title of Fürst, or Prince of the Empire, and the princely estates of Friedrichsruh and Varzin as the gift of a grateful nation.

The danger of a coalition of powers against the newly founded empire was ever present to Prince Bismarck's mind. To avert this he brought about the Drei Kaiser Bund, the league of the Emperors of Austria, Germany, and Russia, ostensibly against the forces of revolution. The policy of Germany was henceforth peace. She did not want another inch of territory. To keep France completely isolated was the chief object of his machinations, and to have the German army always stronger than the French was the policy accepted by the nation. When the spirit of revenge was stimulated by the Boulangist agitators in France Bismarck contemplated another war, but feared to outrage the sentiment of Europe. He egged Russia on to the Turkish war, and then ostentatiously asserted the neutrality of Germany, declaring that the whole Eastern question was not worth the bones of a Pomeranian grenadier. Yet the Congress of Berlin witnessed the zenith of his power and of German influence in Europe. It was as an "honest broker" that he assumed to dispose of the fortunes of nations. The triple alliance of Austria, Germany, and Italy succeeded the league of the three Emperors, and was founded on more real interests. If France attacked Germany or Italy, if Russia attacked Austria or Germany, the combined military forces of the league were bound to repel the aggression. Yet, unknown to the Austrian Government, Prince Bismarck came to a secret understanding with the Czar, binding Germany to neutrality in case Austria began war against Russia in return for Russia's neutrality in case France should attack Germany. This agreement lasted from 1884 to 1890, lapsing when France and Russia began to arrange a counter-alliance against the allied powers of central Europe.

In the first session of the German Reichstag the Reichskanzler declared war on the Roman Catholic Church. If in foreign politics he was always earnest, prudent, prescient, if he made use of the most questionable expedients and the most trivial instrumentalities always with a serious purpose and a stern sense of responsibility, in internal politics he seemed to rejoice in the combat rather than in the victory, to fritter away valuable forces in seeking momentary tactical advantages, to confound the great and the small, the lasting and the fleeting. In the consolidation of the national spirit, the unification of laws, education, commerce, etc., the bulk of the nation and the majority of its best intellects worked with him, and the friction, the delays, and the failures were partly due to his methods. He used up the men and dissipated the parties who supported him, while those whom he assailed gained strength. He was too masterful and arbitrary by nature, too aristocratic in principle, too ingrained with the traditions of the old absoIntist régime to accommodate himself to the constitutional system of representative government and either lead or follow the popular will, too loyal and upright to violate or pervert the laws to which he had set his hand or to attempt to corrupt, coerce, or defraud the electorate. He saw in the Roman Catholic hierarchy an imperium in imperio, a stronghold of particularism, and by reason of its vested rights and privileges the chief obstacle in the way of a national system of education and unified administration. These rights and privileges were swept away by the May laws, and the Kulturkampf was begun. In the next Reichstag the Clericals returned in double the numbers. He had so wide an acquaintance with the world's political and social forces that he was not tempted to

trust too much in the Old Catholic movement, but the spirit of battle carried him away. The thorough enforcement of state control of primary education and the main lines of his policy were approved by a great majority of the people. The expulsion of the Jesuits was a popular demand. The retaliatory measures taken against individuals degenerated into persecution and provoked needless hostility and resistance. Cardinal Ledochowski and numberless less important prelates and clergy were thrown into prison. Newspapers were suppressed, theological professors dismissed, religious services interdicted, church revenues impounded, schools shut, marriages and burials stopped, and the Roman Catholic districts plunged into chaos. When Pius IX declined to receive Cardinal Hohenlohe as German ambassador to the Vatican, Prince Bismarck uttered his defiance, "We will not go to Canossa." He tried to fasten on the Clericals the blame for Kullmann's attempt upon his life in 1874, and made it the pretext for more relentless persecutions. The Pope rejoined with the declaration that the Prussian anti-Catholic laws were null and void. Bismarck retorted with the "breadbasket" law, stopping the stipends of recalcitrant priests. The Centrum grew to be the most numerous party in the Reichstag. First the Progressists, then the Conservatives, and at length, in 1877, the National Liberals demanded the repeal of the Falk laws. In 1878, on the succession of Pope Leo XIII, began his long journey to Canossa, first opening negotiations with the new Pope; then, in 1879, forming a coalition with Dr. Windhorst and the Clericals, dismissing Dr. Falk and calling to his place Herr von Puttkamer to carry out a conciliatory policy; next passing a law in 1880 allowing a partial suspension of the anti-Catholic laws; afterward sending an ambassador to the Vatican in 1882, and in 1883 modifying the May laws; and finally, in 1887, striking from the statute book the last vestige of hostile legislation.

