GERMANY. 



373 



' "nfedoration, and which ore in har- 

 .\itli the requirements or science and tlie results 

 nee. The same has been the aim inn 

 moh of legislation, namely, in tin- imposed 

 (ion of the rights of author*. The 

 princii'li' "t the common right of nationality (indige- 

 rV'inatfd in the Federal Constitution, and fur- 

 ther developed in the laws upon freedom of residence 

 and in the trade n>'ulaiit>ns, will ol.tuin its final ex- 

 n in KWiTal directions by the adoption of the 



In- ittbmttted to you. A bill respecting the 



niriit mid ili'[irivation of the rights belonging 

 'Jeff < >t't lui Bund or stato will be presented, to 



the wish expressed by you last session. The 

 establishment of the principle of the freedom of resi- 



has drawn attention to great inequalities, aris- 



'in the greatly-varying regulations in the sev- 



imtrios of the Bund, in connection with the 

 rights of domicile and the support of the poor. The 



al of these inequalities suggested, indeed, by 

 you ould not bo long delayed, and a relief and 

 dwelling-house bill will DO introduced, which is cal- 



1 to remove the most prominent of the evils 

 complained of. Those impediments still existing to 

 the full development of the principle of freedom of 

 fi-Mili'iice, which arise from the state laws on direct 

 taxation, ore to be removed by a bill now before the 



nl Council. 



The position of the men belonging to the former 

 Schleswig-Ilolstein army claims the same sympathy 

 as was expressed in your last session but one with 

 regard to the officers of that army. A bill on this 

 subject will be laid before you. The reservation 

 made in the federal consulates law, in favor of set- 

 tling the competency of the federal consuls to cele- 

 brate marriages and to authenticate the position of 

 individuals, will be dealt with by a bill to be pre- 

 sented to you, and the bill respecting the position of 

 federal officials will again be submitted to you for 

 decision. The increase of trade and the reform of 

 the sugar-tax have enabled the Government, while 

 maintaining the basis of prudent calculation, to fix in 

 the federal budget, at a higher figure than in the 

 previous budget, the estimates of the revenue from 

 tin* customs, the taxes upon articles of consumption, 

 and the surplus from the postal service. A prospect 

 is therefore afforded that the greater portion of the 

 utill excessive expenditure necessitated by the de- 

 velopment of federal institutions, and especially by 

 the projected completion of the federal navy, will be 

 covered by the Bund's own revenue. 



Preparatory steps toward the arrangement con- 

 templated in article four of the Treaty of Prague, for 

 the national union of the North-German Confedera- 

 tion^with the South-German States, are the object of 

 my incessant attention. A jurisdiction treaty, which 

 will be submitted to your approval, has been con- 

 cluded with the grand-duchy of Baden, with the 

 object of extending, in a national sense, beyond the 

 frontiers of the federal territory, the principles of 

 community of legal protection which obtain through- 

 out the North-German Confederation by means of 

 thr law for affording legal assistance. By a bill, 

 which is to be brought forward to supply defects in 

 the law on weights and measures, it will become pos- 

 sible to unite in a common system, in that respect, 

 with other German states, by the mutual admission 

 of the reformed arrangements. In consequence of 

 my mediation, the Bund has willingly cooperated in 

 tho establishment of a commission on the South Ger- 

 man fortresses, by agreeing to an undivided proprie- 

 t"i--hip in the fortifications. The entirety of the 

 treaties which connect the north of Germany with 

 the south is a security for the safety and welfare of the 

 common German fatherland, and affords those trusty 

 guarantees which are inherent in the strength and 

 complete organization of the North-German Bund. 

 The confidence which our South-German allies re- 

 pose in these guarantees is based upon complete 

 reciprocity. 



Tho sentiment of national unity to which the pres- 

 ent treaties owe their existence, the mutually pledged 

 word of German princes, and the community of sn- 

 national interests, tend to give our relations 

 v. it h South Germany a solidity which is independent 

 of tho changing -waves of political passions. When 

 I spoke to you last year from this place, I expressed 

 in v.M-lf confident that my sincere efforts to gratify the 

 - of nations and fulfil the requirement* of civili- 

 zation by the avoidance of any disturbance of peace 

 could not, with the help of Providence, fail of success. 

 It does my heart good to be able to announce to-day 

 from the same pin 



ig the governments as well as among the na- 

 'the present day a conviction is successfully 



place that my confidence was fully 

 justified. 



Among 

 tions of the 



making way ,"to the effect that to each political commu- 

 nity belong the task and the duty or fostering inde- 

 pendently at home its own welfare and the principle* 

 of freedom and justice, and that the armed force of 

 each country is destined to protect its own indepen- 

 dence, not to assail that of others. 



The legislative period of the present Parliament is 

 approaching a close. By its former successful ac- 

 tivity and the fruitful cooperation between the con- 

 federate governments and the Parliament in their 

 labors, the federal institutions have been firmly 

 founded, and have developed in a direction destined 

 to prove most beneficial to tho interests of the father- 

 Ian. 1. The deliberations of the present session will 

 be renewed, and your energetic activity is again 

 claimed for the furtherance of this object. By ful- 

 filling the tasks which will be laid before you, you 

 will bring the successful career of the present Parlia- 

 ment to a termination which will cause the labors it 

 has exacted to be rewarded -with a nation's thanks, 

 and secure for it a prominent place in the history of 

 the institutions of the fatherland. 



On February 18th, Dr. Simson was reflected 

 president, and the Duke von Ujest and Count 

 Benningsen vice-presidents of the Assembly, 

 by 144, 143, and 101 votes respectively, out of 

 155. No opposition candidate received more 

 than five votes. At the discussion of the 

 treaty with Baden, Deputy Lasker, in behalf 

 of the National Liberals, moved the earliest 

 possible acceptance of the offer of Baden to 

 become a member of the North-German Con- 

 federation. Count Bismarck, in reply, de- 

 nounced the motion as an untimely one. He 

 said that the acknowledged patriotic devotion 

 of Baden needed no comment, but its entrance 

 into the North-German Confederation would 

 not settle the German question, but only tend 

 to increase the opposition in the other South- 

 German States. Mr. Lasker then withdrew his 

 motion. On the 5th of March the Beichstag 

 voted the extension of uniform weights and 

 measures to the states of South Germany. 

 Bills were adopted, securing the rights of au- 

 thors, and abolishing capital punishment, but 

 Count Bismarck declared, with regard to tho 

 latter, that the Federal Council would not ap- 

 prove it. A postal convention between the 

 United States and the North-German Confed- 

 eration was also ratified. 



Tho King of Prussia closed the session of 

 the Reichstag, May 27th, at Berlin, with the 

 following speech from the throne : 



HOXOBED GENTLEMEN : The task of the first Par- 

 liament of the Confederation was to introduce the 

 most essential disposition of the constitutional 



