Council of eight members, one-half of them nominated by the Prince, and the other elected by the male inhabitants who are bearing, or have borne, arms. The inhabitants are divided into 40 tribes, each governed by elected' elders,' and a chief called Knjas, who acts as magistrate in peace and as commander in war. By the 'Administrative Statute of 1879, the country was divided into 80.districts and four military commands.

No official returns are published regarding the public revenue and expenditure. Reliable estimates state the former at 300,000 Austrian florins, or 30,000l., and the latter at 180,000 florins, or 18,000l. per annum, leaving a yearly surplus of 12,000 florins, or 1,2001. There exists no public debt at present, a loan raised in 1876 having been paid off by the Russian Government.

The area of Montenegro is estimated to embrace 3,550 English square miles, inclusive of the annexations effected by the Congress of Berlin in 1878, including the town and district of Dulcigno on the Adriatic. The latter, however, was not actually surrendered by Turkey to Montenegro till the end of November 1880, under pressure of the great European Powers. The total population was stated in official returns to number 250,000 in 1879.

The number of men capable of bearing arms, between the ages of 20 and 50, is calculated at 21,850. There exists no standing army, except a lifeguard of the Hospodar, numbering 100 men; but all the inhabitants, not physically unfitted, are trained as soldiers, and liable to be called under arms. The Montenegrins belong entirely to the Servian branch of the Slavonian race, and in religion adhere to the Greek Church, governed, since 1852, by a bishop nominated by the Holy Synod of Russia.

Statistical and other Books of Reference concerning Montenegro. NON-OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Andric (M.) Geschichte des Fürstenthums Montenegro. 8. Wien, 1853. Delarue (H.) Le Monténégro. 8. Paris, 1862.

Denton (Rev. William), Montenegro: its People and their History. 8. London, 1877.

Kohl (J. Geo.) Reise nach Montenegro. 2 vols. 8. Dresden, 1851. Kovalevsky (Egor Petrovich) Montenegro and the Slavonic Countries. (Russia.) 8. St. Petersburg, 1872.

Krasinski (Walerjan Skorobohaty) Montenegro and the Slavonians of Turkey. 8. London, 1853.

Neigebaur (H.) Die Südslawen und deren Länder. 8. Leipzig, 1851.

Sestak (J. F.) and Scherbs (F.) Militärische Beschreibung des Paschaliks Herzegovina und des Fürstenthums Cernagora. 8. Wien, 1862.

Strangford (Viscountess) The Eastern Shores of the Adriatic in 1863, with a visit to Montenegro. 8. London, 1864.

NETHERLANDS.

(KONINGRIJK DER NEDERLANDEN.)
Reigning King.

Willem III., born February 19, 1817, the eldest son of King Willem II., and of Princess Anna Paulowna, daughter of Emperor Paul I. of Russia; educated by private tutors, and at the University of Leyden; succeeded to the throne, at the death of his father, March 17, 1849. Married, June 18, 1839, to Princess Sophie, born June 17, 1818, the second daughter of King Wilhelm I. of Württemberg; widower June 3, 1877. Married, in second nuptials, Jan. 7, 1879, to Queen Emma, born August 2, 1858, daughter of Prince George Victor of Waldeck. (See page 167.)

Son and daughter of the King.

I. Alexander, Prince of Orange, heir-apparent, offspring of the first marriage, born August 25, 1851; admiral in the navy of the Netherlands, and major-general in the army.

II. Princess Wilhelmina, offspring of the second marriage, born August 31, 1880.

Sister of the King.

Princess Sophie, born April 8, 1824; married, Oct. 8, 1842, to Grand-Duke Karl Alexander of Saxe-Weimar, born June 24, 1818.

Aunt of the King.

Princess Marianne, born May 9, 1810, sister of the preceding; married, September 14, 1830, to the late Prince Albert of Prussia; divorced March 28, 1849.

The royal family of the Netherlands, known as the House of Orange, descend from a German Count Walram, who lived in the eleventh century. Through the marriage of Count Engelbrecht, of the branch of Ötto of Walram, with Joan of Polanen, in 1404, the family acquired the barony of Breda, and thereby became settled in the Netherlands. The alliance with another heiress, only sister of the childless Prince of Orange and Count of Chalon, brought to the house a rich province in the south of France; and a third matrimonial union, that of Prince Willem III. of Orange with a daughter of King James II., transferred the crown of Great Britain

for a time to the family. Previous to this period, the members had acquired great influence in the Republic of the Netherlands, and, under the name of 'stadtholders,' or governors, became the sovereign rulers of the State. The dignity was formally declared to be hereditary in 1747, in Willem IV.; but his successor, Willem V., had to fly to England, in 1795, at the invasion of the French republican army. The family did not return till November 1813, when the fate of the republic, released from French supremacy, was under discussion at the Congress of Vienna. After various diplomatic negotiations, the Belgian provinces, subject before the French revolution to the House of Austria, were ordered by the Congress to be annexed to the territory of the republic, and the whole to be erected into a kingdom with the son of the last Stadtholder, Willem V., as hereditary sovereign. In consequence, the latter was proclaimed King of the Netherlands at the Hague on the 16th of March, 1815, and recognised as sovereign by all the powers of Europe. The established union between the northern and southern provinces of the Netherlands was dissolved by the Belgian revolution of 1830, and their political relations were not readjusted until the signing of the Treaty of London, April 19, 1839, which constituted Belgium an independent kingdom. King Willem I. abdicated in 1840, making over the crown to his son Willem II., who, after a reign of nine years, left it to his heir, the present sovereign of the Netherlands.