Bismarck's struggle with the Social Democrats was even more ruthless and bitter, and scarcely more successful in its outcome. After the attempts on the Emperor's and his own life in 1878 he carried through the first rigorous anti-Socialist law, provoking the excitable element of the party to take the subversive and revolutionary attitude that he ascribed to the whole. Persecution only attracted interest and sympathy, so that the Social Democrats, denied the rights of free speech and association, gained new adherents constantly by the quiet propaganda that they carried on within the law. He was in the end compelled to relax and finally repeal the exceptional legislation. He even tried to make peace with the Social Democrats, adopted Socialist doctrines himself, and worked out the elaborate system of state insurance against sickness, accidents, and old age. The colonial policy that he adopted and prosecuted with energy in 1884 and subsequent years-establishing protectorates in West, Southwest, and East Africa and in the south seaswas one which he had previously opposed. After embarking in these enterprises, which incurred the antagonism of England, he conducted them with his unrivaled diplomatic skill, and eventually turned British hostility into friendship and support. His system of high protection for German manufactures and agriculture, which encountered the strong opposition of the commercial classes, was almost the only part of his domestic policy that gathered strength, excepting the political and military measures for the protection and consolidation of the German Empire, for which he bent all his efforts to gain a majority. On this ground his step was sure, his perception unfailing, but his methods of attaining his end were calculated to de

feat it. His parliamentary conflicts revolved not about the question of keeping up or strengthening the army, for which Parliament was never disposed long to withhold the means, but about the control of the public purse. He wanted septennates or other votes for long terms of years in advance, and to gain this he shifted his majority, made deals and concessions, and usually had to be satisfied with a compromise or brought the Reichstag to submission, as had done his sovereign, by threatening to resign. His most mischievous and unscrupulous device for winning consent to an increase in the army was to stir up dangerous foreign complications or troublous questions in order to produce a war scare. In the organization and direction of the Prussian and imperial administrations Prince Bismarck's executive genius and power of accomplishing work brought the system founded by his predecessors up to a degree of perfection excelled by no other governmental machinery on earth. Bismarck's "old master," whom he had served and loved with the devotion of a feudal retainer, died on March 9, 1888. The relations between the old Emperor and his minister were singular. Wilhelm, who had an obstinate pride in his own judgment and a sense of duty and responsibility which compelled him to weigh and decide every question in his own mind, and who was controlled in an excessive degree by the women of his family, all keen politicians and hostile to Bismarck, suffered every important decision of his reign to be overborne and reversed by his Chancellor, but only after a conflict of wills so earnest and exciting that both were usually verging on a state of nervous collapse when Bismarck at last clinched his exhortations and arguments by threatening to resign. Thus he compelled the King to give up twice his intention of abdicating, to tear up a list of Liberal concessions, to refuse to attend the Congress of Princes at Frankfort, to intervene in Schleswig-Holstein, to agree to the Austrian alliance against Russia. All the three wars were brought about against the will and desire of the King, who was willing to make concessions to preserve peace when his minister was plotting war. In the Spanish-throne question and all the incidents leading to the French war he was circumvented by Bismarck at every step.

