EUROPE. 



an! 

 air 



ilue (annually) of the imports into Norway was 

 8,963,000 ; and of the exports, ,5,684,000. 



With respect to government, Norway was an 

 ppanage of the Danish crown until 1814, when, 

 ay the convention of Kiel, it was placed under 

 "mt of Sweden. It still, however, retains its own 

 spresentative body or Storthing (which is essen- 



lly democratic); and is, in reality, no more 



:onnected with Swedish rule than Hanover was 



jrmerly with Britain. The Storthing, when 



ssembled, divides itself into two houses, the 



agthing and the Odelstking. The executive is 



?sted in a council of state at Christiania. Popu- 



ition in 1876, 1,806,900; public revenue (1881-82), 



^2,313,000; debt, 6 millions ; army, 40,000; navy, 



steamers, of which 4 were iron-clads, carrying 

 152 guns. Capital, Christiania, with 128,000 

 ^habitants. 



PRUSSIA. 



Prussia, the most powerful state in Germany, 

 d, since the wars of 1866 and 1871, one of the 

 most powerful in Europe, occupies the northern 

 half of the imperial territory, from 49 & to 55 35' 

 N. lat. and from 6 to 22 15' E. long. Its area 

 amounts to 134,380 square miles. 



Its physical aspect, geology, climate, vegetation, 

 .d animal productions are identical with those 

 ready described under the north and west of 

 Cermany. 



The people of Prussia belong principally to the 

 great Teutonic and Slavonic families the Ger- 

 mans forming seven-eighths of the whole. The 

 religion of the majority (five-eighths) is Protes- 

 tantism (Lutherans and Calvinists), while rather 

 less than three-eighths are Roman Catholics. 

 These enjoy equal civil rights. The recently 

 formed secession from the Roman Catholic Church, 

 under the title of ' Old Catholics,' is now recog- 

 nised by the state. ' In no other country is the 

 system of education so complete ; and in none is 

 the instruction of all classes so carefully provided 

 for. The law imposes upon parents the strict 

 obligation of sending their children to school, 

 unless they can prove that they are giving them a 

 proper education at home ; and care is everywhere 

 taken to furnish the poor with the means of com- 

 plying with this law, by providing their children 

 with the things necessary. Every parish is bound 

 to have an elementary school, and every town one 

 Jriirgerschule ('citizen-school') or more, accord- 

 ing to the population. Above these are gymnasia, 

 and in these institutions classical learning is 

 pursued preparatory to admission into the univer- 

 sities, of which there are eight in the cities of 

 Berlin, Gottingen, Breslau, Halle, Bonn, Konigs- 

 berg, Greifswalde, and Kiel.' Besides these, there 

 are normal schools for the training of teachers, 

 establishments for instruction in particular arts, 

 and collections of natural history, philosophical 

 apparatus, and public libraries, accessible to any 

 person who chooses to avail himself of their 

 assistance. The whole of this admirable system 

 is upheld partly by the respective towns and 

 provinces, and partly by the state, and partly also 

 by fees ; the whole being under the strict and 

 unremitting surveillance of government function- 

 -aries. 



The national industries have been already 

 ^mentioned under the head of Germany. Prussia 



is well provided with means of communication in 

 navigable rivers and roads; and in 1882 had 

 13,000 miles of railway. 



The government, until 1847, was an absolute 

 monarchy ; since then, a modified constitutional- 

 ism has been introduced, though the king still 

 declines to be a mere cipher, and appoints his own 

 ministers, irrespective of parliamentary majorities ; 

 and there is therefore always the risk of a collision 

 between him and his parliament. But the vigorous 

 and triumphant national policy pursued of late 

 years by the monarch, under the bold and 

 sagacious guidance of Prince Bismarck, has 



are in sympathy with the policy of the king 

 and his ministry. Population (1880), 27,279,000; 

 revenue (1881), 45,500,000; debt, 103,000,000. 

 The army of Prussia is the most important section 

 of the army of the German Empire, and the 

 imperial navy is wholly due to the initiative of 

 Prussia. The Prussian troops number 350,000 in 

 peace, and 900,000 in war. Capital, Berlin, with 

 (1880) a population of 1,122,330. 



RUSSIA. 



Russia, the largest country in Europe, is 

 bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean ; east, 

 by the Ural Mountains and the Caspian ; south, 

 by the Caucasian range and the Black Sea ; and 

 west, by Turkey, Austria, Prussia, and the Baltic. 

 The area is estimated at 2,059,000 square miles. 



Superficially, the territory may be regarded as 

 one vast plain, with a slight elevation running 

 diagonally across the interior, and forming the 

 great water-shed which diverts the rivers to the 

 Arctic Ocean on the one hand, and to the Caspian 

 and Black Seas on the other. If we except the 

 Uralian Mountains on its eastern border, and a 

 hilly tract in the Crimea, there is no portion of 

 the country which rises more than noo feet above 

 the sea, and that only near Valdai in the central 

 plateau. 'The northern section, which sensibly 

 declines,' says a native author, ' towards the 

 White and Frozen Seas, is covered with vast 

 forests, abounds in marshes and lakes, and is but 

 little fit for cultivation. The other, and more 

 southerly portion of the plain includes the whole 

 district along the Volga as far as the sandy 

 steppes or deserts between the Caspian and the 

 Sea of Azov, and constitutes the finest part of 

 Russia ; generally, it has a fertile soil, the arable 

 and pasture land preponderating over the woods 

 and marshes.' 



The chief economic minerals of Russia are 

 gold, platina, silver, lead, and copper from the 

 Ural ; copper and tin in Finland ; iron from the 

 central elevation of Valdai, &c. ; coal, in Poland, 

 Tula, and Ekaterinoslav, but of little importance ; 

 rock-salt and brine-springs in Poland, Taurida, 

 Perm, and other places ; lime, alabaster, gypsum, 

 and amber. 



The climate of Russia is much colder than that 

 of other European countries in the same latitude ; 

 and the farther we proceed eastward, the tem- 

 perature becomes still lower, in consequence of 

 the uncultivated state of the surface, distance 

 from the tempering influences of the ocean, and 

 the frequency of easterly and northerly winds 



223 



