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of coining silver freely in the Indian mints as legal tender throughout the Indian dominions of her Majesty. Such a declaration, however, must be conditional on the acceptance by a number of the principal states of an agreement binding them in some manner to open their mints for a similar term to the coinage of silver as full legal tender in the proportion of 15% of silver to 1 of gold, and the engagement on the part of India would be obligatory only so long as that agreement remained in force.

Sittings were held on the 4th, 6th, and 8th of July, and then an adjournment was taken to April 12, 1882. A declaration, consisting of four clauses, was made to the conference by the French and American delegates by way of formulating the basis for future proceedings. The first three clauses were declaratory of the importance of a fixed relation in value between gold and silver, of the opinion that a powerful combination of states might, by agreement among themselves, maintain such a relation, and that the proportion of 15 to 1 was the desirable one to adopt. The fourth clause was as follows: "Without considering the effect which might be produced by a lesser combination of states, a combination which should include England, France, Germany, and the United States, with the concurrence of other states both in Europe and on the American Continent, which this combination would insure, would be adequate to produce and maintain throughout the commercial world the relation between the two metals that such a combination should adopt."

The proposition for adjourning was put upon the ground that "there is reason for believing that an understanding might be estab

lished between the states which have taken part in the conference, that the monetary situation of several states may call for the intervention of legislation, and may give rise to diplomatic negotiations."

Ex-Senator Howe returned to the United States in July. He explained the attitude of the different governments represented at the conference as follows:

The Belgian representative was there as a strong monometallist; so also were the representatives of Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland." The commissioners representing Russia, Austria, Italy, and Spain inclined strongly to bi-metallism. The attitude of Great Britain was the principal obstacle we had to contend with. Her representatives were in favor of the double standard, but were prohibited from committing the nation to it. The ministry opposed bi-metallism, and they did it, not because they do not favor the double standard, or because they want to keep silver out of the coinage, but because they have other important business before them, and feel that they can put the coinage question off to some future day. The matter, however, has been the subject of discussion in financial and commercial circles in Great Britain, and a strong sentiment has been found in favor of bimetallism. With regard to Germany, her representatives pointed to the action taken by her in 1873 in adopting the single gold standard, and said they did not see any necessity for impeaching the propriety of that move. Still, they are not opposed to silver, and are only waiting for England. If the latter country comes to adopt the double standard, they will join with her willingly and gladly.

Mr. Evarts returned in September, and, in answer to inquiries regarding the results of the conference, said

that a great advance had been made as compared with the results accomplished by the conference of 1878. In that assemblage the great powers were very reserved, or were wholly unrepresented. Now the principal countries of Europe, including Germany and Great Britain, both of which held aloof in 1878, are generally agreed upon the advisability of the adoption of a bi-metallic standard of commercial values. So far as India was concerned, which is the great silver and considerable active participation shown by the interest of England, there was considerable freedom delegates this year. The position of the United States is well known and understood now in Europe that our interest is solely in view of our actual and expected participation in the commerce of the world. We desire that the money of international commerce shall be upon the basis which leaves commerce in such a position that it shall not be embarrassed by the two bases-silver and gold-interfering with one another. In other words, we desire to make the two metals international money.

In regard to the adjournment, Mr. Evarts said:

In adjourning to another time instead of terminating our deliberations we generally agreed in feeling that a stage had been reached in exciting the attention of the different nations, furnishing them the means of debating the question which, in the interval, might be occupied by them either in direct diplomatic correspondence on the subject or in such discussion in Congress or in Parliament, or in general channels of public opinion, as each nation should think advisable and useful. We also thought it would be felt and understood every where that so great a question and transaction as the establishment of an international money, of both metals, was a task that should not, and could not, be completed in any brief consideration of the subject.

