The Executive and Legislative power are exer- A circular concerning the condition of Uruguay, cised respectively by a President, elected for four issued in 1863 by Juan J. Herrera, Minister of years, and by a Senate and House of Represent-Foreign Affairs, estimates the imports of 1862 at atives. $12,000,000, and the exports at $10,000,000. Other FINANCES. The budget for the eighteen months estimates put the value of the regular imports of commencing July 1, 1860, and ending Dec. 31, 1861, 1862 at $10,189,752, and adding the contraband imestimates the receipts at $3,579,802, and the ex-portations (30 per cent.) at $13,586,380, and the expenditures at the same amount. ports at $15,395,073. NAVIGATION. The arrivals and departures of the port of Montevideo in 1855 were 1626 vessels, meaPOPULATION of Montevideo and suburbs, 1862, PUBLIC DEBT.-The public debt in Feb. 1860, amounted to $20,000,000, not including a debt to England of 50,000 pounds sterling ($242,000).suring 315,098 tons. The consolidated debt alone (1861) amounted to $4,500,000, at 6 per cent. Claims against Uruguay | 45,765. LXIII. VENEZUELA.-Republic. the treaty of Caracas was signed by General Paez and General Falcon, the latter being elected President of the Republic. Since then there has been a period of increasing tranquillity, until the 7th of October, 1863, when Puerto Cabello, the last refuge of the insurgents, surrendered to the existing gov ernment, entirely accomplishing the pacification of the country. FINANCES, &C.-It is not easy to present any re liable figures relating to the financial affairs of this Republic. In time of peace the revenue amounted to about $5,000,000, and the expendi tures to an equal sum or more. The expenditures have been as high as $8,250,000. The public debt is about $50,000,000. ARMY AND NAVY.-The peace establishment of Venezuela is an army of 2000 men. The navy consisted, in 1863, of 20 small vessels, mounting, in all, 50 guns. EDUCATION. In every ward in the several States, two public schools are provided by law for the education of children, the expenses to be paid from the revenue of the respective States; but the continual troubles of the country have, of *Including the Mohammedans in Egypt. course, interrupted their operations. There are, besides, two universities, a military school, and a number of private colleges and schools. CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC.-On the 10th of December, 1863, a convention consisting of 100 members-5 from each of the 20 States into which the Republic is divided-was to have assembled in the city of Caracas to form a new Constitution. Meanwhile the President decreed, on the 19th of August, the following provisional Constitution, to remain in force until the "fundamental compact of the States" should be issued by the convention: JUAN C. FALCON, General-in-Chief, President of the Republic: Considering that the revolution having triamphed, the democratic principles proclaimed by it and acquired by civilization should be placed among the laws, in order that Venezuelans might enter upon the full enjoyment of their political and individual rights, I do decree :— ARTICLE FIRST. To Venezuelans are guaranteed: 1. Life: in consequence hereof, the penalty of death is abolished, and the laws which imposed it are abrogated. 2. Property: no proprietor can, therefore, be despoiled of it nor debarred by any authority from the enjoyment thereof, except it be by a judicial sentence. 3. Inviolability of private residences: only for preventing the perpetration of a crime, and in the legal form, can a house be entered with a search warrant. 4. The secrecy of papers and correspondence: should this be violated, the magistrate, functionary, or person in whose possession they are found shall, from the fact itself, be supposed guilty of the crime. 5. The free expression of thoughts in words or writing: there is, in consequence, no crime in relation to printing. 6. Freedom of instruction: this does not exonerate the chief authority from establishing primary schools or extending its protection to secondary instruction. 7. The right of suffrage: without any other restriction than the minority. 8. The free right of peaceably assembling together and without arms. 9. The right of petitioning and obtaining decision. 10. Natural liberty: in virtue of which, one may do whatever is not injurious to another or prohibited by law. 11. Personal liberty: by which it is understood that one may enter, travel through, or leave the republic with his goods without the necessity of a passport; change his residence and dispose freely of his properties. Only a judicial resolution may limit the exercise of these rights. 12. The freedom of every lawful industry. 14. Individual security: and, consequently,1. No one can be judged but by pre-existing laws, and never by special commissions, but by the territorial judges or those of the place where the crime is committed. 2. Nor be imprisoned for debt which does not proceed from crime or fraud. 3. Nor be incarcerated or arrested except by the competent authority in the places known as prisons, and not without being previously informed in writing of having committed a crime which deserves corporal punishment, with strong evidences of being the author: a warrant containing the reason must be sent to him before. It is in the power of any one to arrest a person detected in the commission of a crime, and conduct him immediately to the presence of a judge. 4. Nor deprived of communication by any pre text whatever. 5. Nor kept in prison after the failure of the accusations. 6. Nor be subjected to any other punishment besides the privation of liberty, it being prohibited to refuse him those conveniences which may be compatible with his safe keeping. 