GERMANY. 



367 



promised to devote all his efforts to carrying 

 on the work of making Germany a shield of 

 and attending to the welfare of the conn- 

 try, in agreement with the Federated Govern- 

 ments and with the constitutional organs of 

 the empire and of Prussia. The proclamation 

 was accompanied with a re-script to the Chan- 

 cellor, in which he foreshadowed the policy 

 that he was determined to follow. The Consti- 

 tution and laws of the empire and of Prussia 

 should, above all, be based on the reverence 

 and the conscience of the nation, and there- 

 fore frequent changes in Government institu- 

 tions and the laws are to be avoided. In the 

 empire the constitutional rights of the Feder- 

 ated Governments are to be faithfully respected, 

 as well as those of the Reichstag, but from both 

 a like respect for the rights of the Emperor 

 is due. New requirements of the nation, as 

 they arise, must be satisfied. The army and 

 navy should be kept up to the highest perfec- 

 tion in training and organization. The pro- 

 gramme embraced the continuance of social 

 legislation, the admission of a wider class to 

 the advantages of superior education, religious 

 toleration and equal protection for all confes- 

 sions, the discouragement of private and the 

 checking of public extravagance, the reduction 

 of the number of civil officials so as to allow 

 an increase of salaries, the control of munici- 

 pal taxation, and the encouragement of art and 

 science. Friedrich's deliverance was greeted 

 in liberal circles as the presage of a new po- 

 litical era. On March 21 the Emperor issued 

 a decree empowering the Crown-Prince to act 

 in his place and to sign documents whenever 

 he should be unable to attend to business. On 

 March 31 an imperial proclamation of amnesty 

 extended full pardon to all persons who had 

 been sentenced in Prussia for Ihe majeste, in- 

 sulting members of the royal family, offenses 

 connected with the exercise of political rights, 

 resisting the authorities or disturbing public 

 order, and offenses against the press laws. 

 Military offenses were also amnestied by an 

 imperial decree, dated April 19, granting a free 

 pardon to soldiers and sailors who had been 

 sentenced for resisting officers of the law or 

 violating public order, to those undergoing dis- 

 ciplinary punishment, and to those who had 

 been found guilty of absenting themselves 

 without leave or of deserting for the first time, 

 provided that no charge of conspiracy was 

 made out against them. Another decree set 

 at liberty all who had been convicted of po- 

 litical offenses in Alsace-Lorraine, including 

 infractions of the special laws of the Reichs- 

 land regarding publications, seditions cries, and 

 prohibited banners and emblems. This and 

 other conciliatory acts and expressions went 

 further than anything that had occurred 

 since the war to disarm the feeling of revenge 

 in France, where Friedrich was remembered 

 as the most chivalrous and considerate com- 

 mander among the conquerors. Among his 

 other acts of government may be mentioned 



directions to rebuild the Dom-Kirche in Ber- 

 lin, making it a memorial cathedral of the 

 Evangelical Church : the conferring of titles of 

 honor on many dignitaries, parliamentarians, 

 and industrialists; the abolition of expensive 

 and irrational military ext no, and dis- 



tinctions; and the furtherance of the scheme 

 of insurance for aged and invalid laborers, 

 which became law while he was Emperor. 

 TVhenPosen was devastated by an inundation 

 he gave 50,000 marks from his private purse 

 for the sufferers, while the Empress Victoria, 

 leaving his sick-bed, visited the flooded district 

 and inspected the arrangements for relief. 

 The Emperor labored to discharge his official 

 duties, notwithstanding his bodily distress and 

 weakness, but a relapse compelled him to dele- 

 gate one part of his functions. Laving to do 

 with military affairs, to his sun. whom he had 

 previously empowered by a rescript lhat was 

 published on March 23 to consider and settle 

 such matters of Government as the Emperor 

 should refer to him and append his signature 

 to state papers as the Emperors substitute 

 without special order, as it was the Emperor's 

 wish that the Crown-Prince should make him- 

 self acquainted with affairs of state by taking 

 an immediate part therein. 



Differences between the Emperor and the Im- 

 perial Chancellor, if they had not yet arisen, 

 were inevitable, owing to the great diversity 

 of their political opinions, although the Em- 

 peror took every occasion to express his re- 

 gard for Prince Bismarck and to treat him as 

 indispensable. About the end of March the 

 Chancellor was informed at a conference with 

 the Emperor at Charlottenbnrg, the castle 

 which he made his residence, that the Em- 

 peror intended within a few days to summon 

 Prince Alexander of Battenberg. ex-Prince of 

 Bulgaria, whose brother had married the Em- 

 press's sister, to Berlin, in order to confer on 

 him the order of the Iron < irn him to 



the command of an army corps, acd raise him 

 to the dignity of Furst, as preliminaries to his 

 formal betrothal to the Princess Victoria. This 

 princess, the eldest unmarried daughter of the 

 Emperor, who was not quite twenty-two years 

 old. had formed an attachment for Alexander 

 before be was called to the Bulgarian throne ; 

 but the Emperor Wilhelm disapproved a union 

 between them, and had exacted from him a 

 promise that he would not press his suit. The 

 Chancellor, when he heard of the intended 

 marriage, protested against it as a step of grave 

 political moment, which would be likely to 

 disturb the external relations of Germany and 

 lead to difficulties with Russia, in view of the 

 prince's continued candidacy for the Bulgarian 

 throne, his pledges to the Bulgarian people, 

 and his connection with their anti- Russian 

 aspirations. The Empress, who had firmly set 

 her mind on securing her daughter's happiness, 

 angrily resented the Chancellor's interference 

 in what she regarded as a private family mat- 

 ter, although the Emperor was inclined to de- 



