GERMANY. 



361 



they desire. The numerical dimensions of the 

 various factions in the last and in the present 

 Reichstag were as follow : 



The New Reichstag. The newly elected Reichs- 

 tag opened its session November 20. In the 

 speech from the throne the colonizing efforts 

 of the Government were calculated to develop 

 commercial connections, and stimulate enter- 

 prise in a measure to afford markets for Ger- 

 man industrial products and employment for 

 labor. A report upon the transmarine settle- 

 ments taken under the protection of the Ger- 

 man Empire was promised, thus introducing 

 the custom of official communications to the 

 Legislature practiced by the Executive in other 

 parliaments. The first of these reports pre- 

 sented to the Reichstag, to which the name of 

 "White-Book" was given, dealt with Angra 

 Pequefia, and gave the diplomatic correspond- 

 ence with England with regard to that set- 

 tlement. As a step in the gradual develop- 

 ment of the scheme of social reform, proposals 

 were announced for the extension of accident 

 insurance to laborers employed in agriculture 

 and transportation. One of the principal ob- 

 jections made to the measure before it passed 

 was that agricultural labor was not included. 

 An extension of the savings-institutions was 

 also promised. The development of the insti- 

 tutions of the empire rendered necessary the 

 discovery of new sources of income. The at- 

 tempt to obtain a higher net revenue from 

 sugar was rendered difficult by the depression 

 of the sugar industry, and the agricultural in- 

 terest involved with it. The vote for Presi- 

 dent, to which position Von Wedell-Piersdorf 

 was chosen, afforded a test of the strength of 

 the parties. The Opposition parties mustered 

 199 votes against the 157 of the Liberal Union 

 and the Conservatives, the German Liberals, 

 the Center and associated groups, the People's 

 party, and the Social Democrats forming the 

 majority. On the 26th the majority carried a 

 bill to pay the members a daily fee and defray 

 their traveling expenses. Bismarck declared 

 that this new attempt to salary deputies was 

 unconstitutional, and would be annulled by 

 the Government. The deputies had free 

 passes on the railroads, but they were re- 

 cently withdrawn because the privilege had 

 been abused. Bismarck averred that no fac- 

 tious majority in such a kaleidoscopic Parlia- 

 ment could impose upon him, who would not 



let himself be imposed upon by the whole of 

 Europe. The want of pay was alleged by 

 Stauffenberg to be the cause of scarcity of can- 

 didates, and was characterized as an obstruc- 

 tion to the freedom of elections, which was 

 especially prejudicial to the Social Democrats. 

 Bismarck said that he regarded the increase in 

 the number of Socialist deputies as no mishap ; 

 the more there were the tamer they would be- 

 come, and the more they would be governed 

 by a sense of honor, and bring forward posi- 

 tive plans showing how the future of the world 

 and of the constitution shapes itself in their 

 minds. He wished that they would lay their 

 El Dorado on the table of the House. If it 

 were in his power, he would place a province 

 at their disposal. The Social Democracy he 

 regarded as a portentous sign, a mene telcel for 

 the propertied classes, to warn them that all is 

 not as it should be, that the hand of reform can 

 be applied. If the Social Democracy and the 

 dread that it inspired did not exist, the mod- 

 erate progress in social reforms already accom- 

 plished would not have been possible; it was, 

 therefore, useful in its effect on those who 

 otherwise have no hearts for their poor fellow- 

 citizens. The opposition of the Center, Bis- 

 marck declared, would not coerce the Gov- 

 ernment. The ninety-eight members of the 

 Democratic factions he characterized as Re- 

 publicans, and said he found no difference be- 

 tween a country where the majority can com- 

 pel the monarch to dismiss his ministers and 

 one under an elective President. To hand over 

 the portfolios to the adverse majority, com- 

 posed as it was of Conservatives, Clericals, the 

 German Liberals, the Yolkspartei, and the So- 

 cial Democrats, would result in a ministry like 

 that in England under Mr. Gladstone. 



On the 3d of December the majority ap- 

 proved Windthorst's motion for the repeal of 

 the law empowering the Government to expel 

 or interne priests for the unauthorized exercise 

 of ecclesiastical functions, although three weeks 

 before the same measure, passed just before the 

 close of the Reichstag in June, had been re- 

 jected by the Federal Council. Bismarck said 

 that the law had not been applied in recent 

 years, but was a useful weapon in case of dis- 

 turbances in Prussian Poland. The Govern- 

 ment had made numerous important conces- 

 sions to the Curia, for which no returns had 

 been made, and was therefore in a position to 

 wait until it saw the color and stamp of the 

 first Papal concessions, and would not yield a 

 hair's-breadth. 



The Project of Post-Steamship Subventions. A 

 proposal to subsidize a double line of steamers 

 plying directly between German ports and 

 eastern Asia and Australia was buried in com- 

 mittee after reaching the Reichstag with the 

 approval of the Bundesrath. Bismarck made 

 all his future colonial projects dependent on 

 the passage of this measure. An annual grant 

 of 4,000,000 marks was asked for. The postal 

 subventions of the German Government amount 



