No More Learning

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? Our Empire 291
It is true that the language of the Constitution as
well as the language of common life speaks of the
States of the German Confederation; but the
Constitution, more especially in respect of these
complicated federal relationships, is always guided
by historical considerations, or by considerations of
political expediency, and is thereby often involved
in error from the strictly scientific outlook. The
states of the Republic of the United Netherlands
were for two hundred years officially styled
"Provinces," although they were unquestionably
sovereign states. In Switzerland, the sovereign
members of the Confederation were from 18 14
onw^ards given the modest name of Canton, and
this name was preserved after the radical alteration
of the constitution in the year 1848; whereas the
individual members of the North American Union
retain in the federal state the title of State under
which they entered the original confederation.
It might seem desirable, for the sake of peace,
to avoid the open proclamation of this truth,
which is disagreeab e to the advocates of sepa-
ratism; but science must not lie, must not out
of respect to the vanity of the German princes
abandon those fundamentals of political theory
which have been acquired by the difficult labour
of hundreds of years -- must pay no attention to the
foolish dicta of not a few professors, to the effect
that to-day there exist "non-sovereign" as well as
"sovereign states. " Since it is certain that any
community becomes a state from the moment that
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? 292 Our Empire
it attains to sovereignty, and since it is certain that
a state becomes transformed into a province
directly it is forced to recognize the sovereignty of a
conqueror, it necessarily follows that in sovereignty
is to be found the essential characteristic of the
state, the characteristic by which the state is dis-
tinguished from all other human communities. A
*' state of states, " a state that rules over states, is
theoretically an absurdity, and in practice it is
unending anarchy. Such a state of states was
the monstrum politicum of Pufendorf, the Holy
Roman Empire in its closing centuries. When we
find Ludolf Hugo, Putter, and other imperial
publicists, endeavouring to find consolation for
the miseries of Germany in the insane notions
of the Over-State and the Under-State, we may
ascribe this to the urgency of patriotic need; but
we must not apply to the active and vigorous
national structures of our own day these oppor-
tunist phrases born out of the processes of decom-
position of a community on the way to destruction.
The communities subordinated to the authority
of a modern federal state are themselves no longer
states, and this statement applies to the individual
communities which make up the German Empire.
Such superficial comparisons, however, hardly
touch the kernel of the matter. No reflective
statesman can deny that our Empire is a quite
pecuHar structure, sharply distinguished in its
history, in its position in the world, and in its
aims, from the federal states of America and
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? Our Empire 293
Switzerland. The high-sounding phrase, ' ' Empire
is a concept utterly foreign to the domain of
Public Law," does not render non-existent this
incontrovertible fact. The Empire exists and will
continue to flourish long after the present doctrines
of imperial law have been forgotten. It does not
become theory to endeavour to fit the great new
formations of history to the Procrustean bed of
ready-made concepts. Theory remains true only
when it continues to learn from life, and when its
concepts are subject to continuous transformation
in accordance with the teachings of experience.
Law is ever subject to the danger of becoming
enmeshed in its own formalisms; the doctrine of
public law becomes utterly futile if it attempts
to throw a dam athwart the main stream of history,
if it shirks the labour of studying, in addition to the
frame-work of existing laws, those laws also which
are decaying and those which are springing to life,
if it refuses to pay due attention to those political
relationships which are undergoing incorporation in
constitutional forms.
Anyone properly equipped with the historical
sense, who approaches the study of German im-
perial law, cannot fail to recognize two important
distinctions which forbid any comparison with
the federal states of America and Switzerland.
The constitution of these two federal states rests
upon the equality of all the members of the federal
union, but our imperial constitution rests upon
inequality, upon the preponderant power of
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? 294 Our Empire
Prussia. To the crown of this leading State is
attached a hereditary right to the imperial throne;
and there is attached also a monarchical dominion
which, though still incomplete in form, grows
stronger daily under our very eyes, and which
represents the ideas of national unity far more
effectively than the central authority of a federal
state can ever represent them. In the great days
of its history, Germany was a national monarchy.
