26 MAY 1888, Page 3

In the official report upon Russian statistics for 1885, it

is mentioned that in that year the population amounted to 109,000,000, that the birth-rate exceeded the death-rate by 900,000 a year, and that of 853,000 young men eligible that year for military service, only 228,000 were enrolled. Service in Russia lasts, however, for twelve years ; and the total meaning of the figures is that the Russians are incomparably the most numerous of the white peoples, and her means of forming and renewing her Army at least four times as great as that of any first-class nation. If she ever produced an Emperor with military genius who was also ambitious, those would be serious facts.