Brazil had a short crop in 1883. In part it was also due to a more active speculative movement in New York and Rio than in Holland and Europe generally, in this staple article of consumption.

EXPORT OF COFFEE FROM RIO DURING THE TWELVEMONTH ENDED JUNE 80.

DESTINATION.

To European ports... United States.

Total...

1877.

1878.

1879.

1880.

1881. 1882.

1880. 1881. 1882. 1883.

Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. 61,719 181,079 94,410 112,081 110,435 128,581 184,800 152,557

EXPORT OF COFFEE FROM SANTOS.

Tons.

41,104

69.078

68,979

68,786

80,414

101,006

In 1882 there were fifty cotton-mills in operation in Brazil, having 2,305 looms and 77,328 spindles, employing 3,082 operatives, and having a capital invested of 8,632,000 milreis. They produced 22,076,000 yards of goods. Cattle-raising. The southern portion of the province of Rio Grande do Sul is the best suited for stock-raising. Land in this locality is difficult to obtain, it being generally hereditarily transmitted. Should it, however, come upon the market, the owners of adjoining property will make almost any sacrifice to obtain it rather than have a stranger settle in the neighborhood. Land is worth from $10 to $20 for each braça of frontage by 2,000 braças deep (a braça is 7 feet 2 inches). Stock-cattle are worth, one with the other, $5 to $6; for butchery they bring from $2.50 to $13. They are generally sold at the breeding-grounds, as the means of transportation are of the most primitive kind and the cost large. The slaughter last year amounted to 260,000 head, against 275,000 the year before.

Rio Grande's Hide-Shipments to New York. The following tables show the proportion of import of hides and kips into New York from Rio Grande, as compared with other sources of supply:

time. Being rich in tannin, it is employed for tanning leather in Brazil, and recently has been introduced for that purpose into France. A mixture of one third of "quebracho" and two thirds of ordinary tan gives good results.

Diamond-Mining.-The discovery of the first deposits of gold in the province of Minas-Geraes, the most productive in Brazil, led to the search for diamonds as early as the close of the seventeenth century, the first being found at Ser

ro.

The fever spread, and moving northward into virgin country founded the village of Tijuco, the Diamantina of to-day, the center of diamond-mining in Brazil. M. A. de Bovet, professor at the School of Mines of OuroPreto, Brazil, has recently, in the "Annales des Mines," Paris, published an exhaustive account of a visit to that section. Diamonds are found in the provinces of Minas-Geraes, Bahia, Paraná, Matto-Grosso, and Goyaz. In Minas they are mined at Diamantina, Grão Mogol, Bagagem, Conceição, Cocães, and other points, the first named, however, being the most important. Diamonds are found in a rounded gravel, having peculiar characteristics, which is called by the miners "cascalho." It is a mass of small pebbles, chiefly quartz, mixed with very little clay. If examined with care it will be found to contain a large number of minerals, many of which are present in the cascalho from all the districts.

BRIDGES. See ENGINEERING.

BRITISH COLUMBIA. This, the most western province of Canada, extends from the United States on the south to the Northwest Territories on the north, or from the forty-ninth to the sixtieth parallel of latitude, and from the Pacific ocean on the west to the main ridge of the Rocky mountains, as far north as parallel 54°, and thence to the sixtieth parallel along meridian 120° W. on the east.

Area and Population.-British Columbia is in its infancy. With a territory of 341,000 square miles, it had in 1881 a population of only 49,459, of whom 4,350 were Chinese, and 25,661 Indians. Victoria, the capital, is on the southern end of Vancouver island, on the straits of Juan de Fuca. Its population is 6,000. There are no other towns of note. The chief villages are: Esquimalt, near Victoria; Nanaimo, on the Gulf of Georgia; New Westminster and Port Moody, near the mouth of the Fraser;

Hope, Yale, Lytton, Kamloops, Lilloet, Richfield, Cariboo, and Quesnel, in the Fraser valley, and Cassiar, in the northern part of the province.

