236 Finland. 
ince of Sweden. In the wars between Sweden and 
Russia parts of this province were conquered by Russia, 
and finally in 1809 Sweden lost the whole, but the 
Finns succeeded in preserving national unity and partial 
independence under a constitution, adopted in 1772 and 
recognized by the Czar. 
Finland stands very much in the same relation to 
Russia 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, clergy, burgers, peasants, which con- 
venes every five years, the Czar. having the veto power 
over its legislation. 
The War Department of Russia, however, is in charge 
of military affairs, and other departments seem to be 
under more or less supervision of the Russian 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 forestland, 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 being 
short of 2.5 million. 