As this monarchical feudal dominion fell to pieces
and the power of its kingship passed into the hands
of the estates of the Empire, a new monarchical
Power, that of the Crown of Prussia, gradually
became established upon the site of these territorial
states. It was Prussia which created our new Em-
pire, which liberated us from Austria, and which,
by the annexations of the year 1866, enlarged
the area of its own direct rule, and thus became
empowered to direct the fate of the whole of Ger-
many. By right of sword, by the might of estab-
lished fact, Prussia was enabled to impose upon
the sovereign states of the North the compacts
which led to the formation of the North German
Federation; and this new national state was sub-
sequently joined by the states of South Germany,
for these recognized that the maintenance of their
independent sovereignty had become impossible,
and they were no longer able to resist the national
impulse towards unity, which had now at length
found full expression. The Prussian army and
navy, the Prussian postal and telegraphic services,
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? Our Empire '295
the Prussian customs, and the Prussian banking
system, underwent expansion to become general
German institutions. Without any sacrifice,
Prussia was able to make to the Empire a free gift
of her navy and her postal service, and to arrange
for much of the imperial business to be conducted
by her own officials; for in truth the Prussian
State had conducted three victorious campaigns,
not in order immediately thereafter to subject
herself to a newly created imperial authority, but
in order to maintain and enlarge her own dominion,
to take into her own hands the imperial hegemony,
with the co-operation of the smaller allied states.
The result is that Prussia, however carefully
the wording of the Constitution may conceal the
fact, occupies in reality and in law a position alto-
gether different from that occupied by the other
countries of the Empire. The Prussian State
alone has remained a true state. Prussia alone
cannot be constrained by executive decree to the
fulfilment of her imperial duties, for in the hands
of the Emperor rests the enforcement of such a
decree -- and the Emperor is King of Prussia. The
entire imperial policy reposes upon the tacit
assumption that there cannot possibly exist a
permanent conflict between the will of the Empire
and the will of the Prussian State. In matters of
subordinate importance, the dominant state may
display a yielding disposition; it does, indeed,
exhibit such a disposition to a high degree, and this
even in cases where the Prussian view is unques-
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? 296 Our Empire
tionably the right one -- witness, for example, the
absurd imperial law in accordance with which
the seat of the imperial court of law is placed else-
where than in the capital city of the Empire. But
in all matters of decisive importance Prussia has
the determining voice, and the good sense of the
nation has long recognized that this new order of
things corresponds to the distribution of power
and is in accordance with the dictates of simple
justice. Of all the countries of the Empire, Prussia
alone retains the right of taking up arms, for the
King of Prussia is also, as Emperor, the War-Lord
of the Empire. The Prussian State alone cannot
be deprived against its will of the prerogatives with
which it is endowed by the Imperial Constitution,
for Prussia possesses seventeen votes in the Federal
Council, and these suffice to safeguard it in this
respect. Thus from the historical point of view
the German Empire is the Prussian-German
Unified State, with the accessory countries as-
sociated with Prussia as federal companions.
The necessary and valuable hegemony of the
Prussian State is, however, exercised under forms
which carefully safeguard the legitimate self-
respect of our princes and peoples. It is by the
nature of things, even more than in virtue of
the deliberate intentions of statesmen, that the
German State has been re-conducted into the
channels of the old imperial law. All that was
just and wise in the institutions of the Holy
Empire is revived under our own eyes in new forms.
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? Our Empire 297
Our Imperial Constitution is at once old and young ;
it has revivified the ancient and unforgotten politi-
cal traditions of our race in so far as these were
adapted to the tendencies and needs of our day.
It is for this reason that within so short a time the
people has given its full confidence to the new order.
Those only who have grasped the interconnection
between the old elements and the new will under-
stand the political character of the new Empire,
which presents as united an aspect among the
community of modern states as was ever presented
by the Empire of old.
Now, as of old, the great names, Emperor and
Empire, exercise their charm upon the German
spirit, and this above all in those Franconian and
Suabian regions which were so long altogether
hostile to the Prussian State, and which only
through their firmly established sense of imperial
loyalty have been enabled to regain an understand-
ing of the creative energies of this new epoch
in our history. The honour thus paid to the
imperial name is no empty sport of the popular
imagination. On the ever-memorable day of
Versailles, King William expressly stated that it
was his determination to re-establish the imperial
dignity which had been in abeyance for sixty years,
to resume the crown of Charlemagne and the
old single-headed eagle. The imperial dignity of
the Hohenzollern is the most ancient and most
venerable in all the world. In the course of
centuries many changes have occurred in the
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? 298 Our Empire
boundaries of Germany ; within quite recent times
considerable losses were suffered in the South-East,
whilst compensatory expansion occurred in Alsace-
Lorraine, Schleswig-Holstein, Old Prussia, and
Posen. Nevertheless, in the political sense, though
not in the strictly legal sense, this New Empire is
the successor of the Old; herein has the National
State of the Germans found its new expression.