7. Nor sentenced before being summoned, heard, and convicted. In these judgments no one is obliged to bear testimony against himself, his relations to the fourth degree of consanguinity and second of affinity, or his consort. 8. Nor exiled from his native country. Banishment is therefore abolished. ARTICLE SECOND. Slavery is forever abolished in Venezuela. Every slave who places his feet upon her soil shall be considered free and taken under the protection of the republic. ARTICLE THIRD. The places called Bajo-Seco and La Rotunda, selected for tormenting freeman, can in future not be used as prisons. ARTICLE FOURTH. The principles, guarantees, and rights comprehended in the preceding articles cannot be altered, and every functionary who breaks them loses his authority and may be treated as a traitor to the country. ARTICLE FIFTH. The present decree shall remain in force until the fundamental compact of the States is issued by the Constituent Assembly. ARTICLE SIXTH. The Secretaries of State will sign this decree, and the Secretary of State for Justice, Home, and Foreign Affairs is charged with putting it in exe cution and communicating it to whom it may concern. Given in Caracas, this 18th day of August, 1863, the fifth year of the federation. JUAN C. FALCON, M. E. BRUZUAL, 13. Equality before the law: which, without ex- Sec. of State for Justice, Home, and Foreign Affairs. ception, shall be one for Venezuelans. All shall be equally admissible to public employments without any other consideration than that of their fitness and capacity. LXIV. WALDECK.-Principality. One of the German States. Area, 454 square miles. Population, 1861, 58,604. Government, Constitutional Sovereignty. The reigning prince is George Victor, who was born Jan. 14, 1831, suc Secretary of War and the Navy. GUILLERMO IRIBARREN, Secretary of the Treasury, dc. ceeded to the principality May 15, 1845, under guardianship, and assumed the government Aug. 17, 1852. LXVI. JAPAN.-Empire. Area, 152.604 sq. miles. Population, 35,000,000. Capital, Yeddo. Religion, Buddhic. The Empire of Japan is composed of the island of that name and of 3850 adjacent islands. The form of government requires two monarchs, one of whom is the Micado, who has jurisdiction of spiritual affairs, and whose residence is at Mjacco; and the other the Tycoon, who is the temporal monarch, and whose residence is at Yeddo. The personal name of the Micado is concealed from all excepting the Imperial Princes. The name of the Tycoon is Mina Motto L. Under the Tycoon there is a Great Council of 13, who administer the affairs LXVII. SANDWICH of government. The people are divided into eight castes, beginning with the Duimios, or Great Princes, and ending with the working-class. Fot purposes of Government the Empire is divided into 604 Principalities, Lordships, Imperial Provinces, &c. The aggregate revenue of the Empire from taxes is about $180,000,000, American money. Under treaties with several foreign Powers made since 1854, the ports of Kanagawha, Hioga, Niegata, Hakodadi, and Nagasaki are open to commerce. The first of these treaties was that be tween the United States and Japan; concluded March 31, 1854. ISLANDS.-Kingdom. PUBLIC DEBT, April 1, 1860, $128,777. Area, 6032 square miles. Population (1861), ENTRIES AND DEPARTURES OF AMERICAN VESSELS. 69.800, of whom 2716 were foreign born. Capital, Honolulu. The reigning sovereign is Kameha--For the quarter ending Dec. 31, 1861, the entries meha V., who was born Dec. 11, 1830, and suc-were-ships, 37; barks, 25; brigs, 4: schooners, 2. ceeded his brother, Kamehameha IV., Nov. 1863. The Sandwich Islands are 15 in number, but only 8 are inhabited, viz. :-Hawai, Maui, Kauai, Ooahn, Molakai Ranai, Nihau, Kadulaw. FINANCES.-The report for the financial period -April 1, 1858-March 31,1860-places the receipts at $656,216, and the expenditures at $613,088. Of these, there were in the whaling service, ships, 31; barks, 22. The departures for the same period were-ships, 34; barks, 23; brigs, 4; schooners, 2. The tonnage of merchant vessels entered was 8198; of whaling vessels entered, 20,298. THE SUN'S DISTANCE FROM THE EARTH. [POPULAR DISCUSSION OF A MATERIAL ERROR, BY J. R. HIND, OF BISHOP'S OBSERVATORY, TWICKENHAM, ENGLAND.] It may occasion surprise to many who are accustomed to read of the precision now attained in the science and practice of astronomy, when it is stated that there are strong grounds for supposing the generally received value of that great unit of celestial measures-the mean distance of the earth from the sun-to be materially in error, and that, in fact, we are nearer to the central luminary by some 4,000,000 miles than for many years past has been commonly believed. The results of various researches during the last ten years appear, however, to point to the same conclusion, and, under the impression that the subject may be deemed one of more than scientific interest, Mr. Hind has drawn up the following popular outline of the actual state of our knowledge respecting it. The measure of the sun's distance which has been generally accepted by astronomers depends upon an elaborate discussion of the observations of the transits of the planet Venus over the sun's disk in the years 1761 and 1769, published by Professor Encke, of Berlin. The great importance of these rare phenomena in the solution of what has been justly termed "the noblest problem in astronomy," was first pointed out by our countryman Halley, towards the close of the seventeenth century. The principle involved is the determination of the amount of displacement of Venus upon the solar disk, as viewed from distant stations on the earth's surface, whereby the parallax of the planet is found, and hence from the known proportion of her