I. SWEDEN.

Constitution and Government.

The fundamental laws of the kingdom of Sweden are- -1. The Constitution or Regerings-Formen of June 6, 1809; 2. the amended regulations for the formation of the Diet, of June 22, 1866; 3. the law of royal succession of September 26, 1810; and 4. the law on the liberty of the press, of July 16, 1812. According to these statutes, the king must be a member of the Lutheran Church, and have sworn fealty to the laws of the land. His person is inviolable. He has the right to declare war and make peace, after consulting the Council of State, and to grant pardon to condemned criminals. He nominates to all appointments, both military and civil; concludes foreign treaties, and has a right to preside in the supreme Court of Justice. The princes of the blood royal, however, are excluded from all civil employments. The king possesses legislative power in matters of political administration, but in all other respects, that power is exercised by the Diet in concert with the sovereign, and every new law must have the assent of the crown. The right of imposing taxes is, however, vested in the Diet. This Diet, or Parliament of the realm, consists of two chambers, both elected by the people. The First Chamber consists (1885) of 139 members, or one deputy for every 30,000 of the population, on the basis of the population for 1883. The election of the members takes place by the landstings,' or provincial representations, 25 in number, and the municipal corporations of the towns, not already represented in the landstings,' Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, and Norrköping. The number of electors for the provincial and municipal assemblies is about 370,000, or 11 per cent. of the total population, and the number of electors to the First Chamber, 2,241, or 049 of the population-046 representing the provinces, and 085 the cities. All members of the First Chamber must be above 35 years of age, and must have possessed for at least three years previous to the election either real property to the taxed value of 80,000 kronor, or 4,444., or an annual income of 4,000 kronor, or 2231. They are elected for the term of nine years, and obtain no payment for their services. The Second Chamber consists of 216 members, of whom 69 are elected by the towns and 147 by the rural districts, one representative being returned for every 10,000 of the popula tion of towns, one for every 'domsaga,' or rural district, of under 40,000 inhabitants, and two for rural districts of over 40,000 inhabitants. All natives of Sweden, aged 21, possessing real property to the taxed value of 1,000 kronor, or 56., or farming, for a

period of not less than five years, landed property to the taxed value of 6,000 kronor, or 3331., or paying income tax on an annual income of 800 kronor, or 45l., are electors; and all natives aged 25, possessing, and having possessed at least one year previous to the election, the same qualifications, may be elected members of the Second Chamber. The number of qualified electors to the Second Chamber in 1881 was 281,163, or 6.2 of the population; only 66,591, or 23.7 of the electors actually voted. In the smaller towns and country districts the election may either be direct or indirect, according to the wish of the majority. The election is for the term of three years, and the members obtain salaries for their services, at the rate of 1,200 kronor, or 671., for each session of four months, besides travelling expenses. The salaries and travelling expenses of the deputies are paid out of the public purse. The members of both Chambers are elected by ballot, both in town and country.

The executive power is in the hands of the king, who acts under the advice of a Council of State, the head of which is the Minister of State. It consists of ten members, seven of whom are ministerial heads of departments and three without department, and is composed as follows:

1.. Oscar R. Themptander, Minister of State; appointed May 16, 1884; and Minister of Finance; appointed March 8, 1881.

2. Baron Carl Fredrik Lotharius Hochschild, Minister of Foreign Affairs; appointed April 27, 1880.

3. Nils Henrik Vult von Steyern, Minister of Justice; appointed April 19, 1880.

4. General Knut Axel Ryding, Minister of War; appointed June 16, 1882.

5. Baron Carl Gustaf von Otter, Minister of Marine; appointed April 19, 1880.

6. Julius Edvard von Krusenstjerna, Minister of the Interior; appointed November 30, 1883.

7. Carl Gustaf Hammarskjöld, Minister of Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs; appointed August 27, 1880.

