The population of the principal towns of the kingdom was as follows at the census of December 1, 1900:

Rather more than seven-tenths of the population of Bavaria are Roman Catholics.

The religious division of the population in each of the eight provinces of the kingdom was as follows on December 1, 1900:

Besides the above there are included in other Christian sects 5,430 Old Catholics, 3,170 Mennonites, 9,511 Reformed, 251 Anglican, 615 Greek Catholics, 88 Irvingites, 26 Anabaptists, 1,296 Methodists, 1,797 Free Christians, and 2,117 without declaration.

As regards ecclesiastical administration, the kingdom is divided into 2 Roman Catholic archbishoprics, those of Munich and Bamberg; 6 bishoprics; 210 deaneries; and 3,031 parishes. The Protestant Church is under a General Consistory-Ober-Consistorium' and three provincial consistories, 80 deaneries, and 1,092 parishes. Among the Roman Catholics there is one clergyman to 761 souls; among the Protestants, one to 1,313. Of the three universities of the kingdom, two, at Munich and Würzburg, are Roman Catholic, and one, at Erlangen, Protestant.

Instruction.

(For Universities, see under Germany.) Elementary schools-Volksschulen'-exist in all parishes, and school attendance is compulsory for all children from six till the age of fourteen. In 1901-02 there were in Bavaria 7,411 elementary schools (public and private), with 15,454 teachers (12,379 male, 3,075 female), and 894,466 pupils. The year's expenditure on the public schools (7,353 in number) amounted to 27,452,646 marks. In 1901-02 there were 404 agricultural schools, with 7,383 pupils, besides 32 winter schools, with 1,126 pupils.

Justice, Crime, and Pauperism.

Bavaria is the only German State which has established an Oberstes Landgericht, or appeal-court intervening between the Oberlandesgerichte and the Reichsgericht. This court, which has its seat at Munich, has a bench of 22 judges. Subject to its jurisdiction are 5 Oberlandesgerichte and 28 Landgerichte. In 1901, 67,302 criminals were convicted in Bavaria.

In 1900 the number of poor receiving relief was 189,484, the sum expended on them being 9,124,143 marks. Of the total number 110,072 were permanent paupers.

Finance.

The Bavarian budget is voted for a period of two years. The estimates for each of the years 1900 and 1901 provided for revenue and expenditure of 432,919,989 marks; for 1902 and 1903, 454,904,691 marks; for 1904 and 1905 as shown in the following table :

The direct taxes are a trade-tax, house-tax, land-tax, and taxes on income from various sources.

The

The debt of Bavaria amounted, August 31, 1903, to 1,730,704,288 marks. Of this amount 1,351,436,286 marks is railway debt. The greater number of the railways in Bavaria are the property of the State. gross receipts from the State railways, 1902, amounted to 169,717,229 marks; and the net receipts to 46,807,926 marks.

Army.

The Bavarian army forms an integral part of the Imperial army having, in peace, its own administration. The military supplies, though voted by the Bavarian Parliament, must bear a fixed proportion to the amount voted for the rest of Germany by the Reichstag. The Bavarian troops form the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Bavarian army-corps, not numbered consecutively with the other German army-corps; and there are certain differences in the matter of uniform permitted to the Bavarian troops. The administration of the

fortresses in Bavaria is also in the hands of the Bavarian Government during peace.

The contribution of Bavaria to the Imperial army in 1904 was as follows in officers and men :

Of the total area of Bavaria, nearly one-half is under cultivation, onesixth under grass, and one-third under forests. The number of separate farms in 1882 and 1895 was as follows:

Under 1 Hect. 1-10 Hect. 10-100 Hect. 100 Hect. & over Total

In 1895 their total area was 5,945,736 hectares.

These farms supported in 1895 a population of 2,585,858, of whom 1,331,105 were actually engaged in agriculture. The areas (in hectares) under the chief crops, and the yield in metric tons, in 1903, were as follows:

Vines occupied 22,128 hectares in the Palatinate and Lower Franconia in 1903, and produced 738,085 hectolitres of wine.

were under hops, and yielded 11,144 metric tons.

