Finances. At the date of the last report the debt of the State was $6,571,825. During the past fiscal year a few bonds were issued under special acts, and the sinking-fund commission purchased and canceled $41,207.67 of deficiency bonds, thus reducing the amount of the debt to $6,531,290.63. The ComptrollerGeneral reports that very little progress has been made in funding the old bonds under the act of 1873 and its amendments. He estimates that it will require $348,235 to meet the ordinary expenses of the government during the fiscal year 1883-'84. To this amount must be added $391,878 for interest on the public debt, making $740,113. The proceeds of the phosphate royalty and the probable surplus in the treasury, estimated at $197,251, will reduce the amount to $542,862, which can be raised by a levy of four mills.

The amount of property returned for taxation in 1882 was $145,442,292. The amount returned for 1883 is:

This is an increase in one year of $5,167,012. The reports of the Secretary of State show each year a large increase in the amount of land held nominally by the commissioners of the sinking fund for non-payment of taxes.

Education. There were enrolled in the public schools during the year, 74,157 white and 98,938 colored pupils, making a total of 173,095. This is an increase of 27,121 over the large enrollment for the preceding year. From a comparison of this enrollment with the data furnished by the census of 1880, it appears that over 73 per cent. of the white children, and nearly 55 per cent. of the colored children of the State, between the ages of six and sixteen years, were in attendance on the public schools, The average length of the school session was four months. The number of teachers employed was 3,494, of whom 2,165 were white and 1,329 were colored; number of schools in operation was 3,269, an increase of 86.

Claflin College, at Orangeburg, was founded in 1869, and is designed for the higher education of colored youths of both sexes. Since 1879 thirty have been graduated. Attached to the institution is a farm of 150 acres, which is cultivated chiefly by the labor of the students. A mechanical department has been added. The enrollment of students for the last year was 424, of whom 30 were in the collegiate depart. ment and 11 in the normal school.

The Military Academy had an enrollment on the 1st of October last of 155; of this number, 68, being two from each county, are main tained by the State. The beneficiary cadets are chosen by competitive examinations.

The South Carolina College is now thoroughly reorganized. Its buildings have been

repaired, its grounds improved, and its several departments fairly equipped. Its teaching force consists of a president, seven professors, and three tutors. Arrangements have been made for post-graduate instruction. The catalogue of last year shows a total enrollment of 185.

State Institutions.-The Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind has 72 pupils, an increase of 10 in a year. A department for the colored has been established. The number of patients in the Lunatic Asylum at the beginning of the last fiscal year was 550; the number admitted during the year was 239. At the close of the year the number was 603, of which 352 were white and 251 colored. The annual increase in the number of patients is from 50 to 60. The General Assembly has provided for the erection of an additional building at a cost not to exceed $50,000. It will be finished Oct. 1, 1884.

The number of convicts in the Penitentiary, Oct. 31, 1883, was 886, an increase of 72 in a year; 55 were white, and 841 colored. The convicts are employed under lease, or on public works, and are a source of revenue to the State. If all were returned to the prison, the cell-room would be greatly insufficient.

Miscellaneous.-The uncertainties and disasters attending the cultivation of rice, since 1860, have reduced the average crop of twenty-five years since, which was 120,000 to 150,000 tierces, to about 40,000 or 45,000 tierces. The planting now is restricted to such places as have escaped the action of time and war.

There are in the State 26 cotton-factories, which are either in full operation or expect to be within a very short time.

Toward the close of the year several persons were brought to trial in the United States Court, charged with violation of the congressional election acts. The juries, however, tailed to convict.

SPAIN, a kingdom of southern Europe.

Government. The reigning sovereign, Alfonso XII (son of the ex-Queen Isabel II), was born Nov. 28, 1857; proclaimed King of Spain at Madrid, Dec. 31, 1874; assumed the government Jan. 9, 1875; married, Jan. 23, 1878, Princess María de las Mercedes (youngest daughter of the Duke de Montpensier), who was born June 24, 1860, and died June 26, 1878; married, Nov. 29, 1879, the Archduchess María Christina of Austria (daughter of the late Archduke Charles Ferdinand of Austria), born July 21, 1858. Two daughters have been born of the second union.

By the terms of the Constitution of June 30, 1876, the executive power is vested in the King, and the legislative power in the Cortes "with the King." The King is inviolable, but his ministers are responsible, and by one of these all royal decrees must be countersigned. The King can not contract matrimony without the approval of the Cortes, nor can he marry any one excluded by law from the succession to the throne. In the event of the extinction of the

line of the legitimate descendants of Alfonso XII, the following order of succession shall be observed: first, his sisters; next, his aunt (the Infanta Luisa, second daughter of King Ferdinand VII), and her legitimate descendants; and, finally, his uncles (the brothers of Ferdinand VII). Should all the lines become extinct, "the nation will elect its monarch."