Geography.-The Rockies run in three nearly parallel chains, although in some localities they almost unite. Between these ranges are rough valleys, or narrow plateaus containing small tracts of arable land, besides larger areas suitable for grazing. Its timber is chiefly the far-famed Douglas pine, though in many localities, especially along the mainland and Vancouver island shores, the sturdy hard-woods are found growing to a considerable size. Between the Rockies and the Cascades or Coast-range, is

66

a broad, irregular plateau nearly one hundred miles in width, forming another district of Oases. In its valleys are found slopes, openings, and expansions, such that while, on the one side, grass grows luxuriantly, and oats, barley, and wheat ripen, on the other the ice is packed in the gorges throughout the year. But as rain falls very rarely on this plateau, the ice is of value in supplying moisture necessary to mature fall wheat and other grains.

Meteorology. The following table, illustrating the temperatures and rainfalls of some of these plateau valleys, compared with Esquimalt on the straits of Juan de Fuca, is from official reports of the Canadian Government:

The cause of the dry climate of the plateaus is found in the wide and high Coast-ranges, which intercept the moisture of the westerly winds. It may rain for several days over the western slope of these mountains, while not a drop falls on the eastern, only fifty miles distant. The clouds fly eastward, but appear incapable of forming rain. However, on the Gold and Selkirk ranges of the Rockies rain falls abundantly.

Along the mainland shore and on Vancouver island are many large tracts of land admirably suited for farming, and toward the head of the Fraser and in the Thompson valley many agricultural and grazing farms are established.

Forests. The plateau valleys and the plateaus are, as a rule, thinly wooded, although the Douglas pine and various hard-woods afford supplies far in excess of the present or the prospective demands. On the coast, and in Vancouver, however, the trees are of an enormous size, rivaling the giant pines of California.

Metals. The province abounds in minerals, the most precious and valuable having already been found in paying quantities. It was only in 1857 that the first gold was discovered in British Columbia. The gold is found in nuggets, three brought forth in 1877 being worth $40, $90, and $130, respectively. In other places it is found in thin scales, the rocks in all such cases being igneous. Hitherto gold-mining has been conducted in the primitive way, washing the sand or gravel of the streams, and collecting the proceeds. In places a lucky miner averages $20 to $100 a day; but, as the claims are small, good luck does not last long. From experiments conducted in San Francisco, it seems there are localities where the quartz yields 1.21 ounce of gold, 2:43 ounces of silver, and several pounds of copper to the single ton. Some specimens of silver-ore have yielded $300 a ton,

but ordinary specimens furnish 8.25 ounces of silver and 6 ounce of gold. Native silver pellets have often been found, but in isolated localities. Copper is found in rich veins in several places already, and also in ores. It occurs in a native state in the Thompson river district.

Coal.-Coal is very abundant. The extensive fields of Nanaimo or Vancouver are worked, while many others on the mainland are awaiting development. The following are the exports of coal mined in British Columbia for the year 1882:

During the same year British Columbia exported to the United States $723,225 worth of gold-quartz.

Education.—The system of free public education was established in British Columbia in 1872. During the first ten years of their existence the total expenditure for public schools amounted to $480,395. Up to the end of 1882 only 50 school-houses had been erected, and provision was made for 64 teachers for 1883. The number of pupils enrolled in 1882 was 2,653, with an average daily attendance of 1,359. There is one high-school in the province, with a registered attendance of 74. The education department is presided over by a chief superintendent, who acts under the direction of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, through the Provincial Secretary. The individual schools are controlled by school boards, consisting of three members each, who are elected by resident male freeholders and house

holders. The compulsory clauses of the school law require every child between the ages of 7 and 12, inclusive, to attend school for at least six months in the year. The penalty inflicted on the parent or guardian for non-compliance is $5 for the first offense, and $10 for each subsequent conviction.

BULGARIA, a principality created by the Treaty of Berlin, signed July 13, 1878, out of a portion of the Christian provinces of Turkey. The treaty provided that it should be an autonomous principality, tributary to Turkey, and under the suzerainty of the Sultan, with a Christian government, a prince elected by the people, and a national militia. By unanimous vote of the Constituent Assembly, Prince Alexander of Battenberg, brother of the then Empress of Russia, and grand-nephew of the German Emperor, was elected hereditary prince as Alexander I, April 29, 1879. The Constitution of 1879 vests the legislative authority in a single Chamber, the Sobranje, or National Assembly, elected by universal suffrage in the proportion of one deputy to every 10,000 inhabitants, and gives the Prince power to appoint additional members not to exceed half the number elected by the people. The duration of the National Assembly was fixed at four years, but the Prince could dissolve it at any time and order new elections. The Constitution was suspended by Prince Alexander in 1881, who dissolved the National Assembly, and, by despotic use of the military power and falsification of the returns, procured the election of a Grand National Assembly, the body intrusted with the power to make changes in the Constitution, which, by a vote of July 13, 1881, clothed the Prince with autocratic legislative, and executive powers for seven years.

