SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 



SWITZERLAND. 



757 



Worship, Dr. Elias Blix, resigned. The Op- 

 position mustered 51 in the Storthing on a 

 vote of censure emanating from the Radical 

 Left, the Government being supported by 30 

 Moderates and 31 men of the Right. In June 

 Ole Richter, the Minister of State, represent- 

 ing the Government at Stockholm, and Aimar 

 A. Sorenssen, of the same section of the min- 

 istry, handed in their resignations, and Hans 

 G. J. Stang and Baard M. Haugland were 

 transferred to their posts. Richter's resigna- 

 tion was the consequence of an attack on the 

 Prime Minister by Bjornson Bjornstierna. the 

 real leader of the Radical party, who accused 

 Sverdrup of falsehood and violation of his 

 word on the authority of his colleague in 

 Stockholm. Richter denied having made the 

 accusation, but the evidence was so strong 

 that, after his return to Stockholm, he shot 

 himself in despair on June 15. The ministry 

 as finally reconstituted was made up as fol- 

 lows ; Minister of State at Christiania and Min- 

 ister of National Defense, Johan Sverdrup ; 

 Chief of the Department of Justice and Police, 

 W. S. Dahl, appointed March 5, 1888; Chief 

 of the Department of Revision of Accounts, 

 L. K. Liestol, appointed March 5, 1838 ; Chief 

 of the Department of Education and Ecclesi- 

 astical Affairs, Jakob Liv Rosted Sverdrup ; 

 Chief of the Department of Public Works, 

 O. Jakobsen, appointed March 5, 1888; Chief 

 of the Department of Finance and Customs, 

 O. J. Olsen, appointed July 19, 1888; Minister 

 of State at Stockholm, Hans Georg Jakob 

 Stang; Councilors of State at Stockholm, 

 Baard Madsen Haugland, previously Chief of 

 the Department of Finance, and P. O. Schjott, 

 appointed March 5, 1888. The Ministry of the 

 Interior, formerly held by Sofus A. B. Arc- 

 tander, was left vacant. 



The Storthing rejected a scheme of protect- 

 ive duties on wheat, butter, and other agri- 

 cultural products, agreeing only to an impost 

 of 4 6re per kilogramme, equal to cent a 

 pound, on oleomargarine, and to duties on 

 fresh fruit ranging from 4 to 7 ore per kilo- 

 gramme. On June 25 an act was passed re- 

 ducing the salaries of members of the State 

 Council from 12,000 to 10,000 kroner, and tak- 

 ing away the additional allowances of the coun- 

 cilors residing in Stockholm. The Storthing 

 separated on July 7, after rejecting, by 64 

 against 50 votes, a motion of the Radicals de- 

 claring want of confidence in the ministry. 



A law was passed on April 21, 1888, in re- 

 lation to state citizenship, declaring that Nor- 

 wegians who become citizens of foreign states 

 lose their rights of citizenship in Norway, and 

 likewise those who reside permanently abroad, 

 unless they record their intention to remain as 

 such in the Norwegian consulate within a year, 

 and renew the declaration every ten years. 



General Election. Johan Sverdrup, when he 

 formed a Radical ministry, was regarded as a 

 true representative of the Norwegian Democ- 

 racy, of which party he was a leader of many 



years' standing. In office, however, he aban- 

 doned the principles of popular sovereignty 

 and national independence, and made one com- 

 promise after another with the monarchist 

 reaction that has spread through the Scandi- 

 navian lands, owing to the example and influ- 

 ence of Germany, until he stood on the plat- 

 form of the Constitutional Right, from which 

 his chief support now came, and was surround- 

 ed by ministerial colleagues taken from that 

 party. The electoral contest that took place 

 in the autumn of 1888 was embittered by the 

 accusations of faithlessness brought against the 

 minister. The suicide of Richter was laid to 

 his door. Councilor Stang, the leader of the 

 Constitutionalists, sought to make the issue one 

 of principles, asserting that his party was the 

 defender of the historic rights of the crown, of 

 the connection between Church and state, and 

 of the Union against destructive "European" 

 innovations, foreign to the national character. 

 The Conservatives and Ministerialists, while 

 preserving separate party organizations, formed 

 an electoral alliance against the Radicals. The 

 Radical leaders. Qvam, Steen, and Konow, lost 

 their seats, and were shut out from the next 

 Storthing, as the law requires every candidate 

 to be a resident, of the district that he seeks to 

 represent. The nesv Storthing consists of 54 

 members belonging to the Right, 38 adherents 

 of the Pure Left, and 22 who belong to the 

 ministerial group. 



SWITZERLAND, a federal republic in Central 

 Europe. The central Legislature is composed 

 of the State Council, in which each of the 

 twenty-two cantons is represented by two 

 members, and the National Council, containing 

 one deputy for every twenty thousand of the 

 population, elected by direct universal suffrage. 

 The executive body is the Federal Council, 

 which was composed, in 1888, of the following 

 members : President, W. F. Ilertenstein ; Vice- 

 President, B. Hammer; members, Dr. A. 

 Schenck, Dr. E. Welti, L. Ruchonnet, Dr. N. 

 Droz, and Dr. A. Deucher. (For area and 

 population, see the "Annual Cyclopeedia" for 

 1887.) 



Finances. The federal revenue in 1887 

 amounted to 59,586,972 francs, of which 24,- 

 632.285 francs were derived from customs and 

 21,103,869 francs from the Post-Office. The 

 expenditures amounted to 56,829,996 francs, 

 the principal items being 21,157,204 francs for 

 military administration and 19,571,324 francs 

 for the post-office. The debt of the federation 

 on Jan. 1, 1888, was 38,984.982 francs, and the 

 capital assets were 78.002,798 francs. 



The Army. The Swiss army consists of the 

 regulars, called Bundesauszug. and the Land- 

 wehr. Men between the ages of seventeen 

 and fifty, not belonging to either of these 

 forces, are enrolled in the Landstrum. The 

 strength of the regular army in 1888 was 123,- 

 031 officers and men, and that of the Landwehr 

 80,248. The Landstrum comprises 4,922 for- 

 mer officers, 5,652 non-commissioned officers, 



