11, 1863, to Princess Maria Romanovska, born October 16, 1841, daughter of the late Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg. Offspring of the union are two children:-1. Princess Marie, born July 26, 1865. 2. Prince Maximilian, born July 10, 1867.

III. Prince Karl, born March 9, 1832; married, May 17, 1871, to Rosalie von Beust, elevated Countess von Rhena, born June 10, 1845. IV. Princess Marie, born November 20, 1834; married, Sept. 11, 1858, to Prince Ernst of Leiningen.

V. Princess Cecilia, born Sept. 20, 1839; married, Aug. 28, 1857, to Grand-duke Michael of Russia (see page 383).

The title of Grand-duke was taken by Margrave Karl Friedrich of Baden in 1806, after the division of the German Empire.

The Grand-duke is in the receipt of a civil list of 1,739,126 mark, or 86,7567., which includes the allowances made to the princes and princesses.

Constitution and Revenue.

The Constitution of Baden vests the executive power in the Grand-duke, and the legislative authority in a House of Parliament composed of two Chambers. The Upper Chamber comprises the princes of the reigning line who are of age; the heads of the mediatized families; eight members elected by the nobility; the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Freiburg; the superintendent of the Protestant Church; two deputies of Universities; and eight members nominated by the Grand-duke, without regard to rank or birth. The Second Chamber is composed of 63 representatives of the people, 22 of whom are elected by burgesses of towns, and 41 by the inhabitants of rural districts. Every citizen not convicted of crime, nor receiving parish relief, has a vote in the elections. The elections are indirect; the citizens nominating the Wahlmänner, or deputy-electors, and the latter the representatives. The members of the Second Chamber are elected for four years. The Chambers

have to be called together at least once every two years.

The executive is composed of four departments, headed by the 'Staats Ministerium' (Ministry of State). The ministers are individually and collectively responsible for their actions.

The budget estimates of revenue for the year 1884 amounted to 41,046,570 mark, or 2,052,3281., and that of 1885 to 41,168,960 mark, or 2,058,4487., besides extraordinary revenue for 1885 of 555,007 mark, or 27,750l.; while the expenditure was calculated at 41,975,278 mark, or 2,098,7631. for 1884, and 39,280,083 mark, or 1,964,0041. for 1885. The extraordinary expenditure for 1885 was 5,870,197 mark, or 293,5097. One-fourth of the revenue is derived from direct taxes, including a land tax-Grundsteuerand an income tax. About one-fourth comes from indirect taxes,

one-fifth from the produce of crown lands and forests, and one-fifth from customs and miscellaneous sources.

Nearly all the railways of Baden are the property of the State. The accounts of the income and expenditure of the State railways, as well as of the steam navigation on the Lake of Constance, are not entered in the general budget, but form a special fund. The receipts of the state railways in the years 1884-5 (exclusive of sinking fund) were estimated for each year at 39,835,550 mark, or 1,991,7777., and the disbursements to 27,130,363 mark, or 1,356,5187., leaving a surplus of 12,702,193 mark, or 635,1097. The total amount invested in railways up to the end of 1883 was 20,325,5447.

The public debt is divided into two parts, the first called the General debt, and the second the Railway debt. The General net debt amounted, at the commencement of 1884, to 11,396,717 mark, or 569,8357., and the Railway debt, at the same date, to 327,305,308 mark, or 16,365,2657.

Area and Population.

Baden has an area of 277 German, or 5,851 English square miles, with a population of 1,570,254 at the census of December 1, 1880. The Grand-duchy is divided into four districts, the population of which was as follows at the enumerations of December 1, 1875, and December 1, 1880:

The density of the population is 268 per square mile, being greatest in the Karlsruhe district, where it is over 400. Of the total population in 1880, 765,310 were males, and 804,944 females.

At the census of December 3, 1867, the population of Baden numbered 1,434,970. The increase of population in the four years from 1867 to 1871 was 26,592, or 1.85 per cent., being at the rate of 0.46 per cent. per annum. In the four years from 1871 to 1875 the population increased at the rate of 0.76 per cent. per annum, and in the five from 1875-80 it was 0.82 per cent. per annum. The population decreased from the year 1846 till 1855. From 1846 till 1849, the decrease amounted to 4,712; from 1849 to 1852, to 8,282; and from 1852 to. 1855, to the large

number of 42,105, or 14,035 per annum. The decline of population was chiefly due to emigration. The estimated population at the end of 1882 was 1,571,917. The number of marriages in Baden in 1882 was 10,101, births 56,100, deaths 40,528, excess of births over deaths 15,572. Included in the births were 1,591, or 2·84 still-born, and 4,419, or 7-88 per cent. illegitimate children. The emigrants from Baden in 1882 numbered 5,290; in 1883, 5,761.

Two-thirds of the population of Baden are Roman Catholics, and one-third Protestants. At the census of Dec. 1, 1880, there were 993,109 Roman Catholics, and 547,461 Protestants, 2,280 of other Christian sects, together with 27,278 Jews, and 126 unclassified, or of 'no religion.' There were five towns with a population of over 20,000 at the census of December 1, 1880-namely, Mannheim, with 53,465; Karlsruhe, the capital, with 49,998; Freiburg, with 36,401; Heidelberg, with 24,417; and Pforzheim, with 24,037 inhabitants.

Of the total area of Baden 42 per cent. is under cultivation, 37 per cent. under forest, and 17 per cent. under meadows and pastures. There were 830 miles of railways in 1884.

British Chargé d'Affaires.-Hon. W. Nassau Jocelyn, C.B.
Consul-General.-Charles Oppenheim (Frankfort-on-Maine).

