Mr. Stephens has published "A Constitutional View of the Late War between the States, its Causes, Character, Conduct, and Results" (2 vols. 8vo, Philadelphia, 1868-'70), and several speeches. "Alexander H. Stephens, in Public and Private," with his letters and speeches before, during, and since the war, by Henry Cleveland, was published in 1867.

STOUGHTON, EDWIN W., United States Minister to Russia, was born in Windsor County, Vt., in 1818. He removed to New York in 1837, where, for many years, he has been a prominent member of the bar of that city. Until within a few years past he was a pronounced Democrat. During the administration of President Grant, he published an elaborate letter in which he defended on constitutional grounds the President's use of the army in Louisiana. Mr. Stoughton has since been an active Republican. He was one of the Northern men who, at the request of the President, visited New Orleans after the election of 1876 to witness the action of the Returning Board; and was one of the counsel who argued the Republican case before the Electoral Commission. In October, 1877, he was appointed Minister to Russia by President Hayes, and was promptly confirmed by the Senate.

SULEIMAN PASHA, the successor of Mehemet Ali as commander-in-chief of the Turkish forces in Bulgaria, is said to be a most unostentatious and reserved man. His headquarters are the very reverse of the gorgeous establishments one sees with many generals of much less pretense than this the most successful and favored of the Sultan's field-marshals. He has received a European education, and is considered intelligent and clever. After having been stationed for some time in the provinces, he received a call as teacher to the military school in Constantinople. As such he began to take part in politics, was involved in the palace plot of 1876, and was rewarded with the rank of Pasha. Upon the resumption of hostilities with Montenegro in 1877, he was appointed to the command of the division operating from the north, with the orders to provision and relieve Nicsic. In this he was completely successful. His march afterward through Montenegro was not as successful. He was next ordered to take command of the Turkish forces in Roumelia, and here attracted the attention of the world by his fierce struggle for the Shipka Pass. On October 4th, he was appointed to succeed Mehemet Ali as commander-in-chief.

SWEDEN AND NORWAY, two kingdoms of Northern Europe, united under the same dynasty. King, Oscar II., born January 21, 1829; succeeded to the throne at the death of his brother, Charles XV., September 18, 1872; married, June 6, 1857, to Sophia, born July 9, 1836, daughter of the late Duke Wilhelm of Nassau. Oldest son: Gustavus, heir-apparent, Duke of Wermland, born June 16, 1858.

SWEDEN. The executive authority is in the hands of the King, who acts under the advice of a ministry, formerly called the Council of State. The composition of the ministry at the close of 1877 was as follows: Baron L. de Geer, Minister of State and of Justice, appointed 1875; O. M. Björnstjerna, appointed 1872; J. H. Rosenswärd, Minister of War, 1877; Baron F. W. von Otter, Minister of the Navy, 1874; C. J. Thyselius, Minister of the Interior, 1875; H. L. Forssell, Minister of Finance, 1875; F. F. Carlson, Minister of Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs, 1875. Besides these, there are three ministers without portfolio: H. G. Lagerstråle, 1875; Baron C. J. O. Alströmer, 1870; and J. H. Lovén, 1874.

The following table shows the area of Sweden, inclusive of inland lakes, according to a new survey by the Swedish general staff, and the population on December 31, 1876:

Of the total population, 2,151,326 were males, and 2,278,387 females. In 1875, there were 30,762 marriages, 140,317 births (inclusive of still-births), 92,798 deaths (inclusive of still-births), and 4,359 still-births. In the same year, 9,727 emigrants left the country.

The population, according to the census of 1870, was 4,168,525. Of this number 4,162,087 were Lutherans, 3,809 Baptists, Mormons, and Methodists, 573 Roman Catholics, 1,836 Jews, and 220 others.

The population of the principal cities of Sweden, in 1876, was as follows: Stockholm Göteborg. Norrköping

Malmö..

Gefle..

Carlskrona....

157.215 Jönköping

68,756 Upsala.

33,292 Lund.

26.787 Oerebro..

17,617 Helsingborg...

17,290 Calmar...

13.744

13,049

12,794

10,496

10,066

10,009

The budget for 1878 is as follows (value in crowns, 1 crown = $0.261):

were money letters with 177,000,000 crowns. The number of foreign letters sent and received was 3,357,280, of which 38,830 were money letters with 11,000,000 crowns. The number of newspapers sent was 8,798,387.

The parliamentary proceedings in both Sweden and Norway were entirely of a local character and unimportant.

Among the works of the year containing information on Norway are Dr. O. J. Broch's "Norway and the Norwegians" (Christiania, 1877).

SWITZERLAND, a republic of Central Europe, consisting of twenty-two cantons, three of which are divided each into two independent half-cantons. The President of the Federal Council for 1877 was Dr. J. Heer, of Glarus, and the Vice-President, Dr. C. Schenck, of Berne. The area of Switzerland is 15,981 square miles; the population, according to an official estimate, was 2,759,854 on July 1, 1876. The area and population of the different cantons were as follows:

Of the total number of inhabitants, 1,348,914 were males, and 1,410,940 were females. The movement of population in 1876 was: 22,376 marriages, 90,786 births, and 66,816 deaths.

The total revenue of the Confederation for 1876 amounted to 42,277,141 francs, and the expenditures to 43,462,625 francs. The budget for 1877 estimated the receipts at 42,972,300 francs, and the expenditures at 43,900,300 francs. The liabilities of the republic amounted, at the close of 1876, to 31,124,917 francs, as a set-off against which there was Federal property amounting to 35,725,480 francs. For railroads, post-offices, etc., see ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA, 1876.

