heavily on agricultural products. Accumulated deficits stand now at about 161 million pesetas, which the Government owes in accounts, current and treasury bills, to the Bank of Spain. Since the estimates were accepted the Government, complying with an authority given by the Cortes to reduce expenses, the different ministers have made in their departments an aggregate economy of 7 million pesetas.

The constant and ever-increasing excess of Government expenditure over public revenue resulted in a national debt of very large amount. On January 1, 1881, the total Spanish debt was estimated to amount to 512,000,000l.

It was admitted by successive ministers of finance in recent years that Spain was absolutely unable to pay interest on its debt in the existing state of things, ruined as the country was both by a costly and wasteful civil war, and by desperate and equally costly efforts to suppress the insurrection in Cuba. In a report of the Government of the King Alfonso XII. dated July 1875, it was stated that not any of the national creditors could hope to be satisfied without having recourse to credit operations at an enormous rate of interest, which in a short time doubles the original debt.' It was arranged in 1881–82 that the bulk of the Spanish debt should be converted into a new series of 4 per cents. The external debt is thus reduced (1888) to a capital of 1,971,151,000 pesetas, at 4 per cent. ; the internal debt reduced to a capital of 1,946,397,654 pesetas, new internal 4 per cents.; and the untransferable internal to a capital of 729,485,000 pesetas. There are, besides, 53,940,000 pesetas at 2 per cent.; amortizable debt, 1,630,785,000 pesetas, at 4 per cent.; the 5 per cent. consolidated due to the United States, 3,000,000 pesetas. The total capital of the debt thus amounts to about 260,000,000 sterling. In the budget of 1888-89 the total charge of the debt is 279,099,611 pesetas, one-third of the total expenditure and nearly one-half the value of the exports. The floating debt in Feb. 1889 amounted to 158,000,000 pesetas. In addition to this, the State has incurred obligations in respect to the island of Cuba estimated at over 10,000,0007.

Army and Navy.

The army of Spain was reorganised in 1868, after the model of that of France, and by subsequent laws in 1877, 1878, 1882, and 1883. Under the new military law, the armed forces of the kingdom consist of-1. A permanent army; 2. A first or active reserve; 3. A second or sedentary reserve. All Spaniards past the age of 20 are liable to be drawn for the permanent army, in which they have to serve three years; they then pass for three years into the first or active reserve, and for six years into the second reserve.

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By a payment of about 601. any one may purchase exemption from service. For the colonial army the total period of service is eight years, four with the colours and four in the second reserve. By increasing the number of depôt battalions, assigning to each reserve battalion a special district, and making it the essential basis of regimental organisation, both for recruits and for the reserves, it is hoped that in time Spain may be able easily to mobilise in case of necessity an army of 870,000 men. Of the infantry of the permanent army there are 140 battalions, of the cavalry 28 regiments; 10 regiments of field and 3 of mountain artillery. Of engineers there are 5 regiments of 2 battalions, and a special service corps. On the war footing the artillery would have 85 batteries, with 500 guns in all. There are besides 13 battalions of fortress artillery. On the staff are 406 generals and 133 reserve generals. following is the strength of the regular army in peace and war:—

The

The number of troops in the Philippines, 1886-87, was 11,016, in Cuba 26,342, in Porto Rico 3,566.

For military purposes the kingdom, with the islands, is divided into fourteen districts, or 'capitanias generales,' at the head of each of which stands a' captain-general.' It is further subdivided into 140 territorial divisions for infantry, in each of which is a regimental depôt; for the cavalry there are 24 districts, and 6 for artillery. The following table shows the strength of the Spanish navy in 1888, only the large guns being given :

Number Displacement Horse-power Guns

Nine first-class, 8 second-class, 30 third-class gunboats; 4 transports, 4 school ships, 2 sundry ships.

Except the Pelago (launched 1887, with armour 20 inches thick), all the armourclads are old (1863-74). The largest deckprotected cruiser, the Reina Regente, was launched in the Clyde in 1887, and has steel armour 5 inches thick at the deck slope, 3 inches in the centre, and 1 inch at the ends. Two others, the Isla de Cuba and Isla de Luzon, launched in 1887, and built by Sir William Armstrong from designs by Mr. W. H. White, now Assistant Controller and Director of Naval Construction, H.M. Navy, are each of 1,030 tons displacement and 2,200 horse-power.

Three cruisers are being built in the Spanish dockyards, the Alfonso XIII. and the Lepanto, similar to the Reine Regente, and the Ensenada, similar to the Isla de Cuba. A first-class cruiser, the Alfonso XII., of 3,040 tons, is building at Ferrol. In October 1887 the Queen Regent signed a decree authorising the construction of 6 war-vessels of 7,000 tons each, and 24 torpedo-boats.

