688 



SAXONY. 



SCANDINAVIAN PRESS. 



Reuss-Greitz, and Reuss-Schleitz, the troops of 

 these states are organized by Prussia into three 

 infantry regiments of Thuringia, of three bat- 

 talions each. 



Revenue, expenditure, and public debt, were 

 in 1867 as follows (value expressed in thalers) : 



In Saxe-Ooburg-Gotha the financial admin- 

 istration is still separated for the two former 

 duchies of Ooburg and Gotha. In Coburg the 

 receipts, in 1867, were 417,000 florins ; expen- 

 ditures, 407,000 florins; public debt, 1,686,574 

 florins : Gotha, receipts and revenue, 624,890 

 thalers each; public debt, in 1868, 333,134 

 thalers. 



SAXONY, a kingdom belonging to the 

 North-German Confederation. King, Johann 

 I., born December 12, 1801; succeeded his 

 brother Friedrich August II. on August 9, 

 1854. Heir-apparent, Albert, born April 23, 

 1828. Area, 5,779 square miles; population, 

 according to the census of 1867, 2,423,401. 

 The population of the largest cities, in 1867, 

 was as follows: Dresden, 156,024; Leipsic, 

 90,824; Chemnitz, 58,573. The ecclesiastical 

 statistics of the kingdom, in 1867, were as fol- 

 lows: Lutherans, 2,361,861 ; Roman Catholics, 

 51,478; Reformed, 5,566; German Catholics, 

 1,649 ; Anglicans, 458 ; Greek Catholics, 413 ; 

 Israelites, 2,103; others, 58. The revenue 

 and expenditures are estimated, in the budget 

 for the year 1868-'69, at 13,371,057 thalers 

 each. The public debt, at the close of the year 

 1867, was 75,264,062 thalers. The Saxon 

 army, which now constitutes the Twelfth army 

 corps of the North-German Confederation, 

 numbers, in time of peace, 24,143 men. 



Among the important acts of the Saxon 

 Diet was the abolition of capital punishment, 

 and the adoption of a new constitution for the 

 Lutheran Church, giving to that church a 

 higher degree of self-government. The King, 

 in his closing speech, thus referred to these 

 and some other bills adopted by the Diet : 



An important affair, on which you had been al- 

 ready occupied^ namely, the new ecclesiastical and 

 synodal organization of the Evangelical-Lutheran 

 Church of Saxony, lias this time been brought to a 

 satisfactory result. If the position of the church tow- 

 ard the state has thus become more free and more 

 clearly defined, I also hope that the more unrestricted 

 participation in ecclesiastical affairs, accorded to the 

 parishes and to the church in its collective form, will 

 contribute to vivify and strengthen the religious and 

 moral element, deeply 'enrooted in the people. Not 

 only^oes the bill you have adopted on the retiring 

 pensions of schoolmasters greatly improve their 

 position, but you have also shown, by allowing dif- 

 ferent credits, the lively interest you feel in our edu- 

 cational establishments. The revision of the mining 

 regulations which you have terminated, and by which 

 the principle of the liberty of trade has been applied 

 to that branch of production, must be counted, with 

 the voting of other bills which are not without im- 

 portance, among the happiest results of this session. 



I observe, with especial satisfaction, that you have 

 been enabled in the latter part of the session to 

 adopt the bills introducing trial by jury. With the 

 political education which the Saxon people has ac- 

 quired by a long participation in public affairs, I 

 hope that this institution will rapidly take root 

 among us, and will produce results all the more satis- 

 factory since its principle is already fully realized in 

 the law, and is freed from all inconvenient formali- 

 ties.. An important, and, with the aid of God, a 

 beneficent, progress has also been achieved by the 

 abolition of capital punishment. The question is of 

 so grave a nature, and touches so closely the human 

 conscience, that every sincere conviction, even when 

 differing from our own, demands respect, and con- 

 sequently the opposition I have met with on this 

 subject has been neither against my expectations nor 

 my desires ; and, moreover, my resolution wa,s 

 formed with difficulty. But it did not arise from 

 purely theoretical reflections. I thought that, con- 

 sidering the character of the Saxon people, it is pos- 

 sible to dispense with this punishment under ordi- 

 nary circumstances, and that its retention could not 

 be justified in presence of the doubts which have 

 arisen respecting it. I consequently hope that the 

 success of the experiment will confer upon Saxony 

 the honor of having first taken a step which will 

 perhaps be followed elsewhere at a later period. 

 Finally, you gave a new proof of your patriotic sen- 

 timents in agreeing to the changes proposed in the 

 electoral laws, which involved the sacrifice of so 

 many institutions and relations we all were accus- 

 tomed to venerate. 



SCANDINAVIAN PRESS, THE, IN 1868. 

 I. THE SWEDISH PEESS. On the opening of 

 the year 1868, there were published in the 

 kingdom of Sweden one hundred and thirty- 

 three political papers, fifty -nine literary jour- 

 nals, twenty-seven papers devoted to scientific, 

 agricultural, and mechanical subjects, ten 

 sheets containing only advertisements and 

 official publications, thirteen literary and scien- 

 tific monthly magazines, five quarterly and 

 three annual reviews. Of the political news- 

 papers, thirty-four were dailies, thirty tri- 

 weeklies and semi-weeklies, and sixty-nine 

 weeklies, and semi-monthlies. Fifteen new 

 political journals were established in the course 

 of 1867, of which three were dailies, three semi- 

 weeklies, and nine weeklies. Seven of the po- 

 litical papers of Sweden suspended publication 

 or were entirely discontinued in the year 1867. 



The aggregate circulation of the daily pa- 

 pers of Sweden in the year 1867 was, on an 

 average, one hundred and eleven thousand 

 copies daily; of the tri- weeklies, fourteen 

 thousand; of the semi-weeklies, sixteen thou- 

 sand ; and of the weeklies and semi-monthlies, 

 forty-one thousand copies. In the months of 

 January and February, 1868, there was a con- 

 siderable increase in the circulation of most 

 of the Swedish newspapers, owing to the in- 

 tense excitement to which the important polit- 

 ical struggle, taking place at that time, had 

 given rise ; but, as the interest soon afterward 

 subsided to a great extent, there was a sen- 

 sible falling off in the circulation, especially 

 in that of the daily papers published in Stock- 

 holm and the other large cities of the king- 

 dom. The largest circulation of any daily pa- 

 per published in Sweden (that of the Stock- 



