Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/975

 CONSTITUTION — AREA AND POPULATION 619

Princess Mary of Baden. II. Princess Elisabeth, born September 7, 1857 ; married, April 17, 1877, to the Hereditary Grand-duke of Mecklenburg- Strelitz. III. Prince FAu'cird, born April 18, 1861 ; married, February 6, 1895, to Princess Louise of Saxe-Altenburg ; ofl'spriiifr, Prince Leopold Friedrich, born February 10, 1897 ; Princess Mary, boru Juno 10, 1898. IV. Prince Arihert, born June 18, 1864 ; married, July 6, 1891, to Princess Louise of Schleswig-Holstein. V. Princess Alexandra, born April 4, 1868, married, January 25, 1897, to the Prince Sizzo of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Grandchild of the Duke: — Princess Antoinette, born March 3, 1885, daughter of the late Prince Leopold, the Duke's eldest son, and Elizabeth, daughter of the Landgrave of Hesse.

The Dukes of Anhalt trace their origin to Bcrnhard, son of the celebrated Albert the Bear, jMargrave of Brandenburg, who died in 1211, The family, in the course of time, split into numerous branches, now reduced to the present line. At the establishment of the Germanic Confederation, in 1815, there were three reigning Dukes of Anhalt — namely, of Anhalt-Cothen, Anhalt-Bernburg, and Anhalt-Dessau. The first of these lines became extinct in 1847, and the second on August 19, 1863, leaving the fonner house of Anhalt-Dessau the sole heir of the family territory. In 1806 the Princes of Anhalt took the title of Dukes, on joining the Confederation of the Rhine. The Duke of Anhalt separated his property from that of the State by decree of June 28, 1869. The entailed property belonging to the ducal family is the sole resource of the Duke. Part of it, called 'the select entail,' yielding al)Out 600,000 marks, cannot be sold by the Duke without the approbation of the Diet. To the entailed property belong very large pri- vate estates in Pmssia and Hungary, embracing an area of 280 square miles,

Constitution.

The Duchy has a Constitution, proclaimed September 17, 1859, and modified by decrees of September 17, 1863, and February 13, 1872, which give legislative power to a Diet composed of 36 members, of whom two are appointed by the Duke, eight are representatives of landowners who pay the highest taxes, two of the highest taxed inhabitants belonging to the mercantile and industrial classes, fourteen of the other inhal)itants of towns, and ten of the rural districts. The executive power is entirely in the hands of the Duke, who governs through a Minister of State.

Area and Population.

The Duchy comprises an area of 906 English sc[uare miles, with a popu^ lation of 293,298 at the census of December 1895. In 1880 the population was 232,592, and in 1890 it was 271,963. From 1890 to 1895 the increase was at the rate of 1*57 per cent, per annum. Of the population in 1895, 144,201 were males, and 149,097 (or 103 '4 per 100 males) were females. Marriages (1897) 2,535 ; births, 10,735 ; deaths, 5,947 ; surplus of births, 4,788. Among the births are 317 (2 '95 per cent.) still-born, and 1,037 (9*66 per cent.) illegitimate.

The following are the emigration statistics : —

1890

67

1891

1892 162

1893

1894

1895

1896

1897

96

211

106

82

74

49

The capital, Dessau, had 42,375 inhabitants in 1895. Nearly the whole ol the inhabitants belong to the Reformed Protestant Church, there being (1895) 8,639 Catholics and 1,611 Jews.