King Willem II. had a civil list of 1,000,000 guilders, or 83,3331.; but the amount was reduced to 600,000 guilders, or 50,000., at the commencement of the reign of the present king. There is in addition an allowance of 150,000 guilders, or 12,500l., for the members of the royal family and the maintenance of the Court. The latter sum is divided at present in the manner that the heir-apparent has 100,000 guilders, or 8,3331.; and the remaining 50,000 guilders, or 4,1667., are given as a subsidy for the maintenance of the royal palaces. The family of Orange are, besides, in the possession of a very large private fortune, acquired, in greater part by King Willem I., in the prosecution of vast enterprises, tending to raise the commerce of the Netherlands.

The House of Orange has given the following Sovereigns to the Netherlands, since its reconstruction as a kingdom by the Congress of Vienna:

The average reign of the three Sovereigns, inclusive of that of the present king, amounted to 19 years.

Constitution and Government.

The present constitution-grondwet-of the Netherlands received the royal sanction October 14, 1848, and was solemnly proclaimed Nov. 3, 1848. It vests the whole legislative authority in a Parliament composed of two Chambers, called the States-General. The Upper House, or first Chamber, consists of 39 members, elected by the provincial States from among the most highly assessed inhabitants of the various counties. The second Chamber of the States-General, elected by ballot, at the rate of one deputy to every 45,000 souls, numbered 86 members in 1878. All citizens, natives of the Netherlands, not deprived of civil rights, and paying assessed taxes to the amount of not less than 20 guilders, or 11. 13s., are voters. Clergymen, judges of the Hooge Raad, or High Court of Justice, and Governors of Provinces are debarred from being elected. The members of the second Chamber receive an annual allowance of 2,000 guilders, or 1667., besides travelling expenses. Every two years onehalf of the members of the second Chamber, and every three years one-third of the members of the Upper House, retire by rotation. The Sovereign has the right to dissolve either of the Chambers separately, or both together, at any time, but new elections must take place within forty days. The second Chamber alone has the initiative of new laws, together with the government, and the functions of the Upper House are restricted to either approving or rejecting them, without the right of inserting amendments. The constitutional advisers of the King, having a seat in the Cabinet, must attend at the meetings of both Houses, and have a deliberative voice, but they cannot take an active part in the debate. The King has full veto power, but it is seldom, if ever, brought into practice. Alterations in the Constitution can only be made by the vote of two-thirds of the members of both Houses, followed by a general election, and a second confirmation, by two-third vote, of the new States-General. The executive authority is, under the Sovereign, exercised by a responsible Council of Ministers. There are eight heads of departments in the Ministerial Council, namely:

1. The Minister of Foreign Affairs.-Baron W. F. van Rochussen; appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, and President of the Council of Ministers, June 19, 1881.

2. The Minister of Finance.-Baron Dr. C. T. de Lynden de Sandenburg, formerly Professor of Jurisprudence; appointed August 1881.

3. The Minister of Justice.-Dr. J. Modderman, formerly Professor of Criminal Law; appointed August 19, 1879.

4. The Minister of the Colonies.-Baron Willem van Goltstein; appointed August 19, 1879.

5. The Minister of the Interior.-M. Pynacker Hordyk, Professor of Law at Utrecht; appointed Feb. 9, 1882.

6. The Minister of Marine.-Jonker H. van Taalman-Kip; appointed August 19, 1879.

7. The Minister of War.-General A. E. Reuter, R.A.; appointed August 19, 1879.

8. The Ministry of Public Works and Commerce (Waterstaat).— Dr. N. van Klerck; appointed August 19, 1879.

Each of the above ministers has a salary of 12,000 guilders, or 1,000l. per annum. Whenever the sovereign presides over the deliberations of the ministry, the meeting is called a Cabinet Council, and the privilege to be present at it is given to princes of the royal family nominated for the purpose. There is also a State Council-Raad van State-of 14 members, which the sovereign may consult on extraordinary occasions.

Church and Education.

According to the terms of the Constitution, entire liberty of conscience and complete social equality is granted to the members of all religious confessions. The royal family, and a majority of the inhabitants, belong to the Reformed Church; but the Roman Catholics are not far inferior in numbers. In the last census returns the number of Protestants is given at 2,469,814; of Roman Catholics, 1,439,137; of divers other Christian denominations, 22,049; and of Jews, 81,693. The government of the Reformed Church is Presbyterian; while the Roman Catholics are under an archbishop, of Utrecht, and four bishops, of Haarlem, Breda, Roermond, and Hertogenbosch. The salaries of several British Presbyterian ministers, settled in the Netherlands, and whose churches are incorporated with the Dutch Reformed Church, are paid out of the public funds.

Education is spreading throughout the kingdom, though as yet it has not reached the lower classes of the population. Official returns state that in 25,137 marriages that took place in North Hollandprovince containing the capital-between the years 1868-72, there were 609 in which the man, 2,021 in which the woman, and 503 in which neither the man nor the woman could write. It is calculated that among the strictly rural population of the kingdom, one-fourth of the grown-up men, and one-third of the women, can neither read nor write. However, the education of the rising generation is provided for by a non-denominational Primary Instruction Law, passed in 1857, supplemented, with important alterations, tending to make education absolutely compulsory, by another law, passed August 18, 1878. Under the regulations of the latter Act, the cost of primary instruction is borne jointly by the State and the com