DISCIPLINARY POWER. 



DOMINION OF CANADA. 211 



heard, he covers himself, by which act the sit- 

 ting is suspended for an hour. The rules in 

 general are similar to those of other parliament- 

 ary bodies, such as introducing in debate the 

 person of the sovereign, etc. Interruptions, 

 although prohibited, are generally tolerated. 



NUMBER OF GROUPS. An interesting feat- 

 ure of the Reichstag is the great number of 

 groups of . which it is composed. These arise 

 from the various social, religious, and political 

 ideas which the deputies entertain, and result 

 in depriving the House of any decisive major- 

 ity. Bismarck recognizes only two parties in 

 that body the friends and the enemies of the 

 Empire. The deputy Richter, addressing a 

 body of Progressive electors in Berlin, said, 

 " The Chancellor puts the Constitution topsy- 

 turvy, and accuses all those who do not obey 

 him on the spot as the enemies of the empire." 

 All parties, even the Conservatives, have been 

 subjected to this imputation, which has also 

 been launched against the most remarkable men 

 of the Parliament. It is a classification purely 

 fictitious, and springs from the chagrin or stra- 

 tegic policy of Bismarck. 



Commencing with the Conservatives, the 

 first division is into Gorman Conservatives and 

 Liberal Conservatives, or party of the Empire. 

 The first group is born of a fusion of two Con- 

 servative factions, the Old Conservatives and 

 the New Conservatives, whom simple shadows 

 have for a long time divided in their common 

 attachment to the monarchy, and to the social 

 and religious traditions of the state, and who 

 are finally united in the purpose to oppose the 

 most effective resistance to liberalism. The 

 second group, as its name indicates, is com- 

 posed of hybrid elements, taken confusedly 

 from the ranks of the old Liberals and Conserv- 

 atives, and bound together by ardent sympa- 

 thies for the centralizing ideas of Bismarck. 

 These Liberal Conservatives serve, so to say, for 

 transition between the Conservatives and the 

 National-Liberals, with whom they have often 

 moved together. Liberalism, like conserva- 

 tism, comprises two groups, of which the first 

 contained recently, under the name of Nation- 

 al-Liberals, the greater portion of the Progress- 

 ist sticklers and the Democrats of different 

 degrees, of the period of the war, who went 

 over to Bismarck on the day after the battle 

 of Sadowa, and became the chief supporters 

 of his military, financial, and religious policy. 

 The National-Liberals are really divided into 

 two divergent factions. The second liberal 

 group is composed of the rest of the Progress- 

 ists who have adhered to the flag of radical- 

 ism since 1866. Above the Progressists and 

 below the Socialists there is a handful of men 

 equally devoted to radical ideas, and who, al- 

 though adherents to the empire entirely, have 

 their center of action at Frankfort-on-the- 

 Main. These are the Democrats, whose leader 

 is the editor of the " Frankfort Journal." The 

 Center holds a place apart in German politics. 

 As far back as 1852 a Catholic faction was 



formed in the Second Prussian House. It con- 

 tained sixty-two members, who belonged chief- 

 ly to Westphalia and the Rhine Province. The 

 Center extended itself from the Prussian Land- 

 tag to the Reichstag, where it received new 

 recruits from the confederated states, after 

 having its ranks increased in consequence of 

 the KulturJcampf war. 



Besides these parties, there are many others 

 whose political significance is as restricted as 

 their partisans are few. The Poles always 

 unite with the Center; the Alsace-Lorraine 

 members side with the Independents and Pro- 

 testationists ; the Hanoverian Particularists 

 unite generally with the Center, and there is 

 another fraction composed of extreme Inde- 

 pendents and Progressists. The last group, 

 insignificant in numbers, and more clamorous 

 than all the others, is the Socialists. This party 

 has been steadily advancing since 1870. 



GENERAL ASPECT. The German Parliament, 

 in the opinion of M. Reynaert, is one of the 

 most grave and agreeable of legislative assem- 

 blies, although it may not realize the ideal of 

 quiet and decorum. He says: "During de- 

 bate silence is not always strictly observed, 

 especially during great oratorical contests, when 

 the spirit sparkles and gushes dazzling from 

 heated brains ; the interjections, the interrup- 

 tions, the exclamations of every sort, expressive 

 of the most diverse sentiments, are vive, noisy, 

 and often roaring. Nevertheless, it would be 

 incorrect to pretend that, in this respect, the 

 German Parliament wa inferior to other great 

 legislative bodies, especially the Prussian or 

 Italian Assembly, and, above all, the French 

 House of Deputies. In other respects the 

 Reichstag is generally marked by calmness, 

 dignity, and benevolence. Perfect freedom of 

 opinion is allied with the most scrupulous re- 

 spect for the views of another. The temper of 

 the House is neither violent nor quarrelsome, 

 and the discussion seldom reaches personality 

 or invective. During the thirteen years of its 

 existence there has not been a challenge to a 

 duel, or a disturbance that has caused a suspen- 

 sion of the session. Yet that interval is full 

 of events as decisive for Germany as of grave 

 debates and irritating questions touching the 

 heart of the nation. After the creation of the 

 Confederacy of the North, the empire followed 

 in consequence of a terrible war, Alsace and 

 Lorraine were incorporated, and, after various 

 efforts, reconstituted on a new basis ; the seven 

 years' military law was established, many times 

 renewed and aggravated ; public taxes con- 

 stantly changed and increased ; the mercantile 

 policy completely overthrown by the sudden 

 substitution of protection for the mitigated 

 revenue system ; socialism attacked boldly and 

 repressed at all points by measures of excessive 

 severity ; and last, but not least, the Kultur- 

 Icampf and the odious laws imposed in its 

 name upon the empire by Prussia." 



DOMINION OF CANADA, the united 

 provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, 