Friedrich, who had seen all the hopes and ambitions of his life thwarted by the Iron Chancellor, felt bound by patriotic duty during his brief invalid reign to trust everything to the guidance of his old enemy, even the matter of his daughter's marriage. Wilhelm II succeeded to the throne on June 15, 1888, when not yet thirty years old. He had been Bismarck's pupil in state affairs, and the old Chancellor thought his place secure with his young master, who at first deferred to him in everything. The younger Wilhelm, however, felt himself a king by divine right, one of the ancient kind, whose will is the highest law, and with a more masterful will than his grandfather, he was equally determined to know all about every question of state and to decide it himself. He found that Bismarck had concealed from him the action to be taken against Geffeken for publishing his own father's diary. He could not get him to tell what steps he intended to take in important matters of foreign policy. He was nettled at Bismarck's interference with his schemes of social legislation and his revision of the labor rescripts. Quarrels occurred between the two, and the Chancellor's stock threat of resigning failed of its usual effect. In 1890 Prince Bismarck found himself confronted with a hostile majority in the Reichstag. His political star was sinking. He held a conference with his old enemy, Dr. Windhorst, being ready to bargain for the support of the Centrum. The Emperor demanded an explanation of

these negotiations, which Bismarck refused to give. The Emperor discovered that there was a secret entente with Russia, one repugnant to his candid nature. He insisted on having all the secrets of the Bismarckian diplomacy unfolded to him and was determined henceforth to direct foreign affairs himself. The inexperienced and impulsive young monarch was the last person whom the veteran arbiter of European affairs would trust to decide momentous state questions. Another difference between them was in regard to Wilhelm's consulting with the Prussian ministers regarding the business of their several departments. Prince Bismarck pointed out that this was unconstitutional and insisted on the strict observance of the Cabinet order of 1852, directing ministers to report to the Crown only through the President of the Ministry of State, who was responsible for the entire policy of the Cabinet. After a final breach on a question of German policy in the East, Prince Bismarck made this constitutional question the ground of his resig nation of his offices of Imperial Chancellor and President of the Prussian Council of State, explaining that the two could not be separated, and adding that if they could, he could not carry out the Emperor's views of foreign policy without imperiling all the successes of importance that had been achieved in the relations with Russia. His letter of resignation was sent on March 18, 1890, and was accepted by the Emperor with protestations of regret, gratitude, and praise, and the bestowal of the title of Duke of Lauenburg and the rank of general of cavalry.

The fallen Chancellor spent the remaining years of his life at Friedrichsruh and Varzin, not in dignified quiet, but in a state of anger toward the Emperor and his new Chancellor, with which he endeavored to inflame the country, which was indig nant at his summary dismissal. He denounced the policy of the Government to the thousands who flocked to pay him homage wherever he went. In his organ the " Hamburger Nachrichten" and in other newspapers inspired by him he criticised and belittled the new Government and the men who composed it, and published the secret treaty with Russia at the risk of being prosecuted for revealing state secrets. He constantly dwelt on the necessity of a good understanding with Russia for the future security of Germany. He lent his name and influence to Agrarian agitators and other malcontents. When he went to Vienna in 1892 to attend his son's wedding the Emperor Franz Josef denied him an audience, and the German ambassador ignored him. In 1896 a formal reconciliation took place between him and Wilhelm II. After his death Dr. Moritz Busch published a volume of his table talk containmany frank disclosures. He left manuscript memoirs of his life.

BOLIVIA, a republic in South America. The legislative power is vested in the Congress, composed of a Senate of 18 members, elected for six years, and a House of Representatives containing 64 members, elected for four years by all adult male Bolivian citizens who can read and write. The President is elected for four years by the direct vote of the people. Severo Fernandez Alonso was inaugurated as President on Aug. 15, 1896. His Cabinet at the beginning of 1898 was composed as follows: Foreign Relations and Worship, Dr. Manuel M. Gomez; Finance. L. Gutierrez; Interior and Justice, Macario Pinilla; Public Instruction, Colonization, Public Works, and Industry, Dr. J. V. Ochoa; War, G. Sanjines.

Area and Population. The area of the republic is 567,360 square miles and the population, according to an official enumeration, is 2,019,549, not including the uncivilized Indians, numbering about

250,000. The department of the Littoral, containing the ports of Antofagasta and Arica, embracing 29,910 square miles, was retained as a pledge by Chili in 1880, after the war in which Peru and Bolivia were defeated, with a provision for its redemption after ten years.

