246 POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 



Delitzsch and to call the new party "German Pro- 

 gressive Party". 



The invitation to allow myself to be elected deputy 

 I had repeatedly declined, considered it however my 

 duty in the year 1864 to accept the election, which 

 had taken place without my intervention, as deputy 

 for the district of Solingen-Remscheid. The reorgani- 

 sation of the army proposed by the Government formed 

 at that time the great question determining party lines. 

 The essence of this question consisted in the doubling 

 of the Prussian army, already being carried out in 

 accordance with the Government plan, and the corre- 

 sponding increase of the military budget. The voice 

 of the country declared that this increase of the mili- 

 tary burdens could not be borne without leading to a 

 thorough impoverishment of the people. In fact the 

 prosperity of Prussia was considerably behind that of 

 the other German states, as the burden of the German 

 defences had even after the War of Liberation rested 

 chiefly on her shoulders. If this burden was to be 

 still further increased in so great a degree without 

 the enforcing of a corresponding participation of the 

 rest of the German states, it was thought the pro- 

 sperity of the country could not but retrograde more 

 and more, and the burden would finally become in- 

 supportable. It was known indeed that King William 

 had already as Prince of Prussia and as Prince Regent 

 been convinced of the necessity of raising again the 

 state of Frederick the Great to the height consistent 

 with its historical position at the head of Germany, 



