agency in the city of San Salvador. It is recommended by some to organize in connection with the establishment a savings bank.

The exports for the year 1877 were of a total value of $3,773, 183.74; comprising coffee ($3,358,956.16), cochineal ($181,693), woolen goods ($115,939.20), muscovado ($28,303), hides ($62,343.84), etc. These commodities were distributed among the various markets as follows: Great Britain, $1,073,977; California, $1,037,531; New York, $193,252; Germany, $819,910; France, $311,870; Belize, $181,660; Central America, $127,308; South America, $30,909. The chief sources of the imports and the values of these were as follows in the same year: Great Britain, $1,208,894.87; France, $458,162.44; Germany, $317,367.60; United States, $378,753.21. "Commerce generally, in Guatemala," writes a journalist under date of June, 1878, "as in all parts of the west coast of America, feels the effects of overtrading. Were there more producers and fewer middlemen, there would be more of the material of commerce to handle and larger gains for those able to handle them skillfully." A decree has been issued by the Government granting a premium of four reals per quintal (100 lbs.) of muscovado sugar exported. The cultivators of sugar in Guatemala have enormous difficulties to contend against as compared with Peru or the West Indian Islands. The price of labor is so much higher than cooly labor, and the freights both on land and sea are so much heavier, that it is only by the most determined perseverance and industry that they are able to obtain a scanty recompense from their crops. A privilege had been granted for a term of five years to a company for the introduction of machines and the establishment of factories for the manipulation and perfection of manufactures from the textile plants of the country. These exist in great abundance in several of the departments, and the inhabitants have to some extent endeavored to utilize them. The concession in question is not intended to interfere with the employment of the methods now in use by the Indians and others, but rather to improve and perfect them, or, so far as the concessionists are concerned, to adopt those that may be new. The privileges received guarantee freedom from all duties on machinery and materials, and also from export duties on all fabrics, etc., which may be made and shipped abroad by them. A concession has been made to encourage the manufacture of cigars and cigarettes, after the methods employed in Cuba, and, with a view of exhibiting those methods to the public, the introduction free of duty of 50 cargoes of Havana tobacco is permitted. These different concessions are made as aids to the development of the industries of the country.

There now seems to be little doubt that Guatemala will shortly have a line of railway traversing the republic from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific. Toward the end of the year it VOL. XVIII.-27 A

was reported that the work on the road was actively progressing. To encourage the enterprise, the Government is said to have offered a cash advance of $210,000, payable in sums of $25,000 on every three miles during the progress of the work, and to guarantee to the stockholders an annual profit dividend of 12 per cent. on a fixed cost of $1,000,000. Locomotives, rails, etc., were expected to arrive from the United States during the month of January, 1879. Track-laying, ballasting, etc., were to commence as soon as the rails and ties were on the ground. A force of Chinamen from California was to perform that part of the labor. The rates of wages paid to laborers on the railroad in the coast section are considerably higher than those current on sugar or coffee estates. Six reals per day is allowed them, with rations, etc., while on the estates men receive but three reals. It was intended, however, when the works should be completed to Naranjo, to reduce the wages one half. It was understood that about March, 1879, a preliminary survey would be made between Escuintla and the capital, to ascertain the probable cost of completing the railroad to the latter city, and strong inducements were held out to the company to build the extension to the capital. Two routes are proposed. One is by Antigua, and has the advantage of passing through a fertile and populous country, whose products are sugar and coffee, while the other and the easiest route is via Amatitlan, skirting the shore of the lake, which it passes on the southeast side, and thence up through the valley on a gradual ascent, until the plateau upon which the capital stands is reached. The first route will be doubly more expensive, as there are several ridges to surmount, and one or two rivers to bridge, but in a business point of view is preferable to the other. On the Amatitlan route no serious difficulties are encountered. and the work would be comparatively an inexpensive one, which should yield a revenue to the company, besides being a vast service to the country. Though the name of the line is the "Central Railway of Guatemala," it is very commonly spoken of as the "San José & Escuintla Railroad," from the names of the two towns which will be the termini of the portion now in process of preparation. The grading through the mountain passes between Escuintla and Guatemala City will be a formidable undertaking; but the sound financial condition of the country, thanks to the policy of President Barrios, will enable the Government to secure an admirable road-bed on the most economical terms, and with the greatest possible dispatch. The line is already looked forward to as one of material advantage to American shippers, particularly those sending merchandise from San Francisco, between which port and several of those of Central America there is a brisk and ever increasing traffic. Indeed, it is affirmed that more than one Californian firm has advanced material for

the construction of the road, receiving very liberal ternis from the Government. With the completion of the Guatemala Central, the sea route between San Francisco and the Atlantic cities of the United States would be shortened by from 1,500 to 2,000 miles, and the additional advantage would be obtained of an extensive local trade which the Panama railway is powerless to favor.

