r . THE GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD, TORONTO THE GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE BY FREDERIC AUSTIN OGG, PH. D. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN SIMMONS COLLEGE AUTHOR OF " SOCIAL PROGRESS IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE " -Dforo fork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1916 All rights reserved JF Of COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and electrotyped. Published February. 1913, Reprinted July, December, 1913; June, 1914; August, 1915; July, 1916. ^ "^ 2-7 942353 PREFACE It is a matter of common observation that during the opening years of the twentieth century there has been, in many portions of the civilized world, a substantial quickening of interest in the principles and problems of human government. The United States is happily among those countries in which the phenomenon can be observed, and we have witnessed in recent times not only the organization of societies and the establishment of journals designed to foster research within the field, but also a notable multiplication and strengthening of courses in political science open to students in our colleges and uni- versities, as well as the development of clubs, forums, extension courses, and other facilities for the increasing of political information and the stimulation of political thinking on the part of the people at large. It is the object of this book to promote the intelligent study of govern- ment by supplying working descriptions of the governmental systems of the various countries of western and central Europe as they have taken form and as they operate at the present day. Conceived and prepared primarily as a text for use in college courses, it is hoped none the less that the volume may prove of service to persons every- where whose interest in the subject leads them to seek the sort of in- formation which is here presented. The content of the book has been determined, in the main, by three considerations. In the first place, it has been deemed desirable to afford a wide opportunity for the comparative study of political in- stitutions, especially by reason of the familiar fact that the govern- mental system of a minor country may, and frequently does, exhibit elements of novelty and of importance not inferior to those to be ob- served in the political organization of a greater state. Hence there are included descriptions of the governments of the minor as well as of the major nations of western and central Europe; and the original purpose to attempt some treatment of the governments of the eastern nations has been abandoned, somewhat reluctantly, only because of the demands of space, and because it was felt that this portion of the projected work would perhaps meet no very serious need in the usual college courses. In the second place, it is believed that the intelligent viii PREFACE study of present-day governments must involve at all stages the tak- ing into careful account of the historical origins and growth of these governments. Hence a considerable amount of space has been de- voted to sketches of constitutional history, which, however, are in all instances so arranged that they may readily be omitted if their omis- sion is deemed desirable. In the case of countries whose political sys- tem underwent a general reconstitution during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era it has been thought not feasible to allude, even briefly, to historical developments prior to the later eighteenth cen- tury. In the third place, it has been considered desirable to include in the book some treatment of political parties and of the institutions of local administration. Within a field so expansive it has been possible to undertake but an introduction to a majority of the subjects touched upon. In the foot-notes will be found references to books, documents, and periodical materials of widely varying types, and it is hoped that some of these may serve to guide student and reader to more intensive information. The preparation of the book has been facilitated by the encourage- ment and the expert advice accorded me by a number of teachers of government in colleges and universities in various portions of the country. And I have had at all times the patient and discriminating assistance of my wife. For neither the plan nor the details of the work, however, can responsibility be attached to anyone save myself. I can only hope that amidst the multitude of facts, some elusive and many subject to constant change, which I have attempted here to set down, not many seriously vitiating errors may have escaped detection. FREDERIC AUSTIN OGG. CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, January 10, 1913. