384 



GERMANY. 



consternation among the Socialists. While the 

 bill was still under discussion the journals 

 representing the leaders of the party, in an- 

 ticipation of its passage, discussed the advisa- 

 hilitv of a general emigration into countries 

 where their peculiar principles were not pro- 

 scribed, and pointed particularly to the United 

 States and Asia Minor. An official notifica- 

 tion was issued in Berlin, November 28th, en- 

 acting that for one year to come dangerous 

 persons might be excluded from the city, the 

 suburbs, and some other districts, and that the 

 carrying of arms and the possession of explo- 

 sive projectiles were absolutely forbidden ; but 

 allowing some exceptions in the use of fire- 

 arms, and providing for special permits to be 

 given in some cases by the police. In pursu- 

 ance of this order, forty-two conspicuous So- 

 cial Democrats were expelled from the city 

 during the same week by the Chief of Police 

 among them Herr Hasselmann and Dr. Fritz- 

 sche, two deputies. The expelled Socialists 

 afterward issued a manifesto in which they 

 denied the truth of the charges advanced 

 against them, and protested that public order 

 and peace were in ho way endangered by their 

 presence in Berlin. The manifesto was at 

 once seized and suppressed by the police. On 

 the 7th of December the Emperor, in reply to 

 a congratulatory address from the magistrates 

 and Town Council of Berlin, spoke of education, 

 especially religious education, as the best means 

 of counteracting the sentiments which had led 

 to the recent attacks in several countries upon 

 the head of the state. The police authorities 

 continued to carry out the Anti-Socialist law 

 with unrelaxed vigilance. Till the end of the 

 year it was said that on one day only since its 

 promulgation had no interdicts been reported. 

 George, ex-King of Hanover, died in Paris 

 June 12th, having just completed his fifty- 

 ninth year. He succeeded his father, Ernest 

 Augustus, on the 18th of November, 1857, and 

 his dominions were annexed to Prussia by a 

 decree dated September 26, 1866. Since his 

 deposition from the throne of Hanover, his 

 Majesty had for the most part lived in Paris. 

 The " Official Gazette " of Berlin made a state- 

 ment that, immediately after the King's de- 

 cease, the Prussian Government had made 

 known its willingness to carry out a wish 

 which had been expressed to it to allow the 

 interment to take place at Hessenhausen, with- 

 out military or official ceremonies, and that 

 the only objection to carrying out this desire 

 would have arisen from any order that might 

 have been given for the celebration of solemn 

 otaequies. The relatives of his Majesty, how- 

 ever, decided that his remains should be buried 

 at Windsor. The son of the ex-King, the 

 Crown Prince of Hanover, on July llth, com- 

 municated a formal notification of the ex-King's 

 death to the German princes and free towns, 

 n which he announced that he considered all 

 his father's rights to have descended upon 

 nim, and was prepared to maintain them 



"While prevented from exercising his rights in 

 the kingdom of Hanover, he would bear the 

 title of Duke of Cumberland and Prince of 

 Brunswick-Liineburg ; but by doing so he did 

 not wish to be understood as abdicating his 

 claims to the succession of Hanover. The 

 Duke having completed an alliance for a mar- 

 riage with the Princess Thyra of Denmark, the 

 betrothal was announced by the King of Den- 

 mark to his court and to the Folkething, and 

 approved by the latter body in November. 

 An intimation was given by the Prussian Gov- 

 ernment that if the Duke would retract the 

 manifesto in which he had asserted his claims to 

 the crown of Hanover, the so-called Gueiph 

 Fund, which consists of money due to the 

 head of the house of Hanover, would be sur- 

 rendered to him without exacting from him 

 anything further than some easy precautionary 

 engagements. The Duke, however, continued 

 to assert his determination not to renounce 

 his rights to the crown of Hanover, and the 

 Prussian Government began to consider plans 

 for a definitive settlement and permanent ap- 

 propriation of the fund, in a spirit adverse to 

 his claims. A bill ordering the settlement was 

 advocated in the Cabinet, but was not sub- 

 mitted to the Diet, it being overruled by the 

 counsel of Prince Bismarck, who pleaded for 

 delay, so as to give the Duke time to reconsid- 

 er his resolution. The Duke, having been pe- 

 titioned by a number of persons in the duchy 

 of Brunswick to secure his right to the heredi- 

 tary succession in that country by a timely ar- 

 rangement with the Prussian Government, re- 

 plied to the effect that his right to the succes- 

 sion was fully established and incontestable; 

 and that, if further measures should nevertheless 

 seem advisable to secure it, it was not for him 

 but for the present Duke to initiate such mea- 

 sures. The Duke was married to the Princess 

 Thyra in the chapel of the royal castle of 

 Christiansborg, December 21st. The " North 

 German Gazette" complained that a Gueiph 

 deputation, which presented a Hanoverian ad- 

 dress, was officially received on the occasion 

 at the Danish Court, and considered that the 

 reception overstepped the bounds prescribed 

 by the rules of international intercourse. The 

 Prussian Government gave out that it took no 

 active part in the contest which was going on 

 with respect to the succession in the duchy of 

 Brunswick, but did not neglect at the same 

 time to make known in the proper quarters 

 that should any difficulty arise in settling the 

 question which would interfere in any way 

 with the present constitutionally established 

 position of the German Empire, it would be 

 promptly dealt with. 



The plan for the establishment of the fleet 

 prepared in 1873 contemplated the building of 

 five armored corvettes, each of 7,398 tons dis- 

 placement, with the midship parts protected 

 by eight-inch plates, and carrying each five 

 heavy pieces of ordnance. Three of these cor- 

 vettes were to have been completed by the 



