210 



CUSTOMS (ZOLL) PARLIAMENT OF GERMANY. 



rise in the grand-duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt." 

 Insignificant as this motion was, it afforded the 

 Particularists another opportunity to deny the 

 competency of the Customs Parliament in ques- 

 tions of this description, and led to a very 

 bitter and prolonged struggle, which was ren- 

 dered especially interesting by the elaborate 

 speeches delivered by Count Bismarck, Yoltk, 

 and other prominent members, on this occa- 

 sion. Bamberger's motion was finally carried 

 by an overwhelming majority, nearly all the 

 Prussian Conservatives voting with the Na- 

 tional Liberals. The commercial and customs 

 treaty with Austria, by which the import du- 

 ties between the two countries were materially 

 reduced, was ratified by a. still more decisive 

 majority, only seventeen members, among them 

 Maurice Mohl and other extreme protectionists, 

 voting against it. 



The Federal Council of the Zollverein pro- 

 posed to the Customs Parliament to cover the 

 deficit arising in the budget of the Zollverein 

 in consequence of the ratification of the treaty 

 with Austria, and which was estimated at 

 about 1,500,000 thalers, by imposing a tax of 

 twelve thalers per acre on domestic tobacco, 

 raising the duty on imported tobacco from four 

 to six thalers per cwt., and levying a duty of 

 one-half thaler per cwt. on imported petroleum. 

 The Prussian Minister of Finance, Baron von 

 der Heydt, who was the author of these pro- 



Sosed reforms in the customs and revenue laws, 

 iformed the Customs Parliament, in order to 

 overcome its opposition to the duty on pe- 

 troleum, that it would yield, at the most, six 

 hundred thousand thalers a year ; but statisti- 

 cal reports, published at that very moment in 

 the official Prussian Staatsanzeiger, showed 

 plainly that the minister had underrated the 

 quantity of petroleum imported into the terri- 

 tory of the Zollverein, and that a duty of one- 

 half thaler per cwt. would have yielded, in 

 the year 1867, upward of 800,000 thalers, and 

 in the year 1868 at least one million thalers. 

 For this reason, as well as for others of a con- 

 stitutional and political character, the Parlia- 

 ment rejected the duty on petroleum, on the 

 20th of May, by a vote of one hundred and 

 ninety against ninety-nine. 



Not more successful was the proposition of 

 the Federal Council in regard to the tax and 

 duty on domestic and foreign tobacco. In- 

 stead of adopting the tax of twelve thalers per 

 acre on domestic tobacco, the Parliament fixed 

 it at six dollars, and refused to raise the duty 

 on imported tobacco from four to six thalers. 



In consequence of these defeats, Count Bis- 

 marck declared at the last sitting of the Par- 

 liament, on the 23d of May, that the Federal 

 Council of the Zollverein had instructed him 

 to withdraw the other propositions which the 

 Council had made in regard to changes in the 

 tariff of the Zollverein. 



On the same day the Parliament was closed 

 by the King of Prussia, who said in his speech, 

 that " he hoped the results of the session would 



strengthen the sentiments of mutual trust be- 

 tween the people of the various states of the 

 Zollverein ; destroy the prejudices which have 

 existed in some portions of the country ; and 

 prove that the Germans, though apart in some 

 interests, were one people in warm brotherly 

 feeling." He predicted that the most desir- 

 able blending of the financial and economical 

 interests, to which the Zollverein owed its rise 

 and prosperity, would be brought about at the 

 next session of the Customs Parliament by the 

 united efforts of the allied governments and the 

 Customs Parliament ; and closed by saying that 

 "the rights intrusted to him by Germany would 

 be sacredly exercised as his highest rule of ac- 

 tion." 



As soon as the Zoll-Parliament had adjourned 

 sine die, brilliant festivities took place in 

 honor of the South-German representatives, in 

 Berlin and other cities of Prussia. A large ma- 

 jority of the representatives made a pleasure- 

 trip to the naval station of the North-German 

 Confederation at Kiel ; and they were received 

 there, as well as in Hamburg and Altona, with 

 great enthusiasm by the people and military 

 and civil authorities. 



A portion of the South-German deputies, 

 mostly leading members of the Particularists 

 from Bavaria and Wurtemberg, issued, on the 

 24th of May, a species of account of their stew- 

 ardship in the shape of the following address 

 to their constituents : 



At the close of the first session of the Customs Par- 

 liament we consider it our duty to give an account of 

 our acts, and to communicate our experiences. 



Convinced that a perfect union would render it 

 easier for us to adhere to the legal basis of the Cus- 

 toms Parliament as secured by treaty, and to hold 

 thereupon the interests confided to our charge, we 

 united as the South-German party .composed of the 

 majority of the Bavarian, all the Wurtemberg, and 

 a portion of the Baden members, and were joined 

 by several other deputies from various parts ot Ger- 

 many. 



Our organization succeeded in contributing mate- 

 rially to the rejection of the address, the discussion of 

 which in the present critical position of affairs would 

 not only have brought out still more strongly the 

 contradictions existing in Germany, but would have 

 changed the legal character of the Parliament at the 

 first moment of its operations. 



"We further succeeded in reducing to a tolerably 

 moderate amount the taxation demands put forward 

 by the Federal Council, which appeared to us not 

 sufficiently called for by temporary reductions in the 

 revenue, so that, instead of 2,300,000 thalers in duties 

 and taxes upon tobacco and petroleum, a tobacco duty 

 of only 450,000 thalers has been agreed to. Our party 

 voted unanimously against the petroleum tax, and 

 against any duties being imposed upon tobacco. 



The majority of the party supported the treaty of 

 commerce with Austriaj but the minority.. opposed it, 

 because its tariff reductions also applied to non-Ger- 

 man countries without corresponding concessions. 

 We had no reason to oppose the commercial treaty 

 with Spain, or the bills as to customs procedure. 



Summoned at an historically important periodic 

 an assembly that represents in material interests a 

 large portion of Germany, and is opposed to parties 

 bent with more or less determination upon bringing 

 the Southwest German countries into full State com- 

 munity with the North, we have considered it incum- 

 bent upon us, while closely inspecting governing per- 



