Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/380

Rh 358 SAXONY [GEOGRAPHY AND STATISTICS. manufacture are Zwickau, Chemnitz, Glauchau, Meerane, and Hohenstein in the south of Zwickau, and Cainenz, Pulsuitz, and Bischofswerda in the north of Dresden. The centre of the cotton manufacture (especially of cotton hosiery) is Chemnitz ; cotton-muslins are made throughout the Voigtland, ribbons at Pulsnitz and its neighbourhood. Woollen cloth and buckskin are woven at Canienz, Bischofswerda, and Grossenhain, all in the north-east, woollen and half-woollen underclothing at Chemnitz, Glauchau, Meerane, and Reichenbach ; while Bautzen and Limbach produce woollen stockings. Linen is manufactured -chiefly in the mountains of Lusatia, where the looms are still to some extent found in the homes of the weavers. The coarser kinds only are now made, owing to the keen English competition in the finer varieties. Damask is produced at Gross-Schonau and Neu-Schunau. Lace- making, discovered or introduced by Barbara Uttmann in the latter half of the 16th century, and now fostered by Govern- ment schools, has long been an important domestic industry among the villages of the Erz Mountains. Straw-plaiting occupies 6000 hands on the mountain slopes between Gottleuba and Lockwitz. Waxcloth is manufactured at Leipsic, and artificial flowers at Leipsic and Dresden. Stoneware and earthenware are made at Chemnitz, Zwickau, Bautzen, and Meissen, porcelain ("Dresden china") at Meissen, chemicals in and near Leipsic. Dbbeln, Werdau, and Lossnitz are the chief seats of the Saxon leather trade ; cigars are very extensively made in the town and district of Leipsic, and hats and pianofortes at Leipsic, Dresden, and Chemnitz. Paper is made chiefly in the west of the kingdom, but does not keep pace with the demand. Machinery of all kinds is produced, from the sewing-machines of Dresden to the steam- locomotives and marine-engines of Chemnitz. The last-named place, though the centre of the iron-manufacture of Saxony, has to import every pound of iron by railway. The leading branch is the machinery used in the industries of the country mining, paper- making, and weaving. The very large printing trade of Leipsic encourages the manufacture of printing-presses in that city. In 1883-84 Saxony contained 744 active breweries and 683 distil- leries. The tendency in this branch of industry is to extinguish the smaller establishments, and to form large joint-stock com- panies. The smelting and refining of the metal ores is also an important industry. The chief smelting works, at Freiberg, employed 1377 hands in 1883. Trade. Leipsic, with its famous and still frequented fairs, is the focus of the trade of Saxony. The fur trade between eastern and western Europe and the book -trade of Germany centre here. Chemnitz, Dresden, Plauen, Zwickau, Zittau, and Bautzen are the other chief commercial cities. The principal exports are wool, woollen, cotton, and linen goods, and the other produce of the factories and of the mines. Communication. The roads of Saxony are numerous and good. In 1883 there were 2304 miles of road in the kingdom. Saxony was the first German state to encourage and develop a railway system, and, although at first private enterprise led the way, the Saxon lines are now almost exclusively in the hands of Govern- ment. The first railway, between Leipsic and Althen, was opened on April 24, 1837. In 1837 there were 9 miles of state railway ; in 1840, 71 miles ; in 1850, 250 ; in 1870, 685 ; in 1880, 1184 ; and in 1884, 1355 miles, which, together with 75 miles of private line, mostly worked by the state, employed 24, 400 hands. There are no canals in Saxony, and the only navigable river is the Elbe. Population. In 1880 the population of Saxony was 2,972, 805, or 6^ per cent of the total population of the German empire, on 2 '7 per cent, of its area. The provisional returns of the census of 1885 gave a population of 3,179,168. With the exception of the free towns, Saxony is the most densely peopled member of the empire, and its population is increasing at a more rapid rate than is the case in any of the larger German states. In 1880 Saxony had 51 3 '5 inhabitants per square mile, nearly three times as many as Bavaria ; Prussia had 202 '8, and the average for the empire was 2167. More than half (56 per cent.) of the people live in communities of over 2000 inhabitants. The following table shows the distribu- tion of the population among the four administrative districts. It will be noticed that the industrial district of Zwickau is the most densely peopled. District Population. Area In Square Miles. Average per Square Mile. Bautzen. 