233 



PRUSSIA. 



PRUSSIA. 



231 



are an important article of exportation from Pomerania. Of birds of 

 prey, there are the eagle, the sparrow-hawk, the kite, and some others. 

 Fish of various kinds are extremely abundant, as well iu the numerous 

 rivers as in the Baltic. In all the provinces where there are heaths, 

 buckwheat, and lime-trees, great quantities of bees are bred. 



Agriculture is carried on with great care in most of the provinces. 

 Wheat, rye, oats, and barley are raised both for home consumption 

 and exportation ; there are likewise peas, beans, vetches, millet, maize, 

 rapeseed, and Unseed. Potatoes are cultivated in all the province?. 

 Flax, hemp, hops, tobacco, chicory, beet-root, and garden vegetables 

 of all kinds are raised. Fruit is grown extensively in Pomerania, 

 Saxony, and Rhenish Prussia : the chief, indeed almost the only 

 wine-growing province is Rhenish Prussia. The principal forests are 

 in Prussia proper and Silesia ; but some provinces, for instance part 

 of Saxony, have not sufficient. The mineral products are salt from 

 salt springs, of excellent quality and in great abundance, amber, and 

 coals in large quantities; alum, vitriol, saltpetre, alabaster, basalt, 

 granite, porphyry, marble, slate, freestone, chalk, lime, porcelain-clay, 

 pipe-clay, &c. The metallic products are silver, copper, lead, iron, 

 zinc, cobalt, arsenic, and calamine. The precious stones are the onyx, 

 agate, jasper, and carnelian. 



Manufacture*. The principal manufactures are : linen in all the 

 provinces, but chiefly in Silesia; woollen cloths and cotton goods, 

 especially in the province of the Rhine, at Elberfeld, Barmen, Crefeld, 

 &c. ; silk, leather, iron- and copper-ware, cutlery, articles of gold and 

 silver, chicory, paper, china, glass, earthenware, snuff and tobacco, 

 beet-root sugar, gunpowder, &c. ; breweries and spirit distilleries are 

 very numerous. Cotton factories with steam machinery have risen in 

 considerable numbers iu recent years in Rhenish Prussia, Westphalia, 

 and Silesia. 



Commerce. The commerce of Prussia is facilitated by the Baltic, 

 which including the windings of its coast extends along the north of 

 Prussia for more than 350 miles ; by the great navigable rivers before 

 mentioned, and their navigable tributary streams ; by numerous canals ; 

 and by the system of railroads which traverses the country in all direc- 

 tions. The commerce of Prussia extends to almost all the states of 

 Europe, to America, and China; but it* chief commerce is with Austria 

 and the other states of Germany, with England, Russia, Sweden, Den- 

 mark, and the Netherlands. The principal articles of export are the chief 

 natural and industrial products already enumerated. The principal 

 article* imported are : raw and refined sugar, coffee, tea, spices, 

 cotton, >ilk, tobacco, hops, tin, saltpetre, dye-stuff, wine, glass, and 

 various manufactures, chiefly printed calicoes, silks, and fine hardware. 

 In 1831 the celebrated German commercial league commenced, under 

 the auspices of Prussia, and has been since gradually joined by 

 almost all the German states except Austria. The object of this league 

 (or, as it is called in German, ZMtcrein, 'customs union') is to esta- 

 blish an entire freedom of trade among the German states, and to 

 subject foreign trade to such restrictions only as the protection of 

 national manufactures or the financial circumstances of the state may 

 render necessary. The chief harbours of Prussia are : Memel, Pillau, 

 Danzig, Katnmin, Schweinemlinde, Peeuemiinde, Greifswald, Stralsund, 

 and lUrth. The foreign trade of Prussia out of the Baltic is greatly 

 hampered by the Sound dues. Danzig and Memel export large 

 quantities of Russian corn and other heavy produce. The most 

 considerable commercial towns are : Berlin, Kouigsberg, Danxig, 

 Breslau, Stettin, Magdeburg, Cologne, Elberfeld, Barmen, and Aix- 

 la-Chapelle. The great fain are those of Breslau, Fraukfurt-on-the- 

 Oder, and Magdeburg. 



