religious communities. The management of the schools for the people belongs to parishes. The State appoints teachers to these schools from a list of qualified persons, with the concurrence of the parishes.

According to official returns of the year 1864, there were 24,763 elementary schools, or Primarschulen, in Prussia. These 24,763 primary schools were directed by 33,617 male and 1,755 female teachers. While the population of the rural districts is only about double that of the towns, there were seven times as many primary schools in the former as in. the latter. Of 18,476 inhabitants, 17 per cent., or 3,094,294 were of an age to be required to attend school. Of that number, 1,775,888 Protestants, 1,063,805 Roman Catholics, 30,053 Jews, and 6,090 Dissenters, attended the public establishments, and 84,021 were receiving instruction in private primary schools. Of the remaining 130,437, a large number attended the secondary schools. The number of children between six and fourteen years of age amounted, in 1861, to rather more than three millions and a half, and, of these, close upon three millions attended the public schools. Of higher educational establishments, called Gymnasien,' there were 149, in the year 1864, with 41,786 pupils, and 1,823 professors and teachers. The six universities of the kingdom, Berlin, Bonn, Breslau, Greifswalde, Halle, and Königsberg, together with the Roman Catholic high-school of Münster, counted 5,421 matriculated students. The students are very nearly equally divided between law, medicine, philosophy, and Protestant theology. About 500 pupils are trained annually for the ministry of the Roman Catholic Church, chiefly at Münster. In every province the public schools are under the superintendence of a board of education, appointed by the Government; but the universities are placed directly under the control of the Minister of Public Instruction.

Revenue and Expenditure.

By the terms of the Constitution, the amount of public revenue and expenditure is to be settled annually by the Abgeordneten House, or Chamber of Deputies, in concert with the Herrenhaus, or Chamber of Lords, and the Crown. But during the years 1862-65 the constitutional prerogative of Parliament has been overruled by the executive, and the budget estimates have been simply fixed by royal decree. In the budget of the year 1864, not voted by the chambers, but published by the Government,* the revenue and expenditure are estimated as follows:

*Staatshaushalts-Etat für das Jahr 1864. Berlin, Gedruckt in der Königlichen Staatsdruckerei. 4to.

The budget estimates for 1865, like those of 1862, 1863, and 1864, were not voted by the representatives of the people, but merely fixed by royal decree.* According to the government estimates, the revenue for the year 1865, was to amount to 150,714,036 thalers, and the expenditure to 151,821,653 thalers, leaving a deficit of 1,107,617 thalers. In the parliamentary votes, the acceptance of which was refused by the crown, the estimated deficit for 1865 was converted into a surplus of 7,592,108 thalers, by reduction of the war expenditure, and the raising of the estimated revenue to 151,505,653 thalers.

The revenue and expenditure of the kingdom, since the establishment of the Parliamentary system, have been as follows:—

The last four years, as already stated, are merely government estimates, not sanctioned by the Diet. In the former financial estimates laid before the Chambers every session, the income and

* The following is the text of the Royal decree respecting the Prussian Budget:

:

'Not having succeeded in coming to an understanding with the Diet upon a Bill for the Budget of the year 1865, I order, in accordance with the Report of the Ministry of State, dated the 4th of July inst., that the estimate returned herewith, showing the expected revenue and expenditure for the current year, shall serve as a regulation for the administration of the finances.

'The decree, with the enclosure and the report of the Ministry, shall be published in the Staats Anzeiger.'

Carlsbad, July 5, 1865.

Countersigned by all the Ministers.

WILHELM.

expenditure were nearly always calculated to be equal; but the 'extraordinary expenditure,' admitted afterwards, occasioned a more or less considerable deficit.

The public debt of the kingdom, according to the official report laid before the House of Deputies in the session of 1862, was as follows on January 1, 1862 :

1. National debt bearing interest :

Thalers

Consolidated debt of May 2, 1842 (Staatschuldscheine) 82,722,200
Voluntary loan of the year 1848

Loan of 1850

5,074,670 14,447,900

14,002,300

4,504,000 13,761,800

To this debt there were added two new loans in 1864 and 1865. The loan of 1864 amounted to 17,000,000 thalers, and that of 1865 to 10,000,000 thalers, so that the total public debt of the kingdom, at the end of 1865, was 301,342,365 thalers, or 43,241,7951.

The national debt of Prussia dates from the reign of Frederick William II. King Frederick II., called 'the Great,' left at his death a treasure of 72 millions thalers, which not only was spent during the eleven years' reign of his successor, but a debt incurred of 50 millions. King Frederick William III. at first succeeded in reducing this debt to less than 30 millions; but the subsequent wars with Napoleon I. again increased the national liabilities. The debt amounted to 53,494,914 thalers, or 7,642,1307., in the year 1805,

and had risen to 217,975,517 thalers, or 31,139,3591., in 1813. The French Government had to pay 145 millions of francs to Prussia for war expenses, according to the stipulations of the Treaty of Paris, and by these means, and subsequent large reductions in the expenditure, the national liabilities were reduced to 82,722,200 thalers, or 11,817,4571., which sum was formed into a Consolidated Debt by the law of May 2, 1842. The further progress of the national debt is seen in the above table.

Army and Navy.

The military organisation of the kingdom, dating from the year 1814, is based on the principle that every man, capable of bearing arms, shall receive military instruction and enter the army for a certain number of years. There are, práctically, numerous exceptions from military service, though no substitution whatever is allowed. Every Prussian subject is enrolled as a soldier as soon as he has completed his twentieth year. He has to be in service during five years according to the new organisation, proposed by Government, but several times refused by the second Chamber, during seven years-one-half of which time is to be passed in the regular army, and the rest among the troops of the reserve. At the end of this term, the soldier enters the 'Landwehr,' or militia, for nine years, with liability to be called upon for annual practice, and to be incorporated in the regular army in time of war. Leaving the 'Landwehr,' the soldier is finally enrolled in the 'Landsturm,' which body is only called upon for service, within the frontiers of the country, in case of invasion. There are various exemptions from this law of military service, in favour of the nobility, clergy, and some other classes of the population. A certain amount of education and fortune constitutes also a partial exemption, inasmuch as young men of twenty, who pay for their own equipment and can pass a light examination, have to serve only one year in the army. The regular army consists of one general field-marshal, one general feldzeugmeister, 31 generals, 36 lieutenant-generals, 69 major-generals, 77 colonels of infantry, 18 colonels of cavalry, 15 colonels of artillery, 6 colonels of engineer corps, and one colonel of trains. The organisation of the army is as follows:

Besides the liabilities of the state, there is a large public debt owing by each of the principal towns of Prussia. These debts were chiefly contracted, for the purpose of internal improvements, since the year 1848, and were sanctioned by the Government. The city of Cologne is most indebted, and next follows Berlin; while Magdeburg, Düsseldorf, Stettin, and Königsberg have each incurred liabilities amounting to above a million thalers.

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