In order to guarantee the sound condition of butchers' meat, and in the interest of cleanliness, a central cattle yard was opened in 1881. This vast establishment stands under a board of three aldermen, six town councillors, two select citizens, and a large staff of inspectors. Since October 1, 1882, slaughtering in private houses is prohibited, all slaughtering and microscopic inspection now being concentrated in this vast establishment.

To assure instantaneous medical attendance in case of accidents, so-called "sanitary watches" have been founded in different parts of the town, chiefly by private charity. All sanitary establishments are greatly fostered by the circumstance that the number of physicians who have received a thorough and uniform medical training is very large at Berlin.

III. The maintenance of elementary schools has always been a task laid on the communes, in a higher degree since the introduction of compulsory education by Frederick William I. in Prussia. The communes may charge school pence to defray the heavy cost of the institution, but Berlin has, for about twenty years, made no use of this concession and charges no school fees in the elementary schools. All separate elementary schools for the children of the poor are abolished; in consequence of this reform, 118 large communal schools existed in 1881, and every year adds to the number. There are now about 2,000 elementary classes for boys and 2,000 for girls. The School Board (Schul- Deputation), which exercises a supreme control over these schools, consists of six aldermen, ten town councillors, eleven select citizens, the four superintendents of the Evangelical dioceses, and the dean of the Catholic churches. Eightyseven school commissions are formed to control the attendance at school, each of which consists of a chairman and some distinguished inhabitants of the ward-1,258 citizens being thus employed. The technical direction of these schools is in the hands of one alderman "school councillor," assisted by six paid inspectors of schools. The teaching staff consists at present of 142 rectors (head-masters), 1,471 teachers, 734 schoolmistresses, 515 technical instructors. The cost of the elementary schools amounted in 1881-2 to 5,052,948 marks.

But the autonomy and the wealth of the older German cities had already in former centuries encouraged the foundation of grammar schools, and in modern times the system of higher education has made rapid progress in the towns of Germany. The municipality of Berlin maintains at present ten gymnasiums (grammar schools with Latin and Greek), seven Realschulen (modern side), two Gewerbeschulen (technical schools), and four high schools for girls-all very full (an attendance of 800 at each being the average). These schools occupy a staff of 487 graduated masters, fifty technical teachers, and thirty-eight schoolmistresses, all of whom receive a somewhat higher

salary than the teachers employed by the Government schools. Of the latter there are at Berlin now only six-viz., four gymnasiums, one Realschule, and one high school for girls. Those higher municipal schools are under the immediate control of the Court of Aldermen, and (like the Government schools) under a higher control of the royal Provinzial-Schulcollegium, which watches over the general efficiency of these schools without interfering more than is absolutely necessary with the arrangements of the city authorities.

A number of middle-class and special schools have been added of late. The former try to give a sound practical education, with the exclusion of the classical tongues.

A pet child of the city authorities is an institution to allow apprentices and clerks to keep up and to enlarge the knowledge obtained at school after they have left it. Twelve such Fortbildungsschulen have been founded of late under the control of a special Curatorium. There exist also Sunday classes for young people of both sexes, which are doing a great deal of good among the lower classes; these, too, though they depend chiefly on private subscription, are under the control of members of the Town Council.

An important supplement of the public education in Germany are gymnastic exercises (das Turnen); a large gymnasium, in the English sense of the word, is attached to each municipal school, and besides these there is a great model Turn-Halle. This branch, too, is under a special board of aldermen, town councillors, and select citizens.

Besides these municipal schools there still exist some ninety private schools for the higher and middle classes of the population. But they find it more and more difficult to compete with the wellorganized and well-endowed public schools. Most of them are high schools for girls. But they too must submit to a control exercised by a special board, consisting of a city inspector of schools and a number of select citizens.

In the higher schools maintained by the town a moderate fee has to be paid (about £4 a year), which covers part of the expenses; the total contribution of the city for these higher schools amounted in 1880-81 to 1,088,752 marks; for gymnastic instruction, 115,752 marks; for the Nachhülfeschulen, 61,588 marks.

Finally, it should be mentioned that there are twenty-two public libraries, generally entrusted to rectors of schools, which lend out instructive books free of any charge.

IV. The administration of the old town property, which was the original object of the municipal institutions, has gradually dwindled down into a supplementary part, since the chief source of revenue in modern times is derived from the taxes of the inhabitants. However, even now the property of many German municipalities is of

considerable importance, and it has augmented of late by a creation of invested funds. In the year 1878 the property of Berlin was estimated at 45,970,000 marks in buildings; 61,542,000 marks in land; 35,244,500 marks in the movables of municipal institutes; 4,597,400 marks in stores; 2,009,600 marks value of ground-rents; 5,075,750 marks in shares and stocks. This property is balanced by a municipal debt of 129,345,917 marks (in 1882); of which sum, however, 112,864,360 marks are mortgaged on gas- and water-works and other remunerative establishments, the revenue derived from which more than covers the annual interest of that debt. Of municipal debts, properly speaking, there are not more than 16,783,933 marks, and these are so safely covered by the tenfold amount of the active property that the obligations of the city maintain the same course as the Prussian national debt.

