750 



SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 



customs and excise duties, stamps, post-office, 

 etc.; 303,000 crowns the receipts of the re- 

 served postal fund, and 1,300,000 crowns the 

 net receipts of the Bank of Sweden. 



The expenditures are estimated at the same 

 sum. The ordinary expenditures are fixed at 

 59,812,430 crowns, of. which 1,338,000 are for 

 the royal household, 3,758,000 for justice, 613,- 

 800 for foreign affairs, 17,397,200 for the army, 

 5,522,000 for the navy, 4,601,282 for the inte- 

 rior department, 10,261,048 for public instruc- 

 tion and worship, 2,621,100 for pensions, and 

 13,700,000 for financial administration. The 

 extraordinary expenditures are stated as 9,- 

 035,570 crowns, 3,283,800 for the army and 

 navy, and 5,751,770 for various departments. 

 The expenditures for the public debt amount 

 to 10,227,000 crowns, 900,000 crowns are re- 

 served for the construction of the new palace 

 for the Diet, and 825,000 left as a surplus. 



The public debt, contracted solely for rail- 

 road construction, amounted, on Jan. 1, 1884, 

 to 227,871,675 crowns, of which 193,815,275 

 represented foreign loans, paying 4 and 4-J per 

 cent, interest, and 34,056,400 domestic loans. 



The Army. The army is composed of five 

 classes of troops : men enlisted for three, four, 

 and six years, forming the guards, hussars, ar- 

 tillery, and engineers; the Indelta, who are 

 enlisted for life and cantoned on the estates of 

 the land-owners ; the Gothland militia, not lia- 

 ble to service outside of the island ; the con- 

 scripted troops, who are called out annually for 

 fifteen days ; and the volunteer rifle corps. The 

 first two classes constitute the standing army. 

 The effective in 1884 of the enlisted troops 

 was 2,230 infantry, 1,066 cavalry, 3,729 artil- 

 lery, and 894 engineers ; of the cantoned troops, 

 23,017 infantry and 3,557 cavalry ; total regu- 

 lar army, 34,493 enlisted men. The military 

 forces of all five classes numbered 192,168 offi- 

 cers and men, with 282 cannons and 6,490 

 horses. 



The Navy. The navy in 1883 consisted of 46 

 steamers, with 117 guns, 10 sail-ships, and 87 

 galleys. There were 1 frigate, 5 corvettes, 4 

 torpedo-boats, and a number of small monitors 

 and gunboats. 



Legislation and Politics. The Diet, during the 

 session that closed May 15, passed a patent 

 law based on the German law and the interna- 

 tional patent convention, an act regulating the 

 property rights of married women, a mining 

 law, an act abolishing the penalty of a bread- 

 arid - water diet in prisons, and other useful 

 measures. The attempt of the Government to 

 carry through parts of the army bill that was 

 rejected in 1883 were unsuccessful. The lower 

 house passed measures for the remission of the 

 land-tax, and the relief of the peasants from the 

 burden of supporting the cantoned troops. The 

 large proprietors, who escape this burden, and 

 who furnish the majority of the representatives 

 in the upper house, defeated the proposed 10 

 per cent, reduction in the military land-tax. 

 In the elections for the lower chamber in the 



beginning of October a Liberal party, affiliated 

 with the Peasant party, captured from the Con- 

 servatives sixteen out of the nineteen seats. 

 This new movement of the democratic sections 

 of the town-people presages an exciting strug- 

 gle with the aristocratic and military elements, 

 which have ruled the country in their own in- 

 terest, and hitherto resisted the equitable de- 

 mands of the farming class. 



NORWAY. Constitntion. The Grundlov of 

 Nov. 4, 1814, vests the legislative power in 

 the Storthing. The executive authority is ex- 

 ercised in the name of the King by a State 

 Council, composed of two Ministers of State 

 and at least seven councilors. Two councilors, 

 who are changed annually, and one of the min- 

 isters, form a deputation residing near the per- 

 son of the King, at Stockholm. 



Area and Population. The area of Norway is 

 122,869 square miles. The population at the 

 close of 1880 was estimated to be 1,913,000. 

 The number of marriages in 1882 was 12,- 

 874; births, 59,375; deaths, 35,325; excess of 

 births, 24,050. The number of persons who 

 emigrated in 1882 was 28,804 : in 1881, 25,976 ; 

 in 1880, 20,212 ; in 1879, 7,608 ; in 1878, 4,863. 

 Among the inhabitants of Norway in 1875 there 

 were 7,594 Finns, 14,645 sedentary Lapps, 1,- 

 073 nomadic Lapps, and 8,396 metis. The num- 

 ber of persons of foreign birth was 37,350, of 

 whom 29,340 were born in Sweden. The pop- 

 ulation of Christiania, the capital, was 76,054 ; 

 of Bergen, 33,830. 



Commerce. The total value of the imports in 

 1883 was 161,315.000 crowns, against 160,475,- 

 000 in 1882; of the exports 116,139,000, against 

 122,955,000 crowns. The imports from Ger- 

 many amounted to 46,800,000 crowns, from 

 Great Britain 42,333,000, from Sweden 19,- 

 111,000, from Russia and Finland 14,601, from 

 Denmark 13,200,000; the exports to Great 

 Britain were 40,107,000 crowns in value, to 

 Germany 16,779,000, to Sweden 14,278,000, to 

 Spain 12,151,000. The import trade with the 

 United States was of the value of 6,177,000 

 crowns; the export trade, 322,000. 



Navigation. The aggregate tonnage of vessels 

 entered at Norwegian ports in 1882 was 2,271,- 

 470 tons, of which 1,524,931 were under the 

 Norwegian and 746,539 under foreign flags. 

 The tonnage entered with cargoes was 1,175,- 

 965; in ballast, 1,095,505. The total tonnage 

 cleared was 2,192,069; Norwegian, 1,442,653; 

 foreign, 749,416; with cargoes, 1,854,020; in 

 ballast, 338,049. 



The merchant fleet in 1883 numbered 7,913 

 vessels of 1,530,004 tons, manned by 60,593 

 sailors, as compared with 7,977 vessels, 1,520,- 

 404 tons, and 60,064 sailors, Jan. 1, 1882. The 

 steam fleet in 1882 consisted of 407 vessels, of 

 82,519 tons. 



Communications. The length of railroad in 

 operation at the close of 1883 was 1,561 kilo- 

 metres. The number of letters forwarded by 

 the post-office in 1883 was 13.039,741 domestic 

 and 5,179,226 foreign; the number of journals, 



