place in Connecticut during the year 1873 was 14,087, or 282 more than in 1872, and 42 per cent. in excess of the births returned in 1863. Of the 13,984 births, in which the sex was stated, the proportion was 110 males to 100 females. The illegitimate births numbered 152. Of colored children there were 247 births. The entire number of deaths in the State was 9,822, which is 148 less than in 1872. The deaths in the colored population were 207, or 40 less than the births.

The marriages contracted in 1873 were 4,841, or 182 less than in the preceding year. The marriages, where both parties were of Amer

ican birth, numbered 2,768; where both were foreigners, 1,313; and where one party was American the other foreigner, 575.

The marriages contracted among the colored population were 141, including one mixed.

The number of divorces granted in 1873 was 457. The applications for divorce were made, in 274 cases, by the wife, and in 183 by the husband.

The construction of the new State-House at Hartford has been steadily progressing.

At the election on October 5th the constitutional amendment was approved by a large majority.

CORNELL, EZRA, a philanthropist and benefactor of education; born at Westchester Landing, Westchester County, N. Y., January 11, 1807; died at his home in Ithaca, N. Y., December 9, 1874. His father, who belonged to the Society of Friends, was engaged in the making of pottery, and the son worked at this occupation at Tarrytown, and afterward in Madison County, his laborious youth limiting his educational opportunities. He had no more than a common-school education, but in addition to native shrewdness and sound judgment manifested at an early age a desire for knowledge and a mind liberal in the reception of new ideas. In 1826 he left home and obtained employment at Homer, whence, two years after, he removed to Ithaca, where he obtained a place, at rather scanty wages, in the machine-shop attached to the cotton-mill of Otis Eddy, which stood on the site now occupied by one of the stately buildings of Cor

nell University. Mill - work and agriculture took up his time by turns for fifteen years, when in 1843 he became connected with the construction of the first telegraphic line established in this country. He formed the acquaintance of F. O. J. Smith, Representative from Maine, and chairman of the Committee of Commerce of the House, who was owner of one-fourth interest in the invention of Prof. Morse; and also of Prof. Morse himself. The plan of laying the telegraphic wires in pipes underground was determined upon for the experimental line between Baltimore and Washington-as this method had been used successfully in England-and Mr. Cornell, who had an inventive turn of mind, had devised a machine for laying the pipes. He was engaged to superintend the work at the modest salary of $1,000 per year. The wires were covered with cotton and imperfectly insulated with bitumen. It soon became known to Prof. Morse that the

plan would not succeed, and Mr. Cornell, to afford the opportunity for a change of plans, purposely disabled his machine, and subsequently put up the wires on poles as is now done. Mr. Cornell now devoted his whole attention and energy to the prosecution of the telegraphic business, being more than once reduced to great straits from the want of means. After the Government relinquished its connection with the telegraph as unprofitable, in 1845, it took a new start as a private enterprise, and began to prove profitable. When the line was extended to New York in 1845, Mr. Cornell was appointed to superintend it, and also to supervise the construction of lines from New York to Philadelphia. In 1846 he constructed a line to Albany, and another in the following year from Troy to Montreal. Being confident of the success of these projects, he invested extensively in telegraphic stocks, and realized large profits from them. His good fortune did not end with his business successes, for in 1863 he was elected member of the Assemby from his district, and in the year following of the State Senate, and was reëlected for the next term. In 1862 he was chosen President of the State Agricultural Society, and while in London that year he sent several soldiers from England to this country to join our army, paying all their expenses. He had some years before made his home at Ithaca, and finding that there was a need of a public library there he erected a fine building for it, and gave it an endowment of $25,000, which he subsequently increased to $50,000, and finally to $100,000, for the purchase of books and the support of the librarian. His wealth was now rapidly increasing, and having tasted the luxury of giving, he began to plan larger benefactions. In 1862, Congress had passed the Agricultural Land Grant Act, giving to the States, under certain conditions and restrictions, 30,000 acres of government lands for each Senator and Representative of the State in Congress. Certain parties in the State of New York had been instrumental in procuring the passage of this act, and when it was passed, and New York was found to be entitled to 990,000 acres of land, those parties, who had founded the People's College at Ovid, N. Y., and the Agricultural College at Havana, N. Y., asked for this landed endowment to be granted by the State to their institutions. It was granted to them under the conditions required by the act, but both institutions found themselves utterly unable to fulfill these conditions, and consequently the grant lapsed. Meantime, Mr. Cornell, then a member of the State Senate, had been an attentive observer of their efforts, and had formed the purpose of founding a university that would not fail. In 1865 he asked of the Legislature a charter for a university which he proposed to found and endow with the sum of $500,000. The charter was passed, but with two stipulations not greatly to the credit of the lobby or the Legislature in that

