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Rh 218 VICTORIA all members of the learned professions. Members of the legislative, council receive no payment. They form a sort of court of revision of the work done in the lower house. The legislative assembly consists of 86 members elected by 55 electoral districts ; they are paid at the rate of 300 a year. A general election must take place every three years. In all other respects it resembles very closely the British House of Commons. Every man of the full age of twenty-one years who has taken out his elector s right lias a vote for the election of a member for the district in which he resides. All voting is by ballot. The governor is appointed by the sovereign of the British empire. He has the power of assent ing to or rejecting bills sent up to him from parliament, except eight classes, which he is bound to refer to the sovereign, who can disallow all bills by signifying disapproval of them within two years of their being passed by the legislature. The governor is assisted by an executive council consisting of the ministers and ex- ministers of the crown. The cabinet consists of treasurer, chief secretary, minister of public instruction, commissioner of trade and customs, minister of mines, postmaster-general, minister of lands, minister of public works, minister of agriculture, solicitor-general, attorney -general, and minister of defence. The civil service of Victoria is under the control of three commissioners, who are ap pointed for a term of three years by Government, but are then wholly independent. Their business is to make all appointments, determine all promotions, and watch over the administration of the Civil Service Act. Their existence has effectually abolished the evils of political patronage. Finance. During the financial year 1885-86 the total receipts of the colony from all sources amounted to 6,945,099 and the expenditure to 6,513,539. On 30th June 1887 the public debt amounted to 33,119,164, more than twenty-three millions of which have been borrowed for the construction of railways. Educa- Victoria possesses a most efficiently organized system of state tion. schools, where the education given is free, secular, and compulsory. The schools number 1826, with 4050 teachers, and 189,637 scholars. The average attendance is 119,488. The state awards each year for competition among boys and girls of the state schools eleven exhibitions of the yearly value of 35 each, tenable for six years, and two hundred of the value of 10 each for three years. The successful candidates of the former must go for two years to a college or grammar school and then enter the university of Melbourne ; those of the latter class attend the nearest grammar school. The Roman Catholic Church supports 130 primary schools with 18,000 scholars. Secondary education is quite unconnected with the state and wholly unsupported by it ; but the churches and private enterprise provide all that is needed. The Church of Eng land has large grammar schools in Melbourne and Geelong. The Presbyterians have colleges in Melbourne, Geelong, and Ballarat, and a ladies college in Melbourne. The Wesleyans have colleges for males and females respectively in Melboiirne. The Catholics have also two institutions. Private grammar schools exist in all important towns. The university has four faculties arts, law, engineering, and medicine in which in 1886 the students num bered respectively 166, 61, 9, and 212. There are 14 professors and 10 lecturers. About one thousand candidates present themselves every year for matriculation, but only about 160 actually enter the university each year. A considerable number of ladies have matriculated and are pursuing their studies in the university. In 1886 the number of persons who graduated was 124 and the total from the beginning of the university (founded in 1853) has been 1169. The compulsory clause has not been in force more than ten years, and it has not yet produced its full result in raising the general standard of education. At present 94 per cent, of the children between the ages of six and fifteen attend school, but nearly a fourth of these fail to make up 40 days in the quarter. Still of persons above fifteen years of age 96 per cent, can read and 92 per cent, can both read and write. These results would be even more favourable but for the presence of 13,000 Chinese in the colony nearly all of whom are returned as illiterate, neither reading nor writing English. Popula The population in 1886 was 1,003,043 (531,452 males and 471,591 tioii. females), of whom about one-half were born in the colony and rather less than a third in the British Isles. The estimated population at the end of 1887 was 1,035,900. In religion a third are Episco palians, a fourth Catholics, a sixth Presbyterians, and an eighth Wesleyans. There are now only about 780 of the aborigines left; but they never were numerous. When white men first settled in the colony, there probably were not 15,000 ; some estimates place them as low as 5000. Those who now remain live on stations maintained by the Government. They are allowed great freedom, with plenty of land to roam over, but each station is under the paternal care of a superintendent. Nevertheless they