organisation of the towns is more complicated than that of the communes. The principal functionaries are all elective; but the elections must be confirmed by the king or the authorities. The system of law principally in force in the eastern states of the Prussian monarchy is embodied in a well-digested code entitled 'Landrecht fur die Preussischen Staaten,' which received the royal sanction in 1791, and became law in 1794; but it is occasionally modified by custom, and Polish, Swedish, and German laws are still in force in certain parts of the monarchy. The provinces on the left bank of the Rhine follow, with some exceptions, the rules laid down in the 'Code Napoléon.' Primary proceedings in judicial matters take place before local courts established in the circles and towns; thence they may be carried before the provincial courts, or 'Oberlandes gerichte;' and in the last resort before the supreme tribunals at Berlin. All judges are independent of the Government. Juries exist in the Rhine provinces since the time of the French occupation, and in the other parts of the monarchy since the year 1849.
Church and Education.
The royal family belongs to the Reformed or Calvinist faith; but all denominations of Christians enjoy the same privileges, and are equally eligible to places of trust or emolument. The Protestant religion in its two branches of Lutheran and Calvinist preponderates, and is professed by 64.64 per cent, of the Prussian people. To the Roman Catholic Church belong 32.71 per cent, and to all other creeds 2.65 per cent, of the population. In the provinces of Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Saxony, the great majority are Protestants; while in Posen, Silesia, Westphalia, and Rhenish Prussia, the Roman Catholics predominate. In the new provinces, annexed to the kingdom in 1866, the Protestants form the mass of the population. There are a few members of the Greek Church, mostly immigrants from Russia. Jews are to be found in all the provinces, but principally in Posen. At the census of Dec. 3, 1864, there were in the kingdom, as then constituted, 11,736,734 Protestants, being 60.23 per cent, of the total population, and 7,201,911 Roman Catholics, equal to 36.81 per cent., besides 262,001 Jews, and about 52,000 adherents of other creeds. The annexation of the new provinces, after the war of 1866, altered the proportion in favour of the Protestant ascendancy, the former kingdom of Hanover adding 1,682,777 Protestants, and only 226,009 Roman Catholics; Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg 990,085 Protestants and 1,953 Roman Catholics; and Electoral Hesse, Nassau, Homburg, and Frankfort, 905,605 Protestants and 336,075 Roman Catholics. Protestantism is otherwise gradually spreading among
