GERMANY. 



353 



dently of the consent of the clergy, not always 

 easily obtained in Catholic districts. And, final- 

 ly, it allows of people being buried in conse- 

 crated ground whose relatives may not be in a 

 position to mention any recognized creed be- 

 lieved in by the defunct. The churchyards, so 

 long in the exclusive possession of the clergy, 

 henceforth must be thrown open to the people 

 who owned to no denomination while alive. 

 "What the effect of it all upon German society 

 is likely to be, will easily be divined when it is 

 stated that, in the few months the Prussian 

 civil registration law has been in operation, 

 only 25 per cent, of all Berlin marriages have 

 been celebrated in churches, while only 30 per 

 cent, of the children born in Berlin have been 

 baptized by clergymen. 



On January 30th the Reichstag concluded 

 the debate upon the third reading of the Impe- 

 rial Bank bill. To clause 44 Dr. Lasker moved an 

 amendment conferring upon the Federal Coun- 

 cil discretionary power to authorize, either for 

 a given or an indefinite period, the different 

 banks to avail themselves of some of the forms 

 for granting credit otherwise forbidden by 

 the terms of the bill. This amendment being 

 adopted, the measure then passed. The House 

 proceeded to the final vote, and the bill was 

 carried by a large majority. Herr Delbrtick 

 having read the imperial message, declaring 

 the session closed, the House separated with 

 three cheers for the Emperor William. 



The German Reichstag reassembled on Oc- 

 tober 27th. The Emperor William being absent 

 on account of indisposition, the speech from 

 the throne was read by Herr Delbriick, Minister 

 of State. The strongest hope was expressed 

 by the imperial speech in the continuance of 

 peace, which was said to be more assured now 

 than at any time during the twenty years pre- 

 ceding the reconstruction of the empire. The 

 bills prepared by the Federal Council for the 

 Reichstag were chiefly of a commercial nature. 

 The Reichstag reel^cted its President, Max 

 von Forckenbeck,* almost unanimously; the 

 two Yice-Presidents, Prince von Hohenlohe 

 and Dr. Hanel, were likewise reflected. The 

 fears which had been widely entertained that 

 the budget as well as the new penal code might 

 lead to new conflicts between the Imperial 

 Government and the Reichstag were dispersed 

 by the speeches which Prince Bismarck and 

 Minister Camphausen made in November. 

 During the discussion of the budget, Camp- 

 hausen undertook to show that the eco- 

 nomical situation of the country was by no 

 means so unfavorable as it had been for some 

 time represented in many financial circles. 

 He expressly stated that he still regarded it 

 as a duty to defend the rights of the represent- 

 atives of the people, and that, when the Gov- 

 ernment and the representatives of the people 

 disagreed, the former must recede. Prince 

 Bismarck again expressed many views on tax- 



* For biographies of Forckenbeck, Hohenlohe, and Hanel, 

 see ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1874, 

 VOL. xv. 28 A 



ation and other subjects, with which the ma- 

 jority of the Reichstag did not agree, but his 

 unreserved recognition of the constitutional 

 rights of the Reichstag made a most favorable 

 impression throughout the empire. On De- 

 cember 7th a petition from the iron and steel 

 manufacturers in favor of a protective tariff 

 called forth an animated discussion. In ac- 

 cordance with the report of its committee, 

 which was supported by the President of the 

 Imperial Chancery, the Reichstag resolved, by 

 a large majority, to pass to the order of the 

 day. At the second reading of the new penal 

 code, which began on December 15th, the 

 Reichstag almost unanimously rejected several 

 sections in the forms proposed by the Govern- 

 ment. A complete agreement between Gov- 

 ernment and Reichstag, on the other hand, was 

 attained in the debate on the budget for 1876. 

 A bill for the protection of copyright in works 

 of art was also adopted. On December 18th 

 the Reichstag adjourned for one month. 



A visit made by the Grand-duke of Meck- 

 lenburg-Schwerin to Berlin, in January, 1875, 

 and his friendliness with leading men of the 

 National party and other parliamentary nota- 

 bilities, drew fresh attention to the affairs of 

 the two grand-duchies of Mecklenburg. There 

 has never been so singular a dead-lock in any 

 European sovereignty since Duke Ernest of 

 Saxe-Cobnrg and Gotha first tried to govern 

 his united duchies constitutionally against their 

 own will. On the one hand the new German 

 Empire has expressly guaranteed to all its citi- 

 zens representative administration, and the 

 two Mecklenburgs have their members in the 

 Diet according to their population. But the 

 local government is of purely mediaeval char- 

 acter, intended to give the sovereigns almost 

 absolute powers over the working-classes, and 

 to support these by favoring the privileges of 

 the Ritterschaft, or order of landed gentry. 

 The Baltic towns, again, as Rostock, possess 

 certain ancient municipal privileges ; but these 

 are confined strictly to their own burgesses. 

 The whole relation of the various classes one 

 to another is a bequest direct from the age 

 preceding the Thirty Years' War, and a per- 

 fect anachronism now. The present Grand- 

 duke of Schwerin abandoned long ago the 

 claims which his predecessors maintained, in 

 theory at least, to such powers as that of di- 

 rect corporal punishment, and since the late 

 war made his name popular he has used various 

 efforts to introduce genuine constitutional gov- 

 ernment. In this Strelitz has followed his 

 lead ; but the Ritterschaft cleaves to its own 

 privileges, and refuses any concession to pop- 

 ular feeling. Hence the two dukes at last re- 

 solved in concert to make use of the power of 

 the central Legislature against their own aris- 

 tocracy. At the meeting of the joint Diet of 

 the two grand-duchies, the Government submit- 

 ted the draft of constitutional forms of adminis- 

 tration ; but the Ritterschaft, which constitutes 

 the immense majority of the Diet, was unwill- 



