SMITH 



SPAIN. 



773 



of the late civil war he received a commission 

 in tin- Fifth Ma.vsaehusetts (colored) Cavalry, 

 with which In- M-I-VIM! till the. end. In 1805 he 

 settled himself in South Carolina, and seems to 

 !:a\i- taken an active part in the political agi- 

 tations \\hirh followed in that as in the 

 Southern States; was elected a member .f 

 the convention called to form a new 

 ion-tit nt ion for South Carolina; and in the 

 administration of the government organized 

 under tho new constitution he has held the 

 office of Attorney-General till the end of 1872. 

 From that timo to September, 1874, when he 

 was nominated as the Republican candidate 

 >vcrnor of South Carolina, he attended 

 to the practice of his profession as a lawyer. 



The General Assembly mot at Columbia at 

 the end of November, 1874. Upon the organ- 

 i/ntion of the House of Representatives, R. 13. 

 Elliot was elected Speaker. 



Governor Chamberlain states that the valu- 

 ations of property for assessment made previ- 

 ous to the present year " have been, to a great 

 extent, unjust and oppressive ; " averring " that 

 property has borne a valuation almost arbi- 

 trary when different localities or separate 

 pieces of similar property are compared, and 

 excessive in amount when tested by any rea- 

 sonable standard of value." 



A new assessment of the real property in 

 the State, the fourth since 1868, was made last 

 year. From reliable information given him in 

 reference to the result of the work, the Gov- 

 ernor estimates that " the aggregate valuation 

 of all the property in the State under this as- 

 sessment will fall from $30,000,000 to $40,- 

 000,000 below the aggregate of the previous 

 amount." 



The deficiencies of the fiscal year ending 

 October 81, 1874, were $472,619.54; and those 

 of the next preceding year, $540,328. 



By authority of the Legislature, State obli- 

 gations, called "certificates of indebtedness," 

 were issued last year by the State Treasurer 

 to the amount of $231,996, and he was directed 

 to issue about $340,000 more of them. The 

 right of the General Assembly to authorize 

 such issues was contested in the Supreme 

 Court of the State, from which the cases were 

 carried, on a writ of error, to the Supreme 

 Court of the United States, where they are 

 now pending. 



Tho provisions of the funding act passed 

 at the previous session, reducing certain State 

 bonds and certificates of stocks to one-half 

 of their nominal value, and wholly rejecting 

 the conversion bonds, as has before been re- 

 lated, Governor Chamberlain regards as a final 

 settlement, and expresses his belief that "no 

 party, nor even any man, will hereafter dare 

 to interpose an objection to the prompt dis- 

 charge of the new obligations of the State." 

 This settlement seems also to have been recog- 

 nized as final by the people of the State gen- 

 erally, and in particular by both of the politi- 

 cal parties during the late canvas in the State, 



they having e.X|>re*ly pledged thcrnaelve* to 



maintain it. \\ilhin tho live mn: 



since the funding act wan put in upcruti< n, 



>"_'. IMII'.MOt) ,,f 1|,,. ],] | MI ,,,|, , ll)( | 



l.ccii snrrciidtTcd to tin; State by their 

 holders, and exchanged for the- new OUCH, UM 

 provided by the act. 



The common-school system for the edum- 

 tion of youth seems to have made lor w 

 years past a considerable pro-r. ---. "Tho 

 number of free- common schools within tl:v 

 State iii ISTII wasTCi'.i; in 1878 it was 2."17. 

 The number of pupils in attendance in 1870 

 was 80,448; in 1873 it was 83,75:i.' The num- 

 ber of teachers employed in 18C9 was 754; in 

 1873 it was 2,:J10." The aggregate number of 

 persons of school-age, between six and sixteen 

 years, in South Carolina, is 230,102; so that 

 about one-third only of the school-population 

 attended school in 1873. The amount ex- 

 pended by the State for the free schools within 

 the year ending October 81, 1874, was $298,- 

 440.91. 



The financial condition of the State of South 

 Carolina, as appears from the report of her 

 Treasurer, for the year ending October 31, 1874, 

 submitted to the General Assembly in Decem- 

 ber, may be briefly stated as follows : 



Bonded debt $9.540,750 28 



Floating debt . 2,679,892 75 



Contingent liabilities 4,797,608 SO 



Total $17,017,651 23 



The public receipts from all sources during 

 the same year amounted to $1,718,766.41 ; and 

 the expenditures to $1,592,075.04; leaving a 

 surplus of $126,691.37 on hand in the Treasury. 



SPAIN, a kingdom of Southern Europe. 

 King, Alfonso XII., born November 28, 1857, 

 proclaimed King December 30, 1874. Spain is 

 divided into forty-nine provinces (for the area 

 and population of which see the volume for 

 1873). The area and population of the foreign 

 colonies were, according to the latest dates, as 

 follows : 



In the budget for 1872-'73, the revenue was 

 estimated at 588,000,000 pesetas (1 peseta = 

 19.3 cents); the expenditures at 627,000,000 

 pesetas; the deficit at 89,000, 000 pesetas. The 

 public debt amounted, in May, 1873, to 7,830,- 

 150,000 pesetas. 



