106 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



and larger villages of the western and southwestern 

 provinces* 



Instruction. Most of the schools in the Empire are 

 under the Ministry of Public Instruction, and the Em- 

 pire is divided into 14 educational districts (St. Peters- 

 burg. Moscow, Kazan, Orenburg, Kharkoff, Odessa, 

 Kien, Vilna, Warsaw, Borpat, Caucasus, Turkestan, 

 West Siberia, and East Siberia). However, many spe- 

 cial schools are under separate Ministries. The total 

 contribution for education from the various Ministries 

 in 1894 was 39,336,096 roubles; of this, 7,294,473 roubles 

 was for universities, 19,570,208 roubles for middle-class 

 schools, and 7,403,612 roubles for primary schools. 



Justice. The organization of justice was totally re- 

 formed by the law of 1864; but the action of that law 

 has not yet been extended to the governments of Olo- 

 nets, Vologda, Astrakhan, Ufa, and Orenburg, and has 

 been applied but in a modified form (in 1889) to the Bal- 

 tic Provinces and the government of Arkhangelsk. In 

 the above-named governments the Justice of Peace has 

 been introduced, but the other tribunals remain in the 

 old state. No juries are allowed in Poland and the 

 Caucasus; the justices of peace are nominated by the 

 Government in the provinces which have no zemstvos. 

 In Poland there are judges of peace in the towns only, 

 their functions in the villages being performed by Gmina 

 courts, elected by the inhabitants of the Gmina. Siberia 

 has maintained the tribunals of old ; in the Steppe Prov- 

 inces there are district judges, while courts of higher 

 instance are represented by the Justice Department of 

 the provincial administration. 



There were in 1891, 2 appeal departmentsof the Senate, 

 10 high courts, 85 courts of first instance. There were 

 besides 1,280 inquiry judges, and 1,345 notaries; 2,126 

 actual, and 3 652 honorary justices of peace. In the un- 

 reformed tribunals there were 604 judges, 129 public 

 prosecutors, and 156 inquiry judges. 



By a law, dated June 21, 1889, the functions of the 

 juries were limited to some extent, especially as regards 

 the crimes committed by the representatives" of nobility 

 in their elective functions. 



By a law of April 6, 1891, reformed courts as well as 

 chiefs of districts have been introduced in the prov- 

 inces of the Kirghize Steppes. In Siberia, the reformed 

 Courts and trial by jury were introduced in 1897, and in 

 Turkestan in 1898. 



SPAIN. 



The present Constitution of Spain, drawn 

 up by the Government and laid before a Cortes 

 Constituventes, elected for its ratification, 

 March 27, 1876, was proclaimed June 30, 

 1876. It consists of 89 articles or clauses. 

 The first of them enacts that Spain shall be a 

 constitutional monarchy, the executive resting 

 in the King, and the power to make laws " in 

 the Cortes with the King." The Cortes are 

 composed of a Senate and Congress, equal in 

 authority. There are three classes of senators 

 first, senators by their own right, or Sena- 

 dores de derccho propio; secondly, 100 life sen- 

 ators nominated by the Crown these two 

 categories not to exceed 180 ; and thirdly, 180 

 senators, elected by the Corporations of State 

 that is, the communal and provincial states, 

 the church, the universities, academies, etc. 

 and by the largest payers of contributions. 

 Senators in their own right are the sons, if 

 any, of the King and of the immediate heir to 

 the throne, who have attained their majority ; 

 Grandees who are so in their own right and 

 who can prove an annual renta of 60,000 

 pesetas, or 2,400/. ; captain-generals of the 

 army ; admirals of the navy ; the patriarch of 

 the Indias and the archbishops ; the presi- 



dents of the Council of State, of the Supreme 

 Tribunal, of the Tribunal of Cuentas del Reino, 

 and of the Supreme Council of War and of the 

 Navy, after two years of office. The elective 

 senators must be renewed by one half every 

 five years, and by totality every time the Mon- 

 arch dissolves that part of the Cortes. The 

 Congress is formed by deputies " named in the 

 electoral Juntas in the form the law deter- 

 mines," in the proportion of one to every ."><).- 

 000 souls of the population. According to the 

 law of June 26, 1890, the electoral qualifica- 

 tion is held by all male Spaniards, 25 years of 

 age, who enjoy full civil rights, and have been 

 citizens of a municipality for at least two 

 years. Members of Congress must be 25 years 

 of age ; they are re-eligible indefinitely, tin- 

 elections being for 5 years. Deputies, to the 

 number of 10, are admitted who, although not 

 elected for any one district, have obtained a 

 cumulative vote of more than 10,000 in several 

 districts. Deputies to the number of 88 are 

 elected by scrutin de lisle in 26 large districts, 

 in which minorities may be duly represented. 

 There are in all 431 deputies. The deputies 

 cannot take State office, pensions, and salaries ; 

 but the ministers are exempted from this law. 

 Both Congress and Senate meet every year. 

 The Monarch has the power of convoking 

 them, suspending them, or dissolving them ; 

 but in the latter case a new Cortes must sit 

 within three months. The Monarch appoints 

 the president and vice-presidents of the Senate 

 from members of the Senate only : the Con- 

 gress elects its own officials. The Monarch 

 and each of the legislative chambers can take 

 the initiative in the laws. The Congress has 

 the right of impeaching the ministers before 

 the Senate. 



The Constitution of June 30, 1876, further 

 enacts that the Monarch is inviolable, but his 

 ministers are responsible, and that all his de- 

 crees must be countersigned by one of them. 

 The Cortes must approve his marriage before 

 he can contract it, and the King cannot marry 

 anyone excluded by law from the succession 

 to the crown. Should the lines of the legiti- 

 mate descendants of the late Alphonso XII. 

 become extinct, the succession shall be in this 

 order- first, to his sisters; next to his aunt 

 and her legitimate descendants ; and next to 

 those of his uncles, the brothers of Fernando 

 VII., "unless they have been excluded." If 

 all the lines become extinct, "the nation will 

 elect its Monarch." 



The executive is vested, under the Monarch, 

 iu a Council of Ministers, as follows, March 

 4, 1899:- 



President of the Council. 



r of Foreign Affairs. 



