GERMANY. 



325 



ist law had been three years in operation, it 

 fell away to 311,961. In 1884 it increased to 

 about 550,000, and in 1887 showed a further in- 

 crease of 224,192. In Berlin the number of So- 

 cialist voters, which was only 67 in 1867, was 

 about 68,000 in 1884, and in 1887 had grown 

 to 93,000. 



The New Reichstag. Parliament was opened 

 on March 3. The army bill was announced at 

 the head of the Government programme, and 

 in connection with it the budget would have 

 to be promptly voted and new sources of reve- 

 nue considered. The minor measures heralded 

 in the speech from the throne were the exten- 

 sion of accident insurance to mariners and 

 house-builders, the amplification of the func- 

 tions of artisans' guilds, the prevention of the 

 use of noxious colors in articles of food and 

 drink, and the establishment of a seminary at 

 Berlin for the teaching of Oriental languages. 



The septennate bill was passed on the second 

 reading, March 9, by 247 votes to 20, there be- 

 ing 83 abstentions, mainly on the part of Cler- 

 icals. A motion to restrict the period to three 

 years was negatived by 222 votes against 23. 

 The army budget, including a provision for a 

 school for non-commissioned officers at Neu- 

 Breisach, which was several times rejected in 

 the former Reichstag, was agreed to on March 

 21 by a large majority. A bill to impose a tax 

 on brandy was introduced in May. A higher 

 duty on imported and domestic sugar was also 

 demanded. On May 20 the Reichstag passed 

 the supplementary estimates, authorizing with- 

 in the next few years the expenditure of 360, 

 000,000 marks for altering and perfecting the 

 defensive resources of the empire, providing 

 new equipments for the troops, building bar- 

 racks and fortresses, laying double tracks on 

 the railroad lines of Alsace-Lorraine, and build- 

 ing new strategic lines, including a railroad to 

 South Germany that will not pass through 

 Switzerland. On May 23 the international 

 treaties for the protection of works of litera- 

 ture and art and for the protection of submarine 

 cables were approved. The seamen's insurance 

 bill was agreed to. A bill relating to the ad- 

 ministration of justice in territories under Ger- 

 man protection settles the law regarding real 

 estate in the new colonial possessions. The 

 spirit tax, with some amendments, was passed 

 finally on June 17; also a bill prohibiting the 

 use of injurious colors in articles of nourish- 

 ment, a bill relating to artificial butter, and a 

 workingmen's protection bill. 



Amendment of the May Laws. In April the 

 P-Ussian Diet and Herrenhaus repealed impor- 

 tant sections of the restrictive ecclesiastical 

 laws. The new amendments to the May laws 

 were first introduced on the basis of an agree- 

 ment between the Prussian Government and 

 Dr. Kopp, Bishop of Fulda, acting under di- 

 rect instructions from Rome, and, after under- 

 going a few modifications, the bill was finally 

 passed in such a shape as caused Monsignor 

 Galimberti, who was in Berlin at the time as 



Special Envoy of Leo XIII on the occasion of 

 the Emperor's birthday, to telegraph the result 

 to the Vatican as a cause of gratulation. The 

 fate of the bill was more doubtful in the Upper 

 Chamber. The Chancellor made an important 

 speech in its defense, which he began by point- 

 ing out that, with regard to the readrnission of 

 religious orders, the chief point to be ascer- 

 tained was whether Prussian Catholic citizens 

 believed themselves to be in need of such or- 

 ders. It was his opinion that this need should 

 be satisfied in harmony with the legislation of 

 the country. The state, proceeded the Chan- 

 cellor, naturally had an interest in the good 

 training of the priests, but such training could 

 just as well be acquired at seminaries as at the 

 universities. The bitterest enemies of the Gov- 

 ernment came from universities, not from semi- 

 naries. Referring next to the law which re- 

 quired the higher ecclesiastics to notify to the 

 state appointments of subordinates, Prince Bis- 

 marck observed that he did not attach any 

 special importance to this provision, more par- 

 ticularly in view of the experience gained that 

 clergymen, who had for years exercised their 

 functions under the very eyes of the Govern- 

 ment, had changed their disposition as soon as 

 they became bishops. It was unjust to charge 

 the Government with making too large con- 

 cessions to the Catholics. It had not given up 

 any of its sovereign rights. He had never 

 dreamed of engaging in permanent strife with 

 the Curia. As long ago as 1875 he had called 

 Cardinal Antonelli's attention to the danger 

 which would arise from the formation of a 

 Catholic political party in Prussia. From the 

 moment when the Curia manifested a pacific 

 disposition he had put forward a programme 

 of peace, for the realization of which he had 

 now worked ten years. By the proposals be- 

 fore the House he hoped to obtain a lasting 

 peace. But, should that expectation not be 

 fulfilled, the measures now proposed could at 

 any moment be easily rescinded. It was im- 

 perative that the Center, which constantly al- 

 lied itself with all elements hostile to the state 

 and the empire, should be deprived of any pre- 

 text for opposition which the existing state 

 of the law might afford. It was, he added, out 

 of regard for the unity of the nation and the 

 dangers with which that unity was threat- 

 ened, that he had initiated the present Ecclesi- 

 astical Bill, and he did this with a full recog- 

 nition of his responsibility. Whether the bill 

 would lead to the establishment of religious 

 peace could not yet be known, as the leaders 

 of the Center party had placed themselves in 

 opposition to the Pope. The principles of the 

 Progressist party itself were not less dangerous 

 than the subversive tendencies of the lower 

 clergy, in whose removal the Pope and the Em- 

 peror had an equal interest. If the Sovereign 

 Pontiff and the Emperor were at one, the op- 

 position of Herr Windthorst and the Center 

 ceased to have further significance. Prince 

 Bismarck had threatened that if the bill were 



