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PORTSMOUTH

1534

PORTUGAL

the French arsenal of Cherbourg. Population 217,989.

Portsmouth, Va., the capital of Norfolk County, on Elizabeth River, opposite Norfolk, with which it is connected by ferry. On the southern suburb of Portsmouth is the U. S. navy-yard, and on the northern suburb is the U. S. navy-hospital. Among the industries are cotton-mills, storage-plants and lumber-yards. Portsmouth is served by the Seaboard Air-Line; Atlantic Coast Line; Norfolk and Southern; and other railroads. Population 33,190.

Portugal, a kingdom in Europe on the western side of the Iberian peninsula, about 350 miles in length and from 70 to 140 in width. It is bounded on the north and east by Spain and on the south and west by the Atlantic. Total area (including the Madeiras and Azores) 35,490 square miles. The population increases steadily, but slowly. In 1851 it numbered only a little over 3,000,-ooo; in 1874 it was over 4,000,000; and by the most recent census it was 5,423,132.

The most important mountain range is the Sierra da Estrella, a westward continuation of the Spanish Sierra Guadarrama system; and the Spanish Sierra Morena also continues westward in southern Portugal. Ocean-breezes temper the climate, and exempt it from the dry heat to which Spain is subject. The inequalities of surface, however, produce considerable diversities of climate; though snow falls abundantly on the mountains in the northern provinces, it is never seen in the lowlands of the southern districts, where spring begins with the new year and harvest is over by midsummer. The soil generally is fertile; but agriculture is in a backward state, little more than half the area being put to profitable use. The most prosperous branches of industry are the cultivation of the vine and the olive; from the former is derived the rich red wine, familiarly known as port from its being shipped at Oporto, "the port." The total quantity of wine annually exported from Portugal (chiefly to Brazil, England and the Portuguese colonies) amounts to 20,000,000 gallons. Fish abound in all the rivers and off the coasts; and of late years attention has been given to the cultivation of oysters. The manufacturing industries are chiefly concentrated in Lisbon and Oporto. About 455,296 persons are engaged in manufacturing pursuits, and nearly half of these are employed in weaving wool. In 1907 1,675 miles of railway were open, of which 580'miles belonged to the state. The exports average about $35,000,-ooo annually, and the imports are nearly twice that amount. The chief mineral products include copper precipitate and copper-ore, cupreous iron pyrites, ore for sulphur, lead-ore, anthracite and lignite. The national debt has increased from about $100,-000,000 in 1853 to over eight times that amount in 1907. Every male Portuguese

over 21 is liable to service in the army, the term being three years with the colors and nine in the reserve. On a peace-footing the army embraces about 30,000 men, the war-strength being about 175,380 men of all arms. The state religion is Roman Catholic, but toleration is extended to all creeds. Education is superintended by a council and is entirely free from the control of the church. Compulsory education was enacted in 1844, but is not generally enforced; and Portugal is far behind in education and intelligence. The one university, at Coimbra, established in 1290, is one of the oldest in Europe, and has 75 professors and 1,057 students. Lisbon has a learned society, the Academy of Sciences, and a public library of 250,000 volumes.

Portugal is a constitutional monarchy, the crown being hereditary alike in the male and the female line. The parliament or cortes is composed of the house of peers and the house of deputies. The house of deputies consists of 138 members, elected by the people, elections being held every four years. The Portuguese differ greatly from the Spaniards, whom they regard with no small degree of hatred, mainly on account of attempts of Spain to subvert the independence of Portugal in the past. Lisbon and Oporto in 1900 had a population, the former of 356,009 and the latter of 167,955; no other town in the kingdom reaches 30,000. The history of Portugal in ancient times and for several of the first centuries of our era was that of the Iberian peninsula as a whole; but in 1143 Alfonso I made it an independent kingdom. During the latter part of the i5th and the earlier part of the i6th century Portugal ranked as one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe, and Lisbon was the distributing center of the products of the east as well as one of the most important commercial cities. But it so declined and degenerated that in 1580 Philip II annexed it to Spain. It remained subject until 1640, when it succeeded in recovering its independence; and in 1668 its independence was formally recognized by the Spanish government. But in her conflicts with Spain and the Netherlands Portugal lost many of her colonies, and th-3 nation which had once been the greatest maritime power on earth became one of the weakest and most insignificant. Under the reign of Joseph I his minister, Pombal (q. v.), sought to revive the national credit and restore the government to its former vigor and efficiency; but, when Joseph's daughter Maria became queen, all progress was arrested. The insanity of Maria led in 1799 to the establishment of a regency under her oldest son; and, when that prince learned that Napoleon had resolved on the extinction of his dynasty, he left Portugal in 1807 and transferred the government to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil (q. v.), which at that time belonged to Portugal. Even after the