The coinage of silver dollars was continued during the year in the United States in accordance with the provisions of the law of 1878, the total number issued being 27,637,955, or about 2,300,000 per month. The Director of the Mint, in his annual report, makes the following suggestions in regard to a continuance of this coinage, in view of the action of the Monetary Conference:

The International Monetary Conference which met at Paris in April last instructively discussed the subject of a common ratio in the coinage of gold and silver, but no practical conclusion was reached. Delegates from several European countries gave little encouragement for the expectation of any effective aid from their governments in the effort to restore silver to its former place in the monetary circulation. The hope, however, seems to have been entertained that further deliberation, and a consideration of the inevitable complications and disturbances to commercial exchanges between Asiatic countries and the Western world, to be feared from the exclusion of silver from coinage, will enlist the co-operation of those nations in this, possibly the final, effort to retain silver conjointly with gold as a measure of values. In view, however, of the failure of the conference to agree upon any practical measure, and while awaiting its future action, it is a question for our serious and early consideration whether it is not desirable to suspend the further coinage of silver until, by international agreement and effective legislation, the unlimited coinage of silver and gold at a common fixed ratio shall have been authorized by the principal commercial nations of Europe and America. The United States has done

its part toward retaining silver as a monetary agent for measuring and exchanging values. For three years it has appropriated to coinage purposes one third of the world's production of silver, and maintained its average bullion price nearly to the average of 1878. As was said in my first report, "should the $650,000,000 of silver coin, now full legal tender in Europe, be demonetized, the United States could not, single-handed among commercial nations, with no European co-operation or allies, sustain the value of silver from the inevitable fall. With that danger menacing us, we can not, without serious embarrassment, continue such coinage unless other commercial nations will agree upon the general use of silver as well as gold. But should such international agreement be secured, neither our ratio of comparative valuation nor even one based upon the present exchangeable value of gold and silver will probably be adopted. The ratio of 15 to 1, already approved and in use among the nations composing the Latin Union, would doubtless be chosen. This would, if the coinage of silver as well as gold at all the mints of the world were made free, as bi-metallism implies, cause the voluntary withdrawal from circulation of the standard dollars, and their recoinage. In such case the further coinage of silver dollars of the present weight, unless needed for circulation, is a useless expenditure."

The Secretary of the Treasury, in his annual report, and the President in his message, also recommended a suspension of the coinage of silver dollars, and a future restriction, not to an arbitrary limit, but to a limit determined by the actual demand for circulation. They also recommended a cessation of the issue of silver certificates, and advocated a policy in future in regard to bi-metallism dependent on a substantial concert of commercial nations.

BLANQUI, AUGUSTE, a French Democrat and Socialist, died January 2d, at the age of seventy-six. Without ever having formulated any definite objects to which his extraordinary political activity was directed, he has appeared in the character of a leader in every revolutionary movement of the century. When a student in Paris, his intellectual gifts were widely remarked. He commenced life as a private tutor. A mutual attachment sprang up between him and his second pupil, the daughter of a Paris banker, which was concealed for years, and then resulted in their marriage. After seven years of happy wedded life, Blanqui embarked in his career of a political conspirator. His condemnation to lifelong imprisonment so wrought upon his wife's mind that she died within a year. Since then Blanqui has passed thirty-seven years of his life in prison. He founded numerous secret societies, and was the chief organizer of nearly every democratic outbreak. Lamartine says that after the Revolution of 1848 he invited Blanqui to forsake destructive criticism, and devote his talents to the diplomatic service of his country, offering him a foreign mission. Blanqui was small and insignificant in appearance. He lived like an ascetic, using no wine or coffee, eating vegetable food only, dispensing with fire in all weathers, and leaving his chamber-windows always open. Though the most active instigator of violent uprisings in

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France, he had a sentimental horror of bloodshed; and though always foremost in revolutionary and socialistic disturbances, he frequently expressed the conviction that strong government was necessary to prevent anarchy, and that the economic problem could not be solved perhaps in centuries. The Communards of Paris converted the funeral of Blanqui into a celebration of the amnesty.

