772 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 



SPAIN. 



deer-hunt : he received a fall which caused a 

 double fracture of his right leg below the knee, 

 of such a character as ultimately to render am- 

 putation necessary. The operation was per- 

 formed on December 10th. 



The Legislature met at Columbia on the 26th 

 of November, and adjourned on the 24th of 

 December. The ceremony of the inauguration 

 and installment in office took place on the 4th 

 of December at Governor Hampton's residence 

 in the suburbs of Columbia, by the side of the 

 bed on which he lay in a reclining position. 

 On the 10th of December Governor Hampton 

 was elected United States Senator for the term 

 of six years from March 4, 1879, as successor of 

 John T. Patterson. 



The receipts and expenditures of the State 

 during the fiscal year ending October 31, 1878, 

 were as follows: 



Keceipts from all sources $811,940 66 



Expenditures on all accounts 621,774 20 



Cash balance for the year $190,166 46 



The public debt on November 1, 1878, was : 



Funded debt '. $5,130,965 



Unfunded debt 1,406,694 



Total. . . 



$6,537,659 



Among the items of revenue for 1878, the 

 royalty paid on phosphate, from the several 

 places where it is dug, amounted to $93,420.98. 

 The amounts of all taxable property in South 

 Carolina for the fiscal year 1878-79 were : Im- 

 movable property, $85,633,873; movable prop- 

 erty, $40,088,341 ; railroad property, $6,530,- 

 772; making a total of $132,237,986; which 

 is $3,618,023 less than the aggregate assess- 

 ment of the previous year. 



Public instruction in South Carolina appears 

 to be in a satisfactory condition, with a ten- 

 dency toward further progress. The aggre- 

 gate number of children who attended the pub- 

 lic schools in the year was 116,239, or nearly 

 14,000 above their number in the previous 

 year. The charitable institutions of the State 

 appear to be under praiseworthy management. 

 To meet the expenses of the State charities 

 for the fiscal year ending October 31, 1878, 

 the Legislature at the previous session made 

 the following appropriations : For the Luna- 

 tic Asylum, $45,000 ; for the Deaf, Dumb, and 

 Blind Asylum, $4,000 ; for the State Orphan 

 Asylum, $3,000. 



An act was passed to cede to the United 

 States of America so much land on the shore 

 of Sullivan's Island and Morris Island, respec- 

 tively, as may be necessary for the erection of 

 the shore lines of the jetties to be erected for 

 the improvement and deepening of the bar of 

 Charleston Harbor. The projected jetties will, 

 it is expected, give that port one of the best 

 harbors on the Atlantic coast. The plan is 

 similar to that employed at the mouth of the 

 Mississippi. The bar at the entrance of the 

 harbor .is 10 miles wide. The plan is to inclose 

 in a channel half a mile broad all the water 

 which spreads its force over the whole length 



of the bar, thus increasing the scouring prop- 

 erty of the outflow between the heads of the 

 jetty as much as eightfold. This will, accord- 

 ing to the calculations, open a channel 24 feet 

 deep through the bar, where there is now only 

 10 or 12 feet of water, thus enabling vessels 

 of the largest size built to float over Charles- 

 ton bar into the deep, commodious, landlocked 

 haven within. 



An important case was decided by the Su- 

 preme Court of the United States on October 

 14, 1878, one of the parties in litigation being 

 the city of Charleston. The case arose under 

 an ordinance of the City Council taxing the 

 six per cent, stock of the city in the hands of 

 purchasers. The holders of the stock refused 

 to pay the tax, and were sued for payment 

 before the courts of the State. Seeing them- 

 selves defeated there, they carried the matter 

 on a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the 

 United States. After hearing the argument of 

 counsel on both sides, the Supreme Court de- 

 cided that the city has no power to annul by 

 her own acts any part of the obligations she 

 assumes toward her creditors. On this point 

 the decision sets forth several reasons, con- 

 cluding with these words : " We hold that no 

 municipality of a State can by its own ordi- 

 nances, under the guise of taxation, relieve 

 itself from performing to the letter all that it 

 has expressly promised to its creditors." 



SPAIN, a kingdom of southern Europe, 

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

 proclaimed King December 30, 1874. The Min- 

 istry in 1878 was composed as follows: Cano- 

 vas del Castillo, President of the Council ; Sil- 

 vela, Foreign Affairs ; Calderon y Collantes, 

 Justice; Caballos y Vargas, War; Marquis de 

 Orovio, Finance; Pavia, Navy; Romero y Ro- 

 bledo, Interior; Count Toreno, Agriculture 

 and Commerce; Herrera, Colonies. The area 

 of Spain is 197,774 square miles; the popula- 

 tion in 1870 was 16,635,506. The area of the 

 Spanish colonies was 117,209 square miles, and 

 their population 8,093,610. 



The revenue and expenditure in the budget 

 for 1878-'79 were estimated as follows (values 

 in pesetas 1 peseta = 19-3 cents) : 



RECEIPTS. 



Direct taxes 235,617,900 



Indirect taxes 249,472,000 



Stamps and Government monopolies. . . 212,629,827 



Receipts from national property 14,200,975 



Eeceipts from the colonies 38,709,500 



Total 750,630,202 



EXPENDITURES. 



Civil list 9,500,900 



Cortes 1,549,535 



Publicdebt 248.836,860 



Liabilities of the state 2,987,502 



Pensions 41,197,652 



Presidency of the Council of Ministers. . 1,079,209 



Ministry of Foreign Affairs 8,117,951 



of Justice 62,185.919 



" of War . 118,447.702 



" of Navy 25,125,787 



of Interior 41,401,580 



" of Public Works.. . . : 7?,109,571 



" of Finances 132,638,597 



Extraordinary expenditure 8,000,000 



Total 758,177,865 