Anything is possible to the German doctrinaire.
In the days when the imperial authority had be-
come a mere shadow, and when Frederick the Great,
with clear insight, described the fallen Empire as
the Illustrious Republic of the German Princes,
many of the expounders of German imperial
law were continuing to speak of the monarchical
authority of the successor of Charlemagne. Simi-
larly, to-day, we are assured from many professorial
chairs that the German Empire is a Republic of
States, although every sober student of political
reahty must recognize at the first glance that the
imperial dominion inseparably associated with the
Prussian crown is by far the most powerful mon-
archical authority of Western Europe. Can any
one assert that the crown of England, Sweden,
Italy, or Belgium is more powerful than our im-
perial rule ? No one is better acquainted with the
facts than the members of that rude Party which
considers only the realities of power, for in the
inflammatory writings of the Anarchists there
is a perpetual recurrence of the complaint that
the German crown is the most strongly estab-
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? Our Empire 299
lished of all. The Emperor rules by God's will,
in virtue of inherent right ; he is not a delegate
of the Federal Council, nor yet a responsible
official. He is in command of the finest army in
the world, for that military independence which
attaches in time of peace to the crown of Bavaria
is altogether devoid of political significance; and
although the fusion of the four German officers'
corps to form a single body, like numerous other
simplifications, still remains a desideratum, the
German army, in organization, training, and above
all in its morale, is, to say the least of it, as sym-
metrical and as firmly united as are the armies of
the other Great Powers. The Emperor represents
the Empire in all foreign relations, and in the
language of diplomacy he is styled Empereur d'
Allemagne; through him alone does the political
will of Germany find expression in the community
of nations, and such expression that the right of the
German Princes to an independent representation
at foreign Courts has become no more than a sort
of harmless play-acting. He summons and dis-
misses the Federal Council as he opens and closes
the Reichstag. He possesses, not by law but by
the nature of things, the right of initiative, for all
legislative proposals of the Federal Council are
entrusted to the Emperor for execution. He
speaks to the Reichstag, not simply in the name of
the Federal Council, but, if he thinks fit, person-
ally as well ; no opposition to the imperial represen-
tative has ever manifested itself in the Federal
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? 300 Our Empire
Council, for our Princes have felt that no expres-
sion of their personal opinion should impinge upon
the living incorporation of imperial authority.
The Emperor possesses the power of veto in a few
cases which are expressly detailed in the Constitu-
tion, and is entitled to suspend the application of
an imperial law in those cases only in which he
doubts its formal validity; thus it may sometimes
happen that he will have to promulgate a law of
which he disapproves, but owing to the preponder-
ant power of Prussia this will far more rarely
happen in Germany than in most constitutional
monarchies. The Emperor is the director of the
whole imperial policy ; he supervises the execution of
the imperial laws, and although he is not invested,
as was formerly the Roman Emperor, with the
supreme judicial authority, his power has been
so long and so firmly established that important
controverted questions in the common law of the
individual states, such as the question of the
Brunswick trade, may in the last resort be decided
by the Emperor alone.
The two weaknesses which led to the destruction
of the old German monarchy have been completely
removed in the constitution of the New Empire.