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I. GREAT BRITAIN CHAPTER PAGE I. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 1. The Importance of Historical Background I 2. Anglo-Saxon Beginnings 2 3. The Norman-Plantagenet Period 6 4. The Rise of Parliament n 5. Administrative and Judicial Development 16 6. The Tudor Monarchy 18 7. Parliament under the Tudors 21 8. The Stuarts: Crown and Parliament 26 9. The Later Stuarts: the Revolution of 1688-1689 31 II. THE CONSTITUTION SINCE THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 1. Crown and Parliament after 1789 34 2. Rise of the Cabinet and of Political Parties 37 3. The Scottish and Irish Unions 39 4. The Nature and Sources of the Constitution 41 5. The Flexibility of the Constitution 44 III. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 1. The Crown: Legal Status and Privileges 48 2. The Powers of the Crown 52 3. The Importance and Strength of the Monarchy 58 4. Privy Council, Ministry, and Cabinet 60 5. The Executive Departments 61 6. The Cabinet: Composition and Character 64 7. The Cabinet in Action 70 IV. PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 1. The House of Commons prior to 1832 77 2. Parliamentary Reform, 1832-1885 80 3. The Franchise and the Electoral Questions of To-day 86 4. Electoral Procedure and Regulations 92 ix X TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE V. PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF LORDS * i. Composition 97 2. The Reform of the Lords: the Question prior to 1909 101 3. The Question of the Lords, 1909-1911 106 4. The Parliament Act of 1911 and After 112 VI. PARLIAMENT: ORGANIZATION, FUNCTIONS, PROCEDURE ^ i. The Assembling of the Chambers 117 2. Organization of the House of Commons 120 3. Organization of the House of Lords 125 4. Privileges of the Houses and of Members 126 5. The Functions of Parliament 128 6. General Aspects of Parliamentary Procedure 132 7. The Conduct of Business in the two Houses 138 VII. POLITICAL PARTIES _^ i. Parliamentarism and the Party System -143 2. Parties in the Later Eighteenth and Earlier Nineteenth Centuries 145 3. The Second Era of Whig [Liberal] Ascendancy, 1830-1874 147 4. The Second Era of Conservative Ascendancy, 1874-1905 150 5. The Liberal Revival 155 6. The Rule of the Liberals, 1906-1912 158 7. The Parties of To-day 162 VIU. JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT i. English Law 167 2. The Inferior Courts 170 3. The Higher Courts 173 4. Local Government to the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835 .... 176 5. Local Government Reform, 1835-1912 179 6. Local and Central Government 181 7. Local Government To-day: Rural 183 8. Local Government To-day: Urban 186 PART II. GERMANY IX. THE EMPIRE AND ITS CONSTITUTION 1. Political Development Prior to 1848 193 2. The Creation of the Empire 198 3. The Constitution: Nature of the Empire 202 4. The Empire and the States 205 X. THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT: EMPEROR, CHANCELLOR, AND BUNDESRATH * i. The Emperor 210 2. The Chancellor 213 3. The Bundesrath 217 TABLE OF CONTENTS xi CHAPTER PAGE XI. THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT: REICHSTAG, PARTIES, JUDICIARY - i. Composition of the Reichstag Electoral System 223 2. Organization and Powers of the Reichstag 226 3. The Rise of Political Parties 229 4. Party Politics after 1878 233 5. Parties since 1907 236 6. Law and Justice 241 XII. THE CONSTITUTION OF PRUSSIA THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY -"* i. The German States and their Governments 245 2. The Rise of Constitutionalism in Prussia 246 3. The Crown and the Ministry 253 XIII. THE PRUSSIAN LANDTAG LOCAL GOVERNMENT 1. Composition of the Landtag , 257 2. The Movement for Electoral Reform 260 3. Organization and Functions of the Landtag 263 4. Local Government: Origins and Principles 265 5. Local Government: Areas and Organs. 268 XIV. THE MINOR GERMAN STATES ALSACE-LORRAINE _ ^- i. The More Important Monarchies 275 2. The Lesser Monarchies and the City Republics 279 3. Alsace-Lorraine 282 PART HI. FRANCE XV. CONSTITUTIONS SINCE 1789 1. A Century of Political Instability 289 2. