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that it is unmanageable. At the dictation of the Ultramontanes, the ministers have deferred the reform of the military service, and on the question of meat duties they also sacrificed their convictions. When, however, Woeste, the leader of the Clericals in the Chamber, introduced a bill in February for the repayment of contributions to the pension fund retained from the salaries of teachers who resigned for reasons of conscience after the passage of the Liberal school law in 1879, the ministers took a firm stand against the proposition. All those teachers have now places in the conventual schools, and receive better pay than formerly. Woeste persisted in his proposal, which was sure of the approval of the committee and of the House, in spite of its condemnation by the Minister of Education, and only withdrew the bill when the ministers declared they would make it a Cabinet question. The labor troubles that have occurred in recent years spurred the Government to an inquiry into the condition of the working classes that has borne fruit in the shape of some ameliorative legislation. A bill for improving the dwellings of the poor was passed in the session of 1889. Committees are to be instituted all over the country, of which the members are nominated in part by the Government and in part by the provincial councils, for promoting the construction of workingmen's dwellings and managing their sale by annual installments. They are expected to examine the condition of the houses of the poor, and can recommend the expropriation of unsanitary quarters and receive donations from individuals, subsidies from the authorities, and loans from the Royal Savings Bank secured on life-insurance policies to aid in providing work people with homes owned by themselves. Provinces, communes, and charitable institutions are likewise authorized to accept donations for the erection of workingmen's dwellings. The committees will grant prizes for cleanliness, order, and economy. Workingmen's houses are exempted from taxation if occupied by owners possessing no other property, and when private companies undertake the construction of improved dwellings of this character they are released from the payment of various taxes. A recent law establishing courts of arbitration to decide disputes between employers and workmen is said to be of small advantage to the latter as it is simply permissive, cases having occurred in which employers, after appealing to the court, refused to be bound by its verdict.

Anarchist Trial. - Alfred Defuisseaux, a leader of the Belgian Socialists, became a fugitive from the officers of the law in 1886, when he evaded prosecution for the authorship of a revolutionary pamphlet called the "People's Catechism." The Socialists expelled him from their party on account of his subversive aims, but he has continued to guide the party of action from his retreat near Paris, and was one of the chief instigators of the miners' and glass-blowers' strike in 1887. The plan of action is to arrange a universal strike, and by the simultaneous stoppage of all production to compel the ruling class to grant the demands of the laborers. In August, 1887, his adherents, led by his nephew Georges Defuisseaux, organized a Social-Republican party in Mons, and plotted a labor revolt that should

take place in conjunction with an uprising in France, or anterior to one, with the assistance of French Anarchists. Another orator, named Rouhette, who surpassed young Defuisseaux in inflammatory talk, was the author of the more revolutionary plans. In November, 1888, the leaders issued a circular couched in seditious language, calling a party convention at Châtelet, near Charleroi, for Dec. 2. When the convention assembled, all present took an oath of secrecy. The meeting chose for its president Laloi, the most violent of the agitators. On the motion of Georges Defuisseaux, a general strike was approved by a vote of 52 against 17. Laloi and André were in communication with the elder Defuisseaux, who urged them to arrange for the strike to take place not later than the middle of January, 1889. Conferences were held in the house of Alfred Defuisseaux at Bondy, near Paris, at the suggestion of Laloi, who there proposed a scheme of revolutionary action in connection with the general strike, which Defuisseaux thought was in itself sufficient to accomplish the social revolution. According to Laloi's plan, the workingmen in Belgium were to be supplied with arms from France, and Belgian deserters and refugees were to be armed and collected at the border, ready to march into Belgium. After the strike, which should begin simultaneously everywhere at the signal of chalk marks on the houses, four columns of armed revolutionists were to march on Brussels from Liége, Charleroi, Seraing, and Borinage, while disturbances in the industrial towns impelled the Government to denude the capital of troops. If possible, a frontier difficulty with Germany should be created for the purpose of drawing away troops. In December and January meetings were held almost nightly in darkness so that detectives might not be able to distinguish the countenances of those present. At these meetings dynamite bombs were distributed, and for weeks the inhabitants of the province of Hainaut were alarmed by constant explosions. The chief instigator of the dynamite outrages was a man named Pourbaix, who employed a young miner named Ledoux and others to give out the explosives and to pay money for firing them off.

