EMBRACING POLITICAL, CIVIL, MILITARY, AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS; PUBLIC DOCU- NEW SERIES, VOL. V. WHOLE SERIES, VOL. XX. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET. 1885. AE5 V.20 PR E F A СЕ. 21 THE ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA has always met with an appreciative reception among the American public. Its still extending use and demand approve the fitness of its plan. Few annual publications in the world have as successfully stood the ordeal of time. First started in 1861, the volume for 1880 is the twentieth of the series. The largest and most comprehensive general year-book printed in any country, no pains or research are spared to make it complete and trustworthy. The "Annual Cyclopædia " aims to give a record of political events, of legislative action, of the judicial interpretation of the laws, and of the condition and workings of the public administration of the General Government and of each of the State governments, with an impartial review of political questions as they arise, and of the aims and sentiments of party organizations. It thus places before the citizen all the information which is necessary for the understanding of the public affairs of the nation, and the intelligent exercise of the rights and duties of citizenship. Coördinated with the political knowledge given in the "Annual Cyclopædia is as large a body of authentic and systematized information as can be collected relating to the development of the agricultural, industrial, and commercial interests of the country; and every important subject of public comment and concern is treated in its appropriate connection. The religious statistics and denominational records are presented as an important part of the social history of a Christian people. The political and social history of each nation in the world is given with equal comprehensiveness as, though less detail than, that of our own country. The "Annual Cyclopædia" is also a record of science, literature, and art. In 1880 the quadrennial election occupied the attention of the American people more than all other considerations. In the articles on the UNITED STATES and the several States the developments and questions of the campaign are fully presented. In Europe the Irish land question is the most important subject of the year. The conditions of the problem are clearly explained in a special article on IRELAND, by the late Professor A. J. Schem. The developments of the Nihilistic conspiracies are recounted in RUSSIA. In Afghanistan and South Africa troubles excited by the British imperial policy are still fermenting. The developments are recounted under their proper headings. In MONTENEGRO, GREECE, TURKEY, BULGARIA, RUSSIA, and the AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY, the 95054 sequels of the Eastern Question are detailed. A lucid analysis of the policy and operations of the United States Treasury and of the financial condition of the country is presented in FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES, by Assistant Secretary J. K. Upton. Biographical accounts of the prominent candidates for the Presidential nomination, of the members of the new British Cabinet, and of many other persons of note, have been prepared, and the obituary sketches of such as have achieved celebrity in America or abroad are given extensively. The scientific record is fuller than usual. The ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGRESS of the year are described by Professor Daniel Kirkwood, of Indiana University. Recent advances in CHEMISTRY and in its industrial applications are explained in an extended article by Dr. W. J. Youmans, of New York. Darwin's discoveries of the laws of plant-movement are explained in CIRCUMNUTATION, and other new theories and discoveries in various special articles. The important subject of domestic sanitation and hygiene is ably discussed by John B. Hamilton, Surgeon-General United States Marine Hospital Service, in HOME HYGIENE. Another interesting illustrated article, containing an historical and descriptive account of the Government LIGHTHOUSE ESTABLISHMENT, was written by A. B. Johnson, Chief Clerk of the Lighthouse Board. The approved system of the MISSISSIPPI RIVER IMPROVEMENT is described by a citizen of New Orleans. In CALIFORNIA the proposed plans for rescuing agricultural lands from destruction by mining débris are explained. The latest achievements in ENGINEERING, and the results of GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATION are given with the customary detail. The historical and statistical features of the "Annual Cyclopædia" have never received greater attention. The digest of the proceedings of CONGRESS, the annual review of the affairs of the individual States, of the ARMY and the NAVY, the reprints of diplomatic and other public documents, the review of the nation's COMMERCE, are as complete and as intrinsically important as ever before. The statistics of commerce, industry, and agriculture, in the different States, are being collected with