GOVERNMENT AND FINANCES. Guatemala has a democratic form of government, and is gov erned under the Constitution proclaimed in 1879. The executive power is vested in the President (who is elected directly for six years and is assisted by a Cabinet of six Ministers), and by a Council of State consisting of 13 members partly elected by the Assembly and partly ap pointed by the President. The legislative au thority is vested in the National Assembly of 69 members, elected directly for a period of four years at the rate' of one Deputy for every 20,000 inhabitants. For the administration of justice Guatemala has a Supreme Court, consisting of a Chief Justice and four associate justices, elected by the people; six courts of appeals, consisting each of a Chief Justice and two associate jus tices, all elected by the people; and minor courts whose judges are appointed by the President at the recommendation of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. For governmental purposes the country is divided into 22 departments, which are subdivided into municipal districts. Each department is administered by an official called Jefe Politico. He is appointed by the President. The municipal districts are administered by one or more alcaldes each, and by municipal councils, all elected by the people.
The regular army of Guatemala numbers about 7000 officers and men. The effective army is esti mated at 56,000 men, and the reserve at 30,000. The metric system of weights and, measures is in use.
The chief source of the revenue of Guatemala is customs duties. As the imports have declined about two-thirds since 1896, the revenue also has shown a considerable falling off. The re ceipts, which amounted in 1896 to $15,150,741 currency, were estimated in the budget of 1900-01 at $9,770,000, of which $4,340,000 was to be de rived from customs. However, the expenditure also decreased from $17,437,452 in 1896 to $9, 611,201 in 1900. The chief items of expenditure in the budget of 1900-01 were: For Department of Finance, $3,157,856; Departments of Interior and Justice, $1,421,524; War, $1,998,203; and In struction, $1,513,915. The total foreign indebted ness of the country, including arrears of inter est, amounted at the end of 1900 to $9,352,694 gold. It runs mostly at 4 per cent. interest, and is held in Great Britain and Germany. The internal debt amounted at the end of 1900 to $28,118,068 silver. Guatemala has six banks of issue, whose notes are legal tender even in case of debts contracted to be paid in silver. Guate mala is practically on a paper basis, gold and silver coins being little circulated. The value of the silver peso in United States currency fell from nearly $1 in 1874 to about 40 cents in 1902, while the paper peso is subject to frequent fluc tuations, and for some time in 1902 was as low as 15 cents in United States currency.