CORSSEN, WILHELM P. 



COSTA RICA. 



225 



Ville d'Avray " (1859) ; "An Eastern Sun ; " 

 " Orpheus ; " " A Lake ; " " Souvenir of Italy ;" 

 " Repose in Egypt " (1861) ; " Study at Mery " 

 (1863) ; " Souvenir of Morte-Fontaine ; " " Gust 

 of Wind " (1864); "Morning; " "Souvenir of 

 the Neighborhood of Lake Nemi" (1865); 

 " Evening ; " " Solitude " (1866) ; " St. Sebas- 

 tian" (a landscape) ; "Ruins of a Chateau; " 

 "Morning;" and "Evening." These last men- 

 tioned, with many others of his works, ap- 

 peared at the Universal Exposition of 1867. 

 Another remarkable picture, " Morning at Ville 

 d'Avray," was finished in 1868. 



CORSSEN, WILHELM P., a German philolo- 

 gist, was born January 20, 1820, in Bremen, and 

 died June 18, 1875, near Berlin. In 1844 he was 

 appointed adjunct at the " Landesschule " at 

 Pforta, and in 1846 professor in the same 

 school. He remained in this position until 

 1866, in which year he was pensioned and 

 went to Berlin. His exhaustive work on the 

 pronunciation of Latin (" Aussprache, Voca- 

 lismus und Betonung der lateinischen Sprache," 

 second edition, Leipsic, 1870), and also his 

 "Kritisehe Beitrage zur lateinischen Formen- 

 lehre " (Leipsic, 1863), and " Kritische Nach- 

 trage zur lateinischen Formenlehre " (Leipsic, 

 1866), have considerably aided the researches 

 on the construction of the Latin language. 

 He was also eminently successful as a teacher. 

 The last years of his life were devoted to 

 very comprehensive and thorough researches 

 on the language of the Etruscans. He indulged 

 the hope, which was shared by many scholars, 

 that the work which he was preparing would 

 treat the subject in an exhaustive manner and 

 be accepted by the literary world as the long- 

 lost key to this most difficult among the ex- 

 tinct languages. The first volume of the eager- 

 ly-expected work appeared in 1874 ("Ueber die 

 Sprache der Etrusker," Leipsic), and contained 

 no less than 1016 pages. The second volume 

 had not been published at the time of his death. 

 The main result arrived at by Corssen is, that 

 the Etruscan language, in regard to inflections 

 and word-building, stands on the same basis 

 with the old Italic language. The work met 

 in Germany with a favorable reception, and 

 not a few scholars believed that the enthusias- 

 tic expectations of the author had been fully 

 realized. In England and France, the correct- 

 ness of Corssen's views was emphatically de- 

 nied by Aufrecht, Taylor, and Breal; and, in 

 Germany, Dr. Deecke,-the revisor of O. Muller's 

 works on the Etruscans, published a pamphlet 

 against Corssen ("Corssen und die Sprache 

 der Etrusker," Stuttgart, 1875), in which he 

 undertook to show that the argumentation of 

 Corssen was in a great many cases fallacious, 

 and that his view of the origin of the language 

 is radically wrong. Deecke agrees with Tay- 

 lor in assuming that the Etruscan language 

 .cannot be counted among the Indo- Germanic 

 languages. 



COSTA RICA (REPLICA DE COSTA RICA), 

 one of the five independent states of Central 

 VOL. xv. 15 A 



America, lying between 8 and 11 5' of north 

 latitude, and 81 20' and 85 53' west longitude. 

 It is bounded north by Nicaragua, east by the 

 Caribbean Sea, south by the United States of 

 Colombia, and south and west by the Pacific 

 Ocean. The boundary question with Nicaragua 

 is still pending. As late as December, 1875, 

 Nicaragua protested against the stationing of 

 Costa Rican troops on the right bank of the San 

 Juan River, as a measure which,whatever might 

 be the motive thereof, was an encroachment 

 on the territorial rights of Nicaragua. To this 

 Costa Rica replied that she had the right to 

 station a military force in the position alluded 

 to, and that it should remain there until the 

 limits should be finally adjusted; adding, how- 

 ever, that the measure was not intended to be 

 offensive to Nicaragua, and was resorted to 

 merely in the exercise of the rights granted to 

 Costa Rica by the treaty of April 15, 1858. 



The territory is divided into the five prov- 

 inces of Alajuela, Cartago, Guanacaste, Heredia, 

 and San Jose, with an estimated area of 21,490 

 square miles, and a population of some 185,000, 

 of whom 5,000 are civilized and 10,000 uncivil- 

 ized Indians. The capital is San Jose, with a 

 population of 25,000. The President is General 

 Tomas Guardia ; the first Designado (first Vice- 

 President). Sefior Joaquin Lizano ; the second 

 Designado, Sefior Rafael Barroeta ; the Minis- 

 ter of the Interior, Justice, War, and the Navy r 

 is Dr. V. Herrera, who is also, provisionally,. 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs, Public Instruction^ 

 and Public Worship ; Minister of Public Works,. 

 Joaquin Lizano, who is likewise Minister of 

 Finance and Commerce. The National Con- 

 gress, by the terms of the Constitution of 1871, 

 consists of a single Chamber, the members 

 of which (deputies) are elected for a period 

 of four years. Speaker, Sefior Manuel A, 

 Bonilla. 



The President (Eegente) of the Supreme 

 Court is Sefior Vicente Saenz. 



The commander-in-chief of the army is the 

 President of the Republic. 



The consul-general of Costa Rica in New 

 York is Sefior J. M. Mufioz. 



The armed force comprised in 1875, 900 men 

 in active service, and 16,380 militia, being the 

 number of male inhabitants between the ages, 

 of eighteen and thirty years. 



According to the returns of the Minister of 

 Finance and Commerce, laid before Congress- 

 in May, 1875, the (gross) national revenue for 

 the year ending on the 30th of last April 

 amounted to $2,588,027, or less than that of 

 the year before by about $250,000; and the 

 expenditure to $2,781,106, constituting a defi- 

 cit of $193,079. 



In the estimated budget for 1875-'76, the 

 revenue is set down at $2,541,000, and the ex- 

 penditure at $2,481,626, showing a consequent 

 surplus of $59,374. 



In the finance report already referred to, 

 the Treasury account stood as follows in April. 

 1875: 



