Foreign Countries-United States of America. 700 700 500 Burgas-Vice-Consul, William S. Richards £500 Chaplain, Rev. John Bainbridge Smith. Trebizond-Cons., Henry ZohrabLongworth 1,000 500 350 goo 400 300 750 500 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. President, Grover Cleveland, born 18 March, 1837; ......£10,000 elected, 1884; sue. 4 March, 1885 1,600 Vice-President, Sec. of State, Hon. Thomas F. Bayard.. 39 rison R. Waite. Envoy Extraord. & Minister Plenipoten- Office of Legation, Victoria Street, S.W. Naval Attache, Commander F. E. Chadwick, 116, Sloane Street. 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,600 2,000 525 473 In 1885 a census was Its coast-line on both oceans is reckoned to 1,500 Cons.-Gen, in London, Thomas M. Waller A Federal Republic, consisting of 38 partially A The financial condition of the United States of America exerts a great influence on that of other nations. The extensive trade transacted by the Union with all parts of the world necessarily reacts on the exchanges of the countries with which business is engaged in. Before the unfortunate internecine struggle that has happily become a matter of history, the debt of the States as a whole was, comparatively speak ing, nominal. The following is a statement of the debt on the 1st of September, 1886:Four and half per cent. bonds...... $250,000,000 Four per cent. bonds and certificates 737,769,500 Three per cent. bonds. 134,422,-50 Judicial. The Executive power is vested in a President, who is elected every four years, and is eligible for re-election. The mode of electing the President is as follows:-Each state chooses, by popular vote, "Electors" equal in number to the Senators and representatives sent by that Stateto Congress. The Electors for each State meet at their respective State Capitals on a day ap pointed, and there vote for a President by ballot, The ballots are then sent to Washington, and opened by the President of the Senate in presence of Congress, and the candidate who has received a majority of the whole number of electoral votes cast is declared President for the ensuing term. 64,623,512 If no one has a majority, then from the three 29,969,744 highest on the list the House of Representatives 531,607,200 elects a President. There is also a Vice-President, who is ex-officio President of the Senate; 1,748,392,106 and, as in a late instance, on the death of the President succeeds to the office for the re370,215,526 mainder of the term. In case of the disability $1,378,176,580 of both President and Vice-President, the Sens. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1885, and after him, the Speaker of the House of Retor who may be president pro tem, of the Senate, the debt was reduced by $63.494,709. The total decrease in the debt since August 31, Congress orders a new election. presentatives, succeeds to the Presidency until 1863, when, after deducting the cash in the treasury, it amounted to $2.756,431,571, to Sept. 1, 1886, has been $1,378,254.991. Pacific Railway Bonds, at 6 per cent. Total debt .... Less cash and reserve in Treasury Actual indebtedness... Balance Sheet for Year ending June 30, 1986. Customs. Internal revenue Land Sales Miscellaneous sources EXPENDITURE, Civil service and miscellaneous. Navy department.. Pensions Interest on public debt The Legislative power is vested in two Houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives, the President having a reto power, which may be overcome by a two-thirds vote of each House. Two Senators from each State are elected by the $181,471,939 Legislature thereof for the term of six years; 112,498,726 and Representatives are chosen in each State, by 5,705,986 popular vote, for two years. The number of 24,014,055 Representatives for each State is allotted in proportion to its population, 1 for 154,325. The $323,690,706 Senate consists of 76 members, and the House of Representatives of 325. .$87,494,258 The Supreme Judicial Authority is vested in 42,670,578 a Chief Justice and eight Justices, who are ap16,c21,080 pointed for life by the President, by and with 6.552,495 the consent of the Senate. 56,102,267 The following is a list of the 38 States in51,386,256 cluded in the Union: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Con- British Minister, Hon. Sir Lionel Sackville Sec.of Legation, N. R. O'Conor, c.B., C. M.G. Hon. C. Hardinge 3rd Secretary, Ernest B. Lehmann £6,000 700 400 315 250 REP. 1,250 1,750 400 1,200 unpaid 850 200 CXXX 1,475 Foreign Countries-Commerce of the United States, Uruguay. 