Although the Emperor does not personally receive
a Civil List from the Empire, he is, as head of the
Executive, furnished with sufficient financial and
military powers. The Old Empire was the na-
tional monarchy in process of dissolution, whereas
the New Empire is the national monarchy in
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? Our Empire 301
process of evolution. The new imperialism has
renounced the theocratic claim to worid-dominion
which was made by the Holy Roman Empire, but
in the actual world of every day it has established
more firmly than ever the monarchical powers
that attached to the old imperial rule. In a mon-
archy the will of the state finds direct expression
in the determinations of an independent Head of
the Executive, whereas in a Republic it finds
expression as the outcome of the struggles of
parties and of the estates of the realm. An appli-
cation of these considerations to modem German
conditions renders incontestable the monarchical
character of the German Empire. Every fresh
political task imposed upon our people by the pro-
gress of history inevitably strengthens the mon-
archical authority of our Emperor. Our colonies
are acquired and protected by **His Majesty's
ships," by a portion of the national armed force
which is under the direct command of the Emperor;
and for a long time to come the political destinies
of these daughter-lands will be decided by imperial
letters and decrees in whose authorship the Federal
Council will have very little to say.
Now, as of old, the imperial dominion owes some
of the consideration that it receives to the prestige
of its own House. Not now, as in former days,
is Prussia, as a heritage of the House of Hapsburg,
estranged from the national life, and liberated from
the principal responsibilities of imperial rule;
it is German through and through, bearing all the
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? 302 Our Empire
burdens of Empire, and so richly endowed with
state-constructive energies that the Imperial Con-
stitution took bodily from Prussia several of its
most important institutions, and recent Prussian
history appears in many respects, though not
in all, as the precursor of the New Empire. At the
South German Courts, the inchoate character of
the Austrian hereditary dominion aroused at one
time justifiable suspicion; but the Prussian State
has, since the acquirements of the year 1866,
become so powerful, and has through the instru-
mentality of the imperial throne become so firmly
allied with the smaller lands of the Empire, that it
would be a false policy for Prussia to desire any
extension of its own boundaries at the expense
of its federal allies. Confidence in the justice
and moderation of the imperial policy is a firm
bond of imperial unity. It would be folly to for-
feit this confidence in a possibly fallacious hope of
a better adjustment of the Prussian boundary.
Consequently it was without regret that the
complete reunion of the old Guelph lands which re-
cently seemed so easy of attainment was renounced.
The prestige of the Imperial House is great enough
to effect by its own unaided powers many impor-
tant national tasks. The Prussian State is
competent to effect by itself the indispensable safe-
guarding of German rule on the eastern frontier.
Being thus supported by the prestige of the Impe-
rial House, the Imperial Rule has ever two strings
to its bow; by circuitous paths, and with the aid
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? Our Empire 303
of the Prussian legislative chamber, it is in a posi-
tion to gain ends which are unattainable by the
imperial route. When the brilliant plan for an
imperial system of railways broke down, the great
Prussian system of state railways immediately
came into being. Sooner or later the history of the
Zollverein (Customs Union) will certainly be
repeated, and in one way or another the Prussian
railway system will reach out to impose a firmer
and more harmonious order upon all the railways
of Germany.
As with the Imperial Dominion, so also has the
anciently grounded esteem for the Imperial
Chancellorship been reawakened among the Ger-
mans -- chiefly by the simple power of history, and
not by any deliberate purpose. In the Constitu-
tion of the North German Federation it was pro-
posed that the office of Chancellor should be held
as an accessory function by the first Prussian
plenipotentiary in the Federation, but the Reichs-
tag demanded the appointment of a responsible
representative of the federal policy, and inasmuch
as this constitutional responsibility was imposed
upon the Chancellor alone, his office acquired at the
outset an independent importance which no one
had foreseen. Out of this office has proceeded
the entire organism of our imperial officialdom.
In the New Empire, just as in the Old, the position
of the Chancellor is a duplex one : he is at the same
time the Chief Adviser of the Emperor and the
President of the Bundesrath (the Assembly of the
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? 304 Our Empire
Estates of the Empire). Now, the Elector of
Mainz was the chief of the Imperial Princes, and
as such was the natural representative of a federal
princely policy which was often sharply opposed
to the views of the Emperor, and from the time
when the imperial prestige more and more declined
his office of chief Imperial Councillor remained
to him merely as a name. The present Imperial
Chancellor, on the other hand, owing to the more
firmly monarchical constitution of the New Em-
pire, is merely an official directly appointed by the
Emperor; he can have no other will than that of
the monarch, and is unable to conduct the pro-
ceedings of the Bundesrath in any other sense
than that desired by his imperial master. He has
also a third duty, unknown to the Imperial Chan-
cellor of the ancient empire. The latter represented
his own country, but the Imperial Chancellor to-
day represents in the Bundesrath the heritage of
the Emperor, and in order to fulfil this duty he
must either himself preside over the Prussian
Cabinet, or must at least exercise a decisive
influence upon the internal policy of Prussia. It
is owing to the union of these three distinct func-
tions that the office of Imperial Chancellor has
acquired its peculiarly exalted value. Everyone
feels it to be an office precisely fitted for a states-
man of genius, and in the future too it can be
adequately filled only by men of note.