Finances. The revenue for the financial year 1897 was estimated in the budget at 6,963,124 bolivianos, and the expenditure at 6,785,596 bolivianos. The foreign debt amounts to 2,000,000 bolivianos, or dollars, the funded internal debt to 4,382,000 bolivianos, and the floating debt to about 3,000,000 bo

3,200,000 ounces in 1896. About 4,000 tons of tin concentrates, 2,000 tons of tin bars, and 3,000 tons of barilla are exported annually. The total value of the imports in 1894 was estimated at 6,800,000 bolivianos, the principal articles being provisions, hardware, wine and spirits, textile fabrics, and clothing. The value of the exports was estimated at 30,000,000 bolivianos. The export of silver through the port of Antofagasta was valued at £1,914,500 sterling; that of tin at £433,900. The export of rubber is increasing. Other exports are copper, hides and skins, cinchona, coca, and gold.

livianos. Of the expenditures of 1897 the sum of 1,748,697 bolivianos was devoted to the army, consisting of a standing force of 1,500 men and the National Guard, in which all citizens are bound to serve under the conscription law of 1892.

Commerce and Production.-Agriculture and communications are still very primitive. Wheat, corn, potatoes, and other food products are raised in sufficient quantities to feed the people, and large numbers of sheep and llamas, from whose wool the garments of the common people are made. Some coffee is exported. The silver mines produced 14,500,000 ounces in 1894, but the product fell off to

Communications.-A railroad from Antofagasta extends for 500 miles in Bolivian territory from Ascotan to Ururi. A railroad is projected to connect La Paz with the Peruvian line that runs from Lake Titicaca to the seaport of Mollendo, another to join a line traversing the Argentine Republic, and concessions have been granted for lines running from Ururi to the mining districts of Cochabamba and Potosi.

The length of telegraph lines in the republic is 2,980 miles. The post office in 1896 carried 1,847,009 internal and 528,088 foreign letters, post cards, and journals.

BRAZIL, a federal republic in South America, proclaimed by the Constitutional Assembly on Feb. 25, 1891, at the end of the civil war which followed after the fall of the Emperor Dom Pedro II, who abdicated on Nov. 15, 1889. The legislative power is vested in the Congress, consisting of a Senate of 63 members, representing the different States and the Federal District, and a Chamber of Deputies containing 212 members, elected for three years by the direct suffrage of all adult male Brazilian citizens able to read and write, or paying taxes, or exercising a trade or profession. The President and Vice-President, who, as well as the Senators, are also elected by direct popular suffrage, hold office for four years.

The President of the republic is Prudente de Moraes Barros, who succeeded Marshal Floriano Peixoto on Nov. 15, 1894. Manoel Victorino Pereira was elected Vice-President. The Cabinet at the beginning of 1898 consisted of the following members: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gen. Dionysio E. de Castro Cerqueira; Minister of Finance, Dr. Bernar

extraordinary credits to the amount of 60,000,000 milreis because Congress at the last moment refused to agree to proposals for an income tax. In the provisional budget for 1898 the receipts are estimated at 344,197,000 milreis, of which 250,000,000 milreis come from customs duties, 34,000,000 milreis from railroads, 9,000,000 milreis from stamps, 7,700,000 milreis from railroads, 2,000,000 milreis from duties on tobacco, 1,500,000 milreis from lottery taxes, 1,200,000 milreis from the Rio de Janeiro waterworks, and 38,797,000 milreis from other sources. The total ordinary expenditures for 1898 are reckoned at 324,570,264 milreis, of which 15,946,378 milreis are allocated to the Ministry of the Interior and Justice, 2,101,812 milreis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 26,873,358 milreis to the navy, 52,374,106 milreis to the army, 88,211,707 milreis to the Ministry of Industry, and 139,062,923 milreis to the Ministry of Finance.

The public debt consisted on Jan. 1, 1897, of a foreign debt of £35,261,700 sterling, equal to 313,447,333 milreis, internal debts payable in gold or

dino de Campos; Minister of Industry, Dr. Joaquim Duarte Murtinho; Minister of the Interior and Justice, Dr. Amaro Cavalcanti; Minister of Marine, Rear-Admiral Manoel J. Alves Barbosa.

Area and Population.-The area of Brazil is 3,209,878 square miles, and the population in 1890, according to the census returns, still incomplete, was 14,332,530. The population of Rio de Janeiro in 1892 was 522,651; that of Bahia is about 200,000, while Pernambuco has 190.000 and São Paulo 100,000. The number of immigrants in 1896 was 157,948, of whom 96,324 were Italians, 24,154 Portuguese, 11,366 Austro-Hungarians, and 1,070 Germans.

