Constitution, Revenue, and Population.
The political institutions of the Grand-duchy are of an entirely feudal character. The fundamental laws are embodied in the 'Union' of 1523, the 'Reversales' of 1572 and 1622, and the charters of 1755 and Nov. 28, 1817. Nearly the whole legislative power and part of the executive is in the hands of the proprietors of Rittergüter, or knight's estates, numbering 624. Seldom more than one-fourth of these, however, exert their privileges and take their seats in the Diet. To these representatives of their own property are joined thirty-nine members, nearly all burgomasters, delegated by the municipalities and corporate bodies of a like number of towns. The great bulk of the population is without political rights. The Diet is permanent, being represented, if not in actual session, by a committee of twelve members, presided over by three marshals of the nobility, whose office is hereditary in their families. It is part of the prerogative of the committee to examine the working of the administration, as also to nominate a number of judges at the chief courts of justice. The Diet meets in annual session, alternately at the towns of Sternberg and Malchin, and every two years forms a joint assembly with the states of a part of Mecklenburg- Strelitz, in common legislation.
The executive is represented in a ministry appointed by and responsible alone to the Grand-duke. There are four departments, called, respectively, the Ministry of the Grand-ducal House and of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of the Interior; the Ministry of Justice, of Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs; and the Ministry of Finances. There exists no general budget for the Grand-duchy. Semi-official reports state the total revenue for the year 1869 to have amounted to 354,950 thaler, or 53,242 ₤, and the expenditure to the same. At the commencement of 1870 the total public debt was 7,009,132 thaler, or 1,051,368 ₤, one-half of which sum had been raised in loans for the construction of railways.
The population of the Grand-duchy amounted to 560,618 at the census of Dec. 3, 1867, living on an area of 4,834 English square miles. With the exception of 850 Roman Catholics, and 3,110 Jews, the whole of the subjects of the Grand-duke, in 1867, were Lutherans. Although the country is but thinly populated, emigration is carrying off large numbers of the inhabitants, and the population at several periods has been decreasing. The ownership of the land is divided between the sovereign, who possesses about two-tenths, the titled and untitled nobility, who hold seven-tenths, and various corporations and institutions for Protestant noble ladies, who possess the remaining tenth of the Grand-duchy.