But if the
little Republic of the Netherlands was able during
two centuries, from the days of Oldenbarne veldt
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? Our Empire 305
to those of Van de Spiegel, to find men of out-
standing talent to act as Chancellor, our great land
of Germany may confidently expect to do the like.
Like the imperial dominion and the imperial
chancellorship, the Bundesrath is also firmly rooted
in the history of the nation. As is well known, the
Bundesrath is the plenum or general assembly of
the Frankfort Bundestag, and this again was the
rump of the Ratisbon Reichstag. In the Bun-
desrath, the ancient representation of this estate of
the realm is renewed, for here finds expression, not
merely the political will of the countries of the
Empire, but also the personal will of the Imperial
Princes. For three decisive reasons the activity of
this body, formerly so quarrelsome and ineffective,
has become radically transformed and improved.
The preponderant power of the one leading coun-
try which has no rivals to reckon with gives to its
deliberations force and definiteness. By an ad-
mirable legal provision, the negligent are punished
simply by a deprivation of their vote, so that the
old-time neglect of plain duty has been rendered
impossible. Above all, the serious character of
the matters under discussion is an absolute barrier
to the occurrence of the empty formal quarrels of
the Frankfort and Ratisbon days. The Imperial
Princes are compelled to choose as their repre-
sentatives diligent and upright men.
The Bundesrath is endowed with some, but not
with all, of the prerogatives of an imperial govern-
ment; it is at the same time our House of States
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? 3o6 Our Empire
(Staatenhaus) , and as Council of State must utilize
the best powers of German officialdom in drafting
the imperial laws. In the exercise of this threefold
activity it has hitherto exceeded all expectation.
At the outset, everyone believed that in the repre-
sentation of the estates of the realm there would
be manifested a predominant tendency towards
separatism, justified and unjustified. These ex-
pectations were not fulfilled. Twice within a few
years has the Estate of the German Princes hap-
pily disappointed the nation's anticipations. The
very states which had so long and so fiercely re-
sisted the Prussian customs system honourably
fulfilled their new duties as soon as they had en-
tered the Prusso-German Zollverein. Those little
principalities, which had formerly taken up arms
against Prussian rule, displayed to-day, after the
decisive victory of Prussia, a German fidelity to the
Empire. ''What is given to the Empire is taken
from our freedom" -- this detestable principle,
which in the Old Empire dominated the policy of
all the estates of the realm, is no longer regarded as
applicable. In the imperial authority the govern-
ments of the federated countries see, in accordance
with their duty to the Fatherland, and with the
spirit of the Imperial Constitution, not a foreign
and hostile authority, but the authority of the
common national state, which safeguards their
own existence and in whose decisions they play an
effective part. Open treason is altogether im-
possible for the holders of little thrones which no
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? Our Empire 307
longer possess military independence ; quarrels and
intrigues will only do harm to the discontented;
he alone who renders unto the Empire the things
that are the Empire's can expect from the imperial
authority a benevolent attention to his interests.