Statistics. The area of Bulgaria is estimated at 24,360 square miles. The population, as returned in the census of Jan. 1, 1881, was 1,998.983, of whom 1,023,730 were males and 975,253 females. As regards religion, 68.8 per cent. were Christians, 30.7 per cent. Mohammedans, and 0.5 per cent. Israelites; in respect to nationality, 66 7 per cent. were Bulgarians, 30.6 per cent. Turks, 1.3 per cent. Roumanians, 0.5 per cent. Greeks, 0.5 per cent. Israelites, 0.3 per cent. Germans, and 0.1 per cent. of other nationalities. In 1883 the emigration of the Mohammedan element recommenced on a large scale. The capital, Sofia, contained 20,541 inhabitants; Rustchuk, 26,867; Varna, 24,649; Shumla, 22,921. There were nine other towns of over 10,000 inhabitants. The main occupation of the people is agriculture. The exports of grain are about 1,500,000 tons per annum. Other articles of export are wool, tal'low, hides, and timber. Coal and iron mines exist, but are almost entirely undeveloped. There is a railroad between Rustchuk and Varna, 140 miles in length.

Army. The army has been the subject of particular attention on the part of Prince Alexander. In order to increase the reserve ar

my as rapidly as possible, the period of service with the colors is only two years, instead of four. The army was trained by Russian officers, who fill most of the superior commands. Bulgarian officers have been educated at the Military Academy at Sofia to take their places as speedily as practicable. The number of Russian officers in 1882 was 376. In the autumn of 1883 there were 185 Russian officers still on the lists, and 400 of Bulgarian nationality. The total strength of the army was 16,500 men.

Political Review.-Prince Alexander, when by a state-stroke he abolished representative government, placed himself under the direction and tutelage of the Russian court. He soon found that his Russian mentors would give him no chance to exercise his statecraft, but pursued aims which were more in harmony with the ideas of the Radical party which he had expelled than with his own. The coup d'état placed it in the power of the Russians to strengthen their grasp upon the country. Alexander had made his cousin, the Russian Emperor, the arbiter between himself and his subjects, expecting when endowed with autocratic power to guide the policy of the country by balancing the interests of Russia and Austro-German interests against each other, and thus secure the independent position guaranteed by the Treaty of Berlin. Instead of the personal government at which he aimed, he was forced to submit to the dictation of Kussian guides who sympathized with the Panbulgarian and radical ideas of the popular party which they had aided the Prince in excluding from the seats of government with the bayonet. Zankoff and Balabanoff, the Radical leaders, from their near place of exile in Eastern Roumelia, and in clandestine visits in the country, were able to carry on a lively agitation for the overthrow of the Prince. Hitrovo, the Russian consul-general, who had planned the arrangements of the coup d'état, and many of the Russian officers, openly fraternized with the Prince's enemies. Kryloff, the Russian general, who was Minister of War, refused to issue an order forbidding officers of the army to take part in these antagonistic demonstrations. Alexander journeyed to St. Petersburg, and threatened to lay down the crown if he was obliged to submit to such indignities, whereupon the Emperor recalled the obnoxious officials, and gave the Prince for advisers Generals Soboleff and Kaulbars, who were supposed to be free from Panslavistic tendencies, admonishing him at the same time to be sparing in the exercise of his autocratic powers.

The ministry which was formed in July, 1882, consisted of Gen. Soboleff, Premier and Minister of the Interior; Gen. Kaulbars, Minister of War; Natshevich-a Bulgarian, whose appointment as Minister of the Interior a year before in the place of the Russian Lieut.-Col. Remlingen, who was dismissed, had provoked angry menaces from Hitrovo-Minister of Fi

nance; Vulkovich, Minister of Public Works and Minister of the Exterior ad interim; Grekoff, Minister of Justice; and Tesharoff, Minister of Education. The new National Assembly, a simply consultative body, contained 80 members, elected by the indirect system.