A wagon road, now for a number of years in course of construction, will soon open up the interior to commercial enterprise, and place the Atlantic port of Santo Tomás within seven days of New York. This new facility, added to those of the harbor of Santo Tomás itself, will remove all difficulties hitherto impeding the extension of trade with the Atlantic shore of the republic, no small element of which would be the immediate introduction of American supplies for the mines, for the rich gold districts watered by the Motagua River, and but two or three days' journey distant from the port, are attracting considerable attention, since the favorable report given of them by an American mining engineer, who surveyed them at the President's request. But trade with the United States would not be limited to any particular branch. American manufactures of all kinds are in Guatemala preferred to European, and the demand for them will increase with increased possibilities of transport. Some twenty thousand American breech-loading rifles are at the present time in use in the Guatemalan

army.

Aware of the benefits to be derived from immigration, General Barrios's Government has taken steps to attract American settlers; and a decree issued in August, 1878, offered numerous and substantial inducements to foreigners disposed to engage in the cultivation of certain staples of the country-sarsaparilla, cacao, India-rubber, etc. The decree is to remain in force for 10 years, and it may not be inopportune here to enumerate a few of the more important clauses thereof: Probational gift of land in proportion to applicants' means of cultivating it; title to the same in perpetuity on proof that the ground has been planted, or forfeiture of right to title in the event of failure to cultivate a reasonable proportion of the holding within the first two years of occupation of the same; a premium of $50 per thousand for cacao and India-rubber trees planted and thriving, or of $25 for a like number of sarsaparilla shrubs; no premium for any larger number than 12,000 trees or plants.

The telegraph lines (the property of the Government), some 1,100 miles in length, with 45 stations in the most important parts of the country, have proved a profitable enterprise. The gross receipts for the month of March, 1878, were $7,923.84, with expenses not exceeding $6,345. The number of messages was 14,847, of which 3,357 were on Government service.

Public instruction, interesting details concerning which were published in the "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1876, continues to be the object of assiduous attention on the part of the Governinent; and it is proper here to observe that of 68 recompenses of merit awarded to exhibitors from Guatemala at the Paris Exposition in 1878, where the republic made a creditable display of various productions, one was a gold medal for primary instruction, and another, honorable mention for maps and geographical and cosmographical apparatus. An agricultural school recently established under the patronage of the Government is reported to be productive of most satisfactory results.

The establishment of a court of appeal in the western department, and one of higher jurisdiction in the capital, is spoken of as very important, as providing means for the more speedy trial of civil and other causes, which have been in litigation for years. The want of proper and sufficient tribunals has been severely felt for many years, particularly since the large increase in the population of the western department, owing to the remarkable development of coffee culture within the past few years. The scarcity of common courts and those of superior jurisdiction has been such that the trials of both civil and criminal cases were almost suspended. Litigants and their witnesses were forced to travel long distances to try their causes, and often obliged to submit to tiresome and expensive delays. This evil has been remedied to a considerable degree, the administration of the courts, provision for their establishment in outlying dis tricts, etc., having received the special atten tion of the Minister of Justice.

GUTZKOW, KARL FERDINAND, one of the foremost representatives of modern German literature, born in Berlin, March 17, 1811, died at Sachsenhausen near Frankfort, December 16, 1878. His life was almost wholly devoted to literary activity. In 1847 he succeeded Tieck as Dramaturg at the court theatre of Dresden, a position which gave him but little influence, and which he only retained two years and a half. In 1862 he was appointed Secretary-General of the Schiller Institution in Weimar, but this position likewise, though one of greater influence, did not satisfy him, as he disagreed on many important points with the Council of Administration. He fell for a time into a state of deep melancholy, and in a fit of insanity made an attempt upon his own life at Friedberg in 1864. He recovered, however, after a while, and a "Gutzkow Fund" which was established at this time, and to which the first theatres of Germany contributed, assured him of his continuing popularity. Gutzkow frequently changed his place of residence. During his youth he lived in Berlin, Munich, Frankfort, Hamburg, Dresden, and Weimar. After his recovery from the attempt upon his life he resided in succession in Vevey, in Kesselstadt near Hanau, in Bregenz,