Army and Navy. The troops of the kingdom are raised mainly by conscription, and to a small extent by enlistment. By the terms of two laws voted by the Storthing in 1866 and in 1876, the land forces are divided into the troops of the line, the military train, the Landvaern, or militia, and, in time of war, the Landstorm, or final levy. All young men, past the twenty-first year of age, are liable to the conscription, with the exception of the inhabitants of the three northern Amts of the kingdom, who are free from military land service. The young men raised by conscription have to go through a first training in the school of recruits, extending over 50 days in the infantry, and 90 days other arms, and are then put into the bataillons, which, under ordinary circumstances, have an annual practice of 30 days, after which the men are sent on furlough, with obligation to meet when requested. The nominal term of service is ten years, divided between seven years in the line and three years in the Landvaern, or militia. The Landvaern is only liable to service within the frontiers of the kingdom. On the 1st of January 1884, the troops of the line, with its reserves, numbered about 40,000 men, with 800 officers. The number of troops actually under arms can never exceed, even in war, 18,000 men without the consent of the Storthing. The king has permission to keep a guard of Norwegian volumteers at Stockholm, and to transfer, for the purpose of common military exercises, 3,000 men annually from Norway to Sweden, and from Sweden to Norway. The naval force of Norway comprised, in 1884, 40 steamers and 31 sailing vessels, the latter, with the exception of two, forming a flotilla of row-boats for coast defence. The following was the composition of the fleet of steamers in the navy :— The navy was manned, in 1884, by 800 sailors on permanent engagement, a great number of them volunteers, with 115 commissioned officers and cadets. All seafaring men and inhabitants of seaports, between the ages of twenty-two and thirty-five, are enrolled on the lists of either the active fleet or the naval militia, and liable, by a law passed in 1866, to the maritime conscription. The numbers on the register amounted, in 1884, to nearly 27,800 men. The fortresses of Norway are unimportant, Frederiksstad, Frederiksten, Akershus near Christiania, Oscarsborg and Vardöhus, with forts at Kristiansand, Bergen and Trondhjem. Area and Population. A census of the population of Norway is taken every ten years. In 1865 the domiciled population was 1,701,365. The kingdom is divided into twenty provinces, or Amts, the area and population of which were as follows at the last census enumeration, taken December 31, 1875: In 1875 there were 876,762 men and 930,138 women; the domiciled population was 1,818,853. At the end of 1880 the domiciled population was estimated at 1,925,000. The Norwegians, like the Swedes, belong almost entirely to the Scandinavian branch of the Teutonic family; in 1875 there were 7,594 Finns, 14,645 settled, and 1,073 Nomad Lapps, about 700 gipsies, and 4,461 of mixed race between Norwegians, Finns, and Lapps. Of the 57,350 foreign born population 29,340 were Swedes, 2,205 Danes, 1,471 Germans, 2,709 Finlanders. Norway is essentially an agricultural and pastoral country. At the census of 1865, the inhabitants of towns numbered 266,292, and at the end of 1875 they were 324,420, showing an increase of 23 per cent., against an increase of the rural population of only 4 per cent. In 1880 the town population had increased to 404,000, showing an increase of 23 per cent in five years, while the country population had only increased at the rate of less than two per cent.. The two largest towns are Christiania, with a population of 124,155 (on January 1, 1884), and Bergen, with 43,026 (on January 1, 1881). Other towns are Stavanger with 23,500 inhabitants (1880), Throndjem, 22,152 (1875), Drammen, 19,582 (1881). The following table gives the marriages, births (excluding stillborn) and deaths from 1878 to 1882: In 1882 there were 1,858 still-born, or 3·0 per cent. of the total births. Of the total births 5,009 or 8.2 per cent. were illegitimate. Emigration carries off, chiefly to the United States, considerable numbers of the population. The number of emigrants was 4,863 in 1878, 7,608 in 1879, 20,212 in 1880, 25,976 in 1881, 28,804 in 1882, and 22,167 in 1883. In 1881, 3,713 persons were accused of crime, and 3,277 convicted. The number of paupers in 1879 was 144,465. Trade and Industry. The average value of the total imports into Norway, in the five years 1879-83, was 153,976,800 kronor, or 