The transit trade of Prussia with Russia including Poland and 

 central and southern Germany is of great importance, and is greatly 

 facilitated by internal navigation and by railroads. From Berlin a 

 railway 488 miles in length, including its branches from Kreutz to 

 Posen and from Dirschau to Danzig, runs north-eastward through 

 Stettin and Bromberg to Konigsberg. Another line runs south-east- 

 ward through Frankfurt-an-der-Oder to Breslau (220 miles), and is 

 continued southward through Brieg and Oppeln to meet the Vienna- 

 Cracow railway, which is also joined by the Russian line to Warsaw : 

 this south eastern line is met at Kohlfurt by the Saxo-Silesian line to 

 Dresden ; and from Breslau and Brieg respectively there are branches 

 to Schweulnitz and Neuse. Southward from Berlin runs the Berlin- 

 Kothen line, connecting the capital with Halle, and by means of the 

 Thuringian, Saxon, and other railways, with Frankfurt-am-Mayn, 

 Leipzig, Dresden, and Munich. Westward from the capital through 

 Pot-dam and Magdeburg a line runs to Brunswick, Hanover, and 

 Bremen near the mouth of the Weser ; and north-westward a line 

 runs to Hamburg, thus connecting Berlin with the ports on the Elbe. 

 The western part of the Prussian states is traversed by the Cologne- 

 Minden line, which runs from Deutz opposite Cologne on the right 

 bank of the Rhine through Diisseldorf, Hamm, and Minden to 

 Hanover ; from Cologne it is continued westward through Aix-la- 

 Cbapelle, between which and Verviers it joins the Belgian railway 

 system. There are numerous short branches from these western lines, 

 as from Cologne to Bonn ; Aix-la-Chapelle to Maastricht and Krefelt; 

 Dusneldorf through Elberfeld to Dortmund, a station on the Cologne- 

 Minden line ; Hamm to Munster ; and the Westphalia line from Hamm 

 to Paderborn, Warburg, and CassoL The railway from Paris to 

 Mayence traverses the extreme southern angle of Rhenish Prussia, 



passing through Saarbruck and Neunkirchen. Along all the lines 

 mentioned electro-telegraphic wires are laid. 



Religion. There is, properly speaking, no state religion. That of 

 the royal family and of the majority of the people is Calvinism ; but 

 Christians of all denominations are equally admissible to all public 

 employments. In 1817, the three hundredth anniversary of the 

 Reformation, the Calvinists, Lutherans, and other Protestant sects in 

 Prussia, and in some other parts of Germany, united themselves into 

 one religious body, under the name of Evangelical Christians. These 

 amounted in Prussia in 1852 to 10,359,994 ; the Roman Catholics to 

 6,332,293; the Menuonites to about 14,780; Greeks to 1485; and 

 Jews to 226,863. The Protestants are governed in spiritual matters by 

 a general consistory (Ober Kirchenrath), and by a consistory for each 

 of the provinces. The Catholics are under the archbishops of Breslau, 

 Cologne, and Gnesen and Posen, and the bishops of Culm, Ermelaud, 

 Munster, Paderborn, and Treves. 



Education. For the education of the peoplo, there are in all the 

 towns elementary, Sunday, and infant schools, schools for mechanics, 

 &c. Parents are compelled by law to send their children to school. 

 In 1850 there were 24,201 elementary schools, with 30,865 teachers 

 and 2,452,062 pupils in the kingdom. For the higher branches of 

 education, there were in the same year 117 gymnasia, with 1664 pro- 

 fessors and 29,474 scholars. There are universities at Berlin, Bonn, 

 Breslau, Greifswald, Halle, Munster, and Kouigsberg, to the support 

 of which the government applies large sums. Literary and learned 

 societies are very numerous. 