In the days of the North German Confed ration,
and during the first years of the New Empire,
there might be doubt about the sentiments that
prevailed at many of the smaller Courts; but so
general a community of interests has now become
established that it may be asserted that a reason-
able separatism is only possible on the basis of
fidelity to the Empire. Even an ultramontane
government in Bavaria -- if such a misfortune could
arise -- would now hardly be in a position to defy
the imperial authority. If it wished to make any
advance towards the fulfilment of the plans of the
party dominant in Bavaria it would first have to
endeavour, by good service, to make itself indis-
pensable to the Empire. The many-headedness of
the Bundesrath has delayed numerous reforms
and has proved a complete obstacle to some,
but party differences have never manifested them-
selves within this body. Although it seemed an
obvious and dangerous possibility that the Govern-
ment, outvoted in the Bundesrath, should combine
with the parties in the Reichstag against the
majority in the Bundesrath, yet, with isolated
exceptions, the idea of this has always been dis-
dainfully rejected. As a rule, the struggle of
interests in the Bundesrath is fought out quietly
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? 3o8 Our Empire
and in a friendly spirit, and as soon as a decision
has been arrived at the Government approaches
the Reichstag with a united front. The govern-
ments of the individual members of the federation
often find themselves quite unable to satisfy the
increasing demands of modern social life, and are
forced in their own interest to favour an increase
in the imperial authority. The first proposal
to enlarge the federal power was made by the
Kingdom of Saxony in the days of the North Ger-
man Federation, although Saxony a few years
earlier had been one of the most ardent opponents
of Prussian federal reform. But now, owing to
the rapid development of the commerce of Saxony,
this country felt the need of a supreme tribunal of
commerce. Moreover, without the protection of
the Empire, this little kingdom would find itself
unable permanently to restrain the power of the
social democracy ; similarly, the Bundesrath had to
give its assent to the new imperial taxes, for an
economic balance between the individual countries
of the federation could be maintained no other
way.
Twenty years are a brief period in the life of
nations, but the last two decades have been
extraordinarily fruitful in great experiences, justi-
fying the hope that with the remedial memento mori
of the year 1866 a new and better epoch began in
the changeful history of the German Princely
Estate. These great houses often sinned greatly
by their resistance to the imperial dominion of the
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? Our Empire 309
Middle Ages, but they were the founders of the
States and the towns of the German nation, and
in the centuries of the reHgious wars they proved
themselves the saviours of German civilization.
Then the Greek gift of the Napoleonic sovereignty
clouded their minds, with so dangerous an ulti-
mate effect that in the later years of the German
Bund there loomed ever nearer the possibility of
a general mediatization. The German dynasties
have good reasons to bless the memory of the
catastrophe of 1 866. In the great crises of national
life war is always a milder remedy than revolution,
for it safeguards fidelity, and its ivssue appears as a
judgment of God. Very rarely indeed has any
great historical transformation been effected with
so much moderation, and with so trifling an injury
to the sense of justice. The victor in the struggle
was content with the annihilation of one of the
most culpable of the smaller states, and the an-
nexation of this North German area was so fully
justified by its results that everyone, with infini-
tesimal exceptions, came to recognize its necessity.
The rescued dynasties now find themselves in a
more fortunate situation than formerly under the
German Bund. It is true that they have lost their
independent sovereignty, but this high-sounding
name was a curse for the minor principalities
themselves; they had no power whatever to con-
duct an independent European policy, and their
military independence was misused for foreign
ends by powerful neighbours like France and Aus-
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? 310 Our Empire
tria. In place of this they now possess a legally
restricted but effective share in the decisions of
the German Empire, the first of the great Powers
of Europe. Whereas since the Seven Years*
War they had perforce continually trembled for
their existence, they now enjoy a security never
known before. Any Prince of the Empire who
fulfils his duty to the community can reckon upon
unconditional protection and support. It is the
Empire which imposes upon the people the duty of
military service and the heavy burdens of taxation.
The prince retains all those prerogatives which
bring popular favour; under his guardianship is
all that renders life beautiful and secure ; he appears
as the public benefactor in the exercise of that
peaceful civilizing activity which has ever been the
stronger side of German separatism. On well-
considered grounds the Empire has avoided any
interference with the right of the smaller Courts to
confer titles and honours, however ridiculous it
may seem that we should still speak officially
of a ''Bavarian Empire. " Despite the loss of its
sovereign powers, the German Estate of Princes
still remains the loftiest nobility in the world; its
sons occupy nearly all the thrones of Europe; all
the world over, the usage of the royal Courts is in
accordance with the German princely customs.