8,554,000l., and of the exports 111,597,800 kronor, or 6,200,000l. Of the imports about 27 per cent. came from, and of the exports 33 per cent, went to Great Britain; 28 per cent. of the imports came from Germany, 10 per cent. from Denmark, 10 per cent. from Sweden, 9 per cent. from Russia, and about 4 per cent, each from France and Holland. Of the exports about 14 per cent. went to Germany, 12 per cent. to Sweden, 10 per cent. (chiefly fish) to Spain, 7 per cent. to France, 5 per cent, each to Denmark and Holland, and about 4 per cent. to Russia. The imports in 1882 were valued at 8,915,3007., and in 1883 at 8,962,000l. In 1882 the exports were 6,830,9007., and in 1883, 6,452,2001. The chief imports are corn (one-fourth of total), textile manufactures (one-seventh), colonial goods (one-ninth), minerals (one-sixteenth), and metals raw and manufactured (one-sixteenth). The chief exports are fish and timber, each one-third of total in 1883. The commercial intercourse between Norway and the United Kingdom, according to the Board of Trade returns, is shown in the subjoined table, which gives the value of the exports from Norway to Great Britain and Ireland, and of the imports of British and Irish produce into Norway, in each of the ten years 1874 to 1883 : Years Exports from Norway to £ Imports of British Home £ - About three-fourths of the exports from Norway to the United Kingdom consist of wood and timber. In 1883 the exports of timber, sawn or split, amounted to 1,596,3297. The minor exports to Great Britain comprise fish, ice, and small quantities of bar iron and copper ore. Iron, wrought and unwrought, of the value of 171,9037.; cotton manufactures, of the value of 186,2547.; coals, of the value of 230,3417.; and woollens, of the value of 149,8231., formed the chief British imports into Norway in the year 1883. The shipping belonging to Norway numbered 7,913 vessels, of a total burthen of 1,530,004 tons, manned by 60,593 sailors, at the end of 1882. Of the vessels, 7,506, of 1,447,485 tons, were sailing vessels, and 407, of 82,519 tons, were steamers. Of the total number, 4,902, of 1,440,001 tons, were engaged in foreign trade. During 1883, there were added 45 steamers, of 13,890 tons. Norway has, in proportion to population, the largest commercial navy in the world. In 1882, 12,386 vessels of 2,271,470 tons entered, and 12,890 of 2,192,069 tons cleared Norwegian ports. Norway has about 120,000 people and over 25,000 boats engaged in the fisheries, three-fourths in the cod fisheries. The total value of the fishery in 1882 was 1,117,6007. At the end of 1884 there were in Norway 971 miles of railway open for traffic. The receipts in the financial year 1882-3 amounted to 371,8007., and the expenses to 263,000. The capital sunk in railways amounts to 4,734,0721. Except the first line, Christiania. to Mjösen, 42 miles, all the railways have been constructed partly by subscription (one-fifth to one-third out of whole cost) in the districts interested, and partly at the expense of government. All the railways, except the above, are thus entirely under control of the government. There were at the end of 1883 telegraph lines of the length of 5,629 English miles (4,622 miles belonging to the state, 1,007 miles to the railways), and wires of the length of 10,075 miles (8,523 miles belonging to the state, 1,552 miles to the railways). The number of telegrams in the year 1883 was 912,634, of which 538,527 were inland, 168,513 sent to, and 205,581 received from foreign countries, and 13 in transit. The number of telegraph offices at the end of 1883 was 312. Receipts 1883 56,5271., expenses 65,1391. The number of post-offices at the same date was 1,032. The number of letters forwarded through the post in 1883 was 18,218,967, besides 14,192,010 journals. Diplomatic Representatives. 1. OF SWEDEN AND NORWAY IN GREAT BRITAIN. Envoy and Minister.-Count Edward Piper, accredited July 6, 1877. Attaché.-S. C. Schweigaard. 2. OF GREAT BRITAIN IN SWEDEN AND NORWAY. Envoy and Minister.--Edwin Corbett, appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Sweden and Norway, Dec. 24, 1884. Secretaries.-Edmund William Cope; George Greville. Money, Weights, and Measures. The money, weights, and measures of Sweden and Norway, and the British equivalents, are as follows:: The Swedish Krona = MONEY. 100 ôre-approximate value 1s. 1d., or about 18 to the pound sterling. Norwegian Krone 100 ôre-the same value as the Swedish Krona. By a treaty signed May 27, 1873, with additional treaty of October 16, 1875, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark adopted the same monetary system. |