580 



PKUSSIA. 



October 6th, by the King of Prussia in person. 

 He said that an unavoidable deficit in the 

 finances rendered an augmentation of the taxes 

 necessary, and announced that reforms would 

 be introduced, placing the eastern provinces 

 on a basis of self-government, and that new 

 laws in regard to public education would be 

 submitted. He also alluded to the success of 

 his efforts to preserve peace and friendly rela- 

 tions with foreign powers. He "relies confi- 

 dently " on the deputies not refusing their as- 

 sent to the propositions of the Government. 



On finding that his propositions concerning 

 taxes would be rejected by the Diet, the 

 Finance Minister, Von der Heydt, resigned (in 

 October), and was succeeded by Camphausen, 

 whose appointment strengthened the national 

 liberal element in Count Bismarck's ministry. 

 His programme, laid before the Diet on October 

 30th, was described by him as one to "restore 

 order in the administration of the finances, 

 while the resources of the country should be 

 spared as much as possible." His proposed 

 "consolidation," calculated to furnish means 

 for covering a portion of the deficit, and to 

 improve the method of paying the public debt, 

 was passed by a large majority of the Diet, in 

 December, 1869. The Lower House adopted 

 a resolution to extend the jurisdiction of the 

 Federation over the entire civil law. 



According to the budget, the national debt 

 of Prussia, at the end of 1869, amounted to 

 442,639,372 thalers, 184,471,491 of which are, 

 however, railway debts. The interest and 

 sinking fund for the payment of the principal 

 will, in 1870, require 28,648,600 thalers; 

 10,223,511 thalers of this sum, however, be- 

 long to the railways, and will be covered by 

 their profits. The expenses of the national 

 debt have risen 943,970 thalers since 1869. 

 Of the above sum, 377,925,827 thalers belong 

 to the old provinces, viz. : 211,225,925 thalers 

 state debt bearing interest, 133,061,000 thalers 

 railway debt bearing interest, 2,553,902 thalers 

 provincial debt bearing interest, 12,835,000 

 thalers interest-bearing notes, and 18,250,000 

 thalers bank-notes bearing 110 interest. The 

 debts of the provinces united to the kingdom, 

 in 1866, are as follows : Hanover, 21,096,291 

 thalers, 16,261,120 thalers of which are rail- 

 way debts; Hesse, 15,249,950 thalers, of 

 which 15,107,600 thalers for railways; Nas- 

 sau, 20,158,755 thalers, of which 16,472,514 

 thalers for railways; Hesse-Homburg, 99,429 

 thalers; Frankfort, 7,754,171 thalers, of which 

 3,569,257 thalers for railways ; Schleswig-Hol- 

 stein, 354,948 thalers. 



The German military organization is com- 

 plete, and, according to a statement in the 

 Prussian Military^ Gazette, in January, 1869, 

 " a million of soldiers can, at any moment, be 

 placed under arms by a single telegram from 

 Berlin." The Prussian troops, it adds, consist 

 of 325 battalions of infantry, 268 squadrons 

 of cavalry, 11 regiments of artillery, with 

 1,146 guns, and 12 battalions of engineers, 



making 410,000 soldiers in all. To these 

 should be added the Federal contingents, 

 which are as follows: Saxony, 29 battalions, 

 24 squadrons. 96 batteries, and 6 guns ; Bruns- 

 wick, 3 battalions, 4 squadrons and 6 guns ; 

 Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 1 battalion ; and Hesse- 

 Darmstadt, 10 battalions, 8 squadrons, 24 

 guns, and 1 battalion of engineers ; total, 

 53,000 men. "But," says the Military Ga- 

 zette, " this force of 463,000 only represents the 

 standing army of North Germany. In case of 

 emergency, Prussia can also command the 

 services of the troops of Baden, Wurtemberg, 

 and Bavaria, and immediately order a levy of 

 her reserve, consisting of 120 battalions of 

 infantry, 76 squadrons of cavalry, 240 guns, 

 and 12 battalions of engineers ; or an army of 

 143,000 men. An additional force of 200,000 

 men is at her disposal for the occupation of 

 towns and garrisons. The above numbers do 

 not include the officers, military train, military 

 laborers, nor special corps of any kind." 



The Prussian Government has made extra- 

 ordinary efforts to create a respectable navy. 

 In fact, a few years ago it would have scarcely 

 been an exaggeration to say that the long-boat 

 of a British man-of-war was a fair match for 

 Prussia's whole fleet. But Count Bismarck 

 has already found himself able to assert that 

 the Prussian navy is now second to none in the 

 Baltic Sea. The extraordinary rapidity with 

 which iron-clad after iron-clad has been built 

 and launched in the Prussian ports, and the 

 scarcely disguised pretensions of the Prussian 

 Government to the supremacy of the Baltic 

 Sea, have created no little jealousy and anxiety 

 in Russia. In- 1868, at the suggestion of Count 

 Bismarck, the Prussian and Kussian fleets 

 cruised and manoeuvred together during the 

 summer months ; but a proposal to renew the 

 same exercises this year has met at St. Peters- 

 burg with an unqualified refusal. This inci- 

 dent has caused much sensation in Russian 

 naval circles, the general impression being that 

 the Government is aware of the present superi- 

 ority of the Prussian navy. The influential 

 Russian organ, Goloss, of St. Petersburg says, 

 in a remarkable article on this subject: "After 

 seizing Kiel and the bay of Jahde, Prussia has 

 constructed in that bay the naval port of 

 Keppens, and thus at once become a naval 

 power and a dangerous rival to us in the Bal- 

 tic. When the canal between the Baltic 

 and the North Sea, the construction of 

 which is already seriously contemplated at 

 Berlin, is completed, the naval power of 

 Prussia, which formerly only existed in the 

 dreams of Prussian patriots, will become an 

 accomplished fact." The Goloss, after accusing 

 Prussia of false dealing in her relations with 

 Russia, proceeds : " Our commercial legisla- 

 tion has been such that if the Prussian Minister 

 of Commerce had been asked for his advice he 

 could not have invented any thing more advan- 

 tageous for Prussian interests. The sliding 

 scale of customs tariffs which have been re- 