For the defence of the colonies, and mainly of Cuba and Porto Rico, Spain maintains a small fleet of gunboats, 68 vessels of all kinds. The navy of Spain was manned, in 1888, by 14,000 sailors and 7,000 marines in active service, and commanded by one admiral, 26 vice- and rear-admirals, and 645 commissioned officers of various grades, besides marine officers. The navy, like the army, recruited by conscription, naval districts for this purpose being formed along the coast, among the seafaring population.

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The Spanish frontiers are defended by the following fortified places: On the north and north-west coast, Fuenterrabia, the fortified port of Passages, and the military ports of Santoña and Santander, Ferrol, Coruña, Vigo; in the Basque country, between the coast and the Ebro, are Bilbao and Vitoria; in the country on the left bank of the Ebro are Pamplona, Tafalla, Jaca, Venasqua, Muzon, Puycerda, Seo de Urgel, Balaguer, and Lerida; between the Segré and the Mediterranean are Cardona, Hostalrich, Campre don, Ripoll, Girona, Olot, Cartelfollit, Figueras; on the Mediterranean, Palamos, Barcelona, Tarragona, Malaga, Almeria, Carthagena, and Alicante; on the Ebro are Logroño, Tudela, Saragossa, Mequinenza, and Tortosa; south of the Ebro are Burgos and Morella. Along the Portuguese frontier are Toro, Ciudad Rodrigo, Valencia de Alcantara, Albuquerque and Badajoz; Tarifa and Algeciras in the Strait of Gibraltar, and Cadiz at its entrance.

Area and Population.

The following table gives the area and population of each of the forty-nine provinces into which the kingdom is divided, according

SPAIN.

to official estimates based on statistics of births and deaths in the

end of 1887 :

4,775 290,856

Total.

197,670 17,358,404

Jaen Leon Lérida

At the general census of the population on the 31st December, 1877, the returns showed that at that date the kingdom, including the Balearic and Canary Islands- Baleares' and Canárias' each considered a province-and the small strip of territory in North Africa, facing Gibraltar, had an area of 197,767 square miles, and a total population of 16,634,345, comprising 8.134,331 males and 8,500,014 females. The legal population as distinct from the The area of Continental Spain population present was returned at 16,753,591, of whom 8,253,293 were males and 8,500,298 females. is 191,100 square miles, and its population (1877) 16,061,859 (1885) 16,609,925.

The population of Ceuta, included in that of Cadiz, is 9,694 According to the census returns of December 31, 1877, there wer at that date only 26,834 resident foreigners-the mass of ther

in four provinces-namely, Barcelona, Cadiz, Gerona, and Madrid. The Spaniards are a mixture of Celts, Latins, Goths, Vandals, Moors, and Arabs. The Basques in the North, numbering 440,000, differ in race and language from the rest of Spain; there are 60,000 Morescoes in the South, 50,000 gipsies, and a small number of Jews.

According to the census of December 31, 1887, the total population was 17,329,032.

In 1789 the population was calculated to number 10,061,480; in 1820 it was 11,000,000, and in 1828 it was stated to be 13,698,029. At a census taken in 1846 the population was found to be 12,168,774, and it was at the census of 1860, 15,658,531. At the census of 1877 the population amounted to 16,634,345, being an increase of 976,814 in the course of seventeen years, or at the rate of about 0.35 per cent. per annum. The average density of the population is 85 per square mile; the greatest density is in the province of Barcelona, where it is 280, and 260 in Pontevedra; while it is higher than 200 per square mile in Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa; in several provinces it is only between 50 and 70 per square mile, falling to about 32 in Ciudad Real.

The births in Spain in 1884 were 518,136 (5.4 per cent. illegitimate), and deaths 444,385; surplus, 73,751.

The following were the (non-communal) populations of the principal towns in 1887, viz. :

The soil is subdivided among a very large number of proprietors. Of 3,426,083 recorded assessments to the property tax, there are 624,920 properties which pay from 1 to 10 reales; 511,666 from 10 to 20 reales; 642,377 from 20 to 40 reales; 788,184 from 40 to 100 reales; 416,546 from 100 to 200 reales; 165,202 from 200 to 500 reales; while the rest, to the number of 279,188, are larger estates charged from 500 to 10,000 reales and upwards. The subdivision of the soil is partly the work of recent years, for in 1800 the number of farms amounted only to 677,520, in the Lands of 273,760 proprietors and 403,760 farmers.