Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/368

Rh 348 S A X S A X riehroda and Rulila and the Inselberg and Schneekopf and other picturesque points annually attract an increasing number of sum- mer visitors and tourists. Neudietendorf or Gnadenthal is a Moravian settlement founded in 1742. The population in 1880 was 194,716, or 256 per square mile, of whom 56,728 (261 per square mile) were in Coburg and 137,988 (254 per square mile) in Gotha. In the former duchy the people be- long to the Franconian and in the latter to the Thuringian branch of the Teutonic family. In 1880 there were 192,025 Lutherans, 2062 Roman Catholics, 4SO Jews, and 139 others. In 1885 the population was 198,717, 57,355 in Coburg and 141,362 in Gotha. Saxe-Coburg-Gotha is a limited hereditary monarchy, its con- stitution resting on a law of 1852, modified in 1874. For its own immediate affairs each duchy has a separate diet (in Coburg of 11, in Gotha of 19 members); but in more important and general matters a common diet, formed of the members of the separate diets, meeting at Coburg and Gotha alternately, exercises authority. The members are elected for four years ; the franchise is extended to all male taxpayers of twenty-five years of age and upwards. The ministry has special departments for each duchy, but is under a common president. In finance the duchies are also separate, the budget in Coburg being voted for a term of six years, and in Gotha for four years. After long disputes between the duke and the Government a compromise was effected in 1855, by which the greater part of the public lands is regarded as a fideicommismm in the possession of the reigning duke, while the income from the rest is regarded as state-revenue. There are thus two budgets for each diu-hy. The annual income of the public lands in Coburg is estimated for the period 1886-92 at 20,700, and the expenditure at 11,900 ; in Gotha (period 1886-90) the same source is estimated to yield 102,621 and to cost 61,996 ; together producing a surplus of 49,425, of which the duke receives 29,700 and the state-treasury 19,725. The annual state-revenue in the same periods was estimated for Coburg at 51,520, or 2246 more than the estimated expenditure, and in Gotha at 106,020, or 2244 more than the expenditure. Besides the civil list the duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha enjoys a very large private fortune, amassed chiefly by Ernest I., who sold the principality of Lichtenberg to Prussia in 1834 for an annual payment of 12,000. The congress of Vienna had bestowed the principality upon him in recognition of his services in 1813. The house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha is directly connected with five of the royal houses of Europe, and the actual rulers or the heirs of three kingdoms trace their descent from it. The succession is hereditary in the male line ; and by the deed of succession of 1855 the heir to the throne is the duke of Edinburgh, nephew of the present duke. History. The elder line of Saxe-Coburg was founded in 1680 by Albert, the second son of Ernest the Pious. On his dying child- less in 1699, however, the line became extinct, and his possessions became the subject of vehement contention amongst the other Saxon houses, until they we.re finally distributed at the end of the 18th century. The present reigning family is the posterity of John Ernest, the seventh son of Ernest the Pious, who originally ruled in Saxe-Saalfeld. His two sons, ruling in common, acquired possession of Coburg, and, changing their residence, styled them- selves dukes of Saxe-Coburg-Saulfeld. Under the son and successor of the survivor (who introduced the principle of primogeniture), Ernest Frederick I. (1764-1800), the land was plunged into bankruptcy, so that an imperial commission was appointed on his death to manage the finances. The measures adopted to redeem the country's credit were successful, but imposed so much hardship on the people that a rising took place, which had to be quelled with the aid of troops from the electorate of Saxony. The duke Francis Frederick Antony died in December 1806, and was suc- ceeded by his son Ernest III. (1806-1844), although the country was occupied by the French from 1807 until the peace of Tilsit in 1816. In the redistribution of the Saxon lands in 1826, Ernest resigned Saalfeld to Meiningen, receiving Gotha in exchange and assuming the title of Ernest I. of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The line of Saxe-Gotha had been founded in 1680 by the eldest son of Ernest the Pious, and had become extinct in 1825. When Ernest II. (b. 1818) succeeded in 1844 both the public finances and the private fortune of the ducal family (see above) were flourishing. In his reign various liberal reforms have been achieved, and the union of the duchies has been made closer. See SAXE-MEININGEN (Germ. Sachsen-Meiningen), a Plate V. duchy in Thuringia, and an independent member of the German empire, consists chiefly of an irregular crescent- shaped territory, which, with an average breadth of 10 miles, stretches for over 80 miles along the south-west slope of the Thuringian Forest. The convex side rests upon the duchy of Coburg, and is