AMEEICA. 



ANCELOT, L. M. V. C. 



dering from place to place. The Government 

 maintains a single revenue-cutter, a sailing- 

 vessel, to guard the whole vast coast with its 

 numerous islands and inlets, and the military 

 force consists of two companies of artillery 

 stationed at Sitka, and with no adequate means 

 of transportation to any other point. 



AMERICA. Peace has prevailed through- 

 out North America during the year 1875. 

 Some local disturbances have occurred in one 

 or two of the States of the Federal Union,' but 

 these were of momentary importance. 



In the United States political questions have 

 excited very little interest. The attention of 

 the public mind was chiefly engrossed with 

 financial affairs. The great stagnation of com- 

 merce caused mucli anxiety and social distress. 

 The best method by which to reach specie 

 payments on the part of the Government and 

 people was a question that created much con- 

 flict of opinion, and no definite result was 

 reached. In some of the States the elections 

 turned upon the issue of the substitution of 

 the paper-money of the Federal Government, 

 known as "legal tenders," in the place of 

 the paper-money or bills of the local banks. 

 Those are the most important subjects for de- 

 cision at present before the people. The pros- 

 perity of the country during the year, although 

 limited, has been very substantial. 



Some measures were adopted in almost every 

 State to secure a representation of its prod- 

 ucts at the Centennial Exhibition to be opened 

 in May, 1876, in Philadelphia. In some quar- 

 ters the arrangements proposed were of a most 

 extensive character. 



In the Latin- American states the year com- 

 menced with the suppression of two revolu- 

 tions, one in the Argentine, the other in the 

 Peruvian Republic, and both of which had for 

 some time threatened to be obstinate and very 

 detrimental to the general interests of the re- 

 spective countries. 



A new and happier state of things has, how- 

 ever, been established in those republics : un- 

 constitutional acts are not only no longer pop- 

 ular, but are promptly opposed by the people, 

 now resolved upon the maintenance of peace 

 as indispensable to the national weal. 



In Peru, notwithstanding, the public tran- 

 quillity was frequently disturbed by political 

 uprisings, in one of which an attempt was 

 made upon the life of the President. Internal 

 strife has been the invariable order of the day 

 in Bolivia. In the second half of the year, the 

 signal for revolution was given by the assassi- 

 nation of Garcia Moreno ; and Colombia in the 

 mean time was thrown into commotion, for 

 the first time after a period of thirteen years of 

 peace unprecedented in the Spanish -Ameri- 

 can republics. But only a few of the Colombian 

 States were placed under martial law, and 

 there was comparatively little bloodshed. The 

 Central-American republics and Mexico have 

 been to an unusual degree exempt from civil 

 turmoils, and warfare has been almost forgot- 



ten in Venezuela ; nor has any international 

 disturbance taken place from the Rio Grande 

 to the Pampas. Little progress has been made 

 toward the settlement of the boundary ques- 

 tions so long at issue between Brazil and the 

 Argentine Republic, in relation to Paraguay ; 

 the Argentine Republic and Chili, concerning 

 Patagonia ; and the Argentines and Bolivians. 



The Spanish- American states and Brazil have 

 not been exempt from the paralyzing effects of 

 the great financial crisis; foreign commerce 

 in most of them has been materially reduced, 

 but more especially in the Argentine Republic 

 and Peru. 



In the first of these numerous failures have 

 occurred, and many of the oldest importing- 

 houses been constrained to suspend their pay- 

 ments; but trade is now gradually recovering 

 its wanted buoyancy; and the producing pow- 

 er, neither in the two mentioned, nor in any 

 of the others, has been affected in the slight- 

 est degree. 



Colonization bills were laid before the legis- 

 lative bodies in Brazil and the Argentine Re- 

 public, offering extensive inducements to im- 

 migrants, and making more liberal provision 

 for their well-being and prosperity in the re- 

 spective countries. In the mean time material 

 improvements have been pushed forward as 

 rapidly as possible ; railways and telegraphs 

 extended, and new lines projected. Mexico 

 seems at last determined to establish the link 

 between her railway system and the United 

 States network ; and even Ecuador has her 

 locomotives, some thirty miles of the southern 

 line having been completed as early as Jan- 

 uary, 1875. The most liberal measures and 

 untiring energy are everywhere brought to 

 bear upon the extension of public instruction. 



ANCELOT, MAEGUEEITE LOUISE VIRGINIE 

 CHABDON, a French authoress, born March 15, 

 1792 ; died March 21, 1875. In 1818 she mar- 

 ried Monsieur Ancelot, to whose lighter works 

 she largely contributed. The first of her own 

 works, " Le mariage raisonnable," was written 

 in 1832, and followed by her best work, " Marie, 

 ou trois fipoques," which was translated into 

 almost every language of Europe, and was well 

 received on every stage of importance. She 

 supplied, until 1848, the Gymnase, Varietes, 

 and the Vaudeville Theatres, with a large num- 

 ber of plays, all of which met with consider- 

 able success. She also wrote several novels, 

 among which "Renee de Varville" and "La 

 Niece" are best known ; and even had time to 

 cultivate her talent for painting, of which she 

 sent some good specimens to the exhibitions 

 from 1835 to 1845. The house of Madame 

 Ancelot was, during this time, among the most 

 influential of Paris, and, like that of Madame 

 Recamier, formed a centre for the literary 

 conflicts of the period, and the intrigues con- 

 nected with the tilling of the vacant seats of 

 the French Academy. Her daughter married 

 the celebrated advocate Lachaud, and it used 

 to be Madame Ancelot's delight to say, "I 