VI. MECKLENBURG-SCHWERIN.
(GrossherzogtHUM MECKLENBURG-SCHWERIN.)
Reigning Grand-duke.

Friedrich Franz III., born March 19, 1851, son of Friedrich Franz II. and Princess Augusta of Reuss-Schleiz; succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, April 15, 1883; married January 24, 1879, to Grand-duchess Anastasia, born July 28, 1860, daughter of Grand-duke Michael of Russia; offspring a daughter, Alexandrinė, born December 24, 1879, and a son, born April 9, 1882.

Brothers and Sisters of the Grand-duke.

I. Paul Friedrich, born September 19, 1852; married May 5, 1881, to the Duchess Maria of Windisch-Grætz. Offspring: 1. Paul Friedrich, born May 12, 1882; 2. Maria Louisa, born May 1, 1883; 3. Antoinette, born May 28, 1884. Duke Paul in 1884 renounced all hereditary rights to the Grand Duchy for himself and his descendants; he himself became a Roman Catholic.

II. Marie, born May 14, 1854; married, August 28, 1874, to Grand-duke Vladimir, second son of Alexander II., Emperor of Russia. (See page 389.)

III. Johann, born December 8, 1857.
IV. Elisabeth, born August 10, 1869.
V. Friedrich Wilhelm, born April 5, 1871.
VI. Adolf, born October 10, 1873.

VII. Heinrich, born April 19, 1876.

The Grand-ducal house of Mecklenburg is the only reigning family in Western Europe of Slavonic origin, and claims to be the oldest sovereign house in the Western world. In their full title, the Granddukes style themselves Princes of the Vandals; and they trace their descent to Genseric, King of the Vandals, who conquered Spain in the fifth century, and, going over to Africa, took Carthage in 439.

Constitution, Revenue, and Population.

The political institutions of the Grand-duchy are of an entirely feudal character. The fundamental laws are embodied in the Union' of 1523, the 'Reversales' of 1572 and 1622, and the charters of 1755 and Nov. 28, 1817. The whole legislative power and part of the executive is in the hands of the proprietors of Rittergüter, or knights' estates, numbering 622. Seldom more than one-fourth of these, however, exert their privileges and take their seats in the Diet. To these representatives of their own property are joined forty members, nearly all burgomasters, delegated by the municipalities and corporate bodies of a like number of towns. The great bulk of the population is without political rights. The Diet is permanent, being represented, if not in actual session, by a committee of twelve members, presided over by three marshals of the nobility, whose office is hereditary in their families. It forms every two years a joint assembly with the Diet of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

The executive is represented in a ministry divided into four departments, appointed by, and responsible alone to the Grandduke. There exists no general budget for the Grand-duchy. On July 1, 1884, the public debt was estimated at 24,113,200 mark, or 1,205,6601. The interest of the railway debt (19,860,000 mark, not included in the above) is covered by the annuity of 38,0001. paid by the Company who have bought the State railways, and the remaining debt is more than covered by the State funds.

The population of the Grand-duchy amounted to 577,055 (284,479 males, 292,576 females) at the census of Dec. 1, 1880, living on an area of 4,834 English square miles. There is no other administrative division than that springing from the ownership of the soil, in which respect the country is divided into Grand-ducal Domains, embracing about one-fifth of the total area of MecklenburgSchwerin; Knight's Estates-'Rittergüter '-comprising two-fifths; Convent Estates-Klostergüter'-embracing one-fifth; and Town Estates, comprising the remaining fifth of the land. The Domains

contain rather more than one-third of the total population of the Grand-duchy, and the Town Estates another third.

There was a gradual decrease of population up to 1875, although the average density is only 119 inhabitants per English square mile, and the soil moreover very fertile. At the census of December 3, 1867, the population of the Grand-duchy numbered 560,628, and at the next enumeration, of December 1, 1871, the number had fallen to 557,707, being a decrease of 2,921, or onehalf per cent. of the population in the four years 1867-71. At the census of December 1, 1875, the population was found to have further declined to 553,785, being a loss of 3,922, or of 0.18 per cent. per annum. From 1875 to 1880, however, there was a large increase. Estimated population at the end of 1882, 573,394. The number of marriages in 1882 was 4,207, births 18,376, deaths 12,658, excess of births 5,718. Included in the births were 639, or 3.48 per cent. still-born, and 2,527, or 13·75 per cent. illegitimate children. During the five years from 1873 to 1877, the large number of 10,097 emigrants left the little State. But there was a gradual decline in emigration during the period, the number of emigrants falling from 6,492 in 1873, to 365 in 1877. In 1880 it was 1,335; in 1881, 3,795; in 1882, 6,155; in 1883, 4,779; and 39,569 in 1871-1883.

Nearly all the inhabitants are Protestants, there being in 1880 only 2,538 Catholics, and 2,580 Jews. There were two towns with a population of over 20,000—namely, Rostock, with 36,967, and Schwerin, the capital, with 30,146 inhabitants, at the census of December 1, 1880.

The two Mecklenburgs had 300 miles of railway in 1884.
British Minister Plenipotentiary.--Sir Edward Malet, K.C.B.
Consul-General.-George R. L. Annesley (Hamburg).

VII. HESSE.

(GROSSHERZOGTHUM HESSEN.)
Reigning Grand-duke.

Ludwig IV., born September 12, 1837, the son of Prince Karl, eldest brother of Grand-duke Ludwig III. and of Princess Elizabeth of Prussia. Succeeded to the throne at the death of his uncle, Grand-duke Ludwig III., June 13, 1877. Married, July 1, 1862, to Princess Alice, second daughter of Queen Victoria, of Great Britain and Ireland; widower, December 14, 1878.

Children of the Grand-duke.

I. Victoria, born April 5, 1863; married to Prince Ludwig of Battenburg, April 30, 1884.