SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 



SWITZERLAND. 



701 



commercial lusts (1 commercial last=2EnglNh 

 ton-i. Length of railronds in oporatiou, !><- 

 ceml.er :;l, 1869, 231 miles. Length of tele- 

 graph-lines, 3,024 miles; length >f wire, 4,483 

 miles. 



ording to the terms of the constitution 

 of Norway, tlio whole legislative power of thu 

 realm i.s in the Storthing, or Great Court, the 

 -entativo of the sovereign people. The 

 King has tho command of the land and sea 

 forces, but cannot declare war, or make peace, 

 or bring foreign troops into the country, or 

 send the native troops away, without tho con- 

 sent of the Storthing. He makes all the ap- 

 pointments, hut, with the exception of the gov- 

 ernor-general, is not allowed to nominate any 

 bat Norwegians to public offices under the 

 crown. He can only remit punishment of 

 death, and not grant a complete pardon to 

 criminals condemned by Norwegian courts of 

 law. The King possesses the right of veto 

 over laws passed by the Storthing, yet only 

 for a limited period. Tho royal veto may bo 

 exercised twice ; bu.t, if the same bill pass three 

 successive times, it becomes the law of the 

 land without the assent of the sovereign. 



Tho Storthing formerly assembled every 

 three years; but, by a modification of the elec- 

 toral law, adopted in March, 18G9, it was re- 

 solved to hold annual sittings. Every native 

 Norwegian of twenty-five years of age, who is 

 a burgess of any town, or possesses property 

 in land to the value of $150, or has been tenant 

 of such property for five years, is entitled to 

 vote ; and, under the same conditions, if thirty 

 years of age, to be elected. Toward the end 

 of every third year the people meet in the par- 

 ish church, without summons or special call, 

 and choose three deputies, at the rate of one 

 to fifty voters in towns, and one to a hundred 

 in rural sub-districts. Tho deputies afterward 

 elect among themselves, or from among the 

 other qualified voters of tho district, tho Stor- 

 thing representatives. 



The Storthing, when elected, divides itself 

 into two Houses, the "Lagthing" und the 

 " Odolsthing." The former is composed of 

 one-fourth of the members of the Storthing, 

 and the other of the remaining three-fourths. 

 The ordinary business of the Storthing is to 

 settle the taxes for each financial period of 

 three years, to supervise the administration of 

 the revenue, and to enact, repeal, or alter, any 

 laws of the country. But the Storthing can 

 also form itself into a high court of justice for 

 the impeachment and trial of ministers, judges, 

 and other servants of the state. Before pro- 

 nouncing its own dissolution, every Storthing 

 elects five state officers, whose duty it is to 

 revise the public accounts, and to watch over 

 the welfare of the realm. 

 . The thoroughly democratic character of their 

 institutions naturally causes the Norwegians 

 to cling tenaciously to their autonomy, and to 

 oppose all advances made by tho King and the 

 Diet of Sweden with a view to a closer union. 



On tho 19th of January, tho King opened 

 tho S \\vilMi 1 Met with a speech from the throne, 

 in which ho alluded to the imperative necessity 

 of contracting a new loan for railroad purposes, 

 and for tho further development of other means 

 of communication throughout the country. In 

 regard to a revision of tho treaty of union be- 

 tween Norway and Sweden, the King said that 

 although ho most earnestly desired such revi- 

 sion, he thought it advisable to adjourn all de- 

 liberations on tho subject until a communica- 

 tion of tho Storthing of Norway might reach 

 them, declaring its willingness to enter upon a 

 discussion of the subject. 



On the 16th of February the Diet passed a 

 law admitting dissenters from tho State Church 

 and Jews to political rights. On April 15th 

 tho Lower House rejected a proposition of tho 

 Government concerning the separation of re- 

 ligious instruction from school instruction prop- 

 er, and the transfer of the former to the clergy. 



On the 19th of May tho Minister of Finance 

 handed in his resignation, and, as the Govern- 

 ment was not successful in filling tho vacant 

 position, a ministerial crisis occurred on June 

 3d, which terminated by the formation of the 

 following new Cabinet : Minister of Justice, 

 Adlercreutz ; Minister of the Interior, Berg- 

 str6m ; Minister of Finance, Woern. No change 

 in the foreign or domestic policy was involved. 



The Glofius, a semi-monthly periodical 

 published in Dresden, in its number for May, 

 1870, contains an article on the extensive man- 

 ufacturing of matches in Sweden. One factory 

 at JonkSping is especially mentioned, in which 

 alone, in 1869, 77,170,640 boxes were manu- 

 factured, of an aggregate value of 992,715 rix- 

 dollars ; 544 laborers were employed in the 

 factory-buildings and 559 others worked at 

 home. The aggregate wages during the year 

 amounted to 214,000 rix-dollars. Of the quan- 

 tity of matches manufactured throughout the 

 country, which, although no reliable statement 

 could bo arrived at, was known to be enormous, 

 one-third was exported to England, and more 

 than one-half to Hamburg and Berlin. 



SWITZERLAND, a federal republic in Eu- 

 rope. Area, 15,722 square miles; population, 

 in 1860, 2,510,494; of which 1,476,982 are 

 Protestants, and 1,023,430 Roman Catholics. 

 President of the Federal Council, from July 4, 

 1869, to the close of the legislative session 

 ending in 1870, F. Anderwert, of the Onnton 

 of Thurgau. The Government of the United 

 States was represented by H. Rublee, minister 

 resident accredited in 1869. Swiss minister at 

 Washington, J. Ilitz, accredited April 2, 1868. 

 The division of the population, with regard to 

 the languages spoken in the various parts of the 

 country, is, according to a recent official state- 

 ment, as follows: German was spoken in 

 867,065 families, or 69 per cent, of the entire 

 population ; French in 123,438 families, or 23| 

 per cent. ; Italian in 28,697 families, or 5^ per 

 cent.; tho Romanic languages in 8,905 families, 

 or 1-fa per cent, of tho entire population. 