8. Johan Henrik Lovén; appointed June 5, 1874.

9. Johan Christer Emil Richert; appointed August 27, 1880. 10. Baron Claes Gustaf Adolf Tamni; appointed May 19, 1884. All the members of the Council of State are responsible for the acts of the Government.

The administration of justice is entirely independent of the Government. Two functionaries, the Justitie-Kansler, or Chancellor of Justice, and the Justitie Ombudsman, or Attorney-General, exercise a control over the administration. The former, appointed by the king, acts also as counsel for the crown, while the latter,

who is appointed by the Diet, has to extend a general supervision over all the courts of law.

The kingdom is divided into 3 high court districts, 115 district courts divisions, and 303 assize districts.

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Church and Education.

The mass of the population adhere to the Lutheran Protestant Church, recognised as the State religion. There are 12 bishoprics and 2,408 parish churches and chapels in 1884. At the census of 1880, the number of 'Evangelical Lutherans' was returned at 4,544,434, the Protestant dissenters, Baptists, Methodists, and others, numbering 16,911, including 6,091 unbaptised children. Of other creeds, there were 810 Roman Catholics, 17 Greek-Catholics, 89 Irvingites, 2,993 Jews, and 414 Mormons. No civil disabilities attach to those not of the national religion. The clergy are chiefly supported from the proceeds of the Church lands.

The kingdom has two universities, at Upsala and Lund, frequented the former by 1,730 and the latter by 810 students in 1884. Education is well advanced in Sweden. There are upwards of 130 public high and normal schools of various grades, besides several special schools-military and naval, technical, navigation, deaf and dumb institutes, &c.-with 20,000 pupils in 1880. Public elementary instruction is gratuitous and compulsory, and children not attending schools under the supervision of the Government must furnish proofs of having been privately educated. The system is the same as in Norway.

In 1882 there were 9,639 elementary schools with 11,387 teachers and 659,815 pupils, being quite 94 per cent. of all the children between eight and fifteen years of age. In 1882 the expenditure on education was 9,756,217 kronor, of which more than one-fourth came from the national funds. Among the recruits of 1883 only 0.3 per cent. were unlettered.

Revenue and Expenditure.

The national income is derived to the extent of one-third from direct taxes and national property, including railways, and the rest mainly from indirect taxation, customs and excise duties, and an impost on spirits. The sources of revenue and branches of expenditure of the kingdom for the year 1885 were established as follows, in the budget estimates passed in the session of 1884 by the Diet.

The extraordinary expenditure consisted of 1,318,800 kronor for the army, 1,965,000 kronor for navy, and the remainder for the interior, public worship, education, and pensions. The land tax amounts to an average of 28. per head of the population. The value of the land and house property of Sweden is thus returned for 1883 :

The rateable income from the land is 6,264,8841. and from buildings 11,410,6027.

The expenditure for the church is chiefly defrayed by the parishes and out of the revenue of landed estates belonging to the Crown, and the amounts do not appear in the budget estimates, To the expenditure for foreign affairs Norway contributes annually 306,500 kronor, or 17,0271. The expenses for public instruction are in great part defrayed by the parishes and the provincial assemblies (Landsting).

On January 1, 1884, the public liabilities of the kingdom, contracted entirely for railways, were as follows, according to reports laid before the Diet :

Funded railway loan of 1860 without interest

Kronor 2,013,333

All the loans are paid off gradually by means of sinking funds. The debt amounts to about 27. 15s. per head of the population, and the interest to about 2s. 4d.; but as the railway receipts exceed two-thirds of the interest, the charge per head is nominal.

Army and Navy.

The Swedish army is composed of four distinct classes of troops. They are

1. The Värfvade, or enlisted troops, to which belong the royal lifeguards, one battalion of chasseurs, one regiment of hussars, the artillery, the engineers, and the train.

2. The Indelta, consisting. of 24 regiments and corps of infantry, and six regiments and corps of cavalry, the privates of which are paid and kept by the landowners. Every soldier of the Indelta has, as a rule, besides a small annual pay, his torp, or cottage, with