Finances.-The revenue for 1896 was estimated in the budget at 354,634,000 milreis, compared with 270,198,000 in 1895, and the expenditure at 343,536,210, compared with 275,691,671. The budget for 1897 makes the total receipts 339,307,000 milreis and the expenditures 313,196,700 milreis. The actual receipts were about 312,000,000 milreis, and the expenditure 315,444,000 milreis. The Executive opened

currency amounting to 635,698,500 milreis, 371,641,023 milreis of paper money in circulation, 340,714,370 milreis of guaranteed bank notes, 274,278,081 milreis of floating debt, and 6,893,500 milreis of guaranteed railroad bonds, making the total obligations of the Government 1,942,672,807 milreis, paying interest at 4 and 4 per cent. on the foreign loans and from 4 to 6 per cent. on the internal debt. The States had debts amounting in 1895 to 91,706,736 milreis. The Brazilian Government has reduced its foreign liabilities by the forcible conversion of the 4-per-cent. gold loan of 1890, amounting to 124.655,000 milreis, into 5-per-cent. currency bonds. Holders received a 25-per-cent. bonus with the new bonds, which they were obliged to accept or to receive the face value of their bonds in currency.

The Army and Navy.-The army consisted in 1897 of 4,000 officers and 24,160 men, besides 20,000 gendarmes. Service in the army is obligatory for three years in the line and three in the reserve.

The navy in the beginning of 1898 consisted of

the "Riachuelo" and "24 de Maio," third-class battle ships; 6 monitors and coast-defense vessels; the first-class cruiser "Nichtheroy," since sold to the United States; 3 second-class and 2 third-class cruisers and 10 small cruisers and gunboats; and 8 first-class and 6 third-class torpedo boats. A firstclass cruiser, 2 port-defense armor clads, 6 cruisers, 8 destroyers, 6 first-class torpedo boats, and 2 Goubet submarine boats were being built for the navy. Commerce and Production.-The staple commercial product of Brazil is coffee, of which about 8,000,000 bags of 60 kilogrammes each are produced yearly. In 1898 the Rio crop was 3,000,000 and the Santos crop 4,000,000 bags. In Rio Grande do Sul there were 320,000 cattle slaughtered in 1897. Fruit preserving, tanning, and brewing are also carried on in this State, which is largely peopled by German, Italian, and other immigrants. Pernambuco produces 185,000,000 kilogrammes of sugar a year. Rum and alcohol are distilled in increasing quantities. Cotton is grown in several States, and there are many cotton and woolen mills. Gold mines are worked in Minas Geraes, and in Bahia this metal and silverlead ore, copper, zinc, manganese, and mercury are found. Diamonds are also mined. Iron exists in many places in vast quantities, but there are no coal mines except in Rio Grande do Sul. The forests of Brazil are of enormous extent and full of valuable products which are not yet accessible, except rubber, of which the Amazon region has been much depleted.

The total value of the imports in 1896 was 481,000,000 milreis; of the exports, 480,000,000 milreis. There were 2,763,720 bags of coffee shipped from Rio de Janeiro in 1895, 4,157,971 from Santos in 1896, and 540,000 from Victoria, Bahia, and Ceará; 7,770 tons of cacao from Bahia; 164,925 tons of sugar from Pernambuco; 12,239 tons of cotton from Pernambuco; and 15,230 tons of rubber from Pará and 6,599 tons from Manaos. From Rio Grande do Sul 9,433,325 kilogrammes of dried beef and 1,141,362 of tallow and 336,773 hides were exported. Other exports are yerba maté, tobacco, timber, and nuts. The principal imports are cotton and woolen cloths, iron and machinery, coal, flour, cattle, beef, rice, codfish, pork, lard, butter, corn, olive oil, macaroni, tea, candles, salt, kerosene, timber, wines, and spirits.

