390 



GUATEMALA. 



GUIZOT, FRANCOIS P. G. 



telegrams were exchanged between the capi- 

 tals of Guatemala and San Salvador, through 

 a line connecting the two cities. 



Meantime the great subject of public in- 

 struction has not been neglected, although the 

 problem of its organization so as to be in con- 

 formity with the existing Government and in- 

 stitutions of the country has not yet been 

 solved. Concomitantly with the question of 

 separation of church and state, already an ac- 

 complished fact in most of the South Ameri- 

 can states, that of placing the public schools 

 under the exclusive direction of the civil au- 

 thorities was warmly discussed in legislative 

 circles, among the leading men of the present 

 Liberal party, and by the official press ; it being 

 evident that the achievement of both of these 

 reforms is regarded by President Barrios as a 

 matter of paramount importance. This war 

 of words, however, has not delayed action in 

 the proper direction : the Government has de- 

 termined upon the education of the people ; 

 and its efforts have already been attended 

 with satisfactory results. Schools have been 

 multiplied; improved text-books many of 

 them from the city New York procured ; and 

 a number of teachers from the city just men- 

 tioned were engaged in the course of the year 

 and taken to Guatemala under the immediate 

 auspices and at the expense of the Govern- 

 ment. About the middle of the year there 

 were distributed throughout the republic 541 

 primary schools, 358 being for males, with an 

 attendance of 14,216 ; and 138 for females, 

 with 6,312 pupils on the rolls; and the aggre- 

 gate expense per month for the support of 

 these establishments was set down at $4,317. 



In the schools of Escuintla there were .in 

 August last 1,077 pupils, and in September, 

 1,103. 



The schools of both sexes in the department 

 of Vera Paz were both numerous and suc- 

 cessful. In July they were attended by 1,315 

 pupils of both sexes, and by 1,403 in August. 

 In that of San Marcos there were 1,050 boys 

 and 720 girls receiving primary instruction. 



In examinations in geography, held at the 

 capital, in presence of the ministers of Great 

 Britain and the United States, the Italian 

 charge, d'affaires, the members of the Gov- 

 ernment, and a large concourse of people, the 

 pupils evinced a considerable degree of profi- 

 ciency. 



A school of medicine has been established 

 at which lectures are given in materia medica 

 and therapeutics, obstetrics, medical jurispru- 

 dence, and pharmacy ; and a philharmonic 

 society, under the direction of an Italian pro- 

 fessor. 



A military college was opened in Guatemala 

 in the course of the year. 



In February it was decreed by the Govern- 

 ment that the nuns of the different convents 

 of the capital, amounting altogether to about 

 140 women, should be assembled in the convent 

 of Santa Oatarma ; that the inmates were freed 



from their vows of perpetual seclusion from 

 the world, and were completely restored to 

 liberty; and that conventual establishments 

 were to be open to the visits of relatives and 

 the inspection of the civil authorities. The 

 ecclesiastical authorities caused to be placed at 

 the door of the convent a notice that whoever 

 entered without permission from the Church 

 was, by the mere act of doing so, excommuni- 

 cated. The nuns of three of the suppressed 

 establishments petitioned the Government for 

 a pension, and obtained a grant of $12 each 

 per month. 



The Government issued another decree pro- 

 hibiting, under a fine of not less than $10 and 

 not more than $50, priests and other clergy- 

 men from wearing the usual distinctive gar- 

 ments or long robes, etc., except when engaged 

 in the performance of their sacred duties. 



With monastic institutions, tithes were abol- 

 ished, religious tolerance was established, and 

 all church property decreed alienable. 



In April, Mr. Magee, the British vice-consul, 

 was unmercifully flogged in public by order of 

 one Gonzales, commandant of the port of San 

 Jose, and a native of Spain. The Government 

 offered ample satisfaction, and the outraged 

 man received an indemnity of $50,000. Gon- 

 zales and his accomplice were tried by court 

 martial and sentenced, the former to five years' 

 imprisonment and hard labor, and the other 

 to two years, both to be dismissed in disgrace 

 from the service of the Government. 



Save the intervention of the Guatemala Gov- 

 ernment, conjointly with that of San Salvador, 

 in the revolution in Honduras to overthrow 

 the administration of Arias,* the republic has 

 enjoyed perfect tranquillity both at home and 

 abroad since August, 1873. 



It is not improbable that Mexico may soon 

 renew her claim to the district of Peten, the 

 inhabitants of which, shortly after the estab- 

 lishment of independence, expressed their de- 

 sire to be under the Mexican Government. 



On the night of September 3d a violent 

 earthquake occurred at Antigua, destroying a 

 large number of houses and some of the ruins 

 of 1773, and causing the death of some thirty- 

 five persons. 



GUIZOT, FRANCOIS. PIERRE GUILLAUME, one 

 of the most remarkable of modern French 

 statesmen, diplomatists, and historians, born 

 at Nimes, France, October 4, 1787; died at 

 Yalricher, near Paris, September 13, 1874. 

 He was of Huguenot ancestry, and his family 

 numbered more than one of its members among 

 the martyrs to the faith in the seventeenth 

 and eighteenth centuries. His father,- an emi- 

 nent lawyer of Paris, perished by the guillo- 

 tine during the Reign of Terror, and his mother 

 had taken this, her only son, then but seven 

 years old, to Geneva for his education. At 

 Geneva, young Guizot's whole nature became 

 permeated with the spirit and influence of John 

 Calvin, whom he accepted as his master, not 



* See article " HONDUBAS," in the present volume. 



