WONDERFUL DEVELOPMENT OF Peter the Great’s Pet Projects, ACCORDING TO His Last Will and Testament. AMERICAN INVENTION AS AN AID TO RUSSIA’S GRASP ON ASIATIC TERRITORY. BY W. GANNON. NEW YORK: THE MARITIME REPORTER PUBLISHING CO., 15 WHITEHALL STREET. 1889. PROGRESSIVE RUSSIA ON THE March to Constantinople. AN AMERICAN INVENTOR THE ALLY OF THE MUSCOVITE. Peter the Great may justly be credited with having been the greatest civilizer of his race. To him is due the credit of nationalizing his country and inaugurating vast industries, through the medium of the Ship. So far in advance of his time was he that his startling innovations and wonderful discounting of the arts of diplomacy must have endangered his head had he not been fortunate enough to have been born a despot. Peter’s last will and testament outlined the policy to be pursued by his successors, looking to the aggrandizement of Russia, and startling though its terms are in their selfishness, they are so thoroughly diplomatic that his successors have religiously lived up to their full meaning. And so it comes to pass that the ever-advancing and constantly-tightening grasp of Russia on adjacent territory is alarming the Governments of the Old World and may, indeed, in the near future, somewhat concern ourselves. The Canadian Government is now urging Great Britain to erect defences on the Pacific Coast, for the reason that Russia, in pursuance of her peculiar policy, is enlarging her works and arsenal at Vladivostock, opposite British Columbia; and the initiative has already been taken by Great Britain in the erection of batteries in the neighborhood of Esquimault. As early as last May the St. Petersburgh correspondent of the New York _Tribune_ contributed the following report of the progress of the Grand Trunk Railway through Central Southern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean and China: “SIGNS OF RUSSIAN PROGRESS.