GERMANY. 



377 



duties for twenty years, for the preservation of the 

 rights of British fishermen on the island, for the 

 exemption from military service of all the pres- 

 ent inhabitants, and for a like exemption for the 

 children of those who declared that they would 

 remain British subjects. The people were op- 

 posed to the transfer, not only because the Ger- 

 man military and tariff laws were less favorable 

 than those of England, but because their land 

 would be likely to be taken as a site for fortifi- 

 cations, and perhaps the sea bathing that gave 

 them profitable employment would be interfered 

 with. In the treaty it was stipulated, at the in- 

 stance of the Emperor, that the transfer should 

 receive the assent of the British and German 

 Parliaments. When the bill for the cession of 

 the island came up for discussion in the British 

 House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone and Sir W. 

 Vernon Harcourt, with many of their followers, 

 refused to vote, declaring that the Conservative 

 ministry had tampered with the Constitution 

 and abandoned the treaty-making prerogative of 

 the Crown by submitting the question of a ces- 

 sion of territory to the decision of the two Houses 

 of Parliament. The weight that the Germans 

 have attached to the acquisition of Heligoland, 

 for which Prince Bismarck has repeatedly offered 

 substantial compensation, suggested the suspi- 

 cion, when the island was handed over to the 

 Emperor after his dismissal of the old Chancel- 

 lor, for what seemed an inadequate considera- 

 tion, that some secret pact or alliance was at the 

 root of the transaction. On Aug. 9 the British 

 Governor, Arthur C. S. Barkly, received Herr 

 von Botticher, the representative of the German 

 Government, and on the following day th Em- 

 peror landed, hoisted the German flag, and for- 

 mally took possession in a speech in which he 

 said : " This island is chosen as a bulwark of the 

 sea, a protection to German fisheries, a central 

 point for my ships of war, and a strong place 

 and harbor of safety in the German Ocean 

 against all enemies who dare to show themselves 

 upon it." In a proclamation he promised protec- 

 tion to the rights of the Heligolanders under the 

 form of government that he would decide to es- 

 tablish, an impartial administration of justice, 

 the perpetuation, as far as would be possible, of 

 their ancient laws and customs, exemption from 

 military and naval service of all living males, 

 and the inauguration of a policy designed to 

 promote their welfare and the economic value of 

 the island. 



Dissolution of the Reichstag. The seventh 

 and last triennial Parliament was ceremoniously 

 closed by the Emperor on Jan. 25 in a speech 

 in which he referred to the decease of his father 

 and grandfather, and said that the rapid changes 

 had peacefully been passed through only by the 

 aid of a lofty manifestation of loyalty and mo- 

 narchical feeling on the part of the nation and 

 the wisdom and patriotism of the Reichstag in 

 strengthening and placing on a secure footing 

 the defensive power of the empire, enabling it, 

 with the weight due to its authority in the 

 council of nations, to strive successfully in pre- 

 serving the blessings of peace and civilization. 

 He expressed satisfaction at the extension of 

 trade guild privileges, facilitating the co-opera- 

 tion of artisans for their mutual welfare, and at 

 the further realization of his grandfather's ideas 



in the extension of accident insurance and the 

 amalgamation of the old-age and invalid insur- 

 ance laws, thus providing for the needy and the 

 indigent in a manner calculated to have a good 

 effect on the internal peace of the country. " On 

 the foundations already laid," he said, ".we shall 

 be able to go on building in order to convince 

 the working classes that the legislative authori- 

 ties have a warm heart for their just interests 

 and desires, and that a satisfactory change in 

 their condition can be accomplished in a peace- 

 ful, legal, and orderly way, and not otherwise." 

 He expressed a hope that 'the succeeding Reich- 

 stag might succeed in devising effective means 

 for accomplishing the necessary reforms in this 

 field, and said that he should make it his serious 

 task and that he regarded it as his highest duty 

 to promote this end. No word of regret or of re- 

 proof was pronounced regarding the rejection of 

 the Anti-Socialist bill. Prince Bismarck wished, 

 instead of renewing the exceptional law from year 

 to year, to have it permanently embodied in the 

 common law of the land. If the Cartel Broth- 

 ers, or the union of the two Conservative parties 

 and the National Liberals, who had formed a 

 fusion before the last general election, had been 

 as harmonious and submissive as when they 

 voted the septennate bill and other important 

 Government measures he could have had the 

 permanent anti-Socialist law in the form that he 

 wished in spite of the hostility, not only of the 

 Social-Democrats, whom he strove to suppress, 

 but of the Clerical, Freisinnige, and People's 

 parties. The Old or German Conservatives and 

 the Free Conservatives, otherwise called the 

 Reichspartei or Imperialists, were willing to vote 

 for any measure that the Chancellor deemed ne- 

 cessary for his purpose, although some of the lat- 

 ter disapproved the clause that the National Lib- 

 erals declined to vote, which gave the police 

 power to expel any troublesome Socialist from 

 the district in which he resided. A majority were 

 opposed to intrusting discretionary powers, for 

 the reason that the manner in which the admin- 

 istrative authorities and the police had applied 

 the laws against the Socialists appeared in their 

 eyes a danger to the public liberties. The dis- 

 cussion took place while the details brought out , 

 in a monster trial of Socialists at Elberfeld were 

 fresh in the mind of everybody, which Herr 

 Bebel, the Socialist Deputy, used with telling 

 force against the Government, but which Herr 

 Herrfurth, the Prussian Minister of the Interior, 

 advanced as an argument that Social-Democracy 

 continued to be as deep rooted and dangerous as 

 ever it was. Of 87 persons who were tried, 44 were 

 condemned to from forty days to eighteen months 

 of imprisonment, among whom was the Deputy 

 Harm, while the rest, including the Deputies 

 Bebel, Grillenberger, and Schuhrnacher, against 

 whom unusual efforts were made to inculpate 

 them in the charge of belonging to a secret asso- 

 ciation, were acquitted. The indictment was 

 framed on an article of the criminal code mak- 

 ing it a criminal offense to take part in an asso- 

 ciation that conceals its existence, constitution, 

 or objects from the public authorities, or that 

 seeks to oppose by illegal means the operation of 

 the laws or the authority of the public officers. At 

 the trial it was shown that the system of police 

 spies and agents provocateurs, the exposure of 



