NICARAGUA. 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



619 



The zealous activity with which public and 

 j>ri\at.o cntt-rpriseB have been carried forward 

 j-. particularly nutici-aMu in tlio improvements 

 in ninny i>t the towns tdroughout the country, 

 those made in Loon and Granada being men- 

 tioned among the moat considerable. A school 

 has been t'.Miii'li 1 in Rivas, under the dir. 

 >f I>r. (luniu-rly (ioneral) Maximo Jerez. Jn 

 Leon have been established two schools for 

 males, nnil.-r the auspices of SeOores Jose" Vic- 

 titr V.-illc and Alfredo Alvarado; and one for 

 females by Seflorita Kmilia Dawson. But, of 

 all the educational establishments, that most 

 worthy of especial mention is the Colegio do 

 Granada, with professors from Europe, mag- 

 nificent furniture and appointments, the whole 

 expenditures for which were met by the citi- 

 zens themselves. 



It is officially reported that the condition of 

 the national Treasury has undergone a favor- 

 able change under the recent reforms in its 

 administration ; and that the revenue derived 

 I'niiii the sources enumerated below has been 

 HO considerably in advance of that obtained in 

 former years as to be sufficient to cover all the 

 expenditures, without leaving any arrears, and 

 to admit of a certain appropriation on account 

 of the national debt. 



SOURCES OF REVKNUE CUSTOMS. 



Tax on slaughtered cattle. 

 Domestic spirits, 1 



SaSSSf^ Monopolies. 



Salt, J 



Imported spirits. 



Printed laws. 



Fines. 



Uncultivated lauds. 



Post-Office. 



The first four branches are the most pro 

 ductive. 



During the years 1872, 1873, and 1874, three 

 exploring expeditions were sent from the 

 United States to examine the isthmus, and as- 

 certain the most suitable route for an inter- 

 oceanio canal. The result of the surveys was, 

 in each case, favorable to Nicaragua, owing to 

 the peculiar facilities presented by its territory, 

 level in the main, and the vast repository of 

 water situated between the two oceans, and 

 sufficient to feed thirty canals. 



It may here be added that, in the opinion of 

 M. Lesseps, the successful engineer of the Suez 

 Canal, no one of the American isthmuses ad- 

 mits of the problem being solved in the same 

 way as on the African isthmus ; that is to say, 

 without weirs. The interoceanic canal must 

 be a large one, with weirs, and with no small 

 number of them ; hence the indispensable ne- 

 cessity of an inexhaustible supply of water, 

 such as could alone be afforded by the Lake of 

 Nicaragua. It was long supposed that the 

 San Juan River was navigable from the lake 

 to its embouchure at Greytown, and conse- 

 qnently that, to complete the transisthmian 

 water-route, it was only necessary to cut the 

 narrow neck some eighteen miles on the 

 other side, from the lake to the Pacific. In 



view of this theory, numerous surveys of tl.o 

 narrow neck have been made since tli. 

 lijtlf of the sixteenth century : one for tbc 

 Spanish Government, in 1781, by Mann. 

 : and again, in 1888, by a Mr. I;.-:.. 

 ili- ( Vnt ml- American Government. But it is 

 in. t generally known that, between 1842 and 

 1844, a survey was made at the instance of 

 Primio Louis Napoleon, afterward Nap.l. -<,n 

 III., and then a captive in the castle of Ham. 

 The Government of Central America decreed, 

 on January 8, 1846, that the cut should bu 

 called " Canal Napoleon de Nicaragua." Louis, 

 after his flight to England in the same year, 

 gave publicity to his plans, laying down the- 

 very line reverted to by the American survey- 

 ors in 1872. 



Nicaragua offers a salubrious climate, abun- 

 dance of building-materials, and robust and 

 willing hands to undertake the work within 

 her borders. 



On October 4, 1874, was elected the new 

 President, who is to enter upon his functions 

 on March 1st of the present year. After a 

 lengthy and obstinate struggle, the Republican 

 party triumphed in the person of their candi- 

 date, SenorDon Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, dis- 

 tinguished for the active part he took in the de- 

 fense of his country against the filibusters, and 

 again in the rebellion of 1869. A proof of his 

 popularity, and of the spontaneity of the suf- 

 frage tendered to him, is afforded by the fact 

 of his absence in Europe at the commencement, 

 and almost up to the close, of the electioneer- 

 ing campaign. 



NORTH CAROLINA. The Legislature of 

 this State adjourned on the 16th of February, 

 and assembled again on the 16th of Novem- 

 ber. Chief among the acts passed during the 

 session, in the early part of the year, was 

 one providing for the local prohibition of spir- 

 ituous liquors. By this law it is made "the 

 duty of the county commissioners of any coun- 

 ty, upon petition of one-fourth of the qualified 

 voters of any township in their respective 

 counties, to order an election to be held on 

 the first Monday in May in every year, to as- 

 certain whether or not spirituous liquors shall 

 or may be sold in said township or townships." 

 If a majority of the votes cast are in favor of 

 prohibition, " it shall not be lawful for the coun- 

 ty commissioners to license the sale of spiritu- 

 ous liquors, or for any person to sell any spir- 

 ituous liquors within such township for one 

 year next after any such election ; and, if any 

 person so prohibited shall sell any spirituous 

 liquors within such township, such person 

 offending shall be deemed guilty of a misde- 

 meanor, and on conviction of such offense shtill 

 be fined not exceeding fifty dollars, or impris- 

 oned not exceeding one month." But if a 

 majority of the votes are cast in favor of li- 

 cense, then spirituous liquors may be sold in 

 such township as now provided by law, and not 

 otherwise. 



This act, however, does not affect locali- 



