GERMANY. 



353 



marks permanent, and 200,000 marks special ; 

 treasury, 86,317,566 marks permanent, and 

 3,595,825 marks special; office of railways, 

 303,150 marks; debt of the empire, 13,702,500 

 marks permanent, and 227,300 marks special ; 

 audit of accounts, 528,673 marks; administra- 

 tion of railways, 4,400,000 marks special ; 

 pensions, military, 18,266,829 marks; naval, 

 449,733 marks; civil, 378,725 marks; together, 

 19,095,287 marks; on account of the last war, 

 18,283 marks special; invalid fund, 30,129,567 

 marks permanent; deficit of!880-'81, 12,062,- 

 468 marks special ; capital investments, 9,150,- 

 000 marks special. 



The debts of the empire, contracted since 

 1877, amounted on October 1, 1881, to 298,951,- 

 500 marks, to which 29,674,405 marks were 

 added by the financial law of February 15, 1882. 

 Besides the funded debt, all of which bears 

 interest at four per cent, there were treasury 

 notes outstanding on April 1st to the amount 

 of 152,164,210. The empire possesses various 

 funds greatly exceeding its obligations in 

 amount. At the end of November, 1881, the 

 invalid fund amounted to 534,428,028 marks, 

 besides 459,400 Frankfort florins in securities, 

 and 2,609,350 in silver; the fund for the con- 

 struction of fortifications, to 51,103,709 marks, 

 besides securities to the amount of 404,950 

 sterling, and silver to the amount of 547,851 

 marks; the fund for building a Parliament 

 House, to 29,603,350 marks; and the war 

 treasure to 120,000,000 marks. 



FOREIGN RELATIONS. The relations of Ger- 

 many with Russia have been strained since 

 the Berlin Treaty of 1878. Prince Gortchakoff 

 made bitter complaints of the ingratitude of 

 Germany in depriving him of the fruits of the 

 Turkish victories after the moral support ex- 

 tended to the Germans by Russia in the French 

 War. The antagonisms arising from the rival 

 interests and jealousies of race of the Russians 

 and Germans, whose fields of activity are con- 

 tiguous from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, 

 constitute a perpetual danger to the peace 

 between the two nations. The entire aim of 

 Prince Bismarck, the supreme director of 

 foreign affairs in Germany, has been, since the 

 consolidation of the empire, to prevent the 

 formation of a Russo-French alliance against 

 Germany. On this account he has repressed 

 the ambition for one of the richest provinces 

 of Russia, and for German extension southward, 

 For the same object the Austro-German alli- 

 ance was concluded in October, 1879. The 

 treaty was to continue until October 15, 1884, 

 and arrangements have already been made for 

 its renewal. The visit of the Russian Minister 

 of Foreign Affairs, De Giers, to Berlin and 

 Varzin, was regarded as a sign of peace, as the 

 extravagant utterances of General Skobeleff 

 and others, in the beginning of the year, were 

 considered to be fraught with danger ; but 

 Prince Bismarck places his hopes only in the 

 powerful union of interests which he is trying 

 to bring about in Central Europe, and in the 

 VOL. xxii. 23 A 



continuation of peaceful relations between 

 nations throughout the Continent. 



LEGISLATION. The first session of the fourth 

 legislative period of the Reichstag opened omi- 

 nously on the 17th of November, after a bitter 

 electoral struggle. The Liberal factions, which 

 had defeated the Government projects of social 

 reform, returned victorious, with the indorse- 

 ment of the country. Parliament was treated 

 as though it were in disgrace. Instead of be- 

 ing opened by the Emperor, as usual, the Chan- 

 cellor read the imperial address, in which the 

 schemes of accident insurance and annuities for 

 aged laborers, with state aid, were coupled 

 with the obnoxious demand for a tobacco mo- 

 nopoly. 



At the final elections of 1881, out of 9,090,- 

 381 possible votes the competent electors 

 forming 20'1 per cent of the population of the 

 empire, 62 '6 per cent of which belongs to the 

 Evangelical Lutherans, and 35*9 to the Roman 

 Catholics 5,301,784, or 58'6 per cent, were 

 cast. Of the total number of legal votes 21 -7 

 per cent were given to candidates of the Cler- 

 ical, or Center, party ; 15'2 per cent to German, 

 or pure, Conservatives; 13*6 per cent to Pro- 

 gressists; 13'1 per cent to National Liberals; 

 8'8 per cent to candidates of the Liberal Union; 

 7'4 per cent to the Imperialists ; 6'3 per cent 

 to Social Democrats ; 3'7 per cent to the Poles; 

 2-9 per cent to the Alsatians ; 2'7 per cent to 

 unattached Liberals ; 2*3 per cent to the Peo- 

 ple's party ; 1*8 per cent to Guelphs and Au- 

 tonomists ; 0*3 per cent to Danes. The elected 

 candidates received 64*5 per cent of the total 

 votes cast. The Parliament was divided into 

 76 Conservatives, comprising 49 German Con- 

 servatives, sitting on the Extreme Right, and 27 

 Free Conservatives, or German Imperialists, 

 who formed the left wing of the Right Center; 

 107 in the Center, composed of the Clericals, 

 with the Guelphs and the National Liberals or 

 Benningsen party; 43 Secessionists, or Lib- 

 eral Unionists, the party of Yon Stauffenberg, 

 Forckenbeck, Lasker, and Bamberger, devoted 

 to free trade ; 47 Progressists, led by Richter 

 and Hanel ; 68 Democrats of both shades, the 

 Volkspartei, or Popularists, and the Social 

 Democrats ; 12 forming the Extreme Left; 15 

 Alsace-Lorrainers, 18 Poles, and 2 Danes, con- 

 stituting the Particularists, who are opposed to 

 the empire as now constituted ; and 8 Savages, 

 or Independents. 



Bismarck's hardy determination to press the 

 measures which he declared " postponed, not 

 defeated," by the adverse votes of the Reichs- 

 tag, after they had been expressly condemned 

 at the polls, was understood, when the royal 

 prerogative was suddenly intruded into the con- 

 troversy. 



The social reforms were put forward this 

 time with particular emphasis as the Emperor's 

 policy, as if to lure the Liberals into a consti- 

 tutional controversy. Indignant at Bismarck's 

 disregard of parliamentary usage, in urging his 

 economical solecisms upon a majority which 



