FINANCE. The chief annual expenses of the German Empire are those of the central administration, the army and navy, posts and telegraphs, the supreme court, the diplomatic service, and some smaller items. For meeting these, it has all customs receipts and the net amount of certain internal revenue taxes, viz: those on beet-root sugar, salt, tobacco, malt, and spirits. Other receipts are from posts and telegraphs, from the railroads in Alsace-Lorraine, etc. The total receipts do not equal the expenses, and the separate States have to make contributions to the Empire according to their population. These contributions are about $20,000,000 annually. They are increasing, and press heavily upon the minor States. Of the immense sum received from France, as an indemnity, the Empire has invested various sums for fixed purposes. It has also put aside $30,000,000 as a reserve war fund, which is not laid out at interest, but exists in coined gold and bullion at Spandau. ARMY AND NAVY. Every German is liable to service, and no substitution is allowed. Every German, capable of bearing arms, has to serve in the standing army for seven years—as a rule, from the end of his twentieth to the beginning of his twentyeighth year. Three of these seven years he must spend in active service, and the remainder in the reserve. Be After quitting the reserve, he forms part of the landwehr for five years more. The strength of the army, on a peace footing, is about 400,000 men. The number of recruits levied annually is 145,000. sides the army, there has existed, since 1875, the landsturm, to which all men, liable to service and capable of bearing arms, between the ages of seventeen and forty-two, belong, if they are neither in the line, the reserve, the landwehr, nor the marine. The landsturm is only called to arms in the event of a hostile invasion. On a war-footing the army is fixed at a little over 1,300,000 men, and over 300,000 horses. The greatest strength of the army in the war with France was 1,350,787 men and 263,753 horses. But it is calculated that Germany can put in arms, at any given time, two millions and a half of armed men without having recourse to the last reserves. The Empire possesses sixteen fortified places of the first class, serving as camps, and twenty-seven other fortresses. Navy. The German navy is of recent origin. In 1878, there were in all seventy vessels, of 91,500 tons and 110,000 horse-power and carrying 399 guns. RELIGION. Almost two-thirds of the population belong to the Evangelical Church, and rather more than one-third to the Church of Rome. The Jewish element, half a million (14 per cent.), is larger than in any other State of West, North, or South Europe. Alsace-Lorraine, Bavaria, and Baden have a predominant Catholic population. The Protestant element prevails, but with 23 to 33 per cent. of Catholics in Prussia, Wurtemberg, Hesse and Oldenburg. In Saxony and eightcen minor States the Catholics are only from .I (one-tenth) to 33 per cent. of the population. The geographical limits of the confessions have not changed much since the Thirty Years' War. A religious map of South Germany looks like a historical map of the Seventeenth century. Protestant Church. The Protestants are divided by their confessions into Reformed and Lutheran. To unite these the "Church Union" has been introduced in several Protestant States. Christians are thus counted only as Evangelical and Catholic. Jews. It is in the towns that the Jewish element is chiefly to be found. They belong principally to the mercantile class, and are dealers in money. Though still in fact at least, if not also by law, excluded from many public offices, especially from commands in the army, they, nevertheless, are very powerful in Germany, the press being for the most part in their hands. EDUCATION. Much is done by the In point of intellectual culture Germany ranks high. Government to promote all grades of education. School instruction is obligatory upon the whole people. A few years ago the total number of primary schools was estimated at 60,000, and that of pupils at 6,500,000, or 150 pupils to every 1,000 inhabitants. The census in Prussia proves primary school instruction to be better among the Protestants than among the Catholics. 1875 there were one hundred and seventy seminaries in Germany for training schoolmasters. In There are four different kinds of schools for the higher branches of education. The gymnasia supply preparatory training for the universities. Officials, judges, clergymen, teachers and physicians receive their early instruction at the gymnasia. In 1878 there were 360 gymnasia, or I for every 117,000 inhabitants and every 600 square miles. To these must be added the progymnasias, in which the highest classes of the gymnasia are wanting. Then there is the system of real schulen, which prepare for those professions which do not require a university course, and for the study at the university of the modern languages, mathematics, and the natural sciences. Besides these there are many technical schools whose purpose is purely industrial. There are, more over, schools of commerce, navigation and agriculture. Univversities and Higher Technical Schools.