236 Finland. 



ince of Sweden. In the wars between Sweden and 

 Eussia parts of this province were conquered by Eussia, 

 and finally in 1809 Sweden lost the whole, but the 

 Finns succeeded in preserving national unity and partial 

 independence under a constitution, adopted in 1773 and 

 recognized by the Czar. 



Finland stands very much in the same relation to 

 Eussia as does Hungary to Austria, the union being 

 merely a personal one: the Czar is the ruler or Grand 

 Duke, but the administration is otherwise largely sep- 

 arate from that of the empire, under a Governor-General 

 appointed by the Czar and a Senate of 18 members at 

 Helsingfors, with a national parliament of the four 

 estates, nobles, clergj^ burgers, peasants, which con- 

 venes every five years, the Czar having the veto power 

 over its legislation. 



The War Department of Eussia, however, is in charge 

 of military affairs, and other departments seem to be 

 under more or less supervision of the Eussian adminis- 

 tration. 



Of the 145,000 square miles, nearly one-third is oc- 

 cupied by lakes and bogs, marshes or tundra; all the 

 rest but 16,000 square miles (10 million acres) which 

 are farmland, is f orestland, actual or potential ; the total 

 productive forest area being estimated at 57 million 

 acres, or about 65 per cent, of the total area. The 

 major part of this is located in the northern and eastern 

 sections, where the population is scanty, agriculture 

 little developed, and sand soils prevail. Not more than 

 2.5 million acres, mostly in the southwestern sections,] 

 are actually under cultivation; the population beinj 

 short of 2.5 million. 



