354 



GERMANY. 



had rejected them, they blamed him bitterly 

 for shirking his responsibility, and shielding 

 himself behind the name of the Emperor. On 

 the 4th of January a manifesto was issued by 

 the King, which dispelled the illusion of the 

 Constitutionalists, that they were already liv- 

 ing in a state in which the King reigns but 

 does not rule. It declared that the Prussian 

 Constitution (of 1850) transferred a portion of 

 the law-giving powers to the Legislature, but 

 left the King the full power of initiation and 

 approval. The policy of the Government is 

 the King's policy, although it must be repre- 

 sented by his ministers ; his royal acts are his 

 own, although the countersigning minister be- 

 comes responsible for them to the laws and the 

 country. They express his will and pleasure, 

 and should not be spoken of as emanating from 

 the ministry, but from the King himself. 



The Constitution of Prussia, the rescript declares, 

 is the expression of the monarchical tradition of this 

 country, whose development is based on the living 

 and actual relations of its kings to the people. These 

 relations, moreover, dp not admit of being transferred 

 to the ministers appointed by the King, for they at- 

 tach to the person of the King. Their preservation, 

 too, is a political necessity for Prussia. It is, there- 

 fore, my will that both in Prussia and in the legisla- 

 tive bodies of the empire, there may be no doubt left 

 as to my own constitutional right, and that of my 

 successors, to personally conduct the policy of my 

 Government ; and that the theory shall always be 

 gainsaid that the inviolability of the King, which has 

 always existed in Prussia, or the necessity of a re- 

 sponsible counter-signature of my government acts, 

 deprives them of the character of royal and independ- 

 ent decisions. 



In a passionate address in the Reichstag, 

 Prince Bismarck said that the minister is a 

 mere stop-gap, according to the Prussian Con- 

 stitution, however ill that may accord with 

 constitutional legends borrowed from other 

 countries. It accords with Prussian traditions, 

 for the kings of Prussia have always construed 

 their duties as rulers seriously, in the spirit of 

 Frederick the Great, who declared that he was 

 the first servant of the Prussian state. 



We know how our present ruler lives, and occupies 

 his time from morning till night. It makes itself felt 

 that with us in Prussia, within the Cabinet, the King 

 commands, and the ministers, as long as they think 

 they can support the responsibility, obey. If they 

 can take the responsibility no longer, a change of min- 

 isters is not a difficult matter. We have an abundant 

 variety of politicians of every sort in stock and the 

 King, unless he adopts some very eccentnc policy, 

 will easily find ministers to assume the responsibility 

 for what his present ones may decline to put their 

 names to. Nothing eccentric, however, is required ot 

 us ; but in the deep and steady grooves in which the 

 policy of Prussia in the German Empire is laid, his 

 Majesty the King decides on the principles of the 

 course to be taken ; he decides how the Prussian rep- 

 resentatives in the Federal Council are accordingly to 

 be instructed ; he decides that drafts, made accord- 

 ingly, shall be laid before the Diet and the Keichstag ; 

 decides according to his own convictions, and the 

 elaboration, the formal part of the matter, is the busi- 

 ness of the ministers. The ministers may hold differ- 

 ent opinions from his, and then a compromise is made. 

 Constitutional government is made up of compro- 

 mises ; and a king who does not wish to dismiss a 

 minister outright will make some concessions to him 



which he would prefer not to make. Still oftener it 

 happens that the ministers can not obtain the agree- 

 ment of the Kin to a work or a document which they 

 think right. Then the minister must make up his 

 mind whether he shall drop the matter, or make a 

 Cabinet question of it, or resign, or whether it would 

 be better for the country and the service to make con- 

 cessions to the royal will. The royal will it is which 

 alone decides. The actual minister-president in Prus- 

 sia is his Majesty the King. I an give no directions 

 to my colleagues. I can only make requests, and 

 write letters to them, which do not always convince. 

 That is very exhausting, and on that account I do not 

 always do it ; but when I think that a thing ought to 

 be done, and I can not carry it through, I apply to the 

 actual chief of the Cabinet, the King. If I find no 

 accord there, I give the matter up. If I do find it, 

 then a royal command is given that it shall be done 

 so and so, and it is done, or else there follows a Cabi- 

 net crisis, which is quietly got through with. 



The rescript, besides the plain legal defini- 

 tion of the place of the King in the Constitu- 

 tion, which the theoretical subtilties of Liberal 

 politicians had obscured, contained vague and 

 somewhat startling warnings to officials not to 

 oppose Government candidates at elections. 

 As explained by Bismarck, the holders of po- 

 litical offices were declared liable to the for- 

 feiture of their places under the disciplinary 

 law, if they electioneered for the Opposition by 

 spreading misrepresentations of the Govern- 

 ment, or by exercising the influence or patron- 

 age of their office; and non-political officials, as 

 well as political, were expected to feel re- 

 strained by their oath of office from engaging 

 in active opposition at elections to the policy 

 approved by the Emperor, though not to forego 

 the liberty of ballot secured by the Constitu- 

 tion. 



The Government was not ready to present 

 its revised projects for accident insurance and 

 the relief of infirm workmen. The clericals 

 proffered their support for a scheme of labor 

 reform which would protect the interests of 

 religion and the family by restricting Sunday 

 and female labor. In the academical discus- 

 sions, Bismarck foreshadowed only moderate 

 measures, but pleaded for the principle with 

 unwonted power and passion. The Liberals 

 were held up to scorn as a party of pure nega- 

 tion, able only to carp and criticise, who neither 

 now, nor when they were in power, proposed 

 any relief for the poor. The cause of labor 

 reform was declared to be dear to the Em- 

 peror's heart. The King of Prussia was by 

 tradition peculiarly the king of "the poor 

 man." The "Manchester men" who opposed 

 the reforms showed themselves heartless to 

 the sufferings of the poor. The Government 

 was undecided as to the forms which the meas- 

 ures of "practical Christianity" ought to take. 

 Parliament had denied it the assistance of an 

 Economic Council. Bismarck had changed his 

 opinion regarding the administration of acci- 

 dent insurance, which he now thought should 

 be placed on a corporative basis instead of 

 under state management. Corporate societies 

 of the laborers in the different trades might 

 not only be intrusted with the control of the 