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BLUNTSCHLI, Professor JEAN GASPARD, jurist and writer on international law, born at Zürich in March, 1808, died October 21st. He was educated for the law in his own country, and afterward went to Germany, where he was a pupil of Savigny and Niebuhr. His work on Succession according to the Roman Law "gained him the doctor's degree at Berlin. Upon his return to Switzerland, he engaged actively in the political conflicts of the time, and contributed frequently to the Liberal press. He became a member of the State Council, and was a member of the Ministry before the return of the Conservatives to power. In 1838 he published the "Political and Juridical History of Zürich." He assisted the brothers Grimm in their researches into German antiquities, and wrote several works on tional history. His work on "General Political Law" (Munich, 1850) established his reputation as an historian and jurist. When the University of Zürich was founded, in 1833, Bluntschli was appointed a titular professor. In 1861 he went to Heidelberg as Professor of Public Law. In recent years he has published several works on the history and theory of law, which are studied with great attention in Europe. In the early part of 1881 he was provoked into an amicable controversy with General von Moltke by the latter's strictures on the reform in the laws of war proposed by the Institut de Droit International, and his defense of war as an agency in higher civilization.

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BRAHMO SOMAJ, THE. The division in the Brahmo Somaj of India, which took place in 1878 (an account of which is given in the "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1879, article BRAHMO SOMAJ), has been made wider in consequence of a new departure that the wing of the church of which Keshub Chunder Sen is regarded as the leader has taken. The new movement assumed a definite form at the close of the celebration of the fifty-first anniversary of the Brahmo Somaj, when Mr. Sen's party assumed the name of the "Church of the New Dispensation," and the "Flag of the New Dispensation," intended to denote the church militant developing into the church triumphant, was formally inaugurated, with the Arati ceremony, or the waving of lights and the chanting of hymns. The "New Dispensation" is believed by Mr. Sen to afford a scheme for effecting the unity and harmony of all other dispensations, all of which-Hindooism, Buddhism, Islamism, and Christianity-are connected as parts of the divine scheme, and really exhibit order and continuity where confusion

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and anomaly only are commonly perceived. The new order is the happy welding of these together, and in it the fulfillment of Christ's prophecy of the coming of the Comforter is to be sought. Christ is not held to be divine, as in the orthodox churches of Christianity, but is regarded with great reverence and devotion as a prophet, and is allowed a subjective not an objective divinity. God is believed in as an objective reality, a supreme Father, whose character of divine holiness worshipers aim to assimilate and realize in their hearts. Communion is sought to be promoted with prophets and departed saints, who are supposed to be real persons and children of God, by the so-called pilgrimages, in which a particular room represents the historical site, and conversations are carried on, by the aid of a vivid imagination, with the person invoked, whose utterances of centuries ago, says Dr. William Knighton, in the "Contemporary Review," are applied, more or less skillfully, to the exigencies of the present time, or the difficulties of existing theological speculation." The spirits are not supposed to be materialized or actually present, but to be spiritually drawn into the life and character of the devotee; the pilgrimages being explained to be simply practical applications of "the philosophy of subjectivity." The believer may be aided by the perusal of the sacred books of the several religions, by studying the precepts and examples, and absorbing the spirit of which he is believed to be brought into communion with the authors of those religions, or to have "conferences" with them. The immortality of the soul is taught, with the idea that the future life is a continuation and development of the present life. The incarnation of Deity is denied, but all the great teachers of religion, from Moses to Mohammed, are recognized as God's servants and as useful teachers. A violation of duty is sin, and every sinner must suffer the consequences of his own sinfulness, in this world or the next. Holiness may be attained, however, and sinfulness extirpated by the worship of God, by self-control and self-denial, by repentance, by the study of God in nature and in good books, by good company, and by solitary contemplation; and by these means salvation is attained. No mediation between God and man is suggested. Salvation brings with it a perpetual growth in purity, which goes on for all eternity. The New Dispensation is openly and fearlessly declared to be the work of God and not of man, a beautiful symmetrical plan of providence in a course of daily development, which provides an infallible remedy for human wants and short-comings; a system of Divine eclecticism, absorbing all religions, incorporating in itself all the prophets of God.”

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Among the peculiarities of ritual of the New Dispensation are the Arati ceremony, with which the flag was inaugurated, and which has been criticised as savoring of idolatry; and the sacramental ceremony, in which rice and water

are substituted for the ordinary bread and wine. The "vow of self-surrender" is taken by persons who enroll themselves in the order of "Grihastha Vairagi," or ascetic householders-men of the world who, following secular employments, give all they make to the church. The singing of hymns from door to door, for the benefit of the worldly-minded, which was formerly confined to the lower classes of people, has been commended under the New Dispensation to the middle and upper classes as "exalted work."