On Jan. 10, about two weeks before the date set for the contemplated strike, the police arrested the ringleaders. An indictment was drawn up by the state prosecutor against twentyseven persons, who were accused of having planned and partly carried out a plot against the security of the state. The trial began on May 6 in the Hainaut criminal court at Mons. The principal persons indicted were Alfred Defuisseaux, who remained away, his nephew Georges, the brothers Paul and Hector Conreur, Laloi, Maroille, Mignon, and Rouhette. Of the twenty-seven persons summoned to answer to the charge of high treason, twenty-two faced their accusers at the bar. Rouhette and one or two others fled, and the rest were already refugees. Paul Janson and Edmond Picard, the leading advocates of Brussels, defended the prisoners. The evidence for the prosecution was furnished chiefly by Pourbaix, who was detained as a witness. About the time when the trial began, ex-Deputy Léon Defuisseaux, a brother of Alfred, published a pamphlet in which he

charged the Government with having incited, through agents provocateurs, all the treasonable plotting that had taken place. These revelations were proved to be true. Laloi, the plotter of an armed insurrection, by the testimony of a high police official, was proved to have been in constant communication with Devolders, the Minister of the Interior, and with the Minister-President, Beernaert. His associate in seditious conspiracies, Rouhette, who rivaled him in incendiary harangues and incitement to violence, was supposed to be another police spy. Pourbaix, the instigator of the dynamite outrages, was certainly one, and so was André. Defuisseaux and his associates denied that they had planned insurrection or violence of any sort or knew of any plans except that of a general strike. Evidence elicited from the police showed that Pourbaix was the author of a revolutionary manifesto published in May, 1887, that led to a miners' strike and tumults in Hainaut and Borinage, and that before issuing it he had submitted it to the approval of Ministers Devolder and Beernaert, who afterward permitted Georges Defuisseaux and Hector Conreur to be arrested and detained for months in jail on suspicion of having written and sent out the same document. The startling disclosures of the trial virtually reversed the positions of accusers and accused, and stigmatized the ministers at the head of the Government as greater culprits than the prisoners in the dock. The prosecution withdrew all charges in relation to five of the prisoners. The jury acquitted the others of the intention to change the form of government, of inciting to civil war or devastation, of conspiracy, and of causing dynamite conspiracies. Three were convicted of inciting to the commission of crimes, and these were the police spies. All the others were acquitted.

The Government sought to cast all the odium on the Administration of Public Safety, as the state police department is called, but the chief of this department, Gautier de Rasse, averred that he had sought to dissuade the Government from prosecuting, as there was no evidence of a treasonable conspiracy. The Minister of Justice, Lejeune, took upon himself the entire responsibility. The Liberals, however, insisted on having the explanations of Beernaert and Devolder; but they evaded the question, and on a vote of want of confidence were sustained by a strict party vote of seventy-eight against thirty-two. Thousands gathered about the Parliament house and greeted them with hissing and denunciations as they came out. Paul Janson, who made a stirring argument in defense of the accused Socialists, was shortly afterward elected to the Chamber of Representatives from Brussels by a large majority over the Clerical candidate. Letters stolen from the archives of the Belgian police department and published in the "Nouvelle Revue" of Madame Adam in Paris tended to show that an understanding had existed with the German Government to provoke anarchistic attempts and adopt an anti-Socialist law.

