Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/734

Rh 704 E U II O P E tion. cate the relation of complete political equality established between the two great sections of what is popularly known as the Austrian empire. Each has its own parliament, in Austria called the Rdchsrath or Imperial Council, and in Hungary the Reichstag or Imperial Diet; each its own ministers, budget, and other administrative machinery; and the transactions between the two countries not unfrequently ehow like the transactions between two independent powers. The same person is monarch over both, and the united army is under his command, but there practically the unification ceases. Russia is an hereditary monarchy, nominally governed by the absolute will of the emperor or czar, but really by this in combination with a system of four great councils. Finland still retains its separate parliament, in stituted in 1772, and supplemented by an imperial senate under the presidency of a governor-general. Switzerland is a confederation of twenty two states, with a republican government. The supreme legislative power is in the hands of the federal assembly, which is composed of a national council or Nationalrath, and a council of states or Stdnde- rath, the members of the former being chosen by the people of Switzerland in general, and the members of the latter by the people of the individual cantons. The executive power is entrusted to a federal council, and the highest judicial authority to a federal tribunal, consisting respectively of seven and eleven members, nominated for three and six years by the federal assembly. Sweden and Norway are two kingdoms under one king, with separate government, constitution, and laws. In Sweden the legis lative power is mainly in the hands of the diet, which consists of two elective chambers, while the executive is in the hands of the king and a council of state. The con stitution of Norway is rather more democratic: the full legislative power belongs to the Storthing, and the king has no right of veto if the same bill passes three times. The common affain of the two countries are decided in a council of state consisting of representatives of each. Such are the most abnormal political arrangements in Europe. Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, the Nether lands, Portugal, Spain, Roumania, Servia, are hereditary monarchies, with a parliament of two chambers and a responsible ministry. Greece differs in as far as it has only one chamber. Montenegro is an hereditary monarchy, with a senate; Monaco an hereditary principality, with a council of state; and Andorra and San Marino are both republics, with a general council. I fc ma y be safely affirmed that the population of Europe has been steadily increasing since the time of the great Revolution, though it is impossible to ascertain exactly the average rate. The number in 1787 is said to have been 144,000,000; at the peace of 1815, 180,000,000; in 1833, according to Balbi, 227,000,000 ; in 1854, 258,778,850; and in 1874, according to Behm and Wagner, 309,178,300. If the earlier estimates, which are little better than guesses, even approximate to the truth, we would have in 59 years an average annual increase of 1,850,000. In England and Prussia rather more than one per cent, of increase takes place every year, while in France during the greater part of the century the gain has been considerably less, and in exceptional years there has even been a decrease. If then we adopt one per cent, as the mean for Europe, the 180,000,000 people in Europe ought, in 1874, to be represented by 323,769,000. Two causes have greatly diminished the growth war and emigration. In the Crimean war the direct loss was 386,000 soldiers ; that of the French army in Italy was 10,173 ; and that of the German army in 1866 between 10,000 and 11,000. In the war of 1871-72 the victors lost 45,000 and the conquered a still greater number. The total loss since 1855 cannot be less than a million at the very least. Of the extent to which emigration from Europe has gone on during the present century every one has some idea; the immense territory occupied by people of European descent speaks for itself. Since 1820, Germany has contributed about two million inhabitants to the United States alone ; since 1815, Great Britain and Ireland have seen no less than from eight to nine millions of their popu lations leave their shores for ever. The drain on other countries, however, has been much less, France, for ex ample, counting her loss by emigration in the ten years from 1849 to 1858 as 200,000, and Austria her loss from 1850 to 1868 at no more than 58,000. The general rule that, other conditions being equal, the population decreases with the elevation of the country, holds especially true of Europe. None of its larger cities lie far above the sea-level. The highest point of permanent human occupation is the hospice of St Bernard at an altitude of 2472 metres, or 81 08 feet ; and the highest village, St Yeron la Ville, in the neighbourhood of Brian9on, has an altitude of 2009 metres, or 6589 feet. There is a little hamlet of Gor man immigrants called Juf, 108 feet higher, in the Swiss valley of the Avers, a tributary of the Rhine. Chaux de Fonds, a town of nearly 20,000 inhabitants in the Jura, stands at an altitude of 1000 metres, or 3280 feet, and the average elevation of the Engadine, with its numerous vil lages, is about 6000 feet. The highest inhabited spot in the Dovre-Fjeld is said to be Hjerkin, at 3152 feet above the sea; in the Grampians Corrour (Inverness-shire) at 1738, in the Harz the Brockenhaus at 3739, and in the Pyrenees Mont Louis at 5208. x The districts of densest population, or nearly 400 to the square mile, are the lower valley of the Thames, the neigh bourhood of Newcastle, and the area which includes Liver pool, Birmingham, Sheffield, and Leeds, in England, the district between Boulogne and Li6ge, the neighbourhood of Cologne and Elberfeld-Barmen, the valley of the Rhine for some distance above the junction of the Maine, part of the valley of the Neckar, the country to the south of Leipsic, the vicinity of Prague, a large portion of the valley of the Po, especially round about Milan, the neighbourhood of Naples, and a little district round about Oporto. Most of these districts of densest population are surrounded by areas in which the ratio varies from 280 to 380 inhabitants per square mile. In France the only districts approaching the higher figure are the vicinity of Paris and of Lyons; and in Spain the only spot reaching the lower is San Sebastian. Round about Barcelona and on the coast between Cfirtageua and the mouth of the Jucar there are from 190 to 240 per square mile. In no part of the Russian territory does the ratio rise higher than 140, and most of it varies from 25 to 95. The same low figures are applicable to the whole Scandinavian peninsula, with the exception of the most southern part of Sweden, which, with eastern Denmark, attains a ratio of 150 per square mile. 2 In a large part of Norway indeed, as well as in both the north and the south-east of Russia, the ratio is not more than from 3 to 5. The only other portions of the globe which reach the highest European density are the valley of the Ganges, part of the Chinese empire, and possibly some parts of central Africa. The numerical relation between the sexes is different P ] in different countries as well as in the differently con- * j stituted portions of the same national community. The se most prominent causes that interfere with the equilibrium are the greater destruction of men in time of war, and the greater removal of men by emigration. The following- table gives the relations in the principal countries : 1 Cf Berghaus, &quot; Hohentafel von 100 Gehirgsgrtippen aus alien Enltheilen,&quot; in Benin s Geogr. Jahrbi/ch, 1874. 2 See Behm and Wagner s map, &quot; Dichtigkeit der Bevolkerung iii Europa,&quot; in Petermann s Miltheil., Erga iizungeheft Num. 35, 1874.