The Cortes is composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies, equal in authority. The senators are of three classes: Senators "by their own right"; life-senators appointed by the Crown; and senators elected by the corporations of the state and by the largest taxpayers. Senators "by their own right" are the sons of the sovereign and of the heir-apparent to the Crown, who have attained their majority; grandees of Spain in their own right and having an annual income of not less than 60,000 pesetas ($12,000); captain-generals in the army; admirals; the Patriarch of the Indias and the archbishops; the presidents of the Council of State, of the Supreme Court, and of the Tribunal de Cuentas del reino. The number of senators of the first two classes together and of the third-class cannot exceed 180. The elective senators must be renewed in one half every five years, and completely whenever the King dissolves that portion of the legislative bodies. The Chamber of Deputies is composed of members chosen for five years by the electoral colleges, in the proportion of one to every 50,000 inhabitants. A royal decree of Aug. 8, 1878, grants to Cuba the privilege of sending deputies to the Cortes in the proportion of one to every 40,000 free inhabitants paying taxes to the amount of not less than 125 pesetas ($25) annually. Deputies must be at least twenty-five years of age, and may be re-elected indefinitely. A deputy can not without resigning accept a pension, an office under the Government or in the royal household, or a decoration. Ministers are exempt from this law. Both houses sit every year. The King has the power to convoke, suspend, or dissolve them; but in the last case a new Cortes must meet within three months. The president and vice-president of the Senate are appointed by the Crown from among the senators only.

The Council of Ministers of Jan. 9, 1883, was composed as follows: President of the Council, Don Pedro Manuel Sagasta, appointed Feb. 8, 1881; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Don Antonio Aguilar, Marquis de la Vega de Armijo; Minister of Grace and Justice, Don V. Rimero Giron; Minister of Finance, Don J. Pelayo Cuesta; Minister of the Interior, Don Pio Gullon; Minister of War, Gen. A. Martinez Campos; Minister of Marine, Vice-Admiral R. R. Arias; Minister of Commerce and Agriculture, Don G. Gamazo; Minister of the Colonies, Don Gaspar Nuñez de Arce. This Cabinet was replaced in October by the following: President of the Council, Señor Posada Herrera; Minister of Foreign Affairs,

Señor Ruíz Gomez; Minister of Grace and Justice, Señor Navarro Rodrigo; Minister of Finance, Señor Gallostra; Minister of the Interior, Señor Moret; Minister of War, Gen. Lopez Dominguez; Minister of Marine, ; Minister of Commerce and Agriculture, Marquis Sardoal; Minister of the Colonies, Señor Suarez Inclan. The present Council of Ministers, formed on Jan. 18, 1884, is made up thus: President of the Council, Señor Cánovas del Castillo; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Señor J. de Elduayen; Minister of Grace and Justice, Señor Silvela; Minister of Finance, Señor CosGayon; Minister of the Interior, Señor Romero y Robledo; Minister of War, Gen. Quesada y Matheus, Marquis de Miravalles; Minister of Marine, Admiral Topete y Carballo; Minister of Commerce and Agriculture, Señor Pidal y Mon; Minister of the Colonies, Count Tajada de Valdosera. The President of the Senate was the Marquis de la Habana; and the VicePresidents, Señor T. Montejo y Robledo, the Count de Torre Mata, the Duke de Tetuan, and Señor J. Moreno Benitez. The President of the Chamber of Deputies was Señor José Posada Herrera; and the Vice-Presidents, the Marquis de Sardoal, Señor T. Ruíz Capedon, the Marquis de Valdeterrazo, and Señor A. Linares Rivas.

The Spanish Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States is Don Juan Valera (accredited in 1884). The United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain is Hon. John W. Foster. The Spanish Consul-General at New York is Don M. S. Guanes.

