Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1389

Rh

The expenditure for the Church is chiefly defrayed by the parishes and out of the revenue of landed estates belonging to the Church, and the amounts do not appear in the budget estimates. A part of the cost for maintaining the army Indelta also does not appear in the budget. The expenses for public instruction are in great part defrayed by the parishes.

On January 1, 1898, the public liabilities of the Kingdom, contracted entirely for railways, were as follows:—

All the loans are paid off gradually by means of sinking funds. The debt amounts to about 3 £. 8 s. per head of the population, and the interest to about 2 s. 3 d.; but as the railway receipts amount to about the whole interest, the charge per head is nominal.

The income of the communes in 1896 was 74,184,779 kronor, and the expenditure 74,268,772 kronor. Their assets amounted to 312,691,802 kronor, and their debts to 188,543,622 kronor. The revenue of the provincial representative bodies was 4,585,691 kronor, and expenditure 4,322,742 kronor; their assets 14,346,759 kronor, and debts 4,760,238 kronor.

Defence.

The chief fortifications of Sweden are, on the coast, Karlskrona with Kungsholmen and Westra Hästholmen, Stockholm with Vaxholm-Oscar-Fredriksborg; in the interior, Karlsborg, near Lake Wetter.

The Swedish army is composed of three distinct classes of troops. They are:—

1. The Värfvade, or enlisted troops, to which belong the royal lifeguards (two infantry and one cavalry regiments), five regiments of infantry (of these, however, three regiments contain Indelta troops), one battalion of chasseurs, two battalions of infantry, four regiments of cavalry, the artillery, the engineers, and the train. The Värfvade are in service two or three years.

2. The Indelta, consisting of 19 regiments and one corps of infantry, and 3 regiments of cavalry. The privates of