CASTLE OF CHILLON.

The Federal Assembly met on March 5th. On March 14th, the Ständerath, or Cantonal Council, enacted the law, previously adopted by the Nationalrath, for the protection of children working in factories. On March 25th a law was enacted providing for the taxation of those exempt from military duty. The Assembly

then adjourned. It met again on June 4th. The Nationalrath elected for its President Herr Marti, of Berne, and for its Vice-President, M. Philippin, of Neufchâtel; the Ständerath, for its President, Herr Hofmann, of St. Gall, and for its Vice-President, M. Vesaz,

BASLE.

of Lausanne. After an unimportant session the Assembly adjourned on June 23d, and assembled again on December 3d. On the 13th it elected Dr. Schenck, of Berne, as President of the Confederation for 1878, and Herr Hammer, of Soleure, as Vice-President, and adjourned on the 22d.

Three new laws were submitted to a popular

TELEPHONE. This is an invention for reproducing the human voice, by the agency of electricity, at long distances from the speaker. Like other great inventions it has been a growth in the application of principles known for many years; and, as was so often the case before, the result has been attained by several independent experimenters almost simultaneously. To whom the chief credit actually belongs, is now a matter of dispute, which we need not here undertake to decide; it may be stated, however, that the names most prominently associated with the invention are those of Mr. Elisha Gray, of Chicago; Prof. A. Graham Bell, of the Boston University; Prof. A. C. Dolbear, of Tufts College, Massachusetts; and Mr. Thomas A. Edison, of Menlo Park, New Jersey.

The principle, mode of working, and construction of the telephone may be described as follows:

If a wire, from a galvanic battery through

vote on October 21st. The first and second were rejected. The third law was one limiting the hours of labor, especially for women and children in factories, and providing that employers are to pay their wages at intervals of not more than a fortnight, and in specie. This law was confirmed by a majority of 157,495 to 146,020.

The Swiss export returns for the year 1876 show strikingly how the American competition in watchmaking has injured the Swiss trade. In 1875 the export of watches to the United States fell off 30 per cent., and in 1876 there was a further falling off of 43 per cent., making a difference of 7,909,000 francs between 1874 and 1876. Musical boxes fell off 24 per cent. during the last year, the export being 49 per cent. below the average of 1864-75.

In June an international conference was

held at Lucerne, on the question of resuming the works in the St. Gothard Tunnel. The commission fixed the sum required to complete the undertaking at 40,000,000 francs, of which they proposed that Germany should contribute 10,000,000 francs, Italy 10,000,000 francs, Switzerland 8,000,000 francs, and the company 12,000,000 francs.

which a current of electricity is passing, be wound around a piece of soft iron, as represented in Fig. 1, the bar will be made magnetic, and kept in that condition as long as the current continues to pass round it; and its ends will then attract and hold bits of iron, but drop them when the battery is taken away. If the

FIG. 1.

bar be of steel, instead of soft iron, it will be magnetized and attract iron just as before; but, unlike the soft-iron bar, it will keep its magnetism and attract the iron even after the battery is removed. Its magnetism will be permanent. Since, however, electricity made the magnet, we can, in turn, make the magnet a source of electricity. Suppose the magnetized steel bar has attracted and is holding on to a piece of

duced currents may be sent through the wire without the actual contact of the soft iron with the steel magnet. If this piece of iron is brought very near to one magnet without touching it, and then withdrawn, an electric thrill or wave is induced in the wire which is felt in the distant magnet, just as if the contact had been actually made and broken. And so, if we play the piece of soft iron backward and forward, before the magnet, no matter how rapidly or slightly, each motion is felt as an electric pulse in the magnet at the other end.

We have here the fundamental principle of the telephone. No galvanic battery is employed to furnish an electrical current, as in the case of the telegraph; but the currents in the wires are produced by the motions of the piece of soft iron acting on the magnet. Thus far we have represented these motions in a very rude and coarse way, as if the piece of iron were vibrated backward and forward by the hand; but what we have really to deal with is something infinitely more delicate than this. The piece of soft iron of which we have been speaking, shown at a, Figs. 2 and 3, represents what is called the diaphragm of the telephone. It is a thin, circular sheet of iron, a couple of inches in diameter, held by its rim, and adjusted so that its centre comes very close to the

end of the magnetized bar. And the motions which now concern us are simply the vibrations produced in this iron membrane by the beats against it of agitated air. Everybody knows that sounds are propagated through the aerial medium by waves that travel swiftly from their sources, and that we hear them because the waves strike in rapid succession upon the drum of the ear. It is also well understood that these waves differ greatly in their rates, depending upon the rapidity of vibration in the sounding body; and, moreover, that they are very complex, there being waves within waves of various orders in a single tone. It is the special complexity of these wave-systems, in the different cases, that gives those peculiarities of tone that mark different musical instruments and distinguish the voice in different individuals. These waves, started by a person talking, beat against the diaphragm of the telephone and throw it into vibrations. This iron diaphragm acting inductively on the

magnet originates magneto-electric currents in the wire helix about it, and these travel to another helix encircling the magnet at the other end, and, acting upon that, exert electromagnetic effects which increase and decrease the strength of the magnet, thus setting its dia

FIG. 4.

phragm into vibration. These vibrations correspond exactly with those of the first diaphragm, and the second diaphragm is thus made to restore to the air in one place what the first one received from the air in another place. These air-waves, falling on the tympanum of the list