418 



GERMANY. (CONFEDERATION.) 



gia ; 3. Bavaria; 4. Saxony ; 5. Hanover ; 6. Wur- 

 teniberg ; 7. Baden ; 8. Hesse-Cassel ; 9. Hesse- 

 Darmstadt ; 10. Denmark (for Holstein and Lauen- 

 burg) ; 11. The Netherlands (for the grand duchy ol 

 Luxemburg) ; 12. Mecklenlnirg-Schwerin ; 13. Nas- 

 sau; 14. Saxe- Weimar ; 15. Saxe-Coburg-Gotha ; 

 16. Saxe-Meiningen ; 17. Saxe-Altenburg ; 18. 

 Brunswick ; 19. Mecklenburg-Strelitz ; 20. Holstein- 

 Oldenburg ; 21. Anhalt-Dessau ; 22. Anhalt-Bern- 

 burg ; 23. Anhalt-Cothen ; 24. Schwartzburg-Son- 

 dershansen ; 25. Schwartzburg-Rudolstadt ; 26. 

 Hohenzollern-Hechingen ; 27. Lichtenstein ; 28. 

 Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen ; 29.Waldeck ; 30. Reuss, 

 i-lder branch ; 31. Reuss, younger branch ; 32. 

 Schaumburg-Lippe ; 33. Lippe-Detmold ; 34. Hesse- 

 Homburg ; 35, 36, 37, 38. The four free cities, Lu- 

 beck, Frankfort (on the Maine), Bremen, Hamburg. 