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The fifty-first anniversary of the Brahmo Somaj was celebrated by the adherents of the New Dispensation in a series of meditative and mystic ceremonies, which, with the days of preparation, occupied most of the month of January. A portrait of Ram Mohun Roy was unveiled. Five missionaries were consecrated to a life in which they were told they would be wholly under the guidance of Heaven, and would find themselves always in a state of complete harmony with each other, drawing their inspiration from the Almighty alone, who would speak to and through them. The report for the past year mentioned as its peculiar, pre-eminent feature, the "communion with saints," which was observed by eight pilgrimages of the missionaries and other Brahmos to the house of the minister (Mr. Sen), with honors to the following saints: Moses, February 22d; Socrates, March 7th; Sakya, March 14th; Mohammed, September 19th; Chaitanya, September 26th; scientific men, October 3d. An average of one hundred students had attended the theological institution. Fifteen missionaries had been employed in Calcutta and six in Dacca, besides fourteen secular missionaries. Thirteen somajes had been established, and the flag of the New Dispensation had been carried all around India. A letter was read from the Prarthana Somaj, of Bombay, expressing the hope that all schism might be healed, and that there might be a united theistic church in India, which was suitably responded to. Steps were taken to publish a reply to misrepresentations which, it was alleged, had been made of the Brahmo Somaj in India and England. The missionaries were given the distinctive title of Sraddheya Bhai, or Reverend Brother. A sacramental ceremony was celebrated on the 6th of March. On the 7th of June "a new Hom ceremony," or fire-sacrifice, was celebrated as the ceremony of overthrowing temptation," and was followed on the 12th by a "new baptismal ceremony," in which it was claimed that "the rite was administered by John the Baptist himself, who was present in spirit."

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A considerable majority of the Brahmo Somajes, including one hundred and forty churches in different parts of India, from Assam to Sinde, and from Lahore to Madras, adhere to the old order, and either oppose the New Dispensation or hold aloof from it. The chief of these societies is the Sadharan (or Univer

sal) Brahmo Somaj of Calcutta, which has also many members among the provincial somajes, and has regular agents in various parts of India. Its aims are stated in its annual report to be, first, "to develop within itself and encourage in others a life of piety, based upon direct and immediate communion with the living God; to promote absolute spiritual freedom by combating all doctrines of incarnation, mediation, or prophetship; to build morality and piety on foundations of reason and conscience, illumined by the light of divine intercourse; and to strive for a life in which devotion and earnest work will commingle"; and, secondly, to introduce a constitutional and representative mode of church government. The declaration of principles, read at the dedication of the church in Calcutta in January, enforced the worship of the One True God, to the exclusion of every created person or thing, and of divine honors "to any man or woman as God, or equal to God, or an incarnation of God, or as appointed of God"; the renunciation of distinctions of caste or social position; the catholicity of Brahmoism ("no book or man shall be acknowledged as infallible, and the only way to salvation; but, nevertheless, due respect shall be paid to all scriptures, and the good and great of all ages and countries"); and the maintenance of spirituality of doctrine. "Flowers, spices, burnt-offerings, candles, and other material accompaniments of worship," it said, "shall never be used, and care shall be taken to avoid everything tending to reduce religion to mere parade and lifeless forms. Anything that will directly or indirectly encourage idolatry, engender superstition, take away spiritual freedom, lower conscience, or corrupt morals, shall never be countenanced." The Sadharan Brahmo Somaj sends missionaries over India, sustains societies for religious culture among the students of Calcutta, and maintains a theistic library and a school for the higher education of boys, with twenty teachers and 389 pupils, and labors by itself, and through associated societies of women, for the improvement of women. Among the reforms advocated by the theists of India, of whom both of these societies are branches, are the complete abolition of all caste restrictions; the abolition of the worship of deceased ancestors; a reform of the ceremonies usual at births, and at cremation; reform of marriage customs (which is pronounced equivalent to the reconstruction of Hindoo society); the promotion of female education and emancipation; the limitation of men to one wife; the removal of the prohibition against the marriage of widows, and social reform; the suppression of intemperance of all kinds; the promotion of education among the people; and the social and moral regeneration of India.

