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the window upon this edifying spectacle of a king's humiliation. In honor of Bismarck's saying, a column was erected in the Harz Mountains, with the words in question as an inscription. But then Bismarck, rather than give up his own autocratic ways towards a refractory Parliament, did "go to Canossa"! He at last yielded to the Centre, against whose obscurantist doings the "Kulturkampf" had been initiated, as our friend, Virchow, the great scientist, had called it.

To cap the deplorable issue, the column in the Harz Mountains was one day struck by lightning and split. Thereupon the priestlings of the Centre, always ready with their stock of supernatural miracles, exclaimed that the "finger of God" had done it. A class of the population which remains subject to such religious teaching will always be difficult to wean from religious and political superstition. That is the whole secret of the continued strength of the "Centre" in the Reichstag. It has come back with an increase of two or three seats gained, whereas those of its late Social Democratic ally were so vastly diminished.

It is truly a pity that, in some cases, the Socialist party in various constituencies, for the second ballots, advised its own adherents to vote, by preference, for a partisan of the Ultramontane Centre, rather than for a Liberal! On the contrary, in some other constituencies, the Radical, Progressist, or Democratic parties advised their friends to vote even rather for a Socialist than for a follower of the Vaticanist gang. To see Socialists as "Mitläufer" of that band of monkish obscurantists who yearn for the recall of the Jesuits is, indeed, a sorry spectacle.

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icy of underhand negotiations with the Ultramontanes as had finally been yielded to by Bismarck, was carried on under subsequent Chancellors. Prince Bülow was sadly at fault in this. Things would, nevertheless, not have come to that pass had not that section of Liberals, who are called "National Liberals," in the course of years approached more and more to the reactionary group in Parliament, and had not the more advanced Progressists and Democrats split up into three groups. Amidst such divisions, Court policy and Jesuitical craftiness easily ruled the roost.

However, of late, all over Germany a movement has made itself felt for rising against the unbearable personal interference of the Crown. When matters became worse and worse, men remembered that the National Parliament of 1848-49-but for the previous existence of which the present Reichstag would never have come into life-had claimed and actually exercised supreme power. It did so literally in the name of the "Sovereignty of the People" until it was destroyed by force of arms. There are still not a few men alive who were active in those days of a great upheaval.

It is a noteworthy fact that during the last session of the Reichstag even a foremost leader of the National Liberals denounced "personal government" in remarkably strong terms. He did not shrink from hints at the Emperor's person. This unexpected spectacle showed which way the wind blew. Prince Bülow and William the Second himself, no doubt, understood it as a sign of the times.

It was observed, during the electioneering campaign, that the bearing of the Kaiser towards the municipality of Berlin had latterly changed in a remarkable degree. Formerly, it was stated in the Progressist press, he often showed the City Fathers a frowning.

ungracious face. All at once there was a pleasant show of politeness and condescending good humor. In years gone by, when an inscription was to be placed over the portal of the graveyard where the victims of the street battle of the 18th of March, 1848, who converted a despotic monarchy into a constitutional one, sleep their eternal sleep, William the Second forbade the inscription. Again, when burgomaster Kirschner was elected, the Kaiser, for a long time, refused giving his sanction. When the Town Council of the capital wished to dedicate to him a beautifully sculptured public fountain, made by one of the most distinguished artists, he once more gave the municipality an ungracious snub. Their representative, coming to the palace with a loyal address, was not received, but had to lay that document on a chair!

Then came the change, and it was much appreciated. How easy it is to satisfy a people! And yet monarchs will often drive matters to the breaking point. But the fault, after all, is with the people themselves. They are too easily satisfied, and then monarchs boldly presume upon that trait; great personal power spoiling the character even of the best.

When the dictatorial attitude of the leaders of the Centre had become intolerable for the secular Power, the Emperor, through his Chancellor, came to a sudden resolution. In course of time that Clericalist party had constituted itself as what was called a regular secondary, or collateral, government (Neben-Regierung). One of theirs, the very man who is now expected to be its leader in the new Reichstag, had for some time dallied with the Social Democratic movement, attending, it is stated, one of its Congresses at Zürich. It was done in the true Jesuitical style of gaining a footing in opposite quarters. In this way the occupants of the

Ultramontane "Tower" thought they had secured their permanent influence. The sneering manner in which they laughed to scorn every effort at dislodging them from their Fort could, however, not be brooked much longer.