greater fullness and by more thorough official methods every year. The political history and statistical account of all the different countries of the globe are as careful, complete, and well up to date as it has been possible to make them. Illustrations have been prepared wherever they were thought to be useful. The "Annual Cyclopædia" chronicles the history of all nations and the annual stages of civilization, giving special prominence to the events and developments of the United States; it records progress in every field of research and endeavor, and with special amplitude that which has a bearing on practical life and social development. It aims to give all information which is needed by the student of current history and actual institutions, and much which is of practical importance to the active and enterprising in all walks of life. Engraved portraits are given of President Garfield, of Czar Alexander III of Russia, and General Hancock. THE ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA. ABDURRAHMAN * KHAN, the new Ameer of Cabool, is a son of the Ameer Afzool Khan, who died in 1867, and a grandson of Dost Mohammed, or, as the Afghans still call him, the "Great Ameer," who died in 1863. Even before he was elevated to his present position, he was regarded as one of the most prominent among the numerous descendants of his distinguished grandfather. Of his early life little or nothing is known. He is said to have been born about 1830, and to have taken part in the second campaign in the Punjaub, when Akbar Khan crossed the Indus to aid the Sikhs. He did not come prominently forward, however, until a much later period. In 1863, the death of his grandfather, Dost Mohammed, was the signal for the commencement of disturbances, which in the following year declared themselves in a civil war. The first campaign between Shere Ali, whom Dost Mohammed had selected as his successor, and the elder brother, Afzool Khan, Abdurrahman's father, closed with the discomfiture of Afzool, who was nothing loath after his defeat to come to an understanding with his successful brother. An agreement was accordingly arranged between them at Balkh, and, while Afzool swore fealty to Shere Ali on the Koran, the latter took a similar oath to spare Afzool's life. The arrangement was of short duration, owing chiefly, it is believed, to Abdurrahman, who was utterly dissatisfied with the surrender of his father's pretensions. At all events, the tranquillity of the camp of Balkh was soon disturbed by the arrest of Afzool and the flight of Abdurrahman. While Shere Ali returned with his captive brother to Cabool to march against other rebels, Abdurrahman sought ref A genealogical table of the family of Dost Mohammed, which shows the relation of Abdurrahman to the other members of the family who are mentioned in the former and the present volumes of the "Annual Cyclopædia," is given in the article AFGHANISTAN. When first mentioned in the history of the civil wars of his country, his name was frequently given as Rahman, or Rhaman Khan. (See Annual Cyclopædia for 1874, p. 8.) VOL. XX.-1 A A uge in Bokhara, where he was well received. He remained there until after Shere Ali had driven Azim Khan into English territory; but when he found that Shere Ali, instead of following up his successes, was sunk in a state of apathy at Candahar, he crossed the Oxus with an irregular force and easily established his authority in Balkh. Abdurrahman's success north of the Hindoo Koosh did not suffice to rouse Shere Ali to a sense of the dangers which surrounded him. With Cabool as well as Candahar in his possession, he remained apparently of opinion that the period for reestablishing his authority in the outlying portions of the state might be deferred until a more convenient season. Abdurrahman, who measured the situation more correctly, struck hard and quick. In February, 1866, he had been joined by his uncle Azim, and was in the close neighborhood of Cabool, held at that time by Ibrahim, Shere Ali's second son. On the 2d of March Cabool surrendered, and Azim was installed as temporary ruler. Soon after a decided victory over Shere Ali's forces was gained at Shekabad, of which the immediate consequences were the release of Afzool and the capture of Ghuznee. Afzool then became the recognized Ameer at Cabool, and his son was looked upon as the Hotspur of the confederacy. His right to this title was shown still more conclusively at the crowning victory at Khelat-i-Ghilzai in the early part of 1867. Afzool, after being proclaimed Ameer at BalaHissar, soon degenerated into a drunkard, and his death was precipitated, if not caused, by the excesses which he committed after his release from confinement. Azim also had become a petty tyrant, who in the distribution of the chief posts secured the most important for himself and his son Surwar. After Afzool's death there was a critical moment when it was doubtful whether Abdurrahman would recognize Azim as Ameer. He finally concluded, however, to take the oath of allegiance to his uncle, but he quitted Cabool in disgust, and |