D. Ghambashidze, in a recent statement regarding the Georgian Nation, alludes to the progress made in the second half of the nineteenth century as follows:
The number of daily papers and weeklies in 1913 was twenty-four, and the number of books published in the same year on various subjects was about 240, amounting to 460,000 copies. It must also be remembered that 75 per cent. of the total population can read and write, and there are many schools and libraries. Eighty-five per cent. of the total population is composed of peasantry, whose chief occupation is very intensive agriculture, tobacco, wine, cotton, and silk being included in their products. The co-operative movement is also very strong in Georgia, there being about 400 co-operative societies, nearly 70 per cent. of the peasants being members.
During the last eight centuries the nobility of Georgia has devoted its attention chiefly to military occupations. There were about 5,700 officers in the Russian Army, among whom may be mentioned the very distinguished Generals, Princes Bagration, Amilakhvari, Tchavachavadze, Orbelliani, and Amiradjebi. Prince Imeretinski has acted as Governor General of Poland, and through his wise rule won great respect among the Poles. He was instrumental in obtaining the permission of the Emperor for the erection of a monument to the great Polish poet Mickevits in Warsaw. General Kazbek was commander of the fortress of Vladivostok and General Orbelliani was Commander in Chief of the Russian troops stationed in Finland.
Among the Georgian Bishops the most celebrated was Bishop Gabriel, whose famous sermons have been translated into English by the Rev. Dr. Malan, one-time Vicar of Oxford. There were also a great many Georgian professors at various Russian universities, among them the celebrated physiologist, Professor Tarhanov; the philologist, Professor D. Tchubinov, and Petriev, the late Dean of Odessa University. Distinguished Georgians like Prince Tchavachavadze and Eristov were members of the Russian House of Lords, while Mr. Tsereteli, the celebrated Georgian Deputy in the Duma, acted as one of the leaders during the present revolution.
The Armenian Nation also goes far back into ancient history. Six centuries before Christ the texts engraved on the rocks by King Darius mentioned Armenia by its present name. During centuries immediately before and after the beginning of the Christian era Armenia was an independent kingdom occupying the region between Mesopotamia and the valleys south of the Caucasus Mountains. This kingdom became Christian about the same time as the Roman Empire, and since then the Armenian Church has not ceased to be independent, not only of the Eastern, Greek, and Slavic Churches, but also of the Roman Church.
ARMENIA, SCENE OF EARLIER TURKISH ATROCITIES
Professor Meillet of the Collège de France, Paris, states that there has been an Armenian literature since the fifth century of our era, and that the old Armenian writings are more original and interesting than the ancient Slavic literatures, which date from several centuries later. Historians of art agree that in architecture, from the fifth to the ninth century, the Armenians were creators of new forms. Professor Meillet adds that at a time when the very name of Franco did not yet exist, and when the French language had not been differentiated literature of its own.
At the period of the Crusades the Armenians founded a kingdom in Cilicia and aided the Crusaders. Since the last of the Crusades there have been no independent Armenians. Mussulman, Persian, and Turkish States have dominated their former country. In the nineteenth century the Caucasus portion was taken by Russia. But the Armenian Nation had its own customs, language, literature, and church, and all these it has kept. It had the will to live, and in spite of its subjugation it has lived.
SUCCESSFUL EMIGRANTS
Armenians, hindered by persecution from tilling their lands, emigrated to other countries, where they developed eminent qualities. Industrious farmers, attached to their native land, they have yet known how, under necessity, to adapt themselves to all the professions of the modern world. Thus they came to fill a large place in Constantinople, in Egypt, in Transylvania, in Poland, and more recently in Baku, in the whole basin of the Mediterranean, and even in America. Everywhere they have made useful citizens; it was an Armenian, Althen, who introduced the cultivation of madder in Southern France. In their own country, where they had preserved a patriarchal system, most of them remained farmers.