The Flemish Movement. Although the Flemings form the majority of the population, French has hitherto been the official and legal language of the country. Consequently it became the language of business and of social intercourse, and Low Dutch was neglected and

reduced to the position of a patois until the recent literary and national revival. Now the Flemish people, relying on the favor of the party in power, expect to raise their language to a perfect equality with the French. Coremans, who represents Antwerp in the Chamber, has carried through an act directing courts of justice to conduct their proceedings in Flemish at the request of a prisoner or litigant. The demands of the Flemings embrace the following points; 1. Low Dutch shall be the official language of state, provincial, and communal authorities in the provinces where all the people use it as their mother tongue, i. e., in East and West Flanders, Antwerp, and Limbourg, unless citizens ask to confer in French, while in Brabant, where the population is mixed, either language can be employed, and in the central bureaus of the Government at Brussels both languages shall stand on an equal footing and officials must know enough Flemish to carry on business with citizens and local administrations in that language. 2. In the administration of justice Low Dutch must be the language of the courts in examinations, preliminary proceedings, public trial, and decisions, unless an accused person or a suitor wishes to have French used. In the Court of Cassation parties can choose to have a case tried in either language. 3. Low Dutch shall be the language of instruction in all grades of schools and in all branches of study, except French, throughout Flemish Belgium. 4. The army should be organized territorially; officers and surgeons should be required to know Low Dutch; and in courts martial the accused should be allowed to choose the language to be employed. 5. The civil guard and the gendarmerie shall use Low Dutch in the Flemish provinces. 6. Low Dutch shall be the exclusive language in the administration of marine affairs, since French is a foreign tongue to both officers and seamen. 7. Diplomatists and consular agents must be familiar with the language of the main part of the Belgian people. The agitators ask for the establishment of a Flemish university at Antwerp. Although the Clericals are anxious to please the Flemings, it will be almost impossible to make Low Dutch the juridical language of northern Belgium, because the Code Napoléon has never been translated into Flemish, and the Walloon members of Parliament can not intelligently sanction a translation that they would have to vote paragraph by paragraph.

BIBLE SOCIETIES. I. American Bible Society. The seventy-third annual meeting of the American Bible Society was held in New York, May 9th. Hon. Enoch L. Fancher presided. The entire cash receipts of the society during the year for general purposes had been $499,823, besides which $1,347 had been received to be permanently invested. The expenditures had been $555,989. The excess of $56,166 over the receipts had been provided for, in part by loan and in part by the sale of available securities. The whole amount of invested trust funds was $358,497, the income from which had amounted to $13,671. Certain other funds, the par value of which was $153,631, representing the unexpended remainders of some large legacies, were still available for the charitable uses of the society. The interest received from these invest

ments had amounted to $11,371. The property known as the Bible House, besides furnishing full accommodation for the operations of the society, yielded $33,325 of rentals. The additions to the society's library included books representing recent progress in preparing and circulating the Scriptures in connection with great missionary movements. In the department of translations and revisions, progress was reported in versions in Ponape, Gilbert Islands, Muskokee, Syriac, ancient Armenian, easy Wenli (Chinese), Telugu, and Spanish. An experiment was contemplated of circulating a few copies in manuscript of one of the gospels in Kurdish, to determine whether the Kurds can be reached in this way, and also to ascertain what style of character will be most suitable to the purpose. The whole number of issues for the year, at home and in foreign lands, was 1,440,450 copies, of which 434,681 were published in foreign lands. In addition to the last number, 75,101 copies were sent abroad from the Bible House. The places at which copies were printed abroad were Constantinople, Beirut, Shanghai, Foochow, Bangkok, Yokohama, Bremen, and Lodiana. The importance of the society's work in foreign lands is insisted on in the report. The disbursements in this department had amounted to $161,440. The anticipation that the general resupply of the United States would be completed during the year had not been fulfilled; but considerable remained to be done in certain districts. One hundred and forty-four colporteurs had been employed, with 116 paid agents engaged by auxiliary societies. The combined results of the work of the colporteurs and auxiliaries are summarized: Families visited, 567,016; found without the Scriptures, 66,951; supplied, 46,253; individuals supplied in addition, 27,993.

