070 GEEMANY. 



departments. The rural communes have similar representative institutions. The 

 Amf, or bailiwick, includes usually a small market town with the surrounding 

 villages. At its head is placed an Amtmann, chosen by the Kveistarj, or District 

 Diet, amongst the notabilities of the Aint. His powers are very extensive. He is 

 assisted by a board, upon which the burgomasters of the villages and a number of 

 representatives have seats. 



The Diet of each Kreis is elected, in three groups, by the landowmers, the 

 towns, and the rural communes. The principal executive officer of the Kreis, the 

 Landrath, is appointed by the King, on the presentation of the Diet. He presides 

 over the standing committee of the Diet, from which clergymen, teachers, and 

 judges are excluded; appoints the district officials; superintends the public 

 works ; and attends to sanitary affairs and police. 



The Governments, or Regierungnlczirlxe, form the most important administra- 

 tive divisions of the State, They are placed under a President and a Board 

 {Collegium), the members of which are appointed by the King, and which attends 

 to administrative, financial, and religious affairs. 



Each of the provinces has its Ober Prasident and a Provincial Diet, elected by 

 the people. A board of seven members, of whom five are appointed by the Diet, 

 assists the Ober Prasident in his executive functions. 



It is thus seen that the popular vote plays an important part in the political 

 institutions of the country, but as all conflicts of authority between the elected of 

 the people and the officials are decided by judges appointed by the King, and as 

 resolutions of the Diets remain without effect if in the opinion of the Ober 

 Prasident, or the Home Secretary, they are contrary to the laws or the interests of 

 the State, there is but little fear of the power of the latter being impaired. There 

 is, in fact, no country in the world where the abstraction called " State," and the 

 army of officials which visibly represents it, are looked up to with such reverence. 

 The Prussian bureaucracy is, indeed, distinguished for its esprit de corps and 

 high sense of duty. Its members attain their positions only after a series of 

 examinations ; but once they have scaled the official ladder they are secure, 

 and only after a court of justice has condemned them can they be dismissed 

 from their posts. Their authority is large, and they are taught to make use 

 of it on their own initiative, without much troubling their superiors. They are 

 methodical in their work, and carefully husband the public moneys intrusted to 

 them. Most of the inferior posts are held by old non-commissioned officers. 



The number of Government functionaries of every description, including 

 sanitary inspectors, professors, and teachers, the men employed in Government 

 mines and forests, and on the railways, is exceedingly large, and the tendenc}'- 

 is to increase them. The project recently ventilated, of transferring all the 

 railways to the State, if carried out, would vastly add to their number, and propor- 

 tionately increase the patronage of the State, too great already. 



