CUSTOMS (ZOLL) PARLIAMENT OF GERMANY. 



209 



over nearly all the subjects alluded to in the 

 treaty, concluded in the summer of 1867, the 

 extension of which to Mecklenburg and Lubeck 

 was near at hand. The first subject to come 

 under consideration would be the settlement 

 of the relations of commercial intercourse with 

 an adjacent country, closely connected with 

 Germany by similarity of race and a variety 

 of material interests." After enumerating the 

 various bills to be submitted to the Parliament, 

 including a uniform tobacco tax and duty bill, 

 and a treaty of commerce and navigation with 

 Spain, the King concluded by saying : " The 

 friendly relations which the German Govern- 

 ments maintain with all powers, the national 

 prosperity, whose care unites here the repre- 

 sentatives of the German races, together with 

 the blessings of peace, for the protection of 

 which the German States have entered into 

 alliance, will remain secure, and with God's 

 help we shall at all times be able to reckon 

 upon the united power of the German people." 



At the conclusion of this speech Count Bis- 

 marck, in the name of the governments consti- 

 tuting the Zollverein, declared the Customs 

 Parliament opened. On the following day the 

 Parliament elected as president Dr. Simson, the 

 Speaker of the North-German Reichstag, who 

 obtained all but thirty (blank) votes. Prince 

 Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst, Prime Minister of 

 Bavaria, was elected first vice-president by 

 258 to 43 votes ; and Duke Ujest was chosen, 

 on the second ballot, second vice-president by 

 152 votes ; the other candidates, Baron Rog- 

 genbach and Neurath, receiving respectively 

 137 and 7 votes. 



In accordance with the parliamentary usages 

 of Germany, the Parliament devoted its atten- 

 tion, in the first place, to the examination of 

 the credentials of its members. On April 29th 

 an excited debate took place in regard to a 

 clause of the electoral laws of Bavaria, by which 

 the right of suffrage was conferred upon " all 

 Bavarian subjects, twenty-five years of age, 

 and paying a direct tax," and which the Na- 

 tional Liberals contended was in conflict with 

 the electoral laws of the North-German Con- 

 federation, by which " every respectable citi- 

 zen, twenty-five years of age," was to be an 

 elector. Despite the protests of the Particu- 

 larists, who asserted that a Customs Parliament 

 was incompetent to act on such questions, the 

 majority decided that the Bavarian Govern- 

 ment should be instructed to remove the afore- 

 said clause from its electoral laws. 



Still more exciting were the debates on the 

 electoral laws of Wurtemberg, by which house- 

 holders only were 'admitted to the ballot-box. 

 The manoeuvres by which the Wurtemberg 

 ministers, it was asserted, had tried to exer- 

 cise a pressure upon the electors, and secured 

 the defeat of the National Liberal candidates 

 in that kingdom, led to a most acrimonious 

 debate, which terminated in the adoptio'n (by 

 162 to 105 votes) of the resolution, moved by 

 Count Bethusy-Huc, " that the Government of 

 VOL. vin. 14 A 



the kingdom of Wurtemberg should be re- 

 quired to conform henceforth more strictly to 

 the stipulations of the late Zollverein treaty." 



On May 7th the National Liberals, embold- 

 ened by these apparent victories, determined 

 to move an address in reply to the opening 

 speech from the throne, pledging the Parlia- 

 ment in strong terms to the promotion of unity 

 in Germany; assuring the King of Prussia 

 "that a national representation of the whole 

 of Germany, for which the nation had striven 

 for several decades, and which all the German 

 Governments, in times gone by already, had 

 recognized as just and necessary, could not be 

 withheld from the people for any length of 

 time ; " and urging him in the most impressive 

 manner "by the united strength of the Ger- 

 man nation, and in conjunction with his august 

 allies, to finish the great national structure, the 

 completion of which would secure to Germany 

 safety, power, and peace in its relations with 

 foreign states, and material prosperity and con- 

 stitutional liberty at home." 



They were strongly supported by the Na- 

 tional Liberals from the South, and a majority 

 of the Free Conservatives of the North. A 

 motion to set aside the motion for an address, 

 and to enter upon the simple order of the day, 

 was made to decide the question whether the 

 Parliament should extend its deliberations to 

 national politics and the principle of German 

 unity, or confine itself to the economical ques- 

 tions of the Zollverein. The motion was op- 

 posed by those in favor of union, and support- 

 ed by all others. It was carried, after an ex- 

 ceedingly stormy debate, by a majority of one 

 hundred and eighty-six against one hundred 

 and fifty. Count Bismarck was present, but 

 did not speak. Among the notable persons 

 who voted "aye" on this important occasion, 

 were Prince Albrecht of Prussia, the Prussian 

 Ministers of Finance and the Interior, Baron 

 von der Heydt, and Count Eulenburg, General 

 von Moltke, and most of the Southern mem- 

 bers, including the Bavarian Liberal Premier, 

 Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst, and the "Wur- 

 temberg Premier and Minister of Finance, Baron 

 von Varnbuhler, and Herr von Mittnacht. 



The Parliament then took up the treaty of 

 commerce and navigation, which Prussia, in 

 the name of the Zollverein, had concluded with 

 Spain, and which was ratified, after a brief de- 

 bate, on the 13th of May. 



By far more important and animated was the 

 discussion about the ratification of the com- 

 mercial and customs treaty, concluded on 

 March 9, 1868, between the Zollverein and the 

 Government of Austria. On May 18th, when 

 the final vote was to be taken, Messrs. Bam- 

 berger, Metz, and twenty-nine other Southern 

 and Northern National Liberals, moved "that 

 the Federal Council of the Zollverein should 

 take the necessary steps to remedy the com- 

 plaints to which the conflict between the re- 

 duction of the duties on foreign wines and the 

 existing system of indirect taxation had given 