Area and Population.-Spain, with an area (including the Balearic and the Canary islands) of 195,774 square miles, is divided into forty-nine provinces, and had, in June, 1883, according to official statistics, a population of 16,858,721, against 16,625,860 (inclusive of 12,170 inhabitants of the Spanish possessions in Northern Africa, not figuring in the returns for June, 1883), as given in the census reports for Dec. 31, 1877. The excess of females is commonly about 250,000. The mean density of the population is 85 per square mile: the maximum, 280, being in the province of Barcelona; and the minimum, 32, in the province of Ciudad Real. The number of births registered in 1882 was 493,817 (63 per cent. illegitimate); that of deaths, 435,477: surplus, 58,340. The increase of population during the past hundred years has not exceeded 75 per cent. From 11,000,000 in 1820, the number of inhabitants had reached to about 13,698,000 in 1828; the census of 1846 showed it to be 12,168,774; and that of 1860, 15,658,531. By comparing these last figures with those of the census of Dec. 31, 1877, the annual rate of progress for the seventeen years is seen to have been 35 per cent. approximately. The cities credited with upward of 50,000 inhabitants in the census returns of 1877 were: Madrid, 397,816;* Barcelona, 248,943; Va

The municipal government of the capital reported the

and the 3 per cent. securities and guarantees. The entire capital of the debt was reduced from 12,800,000,000 pesetas, as estimated for Jan. 1, 1881, to 6,000,000,000. In accomplishing this reform, sanctioned by the law of Dec. 9, 1881, Señor Camacho, far from overlooking the rights of the foreign holders of the 2 per cent. stock, allowed them an additional 2 per cent. beyond the price of 50 fixed for the interior, thus compensating them for loss by exchange, and bringing up the value slightly in excess of the difference which existed in their favor at the time of emission. The capital of the debt as converted stood as follows:

Total converted debt, at 4 per cent........ 6,000,000,000 Under the reform, the annual service of the debt would amount to 237,500,000 pesetas. Not included in the foregoing statement is the estimated amount of obligations incurred on behalf of Cuba, 250,000,000 pesetas.

Army. The peninsular army of Spain is recruited by conscription or by enlistment, every male Spaniard having completed twenty years of age being liable to serve for a period of twelve years: three in the permanent army, three in the first, and six in the second reserve. Immunity from service may, however, be purchased for 1,500 pesetas. The period of service in the colonial army is eight years: four with the colors, and four in the reserve. The classification by arms is as follows:

INFANTRY.

60 line regiments of 2 battalions each. 20 battalions of light-infantry (cazadores). 140 reserve battalions.

140 depot battalions.

CAVALRY.

12 regiments of lancers. 10 regiments of cazadores.

2 regiments of hussars.

24 regiments of reserve.

24 depot squadrons.

ARTILLERY.

6 regiments and 1 battalion of foot.

8 regiments of horse.

8 regiments of mountain.

6 regiments of reserve.

PIONEERS.

5 regiments of 2 battalions each.

GUARDIA CIVIL (POLICE FORCE).

15 regiments, comprising 780 officers and 14,756 men.

COAST AND FRONTIER GUARDS.

92 companies of foot and 22 sections of horse. By a decree, under date of July 18, 1883, the strength of the permanent army was fixed as follows for the year 1883-'84: For home service, 114,894, including 20,000 officers; for Cuba, 25,653 for Porto Rico, 3,302; for the Philippine islands, 7,870. The infantry corps in Cuba in April, 1883, was as follows: eight line regiments with two battalions of six companies each, eight battalions of light-infantry (cazadores) with a like number of companies,

one battalion of public order, two sections of writers and orderlies, one disciplinary brigade, two regiments of militia, two independent battalions, the squadrons of Santa Catalina de Guaso, and two battalions of guerrillas. These troops were officered by 22 colonels, 41 lieutenant-colonels, 124 commandants, 33 captains, 490 first-lieutenants, and 481 secondlieutenants.

Toward the end of 1883, Gen. Lopez Dominguez, Minister of War of the Posada-Herrera Cabinet, introduced a bill into Congress raising the pay of all officers and non-commissioned officers, from sergeants to colonels, both inclusive. The opposition press estimated the increase to the budget from this cause at 12,000,000; and the newspapers favorable to the Government, at 3,000,000. The Minister of to him in Congress, said that there would be Finance, however, in reply to a question put no additional charge to the budget. The skepticism as to this last statement was great. A journalist suggested, as a possible explanation of Gen. Lopez Dominguez's plan, the proposed reduction of the strength of the permanent or active army by 20,000, in time of peace; the war budget being maintained at the same level as before the reduction, the saving might be applied to give officers sufficient pay to allow them to live. One thing was, however, stated as certain, namely, that no increase in the expenses of the War Department could be sanctioned by Congress, unless extraordinary resources were provided to meet the outlay. Spain, like Italy, spends 16 per cent. of her revenue on the army.

Navy. The navy was, according to official reports, composed of the following craft in