The commercial intercourse of the colony is mainly with the United Kingdom. The value of the trade with Great Britain and Ireland, during each of the five years 1879 to 1883, is returned by the Board of Trade as follows: Among the articles of export from the Cape to Great Britain, wool is the most important, the value shipped annually constituting nearly nine-tenths of the total exports. In the five years from 1879 to 1883 the exports of wool-sheep's as well as goat's-from the Cape Colony to the United Kingdom were as follows: Years : £ 2,267,944 Among the minor exports from the colony to Great Britain are copper ore, of the value of 355,4907. in 1883; feathers, chiefly ostrich, of the value of 1,419,7857.; and skins and hides, of the value of 668,5727. in 1883. The imports of British produce into the colony comprise mainly apparel and haberdashery, of the value of 604,2981.; cotton manufactures, of the value of 272,0727.; iron, wrought and unwrought, of the value of 491,9881., and leather and saddlery, 288,4861. in the year 1883. According to the Cape official returns the value of the exports to Great Britain in 1883 was 3,981,4247., and the imports from Great Britain 4,899,4027. The number of vessels which entered inwards in 1883 was 802, of 930,928 tons, and coastwise 1,333, of 2,059,349 tons; the number cleared outwards was 794, of 922,164 tons, and coastwise 1,321, of 2,047,094 tons. There were, at the end of 1875, in the colony 1,111,713 head of cattle, 10,976,663 sheep, and 3,065,202 goats. The sheep-farms of the colony are often of very great extent, comprising from 3,000 to 15,000 acres, and upwards: those in tillage are comparatively small. The graziers are, for the most part, proprietors of the farms which they occupy. At the date of the last census the total number of holdings in the colony was 16,166, comprising 83,900,000 acres; of these 10,766, comprising upwards of 60 million acres, were held on quit-rent. The amount of land granted up to 1883 was 56,582,710 acres, and sold 26,580,987 acres. The total area under cultivation in 1875 was 580,000 acres; the chief crops being wheat, oats, maize, rye, and barley. Vines occupied 18,000 acres, and yielded 4,484,665 gallons of wine. There were lines of Government railway of a total length of 1,213 miles in the colony on January 1, 1884. The lines open for traffic at this date belonged to three systems-the Western, from Cape Town; the Midland, starting from Port Elizabeth (these systems now meet), and the Eastern system, from East London. The capital expended on railways to the end of 1883 has been 10,487,4177. The gross earnings in 1883 were 915,2741., and expenses 649,4497., giving a net revenue of 265,7251. The number of postal receptacles in the colony at the end of 1883 was 684; the revenue in 1883 amounting to 111,516l., and the expenditure to 235,2001. The total number of letters posted in 1883 was 6,561,279, newspapers 3,984,294. The telegraphs in the colony comprised 4,031 miles of line, with 209 offices, at the end of 1883. The number of messages sent was 679,588 in 1883. The telegraphs were constructed entirely at the expense of the Government. The revenue in 1883 was 51,7981., and expenditure 53,0321. Agent-General of Cape Colony in Great Britain.-Captain Mills, C.M.G., appointed 1882. Money, Weights, and Measures. MONEY. The coins in circulation within the colony are exclusively British. All accounts are kept in pounds, shillings, and pence. Y Y WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. The standard weights and measures are British, with the exception of the land measure. The general surface measure is the old Amsterdam Morgen, reckoned equal to 2-11654 acres. Some difference of opinion existed formerly as to the exact equivalents of the shortest land measure, the foot, but it was in 1858 officially settled that 1,000 Cape feet were equal to 1,033 British Imperial feet. Statistical and other Books of Reference concerning the Cape Colony. 1. OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS. Bechuanaland. Commission and Instructions to Major-General Sir Charles Warren, K.C.M.G., as Special Commissioner to Bechuanaland. London, 1884. Cape of Good Hope Blue-book for 1883. Capetown, 1884. Census of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, taken on the night of Sunday, March 7, 1875. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of the Governor. 4. Capetown, 1877. Educational Statistics to illustrate the progress of the aided school system. Cape Town, 1884. Financial Statement for 1884-5. Cape Town, 1884. Green (Prof. A. H.), Report on the Coals of Cape Colony. London, 1883. Postmaster-General's Report for 1883. Cape Town, 1884. Railway Report for 1883. Cape Town, 1884. Report of the Commandant-General of the Colonial Forces, 1883. Cape Town, 1884. Reports of the Inspectors of Diamond Mines for the year 1883. Cape Town, 1884. Report of Select Committee on Colonial Agriculture and Industries. Cape Town, 1883. Report of the Superintendent-General of Education, 1883. Cape Town, 1881. Statistical Abstract for the several Colonies and other Possessions of the United Kingdom. No. XX. 8. London, 1884. Telegraph Report for 1883. Cape Town, 1884. Trade of the Cape of Good Hope with the United Kingdom; in Annua Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom with Foreign Countries and British Possessions for the year 1883. Imp. 4. London, 1884. 2. NON-OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS. Anderson (C. J.), Notes of Travel in South Africa. Edited by L. Lloyd. 8. London, 1875. Chase (Hon. John Centlivres) and Wilmot (A.), History of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. 8. London, 1870. Cape of Good Hope General Directory and Guide Book, 1883. Cape Town. 1883. Chesson (F. W.), The Dutch Republics of South Africa. 8. London, 1871. Fritsch (Dr. Gust.), Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika's ethnographisch und anatomisch beschrieben. 4. Breslau, 1872. Hall (H.), Manual of South African Geography. 2nd ed. 8. Cape Town, 1866. Holub (Dr. Emil), Seven Years in South Africa. London, 1881. Johnston (Keith), Africa. London, 1878. Meidinger (H.), Die südafrikanischen Colonien Englands, und die Freistaator. der holländischen Boeren in ihren jetzigen Zuständen. 8. Frankfurt, 1861. Noble (John), South Africa, Past and Present. Cape Town, 1878. Noble (John), The Cape and South Africa. Cape Town, 1878. Silver (S. W.), Handbook to South Africa, including the Cape Colony, Natal, the Diamond Fields, &c. 8. London, 1880. Silver (S. W.), Handbook to the Transvaal. 8. London, 1877. Statham (F. R.), Blacks, Boers, and British. London, 1881. Theal (G. M.), South African History and Geography. London, 1878. Wilmot (G.), An historical and descriptive account of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. 8. London, 1863. EGYPT. (KEMI.-MISR.) Reigning Khedive, Mohamed Tewfik, born Nov. 19, 1852; the son of Ismail I.; sueceeded to the throne, on the abdication of his father, June 26, 1879. Married, Jan. 18, 1873, to Princess Emineh, daughter of El Hamy Pasha. Offspring of the union are two sons, Abbas, born July 14, 1874, and Mehemet Ali, born in 1876, and two daughters, KadshatHanem, born in 1879, and Nimet-Hanem, born in 1881. The present sovereign of Egypt is the sixth ruler of the dynasty of Mehemet Ali, appointed Governor of Egypt in 1806, who made himself, in 1811, absolute master of the country by force of arms. The position of his father and predecessor, Ismail I.-forced to abdicate, under pressure of the British and French governments, in 1879-was recognised by the Imperial Hatti-Shériff of February 13, 1841, issued under the guarantee of the five great European Powers, which established the hereditary succession to the throne of Egypt, under the same rules and regulations as those to the throne of Turkey. The title given to Mehemet Ali and his immediate successors was the Turkish one of ' Vali,' or Viceroy; but this was changed by an Imperial firman of May 21, 1866, into the Persian-Arabic of Khidîv-el-Misr,' or King of Egypt, or, as more commonly called, Khedive. By the same firman of May 27, 1866, obtained on the condition of the sovereign of Egypt raising his annual tribute to the Sultan's civil list from 376,000l. to 720,000l., the succession to the throne of Egypt was made direct, from father to son, instead of descending, after the Turkish law, to the eldest heir. By a last firman, issued June 8, 1873, the Sultan granted to Ismail I. the hitherto withheld rights of concluding treaties with foreign powers, and of maintaining armies. The predecessors of the present ruler of Egypt were: |