In 1903, 23,566 hectares

The total value of the leading mining products of Bavaria in 1902 was 13,449,735 marks.

The

In 1901-02, 6,893

The brewing of beer is a highly important industry in Bavaria. quantity manufactured in 1902 was 17,350,868 hectolitres.

distilleries produced 195,080 hectolitres of alcohol.

British Minister Resident.-R. T. Tower, appointed 1903.
British Consul.-J. Krapp (Munich).

References.

Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königsreichs Bayern. 8. München 1902.
Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Königreich Bayern. 8. München, 1903.

Baedeker (K.), Handbook for Southern Gerinany. 9th ed. London, 1902.-The Eastern Alps. 10th ed. London, 1903.

"Bruckman's Illustrated Guides: Munich the Highlands of Bavaria. [Eng. Translations.] Munich, 1895.

Koestler (C.), Handbuch zur Gebiets-und Ortskunde des Königreichs Bayern. 4. Munchen, 1895.

Piloty (R.) (Editor), Die Verfassungskunde des Königreichs Bayern. 8. München. 1895. Riezler (S.), Geschichte Bayerns. 4 vols. Leipzig, 1898.

BREMEN.

(FREIE HANSESTADT BREMEN.)

The State and Free City of Bremen form a republic, governed, under a Constitution proclaimed March 5, 1849, and revised February 21, 1854, November 17, 1875, December 1, 1878, May 27, 1879, and January 1, 1894, by a Senate of sixteen members, chosen for life, forming the executive, and the 'Bürgerschaft' (or Convent of Burgesses) of 150 members, invested with the power of legislation. The Convent is elected for six years by the votes of all the citizens, divided into classes. The citizens who have studied at a university return 14 members; the merchants 41 members; the mechanics and manufacturers 21 members, and the other tax-paying inhabitants of the Free City the rest. The Convent and Senate elect the sixteen members of the Senate, ten of whom at least must be lawyers. Two burgomasters, the first elected for four years, and the second for the same period, direct the affairs of the Senate, through a Ministry divided into twelve departments-namely, Foreign Affairs, Church and Education, Justice, Finance, Police, Medical and Sanitary Administration, Military Affairs, Commerce and Shipping, Ports and Railways, Public Works, Industry, and Poor Laws. All the ministers are senators.

On Dec. 1, 1900, Bremen contained 208,815 Protestants (92.8 per cent.), 13,380 Roman Catholics (5'9 per cent.), 1,002 other Christians, 1,409 Jews; others 276. Marriages in 1903, 2,325; births, 7,584; deaths, 4,334; excess of births, 3,250; still births, 220; illegitimate births, 567. In 1902, Bremen had 59 public elementary schools with 632 teachers (526 male, 106 female) and 28,694 pupils. The year's expenditure on these schools amounted to 2,276,000 marks, of which 1,777,000 marks was provided by the State. These numbers include 2 orphan asylum schools maintained by their own funds and public contributions.

Bremen contains two Amtsgerichte and a Landgericht, whence appeals lie to the Hanseatische Oberlandesgericht' at Hamburg.

In 1903-04 the revenue was 32,435,696 marks, and expenditure 45,307,307 marks. One-third of the revenue is raised from direct taxes, 62 per cent. of which is income-tax. The chief branch of expenditure is for interest and reduction of the public debt. The debt, reduced to 3 per cent. interest, amounted, in 1904, to 212,207,500 marks. The whole of the debt was incurred for the promotion of commerce and navigation, and for public works.

Next to that of Hamburg, the port of Bremen is the largest for the international trade of Germany. About 77 per cent. of the commerce of Bremen is in 1903 carried on under the German, and about 11 per cent. under the British flag. The aggregate value of the imports in 1903 was 1,212,691,447 marks, of which 62,068,928 marks were from Great Britain; and of exports, 1,157,278,878 marks, of which 70,366,679 marks went to Great Britain.

