90 



BOOKH, AUGUST. 



BOLIVIA. 



new Senate Las 33 of the former and 29 of 

 the latter ; consequently the Liberal party 

 has lost four votes in the Senate. Out of 32 

 Senators who had to be reflected, and of 

 whom 19 were Liberal and 13 Catholic, the 

 former only obtained the return of 15 candi- 

 dates, while of the latter 17 were elected. The 

 Liberals suffered all the losses, and did not ob- 

 tain a single advantage. On November 27th, 

 in the sitting of the Chamber of Deputies, the 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs declared that the 

 Government had not lost sight of the question 

 of the barring of the Scheldt, but for the pres- 

 ent contented themselves with the declaration 

 of the Dutch ministry that Holland would 

 consider herself responsible for any damage 

 which might ensue there from. 



On April 25th a convention was concluded 

 between Belgium and Switzerland for the pro- 

 tection of international copyright. 



BOCKH, AUGUST, the most erudite classical 

 antiquary and philologist of Germany in the 

 present century ; born at Carlsruhe, November 

 24, 1785; died in Berlin, Prussia, August 3, 

 1867. He entered the University of Halle in 

 1803, where the prelections of Wolf drew his 

 attention to philology. His first appearance as 

 an author was in 1806, when, being hardly 

 twenty-one years of age, he published a com- 

 mentary on the " Minos " of Plato. Two years 

 later appeared his " Inquiry into the Genuine- 

 ness of the Existing Tragedies of JEschylus, 

 Sophocles and Euripides." The next year (1809) 

 he became ordinary professor in the University 

 of Heidelberg, and in 1811, at the age of twenty- 

 six, he was translated to the chair of Rhetoric 

 and Ancient Literature in the University of 

 Berlin, which he retained for fifty-six years, and 

 with constantly increasing reputation. His first 

 effort, after entering upon his professorship at 

 Berlin, was to revolutionize the scope and char- 

 acter of philological study. His predecessors, 

 the verbal critics, had contented themselves 

 with attempting, by ingenious guesses and com- 

 parison of manuscripts and early editions, to 

 make the text of the Latin and Greek classics 

 as perfect as possible, and they regarded any 

 thing beyond this as almost sacrilegious. But 

 Bockh had larger and grander notions of the 

 province of philology. He included in his lec- 

 tures not merely the grammatico-historical in- 

 terpretation of the text, but also archaeology 

 proper, in all its branches, the history of ancient 

 literature, philosophy, politics, religion, and 

 social life. "Without theknowledge of all these, he 

 contended, our conception of the writings of an- 

 tiquity must be incomplete and often erroneous. 

 At first this view met with considerable oppo- 

 sition, but eventually it triumphed, and brought 

 about a new era in classical literature. Four 

 great works of Bockh have done much toward 

 inaugurating this new method of study. These 

 are: 1. His edition of "Pindar," two volumes 

 (Berlin, 1811-1822), in which he has investi- 

 gated and discussed, with profound knowledge 

 of the subject, the rhythm and metre of the 



poet, as well as his artistic skill. 2. " The Polit- 

 ical Economy of Athens," two volumes (Berlin, 

 1817), translated into English by the late Sir 

 George Cornewall Lewis, under the title of "The 

 Public Economy of Athens." It is a work 

 which has never been surpassed for subtle re- 

 search, surprising results, and clear exposition. 

 3. "Investigations concerning the Weights, 

 Coins, and Measures of Antiquity" (Berlin, 

 1838); and, 4. "Eecordsof the Maritime Affairs 

 of Athens" (Berlin, 1846). Several of his minor 

 works were also devoted to the elucidation of 

 the astronomy, the geography, and the mining 

 industry of the Greeks. He had also bestowed 

 the labor of nearly forty years on a great work, 

 the " Corpus Inscriptionum Cfracorum," pub- 

 lished at the expense of the Royal Academy of 

 Berlin, and of which four volumes were com- 

 pleted at the time of his death. It was intended 

 to contain a copy of every known Greek in- 

 scription, whether printed or in manuscript. In 

 his private life Bockh was simple and straight- 

 forward, thoughtful and independent, and pos- 

 sessing a truly dignified bearing. His death 

 occurred from apoplexy. 



BOLIVIA, a republic in South America. Pro- 

 visional President (since the successful revolu- 

 tion of 1864), General Mariano Melgarejo. 

 The frontier of the republic has not yet been 

 regulated ; the area of the republic is generally 

 estimated at about 374,000 English square 

 miles. The population was estimated in 1858 at 

 1,987,352. The army, exclusive of the national 

 guard, consists of about 2,000 men. The receipts 

 of the republic, in 1864, amounted to 2,471,000 

 piastres, and the expenditures to 2,435,000 

 piastres. There is no public debt. The im- 

 ports are valued at 5,570,000 piastres. 



President Melgarejo, in 1867, ordered an elec- 

 tion for President to take place, and declared that 

 he would not be a candidate. He also convoked a 

 National Assembly for the 6th of August, 1868, 

 which is to be charged with the scrutiny of 

 the presidential election, the proclamation of 

 the President, and the reform of the Constitu- 

 tion. 



In December, 1867, a serious revolution broke 

 out in Eastern Bolivia. It appears that one of 

 the regiments had declared in favor of the re- 

 volution, and General Alberugia was appointed 

 the commander of the revolted forces. General 

 Acha, who was former President, and had been 

 kept a close prisoner by Melgarejo, escaped 

 from his prison and published a proclamation, call- 

 ing upon the people to join him in reestablishing 

 the Constitution of 1861, promising to hold elec- 

 tions for the choice of a President, irrespective 

 of party or persons. The city of Cochabamba 

 declared in favor of the revolution, and seized 

 upon all the arms and artillery found at that 

 place. General Melgarejo was pushing on his 

 army by forced marches to the scene of rebel- 

 lion, making forced loans upon the places in his 

 route, but invariably passing by the towns 

 without allowing his troops to enter them, fear- 

 ing desertions. 



