Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/195

 CONSTITUTION, KEVENUE, AND POPULATION. 1 59

Wittekind, the celebrated leader of the heathen Saxons against Charlemagne. In the fifteenth century, a scion of the House of Olden- burg, Count Christian VIII. , was elected King of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The main line became extinguished with Count Giinther, in 1667, whereupon the territory of the family fell to the King of Denmark, who made it over to Grand-duke Paul of Russia, in exchange for pretended claims upon Schleswig-Holstein. The Grand-duke then gave Oldenburg to his cousin, Prince Friedrich August of Holstein-Gottorp, with whose descendants it remained till December 1810, when Napoleon incorporated it with the kingdom of West- phalia. But the Congress of Vienna not only gave the country back to its former sovereign, but, at the urgent demand of Czar Alexander L, added to it a territory of nearly 400 square miles, with 50,000 inhabitants, bestowing at the same time upon the prince the title of Grand-duke. Part of the new territory consisted of the principality of Birkenfeld, on the left bank of the Rhine, close to the French frontier, and some three hundred miles distant from Oldenburg. In 1854, Grand-duke Peter sold a district of 5,000 Morgen, or 3,154 acres, on the North Sea, with the harbour of Jahde, destined for a naval port, to Prussia, for the sum of 500,000 thalers, or 74,800/. The Grand-duke has a civil list of 85,000 thalers, or 12,750/., besides an allowance of 85,000 thaler from the public domains, making his total income 25,500/. He draws, moreover, a revenue of nearly 6,000/. from private estates of the family in Holstein.

Constitution, Eevenue, and Population.

A Constitution was given to the Grand-duchy Feb. 18, 1849, which, revised by a decree of Nov. 22, 1852, grants liberty of the press, trial by jury, and equality of all citizens in political and social matters. The legislative power is exercised by a Landtag, or Diet, elected for three years, by the vote of all citizens paying taxes, and not condemned for felony by a court of justice. The mode of election is indirect. Every 300 electors choose a delegate, and the delegates of twenty districts, representing 6,000 electors, appoint one deputy. No property qualification is required to become a member of the Diet. The executive is vested, under the Grand-duke, in a respon- sible ministry of three departments, called, respectively, the Ministry of the Grand-ducal House, and of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of the Interior ; and the Ministry of Finances.

The budget, according to the terms of the Constitution, must be granted by the Diet from year to year. For the year 1*65, the public revenue amounted to 2,387,231 thaler, or 358,084/., and the expenditure to 2,386,110 thaler, or 357,916/., leaving a surplus