In this distinguished circle the Emperor moves,
not as of old endowed with the dignity of a feudal
suzerain, but in the modest function of primus inter
pares. The profound reverence which was awak-
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? Our Empire 311
ened by the old imperial dignity even in the~days
of its decline can no longer be claimed for its mod-
ern representative. New offices must win vital
force from the personality of their actual holders,
and it is a fortunate fact that the first Emperor
of the New Empire is regarded by everyone as
the leader of the German nobility. All pay willing
reverence to the dignified figure of the victor of
Sedan; the Emperor William has understood how
to inspire fidelity to the imperial person in the
hearts alike of the princes and of the people, and
the benefits of his success in this respect will accrue
to his descendants. The army, too, is a priceless
bond of national unity among the members of the
Estate of Princes. Foreign military service can
nowadays hardly act as a lure to the German
Princes ; for all of them it has become the custom to
take service in the imperial army. No one can fail
to recognize that under the new conditions the
Estate of Princes has shown itself more sagacious
and more adaptable than a large proportion of the
bourgeoisie. Hence many Conservative supporters
of the smaller dynasties, who were formerly Pan-
German or Separatist opponents of Prussia, have
now entered the ranks of the Middle Parties that
were born from the Frankfort Imperial Party.
The Old Imperial Party had at one time a Radical
aspect, because under the Bundestag the peaceful
realization of its ideas was impossible -- it desired a
secure national order in place of the anarchy of the
German Bund. Now that this new order has come
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? 312 Our Empire
into existence it is only natural that many of the
sometime Prussian Centralists and of the some-
time Separatist Conservatives should have entered
upon an honourable understanding.
Among the great institutions of the Imperial
Law the only absolutely new thing is the Reichstag,
the Lower House, whose lack was formerly a source
of much distress to Justus Moser, and this is un-
fortunately the institution whose value is least
assured. The Bundesrath, primarily destined to
safeguard the territorial interests, gives a firm
and single-minded support to the imperial policy;
the Reichstag, on the other hand, which represents
the united nation, has for the last ten years almost
invariably exercised an obstructive and disturb-
ing influence. This experience contradicts all the
anticipations of political theorists and all the ex-
pectations of the political parties. When the
North German Confederation was founded, all
the world believed -- Bismarck himself believed --
it to be indisputable that Parliament would
increasingly manifest a centralizing tendency,
and this perhaps to an excessive degree. But if
to-day we cast a dispassionate glance backwards
we cannot fail to wonder at ourselves, and to
ask how we could possibly have indulged in such
groundless speculations. The Reichstag is the
product of universal suffrage ; but in Germany as
in Italy, the most ardent advocates of national
unity are always and exclusively to be found
among the cultured classes. The mass of the people
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? Our Empire 313
have a warm enough sentiment for Germany to
prove themselves in time of need to be heroic
defenders of the Fatherland; but in the course of
everyday life they are far less concerned about
the great questions of national policy than about
various local, social, and ecclesiastical interests,
and there are no indications that would lead us to
expect that this naive separatist disposition of
the masses will undergo any sudden alteration.
So long as the powerful impressions produced by
the German and French wars were still operative,
and so long as the need still persisted for the
legislative realization of the programme of eco-
nomic freedom long prepared and advocated by
the Liberals, there was always to be found a trust-
worthy majority to work hand in hand with the
Bundesrath. Since then, however, a new page
has been turned. An embittered opposition,
strangely compounded of Radical and clerical ele-
ments which are unified only by their common
hatred of the Imperial Government, hinders, with
the aid of declared foreign enemies, the continuous
development of the Imperial Constitution, dis-
honours the Reichstag by the idle quarrels of the
factions, and reduces all the proceedings of Parlia-
ment to the level of an incalculable game of hazard.
In the course of the centuries, German Separa-
tism has often changed its colours and its device.
During the Middle Ages, Germany was weakened
above all by the mutual hostility of the Estates of
the Realm; for the last two centuries the chief
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? 314 Our Empire
source of trouble has been the jealousy of the
dynasties ; to-day we suffer from the separatism of
the parties, perhaps a more dangerous enemy to
national unity than were the old separatist tend-
encies of the Estates and of the Dynasties. In the
Reichstag the thought of the Fatherland often
disappears altogether amid the vanities, the
quarrels, the graspingness, the innumerable minor
self-interests of party life. The one separatist
attack hitherto ventured upon the Imperial
Constitution proceeded from the Reichstag and
not from the Bundesrath -- I refer to the celebrated
Franckenstein proposal. Against the manifest
intention of the Constitution the Reichstag made
permanent the provisional remissions of the pro-
portional contributions. The most unfortunate
feature of this affair was not the measure itself (for
its consequences have in practice proved far less
deleterious than was hoped by its sagacious
originators), but the resulting intense confusion
of parties. The faithful adherents of imperial
unity were forced to vote for the separatist pro-
posal, for otherwise the malignity of the factions
would have rendered impossible the indispensable
increase in the imperial revenue. For as long as
it was able, the Reichstag obstructed the extension
promised in the Constitution of the imperial cus-
toms system throughout the entire German area.
