pound per horse-power over the consumption of fuel indicated by the builders for the trial trip of 6 hours at full speed, £2,000 will be forfeited; for two tenths, £4,000; for three tenths, £8,000; for four tenths, £16,000; for five tenths, £32,000. The ship is to be inclined, and her center of gravity ascertained in the usual way. Her metacentric height when loaded for sea is not to be less than 3 feet, and under no circumstances is it to be less than 23 feet; and by failure in any of these stipulations the contractors are to forfeit the final installment. The other new craft is an iron gunboat to be named Iniciadora, and the king-bolt of which was struck by his Majesty the Emperor on October 27, 1881, at the national arsenal of marine. This will be the first iron vessel built there. The dimensions and other details published were as follows: length, 117 feet; beam, 24 feet; depth of hold, 8 feet; draught, 5 feet; with a displacement of 200 tons, and engines of 260 horse-power, expected to give a speed of from 9 to 10 knots an hour. The vessel is to be double sheathed with wood and Muntz-metal; and the armament to consist of two cannons of 15 caliber at the bow and stern, with-inch steel plate casemates for, protection against musketry; two machine guns and torpedo apparatus. Electric light will be used on board the Iniciadora, which is to have steel-wire schooner rigging, have capacity for one month's supplies for 60 men, and carry coal for 5 days. This gunboat is specially intended for river service.

The subjoined table of the latest official returns at hand from the Finance Department, being for the year 1877-'78, will serve to show the sources of the revenue and the branches of the expenditure, but not the real condition of Brazilian finances at the present time:

The

imports were but $4,765,585 in 1880, against $4,900,163 in 1879. Hence the actual increase of revenue from the customs department in 1880, as compared with 1879, was but $413,257. Much more favorable results were expected by the Government from the tariff which went into operation on January 1, 1880; but economists foresaw that a measure so unsatisfactory to the commercial community could hardly prove profitable to the treasury; for, although merchants had been requested to take part in the work of revising the former tariffs, their suggestions had only been regarded as worthy of consideration when favorable to increased rates of duty.* new tariff undeniably made some improvements, such as the suppression of unnecessary distinctions and the approximation of official to market value; but, on the whole, the revision was performed too rapidly to admit of proper attention to fiscal conveniences. A new revision was ordered toward the close of 1880, and the work intrusted to a committee composed wholly of government employés; but the expediency of submitting the result of their labors, when these should be terminated, for examination to a committee of merchants and another of manufacturers, was strongly urged by the public press.

The amount and branches of the national debt of Brazil were reported as follows on December 31, 1880: Foreign loan of 1852, due 1882...

66

66

1858, 1858. " 1890.

£390,300

236,800

66 1860,

452,100

Treasury bills...

Five per cent private loan.

Various deposits, about.

Paper money..

Total national debt..

835,397,100

1,995,000

119,600

23,882,000

50,235,000

16,488,800

700.000

50,000,000

189,250,000

819,788,100+

A new loan of £5,000,000 was talked of in July as probable, and as necessary to permit the payment or funding of the existing floating debt.

In a report made in 1879 by the Minister of Finance, the total debt stood at 779,116,837 milreis $389,558,418.

The most recent complete official returns of the foreign commerce of the empire are those imports were, as stated in our volume for 1880, for 1878-79, in which year the exports and of the total values of $102,029,250 and $81,752,900 respectively.

The nature and value of the commodities

imported from Great Britain in 1880 were as shown in the subjoined table:

*See Annual Cyclopædia" for 1880 and for 1878. + $74,332,800. + $409,866,550.

crops prevented the expected reaction after the suppression of the imperial taxes, by permitting the supply to exceed the consumption." It should here be observed that sugar is another Brazilian article of export, produced in all parts of the empire, but particularly in the provinces of Pernambuco and Bahia. The quantity shipped, however, is never or rarely in excess of 140 tons, or about the amount of the total shipments from the little island of Mauritius.