 The house of Saxe-Gotha became extinct in 1825, 

 and its vote in the diet now belongs to the three lines 

 of the house of Gotha. The organ and representa- 

 tive of the confederation is the diet of plenipotenti- 

 aries, which is permanent, and assembles in the free 

 city of Frankfort on the Maine. The diet is consti- 

 tuted in two forms ; 1. as a general assembly 

 (plenum), in which every member has at least one 

 vote ; the great powers have several, viz., Austria 

 and the five kingdoms have each four votes ; Baden, 

 Hesse-Cassel, Hesse-Darmstadt, Holstein and Lux- 

 emburg, each tliree ; Brunswick, Mecklenburg- 

 Schwerin and Nassau, each two ; the other states 

 each one ; making, altogether, seventy. In the 

 making or altering fundamental laws, in the admis- 

 sion of new memoers into the confederacy, and in 

 religious matters, unanimity is required. In all other 

 cases, two-thirds of the votes of the general assembly 

 are necessary for the adoption of any measure ; so 

 that, in point of fact, unanimity is required in almost 

 all important cases, except in the declaration of war, 

 or conclusion of peace. The other form of the diet 

 is the ordinary assembly, in which the thirty-nine 

 members of the general assembly have but seventeen 

 votes. Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, 

 Wurtemberg, Baden, Hesse-Cassel, Hesse-Darm- 

 stadt, Holstein, and Luxemburg, have each one vote 

 (11). The other votes are collective. The twelfth 

 is given by the grand duchy and duchies of Sax- 

 ony (Ernestine branch) ; the thirteenth by Bruns- 

 wick and Nassau ; the fourteenth by Mecklen- 

 burg-Sehwerin and Strelitz; the fifteenth by Olden- 

 burg, the three houses of Anhalt, and the two 

 Schwartzburg houses ; the sixteenth by Hohen- 

 zollern, Lichtenstein, Lippe, and Schaumburg-Lippe, 

 Reuss and Waldeck ; and the seventeenth by the 

 four free cities. This assembly brings forward and 

 discusses propositions, which must be decided in the 

 plenum, or general assembly (in which there is no 

 discussion.) It also executes the decrees of the diet, 

 and, in general, manages the affairs of the confede- 

 ration. It decides by a simple majority of nine 

 votes. Austria presides in both diets, and has the 

 casting vote in the smaller assembly. The deputies 

 have the character of plenipotentiaries, are respon- 

 sible to their respective governments only, and are, 

 therefore, governed by the instructions of their 

 courts, not by their own convictions. The sessions 

 of the diet are partly confidential (in which the 

 preliminary conferences take place, and of which no 

 journal is kept), and partly formal. Disputes 

 between the members of the confederation, the diet 

 first endeavours to compose by a committee. If this 

 does not succeed, a legal process is commenced, and 

 the supreme court of one of the states of the confe- 

 deration is chosen by the parties to settle the dispute 

 in a regular, judicial way. The chief objects of the 

 German confederation are the following: 1. the 



independence and integrity of the states ; with this 

 is connected the right of examining the disputes 

 between members or the confederation and foreign 

 states, and of obliging the former to yield, if they are 

 judged to be wrong. 2. The mutual protection of 

 the states against each other, or the preservation of 

 the confederacy. 3. The internal tranquillity of the 

 separate states is left to the care of the respective 

 governments ; but in case of the resistance of the 

 subjects to their government, the confederation may 

 assist the latter. The confederacy may even inter- 

 fere, without being called upon by the government, 

 if the commotions are of a dangerous tendency, or if 

 several states are threatened by dangerous conspira- 

 cies. A central commission for political examina- 

 tions is instituted at Mentz, which has been engage 

 for a*number of years in the investigation of revolu- 

 tionary plots. 4. The establishment of representa- 

 tive constitutions in all the states belonging to the 

 confederation. Article 13th says: All the states 

 of the union shall have landes-stiindische Verfas- 

 sungen. This landes-stiindische has been since 

 explained in such a way, that mockeries of constitu- 

 tions, like that of Prussia, have been thought suffi- 

 cient to answer the claims of the age. 5. The 

 establishment of three degrees of jurisdiction. (See 

 Courts of Appeal.) 6. Legal equality of all Chris- 

 tian denominations. 7. The establishment of a com- 

 mon civil law in Germany, the liberty of emigration, 

 and the right of the subjects of each state to hold 

 real property in every other state of the confedera- 

 tion. 8. The regulation of the legal relations of the 

 mediatized princes of the old empire. (See Mediati- 

 zation.) These provisions were first settled by the 

 fundamental act of the eighth June, 1815, and con- 

 firmed, according to a decree of the congress of 

 Vienna, as the constitution of the confederation,- 

 June 8, 1820. These acts are contained in the 

 Corpus Juris Confcederationis Germanics, by Meyer 

 (Frankfort, 1822), and in the Corpus Juris publici 

 Germanici Academicum, by Ad.Michaelis (Tubingen, 

 1825). In regard to Austria and Prussia, it must be 

 observed, that it is only their German provinces 

 which are considered as parts of the German confe- 

 deration. Those of Austria contain about 85,000 

 English square miles, with a population, in 1827, of 

 10,655,324, and a revenue of .6,445,000. Those of 

 Prussia contain about 71,000 square miles, with a 

 population, in 1 827, of 9,302,220, and a revenue of 

 5,714,595. The Danish province of Holstein 

 contains 3646 square miles ; population in 1827, 

 440,900; revenue, 189,000. The duchy of Lux- 

 emburg, belonging to the king of the Netherlands, 

 contains 2183 square miles ; population in 1827, 

 296,500; revenue, 162,000. 



The court appointed to settle disputes between 

 the members of the German confederacy, is called 

 the court of Austragalinstanz, The want of a firm 

 and vigorous administration of justice in Germany, 

 caused principally by the weakness of the imperial 

 authority, especially after the fall of the Hohenstau- 

 fen dynasty, obliged the princes, prelates, cities, and 

 knights, especially in southern Germany, to form 

 many alliances for their own security ; and an essen 

 tial condition of these always was, that they would 

 choose arbiters, in case of disputes, among them- 

 selves, who would either bring about a settlement, 

 or give a legal decision. When, at last, at the 

 recognition of the general peace (Landfriede), in 

 1495, a stop was put to feuds and private warfare, a 

 general supreme court became necessary, to decide 

 all quarrels between the independent members of the 

 empire, and, at the same time, the court of the 

 imperial chamber (reichskammergericht) was founded. 

 2. In the confederation of the Rhine, the decision 



