related his personal experience of this speaking telegraph at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia. "In the Canadian department I heard 'To be, or not to be . there's

the rub,' through an electric wire; but scorning monosyllables, the electric articulation rose to higher flights, and gave me passages taken at random from the New York newspapers: S.s. Cox has arrived' (I failed to make out the s.s. Cox); 'The City of New York,' 'Senator Morton,' The Senate has resolved to print a thousand extra copies,' 'The Americans in London have resolved to celebrate the coming Fourth of July.' All this my own ears heard spoken to me with unmistakeable distinctness by the then circular disc armature of just such another little electromagnet as this I hold in my hand." Since then, Professor Bell has been perfecting his apparatus, and we find, on the authority of the "Scientific American," that he has recently achieved even more remarkable success. At a lecture which he delivered at Salem, Mass., a reporter of the "Boston Daily Globe" sent a verbal report of the lecture to the office of his paper in Boston, eighteen miles distant, by means of the telephone. Those reciving the message at Boston even heard, from time to time, the applause of the audience attending the lecture. From the platform Professor Bell spoke to his associate Mr. Watson in Boston. The latter then sent a telegraph message in musical notes, and also a tune from an organ, which were distinctly audible to the audience. On being asked for a song, Mr. Watson complied with "Auld Lang Syne," and finally made a speech, the words of which were heard by all present in the hall, as the applause testified. Mr. Watson then returned thanks, and the meeting ended, we are told, by those at Salem joining in the national anthem, "Hail, Columbia," with those at Boston. In view of these striking facts, it is hardly going too far to anticipate the time when, from St. James's Hall as a centre, Mr. Gladstone will be able to speak to the ears of the whole nation, collected at a hundred different towns, on Bulgarian atrocities, or some other topic of burning interest. Nor need we despair of seeing Herr Wagner from his throne at Bayreuth, dispensing the "music of the future" in one monstre concert to St. Petersburg, Vienna, London, New York-in short, to all the musical world at once.

V. ON THE PRESENT CONDITION OF CHILE.

HOUGH Chile has only had a settled Government for some twenty-five years, the country has now been autonomous for about half a century, and it will, therefore, not be uninteresting at the present time to consider briefly the results which have been achieved in that limited period. With this end in view we propose in this paper to abridge some notes from an exhaustive report, recently furnished to the Foreign Office by Her Majesty's Secretary of Legation at Santiago de Chile, on the progress and general condition of the Republic-a report which reflects great credit on its writer, and, apart from a few defects in the arrangement of its details, is one of the most complete that we remember to have met with in a long experience of such like documents.

We need not dwell at great length on Mr. Rumbold's introductory remarks on the geographical position and physical configuration of the country, for they are more or less familiar to all; but we may mention that Chile claims to extend from the 24th degree of southern latitude to Cape Horn, with a coast-line ranging over 2000 miles, the greater part of her territory-from the province of Aconcagua southwards-being describable as one broad valley running due north and south, with narrower lateral and intersecting valleys, each of which rises step-like above the other to the foot of the giant wall of the Andes. However genial the climate and fertile the soil, the extent of land available for cultivation is necessarily limited by the large proportion of hills and rocks, and by the extensive desert tracts of the northern districts. At the same time the natural declivity from the mountain to the ocean, distinctive of the whole country, as well as its inconsiderable breadth (nowhere much exceeding 120 miles), greatly facilitate communication with the coast at all points. It is thus marked out by Nature for easy exportation of its own produce, and is equally convenient of access to the sea-borne produce of other nations. The Chileans would therefore seem destined to become both an important agricultural and an important commercial and maritime community-points of resemblance with ourselves which they no doubt include in their claim to be considered "the English of South America." Mr. Rumbold does not

profess to make any attempt at a detailed description of Chile, but briefly classes it in the following three main divisions :

1. The large northern provinces of Atacama and Coquimbo, the former of which is almost entirely made up of sandy deserts replete with mineral wealth. Its richest mines are to be found between Caldera and Mejillones de Bolivia, over a district covering 240 miles. Here are the silver mines of Puquios, Tres Puntas, Chañarcillo, Chimbero, and numerous others, and here, too, are the newly-discovered mines of La Florida. In this vast region every conceivable mineral product is found; silver in abundance, and copper; gold, iron, lead, nickel, and cobalt; not to mention great pampas or stretches covered with nitrate of soda, rock-salt, and borax, these latter being of recent discovery, and when analysed found to contain a large proportion of iodine. The great discoveries made at Caracoles-which, it may be well to note, is not in Chilean but in Bolivian territoryhave somewhat diverted public attention from the mines of Atacama, but their wealth is none the less remarkable, and it will suffice to say of them that in the thirty years period 1843 to 1873 they yielded over 200,000,000 dollars' worth of mineral produce, or an average annual yield of about £1,320,000. The southernmost portion of the province (the department of Freirina) bears a different aspect from the rest, for it contains the Vale of Huasco, which is renowned as one of the best-cultivated districts of Chile, but upon which the desert is now said to be encroaching at an alarming rate. The department is, above all, the greatest copper district in the world, and its rich mines of Carrizal are well known. The province of Coquimbo, too, abounds in this metal.