There have been no official returns of port movements published since those given in our volume for 1880, to which volume reference may be made for details relating to Brazilian railways and telegraphs. On the subject of the new line of steamers there mentioned as about to be established between Canadian and Brazilian ports, the following particulars were published in Rio de Janeiro in February, 1881: "St. Thomas, at which port the steamers of this line will call, is the distributing point for the mails and traffic of the West Indies and Central America, and arrangements are in progress with the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company for an interchange of traffic by through bills of lading at that port for the West Indies, British Guiana, and Central America, and at Rio de Janeiro for the republics of the river Plate, thus bringing all these countries into direct communication with Canada. The direct trade of Canada with these countries for the year 1879 has been as follows: Imports, value $1,256,817; exports, value $4,242,112; but it has been carried on entirely by sailing vessels, and will necessarily be further developed by the establishment of this company. It is proposed to employ four steamers in this service, each of 2,200 tons burden, which will run monthly between Canada and Rio de Ja. neiro, touching at St. Thomas, Pará, Maranhão, Ceará, Pernambuco, and Bahia, between which ports the coast wise traffic in passengers and goods is very important. The contract with the Canadian Government is for three years certain from 1st of May next, thereafter being terminable by six months' notice, as is usual in the Dominion. The Brazilian contract is for ten years, and it is understood that negotiations are in progress for additional subsidies to the company in respect of intermediate ports of call. The company has the advantage of being introduced to public notice by a strong and influential board, and, in view of all the circumstances, it is reasonable to anticipate that the capital will be at once taken up by those who are in search of a favorable form of investment."

The Telephone Company of Brazil had received, by decree of April 17, 1881, authorization to operate in the empire, and it was hoped that contracts would at once be made for the establishment of telephonic communication between Rio de Janeiro and the neighboring town of Nictheroy.

The Minister of Agriculture had announced

his intention, as the state of the finances had improved, to apply to the following Legislature for an appropriation in the budget for 1882-'83 for an immigrants' house in Rio, to receive and support for eight days 40,000 spontaneous immigrants per annum, for the transportation of 30,000 immigrants from Rio to their destination, for the acquisition of 53,000 acres of land in readily accessible portions of Southern Brazil, and for the survey of public lands and the making of roads to colonies. He had also declared that the Government would not give further aid or make further subsidized immigration contracts.*

The new electoral reform bill mentioned in our volume for 1880 passed the Senate in the session of 1881. We here transcribe the principal clauses of the bill:

ARTICLE I. The nominations of senators and deputies to the General Assembly, members of the Provincial Legislative Assemblies, and any other elective national or local authority, shall be made by direct conformity with this law, may take part. The elecelections, in which all citizens enrolled as electors, in tion of Regent of the Empire shall continue to be made according to the additional act to the Constitution by the electors treated of in this law. ART. II. Every Brazilian citizen, in accordance with Articles VI, IX, and XCII of the Constitution of the empire, having a net annual income of not less than 200 milreis from realty, trade, business, or employment, is an elector.

The exclusions of said Article XCII include the workmen of the public departments and establishmen of the army, navy, and police corps, and the ments.

ART. III. The proof of the income referred to in the preceding article shall be made:

SECTION 1. As to income arising from realty: (1.) When the realty lies within the bounds of the Imposto Predial or Decima Urbana, by certificate from the fiscal department that the realty is assessed at a rental value of not less than 200 milreis, or by a receipt of the same department for payment of that tax. (2.) When not within the bounds of the Imposto Predial or Decima Urbana:

If consisting of premises situated where neither of those taxes is levied, of rural establishments, or of lands occupied by the owner, then by computing the income at six per cent upon the capital the realty represents, verified by a legitimate deed of ownership or holding, or by a judicial sentence recognizing either.

If not occupied by the owner, then by reckoning the income in the same manner, or by the exhibition of a contract of lease of the realty entered in notarial price of the lease. books a year before, with express declaration of the

SEC. 2. As to income derived from trade or profes

sion:

(1.) By certificate showing inscription, a year previously, in the "Commercial Register," as merchant, broker, auctioneer, chief clerk of a commercial house, master of vessel, pilot, or administrator of a factory.

(2.) By certificate from the respective fiscal department of ownership of a factory, workshop, or commercial, manufacturing, or rural establishment, with a provincial annual tax of not less than 24 milreis in capital of at least 6,800 milreis, paying an imperial or Rio, 12 milreis in other cities, and 6 milreis in towns and other places of the empire.

The taxes referred to in this provision confer electoral capacity only when paid for at least a year before

enrollment.

No taxes but those mentioned in this law can serve for proof of income.

* See "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1880.

(3.) By certificate extracted from the book of bank companies or commercial or manufacturing associations, legally authorized, proving the citizen to have been employed, for a year previously, at a salary not less than the legal income.

SEC. 3. As to income derived from public or provincial stocks, by authentic certificate that he has held in his own name, or, if married, in that of his wife, for a year previously, stock yielding annually at least the required income."

SEC. 4. As to income derived from shares of legally authorized banks and companies, or from deposits in government savings-banks or others authorized by the Government, by authentic certificate of holding, for a year before enrollment, in his own or his wife's name, shares or deposits yielding at least the said

annual income.

A certificate from the inspector or director of public instruction in Rio or in the provinces shall serve as proof thereof.

(4.) Ministers and councilors of state, senators, deputies to the General Assembly, members of the Provincial Legislative Assemblies, the effective vercadores and the justices of peace with number.