The Conservative party became gradually imbued with the same jealous distrust of Russian supremacy which the Liberals professed. The latter represented the sentiments of the bulk of the population, among whom gratitude toward their Russian deliverers, and affinity for the popular ideas agitating Russia in contradistinction to the ideas of liberty and reform which prevail in Western Europe, co-existed with a jealous spirit of resistance to the domination of the Russian Government.

The Russian generals worked for a time in harmony with their Conservative colleagues. But in January, 1883, a difference arose regarding the projected line of railroad from Sofia to Rustchuk. On their insistance, Vulkovich retired from the ministry, being succeeded by Stoiloff, a man of similar patriotic Bulgarian sentiments. The pretext for the dismissal of Vulkovich was the action of the Government in the matter of a Radical demonstration, for which action Soboleff was himself chiefly responsible. Zankoff, who had been kept in prison for many months, was a few weeks before allowed to leave the country. He returned to Rustchuk, and was received with public manifestations of sympathy. The demonstration was suppressed by the prefect. The Government, trying to satisfy all parties, dismissed the prefect and reimprisoned Zankoff. Other subjects of dispute arose, particularly the question of employing the civil power to execute a disciplinary decree pronounced against Miletius, Archbishop of Sofia, by the Bulgarian Synod. Soboleff acquiesced in the forcible seclusion of the prelate, but fearing the effect in Russia, where the act might be construed as an indignity committed upon a high dignitary of the Holy Orthodox Church, threw the blame upon his colleagues. In March, Stoiloff, Gregoff, and Natshevich sent in their resignations. A working Cabinet was formed, in which a Russian, Prince Hilkoff, was given the Ministry of Public Works, and other Russians or partisans of the generals the other posts. The rupture between the Conservatives and the Russian ministers became complete. When the Prince went to Moscow to attend the coronation of the Emperor, after first visiting the Sultan at Constantinople and stopping at Athens, he found there a deputation from the National Assembly, a deputation of Liberals, and his two Russian ministers, all desirous of laying their grievances before the Emperor. When, after the ministerial crisis in March, the Russian generals took the government of the country entirely into their own hands, they found themselves isolated. The contracts which they distributed among Russians rendered them unpopular. They rejected

the authority of the Prince, and represented at St. Petersburg that constitutional government ought to be restored. They approached the Radicals, who demanded the restitution of the constitution of Tirnova. The Prince, who submitted tamely to the open insubordination of the Russian ministers, resisted the return to regular government, because he would not govern with a Radical ministry and Assembly.

The only hope of emerging from the lawless condition under which the country suffered, with no sovereign power capable of exercising authority, was by a compromise and fusion of the two warring political parties. The Russian emissaries were under standing orders to bring about a return to a constitutional régime as the chief part of their task. The Liberal leaders were recalled from exile, and in August they held consultations with the chiefs of the Conservative party. Their demand for the convocation of a Grand Sobranje, for the re-establishment of the constitution of Tirnova, was inacceptable.

The Russian Government sent M. Jonin as extraordinary embassador to direct the settlement of the question of the Constitution. Prince Alexander quarreled outright with his chief minister, and attempted to dismiss him and form a ministry of Bulgarian Conservatives. The Russian generals thereupon showed the Prince orders from the Emperor not to leave the country, even at the Prince's command. Jonin then presented an ultimatum, demanding that the Prince should lay down his autocratic powers, call a Great Sobranje within six months, for the adoption of a Constitution, and in the mean time leave the administration entirely in the hands of the two generals. Alexander finally complied with the demand by issuing a manifesto on Sept. 11th, announcing the appointment of a commission to elaborate a Constitution which would be laid before a Great National Assembly.

The Prince, in order to avoid the humiliation of resigning the sovereignty to the Russian agents, made up his mind at last to come to terms with the Liberal party. Zankoff and Balabanoff, on behalf of the Liberals, and Natshevich and Grekoff, the Conservative leaders, effected a compromise, whereby the constitution of Tirnova was restored by proclamation, subject to revision by the Great Sobranje, but the legislative powers were to be exercised by the extraordinary Sobranje elected in December, 1882, as to some extent they virtually had been all along, instead of by a new Sobranje elected under the old Constitution. This course was urged in a resolution of the National Assembly in which both parties united their votes. By this turn of affairs, General Soboleff was taken by surprise, and rendered powerless. The entire episode was prearranged by the Prince and the political leaders, all parties suddenly sinking their differences for the purpose of escaping the dictation of the obnoxious | Russian agents. Giving the anomaly of gov

erning under the Constitution with a National Assembly not constitutionally elected as their ground, the Soboleff-Kaulbars ministry, consisting of the two generals, Burmoff, Agura, Prince Hilkoff, and K. Zankoff, handed in their resignation, Sept. 19th. Stoianoff, whom the Prince had insisted on placing in charge of the Ministry of Justice, in opposition to the Russians, did not sign the paper. A Bulgarian ministry was formed, with Drogan Zankoff at the head, the man who had passed the last two years in prison and in banishment, and had visited Bulgaria only by stealth to agitate for the deposition of the Prince. Stoiloff received the portfolio of Justice.

