The judicial power of the government is administered by a Supreme Court, established in Lima, and nine superior courts, which are installed in Lima, Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno, Ayacucho, Cajamarca, Huaraz, Trujillo, Piura, and Iquitos; each of these courts has jurisdiction over one or more departments. The court of Tacna, which performed its labors until the period of the war of the Pacific, is still in recess, and judicial questions arising in the section subject to Peruvian authority are brought before the court of Arequipa. In almost all the provinces there are judges of the first instance, and in all districts are justices of the peace. [Illustration: THE MILITARY SCHOOL, CHORILLOS.] In accordance with the national constitution, the local government of the republic is under the direction of departmental and municipal boards. The departmental board has its headquarters in the capital of the _Departamento_, as this division is named in Peru; its duties are to attend to the service of public works, public instruction, and works of the benevolent societies, and to revise the acts of the municipal boards. The members of the departmental boards are delegates elected by the provincial councils, as the municipal boards of provinces are called; the municipal boards of the districts into which the provinces are subdivided are known as district councils. The provincial council is composed of citizens elected by the people, foreigners having the right to vote and being eligible for election; from among its members are chosen the mayor, vice-mayor, two recorders who administer the finances of the municipality, and a number of inspectors who superintend its various branches of public service. All these posts are unsalaried. The district council is composed of the mayor, or alcalde, two aldermen elected by the people, and two recorders appointed by the provincial council. The duties of both the provincial and district councils are to govern the towns of their jurisdiction as regards sanitation, hygiene, the supply of water and lighting, the superintendence of public roads, markets, street cars and other conveyances, public amusements, etc.; they also have charge of the civil register and statistics. Primary instruction and the police service are not under the direction of the municipal boards, but under the supreme government. The revenues of provincial and district councils are derived from municipal properties, and chiefly from local taxes called _arbitrios_, which are imposed with the approval of the supreme government. The proceedings of the district councils are revised by the provincial councils, whose acts are, in turn, subject to revision by the departmental boards. [Illustration: DR. SOLÓN POLO, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN PRESIDENT JOSÉ PARDO’S CABINET.]