EUROPE. 



Hanover are celebrated for their cattle ; the 

 forests abound in swine and small game, while 

 the Bavarian Alps afford shelter to the larger 

 animals, as the chamois, red-deer, wild goat, fox, 

 marten, and wolf; and in all the plains of the 

 north, storks, wild geese, and ducks are abundant. 

 Germany stands next to Great Britain in regard 

 to the care and success with which its agricultural, 

 mining, and other natural capabilities have been 

 cultivated. 



The people are mainly of Germanic (Deutsch) 

 origin, speaking various dialects of High and 

 Low German ; but using the former as a written 

 medium. Other races are French and Walloons, 

 on the Rhine and in Lorraine ; Slaves (including 

 Poles, Wends, and Czechs) in the east ; Danes in 

 the north ; and a number of Jews in the principal 

 cities. Lutheran and Calvinistic Protestantism, 

 with Roman Catholicism, divide among them the 

 great bulk of the people the former having 28 

 millions of adherents ; the latter, 16 millions ; the 

 rest are Jews, Moravian Brethren, &c. Education 

 is more generally diffused in Germany than in 

 any other country of Europe, and is cultivated 

 with an earnest and systematic devotion not met 

 with to an equal extent among other nations. 

 The elementary schools are so general, that none 

 but the wilfully ignorant, or those of imperfect 

 faculties, can be unacquainted with reading, writ- 

 ing, and the first rules of arithmetic. The schools 

 for classical instruction, denominated gymnasiums, 

 pedagogiums, and lyceums, are found in almost 

 every large town, and dispense learning at a 

 very cheap rate. The universities are numerous 

 (twenty-one within the new Germanic empire), and 

 provide the most liberal and various instruction 

 in the higher branches of knowledge. 



Industrially, the Germans are a thrifty, plodd- 

 ing people. Their agriculture and husbandry are 

 of a tidy and domestic character. Their mines 

 have been long conducted upon correct and 

 scientific principles. The principal manufactures 

 are those of linen, in Silesia, Lusatia, and West- 

 phalia ; woollen, in Saxony, Rhenish Prussia, 

 Pomerania, and Bavaria ; cotton, in Saxony and 

 Rhenish Prussia ; toys, in the hilly districts of 

 Saxony, Bavaria, and the Black Forest ; glass, in 

 Silesia; porcelain, at Berlin and Meissen; clocks, 

 in the Black Forest ; tobacco, at Hamburg and 

 Bremen, &c. Germany exports grain, wood, 

 cattle, horses, wax, wine, beer, woollen, linen, and 

 cotton goods, glass, hardware, &c. ; and imports 

 sugar, coffee, tea, rice, cotton, &c. Internal com- 

 munication is carried on by navigable rivers, 

 canals, and roads. In 1882, there were over 

 22,000 miles of railway within the Germanic 

 empire, and 45,000 miles of telegraphic lines. 



Since 1871, Germany has been an empire, 

 composed of a confederation of German states, 

 but welded together, for national purposes, into 

 one great power, governed by the king of Prussia, 

 who is hereditary German emperor ; and repre- 

 sented by two legislative bodies the Bitndesrath, 

 or Federal Council, the members of which are 

 annually appointed by the governments of the 

 various states ; and the Reichstag, or Imperial 

 Diet, the members of which are elected by uni- 

 versal suffrage and ballot for a period of three 

 years. With the consent of these two bodies, the 

 German emperor can declare war, make peace, 

 enter into treaties with foreign nations, and 



appoint and receive ambassadors. The empire 

 comprises four kingdoms (Prussia, Bavaria, 

 Saxony, and Wurtemberg), six grand-duchies, five 

 duchies, seven principalities, three free cities, and 

 the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. 



The revenue of the empire, apart from the 

 revenues of the several states which comprise it,, 

 was in 1882 nearly ^30,000,000, and the debt 

 i 8,000,000. The army had then on the peace- 

 footing a strength of 450,000 men, and on the war- 

 footing 1,500,000. The navy, formed under 

 Prussian auspices, has grown rapidly, till in 1882: 

 it comprised 24 iron-clads, 58 other steamers,, 

 besides some sailing-vessels. The total imports- 

 of Germany in 1877 had a value of ^193,350,000, 

 and in 1878, ; 186,150,000; the exports in 1877, 

 .134,760,000, and in 1878, .145,820,000. Between, 

 1872 and 1879, the annual imports from Great 

 Britain ranged in value from ,19,500,000 to- 

 ^31,618,000, the greatest value being in 1872 ; the 

 exports to Great Britain ranged in annual value 

 during the same years from ^19,230,000 to- 

 26,270,000, the greatest value of exports being 

 in 1877. The mercantile navy of Germany com- 

 prised, in 1879, 4804 sea-going ships, of 1,129,129- 

 tons burden 351 of them being steamers, with, 

 a tonnage of 179,662 tons. 



HOLLAND, OR THE NETHERLANDS. 



This is one of the secondary kingdoms of 

 Europe, lying along the south-eastern shores of 

 the German Sea, which, from their uniformly low 

 and level character, are generally known to geog- 

 raphers as the Netherlands. Its area is estimated 

 at 12,650 square miles. 



Superficially, the whole country, saving some 

 slight elevations in Gelderland, Utrecht, and 

 Overyssel, forms one unbroken flat, without 

 forests, or, except in the south part, running 

 waters ; the land consisting mainly of moor,, 

 marsh, and meadow land, traversed by numerous- 

 canals, which, while they are absolutely necessary 

 to drain it, and render it fit for cultivation, answer 

 for the most part the purposes of roads many of 

 them being navigable for large vessels. In many 

 places, the level of the surface actually falls from 

 twenty to forty feet below that of the sea, against 

 which it is protected partly, as in Zealand, Fries- 

 land, and Gelderland, by enormous dikes, and 

 partly, as between the Helder and the Hook of 

 Holland, by sandhills or dunes, cast up by the 

 ocean upon the shores. 



The climate, as might be expected from the 

 situation and lowness of the country, as well as- 

 from the number of water-courses which intersect 

 its surface, is generally moist and foggy. Irt> 

 winter, Holland experiences a much lower tem- 

 perature than the opposite coast of England the 

 river-mouths and canals being covered with ice 

 often for three months together. 



The natural vegetation is of the scantiest 

 description : there are no forests, and only a few 

 plantations of oak, beech, and elm, clumps of 

 pine on the links or sand-drift, and rows of willow 

 and poplar along the banks of the canals. The 

 principal cultivated plants are wheat, oats, and 

 barley ; buckwheat, and the leguminous crops in 

 smaller quantities ; potatoes to a great, and flax r 

 hemp, tobacco to a considerable extent ; madder,, 

 rape-seed, chicory, mustard, and beet ; tulips^ 



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