Revenue. According to the budget of 1 854 the total revenue was 

 estimated at 107,990,069 thalers (about 16,198,500^.). The expenditure 

 for the same year was estimated at an equal sum. The debt amounted 

 to about 32,670,6741. sterling, bearing interest at 4 per cent 



Army. All subjects of the Prussian monarchy are bound to military 

 service, which they perform successively in the standing army, the 

 landwehr (militia) of the first and second ban, and in the landsturm 

 (which answers to the French ' leve'e-en-massa '). All men able to 

 bear arms from 20 to 25 years of age belong to the standing army ; 

 they serve three years, and are then discharged for two years, during 

 which they are liable to be called out as the reserve. All those who 

 have served in the standing army belong to the landwehr of the first 

 ban, from the age of 26 to 32, both inclusive. In the time of war 

 this ban is on the same footing as the standing army, and equally 

 liable to serve both at home and abroad. It is called out every year 

 to exercise, in one year for a fortnight, in the next for a month, and 

 is equipped and clothed while it serves. The second ban, which is 

 called out only in time of war, and is then chiefly employed in 

 reinforcing the garrisons, includes all men capable of bearing arms till 

 the age of 39. All older men fit for service belong to the landsturm. 

 The standing army consists of a corps of guards and eight army-corps. 

 In the field each army-corps consists of 25 battalions (25,000 men), 

 32 squadrons of cavalry (4800), and 11 batteries with 88 guns. The 

 total force of the army on a war footing, and including the landwehr 

 of the first ban, numbers 410,000 men; the landwehr of the 

 second ban numbers 115,000 men; giving A total available force of 

 525,000 men. 



Prussia has lately aspired to become a maritime power, and now 

 maintains a small fleet of sailing and steam vessels. The sailing 

 vessels consist of 1 frigate, 48 guns ; 1 corvette, 12 guns ; 1 schooner, 

 3 guns ; one transport ship with 6 guns ; 36 gunboats with 2 guns 

 apiece ; and 6 yawls carrying 1 gun each. The steam fleet consists of 

 2 corvettes, 10 and 12 guns ; and 2 dispatch boats carrying 8 guns 

 apiece. Two frigates (40 guns each), 1 corvette (20 guns), and 1 

 schooner (3 guns) were on the stocks in 1854. For the purpose of 

 forming a naval arsenal and station for the fleet Prussia has recently 

 purchased the bay of Jahde from OLDENBURG. The commercial 

 navy of Prussia consisted of 973 ships carrying 131,046 lasts (of 

 4000 Ibs. each) ; and 379 coasting vessels of an aggregate burden of 

 6005 lasts in 1853. The total number of vessels that entered Prussian 

 harbours in 1851 amounted to 6893, of which 1205 were Prussian; 

 3954 had cargoes amounting to 310,189 huts, and 2939 were in ballast. 

 The total number of departures in the same year amounted to 6799, 

 of which 1197 were Prussian ; 5884 carried freights measuring 476,949 

 lasts, and 915 left in ballast. The principal foreign trade is carried 

 on with Great Britain, Denmark, the Hanse towns, Norway, Holland, 

 Sweden, Hanover and Oldenburg, Russia, Mecklenburg, Belgium, and 

 France. 



The Corutitution was until lately an unlimited monarchy, heredi- 

 tary in the male and female line. Prussia bad formerly a represent- 

 ative body called the Estates, which however, as the power of the 

 crown increased, soon fell into disuse. In July 1823 a law was 

 promulgated by Frederick William III. for the institution of pro- 

 vincial estates, which were thenceforward convoked in all the 

 provinces ; but no steps were taken towards the institution of a general 

 national representation. On the accession of the present king, 

 Frederick William IV., in 1840, provincial and district assemblies 

 were established in all parts of the monarchy. Subsequently (Feb- 

 ruary 3rd, 1847), the king granted a kind of representative consti- 

 tution to his subjects, according to which there was a diet consisting 

 of two chambers one of the Nobles, who sat separately, except on 

 financial votes, when they sat with the other orders; the other called 