475 400 250 up. unp. 1,200 250 Consul-General, Don Ricardo Machado Hasse, Richmond-Vice-Consul, William Marshall year. MERCANTILE MARINE.-In June, 1885, it consisted of 23,963 vessels, of 4,265,934 tons, inclusive of 5,349 steamers, of 1,494,917 tons. COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. The following table, prepared at the Bureau of Statistics, Washington, exhibits the steady increase of the trade of the United States during the past 25 years. Nearly the whole amount of merchandise exported is of home growth or manufacture. It is noticeable that for the first 15 years, with two exceptions, the imports exeeeded the exports, but that during the past 10 years the balance of trade has been largely in favour of the country. These figures represent the specie values of merchandise only. A Republic in South America, on the east coas of the Rio de la Plata, situate in lat. 30°-35° S. and long. 53°25′-57° 42' W., containing an area of 72,112 square miles, and a population of 520,536 in 1883; was formerly a dependency of Spain. United to the Argentine Confederation early in the present century, it was afterwards annexed by Portugal, and became later a province of Brazil; but through the bravery of the patriotic "thirty-three" it succeeded in throwing off the Brazilian yoke, declared its indejoined the Platine States. A war in consequence ensuing between Brazil and the Argentine Confederation, both the Powers agreed, through the mediation of Great Britain, to recognize Uruguay as a sovereign and inde pendent State, the Constitution of the Republic being sworn on the 18th of July, 1830. The language of the country is Spanish, the inhabitants being chiefly descendants of the original Spanish settlers and Italian and other European eniigrants. Much attention has lately been given to elementary education, which is entirely free. The country is extremely well watered. and the climate healthy, resembling that of the south of France. There are no Indians, but there is a sprinkling of Negroes, engaged chiefly as servants and in the army. Judged propor tionately in regard to population, and of goods imported from Great Britain, Uruguay stands at the head of the list as our best foreign customer. The imports from Great Britain are very numerous, the principal being woollen and cotton goods, hardware, and coals. The chief exports are wool, hides, horn, hair, tallow, and during recent years, fresh meat. Wheat, barley. and maize are cultivated, but the wealth of the country is obtained from its pasturage, which supports large herds of horned cattle (6,009,791 in 1883), horses, and sheep (14.595.495 in 1883). the wool of which is of excellent quality. Gold mines exist at Cuñapirú. The principal river is the Uruguay, which forms the western boundary, and its affluents, of which the Rio Negro is the chief. There is a regular army of 3,100 men with 30 guns, in addition to a militia of 20,000 men. The navy consists of 5 small steamers. There are 26: miles of railway and 660 miles of telegraph. Public revenue, 1884-85. £2,425,000 2,400, 102 12,466,000 Total imports, 1884 5,114,600 Total exports, 1884.. 5,158,226 1,545,041,974 Imports from United Kingdom, 1885 1,406,522 624,393 Paysandu Vice-Consul, John Chaplin unpaid | slaves, and about 6,000 natives of India, who VENEZUELA, REPUBLIC OF. are all engaged in commerce, and through whose hands nearly all the foreign trade passes. Zanzibar, the chief town, is extensive, with a population of 80,000; but there are several important towns on the coast where native mer President, General Guzman Blanco, elected 14th chants reside, and whence caravans are sent September, 1886. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Urbaneja. Minister to England and France, Genl. Guzman Secretary of Legation, Rafael Seijas. Consul in London, Nathaniel G. Burch, 4, Tokenhouse Buildings, E.C. Consul General in London, Antonio Parra. Vice-Consul, W. White, 4, Tokenhouse Buildings. The most northerly Confederation of South America, situated between 1° 30'-12° 12' N. lat. and 59° 52'-73° 15′ W. long. It consists of 21 States, comprising an area of 566,159 English square miles, and a population, in 1883, of 2,121,988. The goldfields on the Orinoco are among the richest in the world, and yielded in 1884 £543.530. The chief imports are manu-. factured goods, provisions, and wine. The chief exports are coffee, cocoa, hides, cotton, sugar, tobacco, indigo, bark, tallow, dye-woods, timber, and