368 



GERMANY. 



but they were successful in only two districts. 

 Outside of Saxony and Prussia no Socialist 

 was elected. The Socialist party of the Reichs- 

 rath consisted therefore of only three mem- 

 bers. Another fear, that a natural exhaustion, 

 succeeding the excitement of the war, might 

 weaken the interest of the voters in the elec- 

 tions, likewise proved to be unfounded. The 

 number of voters was, everywhere, large, 

 and in many places more numerous than at 

 any previous election. On an average, fully CO 

 per cent, of the enrolled voters took part in 

 the elections ; in many cases upward of TO 

 per cent. As an absolute majority of all the 

 votes cast is necessary in Germany for the 

 validity of an election, thirty -five supplemen- 

 tary elections had to be held in Prussia, six 

 in Saxony, and three in the South- German 

 States. When the Diet met, the Conserva- 

 tives, National Liberals, the party of Progress, 

 and the Poles, retained their former party 

 names ; the Free Conservatives adopted the 

 name of the German Imperial party (Deutsche 

 Reichspartei). The former Centre, which had 

 chiefly consisted of Old Liberals (Altliberale), 

 disappeared; the reflected members joined 

 either the German Imperial or the Liberal Im- 

 perial party. The Free Union, a kind of mid- 

 dle party between National Liberals and the 

 party of Progress, also disappeared. Most of 

 its members had not been reelected, and a ma- 

 jority of those reelected joined no party in the 

 new Reichstag. The most important change 

 in the division of parties was the dissolution 

 of the Federal Constitutional party, which, in 

 the preceding Diet, had numbered about twenty 

 members, and embraced the most determined 

 opponents of the national unity of Germany 

 under the leadership of Prussia. As this unity 

 had become an established fact, nearly all the 

 members joined the other parties ; only a few 

 from Hanover, the chief of whom was Prof. 

 Ewald, of Gottingen, as well as two Danes 

 from North Schleswig, remained in sulky iso- 

 lation. The "Catholic party," which was 

 now for the first time fully organized in the 

 Reichstag, received from the part of the hall 

 which it occupied the name of the " Fraction 

 of the Centre." Another party, which owed 

 its origin to this Diet, was the Liberal Impe- 

 rial party (Liberale Reichspartei), which in 

 most questions agreed with the National Lib- 

 erals, but was less centralizing in regard to 

 national unity. The Conservative party, which 

 numbered about fifty members, generally re- 

 garded as its leader Herr von Blanckenburg, 

 one of the most fluent speakers of the Reichs- 

 tag. Other prominent speakers of the party 

 were Count von Kleist and Count von Ritt- 

 berg. The great strategist, Von Moltke, spoke 

 only on military subjects. Wagener, the most 

 learned champion of the party in the daily 

 press and in the literary world, also spoke on 

 a very few occasions. The recognized leader 

 of the German Imperial party, which num- 

 bered thirty-eight members, is Count von 



Bethusy Hue. The best speakers besides him 

 are Herr von Kardorff, Dr. Friedenthal, and 

 Count Munster, formerly minister of the King 

 of Hanover. The Catholic party, which has 

 about sixty members, took a more active part 

 in most of the debates than any other party. 

 Among its prominent speakers are the Bishop 

 of Mentz (Baron von Ketteler), Dr. Windt- 

 horst, formerly minister of the King of Hano- 

 ver, Prof. Greil, of Bavaria, and the two broth- 

 ers, August and Peter Reichensperger, the 

 former of whom was formerly Vice-President 

 of the Prussian Chamber of Deputies, while 

 the other is a member of the Supreme Court 

 of Prussia at Berlin. Herr von Bennigsen is 

 the recognized leader of the National Liberals, 

 who constitute the most numerous party of 

 the Diet, as they number one hundred and six- 

 teen members. Among the best speakers of this 

 party are Holder and Romer, of Wurtemberg, 

 and Lasker and Miquel, of Prussia. The Presi- 

 dent of the Diet, Dr. Simson, though, as Presi- 

 dent, he could not formally join any of the par- 

 ties, almost invariably voted with the National 

 Liberals. The party of Progress had not one 

 generally-recognized leader, like many of the 

 other parties ; its most influential members are 

 Dr. Lowe, who for many years was a resident 

 of New York ; Schulze-Delitzch, the cele- 

 brated writer on questions of political econ- 

 omy ; Herr von Hoverbeck, Dnncker, and Wi- 

 gard. Prince Hohenlohe, of Bavaria, the first 

 Vice-President of the Diet, is one of the lead- 

 ers of the Liberal Imperial party. 



The opening of the Reichstag took place on 

 March 21st, and was attended by unusual splen- 

 dor. All the parties of the Reichstag united 

 in electing as President Dr. Simson, President 

 of the Court of Appeals at Frankfort-on-the- 

 Oder. He had been President of the German 

 Parliament at Frankfort, in 1848; had an- 

 nounced the election of King William of Prus- 

 sia as Emperor of Germany, and as head of 

 the delegation of the Parliament had offered 

 the imperial crown to the Prussian King in 

 the name of the nation and its representatives. 

 He had subsequently presided at the Union 

 Parliament of Erfurt, which unsuccessfully en- 

 deavored to resume the work which the Frank- 

 fort Parliament had been unable to complete. 

 Seventeen years later he had been elected 

 President of the first Reichstag of the North- 

 German Confederation, and likewise President 

 of the Parliament of the German Customs 

 Union. Thus, during the space of thirty -three 

 years, Dr. Simson had been the symbolic rep- 

 resentative of the idea of German unity; and, 

 as he, moreover, has acquired an ability in the 

 art of presiding which is believed to be almost 

 without parallel in the history of parliamen- 

 tary life, all parties, without exception, resolved 

 to give him their votes. Thus he received all 

 the votes cast, except only three, one of which 

 was his own. As first Vice-President the 

 Reichstag elected the Bavarian prince of II'.- 

 henlohe-Schillingsfurst by two hundred and 