II. British and Foreign Bible Society. The eighty-fifth annual meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society was held in London, May 1, the Earl of Harrowby presiding. The total receipts for the year had been £212,655, and the disbursements £226,164. About 3,700,000 copies of the Bible and Testament and parts had been put in distribution. This was about five hundred thousand less than the number distributed in 1887, but the decrease was accounted for by the natural subsidence from the extraordinarily energetic circulation during the Royal Jubilee. Most of the reports from the countries in which the society pursues its operations gave evidence of widening interest in it, and of deeper devotion to its work. It was hoped that the society would soon be able to withdraw from some countriesGermany, for instance-and allow the people to carry on their own work.

BOLIVIA, a republic of South America. (For details relating to area, territorial divisions, population etc., see “Annual Cyclopædia" for 1883 and 1886.)

Government. The President of the republic is Don Aniceto Arce, whose term of office will expire on Aug. 1, 1892. His Cabinet is composed of the following ministers: Foreign Affairs, Finances, and Interior, Don Telmo Ichazo; War, Gen. Cabrera. The Bolivian Minister at Washington and Delegate to the Congress of American Nations is Don Juan F. Velarde. The Bolivian Consul-General at New York is Don

Melchor Obarris.

The American Minister at

La Paz is Samuel S. Carlisle.
Army. The regular army is composed of 8
generals, 359 superior and 654 subaltern officers,
and 2,000 enlisted men. There is besides a Na-
tional Guard, in which all citizens capable of
bearing arms are enrolled.

Finances. The foreign debt of Bolivia amounts to $8,579,625, and the home debt to $10,000,000. The Government is in hopes of making a compromise with holders of the latter at fifty cents on the dollar. Congress authorized the Executive to open negotiations in London for a £2,000,000 loan, the proceeds of which are to be applied as follows:

1. To the conversion of the foreign debt acknowledged by the state in the treaty with Chili of April 4, 1884; 2. To the payment of all other external indebtedness; 3. To the payment of balances due the National Bank and the Bank of Potosi; 4. To the payment of interest on that portion of the home debt recognized by a special law. Any balance there may be is to be spent on public works.

Treaties. The treaty fixing the boundary line between Bolivia and the Argentine Republic has been ratified. The boundary dispute with Paraguay is in a fair way of being settled. As for the treaty of commerce and navigation with Brazil, there were still some slight differences to be overcome, and, so soon as these shall have been disposed of, Bolivia is ready to ratify the treaty.

Railroads. The railway contractor J. W. Firth returned to La Paz from a trip to Europe in the autumn of 1889, having secured from the Bolivian Government certain concessions, under the provisions of which he intends extending the Arica-Tacna line to La Paz and Oruro via Corocoro. This line will establish communication between a rich mineral region and the outlets of Tacna and Arica. From Corocoro a branch is to be built to Puno in Peru, which in its turn is in communication by rail with Mollendo, the Peruvian port, and with Bolivia through navigation on Lake Titicaca. This ramification, together with the Antofagasta - Oruro line, will procure Bolivia great commercial facilities, which are all the more welcome as she does not possess a seaport. Negotiations are in progress with a powerful English syndicate for the purpose of giving Bolivia direct communication by rail with several of the neighboring republics and Brazil. In May, W. H. Christy applied for a concession to build a railroad from Sotolaya to the Ancora district, in the Department of La Paz, at the same time petitioning the Government to declare Satolaya a port of entry. Simultaneously the explorer Don Arturo Tovar arrived from Europe, for the purpose of obtaining a concession to build a railroad between Formosa and Caiz, and deepen the Pilcomayo river. He is backed by a syndicate of French capitalists.

The Chilian Tariff.-Dating from Jan. 1, 1889, the Chilian tariff went into operation in Bolivia. Since the import duties were raised at Arica in 1888, a great portion of the goods intended for Bolivia have gone via the Peruvian port of Mollendo, where the Bolivian Government had a custom-house for the dispatch of merchandise inland via Lake Titicaca, and where

such goods paid a lower rate of duty than at Arica. The duty collected at the Bolivian Custom House at Mollendo did not exceed $155,731 in 1886; in 1888, the revenue derived from that source reached $744,180.

