Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/716

 692 LISBON tion of youths intended for the priesthood. Ecclesiastically Lisbon is a patriarchate, the holder of the dignity being at the head of the clergy of the kingdom, and president of the chamber of peers. He is usually made a cardinal. The two chambers of parliament hold their sittings in a huge building, formerly the monastery of St Bento, to which a handsome fagade has been added. New and ornamental buildings have been erected for the courts of justice and the municipal chamber. The mint is fitted up with steam machinery on a small scale for coming gold, silver, and copper. Postage stamps and inland revenue stamps are printed at this establishment. The national astronomical observatory is near the Ajuda palace, and the meteorological observatory is at the Polytechnic school, which also contains the national museum of natural history. Here is a good collection of the birds of Portugal, with collections in other branches of the zoology of Portugal and the Portuguese possessions in Africa minerals, fossils, &amp;lt;fec. The fossils collected by the Geological Commission to illustrate the geology of the kingdom are preserved in the sequestrated Convento do Jesus. Lisbon is singularly destitute of works of high art. The gallery of the Academy of Fins Arts contains only a few pictures worth notice. In the custody of the academy is an interesting assemblage of gold and silver plate taken from suppressed monasteries. There is also a collection of pictures at the Ajuda palace. At the Carmo church is an archaeological museum. The great national library consists for the most part of old theological works and ecclesiastical histories swept out of various suppressed monasteries, and has a collection of 24,000 coins with some Roman bronzes. The Portuguese take little interest in literature, art, or science, and almost everything connected with them is in a neglected state. Literary and scientific societies are few in number and badly supported, the principal one being the Royal Academy of Sciences, founded in 1779. The national printing office, a Government establishment, turns out creditable work, but the booksellers shops are few and ill-stocked. Eight or ten daily journals are published in Lisbon, and there are a few weekly news papers, besides periodicals appearing at longer intervals, and chiefly devoted to special interests. Several cemeteries have been constructed of late years near Lisbon, the practice of interring in churches having been abandoned. In the English cemetery lies the English novelist Fielding, who died here in 1754; a marble sarcophagus with a long Latin inscription covers his re mains. The British residents maintain a chaplain who performs service regularly in an adjacent chapel, and the Scottish Presbyterians have also a place of meeting. The great hospital of S. Jose&quot; contains beds for nine hundred patients, and the large lunatic asylum has accommodation for four hundred patients. The Foundling Hospital takes in more than two thousand children annually. At Belem is an excellent establishment where a large number of male orphans and foundlings are fed, clothed, educated, and taught various trades. The Lazaretto is a vast build ing on the south side of the Tagus, where one thousand inmates can be received at one time. Lisbon is connected by railway with Madrid, and there is also a line northward to Coimbra and Oporto, as well as lines southward to Setubal, Evora, and Beja. Submarine cables connect it with England and with Brazil. There is communication by regular lines of steamers with the Portuguese islands in the Atlantic and the colonies in Africa, and with a great number of ports in Britain, con tinental Europe, and other parts of the world. Lisbon is the largest port in the kingdom, and its custom-house is a spacious and very substantial fire-proof building worthy of any capital in Europe, in which merchants are 3 allowed to deposit their goods free of duty for a year, or for two years in the case of Brazilian produce. The duties annually collected here exceed 1,150,000, tobacco alone producing 400,000. Upwards of 1400 foreign vessels, and about 1100 Portuguese ships, including coasters, enter the port annually. The annual imports amount to about 5,600,000, and the exports to 4,500,000. A considerable number of foreign merchants reside in Lisbon, and there are about fifty British firms. The most active commerce is carried on with Brazil and Great Britain, tropical produce being FIG. 2. Port of Lisbon. imported from the one, and manufactured goods from the other, while wine and oil are sent to both in return. The wine for exportation is all made and stored outside the city bounds, so as not to be subject to the octroi duty. There are several joint-stock banks, one of them being British (the New London and Brazilian Bank), as well as private bankers. Manufactures are carried on only to a limited extent. The largest establishment by far is the tobacco manufactory, where 1GOO persons are employed, and three millions of pounds are annually manufactured. The chief supply of water, for the use of the city is brought by an aqueduct 9 miles in length, from springs situated on the north-west. This work, one of the boasts of Lisbon, was completed in 1738, and was so well executed that the great earthquake did it no injury, It crosses the Alcantara valley on thirty-five arches, the principal one being 263 feet above its base, with a span of 110 feet. On reaching the city the water is conducted into a covered massive stone reservoir, which an inscription styles &quot; urbis ornamentum orbis miraculum,&quot; and thence it flows to the fountains, thirty-one in number, distributed throughout the city. From these fountains it is removed in barrels to the houses by &quot; Gallegos,&quot; men from Galicia, who do the prin cipal part of the hard work in Lisbon. Although there are two other reservoirs near the city, the supply of water is insufficient for the requirements of the place during the warm season. For municipal purposes the city is divided into four districts (barros), the whole under one municipal chamber, and two suburban districts under separate chambers. The city chamber consists of twelve members elected by the burgesses every two years. Its revenue is about 75,000. The octroi duties, levied on provisions and fuel entering the city, are collected on account of the Government, and exceed 270,000 a year. The police force is paid by the Government, and consists of the municipal guard, a military force of cavalry and infantry under the orders of the home secretary, and a body of ordinary policemen at the orders of the civil governor, an official appointed by Government. According to the census of 1878 the popu lation in the thirty-nine parishes of the city and suburbs was 253,000. Climate. Notwithstanding the mildness of the climate, Lisbon is not considered a healthy place of residence, owing chiefly to the defective sanitary arrangements. The annual death-rate is 36 per thousand. The deaths are said to exceed the births, and the population would therefore decrease were the city not continually recruited from the country. To chest invalids it is not by