I 76 GERMANY — SCHAUMBURG-LIPPE.
Constitution, Revenue, and Population.
A charter of liberal tendencies was granted by the Prince to his subjects, Nov. 30, 18-19, but modified April 14, 1852, and again, June 20, 1856, when its principal enactments were destroyed. The chief prerogative of a Chamber of Representatives which has been left to exist, is the right of petition to the sovereign. The latter has the whole legislative and executive power, as well as the appoint- ment of all public functionaries. In the administration of the State a cabinet of three members acts under his direction. The public income and expenditure, of which accounts are published at irregular intervals, is stated to average 285,664 thaler, or 42,820/., and the expenditure 278,400 thaler, or 41,695/.
The census of 1867 gave a population of 88,097, on an area of 297 English square miles. All the inhabitants are Lutherans.
XXI. SCHAUMBURG-LIPPE.
(FuiiSTENTHU.U ScHAUMBURG-LlPPE.)
Reigning- Sovereign.
Adolf, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe, born Aug. 1. 1817, the son of Prince Georg ; succeeded to the throne at the death of his father, Xov. 21, 1860; married, Oct. 25, 1844, to Princess Hermina, born Sept. 29, 1827, daughter of the late Prince Georg of Waldeck. There are offspring: — 1. Hermina, born Oct. 5, 1845. 2. Georg, born Oct. 10, 1846. 0. Hermann, born May 19. 1848. 4. Ida, born July 28, 1852. 5. Otto, born Sept. 13, 1854. 6. Adolf, born July 20, 1859.
The reigning house of Lippe is descended from a count of the same name, who lived in the sixteenth century, acquiring some small territorial possessions in Westphalia. It was only in 1807 that the two counts of Schaumburg-Lippe and Lippe-Detmold were elevated to the rank of princes, and became independent rulers of their estates, by espousing the cause of Napoleon, as members of the Rheinbund. They would have been struck from the list of sovereigns by the Congress of Vienna, but for the protection of Prince Metter- nich, who preferred having two crowned heads more in Europe to giving their territories to Prussia. The civil list of the reigning Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe amounts to 25,000/., or about three- fourths of the revenue of the whole principality, notwithstanding which the court is known to be deeply in debt. The Crown domains are mortgaged to the extent of 2,980,000 thaler, or 447,000/.
