736 



SPAIN. 



line of the legitimate descendants of Alfonso 

 XII, the following order of succession shall be 

 observed : first, his sisters ; next, his aunt (the 

 Infanta Luisa, second daughter of King Fer- 

 dinand VII), and her legitimate descendants ; 

 and, finally, his uncles (the brothers of Ferdi- 

 nand VII). Should all the lines become ex- 

 tinct, " the nation will elect its monarch." 



The Cortes is composed of a Senate and a 

 Chamber of Deputies, equal in authority. The 

 senators are of three classes: Senators "by 

 their own right"; life-senators appointed by 

 the Crown ; and senators elected by the cor- 

 porations of the state and by the largest tax- 

 payers. Senators " by their own right " are . 

 the sons of the sovereign and of the heir-ap- 

 parent to the Crown, who have attained their 

 majority ; grandees of Spain in their own right 

 and having an annual income of not less than 

 60,000 pesetas ($12,000); captain-generals in 

 the army ; admirals ; the Patriarch of the In- 

 dias and the archbishops; the presidents of 

 the Council of State, of the Supreme Court, 

 and of the Tribunal de Cuentas del reino. The 

 number of senators of the first two classes 

 together and of the third class cannot exceed 

 180. The elective senators must be renewed 

 in one half every five years, and completely 

 whenever the King dissolves that portion of 

 the legislative bodies. The Chamber of Depu- 

 ties is composed of members chosen for five 

 years by the electoral colleges, in the propor- 

 tion of one to every 50,000 inhabitants. A royal 

 decree of Aug. 8, 1878, grants to Cuba the 

 privilege of sending deputies to the Cortes in 

 the proportion of one to every 40,000 free in- 

 habitants paying taxes to the amount of not 

 less than 125 pesetas ($25) annually. Deputies 

 must be at least twenty-five years of age, and 

 may be re-elected indefinitely. A deputy can not 

 without resigning accept a pension, an office 

 under the Government or in the royal house- 

 hold, or a decoration. Ministers are exempt 

 from this law. Both houses sit every year. 

 The King has the power to convoke, suspend, 

 or dissolve them; but in the last case a new 

 Cortes must meet within three months. The 

 president and vice-president of the Senate are 

 appointed by the Crown from among the sena- 

 tors only. 



The Council of Ministers of Jan. 9, 1883, 

 was composed as follows: President of the 

 Council, Don Pedro Manuel Sagasta, appointed 

 Feb. 8, 1881 ; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Don 

 Antonio Aguilar, Marquis de la Vega de Ar- 

 mijo; Minister of Grace and Justice, Don V. 

 Rimero Giron; Minister of Finance, Don J. 

 Pelayo Cuesta; Minister of the Interior, Don 

 Pio Gullon; Minister of War, Gen. A. Mar- 

 tinez Campos ; Minister of Marine, Vice-Ad- 

 miral R. R. Arias; Minister of Commerce and 

 Agriculture, Don G. Gamazo; Minister of the 

 Colonies, Don Gaspar Nunez de Arce. This 

 Cabinet was replaced in October by the fol- 

 lowing : President of the Council, Seflor Po- 

 sada Herrera; Minister of Foreign Affairs, 



Sefior Ruiz Gomez ; Minister of Grace and Jus- 

 tice, Sefior Navarro Rodrigo ; Minister of Fi- 

 nance, Sefior Gallostra; Minister of the Inte- 

 rior, Sefior Moret; Minister of War, Gen. 



Lopez Dominguez ; Minister of Marine, ; 



Minister of Commerce and Agriculture, Mar- 

 quis Sardoal ; Minister of the Colonies, Sefior 

 Suarez Inclan. The present Council of Minis- 

 ters, formed on Jan. 18, 1884, is made up thus: 

 President of the Council, Sefior Canovas del 

 Castillo ; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sefior J. 

 de Elduayen; Minister of Grace and Justice, 

 Sefior Silvela ; Minister of Finance, Sefior Cos- 

 Gay on ; Minister of the Interior, Sefior Romero 

 y Robledo; Minister of War, Gen. Quesada y 

 Matheus, Marquis de Miravalles; Minister of 

 Marine, Admiral Topete y Carballo; Minister 

 of Commerce and Agriculture, Sefior Pidal y 

 Mon ; Minister of the Colonies, Count Tajada 

 de Valdosera. The President of the Senate 

 was the Marquis de la Plabana ; and the Vice- 

 Presidents, Sefior T ; Montejo y Robledo, the 

 Count de Torre Mata, the Duke de Tetuan, and 

 Sefior J. Moreno Benitez. The President of 

 the Chamber of Deputies was Sefior Jose Posa- 

 da Herrera; and the Vice-Presidents, the Mar- 

 quis de Sardoal, Sefior T. Ruiz Capedon, the 

 Marquis de Valdeterrazo, and Sefior A. Linares 

 Rivas. 



The Spanish Envoy Extraordinary and Min- 

 ister Plenipotentiary to the United States is 

 Don Juan Valera (accredited in 1884). The 

 United States Envoy Extraordinary and Min- 

 ister Plenipotentiary to Spain is Hon. John W. 

 Foster. The Spanish Consul-Gen eral at New 

 York is Don M. S. Guanes. 



Area and Population. Spain, with an area (in- 

 cluding the Balearic and the Canary islands) of 

 195,774 square miles, is divided into forty-nine 

 provinces, and had, in June, 1883, according 

 to official statistics, a population of 16,858,721, 

 against 16,625,860 (inclusive of 12,170 inhab- 

 itants of the Spanish possessions in Northern 

 Africa, not figuring in the returns for June, 

 1883), as given in the census reports for Dec. 31, 

 1877. The excess of females is commonly about 

 250,000. The mean density of the population 

 is 85 per square mile : the maximum, 280, being 

 in the province of Barcelona ; and the mini- 

 mum, 32, in the province of Ciudad Real. The 

 number of births registered in 1882 was 493,- 

 817 (6/g- per cent, illegitimate) ; that of deaths, 

 435,477: surplus, 58,340. The increase of 

 population during the past hundred years has 

 not exceeded 75 per cent. From 11,000,000 in 

 1820, the number of inhabitants had reached to 

 about 13,698,000 in 1828: the census of 1846 

 showed it to be 12,168,774; and that of 1860, 

 15,658,531. By comparing these last figures 

 with those of the census of Dec. 31, 1877, the 

 annual rate of progress for the seventeen years 

 is seen to have been '35 per cent, approximately. 

 The cities credited with upward of 50,000 in- 

 habitants in the census returns of 1877 were : 

 Madrid, 397,816;* Barcelona, 248,943; Va- 



* The municipal government of the capital reported the 