The entry of the Hansa towns into the Customs
Union was ultimately effected without the Reichs-
tag and despite the Reichstag, because the
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? Our Empire 315
Senate of Hamburg and Bremen perceived at the
eleventh hour that a majority in the Reichstag
united only for obstructive purposes could give
no firm support against the will of the Emperor
and of the Bundesrath. It necessarily resulted
that measures essential to the national safety could
often be forced through the Reichstag only by a
threatening movement among the people. Such
was the case of the adoption of the Septennate
for the peace-effectives of the imperial army ; such
the grudging vote of funds for the transatlantic
steamship service and for the foundations of our
colonial policy. To the masses all these questions
seemed simple; their answer appeared self-evident.
The national discontent displayed itself so vigor-
ously that some of the members of the Opposition
began to tremble for their seats, and ceased an
obstruction that had not been based upon any
principle whatever, for its sole aim had been to
throw difficulties in the path of the detested
Imperial Chancellor.
Thus the repute of the Reichstag has been
lowered by its own faults. From year to year its
proceedings have become vainer and more diffuse.
The logical and effective deliberations of the best
Parliament we have ever had, the constituent or
constitution-building Reichstag of the North
German Federation, occupy no more than a single
thin volume; to-day two ponderous tomes bare-
ly suffice to contain the verbiage of an almost
fruitless parliamentary session. Many men still
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? 3i6 Our Empire
actively interested in political life now attend to
parliamentary debates on those occasions only
when Prince Bismarck makes a speech.
For a long time far-sighted patriots have been
asking whether our present Reichstag might not be
replaced by a more competent and harmonious
assembly. Gustav Riimelin, for instance, has sug-
gested the constitution of a smaller Parliament, con-
sisting of members elected by the various Diets.
But all such schemes of reform are premature.
The brief history of the New Empire has been so
rich in surprises that we must not hastily abandon
our hope that the Reichstag may once more attain
to the level of its earliest and best years. As long
as the evils are not unbearable it is impossible for
the Imperial Government to take the desperate
step of abolishing universal suffrage, the sacred non
plus ultra of modern democracy. Such a step
would entail the danger of unchaining a Radical
movement which might do more harm than the
roughnesses of our present electoral struggles.
Unfortunately it is somewhat improbable that
there will be formed in our Reichstag a permanent
and unanimous majority faithfully attached to the
Empire. Strong forces of implacable opposition
are unquestionably manifest in the people. A
powerful ultramontane party will long continue
to exist, even if the relations between the State
and the Church should become more friendly
than they are at present. The clericals cannot
forget how firmly associated with the Reformation
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? Our Empire 317
is the history of Prussia; the extremists among
them continue to hope, if tacitly, that the re-
entrance of Austria may some day secure for them
in the New Empire the preponderance which
they once held in the Old. Socialist-Radicalism,
too, will not soon disappear, for it is unavoidable in
a century of profound economic transformations.
Moreover, the party of the fault-finders and of
those who always know better than anyone else
strikes deep roots in the less amiable character-
istics of the German temperament, and in the
over-cultured life of the great towns, remote from
a healthy contact with nature. So long as the
odoriferous waters of the Panke continue to flow
through Berlin, so long also will the water-lily of
the Spirit of Progress thrive upon its green slime!
With their natural friends, the Poles, the Danes,
and the French, these Radical factions will, in the
near future, continue to appear in the Reichstag;
and since every incisive imperial law necessarily
touches powerful social interests, it inevitably
follows that individual economic groups, such
as those of the liquor-traders, the tobacconists,
and the bankers, will, as circumstances may
dictate, combine with the Radicals and their as-
sociates for the common purposes of obstruction.
The position of the parties faithful to the Empire
is a difficult one, for they are divided by their his-
tory, by their class-consciousness, and by numerous
contrasts of origin and economic position.