-The large number of universities and the widely diffused higher education is due to the former sub-division into many separate States. There are twenty-one universities. In 1878 there were in these, 1,913 Professors and teachers, and 20,826 students. Libraries. A general diffusion of knowledge is favored by numerous public libraries. The most celebrated are those at Berlin (about L000,000 volumes) and Munich. Book-trade. This branch of industry is at once a cause and a result of the mental culture of Germany. Leipzig is the center of the trade. The number of booksellers in 1878 was over 5,000, of whom 1,546 were publishers. More books are published annually in Germany than in any other country. Newspapers, are very numerous, but have a somewhat limited sale. In 1878 there were 600 important newspapers published daily, or two or three times a week. Berlin alone has about 50 newspapers. Only 20 daily papers have a circulation of more than 20,000. Fine Arts. There are many academies which have for their object the promotion of a taste for painting, sculpture, architecture and music, and the improvement of the technique of art. SWITZERLAND. BY F. T. W. FOR OR a thousand years, and when all else were Kingdoms or Empires, there has existed, in the mountainous districts in the heart of Europe, the little republic known as the Confederation of Switzerland. It has an area of some sixteen thousand square miles, or about equal to Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut combined. It is upon the highest land, overlooking all other States of Europe. In Under the dominion of Rome, up to the fall of the empire, it has since been subject to the Ostrogoths, the Alemans, the Burgundians, and the Franks. Under the French directory, Switzerland was converted into a republic, "one and indivisible," which lasted four years. 1802, a delegation was sent to Paris to inquire what should be the form of government given in the contemplated new constitution: The First Consul wisely replied, "Nature made you to be a federative State; no reasonable man attempts to conquer nature." This league lasted till the Congress of Vienna (1815), when her independence was again acknowledged and guaranteed. The republic in 1848 became a united confederacy. The love for the little canton, or state government, gave place to a broader love for Switzerland. The present constitution was adopted by a general vote of the people in 1874. It vests the supreme legislative and executive authority in a parliament of two chambers-a State Council, and a National Council. The first is composed of forty-four members, two each from the twenty-two cantons, corresponding to our Senate. The second consists of one hundred and thirty-five representatives, chosen in direct election, on a basis of one representative for every twenty thousand persons. Election every three years. Every citizen a voter at the age of twenty years. Any voter, not a clergyman, may be elected a representative. The united chambers are called the Federal Assembly, and as such represent the supreme government of the republic. It, alone, has the right to declare war, make peace, and conclude alliances and treaties with other nations. The executive authority is deputed to a Federal Council, consisting of seven members, elected for three years by the Assembly. Every citizen entitled to a vote in the National Council is eligible to membership in this executive branch of government. The president and vice-president of the Federal Council are the first magistrates of the republic, and' are elected by the Federal Assembly. The presidential term is one year, and both president and vice-president are ineligible at the succeeding election. Each canton has its local government, based upon the principle of the absolute sovereignty of the people. The military spirit is fostered in Switzerland, and her military organization is regarded as the most perfect in Europe. She has, nevertheless, no standing army. Every Swiss is liable to serve in the defense of his country. The troops of the republic are divided into two classes. First, the Federal army, consisting of all men able to bear arms, from the age of twenty to thirty-two. Second, the militia, comprising all men from the thirty-third to the completed forty-fourth year. The total of the army and reserve militia is 202,397. They drill annually. Switzerland has no national debt. The government is wise in matters of education. Parents are compelled by law to send their children to school. The schools have a high reputation throughout Europe. All religious creeds and societies, that do not endanger the civil government, are tolerated. The free exercise of worship is guaranteed, within the limits compatible with public order and proper behavior. Less than six per cent. of her citizens are foreigners. No people surpass the Swiss for industry and frugality. Cities are not thronged, as in other European states, the population dwelling chiefly in small towns, hamlets, and villages. Here, then, is a republic, in the midst of warlike and aggressive monarchies, without a standing army, and without a national debt; peaceful, yet brave, virtuous and happy. Beareth the mountain breeze a spell? The land of loch and glen, Bear witness that, from cliff and crag, |