BRAZIL (IMPERIO DO BRAZIL). (For details relating to area, territorial divisions, population, etc., reference may be made to the "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1878.)

The Emperor is Dom Pedro II, born December 2, 1825; proclaimed April 7, 1831; regency until July 23, 1840; crowned July 18, 1841; married September 4, 1843, to Theresa Christina Maria, daughter of the late King Francis I of the Two Sicilies.

The Cabinet in 1881 was composed of the following ministers: Interior, Baron Homem de Mello; Justice, Councilor M. P. S. Dantas, Senator; Foreign Affairs, Councilor P. L. Pereira de Souza, Deputy; Finance, Councilor J. A. Saraiva, Senator, and President of the Council of State; War, Councilor Franklin Doria, Deputy; Navy, Councilor J. R. Lima Duarte, Deputy; Public Works,_Commerce, and Agriculture, Councilor M. Buarque de Macedo,* Deputy.

The Council of State was composed of the following members in ordinary: The Princess Imperial, Donna Isabel; Prince Gaston d'Orléans, Count d'Eu; the Senators Viscount de Abaeté, Viscount de Muritiba, Viscount de Bom Retiro, Viscount de Jaguary, Viscount de Nictheroy, Viscount de Araxá, J. P. Diaz de Carvacho, and J. J. Teixeira, Vice-Admiral J. R. de Lamare; Dr. P. J. Soares de Souza; and of members extraordinary: Senators J. L. C. Paranaguá and M. P. S. Dantas; Councilors Martin Francisco, B. A. de M. Taques, and J. C. de Andrade; and Viscount de Prados.

The President of the Senate, which comprises 58 members elected for life, was Viscount de Jaguary; and the Vice-President, Count de Baependy.

The President of the Chamber of Deputies, with 122 members elected for four years, was Viscount de Prados; and the Vice-President, F. de Almeida.

The Presidents of the several provinces were as follows:

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Dr. J. E. Ferreira Jacobina.
Dr. A. J. Furtado.

Senator J. L. C. Paranaguá.
Senator P. Leão Velloso.

Dr. M. A. Tostes.

Dr. J. A. Leite de Moraes.
Dr. P. S. Cincinato.

Colonel J. M. de Alencastro.

Senator J. F. Meirade Vasconcellos.

Dr. M. P. Souza Dantas Filho.

Dr. J. Ferreira Carneiro.

Dr. S. B. Pimentel.

Dr. J. A. de Azevedo Lima.

Dr. S. Q. de Moura.
Dr. A. D. Satyro.

Dr. Martinho A. S. Campos.
Dr. J. R. Chaves.
Senator F. C. de Abreu e Silva.

Dr. F. P. Soares Brandão. Dr. H. M. Inglez de Sousa.

The Archbishop of Bahia, the Rt. Rev. L. A. dos Santos (1880), is Primate of all Brazil; and there are eleven bishops: those of Pará, São Luiz, Fortaleza, Olinda, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Marianna, Diamantina, Goyaz, and Cuyabá.

The Brazilian Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the United States is

* Died August 29, 1881. (See OBITUARIES, FOREIGN.)

Councilor Lopes Netto (transferred from Montevideo in July, 1881); and the Brazilian ConsulGeneral at Baltimore (for the Union) is Senhor Salvador de Mendonça.

The United States Minister to Brazil is Hon. James Monroe (1881); and the United States Consul-General at Rio de Janeiro is Mr. Thomas Adamson. "We learn, with the greatest pleasure," writes a Rio journalist, referring to the appointment of Minister Monroe, and to the continuance of Mr. Adamson in the consulate-general, "that the Honorable James Monroe has been nominated by the President of the United States as representative of that great republic at the court of Brazil. Mr. Monroe will be no stranger in Brazil; he is already known here as a consul who discharged his important duties with zeal and integrity; and his precedents here afford the certainty that the United States will find in him a resident Minister in Brazil who will reflect honor on his native country. As regards the present United States consulategeneral at Rio de Janeiro, we are rejoiced to find that no change is contemplated in its occupancy by the gentleman who has so worthily discharged the duties thereof, and reformed it. As the New York correspondence says, Mr. Adamson is not popular among a certain class of American citizens here; but consuls, like ministers of state, who initiate and enforce necessary reforms, must count on having to endure much obloquy from the small but noisy class whose interests the reforms traverse. Still, every important American and other house, having business with the United States consulate-general here, will freely acknowledge that, in Mr. Adamson, we have had the best American Consul-General Rio has seen since the days of Honest James Monroe.'"

