Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1235

 AREA AND POPULATION 879

who pay taxes amounting to 500 reis : convicts, bankrupts, beggars, domestic servants, workmen in the Government service, and non-commissioned soldiers are not electors; electors must register themselves. The deputies must have an income of at least 400 milreis per annum ; but lawyers, professors, physicians, or the graduates of any of the learned professions, need no property qualification. Peers and certain Government employees cannot be deputies, and deputies cannot accept any paid employ- ment from Government during the session or 6 months after. Continental Portugal is divided into 17 electoral districts, which, with Madeira and the Azores, return 114 deputies, or 1 deputy to 45,000 people ; there are also 6 deputies for the Colonies. The annual session lasts three months, and fresh elections must take place at the end of every four years. In case of dissolution a new Parliament must be called together immediately. But from November 1894 to January 1895 the Parliament did not meet. The General Cortes meet and separate at specified periods, without the intervention of the Sovereign, and the latter has no veto on a law passed twice by both Houses. A committee composed of members of the two houses decides in case of conflict, the King having the final decision if the committee does not come to a decision.

The executive authority rests, under the Sovereign, in a responsible Cabinet of seven ministers, as follows (August 18, 1898) : —

Premier and Minister of the Interior. — Jos(* Luciano de Castro. Foreign Affairs. — F. A. da Veiga Beirdo. Finance. — M. A. Esprcgucira. Justice and Worship. — J. iL d'AIpoim. War. — General Sebastiiio Custodio de Sousa Tellcs. Marine and Colonies. — A. E. Villa<;a. Public Works, Industry, and Commerce. — E. J. de Sousa Brito.

The Sovereign is permitted, in important eases, to take the advice of a Council of State, or Privy Council, consisting, when full, of thirteen ordinary and three extraordinary members, nominated for life. The leading ministci-s, past and jiresent, generally form part of the Privy Council,

Area and Population.

Continental Portugal was divided into six natural provinces, and is now divided into seventeen districts ; in addition there are the Azores (3 districts) and Madeira (1 district), which are regarded as an integral part of the Kingdom. The area, according to the latest official geodetic data, and the de facto population, according to the census of January 1, 1878, and of December 1, 1890, are given in the following table : —