PORTUGAL. 



683 



of 815 square kilometres, had a population of 

 132,223 persons, making the area of the islands 

 3,203 square kilometres, and their population 

 401,624 persons. 



Finances. The revenue is estimated in the 

 budget for 1887-'88 at 34,409,891 milreis, of 

 which sum 6,290,410 milreis are derived from 

 the land-tax, licenses, and other direct imposts, 

 3,341,700 milreis from registration duties and 

 stamped paper, 18,173,110 milreis from cus- 

 toms and excise duties, 1,138,000 from supple- 

 mental imposts under the law of April 27, 

 1882, and 3,528,613 milreis from national 

 property, while 1,938,058 milreis are recettes 

 d'ordre. The total expenditure is estimated at 

 39,307,316 milreis, the charge of the public 

 debt being 14,886,963 milreis, the disburse- 

 ments of the Ministry of Finance 8,087,717 

 milreis, of the Ministry of the Interior 2,020,- 

 527 milreis, of the Ministry of Justice and 

 Worship 727,697 milreis, of the Ministry of 

 War 4,963,583 milreis, of the Ministry of Ma- 

 rine and the Colonies 2,013,563 milreis, of the 

 Ministry of Foreign Affairs 332,685 milreis, of 

 the Ministry of Public Works 4,074,581 mil- 

 reis, extraordinary expenditure 2,200,000 mil- 

 reis. 



The public debt on June 30, 1886, amounted 

 to 490,301,599 milreis, consisting of internal 

 3-per-cent. bonds of the amount of 261,694,054 

 milreis, and a sterling loan amounting to 228,- 

 607,545 milreis. The interest to be paid dur- 

 ing the financial year 1887-'88 is 14,044,777 

 milreis, while 5,339,106 milreis of the interest 

 remains unpaid, and is added to the debt. 

 The Government has proposed the optional 

 conversion of the perpetual exterior debt into 

 redeemable obligations, and of the internal 

 debt, as far as the financial condition will al- 

 low, into annuities. 



The Army. By virtue of the military law of 

 1884 the army will consist of 24 regiments of 

 infantry, 12 regiments of chasseurs, 10 regi- 

 ments of cavalry, 3 regiments of mounted ar- 

 tillery, 1 brigade of mountain artillery, 1 regi- 

 ment and 4 companies of garrison artillery, 

 and 1 regiment of engineers. The time of 

 service is 12 years, of which 3 are spent in the 

 active army and 5 in the first and 4 in the sec- 

 ond reserves. The war effective, as fixed by 

 the budget of 1886, was 3,862 officers and 

 125,057 men, with 7,821 horses, 4,870 mules, 

 and 264 guns. The peace establishment on 

 Aug. 30, 1887, consisted of 1,952 officers and 

 23,56(5 men, with 2,243 horses. Including the 

 municipal guard and the fiscal guards, the total 

 strength was 32,120 officers and men. This 

 does not include the colonial troops, consisting 

 of a regiment of infantry, numbering 1,193 

 officers and men, and native troops of the first 

 line, 7,633 in number, besides the first and 

 second native reserves. 



The Navy. The naval forces include 1 iron- 

 clad corvette, 6 other cruisers, 17 gun-boats, 7 

 armed steamers, and 4 torpedo-boats. 



The Post-Office. The number of letters car- 



ried in the mails during the year 1885 was 

 20,104,526 ; of postal cards, 2,239,600 ; of 

 journals and circulars, 16,418,660. 



Railroads. There were 1,674 kilometres of 

 railroad in the principal lines in September, 

 1887, while 430 kilometres were in process of 

 construction ; and in the subsidiary lines there 

 were 144 kilometres in operation and 22 kilo- 

 metres under way. 



Telegraphs. The length of the state lines at 

 the end of 1884 was 4,978 kilometres; the 

 length of wires, 11,732 kilometres. The num- 

 ber of paid messages sent during the year was 

 460,341, exclusive of 87,192 foreign dispatches 

 and 159,771 in transit; the number of mes- 

 sages exempt from the tax was 506,607, 432,- 

 265 were in transit and 74,342 official. The 

 receipts for 1884 were 220,684,941 reis. 



Commerce. The imports and exports of the 

 various classes of commodities and the total 

 valne of the foreign commerce in 1886 were as 

 follow, the values being given in milreis: 



Navigation. The number of sailing-vessels 

 entered at the ports of the kingdom in 1886 

 was 2,400, of 462,000 tons ; and the number 

 of steamers was 3,272, of 3,014,000 tons; not 

 including 4,510 sailing-vessels, of 285,000 tons, 

 and 1,122 steamers, of 595,000 ton?, that were 

 engaged in the coasting trade. The sailing- 

 vessels employed in ocean commerce that were 

 cleared numbered 2,546. of 474,000 tons; the 

 steamers, 3,252, of 2,975,000 tons. The mer- 

 chant navy in 1886 consisted of 36 steamers, 

 of an aggregate burden of 16,583 cubic metres, 

 and 433 sailing-vessels, of 67,515 cubic metres, 

 not including coasting vessels. 



Dissolution of the Cortes. The Chamber of 

 Deputies on January 4, 1887, elected a mem- 

 ber of the Opposition as its president. In con- 

 sequence of this action the Chamber and the 

 elective portion of the House of Peers were 

 dissolved on January 6. The new Chamber 

 was elected on February 27, and elections for 

 the House of Peers were held in March. The 

 new Cortes, in which the ministry have a 

 strong majority, met on April 7. The Con- 

 servative minority enacted violent scenes in 

 the Chamber. On May 8 a deputy, who was a 

 lieutenant-colonel of marines, named Femora 

 d' Almeida, actually assaulted the Minister of 

 Marine, Henrique de Macedo, who resigned his 

 post in consequence, while the officer was ar- 