Hence the new Colonial Secretary, Herr Dernburg, a man not trained in the dark and surreptitious ways of such dishonorable policy as the disciples of Loyola are accustomed to, came out in Parliament with strong language against that false party of partisans of a foreign High Priest. No sooner was this done than the Centre made common cause with the out-andout antagonists of the whole political and social State organization as it exists at present. It did not matter then to these Popelings that they had to join hands with men whose undoubtedly Republican and freethinking aspirations are otherwise looked upon with horror at the Vatican. All through the centuries the Papacy has never scrupled to make use of the most variegated means for sustaining its own hateful theocratic power. Any nation that respects itself is bound to cast it out. That is why all friends of intellectual freedom and of national dignity look with sympathetic approval at what is being done now in France.

V.

It must have cost an effort to the Kaiser to appoint as Colonial Director a man of Jewish origin, for cleaning the Augean stable of colonial maladministration in South Africa. Too long, in Prussia at least, Jews have been kept out of superior positions both in the Army and in the Administration. In other German States there is far less of that antiquated, mediævalist policy which is a perfect disgrace of our age. When I look back upon the days of the German Revolution, during which a citizen of Jewish descent acted as Speaker of the Na

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when other notable men of that race, like Johann Jacoby, played a prominent part, it is all the more painful to see what retrogression has taken place in that respect, especially in Prussia, owing to the bigoted course pursued in the highest quarters.

Let us hope that a change for the better has now begun, and that the hopes put in this "new man" will be properly fulfilled. His style of speaking before large audiences has proved an incisive and energetic one, correct in matters of fact, as behooves one who has had a commercial and financial training. True, he has been reproved even by a Liberal paper, which is otherwise quite on his side, and free from religious or racial prejudice, because it thought it detected a note of undue self-laudation in his repeated saying: "For twenty-five years we have had colonies, but no colonial policy." But Herr Dernburg will, no doubt, soon get rid of such oratorical slips; for, as the Berlin journal rightly says, "speeches are, after all, only assignments for the future," and "the proof of a very necessary reform in colonial affairs, which he is to work out, has yet to be furnished. We must wait to see what he is able to do." All other information is, however, to the effect that Herr Dernburg will be as good as his word.

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the Upper House may, or may not, reject them, even as is done in this country by the so-called hereditary wisdom of born legisilators. The only difference is, that here they sit in virtue of their own right, whilst in Germany the Upper House, or Federal Council, is composed of the delegates of the various princely governments and of the three Free Republican cities. These latter are the only ones still left from the more than a hundred such free cities once existing in the older Empire, which was an aristocratic commonwealth, with a large number of free towns, and a King, or Kaiser, who had no hereditary right of succession, but was elected for life -on condition of observing the country's constitution.

Perhaps even casual readers in England may remember a case of the initiative of the Reichstag. Ever since that Parliament has existed, it has always unanimously voted for the motion of some deputy who proposed "payment of members." The Upper House, at the beck and call of princely Governments, regularly rejected the measure. Prince Bismarck was afraid that, through payment of members, too many Liberal and Radical opponents of his might come in. Germany is, territorially, a large country, even since she has lost Austria; and there are not many men with independent fortunes who could travel to, and remain at, Berlin for a great part of the year. Hence so often a quorum is not to be got in the Reichstag; especially as it is fixed at 199 members, in a House of but 397.

Quite recently, however, the oftendemanded reform, for which the Reichstag had taken the initiative, was at last agreed to by the Imperial Government and by the delegates of the Confederated Princes and Free Cities. A dissolution of the Reichstag, I may add, cannot be decreed by the Kaiser

alone. The Federal Council has to give its approbation.

As to the questions of military and naval armament, the Kaiser can neither get a single man nor a ship more than there are at present without the consent of the Reichstag. Repeatedly, proposals of the Imperial Government have been rejected. On other occasions parliamentary assent was only got after laborious negotiations, or after a dissolution, when the country at large sided with Government.

It will thus be seen that the field is free, in some ways, for the new Reichstag, if only the Liberal and Radical groups, which have come back with increased numbers, are true to their professed principles, and worth their salt. In numbers, the National Liberals-somewhat altered in tone for the better through late experience-the Free People's party, the Free Progressist Union, the German People's party, and the German Reform party all show an increased strength.

The Centre remains as it was, with the addition of two, or, according to other accounts, three seats, but with greatly diminished influence. In fact, it is stated that nine of its seats were only obtained by way of a bargain which delivered over twelve other seats to the Social Democrats. But as these latter now dispose only of forty-three seats, which, without the help of the Centre, would to all evidence even have been reduced to thirty-one, it is clear that the Ultramontanes are now deprived of an ally without whom they are henceforth powerless.

