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{|width="100%" members. The senators are named for three years by the emperor. The vice presidents are chiefs of the departments of justice and finance. The deliberations of the senate are held at Helsingfors, the modern capital. High courts of justice sit at Abo, Vasa, and Viborg. There is also a regular military court. Provincial governors reside at Helsingfors, Abo, Tavastehuus, Viborg, St. Michael, Kuopio, Vasa, and Uleaborg. These dignitaries are all, by the terms of the constitution, Finns, and a secretary of state for Finnish affairs resides at St. Petersburg, and is a member of the imperial council. A diet, composed like the former diet of Sweden of the four orders, nobility, clergy, burghers, and peasants, is a constitutional privilege of Finland, according to the imperial recognition. The troops of the army as well as of the navy consist of men who volunteer for a term of six years. In 1872 Finland had only a battalion of sharpshooters, consisting of 679 men; the marine troops numbered 100 men. The revenue in the general budget for 1871 amounted to $3,058,370, of which $363,440 were from real estate, $1,322,092 from customs, stamps, &c., $500,166 from casual dues, and $240,000 from tax on brandies, &c. The expenditures amounted to $2,736,499, of which $575,076 were for the civil administration, $205,440 for government, $475,937 for agriculture and commerce, and $512,110 for extraordinary expenditures. The revenue and the expenditure of the military budget amounted to $492,788 each. The clergy, part of the troops, and various civil functionaries receive their emoluments and pay from resources not included in the foregoing list of revenue; namely, from country parishes, or from government lands reserved for this purpose. These expenditures therefore do not appear in the general budget. The debt of the state in 1871 amounted to $8,309,000.—Less is known of early Finnish history than of that of any other European country. The inhabitants, pagans, were governed by their own independent kings until about the middle of the 12th century. Their piracies at this period so much harassed the Swedes, that St. Eric, king of the latter people, undertook a crusade against them, and introduced Christianity, and also probably planted Swedish colonists upon their coasts. The Swedes thus acquired a hold upon the country which they retained for several centuries. From this period down to 1809 the history of Finland is included in that of the kings of Sweden, during which the country was the frequent scene of Russian and Swedish wars. By the peace of Nystad (1721), three years after the death of Charles XII., the territory of Viborg, the eastern division of Finland, became definitively Russian. In 1741 the Swedes, hoping to repair their losses, declared war, but in a few months the whole of Finland was overrun by the Russians. In the following year, at Abo, Sweden ratified anew
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all her former cessions, yielding additional territory also, but recovered the principal duchy. In 1787 Gustavus III. began his great attempt to recover these losses and to humble his antagonist; but the results of the war added little glory to the Swedish arms. In 1808 a fresh invasion from Russia took place, and Sweden purchased peace by the cession of all Finland and the islands of Aland, Sept. 17, 1809. The Swedish language and customs during 750 years had taken such firm root that Russian dominion has been unable to modify them. Abo remains in some degree a Swedish city, and the removal of the seat of government to its rival Helsingfors (1819), and of the university (1827), has not contributed to Russianize the ancient capital. Indeed, at the present day Stockholm is for Abo much what St. Petersburg is for Helsingfors. During the whole period from 1809 to 1863 the Finnish diet was not convoked by the Russian government. On Sept. 18, 1863, the emperor Alexander opened the diet at Helsingfors, composed of 48 representatives of the rural population, 30 of the towns, 32 of the clergy, and 141 noblemen. The emperor promised that he would coöperate with this diet in the introduction of reasonable reforms. Several resolutions of the diet of 1863-'4, as well as of those which met in 1867 and 1872, have been sanctioned by the emperor. Besides the new electoral law, already referred to, a new church law for the Lutheran church of Finland was published in 1869. A new press law which had been adopted by the diet in 1864 was promulgated in 1865, and was to remain in force only till 1867; but as the diet of 1867 failed to agree on the proposed amendments, it remained in force till 1872, when all the four estates composing the diet declared in favor of the liberty of the press, which the government refused to concede. On April 12, 1872, the customs frontier between Finland and Russia was abolished.—. The Finnish language (Finnish, Suomen Kieli) is one of the chief branches of the Uralo-Finnish family; being, with the Esthic and Lappic collaterals, kindred to the languages of the Ugrians or eastern Turks, Osmanli Turks, Samoyeds, Tartars, Magyars, Mongols, and Tunguses, whose chief branch is the Mantchoos. All these, with some other tribes, constitute the family variously designated as Scythic, Turanian, Allophylic, Mongolian, or Uralo-Altaic. (See, , and .) The Kieli, which is spoken by more than 2,000,000 people, consists of many dialects, of which the principal are the lower, used along the coasts (except the islands and towns, where Swedes have settled), its Abo variety being the dialect used in books; the upper, or that of the inland region, divided into the sub-dialects of Ulea and Viborg, and the varieties of Karelia, Ingria, &c. The Suomic language is written with 23 Latin or German letters, of which two are repeated at the end of