SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 



SWITZERLAND. 



827 



number of which in 1875 was 2,134. The 

 number of paupers in the kingdom was 193,- 

 046, or 4*3 per cent of the population ; the 

 proportion in the rural districts was 4 per 

 cent, in the towns 6'2 per cent. The percent- 

 age is greatest on the southwest coast and in 

 a part of Smaland in Central Sweden, instead 

 of in the bleak regions of the north. Many 

 parishes have a granary for the grain which 

 is furnished by the residents for distribution 

 among the poor. Numerous communities fur- 

 nish paupers, capable of working, with plots 

 of ground to till. If these modes of provision 

 are insufficient, and the almshouse is full, the 

 wealthier members of the community are ex- 

 pected to provide food and shelter on certain 

 days for the poor, who are sent from farm to 

 farm. 



The number of post-offices is about 2,000. 

 In the neighborhood of 34,000,000 letters and 

 newspapers are forwarded annually, besides 

 7,000,000 sent or received from abroad, alto- 

 gether 9 per capita. Letters are not delivered 

 by carriers, except in the cities. In the rural 

 districts it is customary to have the letters for 

 a whole neighborhood brought by whoever has 

 business at the post-office town to the parson- 

 age or some large farm-house, and there dis- 

 tributed. There were, in 1878, in Sweden 179 

 telegraph-stations, besides those of the 536 rail- 

 road-stations. The number of messages was 

 about 1,000,000, or 0'22 per capita. Among 

 the 634 telegraph officials were 135 female op- 

 erators. 



Savings-banks are comparatively numerous, 

 the number in 1877 having been 338, or one to 

 every 13,268 inhabitants. The average number 

 of depositors was 2,241 to each bank, or every 

 sixth member of the community, counting 

 young and old. The average amount of de- 

 posits was 193 crowns ($54) to each account; 

 the aggregate deposits amounted to 31,500,000 

 crowns. The country has made a remarkable 

 advance in wealth and prosperity within a 

 brief period. While the population increased 

 11 per cent between 1864 and 1878, the esti- 

 mated national income increased 87 per cent, 

 or from $11 to $20 per head of the popula- 

 tion. 



Sweden stands behind no country in popular 

 education. The number of school-children per 

 1,000 inhabitants is 140, which is only excelled 

 by Germany with 154, while the United States 

 and France come next with 127, and Belgium 

 with 124. The difficulties in the way of a 

 regular school attendance are greater than in 

 other lands, not only on account of the severe 

 northern winters, but because the people dwell 

 in isolated farm-houses, and not in clustering 

 villages as in Germany and other parts of Eu- 

 rope. The number of attendants in the public 

 schools, according to the statistics for 1876, 

 were 613,424; the number of schools, 8,706. 



The Radical party in Norway redoubled their 

 attacks upon the dynasty and monarchic insti- 

 tutions after they obtained the majority in the 



Storthing. Their intellectual leader, the poet 

 Bjornsterne Bjornson, projected into the con- 

 flict his personal animosity toward King Oscar 

 II. A project for military reorganization which 

 has been proposed, is denounced by the Conser- 

 vatives as a revolutionary scheme aimed at the 

 overthrow of the Government. This was to 

 constitute a volunteer army, the state provid- 

 ing the arms, from the numerous anti-mon- 

 archic political societies. 



The finances of Norway have long been in 

 a sorry condition. In 1880 about 4,000,000 

 crowns were taken from the loan raised for 

 railroad construction, to cover the ordinary 

 expenses of the Government, and in 1881 the 

 remaining 5,000,000 crowns of the loan would 

 have to be consumed unless resort was had to 

 the obnoxious income and property tax which 

 was demanded in the royal address read at the 

 opening of the Storthing, February 3d, and 

 which had before been resolutely opposed. 

 The proposition was abruptly dismissed with- 

 out even referring it to a committee. An 

 open conflict between the Government and 

 the majority was begun by a resolution of the 

 Storthing requiring the presence of the Minis- 

 ters in the hall during the deliberations of the 

 Legislature, in pursuance of a paragraph in the 

 Constitution which gives the Storthing the 

 power to compel every Norwegian, with the 

 exception of the King and royal family, to 

 appear and give oral explanations touching any 

 matter of public import. 



SWITZERLAND, a republic of Central Eu- 

 rope, consisting of twenty-two cantons, three 

 of which are each divided into two independ- 

 ent half-cantons. The President of the Feder- 

 al Council for 1881 was Numa Droz, of Neuf- 

 chdtel, and the Vice-President, Simeon Bavkr, 

 of Grisons. The area is 15,981 square miles, 

 and the population, according to the census 

 of December 1, 1880, 2,846,102. The popula- 

 tion of the different cantons, according to the 

 census of 1880, was as follows : 