Here, that special institution, the second ballot, or "Stichwahl," has to be touched upon. In Germany it is not enough that a candidate should have a greater number of votes than any other competitor. He must have a majority over the votes of all other candidates combined. If he has not, a second ballot is to be taken between

the two candidates who are next in number to each other. Then, if several competitors have been in the field, a bargaining usually begins, in which often the most discordant elements have to make an arrangement between themselves.

In this last election the oddest combinations have taken place for the second ballots, in the various parts of the Empire, and within different States. There was no uniformity of action as to coming to a compromise between Conservative and Liberal, or Liberal and Social Democrat, or Centre and any other party, as against some supposed common enemy who was to be ousted from his insufficient majority by a subsequent alliance between otherwise discordant groups, or who wanted to have his insufficient majority increased to an absolute one by the addition of the votes of one of the defeated candidates whose friends finally choose the "lesser evil."

To some extent these necessary, but sometimes rather sordid, transactions are made all the more difficult through the very existence of separate Stateswith "Home Rule" Legislatures of their own. Political development has, in them, gone so far in a centrifugal sense that the nation has been sadly split up and the public mind too much divided into merely local concerns and issues. Those who praise the alleged excellent "Home Rule" arrangements of the German Empire forget that in reality they are the evil inheritance of our old national misfortunes.

In the older constitution of the Empire there was virtually more unity. The several Dukes, as they were simply called, were mere officials of the Empire, deposable by the central authority that is, by the elective King, or Kaiser. It was during foreign complications and wars that these Dukes gradually made themselves semi-independent.

After the Thirty Years' War, which ruined the country, they exercised almost sovereign power as Landesherren. In consequence of the Napoleonic wars they made themselves downright "sovereigns." Any kind of real unity was then gone; a mere confederation of dynasties several dozens in point of fact-remaining as a common bond. This state of things, though altered now to some extent, still reacts on the present political situation. It renders the task of an effective plan of campaign against "personal government" in the central authority all the harder. This is a state of things which Englishmen may well consider, when being told that Germany, with her many dynasties and her separate legislatures, is a proper example to follow.

Irrespective of this baneful influence of a so-called "Home Rule" state of things, on the life of the nation at large, I must confess that the huckstering at the second ballots does not strike me as an ideal institution. It generally goes, in Germany, under the name of Kuh-Handel (cow-bargain). It often brings out the worst symptoms of intrigue and political immorality. So it has, as above shown, done in the present instance.

I hold it to be by far better to make every voter feel that the struggle must be concentrated on a single issue, and that he and those thinking with him should, from the beginning, do their best to win the day by manly effort. The so-called Zähl-Kandidaten-men who are only put forward in order to find out the strength of a party or group-have become a perfect nuisance in Germany. So have the shuffling tricks of those who dabble in the KuhHandel. They either lead their own contingent as allies into an enemy's camp, from spite against another adversary; or they induce their own men to desist from voting at all at a second ballot, so as to give a chance to an

other candidate, whom they really detest with all their heart, but whom they wish to use as a means of spiting one still more deeply hated. All this does not make for political honesty.

VII.

A "block" is now formed, of various groups of Liberals and Conservatives, who, from patriotic motives, can give Government a sufficient majority in matters concerning the defensive strength of the country. This does not mean that the Liberals and Radicals have to be, or ought to be, simply at that Government's order. They must decide each case according to its merits.

In his speeches the Imperial Chancellor evidently wished for a combination of the Conservatives and the Liberals in such cases, but still cast a curious side-glance at the Centre. This was not the right way of strengthening the Progressist efforts. It must, however, be confessed that a Radical Berlin paper forgot, in its criticism, that Prince Bülow, being dependent on the Emperor, who can undo him in a moment, is not able to go beyond a certain line. The Chancellor, nevertheless, gave a hint, in his usual oratorical style, to the Liberals, by saying: "In order to make music, there must be musicians." In other words, he called for a Progressist orchestra, whom he might lead. The Berlin paper referred to answered: "Great composers have never waited for their orchestra. Real statesmen know how to create important movements."

But seeing that an Imperial Chancellor is appointed by the Crown, and that there is no Ministerial responsibility in the Reichstag, Prince Bülow has clearly not a free hand. The nation itself, by its own Progressist spokesmen, must work out its own salvation. Selbst ist der Mann"-that well-known good Ger

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