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 CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT. 357

producing an annual revenue of 4,000,000 roubles, or about 571,500/. In the last annual accounts of the finances of the empire, the expen- diture of the Imperial Court, as far as drawn from the public trea- sury, is given at 7,700,000 roubles, or 1,100,000/. ; but this sum does not include the appanages, amounting to 539,973/., according to an official statement made in 1863. The sum total of the income of the imperial family is stated, in a British Consular report of 1867, at 2,450,000/. sterling, it being added that 'about 450,000/. are spent in charities, schools, theatres, &c.,' leaving a net revenue of 2,000,000/., or more than five times the amount of the civil list of the sovereign of Great Britain.

The following have been the Tsars and Emperors of Eussia, from the time of election of Michajlo Romanof. Tsar Peter I. was the first ruler who adopted, in the year 1721, the title of Emperor.

House of Romanof — Male Line.

Michajlo. . . 1613

Alexei. . . 1645

Feodor. . . 1676

Ivan and Peter I. . 1682

Peter I. 1689

Catherine I. .. 1725

Peter II. . . . 1727

House of Romanof — Female Line- Anne .... 1730

Ivan III. . . . 1740

Elizabeth. . . 1741

House of Holstein-Gottorp.

Peter III. . . . 1762

Catherine II. . . 1762

Paul. . . . 1796

Alexander I. .. 1801

Constantine. . . 1825

Nicholas. . . 1825

Alexander II. . . 1855

The above list shows that, notwithstanding many vicissitudes in the succession of the crown, the average reign of the sovereigns of Eussia, for two centuries and a half, has been fifteen years.

Constitution and Government.

The Government of Eussia is an absolute hereditary monarchy. The whole legislative, executive, and judicial power is united in the emperor, whose will alone is law. There are, however, certain rules of government which the sovereigns of the house of Holstein- Gottorp have acknowledged as binding. The chief of these is the law of succession to the throne, which, according to a decree of the Emperor Paul, of the year 1797, is to be that of regular descent, by the right of primogeniture, with preference of male over female heirs. This decree annulled a previous one, issued by Peter I., February 5, 1722, which ordered each sovereign -to select his successor to the throne from among the members of the imperial family, irrespective of the claims of primogeniture. Another funda- mental law of the realm proclaimed by Peter I., is that every