that for the national debt. In the budget for 1885 the national debt is given as follows:

The various provinces and communes have their own separate budgets, the total provincial expenditure in 1883 being 5,003,196 guilders, or 416,9337.; the special communal expenses are estimated at 3 millions sterling annually, half of which is covered by direct taxation.

Among direct taxes for the national revenue that on land and buildings is the most important, estimated to yield 929,9007. in 1885, and next the personal tax (on incomes, doors, windows, servants, &c.), estimated at 887,000l. in 1885. The rateable annual value of buildings was given at 6,820,8937. in 1882, and of land 3,847,7471. The total debt amounts to 211. per head, and the annual charge (1885) to 13s. 7d. The total exports amount to about 147. per head.

Army and Navy.

The army of the Netherlands, which was reorganised partly on the system of Germany, in 1881, is formed partly by conscription and partly by enlistment, the volunteers forming the stock, but not the majority of the troops. The men drawn by conscription, at the age of twenty, have to serve, nominally, five years; but really only for twelve months, meeting afterwards for six weeks annually for practice, during four years. Besides the regular army, there exists. a militia 'schutteryen '-mainly for internal defence, divided into

two classes. To the first, the 'active militia,' belong all men from 25 to 34; and to the second, the 'resting (rustende) militia,' all from 35 to 55. The first class, numbering about 37,000 men, is again subdivided into two parts: 1, the unmarried men and widowers without children, and 2, married soldiers. The 'resting militia,' to the number of 40,000 men, is organised in eighty-nine battalions. Besides this there is the 'landstorm,' consisting of all between 19 and 50 capable of bearing arms, and the 'Society of Sharpshooters,' corresponding somewhat to the English Volunteers.'

The regular army stationed in the Netherlands consisted in 1884 of 42,843 infantry, 3,987 cavalry, 1,432 engineers, 13,291 artillery, 362 mounted police; in all, including special services, 62,687 under-officers and men, besides 2,320 officers, staff and administration. Included in the infantry are 1 regiment of guards and 8 regiments of the line; there are 3 regiments of cavalry, 1 battalion of sappers and miners, 3 regiments of field artillery, 4 of fortress artillery, 1 regiment of light-horse artillery, 1 company of pontonniers, and 1 torpedo company.

The army of the Netherlands in the Dutch East Indies in 1883 numbered 30,421 officers and men. It comprised 15,032 Europeans and 15,389 natives. Of the rank and file 2,753 are infantry, 717 cavalry, 2,576 artillery, and 548 engineers. The European troops consist of natives of various countries recruited by voluntary enlistment. No portion of the regular army of the Netherlands is allowed to be sent on Colonial service; but individual soldiers may enlist by permission of their commanding officers, and thence form the nucleus of the army of the Dutch East Indies. There are besides small garrisons, altogether about 600 officers and men, in the Dutch West Indies, besides several companies of volunteers. There are besides civic guards, and armed Indian corps, of which the effective is 9,301 men, 3,870 Europeans, and 5,421 natives.

The navy of the Netherlands was composed, in January 1884, of 2 turretted corvettes, 4 turret ships for coast service, 17 monitors, 16 first-class and 17 second-class gunboats, 20 torpedo boats, 9 first-class and 7 other cruisers, 8 sailing vessels, 13 school vessels, 14 other steamers, and 30 steamers, mostly small, for service in the East Indies.

The following is a tabular list of the armour-clad ships, the columns of the table exhibiting, after the name of each ship, first, the armour thickness at the water-line; secondly, the number and weight of guns; thirdly, the indicated horse-power of the engines; and fourthly, the tonnage, that is, the displacement in tons:

The largest ironclad of the navy, the Koning der Nederlanden, was built at the Government dockyard at Amsterdam, and launched in August 1876. It is a double-turret ship, 268 feet in length, and nearly 50 feet in breadth, and armed with four 35-ton Armstrong guns. The next armour-clad vessel in the preceding list, the Schorpioen, constructed by the 'Société des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée,' at Marseilles, France, is 194 feet long, and 36 feet in extreme breadth, and has its armament of two 12-ton guns in a single turret. The Guinea is a sister-ship of the Schorpioen, and also built on the same plan are the Buffel and the Stier, all of them with single turrets and ram bows; while the Prince Hendrik der Nederlanden, constructed at Birkenhead, is a double-turret ship.

The iron armour-clad ships of the second class are all constructed on the same model. They are each 187 feet in length, and 44 feet in breadth, with their two 12-ton guns in a single turret. They are intended only for coast defence, their maximum not being greater than eight knots per hour.

There are numerous paddle steamers, most of them used as

despatch boats. The whole of the sailing vessels, as well as many of the smaller steamers, are employed in the colonial service.

The navy was officered, in 1884, by 1 admiral, 2 vice-admirals, 4 rear-admirals ('schouten-bij-nacht'), 25 captains, 35 commanders, 294 first and second lieutenants, 182 midshipmen, and 6,641 sailors. The marine infantry, at the same date, consisted of 57 officers and 2,221 non-commissioned officers and privates. Both sailors and marines are recruited by enlistment, conscription being allowed, but not actually in force.

The Government of the Netherlands spends from two to three million florins annually (160,000l. to 250,000l.) in strengthening its various means of defence. The Netherlands have some small fortresses and a great many forts connected with each other, which would serve, with the aid of inundations, to defend the interior of the country, while most of the routes from the coast are fortified.

Area and Population.

The Netherlands, since the separation of Belgium, consists of eleven provinces. Connected with the kingdom in the person of the sovereign, though possessed of a separate administration, is the Grand-duchy of Luxemburg, included from 1815 to 1866 in the dissolved Germanic Confederation.

The King of the Netherlands is Grand-Duke of Luxemburg, and nominates the Government. There is a Chamber of Deputies of 42 members, elected directly by the Cantons for six years. By the Treaty of London, 1867, Luxemburg is declared neutral territory. It has an area of 998 square miles, and a population (Dec. 1, 1880) of 209,570, of whom 207,782 were Catholics. In 1882 the revenue was 414,6751., and expenditure 389,4467. In the budget estimates for 1884, the revenue is set down at 371,3861., and the expenditure at 318,4517. There is a debt of almost 646,8001., contracted mainly for the construction of railways. For commercial purposes Luxemburg is included in the German Zollverein. There are 226 miles of railway, and 450 miles of telegraph lines.

A census of the Netherlands is taken every ten years. The last decennial census of December 31, 1879, gave the area at 32,972 square kilomètres, or 12,648 English square miles, with a population of 4,012,693, comprising 1,983,164 males and 2,029,529 females. The following table shows the area and population of each of the eleven provinces of the kingdom at the census of December 31, 1879, with the estimate for December 31, 1883 :

The population in 1849 was 3,056,879; in 1859, 3,309,128; in 1869, 3,579,529; the increase between the last two censuses was 12 per cent. or 1.2 per annum. In 1883 there were 2,090,850 males and 2,134,215 females in Holland, and the average density of the population was 334 per square mile, being greatest in South Holland, where it was 742 per square mile, and nearly the same in North Holland, the population there, however, being mostly concentrated in towns.

The following table gives the total number of births, deaths, and marriages, with the surplus of births over deaths, in each of the nine years from 1875 to 1883:

Excluding the still-born, there were 4,288 illegitimate children born, or 3.12 per cent. of the whole living births; the highest percentages, 4.24 and 4.09, were in North Holland and Utrecht, and the lowest, 1.48, in Overyssel.

At the census of 1879 there were 67,000 persons of foreign birth