distance to that of the sun the distance of the latter body can be inferred. In practice this principle resolves itself into one of two methods. The first, and by far the best, consists in the comparison of the observed duration of the transit at places favorably situated for shortening and lengthening it, either by difference of latitude alone, or in certain cases with the additional effect of the earth's rotation on her axis, which will diminish or increase the interval of transit, according as the observer is carried to meet the motion of Venus or the contrary. This method is independent of the longitudes of the stations, which are often very imperfectly known, but unfortunately it cannot be applied advantageously in every transit, and is liable to fail entirely if atmospherical circumstances interrupt the observations either at ingress or egress (or of the first and last contacts of the planet with the sun's disk). The second method is by comparison of observations of the absolute times of ingress only, or of egress only, at stations widely differing in latitude; here the longitude enters as an indispensable element, and it must be pretty exactly known to allow of a trustworthy result. At no period, probably, has an astronomical phenomenon excited a more wide-spread interest than previous to the year 1761, as the first of the transits of Venus drew nigh. The Royal Society, at that time under the presidency of the Earl of Macclesfield (a nobleman distinguished for his great attainments and zeal in the encouragement of this particular science), took action in 1760, and procured the fitting-out of two Government expeditions to points which had been judged favorable for the purpose in view. Mason and Dixon, originally destined for Bencoolen, were, fortunately as it happened, delayed on their passage, and sta tioned themselves at the Cape of Good Hope, while Maskelyne proceeded to St. Helena. The scientific academies of Paris, St. Petersburg, and Stockholm, aided by their respective Governments, despatched observers to the island of Rodrigues, in the Indian Ocean, and various parts of the extreme north of Europe, Siberia, and Tartary; indeed, from Lisbon to Pekin, and from Tornea, on the Gulf of Bothnia, to the Cape of Good Hope, preparations were made for observations which it was hoped would lead to a more precise knowledge of that unit of measures upon which all distances and dimensions beyond the moon depend. The result, however, disappointed expectation; the values of the solar parallax obtained by different calculators exhibited discordances which tended to throw doubt upon the whole, and hence it cannot be said that the transit of 1761 was of material service in the solution of the problem. Encke's researches assign 8".49 as the most probable parallax from this transit, but some of the cotemporary computers arrived at much larger numbers. The cause of this unsatisfactory conclusion is sufficiently evident. In 1761 it was impossible to fix upon stations so situated as to give the first method described above a chance of success, and hence the value of the observations depended upon an exact acquaintance with the longitudes of the observers, which are open to considerable uncertainty in several of the most important cases. The transits of Venus generally happen in pairs, an interval of eight years elapsing between the two, while from the last of one pair to the first of the next either 105 or 122 years will intervene. The second transit is always more favorable for ascertaining the sun's distance than the first, which circumstance, added to the contradictory nature of the results derived in 1761, gave occasion to preparations in 1769 on even a greater scale than in the former year. The British Government again, at the instance of the Royal Society, equipped several expeditions to distant stations. Captain (then Lieutenant) Cook proceeded to the Pacific, and with Mr. Green, one of the assistants at the Royal Observatory, had a favorable view of the transit in the island of Tahiti, from a position still known as Point Venus; observers were also despatched to Hudson's Bay and to Madras. The Danish Government sent to Wardhus (an island in the Arctic Ocean, at the northeast extremity of Norway) a Vienna ecclesiastic, Father Hell, who had witnessed the previous transit at the observatory of that city, and who succeeded in establishing a most unenviable notoriety in connection with the second. The entrance of the planet upon the sun's disk was seen at nearly all the European observatories, and its departure therefrom at several points in Eastern Asia, at Manilla, Batavia, &c.; while the entire duration was watched at Wardhus, at different places in Lapland, at Tahiti, St. Joseph in California, and elsewhere. If the weather had been propitious at all the northern stations, the combination of the data thus obtained, with the observations of Captain Cook and Mr. Green in the Pacific, would, in all probability, have led to a very reliable determination of the sun's distance: indeed, Pro fessor Encke, at the conclusion of his treatise on the subject, has a remark which virtually implies that complete observations at the eight northern stations, and a similar number in the Friendly Islands, would have given this distance more exactly than the whole 250 observations taken at both transits elsewhere. Unfortunately, clouds interfered at most of the selected stations, except Wardhus, and it consequently happens that the times noted by Hell and his assistants exercise a great influence on the final result. This would have been comparatively unimportant if the Viennese astronomer had not tampered with his observations to such an extent as to induce some of his cotemporaries (Lalande among the number) to