(5.) Employés of the diplomatic or consular corps. (6.) Officers of the army, navy, and police corps, including the active and reserve, retired and honorary with pay.

(7.) Imperial, provincial, or municipal functionaries having pay of over 200 milreis, with right of super

annuation.

(8.) Serventuarios for life in office of justice, with allowances of at least 200 milreis per annum.

ART. V. Any citizen unable to prove the legal income by any of the modes laid down in the preceding articles will be permitted to do so by the rental value of the house or houses he has lived in, with his own earnings, during at least a year before, the rental value paid by him being 400 milreis in Rio; 300 milreis in the cities of Bahia, Recife, Maranhão, Para, Nictheroy, São Paulo, and Porto Alegre; 200 milreis in other cities; 100 milreis in towns and other settlements; also by rented farms, etc., paying 200 milreis

a year rent.

(This proof must be made before a judge.)

All certificates and other documents required for enrollment of electors are exempt from stamp and any other taxes.

ARTS. VI to VIII treat of the enrollment by the municipal judges, with revision by the juiz de Direito, and appeal to the Relaçao.

ART. IX. Excepting restrictions hereafter enumerated, every citizen included in Article II is eligible as senator, deputy to the General Assembly, member of the Provincial Legislatures, vereador, justice of the peace, and any other charge created by law.

Only section. A special condition of eligibility is: For senator of the empire, to be over forty years of age, and have 1,600 milreis income.

For deputy to the General Assembly, member of the Provincial Legislature, to be over twenty-five years of age, and have 800 milreis income; and, as to naturalized persons, have resided six years in Brazil. For vereador and justice of the peace, that of residence for at least two years within the municipality. ART. X enumerates a long list of functionaries in

eligible as senator, deputy, or provincial member, within the region over which their functions extend, and the ineligibility includes engineers, contractors, furnishers, and others interested in public, guaranteed, or subsidized works, or deriving pecuniary profit from state, province, or municipality works. Shareholders, however, are not included.

ART. XI. No remunerated public functionary can hold his office during the session, if he accepts the legislative mandate; and if he accepts a senatorship, he must at once be superannuated.

Excepting ministers and secretaries of state, councilors of state, bishops, embassadors and envoys extraordinary on special mission, presidents of provinces, military and naval officers, as to seniority and pay, and senators, etc., obtaining license from their respective

chambers.

ART. XII forbids the election of ministers of state as senators while holding office, and for six months afterward, unless the vacancy occurs in the native province or that of domicile.

ART. XIII forbids the acceptance by senators, and by deputies and members of provincial assemblies during the session and six months after, of any paid government or provincial employment or commission, except of councilor of state, president of province, embassador or envoy extraordinary, bishop, and commander of sea or land forces. It also forbids their obtaining concessions, privileges, contracts, etc., but not patents. Two years of residence in the province is required for election as provincial member."

ARTS. XIV and XV treat of the elections in general. ART. XVI treats of elections of senators, which must be by separate triple lists for each vacancy.

ART. XVII treats of elections of deputies to the General Assembly, which will be in districts of one deputy. Rio is to have three districts, Bahia and Recife two each.

ART. XVIII treats of elections of vereadores and justices of the peace.

ARTS. XIX to XXI, of penalties.

ART. XXII postpones all elections, except as provided for in Article XXIX of the Constitution, until the conclusion of the first general enrollment, and the Government may delay to the last working day of December, 1881, the general election of deputies to the next Legislature.

ART. XXIII provides for collecting, in a distinct part of the instructions to be issued for the execution of the law, all existing provisions and decisions in harmony with it, to be submitted to Parliament for approval.

ART. XXV revokes contrary provisions.

A novel event for Brazil was that of general elections by a free constituency, untrammeled by government pressure and unbiased by government interference. It was apprehended, however, that electoral reforms may not prove to be an unmixed blessing for Brazil just yet, it being doubtful whether the masses are sufficiently enlightened to see the necessity of breaking with traditional evils and allowing themselves to be carried along by the current of modern progress. The late elections threw a Liberal majority into the Chamber of Deputies, while in the Senate the Conservatives were and still remain in majority; hence the position of a Liberal Cabinet must needs be embarrassing, particularly so when hampered by the parliamentary requirement of an absolute majority in the formation of a quorum. The present Cabinet has little to fear on that score; but, in the case of a successor, the difficulty would at once arise, unless the Liberal majority in the Chamber of Deputies should give

proof of unprecedented assiduity, disciplined union, and abnegation of self-interest.

