NICOLAIEFF. az-j convictions, and believe the time is not far distant when all men will share landed property equally, no exception being made even in favour of the sovereigns and rulers of the earth. The doctrines of this sect, which is said to be steadily increasing in number, were first introduced into the province of Kherson from Little Russia by a minister of the Reformed Church named Benekemper, who commenced his proselytising work at the German colony of Rohrbach.
Nicolaieff, with its broad and dusty streets and irregularly built houses, is little else in appearance than a large stra^ling village. The population, including naval and military forces, amounts to 50,000 souls; but the people are poor, for there is no local produce, and the town has to depend solely upon transit trade.
We were indebted to Her Majesty's Consul for obtaining the necessary permission to see the Imperial dockyard, and upon presenting ourselves at the gate, a petty officer was appointed to conduct us over one of the untidiest of State arsenals. The ropehouse {a relic of past times), the steam-factoiy and saw-mills, are almost equal to the best we can show, and there are three good building sheds; the want of order was owing perhaps to the general absence of officers, for we never met with one of any rank from the time of our entering the yard at 2 P.M. to 5 o'clock, when we left it!
Of seven small vessels in the stream, three were flying the pendant; the rest of the Black Sea squadron, consisting of twentytwo small unarmoured vessels carrying thirty-four guns, were at their stations on the coasts or cruising for exercise. We were told that three thousand artificers were at work in the yard, many being employed on the new circular monitor named the Vice- Admiral Popoff in compliment to the inventor, by command of by Google
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the Emperor. This turret ship, an improvement on the Novgorod we saw at Sevast6pol, was constructed under the direction of the inventor by Captain Mordvynoff, with Russian artificers, the plates being of Russian iron; the building was commenced January 2. 1874, the vessel was officially laid down by the Emperor August 27, 1874, and she was launched September 25, 1875.'
As the merits and demerits of the Russian circular monitor have been discussed in the British press, it may be interesting to know that Russian naval officers outside the Admiral's immediate circle of friends are not by any means in favour of the system, the general opinion being that the Novgorod steers badly and has a tendency to keep turning when aweigh. Few officers however, have had the opportunity affi3rded them of being at sea in that vessel; the inventor's statements must therefore be allowed to be the correct ones until the reports of officers whose impartiality may be entirely relied upon, prove, from their own personal experience in the sea-going qualities of these vessels, that their efficiency has been exaggerated or misrepresented.
Naval officers at Nicolaieff are dissatisfied because the reports
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Diameter
Displacement
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Armour of hull and tanet 17^ inches (?), the hull bdng KheaCbed with wood ud coppered to the gunwale. Deck armour, at inches.
The machinery, prepared by Mr. Baird of St. Peteisburg, consists of ei^ enpim of So horse-power nominal, to work up to 4,480 horse-power eflectiTe.
Aimament Two 40-ton guns.
Cu&tofhutl 782,736 ronbles.
» armour 5».3»a..
„ engines 601,817 „
1,904,865 ronblex.
Dig izsd by Google on the Novgorod's trial trips are kept profoundly secret. At least sixty-four rounds should have been fired from each gun at tai^et practice in the course of her summer cruise, and a sketch of the target after every practice, was to accompany the report made to the Commander-in-chief, The No^^orod was duly laid up at Sevastopol for the winter, and no reports or sketches having been received or at any rate made public, one or the other of two conclusions was arrived at — either that the targets were never hit, or that it was considered more prudent not to have target practice at all 1' OfBcers 5nd some consolation, however, in the intimation received, that it is the intention of the Government to lay down the first of several ironclads to be constructed at Nicolareff.
At the naval barracks were 3,000 lads, who, after being trained on board the Black Sea cruisers, would be sent to man ships in other squadrons. They were chiefly natives of Little Russia, but there were also Greeks amoi^ them.