Silver Mines.-Bolivia, next to the United States and Mexico, is the most important silverproducing country, the average annual product being $20,000,000. The celebrated Huanchaca mine is the most productive in the country. It usually declares a dividend of £4 per share every month, and in June, 1889, the company declared an extra dividend of £40 per share, in consequence of the exceptionally large output since the beginning of the year. Chilian capitalists are largely interested in this mine, but the largest shareholder of the company is the President of the Bolivian republic himself. The company has nearly finished the railroad from Antofagasta to its mine; its completion will do away with the transport of ore and silver on mules' backs. The Londres mine was first worked by the Spaniards three hundred years ago. About thirty years ago it came into the possession of English capitalists, who made large sums from it. But the officers of the English company began to steal the ore, and after a while the stockholders refused to continue the work. Finally the English capitalists abandoned it altogether, and the mine became flooded. W. H. Christy, of Boston, secured the mine of the Bolivian Government, freed it of water by means of a tunnel, and began digging. The product comprises 25 per cent. copper and 75 per cent. silver, the latter averaging from 200 to 2,000 ounces to the ton. Mr. Christy has also come into possession of eight lead mines and the only known coal mine in Bolivia. The Bolivian Government, in consideration of what Mr. Christy has done, has given him the exclusive privilege of smelting in the republic for fifteen years.

Cinchona Bark.-Calisaya bark from Bolivia, a species of cinchona, in 1889 was chiefly shipped to Hamburg. The cultivated flat calisaya bark is highly appreciated abroad, notably in France, where it has been introduced into the army and navy hospitals. Shipments of cinchona bark from Ceylon to London have fallen off considerably of late years; thus, from Oct. 1, 1885, to June 13, 1886, they were 11,995,310 pounds; in 1886-87, 10,979,218; in 1887-88, 8,553,756, and in 1888-'89, 8,091,404; the total shipments from Ceylon were, 1886-'87, 14,389,184 pounds; 1887-'88, 11,704,932, and 1888-'89, 10,209,481. Planters in the British East India colonies and Java have gradually abandoned cinchona culture and substituted that of tea, because overproduction brought about such a fall in prices that the industry became unremunerative. As consumption had meanwhile been stimulated all over the world by the low prices, it began to outrun the supply in the autumn of 1889, and in October the price of quinine advanced in London from 11d. an ounce to 144d., and in New York from 22 cents to 30 cents.

Coca.-Coca leaves from Bolivia and Peru have also been in scanty supply in Europe and the United States in 1889, the shipments being quite light, and there being a total absence of handsome green leaves. Inundations in the producing districts diminished the amount avail

able for exportation. Only a few parcels of Bolivian coca arrived at Hamburg via New York, and the general tendency was upward on both sides of the Atlantic. The coca shrub resembles the tea plant, attaining a height of about six feet. The seeding is done early in the rainy season; a little later the plant is transplanted to the slopes of the Cordillera, and at the end of eighteen months the first leaves are gathered. The shrub continues in bearing for thirty years. The chief producing districts are the provinces of Mapiri and Yungas in Bolivia, and Carabaya in Peru, the trade centering at Cuzco, Peru. The native Indians consume annually 15,000 tons of coca leaves.

BRAZIL, an empire in South America. (For details relating to area, territorial divisions, population, etc., see “ Annual Cyclopædia," for 1884.) Government.-The Emperor was Dom Pedro II, born Dec. 2, 1825. His Cabinet was composed of the following ministers: President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Finance, Senator Affonso Celso, Visconde de Ouro Preto: Minister of the Interior, Franklin Daria, Baron de Soreto; Minister of Justice, Senator Cándido de Oliveira; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Diana; Army, Visconde de Maralajú; Navy, Baron de Ladoris; Agriculture, Laurenço de Albuquerque. The Brazilian Minister at Washington is Dom J. G. do Amaral Valente. The Consul-General of Brazil at New York is Dr. Salvador Mendonça. The American Minister at Rio de Janeiro is Thomas J. Jarvis; the Consul-General, H. Clay Armstrong.

