of the pyramid_." The italics are not mine.
As this passage pointed 33-2/3 deg., or thereabouts, below (that is south
of) the equator, and the Pleiades were then some 3-2/3 deg. north of the
equator, the passage certainly did not then point to the Pleiades. Nor
has there been any time since the world began when the Pleiades were
anywhere near the direction of the southward pointing passage. In fact
they have never been more than 20 deg. south of the equator. The statement
follows immediately after another to the surprising effect that in the
year 2170 B.C. "the Pleiades _really_ commenced the spring by their
midnight culmination." The only comment an astronomer can make on this
startling assertion is to repeat with emphasis the word italicized by
Mr. Haliburton (or Mr. Blake?). The Pleiades being then in conjunction
with what is now called the first point of Aries, culminated at noon,
not at midnight, at the time of the vernal equinox.

[46] This date is sometimes given earlier, but when account is taken of
the proper motion of these stars we get about the date above mentioned.
I cannot understand how Dr. Ball, Astronomer Royal for Ireland, has
obtained the date 2248 B.C., unless he has taken the proper motion of
Alcyone the wrong way. The proper motion of this star during the last
4000 years has been such as to increase the star's distance from the
equinoctial colure; and therefore, of course, the actual interval of
time since the star was on the colure is less than it would be
calculated to be if the proper motion were neglected.

CONSPIRACIES IN RUSSIA UNDER THE REIGNING CZAR.

I.

Much astonishment has been expressed of late, by those who are too apt
to forget the main facts even of contemporary history, that under "so
benevolent a prince as Alexander II." the most fearful conspiracies
should have become rife. This view of the situation shows a
misconception of the whole system of government in Russia, and more
especially of the character of the ruling Autocrat, as it has been
formed by his education and by the ever-worsening course of his reign.
For the proper understanding of what has occurred within the last twelve
years or so, we must consequently go back for a moment to Alexander's
early training and antecedents. No despotic sys