374 



GERMANY. 



regime, under the form of organic laws, into the 

 political and civil life of the people. You have, in 

 the course of four laborious sessions, advanced the 

 accomplishment of that work in such a manner that 

 you, as well as myself, will feel a satisfaction, at the 

 close of this legislative period, in casting a retro- 

 spective glance at the results of your devoted activity. 

 The Confederation owes to those efforts the most 

 important realization, and among others that of fix- 

 ing the rules of federal nationality, the right of dom- 

 icile, purchase of real property, and liberty of trades 

 and professions. 



You have regulated, by means of laws and treaties, 

 the conditions for acquiring or forfeiting federal and 

 state rights of citizenship, suppressing the excep- 

 tional taxes which in each country of the Confedera- 

 tion were imposed on individuals belonging to 

 others, abolishing the police restrictions on mar- 

 riages, establishing the independence of the par- 

 ticular rights of the state apart from the religious 

 distinctions, directing the federal flag, protecting 

 German navigation by legations and consulates, and 

 regulating the effective action of the consuls and the 

 rights attributed to those functionaries of the Con- 

 federation. By the abolition of the Elbe dues and 

 by the establishment of proper rules, the liberty of 

 the German rivers, so long desired, has been realized. 

 The series of treaties by which the postal relations 

 of the Confederation abroad were established on a 

 liberal basis have been extended by arrangements 

 concluded with Great Britain and the United States 

 of America, and which measures you have sanctioned. 

 The organization of the federal army is terminated, 

 and the navy of the Confederation has, by means or 

 the resources which you have guaranteed, entered on 

 a course of development which promises to that 

 branch of our national armament a rank correspond- 

 ing to the legislative aspirations of the German 

 nation. The finances of the Confederation have been 

 established on a firmer basis. The taxation of arti- 

 cles of food, regulated by the Confederation, has 

 been fixed in a uniform manner. 



By the establishment of a stamp duty on bills of 

 ^exchange a federal tax has been created in the 

 interest of commercial freedom. The fixation of the 

 common rules of law which the constitution requires 

 has been hastened on in a manner which, four years 

 back, we hardly dared to hope for. The bill on judi- 

 cial assistance, and the treaties based on that meas- 

 ure concluded with Baden and Hesse, have, by anti- 

 cipating your decisions relative to the new common 

 law of procedure, the examination of which will 

 soon be finished, obviated the difficulties opposed by 

 the frontiers of the state^ to the efficacy of legal 

 decisions. The suppression of restrictions on the 

 interest on money, of imprisonment for debt, and of 

 attachments on wages, has introduced some very im- 

 portant provisions into matters affecting political 

 economy. The commercial code and the legislation 

 concerning bills of exchange were voted by you as 

 federal laws ; and both of them, as well as the one on 

 companies m shares and that on copyright, have 

 been placed under the safeguard of the High Court, 

 which will soon commence its operations. The first 

 rank in this series of important measures belongs to 

 the law which was adopted yesterday by you and the 

 Federal Council. The penal code belongs to that 

 totality of enactments by which the great object of 

 German judicial unity is advanced in a remarkable 

 manner ; it could only be brought to a favorable ter- 

 mination by some sacrifices of opinion bein made 

 by you and the confederate governments for the 

 accomplishment of a great national work, which was 

 more difficult, and at the same time more productive, 

 that the questions treated and the solutions they were 

 to receive more profoundly affected the rights of 

 the public. I thank you for your devotedness in 

 making these sacrifices ; you have thus met the 

 wishes formed by the various governments. 



HONOBED GENTLEMEN : I may express the convic- 



tion that the satisfaction with which, in this place, 

 we perceive the striking results of the common activ- 

 ity will be shared throughout the German country 

 and also beyond the frontiers. The great effects 

 which have been achieved in so short a time, by 

 means of a free accord between the federal govern- 

 ments and the representatives of the nation, render 

 the whole people jointly interested in the accomplish- 

 ment of the hopes attached to the creation of the 

 Confederacy. All these facts prove that the German 

 mind, without renouncing the free development in 

 which its strength reposes, knows how to find union 

 in the common love of all for the fatherland. The 

 results obtained by confidence and incessant labor in 

 the domain of prosperity and progress, of order and 

 liberty in our own land, also give to foreigners the 

 certitude that the Northern Confederation, in the 

 realization of its interior reforms and of its constitu- 

 tional national union with the states of the South, 

 displays the German strength, not to menace others, 

 but to solidly establish the general peace. That at- 

 titude procures us the confidence and consideration 

 of foreign peoples and governments. 



The Customs Parliament (Zollparlament) as- 

 sembled on April 21st; the principal measures 

 adopted were, the ratification of a treaty of 

 commerce with Mexico ; an increase of the rate 

 of duty on coffee; the abolition of the onerous 

 regulations controlling the manufacture of beet- 

 root sugar; the adoption of a revised tariff, 

 and the extension of uniform coinage to the 

 states of South Germany. King William, in 

 dismissing the members of the Parliament at 

 the close of its three-years legislative period, 

 on May 31st, expressed his satisfaction with 

 the. result of their deliberations, the adoption 

 of the revised tariff, and of several other meas- 

 ures proposed by the allied governments. He 

 called their action a praiseworthy concession 

 to national feeling, and a sacrifice on all sides 

 for the benefit of the fatherland. 



The peaceable relations of the North-Ger- 

 man Confederation, on which King William in 

 his speeches from the throne had laid so great 

 stress, were suddenly disturbed at the begin- 

 ning of June. The offer of the Spanish crown 

 to a prince of Hohenzollern seemed, in the 

 opinion of the French Government, to involve 

 both a danger and a threat to France. As 

 Prince Leopold declared his readiness to ac- 

 cept the throne with the approval of King 

 William, as the head of the house of Hohen- 

 zollern, France demanded that the King of 

 Prussia should cause the prince to decline the 

 offered throne. The war-cloud, so suddenly 

 gathering over Europe, seemed to be happily 

 dispersed when Prince Leopold declared that 

 for the sake of peace he withdrew his accept- 

 ance of the throne. France, however, insisted 

 that she could not be satisfied with this step, 

 but must demand from Prussia a guarantee 

 that no prince of the house of Hohenzollern 

 should in future be permitted to ascend the 

 Spanish throne. When this demand was in- 

 dignantly rejected by Prussia, France began 

 the great German-French War which was to 

 entail on herself such . dreadful consequences. 

 (See GEEMAN-FBENOH WAR and FKANCE.) 



On July 14th, King William left Ems, where 