stage of the proceedings. One was that, as a condition of receiving this charter, he should pay over to Genesee College, Lima, N. Y., over and above his endowment of Cornell University, $25,000. This was subsequently refunded to Mr. Cornell by a Legislature which had the grace to be ashamed of the acts of its predecessor, and by him immediately donated to Cornell University. The other stipulation was that provision should be made for the free toition of one student from each Assembly district in the State. Mr. Cornell complied with both, and immediately put into the hands of the designated trustees of the new university securities to the amount of $500,000. The next year, the People's College and the Agricultural College having both collapsed, Mr. Cornell made application for the land grant for his university, which he had further endowed with $260,000 more in land, money, and a valuable mineralogical and geological collection. He obtained the grant, and, taking counsel of judicious friends, he laid the foundations of his university course broad and deep, and proceeded to erect the buildings for it. He also contracted with the State for the purchase of the entire Agricultural College landscrip, in order to locate it more advantageously for the university. The buildings were so far completed at Ithaca that, on the 7th of October, 1868, the university was formally opened, nearly 500 students being in attendance. Many other liberal gifts were made to the university subsequently, and it is now one of the most prosperous seats of learning in the country, with a prospect, when its lands are all sold, of being, perhaps, the richest of American col leges. It accomplishes the union of liberal and practical education contemplated by its founder as well as by Congress when public lands were granted to the States. It has also realized Mr. Cornell's idea of offering instruction to any person in any study; and, added to all these advantages, it allows the fullest freedom of religious belief among its Faculty as well as among its students. The pressure to sell agricultural college land-scrip by so many States at the same time had materially depreciated its value, and made the location of these lands proportionately more difficult. Mr. Cornell had been very successful in locating the scrip, purchasing largely timbered lands, but the sales of these lands were delayed by the financial condition of the country, and other causes, and some persons were ready to attribute to Mr. Cornell the design to enrich himself at the expense of the university. He demanded an investigation, which was made as thorough and searching as possible, and resulted in his triumphant vindication. He had been infirm for several months, owing to an attack of pneumonia in the spring of 1874, but his final illness was brief, and his death sudden. Few men have been so widely and sincerely mourned.

COSTA RICA (REPÚBLICA DE COSTA RICA), one of the five independent states of Central

America, situated betweeen latitude 8° and 11° 5' north, and longitude 81° 20′ and 85° 53' west; and bounded on the north by Nicaragua, on the east by the Caribbean Sea, on the southeast by the United States of Colombia, and on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean. The question of limits, still pending with Nicaragua, will probably be amicably disposed of before the end of the present year, both Governments evincing a readiness to come to terms. A more difficult question is that with Colombia, a boundary-line with which republic was proposed by the Colombian minister, but rejected by the Costa Rica Congress, who did not see fit to surrender the whole of Admiral's Bay on the Caribbean Sea. The Government, apparently aware of the exaggerative proportions of the estimate of 1873, now estimates the population of the republic at 185,000, comprising 5,000 civilized and 10,000 uncivilized Indians, 120 Africans, and some 600 Chinese. It has been remarked that Costa Rica possesses a larger number of inhabitants of unmixed European blood than any of the Hispano-American states. The territory, which comprises an area of 21,493 square miles, is divided into the five provinces of Alajuela, Cartago, Guanacaste, Heredia, and San José, with the two districts of Limon and Puntarenas. The President is General Tomás Guardia, who had resigned for a time in favor of Señor Salvador Gonzales.

The first Designado (first Vice-President) is Señor Rafael Barroeta; and the second, Dr. Vicente Herrera, whose functions embrace also those of the Departments of the Interior, Justice, War, and the Navy, and who is provisional Minister of Foreign Affairs and Public Instruction; Minister of Public Works, Señor Salvador Lara; and Minister of Finance and Commerce, Señor Joaquin Lizano.

