658 



PRUSSIA. 



the declaration of the Vice-President of the 

 Cabinet that he would resign were the prog- 

 ress of the great reform to be completely in- 

 terrupted ; but this meant nothing, Herr Camp- 

 hausen having taken care to qualify his an- 

 nouncement of eventual self-immolation by the 



BCSSELDORF. 



clever introduction of "completely interrupt- 

 ed." The House and Herr Camphausen were 

 not likely to agree as to the line separating 

 complete from partial interruption. The fact 

 was, Prince Bismarck had put a stop to admin- 

 istrative reform, and his colleagues, being mere 



UNIVERSITY OF 



servants of the Sovereign Premier, had bowed 

 to his decision. It was easy to see why the 

 Moderate Liberals in the House imitated the 

 example set by the Cabinet. Had they not 



been given to understand that, in the event of 

 any of the ministers proving refractory, the 

 seats vacated by these recusants would be filled 

 with parliamentary exponents of the Minis- 

 terial party ? 



Herr Camphausen, in reply, repudiated in the 

 most positive manner 

 an assertion made by 

 Herr Windthorst that 

 Prince Bismarck ruled 

 absolutely, and express- 

 ed it as his opinion that 

 the dignity of the House 

 and of the Government 

 ought not to allow such 

 observations as those 

 which Heir Windthorst, 

 himself a former minis- 

 ter, had thought fit to 

 make. Herr Lasker, 

 leader of the left wing 

 of the Moderate Lib- 

 erals, who had so long 

 conferred upon Govern- 

 ment the immense ben- 

 efit of a faithful, but 

 wholly independent and 

 unselfish, assistance, had 

 no hesitation in declar- 

 ing all attacks on Prince 

 Bismarck to be tanta- 

 mount to attacks upon the nation. He admit- 

 ted, however, that the apparent determination 

 of the Cabinet to exclude municipal and vil- 

 lage government from the range and scope of 

 administrative reform was not in harmony 

 with previous announcements and with what 

 his political friends re- 

 garded as a necessary 

 complement of the bills 

 enacted. His party 

 would watch the course 

 pursued by the Govern- 

 ment, and be guided by 

 circumstances. Govern- 

 ment had no right to 

 count on the continued 

 support of the Moder- 

 ate Liberals, unless a 

 straightforward and lib- 

 eral course was held. At 

 the close of the debate, 

 the anti-Ministerial res- 

 olutions introduced by 

 the Centrum and Ad- 

 vanced Liberals were 

 rejected by the Mod- 

 erates. On the 31st of 

 October, General von 

 Kameke, the War Min- 

 ister, declared that the 

 decree prohibiting the 



export of horses had been issued only when for- 

 eign dealers ordered of Germany 80,000 horses 

 fit for war purposes. As such an order inter- 

 fered with the state of military preparation 