are steadily diminishing in numbers. History. The eastern shore of Victoria was first explored by Surgeon Bass, who in January 1798 rounded Cape Howe from Sydney in a whale- boat. The western half was first examined in 1800-1 by Lieutenant Grant, when lie discovered Port Phillip. In 1802 Flinders in charge of a British exploring expedition and Baudin at the head of one sent out by Napoleon did exploring work in the same waters. The colony was at first known as Port Phillip, settlement being confined to the shores of that inlet. The earliest attempt to colonize this part of Australia was made in 1803, when Collins was sent out with a number of convicts and landed on the sandy peninsula to the east of the entrance to the bay. But, water being scarce, he went across to Tasmania. In 1835 John Bateman and John Pascoe Fawkner brought over from Tasmania rival pastoral companies. Previous to this the brothers Henty had formed a whaling station at Portland, and had resided there for two years. But, as this was a purely private enterprise, and not publicly known, the founding of the colony is rightly ascribed to Batemaii and Fawkner. Before a year had passed about 200 persons had followed in their wake. At the end of 1839 there were 3000 persons on the banks of the Yarra ; in 1841 these had increased to 11,000. In 1842 the small community began to agitate for separation from New South Wales, and in 1851, when its desires were realized, it numbered 97,000 persons. In this same year (1851) some of the Australian colonies received constitutions which rendered them self -governing, and among these the new colony of Victoria at tained to the dignity of representative institutions. It was also in this year that the discovery of gold totally altered the character and prospects of Victoria. The discovery was first made in New South Wales in February 1851 by Edward Hargraves ; but a month or two elapsed before it became generally known. So great was the exodus to New South Wales that a committee of leading Melbourne citizens offered a reward for the first discovery of gold in Victoria. Numerous parties scoured the colony, with the result of finding gold at Clunes. Six weeks later the wonderful field of Ballarat was discovered, and attention was drawn to Victoria as a gold- producing country. In 1852 there were 70,000 arrivals in the colony, nearly all men. In 1853 there were 54,000, in 1854 there were 90,000, and so on, the population in 1861 being six times that of 1851. In 1854 the severity with which the licence-fee of thirty shillings a month was exacted from miners, whether successful or not, led to a serious riot. A number of the ringleaders were brought to trial, but the juries acquitted them. In 1860 the ill- fated expedition of Burke and Wills left Melbourne on its bold dash across the continent. In 1863 the colony was thrown into much excitement over a constitutional struggle generally known as the &quot;deadlock.&quot; The democratic party wished to introduce the fiscal system of protection to native industry, but, after the bill had passed the lower house, the upper rejected it. It was then tacked to an Appro] iriation Bill, which the upper house resolutely refused to pass. For a year all supplies were stopped, and the business of the colony was carried on without funds. In 1866 a compromise was effected ; but then the struggle commenced anew. The English Government recalled the governor, Sir Charles Dar ling, for siding with the democracy ; the lower house, thinking him ill-used, placed on the estimates a grant of 20,000 for Lady Darling, which the upper house threw out. In 1868 Sir Charles received a lucrative position elsewhere, with 5000 from the colony as arrears of salary. The later history of the colony tells only of quiet, orderly, and unbroken prosperity. (A. SU.) VICTORIA, capital of British Columbia and the princi pal town of Vancouver Island, in the south-east corner of which it is finely situated (48 25 20&quot; N. lat., 123 22 24&quot; W. long.), on a small arm of the sea, its harbour, however, only admitting vessels drawing 18 feet. The city has some fine streets, handsome villas and public buildings, Govern ment offices, and churches. There are several schools, public and private, a free library, a theatre, a mechanics institute, and a public park. The water supply is good. The town, which is connected by cable with the mainland, is a favour ite holiday resort for the Columbians. Till 1858 Victoria was a post of the Hudson Bay Company. The city was incorporated in 1862; and, according to the census of 1886, the population was 14,000, including Chinese and Indians, spread over an area of 4 square miles. VICTORIA, a city of Brazil, capital of the province of Espirito Santo, 270 miles north-east from Rio de Janeiro, in 20 18 S. lat. and 40 20 W. long. Victoria, which has a white, Negro, and coloured population (1880) of 12,500, stands on the west side of an island at the head of the Bay of Espirito Santo, the entrance of which is defended by five forts, and also rendered difficult of access by several other islets and reefs rising little above high-water mark. The town is regularly laid out and well-built, with some good streets, two or three fine churches, a substantial governor s