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 396 COSTA EICA consideration. Costa Rica is divided adminis- tratively into six provinces : San Jose, Cartago, Alajuela, Heredia, Guanacaste, and Punta Arenas. The principal cities are San Jose, Cartago, Alajuela, and Heredia. San Jose has about 26,000 inhabitants; Cartago, the former capital and the oldest town of Costa Rica, has now only about 5,000 ; the others have about 10,000 each. The government consists of an executive, called president, elected for four years, and a congress of two chambers, a sen- ate and a house of representatives, the first having 25 and the second 29 members, chosen by the people. The vice president, whose term of office is also four years, is chairman of the senate. The president is assisted by two min- isters, nominated by himself, the first having charge of the departments of finance, justice, and foreign affairs, the second of those of the army and navy, the interior, and public works. There is a court of justice in San Jos6, composed of three degrees, a court of common pleas, a court of appeals, and a supreme court ; and in each parish there is a judge called juiz de par- tido. The financial situation of the country, according to the official publications of 1872, is very promising. The estimated budget for 1872-'3, including the port duty of 50 cents per quintal on coffee and a few other imposts of recent creation, was $2,700,000, a sum suf- ficient to pay the expenses of the public ad- ministration and the interest of the national debt, and to provide for the sinking fund. The principal sources of revenue are customs du- ties, the monopoly of liquors, tobacco, and salt, and the post office. In 1872 the government increased the salaries of its official employees, disbursed $400,000 for internal improvements, and had a surplus of $300,000 over and above all claims. The public debt at the end of 1869 was about $3,000,000, of which $2,895,000 was internal. The whole of this debt has been liquidated. In 1872 a 7 per cent, loan of 2,400,000, issued at 82, was contracted through the house of Knowles and Porter of London. In addition to this there is a 6 per cent, loan of the nominal amount of 1,000,000, also contracted in England. Both loans were raised for the purpose of constructing the rail- way and other public works. There are two banks in San Jose, the National and the Anglo- Costarican. Both discount commercial paper freely at the legal rate of interest, 12 per cent., to which rate the former is restricted, but with the latter it is optional. Costa Rica was dis- covered by Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage. On Oct. 5, 1502, after remaining a short time at anchor in the harbor of San Juan, he sailed down the coast, to which, from the specimens of gold he received at the several points where he landed, he gave the name of La Costa Rica y Castilla de Oro. For its his- tory as a province of Spain, see GUATEMALA, under which name all the country between the S. border of Costa Rica and the N. boun- dary of Chiapas, Mexico, was included previ- ous to 1821. During the crisis which followed the declaration of independence of the Spanish American colonies in that year, Costa Rica preserved a prudent neutrality, but in Novem- ber became with the other Central American States a part of the republic of Mexico. A separation was effected July 1, 1823, after the downfall of the brief empire of Iturbide, and a confederation was formed of the five states of Guatemala, San Salvador, Honduras, Nicara- gua, and Costa Rica, and the territory of Mos- quitia. This lasted till 1840, when Costa Rica withdrew and formed an independent govern- ment. Her president, Don Braulio Carillo, reorganized the administration and honorably satisfied the creditors of the confederation for the part of the federal debt assessed to Costa Rica. In 1847 a constitution was adopted, pro- viding for a president and vice president, elect- ed for six years, and a congress consisting of a house of representative only, of 12 members. Various modifications were made in 1859, 1860, and 1863, the presidential term being changed first to three years, and finally to four years. The congress too has undergone numerous re- forms. Of late years there have been constant changes in the executive, in consequence of civil wars and insurrections, scarcely any presi- dent having been permitted to serve the full term of office provided by the constitution. The present president, Gen. Tomas Guardia, was elected in April, 1872, for the term ending in 1876. In 1856 Costa Rica, fearing for her own safety, declared war against the filibuster William Walker, who had taken possession of Nicaragua. The Costa Rican forces, under Don Juan Mora, the president, met Walker's troops under Col. Schlesinger near the haci- enda of Santa Rosa, in Guanacaste, routed them, followed them into Nicaragua, and in conjunction with the forces of the other states surrounded Walker in the city of Rivas and forced his surrender to the commander of the United States sloop of war St. Mary's, under whose safeguard he evacuated the country. On Feb. 17, 1872, the ministers plenipotentiary of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and San Salvador met in the city of La Union in San Salvador, and signed a treaty for the forma- tion of a Central American union, consisting of the several independent republics. Nicara- gua was not represented, but provision was made for her adhesion, and an envoy appoint- ed to visit that government to secure it. The main objects of this union are to preserve the autonomy and integrity of Central American territory, to maintain peace in the several states, and to insure to each a republican form of 'government, to guarantee to every citizen full political liberty, and to promote progress, moral, intellectual, and material. Slavery is denounced, confiscation abolished, and the ex- tradition of political offenders prohibited. The following are declared to be national under- takings: the building of a line of telegraph from Colon, in Colombia, across Central Amer-