in part bounded by Bavaria, while the concave side, turned towards the north, contains portions of four other Thuringian states and Prussia be- tween its horns, which are 4G miles apart. The districts of Kranichfeld, 15 miles north-west, and Kamburg, '2'2 miles due north of the eastern horn, together with a number of smaller scattered exclaves, comprise 74 of the 953 square miles now belonging to the duchy (about the size of county Down in Ireland). The surface on the whole is hilly, and is partly occupied by offshoots of the Thuringian Forest ; the highest summits are the Kieserle (2851 feet) and the Bless (2834 feet). The chief streams are the Werra, which traverses the south and east of the duchy, and various tributaries of the Main and the Saale, so that Saxe-Meiuingen belongs to the basins of the three great rivers Weser, Ithine, and Elbe. The soil is not very productive, although agriculture flourishes in the valleys and on the level ground ; grain has to be imported to meet the demand. In 1883 only 41 '8 per cent, of the total area (in 1878, 41 '6) was devoted to agriculture, while meadow land and pasture occupied 11 per cent. The chief grain crops in 1S83 were rye (44,442 acres, yielding 16,112 tons), oats (42,447 acres, 17,343 tons), wheat (25,252 acres, 9033 tons), and bariey (19,015 acres, 94,456 tons). The cultivation of potatoes is very general (31,006 acres, 143,327 tons). Tobacco, hops, and flax (in 1883, 997 acres) are also raised. The Werrathal and the other fertile valleys produce large quantities of fruit. Sheep and cattle raising is a tolerably important branch of industry throughout the duchy ; horses are bred in Kamburg. In 1883 Saxe-Meiningen contained 5174 horses, 66,733 cattle, 58,940 sheep, 45,136 pigs, and 26,817 goats. The extensive and valuable forests, of which 75 per cent, are coniferous trees, occupy 41 '9 per cent, of the entire area. Nearly one half of the forests belong to the state and about one- third to public bodies and institutions, leaving little more than a sixth for private owners. The mineral wealth of the duchy is not inconsiderable. Iron, coal, and slate are the chief minerals worked. There are salt-works at Sal/uugen and Suiza, the former the most important in Thuringia ; and the mineral water of Friedrichshall is well known. The .manufacturing industry of Saxe-Meiningen is very active, especially in the districts of Sonne- berg, Grafenthal, and Saalfeld. Iron goods of various kinds, glass and pottery, school-slates, marbles, &c., are produced ; the abund- ant timber fosters the manufacture of all kinds of wooden articles, especially toys ; and textile industry is also carried on to a slight extent. The capital of the duchy is Meiningen (in 1881 11,227 inhab- itants). Of the sixteen other towns (Salzuugen, Wasungen, Hildburghausen, Eisfeld, Sonneberg, Saalfeld, Pbssneck, Kamburg, &c. ) none has so many as 10,000 inhabitants. There are 392 villages and hamlets. In 1880 the population was 207,075 (217 per square mile), of whom 30 per cent, lived in communities of more than 2000. As in the other Saxon duchies the population is almost exclusively Lutheran ; in 1883 202,970 belonged to that confession, 2274 were Roman Catholics, 204 of other Christian sects, and 1627 Jews. Saxe-Meiningen is a limited monarchy, its constitution resting on a law of 1829, subsequently modified. The diet, elected for six years, consists of 24 members, of whom 4 are elected by the largest landowners, 4 by those who pay the highest personal taxes, and 16 by the other electors. The franchise is enjoyed by all domiciled males over twenty-five years of age who pay at least a minimum of taxes. The government is carried on by a ministry of five, with departments for the ducal house and foreign affairs, home affairs, justice, education and public worship, and finance. The returns of the state-lands and the ordinary state-revenue are treated in separate budgets. The estimate for the period 1884-86 puts the annual income from the former at 105,340 and the annual ex- penditure at 77,915, while the annual income and expenditure of the latter are balanced at 145,148. Half of the surplus of 27,425 is credited to each fund. The duke's civil list of 19,714 (394,286 marks) is paid out of the returns from the state-lands, at one time in the possession of the reigning house. Saxe-Meiningen has one vote in the federal council and sends two deputies to the reichstag. The original territory of the duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, founded in 1680 by Bernhard, third son of Ernest the Pious, consisted of what is now the western horn of the duchy, from Henneberg northwards. Bernhard was succeeded in 1706 by his three sons ; but by 1746 the only survivor was the youngest, Antony IJlrich, who reigned alone until his death in 1763. The duchy had mean- while been considerably increased in extent ; but contentions and petty wars with the other Saxon principalities on questions of inheritance, the extravagance of the court, and the hardships of the Seven Years' War plunged it into bankruptcy and distress. _ A happier time was enjoyed under Charlotte Amalie, Antony's wife, who ruled as regent for her two sons Charles (1775-1782) and George