Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/211

 GERMANY — REUSS-SCHLEIZ. I 75

Constitution, Revenue, and Population.

The government is absolute, a charter, granted in 1849, having been, alter many changes, finally abolished in 1857. The Prince exercises his authority through an executive divided into three departments. Accounts issued by the department of finance re- port a revenue, uniform for several years, of 644,678 thaler, or 96,701/., and an expenditure of 616,733 thaler, or 92,511/., leaving a surplus of 4,190/. There is a considerable public debt, the amount of which is not accurately known.

The area of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen embraces 311 English square miles, containing a population, in 1867, of 67,454 souls. The census returns stated the population to be all members of the Protestant faith, except 101 Roman Catholics, and 174 Jews.

XX. EEUSS-SCHLEIZ.

(Ft'RSTENTHUM REUSS-SCHLEIZ).

Reigning Sovereign.

Heinrich XIV., Prince of Reuss-Schleiz, born May 28, 1832, the son of Prince Heinrich LXVIL, and of Princess Adelaide; suc- ceeded to the throne at the death of his father, July 10, 1867 ; married, Feb. 6, 1858, to Princess Louise of Wurtemberg. Off- spring of the marriage are two children, Heinrich, born Nov. 10, 1858 ; and Elisabeth, born Oct. 27, 1859.

The reigning house of Reuss-Schleiz forms a younger branch of the princely Reuss family. By the extinction of several other closely related lines, the house of Schleiz obtained a large increase of territory at the end of the latter and the commencement of the present century. The civil list of the Prince amounts to about 20,000/. per annum. As in Reuss-Greiz (see p. 156), the greater part of the territory of the principality is the private property of the reigning family.

All the princes are called Heinrich, and to distinguish them, they have numbers attached to their names, beginning and ending in each century. Number one is given to the first prince of the branch born in the century, and the numbers follow in the order of birth until the century is finished, when they begin again with number one. Thus the late prince, who was born in 1789 and died in 1867, was Heinrich LXVIL, and his son, the reigning prince, born in 1832, is Heinrich XIV., being respectively the 67th and 14th prince of Reuss-Schleiz, born in the 18th and 19th centuries.