Over the nomination of a Minister of War, Prince Alexander was again involved in strife with the Russian diplomatic representative. With both the political parties at his back, their fierce rivalries reconciled by the national danger of sinking into a Russian dependency, he was emboldened to refuse both the officers given to him to choose from, and select Gen. Lessovoy for the position. But the admonitions of M. Jonin caused him to yield the point, and accept Lieut.-Col. Redigher. A spirited contest over the control of the army ensued. Soboleff and Kaulbars had succeeded in gathering a party with Panslavistic tendencies, a part of whose programme was the confederation of the Balkan states. This party was now stronger, and carried on an active opposition to the Prince under the encouragement of Jonin and the leadership of Karaveloff, a more extreme and consistent Radical than Zankoff and his associates.

Alexander, in his disputes with the Russian agents, had several times received the hint that he might lose his throne. Suggestions had

CABLES, INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION OF SUBMARINE. When the first attempt to lay an Atlantic cable was made in 1864, France, Brazil, Hayti, Italy, and Portugal entered into an agreement recognizing the neutrality of the cable, and accepting the obligation not to injure or destroy it, even for military purposes, in the event of war. This treaty fell through with the cable project. In 1869 the United States Government called a conference at Washington, to consider the international relations of the ocean telegraphs and their regulation in war and peace. The American Government prepared a project which provided for the protection of the cables and their neutrality in war-time; but the outbreak of the Franco-German war prevented the meeting of the conference. In 1871 Cyrus W. Field submitted a similar proposal to the conference in Rome, and the Italian ministry undertook to lay it before the European governments. Only one answer was received, a favorable one from the Austrian Government.

been thrown out to the people that Prince Waldemar of Denmark, brother of the Empress of Russia, would make a popular ruler. The Russian agents succeeded in throwing Prince Alexander into a dangerous passion by the recall to Russia, without warning, of AdjutantGen. Lessovoy, and another officer. The Prince discharged every Russian officer on his staff, and, when Col. Redigher refused to carry out the order, he took away his commission and demanded the resignation of his portfolio, threatening, in case he refused, to have him conducted across the frontier. The Russian Government did not resent it, but secured a more definite control over the Bulgarian army. The Bulgarian Government arrived at an understanding with Baron Kaulbars, the Emperor's aide-de-camp, and accepted a convention, signed for three years, whereby the Bulgarian Minister of War is to be appointed by the Prince, subject to confirmation by the Emperor. Russian officers are not allowed to accept civil appointments, nor to take part in political affairs, and are subject to the Minister of War, who is answerable to the Russian diplomatic representative.

Legislation. The Sobranje, after receiving legislative authority, immediately applied itself to the settlement of the debt to the Russian Government for the cost of the occupation, and to the railroad convention with Austria. This convention (see AUSTRIA), though opposed by the Russian representatives, could not well be avoided, as it was an affair of the European concert. The terms for the payment of the indemnity for the Russian occupation in the Turkish War, amounting to 10,618,250 paper rubles, were settled by a treaty entered into with Russia.

Confidential inquiries proved it to be out of the question to expect the majority of the powers to agree to the inviolability of the cables in time of war. The Institute of International Law accepted the situation, in discussing the matter at their meeting at Brussels, in 1879, and proposed a treaty to provide for the arrest and punishment of persons who injure cables on the high seas, and the neutralization of cables running between neutral countries. They proposed that persons suspected of injuring a cable should be subject to arrest by naval vessels of any of the powers, but that they should be brought to trial in the country of the vessel on which they are taken. They also suggested that measures taken to interrupt cable communication in war-time should not extend, unless it should be unavoidable, to the injury of the cable; and if it does, that the same government should repair the damage when peace is restored.

In 1881 several cables were badly injured