Navigation. The arrivals at Rio de Janeiro in 1896 were 1,535 vessels engaged in the foreign trade, of 2,469,628 tons; at Pernambuco, 947 vessels, of 1,181,247 tons; at Ceará, 308 vessels, of 236,091 tons; at Maranhão, 174 vessels, of 223,647 tons; at Rio Grande do Norte, 207 vessels, of 51,890 tons. The merchant marine in 1895 comprised 285 sailing vessels, of 65,575 tons, and 189 steamers, of 75,283 tons.

Communications.-There were 8,086 miles of railroad in operation in 1896, and 5,403 miles were building, 4,670 miles in addition were laid out, and 8.440 miles more were projected. The Federal Government owned 1,832 miles and paid subventions to 2.259 miles, while 3,000 miles were owned or subsidized by States and 995 miles received no subventions. Of the lines under construction the Federal Government was building 667 miles and assisting 3,390 miles, the States were building 961 miles, and 385 miles were being built without subventions. The subventioned lines usually have 6 or 7 per cent. interest on their capital guaranteed by the Government. The total cost of the Government railroads up to 1895 was 257,674,937 milreis. The deficit made up by the Government in 1894 was 11,118,481 milreis. A law was passed in December, 1896, which authorizes the leasing of the Government lines.

The telegraph lines in 1895 had a total of 10,143 miles, with 21,936 miles of wire, all belonging to the

Government. The number of dispatches was 1,283,695. The receipts for 1897 were estimated at 3,600,000 milreis and expenses at 9,844,722 milreis.

The post office in 1893 carried 33,441,000 letters and postal cards and 37,674,000 packets and samples. Political Affairs.-At the beginning of 1898 financial depression affected the people and the Government and the country was still under martial law, which was extended till Feb. 23, the unrest that followed upon the conspiracy against the Government still continuing. The man who attempted to assassinate President Moraes and mortally wounded the Minister of War, killed himself in prison, hiding the secrets that he might have revealed. Dr. Manoel Pereira, the Vice-President, denying any complicity in the attempted murder of the President, nevertheless refused to appear before the High Court, invoking his parliamentary immunities. The presidential election was held on March 1. Dr. de Campos Saller, of São Paulo, was elected President of the republic and Rosa Silva, of Pernambuco, Vice-President for the term beginning on Nov. 15, 1898. Their majority was very large. In Rio de Janeiro the Opposition abstained from voting. Congressmen who were imprisoned in the penal establishment on the island of Noronha, charged with being implicated in the plot against the President's life, were on April 17 released by order of the Supreme Court, their detention there having been unconstitutional. The Brazilian Congress was opened on May 3. The President hoped to settle. the dispute with France regarding the Guiana boundary without resorting to arbitration. reciprocity treaty with the United States he refused to renew, on account of the great loss caused thereby to the revenue. The President declared the foreign payments of the Government had been kept up with scrupulous fidelity, but only at the cost of enormous sacrifices because of the fall in exchange, the decline in the price of coffee, and the political and international agitation. The deficit for 1897 amounted to 41,526 contos of reis. An arrangement was made with the Rothschilds and London banks for the extrication of the Government from its immediate financial peril by a compromise with the bondholders. The Minister of Finance proposed to collect all import duties in gold at the exchange rate of 20 milreis to the pound sterling. He also suggested an income tax. In the budget for 1899 revenue and expenditure were made to balance at 346,000 contos. Of the revenue 222,000 contos are from customs. Of the expenditures 68,768 are assigned to the army and navy and 166,000 contos to the Ministry of Finance, including 63,000 contos for loss of exchange and 58,000 contos for the service of loans. The ratifications of an arbitration treaty with France relative to the boundary dispute were exchanged on Aug. 6.

The

BRITISH COLUMBIA, the westernmost province of the Dominion of Canada.

Politics and Government.-The years 1897-'98 were most important ones in the history of this province. Politics were unusually interesting, and the excitement over general mining, railway, and business development reached high-water mark. The policy and methods of the Hon. J. H. Turner's Government-composed of D. M. Eberts, G. B. Martin, James Baker, and himself as Premier were objects of severe criticism. The fourth and last session of the seventh Legislature of British Columbia was duly opened at Victoria on Feb. 10, 1898, by Lieut.-Gov. T. R. McInnes, who in 1897 was appointed to this post in succession to the Hon. E. Dewdney. The speech from the throne, outlining the policy of the Government for the ensuing session, contained the following significant passages: