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 PKUSSIA 53 &c. The highest branches of scientific culture are fostered bythe royal academy of Berlin and numerous associations of scholars. There are large public libraries in all the principal cities ; observatories and botanical gardens are connected with the universities; a zoological garden is kept near Berlin. The fine arts are taught by the royal academy of art at Berlin, the art academies of Diisseldorf, Konigsberg, Hanau, and Cassel, and five art schools. The number of musical academies and musical so- cieties is enormous. The press of Prussia is treated in the article NEWSPAPEKS, vol. xii., p. 338. The dominant religion in Prussia is the Protestant. The two principal Protestant de- nominations, the Lutheran and the Reformed or Calvinistic church, united in 1817, assuming the common designation of Evangelical church. According to the census of 1871, there were in Prussia 16,041,215 Evangelical Christians, 8,268,309 Koman Catholics, 325,565 Jews, and 54,903 of smaller religious sects. Included in the latter number were 20,009 Lutheran dissent- ers, 14,052 Mennonites, 9,375 Baptists, 2,531 Free Religionists, 1,354 German Catholics, and 987 Free Congregationalists. The Old Catho- lics in 1874 numbered about 18,000. The Evangelical church constitutes a majority in the provinces of Schleswig-Holstein (99 per cent.), Pomerania (97), Brandenburg (95), Sax- ony (93), Hanover (87), Hesse-Nassau (70), and Prussia (70); the Roman Catholic church in Hohenzollern (96 per cent.), the Rhine prov- ince (73), Posen (64), Westphalia (53), and Silesia (51). The Evangelical church is gov- erned by the supreme ecclesiastical council at Berlin (established in 1850) in all spiritual matters, and by the ministry of public worship in temporal affairs. Each province has a con- sistory and a superintendent general, and is divided into dioceses, at the head of which stand superintendents. The Roman Catholic church has 2 archbishoprics (Gnesen-Posen and Cologne) and 10 bishoprics (Culm, Ermeland, Breslau, Minister, Paderborn, Treves, Osna- brilck, Hildesheim, Fulda, and Limburg). Of the Jews fully one half live in the eastern (for- merly Polish) provinces. The members of all churches recognized by government enjoy equal civil rights. The Old Catholics have been recognized by the government as a part of the Catholic church, and the bishop elected by them as a bishop of the Catholic church. Other denominations (Baptists, Methodists, German Catholics, and Free Congregational- ists) are barely tolerated, though the constitu- tion guarantees full religious liberty. Prussia is a hereditary constitutional monarchy. The constitution was promulgated Jan. 81, 1850, but has since received various modifications, the last, in reference to the ecclesiastical pro- visions, in May, 1875. In the territories an- nexed in 1866, the Prussian constitution was introduced on Oct. 1, 1867. It guarantees to all citizens equality in civil rights, the right of habeas corpus, religious liberty, freedom of the press, &c. The king is the chief execu- tive, clothed with all prerogatives of monar- chical power. He administers the government by the advice of nine responsible ministers, viz. : of the royal household, of foreign affairs, of finances, of public worship, education, and health, of commerce, industry, and public works, of the interior, of justice, of war, and of agri- culture. The legislature (Landtag) consists of a house of lords (HerrenJiaus) and a house of deputies (Abgeordnetenhaus). The former em- braces: 1, all princes of royal blood, including the princes of the formerly sovereign houses of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern- Sigmaringen; 2, the chiefs of the mediatized princely houses, recognized by the congress of Vienna, to the number of 16 in Prussia; 3, the heads of the territorial nobility, number- ing about 50 members; 4, eight titled noble- men, elected in the eight old provinces by the resident landowners ; 5, the representatives of the universities, the heads of the chapters, and the burgomasters of towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants; 6, an unlimited number of members appointed by the king for life or for a restricted period. The chamber of deputies consists of 432 members, 352 for the old prov- inces, and the remainder for the new territories annexed in 1866. The deputies are elected by indirect universal suffrage for a term of three years. The king has an absolute veto power. At the head of the political administration of each of the 11 provinces stands an Oterprdsi- dent (chief president). The provinces are divi- ded into administrative districts called Regie- rungsbezirTce, except in the province of Han- over, where the former division into Land- drosteien is retained. At the head of each RegierungsbezirTc stands a Regierungsprasi- dent, at the head of a Landdrostei a Land- drost. The number of administrative districts is 34, besides the city of Berlin and Hohen- zollern, each of which forms a separate dis- trict. The districts are divided into Kreie or circles, except Hohenzollern, which is di- vided into four Oberamtsbezirke. At the head of a circle in all the old and some of the new provinces is a LandratJi; in parts of the new territories, the former titles of the heads of subdivisions, like Kreishauptmann and Amts- hauptmann, have been retained. Provincial assemblies exist, but their powers are only ad- visory. They cannot originate any measures, and must not even advise the government upon any subject unless called upon to do so. Their principal duty is to apportion the taxes to be levied from the provinces. The police through- out the kingdom is administered by the gov- ernment. The administration of justice has been completely reorganized since 1848. Pub- licity of judicial proceedings, trial by jury, and a new criminal code have been introduced, and all exceptional jurisdiction has been abolished. In Rhenish Prussia the code Napoleon and the French legal procedure, which were introduced under the rule of Napoleon, have been main-