For shipping entered and cleared, see under 'German Empire.' The number of merchant vessels belonging to the State of Bremen on December 31, 1903, was 629, of 682,537 tons net register, the number including 362 steamers of an aggregate burthen of 482,887 tons. Bremen has several important shipping companies, the chief of which are the Norddeutscher Lloyd' with, on December 31, 1903, 226 sea-going ships of 330, 201 net register tons, 67 of which are Transatlantic steamers of 256,513 tons; 45 IndoChinese coast-steamers of 42,584 tons and 2 training-ships of 5,059 tons; the 'Hansa' Company, with 59 steamers of 114,650 tons; the 'Neptune' Company

with 53 steamers of 21,004 tons; the 'Argo' Company with 28 steamers of 29,267 tons.

British Consul-General.—Sir William Ward, C. V.O. (Hamburg).
British Vice-Consuls at Bremen, Brake, and Bremerhaven.

References.

Bippen (W. von), Geschichte der Stadt Bremen. 8. Bremen, 1892, &c.
Buchenau, Die Freie Stadt Bremen und ihr Gebiet. Bremen, 1900.
Bremen und seine Bauten. Bremen, 1900.

Jahrbuch für Bremische Statistik.

Die Volkszählung vom 1 Dezember 1900 im Bremischen Staate, 1903.

BRUNSWICK,

(BRAUNSCHWEIG.)

The Regent is Prince Albrecht, born May 8, 1837; son of the late Prince Albrecht of Prussia, brother of the first German Emperor Wilhelm I., and Marianne, daughter of the late William I., King of the Netherlands, Field-Marshal in the German army. Married, April 19, 1873, to Princess Maria (died October 8, 1898), daughter of Duke Ernst of Saxe-Altenburg. Unanimously elected regent of the Duchy by the Diet, October 21, 1885; assumed the reins of government November 2, 1885. The children of the regent are: 1, Prince Friedrich Heinrich, born July 15, 1874; 2, Prince Joachim Albrecht, born September 27, 1876; 3, Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, born July 12, 1880.

The last Duke of Brunswick was Wilhelm I., born April 25, 1806, the second son of Duke Friedrich Wilhelm and of Princess Marie of Baden; ascended the throne April 25, 1831, and died October 18, 1884.

The heir to Brunswick is the Duke of Cumberland, excluded owing to the refusal to give up claim to the throne of Hanover.

The ducal house of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, extinct on the death of Wilhelm I., was long one of the most ancient and illustrious of the Germanic Confederation. Its ancestor, Henry the Lion, possessed, in the twelfth century, the united duchies of Bavaria and Saxony, with other territories in the North of Germany; but having refused to aid the Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa in his wars with the Pope, he was, by a decree of the Diet, deprived of the whole of his territories with the sole exception of his allodial domains, the principalities of Brunswick and Lüneburg. These possessions were, on the death of Ernest the Confessor, divided between the two sons of the latter, who became the founders of the lines of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Elder Line, and Brunswick-Lüneburg, Younger Line, the former of which was represented in the ducal house of Brunswick, while the latter is merged in the royal family of Great Britain.

The Brunswick regency law of February 16, 1879, enacts that in case the legitimate heir to the Brunswick throne be absent or prevented from assuming the government, a Council of Regency, consisting of the Ministers of State and the Presidents of the Landtag and of the Supreme Court, should carry on the government; while the German Emperor should assume command of the military forces in the Duchy. If the rightful heir, after the space of a year, is unable to claim the throne, the Brunswick Landtag shall elect a regent from the non-reigning members of German reigning families.

The late Duke of Brunswick was one of the wealthiest of German sovereigns, having been in possession of the principality of Oels in Silesia, now belonging to the Prussian Crown, and vast private estates and domains in the same district and adjoining, bequeathed to the King of Saxony.

The Constitution of Brunswick bears date October 12, 1832, but was modified by the fundamental laws of May 6, 1899, Nos. 31 and 32. The