Nevertheless, and in face of all opposition, the spirit and letter of the emancipation law * of September, 1871, continue to be observed, and every measure is taken that, directly or indirectly, contributes to the accomplishment of the great work of abolition. In December, 1880, the Provincial Legislature of Rio de Janeiro imposed a tax of $500 on each slave brought into the province, except in the case of slaves already owned when the law was passed, and merely transferred from an estate outside the province to another within the province, and the property of the same plant.er. A tax of $15 was imposed on the register of slaves moved from one municipality to another. A bill, signed by the majority of the members, was brought into the São Paulo Assembly, imposing a fee of $1,000 for the register of every slave, not inherited, brought hereafter into the province. Half the fee was to be applied to emancipations. Thus São Paulo and Minas-Geraes have followed the course of the province of Rio de Janeiro to stop, by prohibitive taxes, the further introduction of slaves.

There were reports that the question of Chinese labor would be brought to test before long, "an eminent American contractor having undertaken to forward to Rio de Janeiro a number of coolies, under contract to serve five years on plantations, at five dollars a month, with rations."

BROWNING, ORVILLE H., born in Harrison County, Kentucky, 1806; died August 10, 1881, at Quincy, Illinois. Early in life Mr. Browning removed to Buckner County, where he went through a course of classical studies at Augusta College, while officiating as clerk in the county and circuit courts. He afterward studied law and was admitted to the bar. In 1831 he went to reside in Quincy, Illinois, where he practiced his profession. Having served through the Black Hawk War, he was elected in 1836 to the Illinois Senate, and four years later to the Lower House, in which he served two years. At the Bloomingdale Convention he co-operated with Abraham Lincoln in organizing the Republican party of Illinois. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Chicago Convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln for the presidency, and during the war he was an active supporter of the Government. In 1861 Governor Yates appointed Mr. Browning to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Douglas, United States Senator from Illinois. In this position he served for two years with distinction. While in Washington he engaged in the practice of law with Hon. Jeremiah Black and Hon. Thomas G. Ewing. President Andrew Johnson appointed Mr. Browning Secretary of the Interior, and he also acted as Attorney-General for a brief time, upon the retirement of Henry Stanbery, of Ohio. At the expiration *See "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1871.

of his service as Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Browning resumed his profession in Quincy, where he continued to reside in active practice up to the time of his death. His State laments his decease as the loss of an able public ser

vant.

BULGARIA, a principality of Southeastern Europe, which was created in 1878 by the Treaty of Berlin, as a dependency of Turkey. Reigning Prince, Alexander I,* elected in 1879; area, 63,972 square kilometres (1 kilometre = 0-386 square mile); population on January 1, 1881, 1,995,701. The population of the principal cities on the same date was as follows: Sofia (the capital), 20,541; Rustchuk, 26,867; Varna, 24,649; Shumla, 22,921; Widdin, 13,602; Tirnova, 11,500; Sistova, 11,438. The only railroad in operation was that from Rustchuk to Varna, 224 kilometres. The number of post-offices in 1879 was 35; the number of letters and postal-cards sent, 337,600; of printed matter and packages, 2,060; of newspapers, 402,454. The length of the government telegraph lines in 1879 was 2,057 kilometres, and of the wires 3,021 kilometres. The number of offices was 31, and of dispatches 99,350. The National Assembly consists of the Exarch or head of the Bulgarian Church, of one half of the bishops, one half of the presidents and members of the Supreme Court, one half of the presidents of the district courts and of the commercial court, and of deputies of the people one member representing 20,000 per

sons.

The people of the principality were in 1881 deprived of the Constitution, which, in accordance with the Treaty of Berlin, they had formed to suit themselves. The change from a constitutional monarchy, with exaggeratedly democratic popular rights and guarantees, to an autocratic state, was accomplished by a virtual act of usurpation on the part of their elected prince, Alexander. On the 9th of May the Prince dissolved the National Assembly, and declared the Constitution suspended. The incompetency of the administration, and the mistakes of the majority, whose alleged follies and short-comings had prompted the arbitrary course of the sovereign, were in a measure confessed by the chief members of the Liberal party themselves. Their parliamentary leader, the Minister-President Zancoff, proposed, instead of the total revocation of the Constitution, as demanded by the Prince, its suspension for three years, during which time the Prince should govern with the assistance of a Cabinet and of a Council of State, composed of foreign experts, selected by the Assembly.

The draft of a constitution made by Prince Dondoukoff-Korsakoff was constructed in harmony with the liberal views of the popular party, who have all along carried with them

*For a biography of Alexander I, see "Annual Cyclopæ

dia" for 1879, article ALEXANDER I; for an account of the history of the race, of the progress of education, of newspapers, of industry, and of the Bulgarian Church, see "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1878, article BULGARIA.