CURRENT EVENTS. BELGIUM has until recently enjoyed the distinction of being the most thickly populated country in the world. In the year 1890 a census was taken in al most every country, and it appeared by that census that the average population of Belgium was 530 to the square mile, England followed with 505, France with 420, Holland 350, Italy 260, Germany 233, Ireland 148, Spain 86, Sweden 28, and the United States 20. The population of Belgium was, at that time, 25 times denser than the population of the United States. In 1820, Belgium, then a part of the Kingdom of Holland, was the most thickly populated portion of Europe. Ten years later, when she established her independence, there were 3,700,000 people to a land area of 11,000 square miles. With the multiplication of its manufactories and mining interests and through its remarkable commercial and railroad facilities, the population of Belgium has been increasing rapidly and to-day is in excess of six million souls. But even with this rapid increase the distinction of Belgium has been eclipsed during the present year by Saxony, where the population has increased more rapidly than in any other part of Germany. At the present time Saxony has a population of 3,500,000 to a land area of 5,789 square miles, or 604 people to each square mile.
A LONDON paper states that the Poor Law Depart ment of Berlin has come to the rescue of heads of large families who are too poor properly to provide for their children. Land in the suburbs of Berlin is given them, free of charge, for the cultivation of vege tables. Idle or careless cultivators are not allowed to remain in possession of the land. Inspectors over see the work, and in spite of this fact evictions are ex tremely rare; 11,340 children are largely dependent for food on the 3,703 holdings. Only men with large families are given land, and in this way the scheme puts an ingenious premium on population.
NOT all consular fees are abolished by the order issued by Secretary Olney, but the bulk of them are cut off, and when this order shall have taken effect the office of Cónsul-General at London and the consul at Liverpool will cease to be what they have been for many years — the most lucrative office of the Federal government. It has been commonly understood that the London office alone was worth $100,000 a year to its incumbent. It is also stated that the other English consulates will lose at least $100,000 by the new order. (i) No oath shall be required for the verification of invoices of merchandise on the free list or subject to specific duty only. (2) The verifica
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tion by oath of invoices or merchandise, subject ex pressly or in effect to ad valorem duty, may be re quired when the consular officer to whom the invoices are presented has reasonable ground to suspect fraudulent undervaluation or other wilful misstatement therein, but should not be required in any other case (under this section any oath may be taken by a commissioner or such other officers as are permitted by law). (3) Consular officers are pro hibited from receiving the whole or any part of the fee charged by a commissioner or other officer for administering oaths to invoices, from receiving any thing as a gratuity or otherwise on account of the ad ministration of such oaths, and from being in any way, either directly or indirectly, pecuniarily inter ested in such fees.
DR. ENRICO MORSELI declares that divorced per sons are particularly liable to commit suicide or be come mad, and gives these statistics in proof of his statement : In Prussia there are for every million of inhabitants 61 suicides of married women, 87 sui cides of young girls, 124 suicides of widows, 348 sui cides of women divorced or separated from their husbands, 286 suicides of married men, 298 suicides of bachelors, 948 suicides of widowers, and 2834 suicides of men divorced or separated from their wives. In Wurtemburg we find for every million of inhabitants 143 lunatics among married women, 224 lunatics among young girls, 338 among widows, 1540 lunatics among women divorced or separated from their husbands, 140 lunatics among married men, 236 among bachelors, 338 among widowers, and 1484 lunatics among men divorced or separated from their wives. These figures give matter for reflection for those who find the bonds of matrimony too heavy. THE wise legislators of the Argentine Republic have been much troubled about providing a population for their large and fertile country. They have decided to provide a remedy by making marriage almost com pulsory. A law has been introduced, the first clause of which reads : " On and after the ist day of January, 1897, every male from the age of twenty to eighty shall pay a tax till he marries, and shall pay it once in every month." The next clause is more severe, and reads : " Young celibates of either sex who shall, without legitimate motive, reject the addresses of him or her who may aspire to her or his hand, and who continue con tumaciously unmarried, shall pay the sum of five hun dred piastres for the benefit of the young person, man or woman, who has been so refused."
