Division of the Territory--Situation of the Departments--Centre of Population.
The territory is divided into nineteen departments. The superficial area of each of them is as follows:
===============+========+==========+=========== | Square | Square | Square Departments. | Miles. | Leagues. | Kilometer. ---------------+--------+----------+----------- Salto | 4.270 | 474 4/9 | 12.601 61 Artigas | 3.855 | 428 3/9 | 11.379 52 Paysandu | 4.490 | 498 8/9 | 18.252 34 Rio Negro | 2.870 | 318 8/9 | 8.470 88 Soriano | 3.125 | 347 2/9 | 9.223 51 La Colonia | 1.925 | 213 8/9 | 5.681 68 San Jose | 2.359 | 262 1/9 | 6.962 07 Flores | 1.531 | 170 1/9 | 4.519 36 Montevideo | .225 | 25 | 664 09 Canelones | 1.610 | 178 8/9 | 4.751 95 Maldonado | 1.391 | 154 5/9 | 4.105 57 Rocha | 3.757 | 417 4/9 | 11.088 88 Cerro Largo | 5.058 | 562 | 14.904 41 Treinta y Tres | 3.232 | 359 1/9 | 9.550 35 Minas | 4.230 | 470 | 12.498 32 Tacuarembo | 7.120 | 791 1/9 | 21.022 49 Rivera | 3.330 | 370 | 9.820 94 Florida | 4.102 | 455 7/9 | 12.107 15 Durazno | 4.850 | 538 8/9 | 14.314 89 |--------+----------+----------- |63.830 |7.036 6/9 |186.920 01 ===============+========+==========+===========
In the centre of the territory are the departments of Durazno, Flores, Minas, Tacuarembo, Treinta y Tres, and Florida, surrounded by those of Artigas, Rivera and Cerro Largo, situated on the very frontier of Brazil; the Department of Rocha on the Atlantic Ocean; those of Maldonado, Canelones, Montevideo, San Jose and Colonia on the River Plate; and those of Soriano, Rio Negro, Paysandu and Salto on the River Uruguay.
All those departments count over a hundred centres of population, that is to say, seven towns, forty-eight villages, and thirty-nine colonies or smaller centres.
_Government._--The constitution of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay establishes the representative republican system.
_Sovereignty._--The sovereignty in all its fullness exists radically in the Nation, which has the exclusive right of establishing its own laws in the way determined by the Constitution.
_Religion._--The Religion of the state is the Roman Apostolic Catholic Church. However, all dissident churches are tolerated and their religion can be freely practiced; the inhabitants enjoy the full liberty of thought.