Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/205

 CONSTITUTION, REVENUE, AND POPULATION. 1 69

is paid into the public exchequer, -while the rest ia divided between the Duke and the State.

Constitution, Revenue, and Population.

The Staatsgrundgesetz, or fundamental law of the duchy, pro- claimed May 3, 1852, vests the legislative power in two separate assemblies, one for the province of Coburg and the other for the province of Gotha. The Coburg Chamber consists of eleven, and that for Gotha of nineteen members, chosen in as many electoral divisions, by the direct vote of all the inhabitants. Every man above the age of twenty-five, who pays taxes, has a vote, and any citizen above thirty may be elected a deputy. New elections take place every four years. The two assemblies meet separately every year ; and every second year they unite into one Chamber, to which the Coburg Diet deputes seven, and that of Gotha fourteen members. The ' United Parliament ' meets alternately at the town of Coburg and at Gotha, and has to decide all legislative measures bearing upon questions affecting the whole duchy, while the provincial assemblies occupy themselves with affairs of a more local nature.

The budget is voted for the term of four years, and in the financial accounts a distinction is made between Crown-revenue, derived from the domains, and State-revenue. The annual income of the former, during the years 1861-65, was 559,500 thaler, or 83,925/., and the expenditure 385,669 thaler, or 57,851/., leaving an animal surplus of 173,831 thaler, or 26,074/., which was distributed between the Duke and the public exchequer, in the proportion of His Highness obtaining 120,121 thaler, or 18,022/., and the country 53,680 thaler, or 8,052/. The State-revenue for the period 1861-65 was 606,500 thaler, or 90,975/. annually, and the public expenditure the same. In the budget estimates for 1865-69, the Crown-revenue was set down as 569,180 thaler, and the expenditure pertaining to it as 383,870 thaler, leaving a surplus of 205,310 thaler, while the State revenue and expenditure was fixed at 624,890 thaler. The public debt, in 1869, amounted to 1,988,645 thaler, or 308.296/.

The area of the duchy is 816 English square miles, of which 230 belong to the province of Coburg, and 586 to Gotha. At the census of December 3, 1867, the inhabitants of the former division numbered 49,490, and of the latter 119,245, giving a total of 168,735. The whole of the population are Protestant, with the exception of some 900 Roman Catholics and 1,600 Jews.