Finances.-On May 15, 1889, the foreign debt of Brazil amounted to £28,190,000, and the internal debt to 598,800,000 milreis. As the Government has withdrawn its treasury notes, the floating debt arising therefrom had been obliterated. The Government still had to its credit with its financial agents in London the sum of £2,000,000, balance due the Government out of its last loan. The paper money then in circulation was 188,861,000 milreis. The budget for 1889 estimated the income at 147,200,000 milreis, and the outlay at 173,415,408, including 20,266,966 milreis extraordinary expenses; that for 1890 estimates the revenue at 150,769,500 milreis and the expenditure—including 19,748,208 of extraordinary outlays, chiefly on railroads-at 170,967,928 milreis. In 1888 the revenue exceeded the first estimate by 9,000,000 milreis, while the expenditure remained 3,200,000 milreis below the estimate.

The subscriptions to the 100,000,000 milreis European 4-per-cent. loan of the Brazilian Government amounted, in September, 1889, to nearly four times what was wanted; the loan, equaling £11,250,000, was negotiated at 90, and immediately after it had been taken it commanded 14 per cent. premium in London.

Army and Navy.-The actual strength of the army is 18,164 men, including commissioned officers and enlisted men.

The navy is composed of 52 vessels doing active service, 9 of them being armored, 5 cruisers, 16 gunboats, 2 steam transports, 5 school ships, 13 torpedo boats, and 2 steam tugs; mounting together 254 guns, and having a collective horse-power of 19,329, and a tonnage of 40,252. It is manned by 5,272 sailors.

[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

Telegraphs. In 1888 the 170 telegraph offices forwarded 528,161 messages, over a length of line of 10,630 kilometres, the length of wire being 18,364. The receipts were 1,482,102, and the expenses 2,421,769 milreis. Early in May, 1889, was published the call for tenders for the telegraph-cable concessions between the United States and Brazil, to be received till Oct. 30 in London, Paris, Washington, and Rio de Janeiro. Commerce. The development of Brazil's foreign commerce during the years 1882-83 to 1887-'88 is shown in the ensuing table, reduced to contos, or thousands of milreis:

1882-188

1888-'84

1884-'85

1885-'86

1886-'87

1887-'88

YEARS.

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209,407 263,520
260,999 212,592

in 1888 was as follows: Imports, 133,471,925 milreis; exports, 95,752,919. The imports were chiefly from the following countries, with the amount set against each: United States, 7,322,074 milreis; England, 47,061,810; France, 16,969,942; Germany, 13,254,683; Uruguay, 19,670,636; Argentine Republic, 11,069,193; Belgium, 5.361,136; Portugal, 7,593,343. The exports were distributed as follows: To the United States, 58,488,132 milreis; England, 4,523.178; France, 7,182,531; Germany, 10.485,739; Uruguay, 887,259; Argentine Republic, 2,202,431; Belgium, 2,457,429; Portugal, 337,126. The American trade with Brazil exhibits these figures:

1888

392,464 1887
472,927
473,591

The coffee shipments from the ports of Rio de Janeiro and Santos were as follows, during the twelve months from July 1 to June 30:

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1888-'89. 1887-'88.

Bags. 3,320,003

2,865,313

Bags. 1,812,784 1,764,581

147,473

6,832,789

3,195,138

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Flour exportation from the United States to Brazil amounted during the quinquennium 1874-78 to 2,765,732 barrels. In the next five years, 1879-'83, it reached 3,291,342, and in the last five years, 1884-'88, it was 3,199,353, the total during the fifteen years being 9,266,427 barrels, or 617,762 on an average. The largest shipments were in 1887, 748.937 barrels.

Complaints have reached the State Depart117,778 ment at Washington from American Consuls in southern Brazil of the practice, which has become quite prevalent, of falsifying American trade-marks. Austro-Hungarian manufacturers have made similar complaints.

The sugar exportations from Pernambuco have been as follows: In 1886, 106,797 tons; in 1887,

VOL. XXIX.-6 A

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