Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/220

 208 SPAIN ports from France was $33,648,000, from Great Britain $26,112,000, and from Cuba $7,680,000 ; of exports to France $15,936,000, to Great Britain $16,224,000, and to Cuba $9,936,000. The merchant navy in 1867 consisted of 4,363 sailing vessels, tonnage 345,186, and 151 steam- ers, tonnage 45,484; total, 4,514 vessels, of 390,670 aggregate tonnage. In the same year 9,640 vessels, of 1,532,000 aggregate tonnage, entered the ports. The government of Spain, which has undergone many changes since 1812, is now a constitutional monarchy. The consti- tution of June 1, 1869, vests the legislative pow- er in a cortes, as representative of the sovereign Spanish nation. The king, who is inviolable and not subject to responsibility, sanctions and promulgates the laws, and exercises the execu- tive power through the state ministry. In Jan- uary, 1875, the ministry was composed of a president and eight ministers, the departments being foreign affairs, finance, interior, justice, commerce and public works, war, marine, and colonies. The cortes is divided into a senate and the congress. The requirements for a sen- ator are to be a Spaniard, to be 40 years of age, to be possessed of civil rights, and either to have been the occupant of a high political, ec- clesiastical, or literary position, or to be one of the large taxpayers. One fourth of the senate is removed each time that general elec- tions for deputies are held. The lower house, the congress, which is wholly renewed every three years, is composed of at least one depu- ty to each 40,000 of the population. To be eligible as a deputy one must be a Spaniard, of age, and in possession of civil rights. The cortes must meet for at least four months every year. Each house nominates its own officers. The provinces, districts, and com- munes of Spain are governed by their own special laws, and this principle of provincial and municipal self-government has generally been recognized by all the governments. Every commune of at least 60 members has its own elected ayuntamiento, which is pre- sided over by an alcalde. Each province has ite own parliament, the deputation provin- cial, the members of which are elected by the ayuntamientos. The courts of justice comprise the supreme tribunal at Madrid, 15 andiencias territoriales (courts of the second resort), and 499 courts of ordinary jurisdic- tion. The army of Spain, according to the military law of Feb. 17, 1873, is divided into the active army and the reserve. The former, the numerical strength of which is established annually by a law, is recruited wholly by vol- unteers from 19 to 40 years of age, who enlist for a term of at least two years, after the ex- piration of which they may reenlist for at least one year. The reserve is formed of all who have reached their 20th year, excepting those who serve in the active army. The time of service is three years, and no substitutes are accepted. The reserve of a province may be mobilized by a decree of the government, but the mobilization of the entire reserve re- quires a national law. Whenever the number of volunteers is insufficient to fill the active army, the reserve may be mobilized. In 1875 the Spanish army was in process of reorgani- zation on the basis of these provisions. The military force in Spain was to number about 216,000 men. To this number should be added about 60,000 men in Cuba, 9,400 in Porto Kico, and 9,000 in the Philippines ; total, 78,- 400, making the whole strength of the Spanish army 294,400. As it has been common with most of the governments which have followed each other in rapid succession to make mili- tary appointments for political reasons, the number of officers of the highest military rank is disproportionately large. There is a school of infantry cadets at Toledo, a school of cavalry cadets (established in 1851) at Al- cala de Henares, a special school of artillerists, an academy of engineers, and a school of the general staff at Madrid, and a general military school at Toledo. Spain has 125 fortified places, among which are 25 of the first order. The navy, which in former times commanded all seas, and afterward greatly declined, has only recently begun to improve again. The fleet in 1874 consisted of 20 vessels of the first class (7 ironclads, 10 screw frigates, and 3 wheel steamers), 21 vessels of the second class (10 wheel steamers, 9 screw steamers, and 2 screw transports), and 161 vessels of the third class (20 screw steamers, 64 gunboats, 10 wheel steamers, 4 screw transports, and 73 brigs) ; total, 202 vessels with 894 guns. Besides these are the following vessels not classified : 5 steamers with 5 guns, a monitor with 3 guns, 2 despatch boats with 6 guns, 1 floating battery, and 1 sailing transport. The navy was manned in 1874 by 9,700 sailors and 5,000 marines. The finances of Spain have long been in a wretched condition, and there is no longer any hope among Spanish statesmen for a permanent improvement. The apparent sur- plus of receipts which appeared in several of the budgets presented to the cortes was gen- erally found to be fictitious, and since 1867 even the budget estimates have invariably left a large deficit unprovided for. Even the ex- tensive sale of national and church property has failed to restore the equilibrium and to arrest the threatening increase of the national debt. In the budget for 187l-'2 the revenue was estimated at about $113,500,000, and the expenditures at $121,000,000; and the minis- ter of finance declared that the state was on the verge of bankruptcy, which could be averted only "by the most strenuous exer- tions, devoted both to raise the revenue by the imposition of new taxes and otherwise, and to depress the expenditure to the lowest possible point." A report of the minister of finance in May, 1873, estimated the public debt at $1,511,000,000. The payment of interest on the foreign debt was suspended on July 1, 1873, According to the Madrid " Official Ga-