customs and excise duties, stamps, the profits from posts, telegraphs, and railways, the interests of the various imperial funds, and the federal contributions. The last named are assessed, according to the population, at a rate fixed annually by the Reichstag. The total funded debt amounted to 2,081,219,800 marks on March 31st, 1895.

Mining. The great bulk of the minerals mined in Germany is produced in Prussia (Westphalia, Rhenish Prussia, Silesia, and the Harz), though Saxony has many coal, iron, and silver mines, and Lorraine has coal and iron ore fields. In 1895, G. produced 79,163,600 tons of coal; 12,349,600 tons of iron ore; 24,713,200 tons of lignite; 706,300 tons of zinc ore; 633,300 tons of copper, and 1,521,800 tons of potassic salt. The number of men employed in connection with the metal working and mining industries is very large. In coal and lignite mining alone, the average number of workmen employed during 1894 was over 335,000, and over 233,000 were employed in mining and working iron.

Emigration.—The burdens imposed upon the people of Germany by the enormous military establishment, and the vexations of the compulsory military service have tended of late years more and more to swell the number of emigrants leaving German ports for foreign homes. From 1874 to 1878, the average number of emigrants was only 30,000; in 1883 the number had risen to 142,010, or nearly five times as many; in 1884 it was 149,065; in 1885, 110,119. The following year, the figures (83,225) show a reaction; but for several years following it averaged about 100,000 annually. In 1895 the number was 37,408, of whom 32,503 went to the United States, 1405 to Brazil, 2359 to other American countries, 886 to Africa, 134 to Asia, and 211 to Australia. During the 68 years from 1820 to 1888 the total emigration from Germany to the United States numbered some 3,500,000 individuals, representing an estimated loss to their native country in money of some $175,000,000. To Brazil between 1870 and 1890, the German emigrants numbered 35,834. See EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION.

Colonies. Since 1884, Germany has been extending her empire beyond the bounds of Europe, owing to the policy initiated in that year by Prince Bismarck. She has, as yet, no colonies in the strict sense of the word, but she has established a number of protectorates and "spheres of influence" in Africa and the Pacific. Her African dependencies are usually described as follows, the date of the acquisition being given with each. Africa: Togoland (1884), Cameroons (1884), S. W. Africa (1884-90), East Africa (1885-90). Pacific: Kaiser Wilhelm's Land (1886), Bismarck Archipelago (1885), Solomon Islands (1886), Marshall Islands (1886). The total area of her African possessions is reckoned at 920,920 sq. m., with a population of 10,200,000. The area of the Pacific dependencies is 99,150 sq. m., with an estimated population of 400,000. These territories are governed in general by imperial governors or commissioners appointed directly by the emperor. In July, 1890, the so-called Anglo-German agreement, fixing the boundaries of the English and German “ spheres of influence" in Africa, was signed at Berlin.

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Political Organization.—All the states of the empire recognize four distinct ordersviz., the nobility, clergy, burghers, and peasantry, and all distinguish three distinct grades of nobility. The highest of these includes the members of reigning houses, and the descendants of families who belonged at the time of the old empire to the sovereign nobility of the state, and were reichsunmittelbar, or directly connected with the empire, as holding their domains directly under the emperor, but whose houses have subsequently been mediatized, or deprived of sovereign power in accordance with special treaties between the state and the princes. There are at present 50 princely and 51 gräfliche (countly) mediatized families, who, in accordance with the act of the diet of 1806, have equality of rank with reigning houses, and enjoy many of the special privileges which were accorded to the high nobles of the empire. The second grade of nobility is composed of counts and barons not belonging to reigning or mediatized houses, whilst the third and lowest grade includes the knights and land-owners.

Before we proceed to consider the political organization of the new Germanic empire, we will briefly describe-1st, the principal features of the constitution of the old Germanic empire, which was overthrown by the first Napoleon in 1806; and 2d, that bund or federal government which lasted from 1814 to 1866, when Austria was excluded from the confederation, and the hegemony of Germany was transferred to Prussia.

The old Germanic empire.-The states of this empire comprised three chambers or colleges: 1. The electoral college, which consisted of the archiepiscopal electors of Mainz, Treves, and Cologne; and the secular electors, of whom there were originally only four, but whose number was subsequently increased to five, and, who at the dissolution of the empire, were represented by the sovereigns of Bohemia, Bavaria, Saxony, Brandenburg, and Brunswick-Lüneburg or Hanover (see ELECTORS). 2. The college of the princes of the empire, who had each a vote in the diet, and were divided into spiritual and temporal princes. 3. The free imperial cities which formed a college at the diet, divided into two benches, the Rhenish with 14 cities, and the Swabian with 37; each of which had a vote. These colleges, each of which voted separately, formed the diet of the empire. When their respective decisions agreed, the matter under discussion was submitted to the emperor, who could refuse his ratification of the decisions of the diet, although he had no power to modify them. Ordinary meetings were usually summoned twice a year by the emperor, who specified the place at which the sittings were to be held, and which, during the latter periods of the empire, were at Regensburg (Ratisbon). The diet had the right to enact, abrogate, or modify laws, conclude peace and declare war, and impose taxes for the general expenses of the state. The Aulic chamber, and the cameral or chief tribunal of the empire, decided in cases of dispute between members of the diet. The emperors were chosen by the electors in person or by their deputies; and after their election and coronation, both of which usually took

GERMANY.-1. Railway bridge, Coblentz. 2. Theatre, Leipsic. 3. Capital from the Fre

6. Prussian soldiers. 7. Drinking hall, Baden-Baden.