640 



PRUSSIA. 



revoking their exequatur. During the discus- 

 sion, Professor Virchow, the leader of the 

 Party of Progress, declared again in favor of an 

 entire separation between church and State, 

 which the minister of worship, Herr von Putt- 

 kammer, regarded as a great danger for the 

 State, as he thought that within twenty years 

 it would lead to a predominance of the Ultra- 

 montane party. 



The Government also introduced four bills 

 relating to the organization of the local ad- 

 ministration of the country. Two of them 

 were adopted during the present session, being 

 supported not only by the Conservative party, 

 but also by the National Liberals and Party of 

 the Center, and of the Party of Progress. The 

 Diet unanimously granted to the Government 

 a credit of several million marks for relieving 

 several districts of Upper Silesia, which had 

 severely suffered from inundations and a hard 

 winter. 



The second session of the Fourteenth Prus- 

 sian Diet was opened in the name of the King 

 by Count Stolberg. It was stated in the open- 

 ing speech that the financial condition of the 

 country showed a decided change for the bet- 

 ter, and that, in view of expected surplus 

 moneys from the Imperial exchequer, a remis- 

 sion of three months' class taxes, to the aggre- 

 gate amount of fourteen million marks, was 

 contemplated. In the House of Deputies, Herr 

 von Koller was reflected President, and Herr 

 von Benda first Vice-President, but the second 

 Vice-President of the preceding session, Frei- 

 herr von Heeremann, was not reflected. The 

 majority of the Conservative party refused to 

 vote for him, because he, with the other mem- 

 bers of the Catholic Center, had refused to at- 

 tend, in compliance with the Emperor's invita- 

 tion, the opening of the Cologne Cathedral. 



The Government looked upon the coming 

 session as one of unusual interest. The reor- 

 ganization of the local administration of the 

 kingdom, which had been begun in the preced- 

 ing session, was to be completed, and the co- 

 operation of the Diet for the novel, bold, and 

 far-reaching financial schemes of Prince Bis- 

 marck, especially in regard to indirect taxes 

 and monopolies, was to be secured. One of 

 the Government bills referred to the appoint- 

 ment of a national railway council for the man- 

 agement of the State lines. This council will 

 consist of a president and vice-presidents, to be 

 nominated for three years by the king ; of com- 

 missioners from the ministries of public works, 

 trade and commerce, finance and agriculture ; 

 of three members from either House of Parlia- 

 ment; and of one, two, or three representa- 

 tives of the various provinces, according to 

 their importance in regard to the railways. 

 The council is to begin its labors on January 

 1, 1882. The Diet referred the Government 

 bills to committees which had not finished their 

 work, when the Diet, on December 18th, ad- 

 journed to January 8, 1881. 



On November 20th and 22d there was in 



the House of Deputies a violent debate on the 

 Jewish question. Deputy Ha'nel, formerly one 

 of the vice-presidents of the House of Depu- 

 ties, asked the Government what position it 

 intended to assume with regard to the so- 

 called Anti-Semite petition which aimed at 

 the abolition of the constitutional rights of 

 Jewish citizens. Count Stolberg, in the name 

 of the Government, replied that the petition 

 had not yet been received, and that the Gov- 

 ernment therefore had no official knowledge of 

 its contents, but he did not hesitate to sa/that 

 the State ministry had no intention to alter the 

 present laws of Germany which guaranteed 

 the equal rights of the religious laws in regard 

 to the civil law. Notwithstanding this decla- 

 ration of the Government, the interest taken 

 by all the parties of the House in the Anti- 

 Semite movement was so intense that by gen- 

 eral consent the House engaged for two days 

 in a general discussion of the question. The 

 leading men of all the parties expressed their 

 views on the agitation against the Jews. No 

 one demanded a repeal of Jewish emancipation 

 or a limitation of the constitutional rights of 

 the Jewish citizens, but some of the Conserva- 

 tive deputies repeated the violent attacks which 

 in some public meeting had been pronounced 

 against the Jews as a foreign race, which was 

 without sympathy with the German nation- 

 ality, and had justly incurred a general odium 

 by its prominent participations in the worst 

 financial swindles of the last years. One Dep- 

 uty, Herr von Ludwig, maintained that fully 

 ninety per cent, of the participators in these 

 financial swindles ( u Grander ") had been Jews. 

 Deputy Virchow. who severely censured the 

 agitation, stated that it was unfortunately on 

 the increase, especially among the students of 

 the universities. 



A royal decree of November 15th created 

 an Economical Council (Yolkswirthschaftrath), 

 which is to consist of seventy-five members, 

 and to serve for five years. For forty-five of 

 the members, the Chambers of Commerce, the 

 heads of the commercial corporations, and of 

 the agricultural associations, have a right of 

 presentation. They propose the double num- 

 ber, from which the ministers for commerce 

 and trades, for public works, and for agri- 

 culture select forty-five, of whom fifteen must 

 be representatives of trades, fifteen of com- 

 merce, and fifteen of agriculture and forestry. 

 The thirty other members of the council are 

 elected by the ministers above members, and 

 it is provided that one half of them must be 

 mechanics or workmen. The council is to give 

 its opinion on drafts of bills and decrees relat- 

 ing to important economical interest in com- 

 merce, trades, agriculture and forestry, before 

 they are submitted to the king for ratificatioi 

 also the motions to be made and the votes t( 

 be cast by the Prussian members of the Fed- 

 eral Council so far as they relate to economi< 

 questions. The council consists of three sec 

 tions for commerce, for trades, and for agi 



