SWEDEN AND NOKWAY. 



771 



The steam fleet consists of 334 vessels, of an 

 aggregate tonnage of 58,062 tons. 



The length of railroad lines in operation at 

 the end of 1882 was 950 miles. 



The telegraphs, as in Sweden, belong to the 

 state. The length of the lines at the end of 

 1881 was 4,705 miles; of wires, 8,550 miles. 

 The number of internal dispatches was 498,- 

 024; received from abroad, 188,731; sent 

 abroad, 160,433; in transit, 24; total, 847,212. 

 The receipts were 967,608 crowns; expenses, 

 965,431 crowns. There were besides 725 miles 

 of railroad lines, with 1,455 miles of wire. 



The number of post-offices in 1881 was 938. 

 The number of letters forwarded was 11,013,- 

 340 domestic, and 15,544,789 including the for- 

 eign; the number of newspapers, 12,465,530. 

 The receipts amounted to 1,804,070 crowns, 

 the expenses to 1,852,728 crowns. 



ARMY AND NAVY. By the laws of 1866 and 

 1876, the military forces are divided into the 

 line troops, the landvcern or militia, the train, 

 and the landstorm or final levy in mass. The 

 army of the line numbers 750 officers and 18,- 

 000 men, which number can not be exceeded 

 even in war-time, without the assent of the 

 Storthing. It is raised principally by con- 

 scription. The landvmrn is not liable to ser- 

 vice beyond the borders. 



The naval forces are recruited mainly by en- 

 listment, but in default of volunteers are com- 

 pleted by conscription among the sailors. The 

 navy consisted in July, 1882, of thirty-seven 

 steamers, carrying 152 guns, including four 

 iron-clad monitors, two frigates, two corvettes, 

 a ram, and twenty-eight gunboats of different 



FINANCES. The ordinary receipts of the 

 Treasury amounted in the year ending June 

 30, 1881, to 34,618,100 crowns. The extraor- 

 dinary receipts, consisting of loans and local 

 contributions for the construction of railroads, 

 raised the total receipts of the Treasury to 41,- 

 630,000 crowns. The gross revenue from cus- 

 toms was 15,858,100 crowns; from the liquor- 

 tax, 3,500,800; from the malt-tax, 2,251,000; 

 from railroads, 3,671,000; from posts, 1,713,- 

 600; from mines and domains, 1,128,600. The 

 heads of expenditure were : 9,394,700 crowns 

 for financial administration ; 6,580,100 for the 

 army; 6,377,900 for the navy, posts, and tele- 

 graphs; 4,981,300 for the Interior Department, 

 including the operation of the railroads ; 4,111,- 

 600 for justice,, police, and sanitary service ; 

 2,970,200 for the university and other ex- 

 penses of the Department of Instruction and 

 Worship (not including about 1,000,000 crowns 

 derived from special funds); 1,141,300 for the 

 Council of State and Ministries; 408,500 for 

 the Storthing; 435,400 for the civil list and 

 appanages ; 499,700 for foreign affairs ; and 94,- 

 500 for incidental expenses. The outlay of 

 6,234,400 crowns on railroads brings the total 

 expenditures up to 43,681,800 crowns. 



The total amount of the public debt out- 

 standing on June 30, 1881, was 104,512,000 



crowns, all bearing 4 per cent interest, except 

 a loan contracted in 1880 at 4 per cent. Against 

 the debt the Government holds assets which 

 nearly offset the entire amount. These consist 

 of productive funds, administered by the De- 

 partment of Finance, amounting to 29,700,000 

 crowns, cash and credits amounting to 5,200,- 

 000 crowns, and railroad shares to the amount 

 of 62,900,000 crowns together, 97,800,000 

 crowns. 



POLITICS AND LEGISLATION. The republican 

 movement in Norway assumed during the year 

 1882 larger proportions than at any previous 

 time, the struggle between the King on the one 

 side and the Storthing or national Parliament 

 on the other culminating in a rebuke of the 

 former. The union of Sweden and Norway 

 dates back to 1814, when King Charles XIII 

 received Norway from the allies as the price 

 of his assistance in the war against Napoleon. 

 According to the Constitution of Eidsvold, 

 adopted November 4, 1814, Norway was de- 

 clared "free, independent, indivisible, and in- 

 alienable." This Constitution gave to the 

 country a form of government virtually repub- 

 lican. Under a monarchical form, Norway is 

 really a republic of peasants, in which the aris- 

 tocracy of other monarchies is represented by 

 a strong peasantry. The King can not dissolve 

 the Storthing until it has been in session three 

 months ; and, though he may veto a measure, 

 his veto may be overruled by the action of 

 three successive Storthings. Its foreign repre- 

 sentation is united with that of Sweden, but its 

 army is not, the Constitution providing ex- 

 pressly that Norwegian troops are not to be 

 taken out of the country without the consent 

 of the Storthing, while the same consent is 

 necessary to bring Swedish or foreign troops 

 into Norway. Conflicts between the King and 

 the Storthing occurred almost from the very 

 time of the union. King Charles John XIV, 

 who ascended the throne in 1818, made many 

 unavailing attempts to reduce the country to 

 closer submission to royal authority. The pres- 

 ent conflict began in 1872, when the Storthing 

 carried by a vote of 80 to 29 a bill inviting the 

 ministers to be present at the meetings of the 

 Storthing as is the case in other constitutional 

 countries. The King refused his sanction to 

 this bill, but it was passed by two successive 

 Storthings, and had, therefore, as its friends 

 claimed, become a law. 



But the King again refused his sanction, and 

 a new struggle arose on the nature of the 

 King's veto. On June 9, 1881, the Storthing 

 declared the bill, thrice carried by the legal 

 majority, to be valid law in the kingdom of 

 Norway. The resolution was met by a firm 

 protest" from the crown. The crown's claim 

 for an absolute veto has been pushed further. 

 Lately it was employed to frustrate the per- 

 manent sitting, the Storthing's appointment of 

 a parliamentary committee, and even some of 

 its financial bills. The other reforms of the 

 liberal programme such as the introduction of 