The national Congress, by the terms of the Constitution of 1871, is composed of a single Chamber, the members of which (deputies) are elected for four years. Speaker, Señor Manuel A. Borrilla.

The president (regente) of the Supreme Court is Señor Vicente Saenz.

The commander-in-chief of the army is the President of the Republic.

The consul-general of Costa Rica in New York is Señor J. M. Muñoz.

The armed force comprises 16,370 militia, being the number of male inhabitants between the ages of eighteen and thirty years; 900 of whom perform active service and may be said to constitute the regular army; and a reserve corps, 18,819 strong, made up of the male inhabitants between the ages of thirty and fiftyfive years: total military strength, 35,189.

The main sources of the national revenue are the customs receipts, amounting to about onethird and sometimes to nearly one-half of the entire income, and the tobacco and spirit monopolies. The following tables exhibit the income and expenditure for the year 1873-74:

Here, then, is a deficit of no less than $1,516,010, or considerably more than one-half of the entire revenue of the republic; a state of affairs rather at variance with the recent calculations of a native economist, who affirms that "with good management the revenue could easily be raised to leave a surplus of $200,000 per month outside of the expenses of the administration, or, in other words, to bring the total income to $4,000,000 per annum. Without attempting to disprove the feasibility of such an increase, it is only necessary to observe that, even in the event of its realization, there would still be a yearly deficit of from $500,000 to $1,000,000 (as is shown by the foregoing table), at least while the outlay on the railway continues at the rate above registered-$2,127,380. The revenue for the fiscal year above referred to is, however, some $300,000 in advance of that of the preceding year.

Important reforms, tending to secure more economical management in the customs department, were recommended, and the transferring the customs office of the south to the capital, where it would be under the immediate supervision of the Government.

A steady growth in the receipts of this department is attested by the following figures: Receipts. Years." $210,294 1871-'72...

Years. 1868-69.

1869-70..

1870-71...........

278,595 1872-'73...

Receipts.

$622.135

921,758

832,436 1873-174........... 1,151,865

Other progressive branches are the spirits and tobacco monopolies, which show, in 1873

should take part with the rebel should be tried and sentenced according to the ordenanzas, and that persons aiding the rebel cause would have their property confiscated.

After an unsuccessful attempt to seize the government buildings, Fernandez and his followers embarked for the province of Guanacaste, carrying with them $11,000 plundered from the National Bank. The town of Bagaces, however, remained faithful, and in Puntarenas the authorities had taken all the measures required by the circumstances. General Guardia set out for the latter place on October 21st.

The Congress was opened on May 1st, with the customary message from the President, the tenor of which reveals a state of prosperity at home, and friendly relations abroad. "Respecting the Central-American republics, sisters of Costa Rica," says General Guardia, "the Government could encourage no sentiment not

Receipts Year ending

tending to cement and extend those cordial relations which ought to unite those peoples who so long formed one nation."

Political factions in the interior, whose discontent with the administration had been manifested in attempts at insurrection, were put down by the strong arm of the law, and the only encouragement they received were frowns from the majority of the people. The condition, history, and prospects of the railway-"which is to make or mar the republic "-were referred to at length; as were also the resolve on the part of the Government to carry on the work under its own guidance, and in spite of all pecuniary or other difficulties that might stand in the way, and its determination to submit to any sacrifice rather than let the national credit suffer abroad.

A public library was to be established at San José.

The port of Limon was gradually taking on the aspect of a lively and flourishing town.

COTTON. According to the annual report of the cotton-crop of the United States for the year ending September 1, 1874, made by the Commercial and Financial Chronicle, of New York (and the work which is thus performed each year by this journal is of the highest value to the public), the production of 1874 is one of the three largest crops ever raised in the United States; the total number of bales being 4,170,388, while the yield of 1871 was 4,352,317, and that of 1860 4,669,770 bales. In 1874, 2,840,981 bales were exported, and 1,305,943 were taken by home-spinners, leaving a stock on hand, at the close of the year (September 1st), of 108,152 bales. The tables which follow show the whole movement for the twelve months. The first table indicates the stock at each port, September 1st of 1874 and 1873, the receipts at the ports for each of the last two years, and the export movement for the past year (1873-'74) in detail, and the totals for 1872-'73: