Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/214

 I 78 GERMANY HAMBURG.

Constitution, Revenue, and Population.

The Constitution, bearing date March 28, 1867, provides for a legislative hody of 12 members, 3 nominated by the sovereign, 2 by the nobility, 3 elected by towns, and 4 by rural districts. The public revenue, balanced by the expenditure, averaged 200,000 thaler, or 29,500/. There was a small public debt, in 1869, to the amount of 100,000 thaler, or 14,750/.

The population of the principality amounted, in 1867, to 43,889 souls, living on an area of 148 English square miles. Nearly all are members of the Lutheran Church.

XXin. HAMBURG.

(Freie Stadt Hamburg.)

Constitution and Revenue.

The present constitution of the State and Free City of Hamburg was published on the 28th September, 1860, and came in force on the 1st of January, 1861. According to the terms of this funda- mental law, the government — Staatsgewalt — is intrusted, in common, to two chambers of representatives, the Senate, and the Blirgerschaft, or House of Burgesses. The Senate, which exercises chiefly, but not entirely, the executive power, is composed of eighteen members, one-half of which number must have studied jurisprudence, while seven out of the remaining nine must belong to the class of merchants. The members of the Senate are elected ' for life by the House of Burgesses ; but a senator is at liberty to retire at the end of six years. A first and second burgomaster, chosen annually in secret ballot, preside over the meetings of the Senate. No burgomaster can be in office longer than two years ; and no member of the Senate is allowed to hold any public office whatever. The House of Burgesses consists of 192 members, 84 of whom are elected in secret ballot by the votes of all tax-paying citizens. Of the remaining 108 members, 48 are chosen, also by ballot, by the owners of house pro- perty in the city valued at 3,000 marks, or 187/., over and above the amount for which they are taxed ; while the other 60 members are deputed by various guilds, corporations, and courts of justice. All the members of the House of Burgesses are chosen for six years, in such a manner that every three years new elections take place for one-half the number. The House of Burgesses is represented, in permanence, by a Biirgcr-Ausschuss, or committee of the house, con- sisting of twenty deputies, of which no more than five are allowed to