738 



SPAIN. 



population is 27,605 and the colored 32,540. 

 The colored surplus consists mainly of chil- 

 dren. 



On Aug. 25 Charleston was visited by a de- 

 structive cyclone. 



SPAIN, a monarchy in southern Europe. The 

 legislative power is vested in the Cortes with 

 the King. The ministers are responsible to 

 the Cortes, and must countersign all rojal de- 

 crees. The Cortes is composed of a Senate 

 and a House of Deputies. Senators are of 

 three classes: High public functionaries and 

 princes of the blood royal and grandees of 

 Spain, who are senators in their awn right ; 

 senators nominated for life by the Crown; 

 and senators elected for five years by corpora- 

 tions and by citizens paying the highest taxes. 

 The first two classes together must not exceed 

 180 members, which is also the limit of the 

 third class. 



The Chamber of Deputies is composed of 

 members chosen for five years by the electoral 

 colleges, in the proportion of one to every 50,- 

 000 inhabitants. Cuba sends deputies to the 

 Cortes in the proportion of one to every 40,- 

 000 free inhabitants paying taxes to the amount 

 of not less than $25 annually. 



The Queen-Regent By the death of King Al- 

 fonso, on Nov. 25, 1885 (see page 656), the sov- 

 ereignty descended to his infant daughter Maria 

 de las Mercedes, Princess of the Asturias, un- 

 less the Queen, who was enceinte, should give 

 birth to a son. The new Queen was born Sept. 

 11, 1880. Her mother, the widowed Queen, 

 Maria Christina, was, in accordance with a 

 vote of the Cortes, proclaimed Regent during 

 the minority of her daughter, or of the posthu- 

 mous son if one should be born. Maria Chris- 

 tina, an Archduchess of Austria, daughter of 

 the late Archduke Carl Ferdinand, was born 

 July 21, 1858. She was educated in many 

 branches of science and literature, and in 1876 

 was appointed lay Abbess of the Convent of 

 Noble Ladies in Prague. On Nov. 29, 1879, 

 she was married to King Alfonso, whose first 

 Queen, Maria de las Mercedes, daughter of the 

 Due de Montpensier, had died June 26, 1878. 



Area and Population. The area of Spain, in- 

 cluding the Canary and Balearic Islands and 

 the small strip of Spanish territory on the Con- 

 tinent of Africa, opposite Gibraltar, is 197,767 

 square miles. The population at the close of 

 1883 was estimated at 17,034,915. At the 

 census of Dec. 31, 1877, the legal population 

 was 16,753,591. The towns with more than 

 100,000 inhabitants on June 30, 1884, were the 

 following: Madrid, population, 391,829 (popu- 

 lation inclusive of suburbs in 1883, 509,900) ; 

 Barcelona, 247,187; Valencia, 144,048; Se- 

 villa, 132,856; Malaga, 113,426. 



Commerce. The total value of the imports in 

 1883 was 893,446,011 pesetas; of the exports, 

 719,468,414. The countries furnishing the 

 largest proportion of the imports were: 

 France, to the amount of 234,900,000 pesetas ; 

 Great Britain, 188,300,000 pesetas ; Germany, 



86,700,000 pesetas; Belgium, 38,300,000 pese- 

 tas; Sweden and Norway, 25,800,000 pesetas; 

 Russia, 25,200,000 pesetas; and Italy, 22,900,- 

 000 pesetas. The imports from the Continent 

 of America amounted to 171,200,000 pesetas. 

 Of the exports, 303,300,000 pesetas went to 

 France, 205,200,000 pesetas to England, and 

 136,300,000 pesetas to America. The leading 

 articles of importation are grain, textiles, bran- 

 dy, timber, machinery, sugar, iron and hard- 

 ware, and coal. The chief exports are wine, 

 of the total value of 311,300,000 pesetas in 

 1883, fruits, coal and metals, animals and ani- 

 mal products, olive-oil, and cork. 



The number of vessels that entered Spanish 

 ports in 1883 was 18,625, of 2,918,702 tons, of 

 which 8,366, of 696,575 tons, were Spanish ; 

 the total number cleared was 18,693. The 

 merchant navy on Jan. 1, 1884, numbered 

 1,902 vessels of over 50 tons burden, includ- 

 ing 426 steam-vessels. 



Communications. The length of railroads open 

 to traffic on Sept. 1, 1884, was 8,889 kilome- 

 tres. There were 3,444 kilometres in process 

 of construction. 



The number of letters, postal-cards, and cir- 

 culars carried in 1882-'83 was 83,611,522 pri- 

 vate internal, 8,124,760 official, and 19,295,460 

 international. The receipts of the post-office 

 were 14,628,705 pesetas; the expenses, 7,203,- 

 833. 



The length of telegraph lines in 1883 was 

 17,173 kilometres; the length of wires, 42,423, 

 exclusive of 114 kilometres of underground 

 lines and 236 kilometres of cables. The num- 

 ber of dispatches was 3,019,831, of which 

 198,515 were official, 654,214 international, 

 and 79,922 transit dispatches. The receipts 

 amounted to 5,151,480 pesetas. 



The Army. The military forces consist of a 

 permanent army, an active reserve, and a sed- 

 entary reserve. Every Spaniard is liable to be 

 drafted into the permanent army, but exemp- 

 tion can be purchased for about $300. The 

 effective of the permanent army was fixed for 

 1884-'85 at 93,638 men, besides 20,000 officers; 

 during the three months devoted to instruc- 

 tion it was greater by 28,000 men. The war 

 strength of the continental army is about 452,- 

 000 men. Separate forces are maintained in 

 the colonies, numbering 22,457 men in Cuba, 

 3,176 in Porto Rico, and 8,256 in the Philip- 

 pines. 



The Navy. The navy consisted in 1885 of 5 

 iron-clad frigates, 4 screw-frigates of the first 

 class, 4 of the second, 6 cruisers, and 107 other 

 steamers. The largest ironclad is the " Vito- 

 ria," armored with 5^-inch plates lined with 

 teak, and carrying four 12-ton, three 9-ton, 

 and twelve 7-ton guns. In the West Indies, 

 Spain maintains 35 gunboats, each armed with 

 a 100-ton pivot-gun. The navy in 1885 was 

 manned by 671 naval officers, 14,000 sailors, 

 376 officers of marines, and 7,033 marine in- 

 fantry. The Caroline Islands difficulty (see 

 CAROLINE ISLANDS) prompted the Government 