The actual strength of the army in 1880 was 15,304, of whom 1,743 were officers. The distribution of the several arms was as follows: Infantry-twenty-one battalions, eight garrison companies, and one depot company for drillservice; cavalry-five regiments, one squadron, and five garrison companies; artillery three mounted regiments and five foot-battalions; sappers and miners, one battalion; gendarmes, 8,340, of whom 931 were at Rio de Janeiro. The National Guard had been disbanded, with a view to reorganization after the taking of the new census. Pursuant to the law of February 27, 1875, military service is obligatory for all Brazilian citizens; but numerous exemptions are admitted, and substitution is allowable. The period of service in the regular army is six years, and in the reserve three years. The regulation war strength was to be fixed at 32,000; and the strength in time of peace, although fixed at 13,000, is commonly in excess of that number. The navy, in 1880, consisted of nine steam ironclads, six steam corvettes, sixteen steam gunboats, six steam transports, and three sail of the line (one cor

vette and two smaller craft); with an aggregate of 3,758 men, and a total armament of 166 guns. The aggregate steam-power was 8,660 horses. Besides the vessels above enumerated, there were five iron-clad ships, one gunboat, one school-ship, and one brig for midshipmen, all without armament. The personnel of the navy consisted of 14 general staffofficers, 340 first-class officers, a sanitary corps 73 strong, 17 almoners, 88 accountants, 57 guardians, and 185 engineers; an imperial marine corps, 2,695 strong, a naval battalion of 286 men, and 1,229 apprentices; total, 4,984 men. An additional gunboat has been reported "in course of construction" for some years past; but mention must here be made of two important craft, officially described as follows: One of these, an ironclad of novel construction, contracted for in London in 1881, is to be 300 feet in length with 52 feet beam, and to carry four Armstrong twenty-ton, new pattern, breech-loading guns, mounted on two turrets arranged en échelon, and sufficiently far apart to avoid injury to one turret by the flash of the guns in the other. The lighter armament is to consist of six 44-inch guns and a signal-gun. The armor is to be steel-faced throughout; the armor-belt, of two strakes, 7 feet deep and varying in thickness from 10 to 11 inches; and the breastwork and turrets each 10 inches thick. The main-deck will be faced with 14-inch compound armor on a steel backing inch thick. The stem, stern, rudder, brackets, and tubes will be constructed of brass, while the hull will be double sheathed with wood and covered with Muntz-metal. Prominent among the advantages anticipated in this ironclad are: the protection of the magazines and the spaces beneath the breast work, fore and aft of which the armor-belt will pass inside and take the form of oblique armor; the diminution of weight consequent upon that arrangement, and the security against water lodging upon the inner protective deck in the event of piercing of the thin ends of the armor; and the use of the forced blast, with a horse-power readily increased from 6,000 to 8,000, and a speed of not less than 15 but susceptible of being accelerated to 164 knots an hour. Should the ship, on trial, fail by one quarter of a knot to make 15 knots, the builders will, by the terms of their contract, be held to forfeit £2,000; if by one half knot, £4,000; if by three fourths, £8,000; if by one knot, £16,000 ; if by 14 knot, £32,000: and should the speed fall short of 13 knots, the whole of the final installment, amounting to one sixth of the entire price, will be forfeited. Should the extreme draught of the ship, with 400 tons of coal and sea-going stores on board, exceed 20 feet, the forfeitures will be as follows: for an excess of 1 inch, £1,000; of 2 inches, £2,000; of 3 inches, £4,000; of 4 inches, £8,000; of 5 inches, £16,000; of 6 inches, £25,000; and of more than 6 inches, the entire final installment. Likewise, for an excess of one tenth

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