regard them as forgeries. He delayed their publication for nine months, and repeatedly prevaricated respecting them; even when given to the world they were found to exhibit serious discordances from those of other observers; but, although the suspicions of his dishonesty were pretty general at the time, it was not until 1834 that positive proof was forthcoming. In that year Professor Littrow, of the Vienna Observatory, discovered among Hell's manuscripts a note-book which there is every reason to suppose was the identical one used at Wardhus. It then became apparent that the principal figures had been erased so as to be for the most part illegible; but from a careful examination of such as remained it was thought that one observation of the ingress and one of the egress might be depended upon; this was Littrow's opinion, and Encke, accepting his reasons, discussed the whole anew, and found the solar parallax to be 8".57, or, for the earth's distance from the sun, 95,365,000 miles. Although, for the reason stated, some suspicion has attached to the value of the solar parallax obtained from the transit of 1769, the first serious doubts as to its accuracy may perhaps be dated from the publication of Professor Hansen's elements of the moon's orbit in 1854. Several years previous Mr. Airy had brought to a conclusion one of the most valuable and laborious works ever undertaken in astronomy,-the reduction on a uniform system and comparison with theory of the immense mass of lunar meridional observations taken at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, between the years 1750 and 1830, the results of which were printed in 1847. These calculations furnished the means of improving the tables of the moon so far as depends upon observations in the meridian; but such observations are impracticable when she is near to the sun, and consequently several of the inequalities of her motion are not completely exhibited by them. It was for this reason, and to secure a hold upon her entire orbit, or very nearly so, that the Astronomer Royal some years since devised and erected at Greenwich an instrument specially intended for determining the place of the moon in any part of her diurial path. The results given by this instrument, which is known as the altazimuth, have proved of great value in affording a check upon the amount of several irregularities indicated by theory, and particularly upon one technically called the parallactic equation, which is directly connected with the solar parallax, or, in other words, with the earth's distance from the sun. If the amount of this inequality, as given by observation, does not agree with that computed with an assumed value for the sun's distance, we know that the latter reuires correction, and it is easy to ascertain to hat amount. Professor Hausen found that the Within the last few years M. Le Verrier has completed a most rigorous application of the theory of attraction to the motions of the earth, Venus, and Mars, as defined by a long course of observation at Greenwich and other astronomical establishments. Nothing can excel in completeness the three investigations of this eminent mathematician. The theory of the earth was published in 1858, in the Annales of the Observatory of Paris, and contains one striking result bearing upon the subject of my communication. The inequality technically called the lunar equation was found to require an increase of one-twelfth part, which would render necessary an augmentation of Encke's solar parallax of nearly four-tenths of a second, and therefore a diminution of the assumed distance of the carth from the sun very nearly to the same amount assigned by Hansen's researches connected with the moon. M. Le Verrier adopts 8".95 for the parallax in his solar tables, but does not, in this place, insist upon its substitution for the number given by the transits of Venus. The earth's mass as referred to the sun's would, from the same cause, require increasing to the extent of nearly a tenth part of the whole. In the theory of the planet Venus it is found impossible to account for the motion of the line of nodes (the points where her orbit intersects the ecliptic) with the received values of the planetary masses; but, if a correction be applied to the mass of the earth of about the same magnitude as indicated by M. Le Verrier's previous researches, the calculated motion of the nodes would agree with that resulting from observations as far back as they can be depended upon. In this case, however, it would be necessary to diminish the adopted measure of the earth's distance from the sun by a thirtieth part-affording another and quite independent corroboration of the error with which it is affected. In 1861 the investigation of the orbit of Mars was completed, and forms, with the tables of the planet, a part of the last volume of the Paris Annales. M. Le Verrier announces, as the fait capital to which his discussion had led him, the absolute impossibility of representing the ob servations without a motion of the perihelion (or nearest point of the orbit to the sun) greater than is consistent with the planetary masses employed, and the equal impossibility of providing for the increase of disturbing force, except by the addition of at least a tenth part to the assumed mass of the earth, with the corresponding diminution in her distance from the sun. Notwithstanding these very remarkable and confirmatory results, M. Le Verrier appears to have been at this time very strongly impressed with the exactness of Encke's parallax, and terms the unavoidable increase of the received value "a grave objection" to the augmented mass of the earth derived from his theories. He had previously detected a motion of the perihelion of the planet |