364 



GERMANY. 



key to the Baltic. This incident was said to 

 have exercised great influence upon Russia's 

 policy with regard to Spain, and to have in- 

 duced the Emperor, when he received a letter 

 from Don Carlos thanking him for not having 

 recognized Marshal Serrano's Government, to 

 send an immediate reply. 



The views of Prince Bismarck concerning 

 the relations between Germany and Austria 

 were forciby expressed in an interview which 

 the Hungarian author and deputy, Manus Jo- 

 kai, had with him at Berlin. The latter pub- 

 lished an account of it in his Hungarian news 

 paper Hon, from where it passed into most of 

 the leading newspapers of Europe without call- 

 ing forth any contradiction from M. Bismarck. 

 " It is necessary," the prince said, " that in the 

 centre of Europe there should be a consoli- 

 dated state such as the Austro-Hungarian mon- 

 archy. I was already convinced of this, as I 

 hastened to conclude peace in 1866 a course 

 which many of our friends did not like. The 

 German race is destined to rule on this side of 

 the Leitha, and the Hungarian race beyond it. 

 The remaining races in Austro-Hungary make 

 also good soldiers, but in administrative abili- 

 ty, statesmanship, intelligence, and wealth, the 

 Germans and Hungarians are superior. All 

 are kept together by a common history. The 

 establishment of small states of separate na- 

 tionality is impossible in the east of Europe; 

 merely historical states are possible. For this 

 reason the present dualistic form of govern- 

 ment ought to be maintained in Austro-Hun- 

 gary. Your history, too, is the same as that 

 of Austria; it has become so owing to your 

 common combats. Formerly you attacked side 

 by side, but now you need each other for your 

 mutual defense." The prince continued : 



Some of our good friends suspect us of intending 

 to annex the German portion of Austria. Is it really 

 possible for any one to imagine that we are going to 

 burden ourselves with some more priest-ridden prov- 

 inces 3 Or are we such habitually imprudent people 

 that we are likely to go in for conquest when we have 

 already Alsace and Northern Schleswig on our 

 hands? But the worst of all is that, for military 

 reasons, which we had no right to slight, we have 

 been obliged to appropriate a strip of French-speak- 

 ing country in Lorraine. Oh, those Frenchmen! 

 Those implacable savages ! Just scratch the Parisian 

 cook, tailor, or perruquier. and you will not be long 

 in discovering the Bed Indian underneath all his su- 

 perficial gloss. No, we have to stand sentinel against 

 the French, who are our mortal enemies, and we have 

 no idea of involving ourselves in fresh troubles on 

 the eastern frontier likewise. It would be a nice mess 

 indeed to increase the German Empire by so many 

 provinces bent upon pilgrimaging and that sort of 

 thing 1 Besides, Vienna and Pesth are destined to 

 become the commercial centres of the southeast ; 

 but of what use would Vienna be to us as a mere 

 border town ? The more I think about it the more 

 convinced I am that a German minister who should 

 prepare to annex Austrian territory would deserve 

 to be strung up without more ado. For myself, all I 

 can say is this that I should be tempted to go to 

 war to keep the German- Austrians out of Germany 

 rather than admit them. But in all probability Aus- 

 tria will enjoy a prolonged peace. 



The Governments and the Diets of the small- 



er states continued to show themselves friend- 

 ly to the progressive consolidation of German 

 unity. Though, at the elections for the German 

 Reichstag in Bavaria, a majority of the elec- 

 toral districts had chosen deputies who were 

 stanch opponents of Prince Bismarck and his 

 policy, the Government acted, in all important 

 questions, in full concord with the Central 

 Government, and the King personally took 

 more than one occasion to assure the chancel- 

 lor of his special regard and admiration. The 

 King of Wurtemberg declared himself very 

 emphatically in favor of national unity. When 

 he closed, in June, the parliamentary session 

 of his kingdom, and thanked the Diet for the 

 zeal and devotion it had displayed in its delib- 

 erations, he dwelt upon the voting of the trea- 

 ties concluded with Prussia as the most impor- 

 tant because they were the most significant 

 fruit of the national successes, for they were 

 concluded for the purpose of reestablishing the 

 unity of Germany through the Emperor and 

 empire. In the kingdom of Saxony, the party 

 of progress was anxious to save as many of the 

 sovereign rights of the states as possible, and 

 carried, by its votes, the maintenance of a spe- 

 cial Saxon embassy in Munich, but the suspicion 

 that the Government of the new King would 

 be found in open opposition to the Central Gov- 

 ernment proved unfounded. In Baden and 

 Hesse the Governments and Diets are ardent 

 supporters of the national unity and of the 

 Central Government. In the grand-duchy of 

 Mecklenburg, which is still without a consti- 

 tutional form of government, a new attempt 

 to introduce a liberal constitution was again 

 defeated by the obstinate resistance of the 

 knighthood. In the principality of Lippe, 

 where, in consequence of the long conflict be- 

 tween the Government and the Diet, the con- 

 stitutional form of government had been for 

 some time suspended, the Liberal party de- 

 clined to attend a Diet which had been called 

 by the Government for settling the difficulty. 



The conflict between the Government of 

 Prussia and the Roman Catholic Church (see 

 PETJSSIA) not only continued during the year, 

 but more and more extended to the smaller 

 states. The legislation of Baden is in full ac- 

 cordance with that of Prussia, and even anti- 

 cipated that of Prussia in regulating by law 

 the relation of the Old Catholics to the Roman 

 Catholic Church, and acknowledging their 

 claim to a share of the Catholic Church prop- 

 erty. In the grand-duchy of Hesse laws for 

 the regulation of Church affairs were prepared 

 almost identical with those which, in 1873, 

 were adopted in Prussia. A bishop elected by 

 the Old Catholics was recognized as a bishop 

 of the Catholic Church by the Governments 

 of Prussia, Baden, and Hesse ; the Govern- 

 ment of Bavaria, however, though in general 

 agreeing with the other Federal Governments 

 in the legislation on Church questions, refused 

 the recognition of the Old Catholic bishop on 

 the ground that it was incompatible with the 