copper ores. The railways opened and under construction have a length of 370 miles. Revenue, 1885 Expenditure, 1885. £1,172,950 1,573,134 2,700,000 1,631,934 3,423,240 3,912,743 336,656 225,744 Sultan, Seyyid Barghash bin Sa'id, G.C.M.G., suc. 7 October, 1870. A territory situated on the east coast of Africa, extending from about 3° N. to 11° 30' S. Zanzibar was conquered in 1784 by a Sultan of Oman in Arabia, and became an independent dominion under a brother of the Sultan in 1856. The islands of Zanzibar and Pemba are by far the richest and most important of the Sultan's dominions, distant from the coast about 25 miles. Zanzibar has an area of 614 square miles, with a soil of more than ordinary fertility, covered with woods and plantations of perpetual verdure. The principal products are cloves, rice, sugarcane, manioc, millet, cocoanuts, and fruits, especially oranges, of the finest quality. The population of the island is estimated at 200,000. The chief people are Arab landed proprietors, possessing large plantations and numerous slaves; besides these are the free blacks and into the interior to collect ivory and other products. The more important of these towns are and Kilwa. The Sultan's authority, however, Brava, Melinda, Mombasa, Pangani, Bagamoye, does not extend along the whole of the coast, and this has enabled Germany to step in and it. The limits between the Sultan's possessions establish claims upon a considerable portion of and the German Protectorate were defined, in 1885, by an International Boundary Commis sion. The Universities Mission and other Consul, Frederic Holmwood Vice-Consuls in Zanzibar Dominions, Lieut. ZULU REPUBLIC. President, L. J. Meyer. Secretary of State, Esselm. the £2,150 750 600 700 300 each 500 When Ketchewayo, the Zulu King, was defeated on July 21st, 1883, by his rival Usibebu, he fled into the Zulu Reserve, and died there February 9th, 1884. His son and heir Dinizulu appealed for help to the Boers, with whose assistance he defeated Usibebu on June 10th, 1884, and they claimed and received in acknow-! ledgment of their services a large slice of his kingdom, which they proclaimed on August 16th, 1884 as a "Nieuwe Republiek." Subsequently the Boers managed to obtain additional conces sions, until the new State extended down to Santa Lucia Bay, which brought them into conflict with the British authorities. According | to an agreement concluded on October 22nd, 1886, between delegates of the "New Republic" and the Governor of Natal, the Boers have, however, surrendered their claim to the coast, and the new State is therefore confined to the western part of independent Zululand, adjoining Transvaal and the Zulu Reserve. is about 1,800 square miles. The "Capital" is called Vryheid ("Freedom"). Its area Progress of Astronomical Science, 1886. THE ASTEROIDS AND PLANETS. DURING the year ended on November 1, 1886, nine new planets have been discovered, making a present total of 260. The following are the dates of discovery :- March " " April 31, 1886 The following have also been named in the past year:249, Ilsa. 250, Bettina. 251, Sophia. It will be noticed in the above list, that Herr Palisa discovered four of these minor planets, viz. Augusta and the three following, in less than a week. In the "American Journal of Science" for April last, Professor Newton points out the interesting fact that the mean orbit given by 251 that of asteroids agrees very nearly with Jupiter. The orbit of Jupiter lies nearer to this mean orbit than does that of any one single asteroid, being inclined to it only 30'. From observations of the brightness of certain of the minor planets by means of a Zöllner photometer, Dr. G. Müller finds two classes of light curves given by his observations, and from them he draws the conclusion that this is due to their different physical condition, four of them showing changes in brightness only when the planet is approaching opposition, others varying in brightness with change of phase. In the former case he assumes that the physical condition of the asteroids is similar to that of Mars, and in the latter case, like that of the Moon or Mercury. Professor Bakhuysen, of the Leyden Observatory, has published a Memoir on the rotation period of Mars, in which he discusses observations extending from those of Huyghens in 1661 to those of Schiaparelli in 1879, and thence deduces a period of rotation of 24h. 37m. 22'668.; a result almost identical with that