351,326 953 368*6 Dresden 808 512 1675 48 '7 Leipsic 707,826 1377 514-0 Zwickau 1,105,141 1784 619 '4 The growth of the population since 1815, when the kingdom received its present limitshas been as follows: in 1815,1,178,802; in 1830, 1,402,066; in 1840, 1,706,275; in 1864, 2,344,094; and in 1875, 2,760,586. The number of marriages per 1000 inhabitants is between 8 and 9 ; the birth-rate is 43, and the death-rate 30 per thousand. The annual increase of the population, on the average of the five yctrs between 1875 and 1880, is at the rate of 1*48 per cent. Tho death-rate in Saxony is the highest in Germany, but its birth-rato is also the highest, except in the small state of Reuss (alterer Linie). In 1883, out of 132,209 births, 16,990, or 12'8 per cent, were illegitimate, and 4935, or 3 '7 per cent., were still-born, and these rates represent tolerably accurately the average of the last few years. In the relative number of suicides (311 per 1,000,000 inhabitants) Saxony ranks highest among the European states (see Morselli, Int. Sci. Ser., vol. xxxvi. ). In 1884 1114 persons, of whom 861 were males, committed suicide. In the same year 17,706 persons were punished as vagrants. The preponderating industrial activity of Saxony fosters the tendency of the population to concentrate in towns ; with the exception of the free towns and Anhalt, no German state has so large a proportion of urban population, i.e., inhabitants residing in communities of 2000 persons and upwards. In the empire as a whole 41 '4 per cent, of the population is urban in this sense ; in Saxony the proportion rises to 56 '6 per cent. The largest towns are Dresden (245,515 inhabitants), the capital since the middle of the 16th century, Leipsic (170,076), and Chemnitz (110,693). Eighucii other towns, chiefly in the manufacturing district of Zwickau, have over 10,000 inhabitants, and thirty-five between 5000 and 10,000. The main results of the industrial census of 1882, which shows an increase of population since 1880 of 42,000, are summarized iu the following table, which gives the number of persons (including wives, families, and dependants) supported by the several occupations, and the percentage of the total population : Occupations. Persons. Percentage. 1. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing 2. Industrial pursuits 602,378 1,695,895 20 56'2 3. Trade 360,675 12 4. Domestic servants and general labourers 5. Official, in ilitary, and professional classes 6. Not returned under any occupation. . . 53,584 148,361 153,929 17 5 5-1 The people of Saxony are chiefly of pure Teutonic stock ; a pro- portion are Germanized Slavs, and in the south of Bautzen theru are still about 50,000 Wends, who retain their peculiar customs and language. In some villages near Bautzen hardly a word of German is spoken. Religious Statistics. About 97 per cent, of the inhabitants of Saxony are Protestants ; between 6000 and 7000 are Jews, and the remainder, including the royal family, are mostly Roman Catholics. According to the religious census of 1880, 2,886,806 were Evangeli- cals, 74,383 Roman Catholics, 1467 German Catholics, 620 Angli- cans, 453 Greek Catholics, 6518 Jews, and 339 "others." Tim Evangelical-Lutheran or State Church had 1130 pastors and 1393 places of worship in 1884. Its head is the minister ' ' de evangelicis " so long as the king is Roman Catholic ; and its management is vested in the Evangelical Consistory at Dresden. Its representative assembly, consisting of twenty-nine clergymen and thirty-five lay- men is called a synod (Synode). The Roman Catholic Church lias enjoyed the patronage of the reigning family since 1697, though it was the peace of Posen (1806) which placed it on a level with the Lutherans. By the peace of Prague, which transferred Upper Lusatia to Saxony in 1635, stipulations were made in favour of the Roman Catholics of that region, who are ecclesiastically in the jurisdiction of the cathedral chapter of St Peter at Bautzen, the dean of which has ex offitio a seat in the first chamber of the diet. The other districts are managed by an apostolic vicariate at Dresden, under the direction of the minister of public worship. Two nun- neries in Bautzen are the only conventual establishments in Saxony, and no others may be founded. Among the smaller religious sects the MORAVIAN BRETHREN (q.v.), whose chief seat is at Herruhut, are perhaps the most interesting. In 1868 civil rights were declared to be independent of religious confession. Education. Saxony claims to be one of the most highly educated countries in Europe, and its foundations of schools and universities were among the earliest in Germany. Of the four universities founded by the Saxon electors at Leipsic, Jena, Wittenberg, and Erfurt, only the first is included in the present kingdom of Saxony. It is second only to Berlin in the number of its students. The endowed schools (Fiirstenschulen) at Meissen and Grimma have long enjoyed a high reputation. Besides these there are 12 other gymnasia, 13 realschulen of the first class, and 19 of the second class, the organization of which resembles that already described in detail under PRUSSIA. There are nearly 4000 elementary and pre- paratory schools ; and education is compulsory. Of 8856 recruits in 1883-84 only 13 ('15 per cent.) were unable to read and write. Saxony is particularly well-equipped with technical schools, the textile industries being especially fostered by numerous schools of weaving, embroidery, lace-making, &c. ; but the mining academy at. Freiberg and the school of forestry at Tharandt are probably the