It is true that the annual revenue derived from the town property is comparatively small, as the buildings are mostly used for administrative purposes, and as a considerable part of the land is utilized for pleasure-grounds and public parks. Still, the public income from the town property was in the year 1881-82: from buildings, 286,580 marks (minus 78,064 for expenses of administration); 106,645 marks from ground let out for fuel-yards and for warehousing goods; 72,377 marks for land let out to be farmed (minus 27,202 marks for administrative expenses); 62,578 marks from the stone-quarries of Rüdersdorf; about 140,000 marks from the letting of tradesmen's stalls in the markets, and from other duties and fees ;-total, 559,605 marks net revenue. The landed property of the town is extremely valuable when sold for building purposes; but, on the other hand, the city is often obliged to pay enormous sums for sites of schools and other institutions. The intricate management of these sales and purchases is entrusted to a special board (Grundeigenthumsdeputation) of five aldermen and ten town councillors.

An immense benefit has been bestowed on the population of Berlin by the laying out of large and beautiful parks, public gardens, and squares, and by the planting of a great number of streets with trees. For this purpose a special board has been formed of six aldermen, ten town councillors, and four select citizens, which has also undertaken the care of the public monuments. The munificence of the municipality is, however, surpassed by that of the kings, who have from of old devoted to the benefit of the inhabitants the royal park (Thiergarten), which is now almost surrounded by buildings: this park has an area of about 600 acres, representing (as building ground) a capital of between 200 and 300 million marks.

The excellent condition of the finances has enabled the metropolis to found a number of institutions of credit on the security of the wealth of the town.

One of the most important is the municipal savings bank, which is authorized by law to receive deposits from one mark upward, and manages the investment of these deposits (now amounting to 50,000,000 marks usually), paying an interest of 33 per cent., under the control of a curatorium of two aldermen, three town councillors, one select citizen. There are thirty-nine offices, in which deposits are received from the public in the different parts of the town.

Another institute of this kind is the municipal fire insurance office, which the houseowners of Berlin are obliged to join. The value of the buildings insured in the City Insurance Office was in 1881-2= 2,010,306,000 marks. A board of six aldermen, assisted by a number of certified master masons and carpenters, are entrusted with the assessment of the buildings, and the estimating of the indemnities to be awarded. Insurance in this municipal office is very cheap, owing to the solid character of the buildings and the excellency of the fire brigade-the annual premium amounting to five or six pfennings (d.) per 100 marks.

In the interests of the credit of real property, the municipality keeps up an institute of letters of mortgage (Pfandbriefamt), under the guarantee of the commune, which issues, on varying terms, letters of mortgage at 4, 41, and 5 per cent. Up to the end of the year 1881 loans had been obtained from this institute on 1,224 houses, to an amount of 110,262,784 marks. This banking institute is managed by a municipal commissary and some paid directors.

For the management of the financial operations in connection with the contraction of loans by the municipality a consultative board of finances (Finanzdeputation) has been appointed, under the presidency of the town treasurer, consisting of five aldermen and eleven town councillors.

V. Finally, we add here the exercise of Church patronage by the town, a right which lays upon the municipality a considerable burden of expenses. The permanent courts of aldermen of the German municipalities have always appeared to be most appropriate representatives of church advowsons, which, according to the constitution of the German Church, are charged with heavy contributions to the building of churches and parsonages. For this very reason these rights have been preserved unimpaired, like all honours which entail heavy expenses. Of the thirty large Evangelical parishes of the metropolis, almost one-half (the older ones) stand under the patronage of the municipality; the newer ones under that of the king. Each parish has, according to the new Church laws, a numerous council of churchwardens, and a still more numerous body of church representatives. In the former of these bodies the mayor and aldermen are represented by one of their number (Patronatsvertreter). The right of nomination to the Church livings has

always been exercised by the Court of Aldermen in a proper manner. The town spent for Church purposes in the year 1881-82 the sum of 55,556 marks. In connection with the exercise of this patronage is the administration of the burial-places belonging to the churches.

If we, finally, sum up the manifold branches of this intricate system

D. The comprehensive Unity of the Municipal Administration will become apparent in the unity of the budget, which has been thus stated in the statistical Jahrbuch of the year 1883 (according to a scheme agreed upon in international statistics) :

A.-Budget of the Municipality of Berlin for 1881-82.

It cannot be denied that the machinery of this administration is rather complicated; but the result is a practical, economical, and honest application of the public means. Instances of embezzlement are quite as rare among the clerks and cashiers of the city as of the State. Among the honorary officials embezzlement or malversation of any kind is out of the question. As to the general result, it will be sufficient to mention one fact. In the period from 1861 to 1881 the expenses for national education were increased from 9 to 19 per cent., the cost of the poor law administration decreased from 18 to 14 per cent. of municipal budget.

It is true that many important measures have been delayed by