of Kaiser; Kaiser's period being o'048. smaller. The draw ings of Mars, made at different epochs, point with tolerable certainty to the conclusion that considerable changes have taken place on the surface of the planet since the times of Schroeter and Sir William Herschel. Many of the markings described by the earlier observers must have been more conspicuous than they now are, or they could not have been seen with the appliances at the command of Schroeter at the beginning of this century. Professor Hough, in his Report on the work at the Dearborn Observatory, says that much attention has been given to Jupiter, the great red spot being still an object of much interest. This spot has now been under observation for seven years, and in that time has undergone but slight change. There appears to have been a slight diminution in the length between 1883 and 1884, the breadth at the same time being The principal equatorial somewhat greater. white spot, observed since 1879, was not so conspicuous as in former years. The meridian circle of this Observatory has been used for the determination of standard time, 477 which is furnished daily to the city of Chicago. In connection with this instrument Professor which so records the observations that the time Hough has invented a printing chronograph, and labour of translating the record into figures is done away with, and another source of error avoided. In the "Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," Professor Todd publishes a list of all the suspected objects which he encountered in his search for a trans-Neptunian planet in 1877-78. This list should prove very useful to any future observer who may take up the search. Professor Todd's examination was restricted to that portion of the heavens which his theoretical researches pointed out as likely to be the place of the planet; and though his search for the planet was unrewarded, he does not conclude that there is no planet to be found. The COMETS.--A faint comet was discovered at the Paris Observatory by M. Fabry on December 1st, 1885, having a sensible nucleus. On December 3rd, another was found by Mr. Barnard of Nashville, U.S. America. This was also a faint one. first computed elements resembled those of the second comet of 1785. A comet was discovered by Mr. W. Brooks, of the Red House Observatory, Phelps, New York, on December 26th, and independently by Barnard of Nashville on the following night. It was described as being of the average size and brightness of telescopic comets, of slight central condensation, without nucleus or tail. Another comet was discovered by Brooks on April 27th, in R.A. oh. 15m. and Deci. 62° N. This was followed by the discovery of another by the same observer on May 22nd, situate in R.A. 11h. 55m. and Decl. 8° 55' N. A comet discovered by Mr. Finlay at the Cape on September 26th, in R.A. 17h. 2m, 238. and Decl. 26° 4' S., was described as circular, having a diameter of 1', faint, and slightly condensed towards the centre, but without any tail. A comet was discovered by Barnard on Greenwich mean time, in R.A. October 4th, and was observed on October 5th at 16h. 2m. 10h. 37. 248. and Decl. 1° 3' N., bright and round. It is rapidly increasing in brightness, and will be at its brightest early in December, after which it as rapidly degrades and goes south. THE SUN. The expedition which proceeded to Grenada, in the West Indies, to observe the total solar eclipse of August 29th, met, on the whole, with a fair measure of success. The sky on the morning of the 29th was very unpro mising, being generally overcast and threatening rain. At Carriacou, where Father Perry and Mr. Maunder were stationed, the clouds cleared away just before the critical time, and the sky At three other stations the moon was hidden by continued clear to the end of the phenomenon. clouds during some portion of the totality, and at Green Island, where Mr. Lockyer was stationed, nothing could be seen at all. Professor Tacchini, by a comparison of the prominences seen during totality with those observed in full sunshine, came to the conclusion that many very fine prominences seen in the former case are not visible by the spectroscopic method under the latter circumstances. The luminous intensity of the white prominences seen during totality is small, and they are not visible to the naked eye unless they attain to a height greater than that of But when the brightest part of the corona. they attain to a great height, as was the case |