2. The limits of the second, or central, division of Chile would be best marked by the Rio Illapel, or Choapa, and the Rio Itata. It comprises the provinces of Aconcagua, considered the garden of Chile; Santiago, with the large and handsome capital city of the same name; Valparaiso, with the largest commercial emporium of the South Pacific; Colcagua, Talca, Maule, and Nuble. It is the heart and soul of the whole country, containing its largest estates and most important towns, yielding its most abundant produce, and supporting the bulk of its population. It is distinctly agricultural, as opposed to the mining north and to the wilder and more pastoral south.

3. The third, or austral, division of Chile, el Sur, commences according to Mr. Rumbold-at the Rio Itata, and

includes the province of Concepcion, the so-called province of Arauco, and the provinces of Valdivia, Llanquihué, and Chiloé. This extensive region is but thinly peopled, and only in part subdued, the greater portion of Arauco, and much of Valdivia and Llanquihué, being still in the hands of the independent aboriginal Araucanian tribes that held them before the Conquest. It is a region eminently adapted for stock-breeding and other pastoral pursuits, but it also includes large coal-fields. Its moist and temperate climate, excellent soil, numerous and commodious harbours, beautiful rivers, with banks clothed down to the water's edge by primæval forests full of valuable timber, point it out as especially favourable to emigration from Europe.

Before quitting this part of our subject, a few words must be devoted to the colony of Punta Arenas, or Sandy Point, in the Straits of Magellan, which is the most southern civilised community of the globe. The station is described on authority as peculiarly healthy; the mean temperature of the whole year is 44'8° F.; that of spring being 45'9°; of summer, 52.6°; of autumn, 44°6°; and of winter, 35.8°. The settlement now produces enough to support itself; its shores are covered with forests of Antarctic beech, and it is expected that a large and profitable trade in railway-sleepers and other timber may be developed with the countries on the River Plate: it likewise contains coal-mines, which promise well, and which may not impossibly open out an important future to the place as a coaling-station; mines of copper are said to exist, and gold is found in the Rio de la Mina to the north of the settlement; but the sources of wealth more special to the colony are its cod-fisheries and trade in guanaco skins, and in ostrich skins and feathers. In 1868 the population was 195, and in 1875 was 1144.

Census. According to the preliminary Report of the Commissioners the population actually found in Chile on April 19, 1875, numbered 2,068,424 souls, being an increase of 249,201, or 137 per cent, in ten years. The difficulty of counting a people thinly spread over an immense territory, and in many cases disinclined to help the persons charged with the operation, was such that the Census Commissioners think it safe to add at least 10 per cent for omissions, and they accordingly put the total figure of the population at 2,319,266. Some curiosities of the census are worth noting. As instances of the vague distrust with which the process was regarded in many rural districts, it is stated that at Conchali, in the department of Quillota, nearly all the peones, or labourers, on one estate left their huts on the eve

of the 19th of April, and took to the hills for refuge. At Romeral a similar exodus occurred, and only 500 inhabitants were found instead of at least 1200, known to belong to the place. The prevailing idea appeared to be that a forced levée en masse was intended, or that the population was being counted with a view to the imposition of a poll-tax. As an illustration, on the other hand, of the little intelligence. sometimes shown in collecting the necessary data, it is said that in one district the enumerators positively refused to note down any children under nine years of age. The number of foreigners in the country appears small when the large foreign trade is considered. The census puts them at 26,528, chiefly resident at Valparaiso, Santiago, and the mining capital of Copiapó. In reality, however, the foreign element in Chile is much larger than it would seem to be, for all children of foreigners born in the country are accounted Chileans. These and the offspring of mixed marriages together produce a considerable admixture of foreign blood not without its uses in so young a community. It is worthy of note, too, that these half-breeds, as a rule, show a marked attachment for the country of their birth. The census roughly estimated the independent Indian population at 44,000, 20,000 of whom are accredited to the debateable regions of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, and 24,000 to Araucania proper, but the last-mentioned figures are believed to be much below the mark.

Education. The progress of late years in this direction has been not inconsiderable. In 1874 the Report of the Minister of Public Instruction showed that there were 806 public elementary schools, in which 62,244 scholars of both sexes were inscribed, and 478 private schools with 23,198 scholars. Altogether, therefore, there were throughout the Republic 1284 schools; in which 85,442 children were assumed to be receiving some degree of education; the proportion thus obtained being I scholar out of 4'94 children of educational age, or not far short of double what it was twenty years before. The cause of general education. has received considerable attention at the hands of the Chilean Government in the last twenty-five years, but, from what Mr. Rumbold states, it would seem that it has been less warmly taken up by the more influential classes of the country. This, however, it is only fair to addfinds some excuse in the stolid indifference of the peasantry, which is such as a severe compulsory system could probably alone overcome.

Post Office.-Closely allied to the development of education VOL. VII. (N.S.)

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