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era 290 3. From the Restoration to the Revolution of 1848 295 4. The Second Republic and the Second Empire 297 5. The Establishment of the Third Republic 301 6. The Constitution of To-day 304 XVI. THE PRESIDENT, THE MINISTRY, AND PARLIAMENT 1. The President 308 2. The Ministry 311 3. Parliament: Senate and Chamber of Deputies 315 4. The Problem of Electoral Reform 319 XVII. PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE POLITICAL PARTIES 1. Organization and Workings of the Chambers 325 2. Political Parties since 1871 329 XVIII. JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 1. French Law 335 2. The Courts , 337 3. Local Government: Development since 1789 341 4. Local Government To-day 346 xii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PART IV. ITALY PAGE XIX. CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 1. The Era of Napoleon 353 2. The Restoration and the Revolution of 1848 358 3. The Achievement of Unification 362 4. The Constitution 365 XX. THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM 1. The Crown and the Ministry 368 2. Parliament: the Senate 372 3. The Chamber of Deputies Parliamentary Procedure 375 4. The Judiciary 381 5. Local Government 383 XXI. STATE AND CHURCH POLITICAL PARTIES 1. Quirinal and Vatican 387 2. Parties and Ministries, 1861-1896 391 3. The Era of Composite Ministries, 1896-1912 395 4. Phases of Party Politics 398 PART V. SWITZERLAND XXII. THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM THE CANTONS 1. The Confederation and Its Constitutions 405 2. The Nation and the States 411 3. Cantonal Legislation: the Referendum and the Initiative 416 4. The Cantonal Executive and Judiciary 421 XXIII. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 1. The Executive 423 2. Legislation: the Federal Assembly 426 3. Legislation: the Referendum and the Initiative 430 4. Political Parties 434 5. The Judiciary 437 PART VI AUSTRIA-HUNGARY XXIV. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY PRIOR TO THE AUSGLEICH 1. Austrian Political Development to 1815 442 2. Hungarian Political Development to 1815 445 3. The Era of Metternich 45 4. The Revolution of 1848 453 5. The Revival of Constitutionalism: the Ausgleich 456 XXV. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 1. The Constitution 460 2. The Crown and the Ministry 463 3. The Reichsrath the Electoral System 465 4. Political Parties 474 5. The Judiciary and Local Government 483 TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii CHAPTER PAGE XXVI. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF HUNGARY 1. The Constitution 489 2. The Crown and the Ministry 491 3. Parliament the Electoral System 49 2 4. Political Parties 5 5. The Judiciary and Local Government 505 XXVTI. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: THE JOINT GOVERNMENT 1. The Common Organs of Government 510 2. The Territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina 514 PART VII. THE LOW COUNTRIES XXVIII. THE GOVERNMENT OF HOLLAND 1. A Century of Political Development 517 2. The Crown and the Ministry 523 3. The States-General and Political Parties 525 4. The Judiciary and Local Government 531 XXIX. THE GOVERNMENT OF BELGIUM 1. The Constitution the Crown and the Ministry 534 2. The Houses of Parliament the Electoral System 538 3. Parties and Electoral Reform since 1894 Parliamentary Procedure 542 4. The Judiciary and Local Government 549 PART VIII. SCANDINAVIA XXX. THE GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK 1. Development Prior to 1814 553 2. The Rise of Constitutionalism, 1814-1866 556 3. The Crown and the Ministry 559 4. The Rigsdag Political Parties 562 5. The Judiciary and Local Government 568 XXXI. THE SWEDISH-NORWEGIAN UNION AND THE GOVERNMENT OF NORWAY 1. Political Development to 1814 570 2. The Swedish-Norwegian Union, 1814-1905 573 3. The Norwegian Constitution Crown and Ministry 578 4. The Storthing Political Parties 581 5. The Judiciary and Local Government 587 XXXII. THE GOVERNMENT OF SWEDEN 1. The Constitution the Crown and the Ministry 589 2. The Riksdag the Electoral System 591 3. The Riksdag in Operation Political Parties . . 597 4. The Judiciary and Local Government 600 xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PART IX. THE IBERIAN STATES PAGE XXXIII. THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN. 1. The Beginnings of Constitutionalism 603 2. Political and Constitutional Development, 1833-1876 606 3. The Present Constitution 61 1 4. The Crown and the Ministry 613 5. The Cortes 616 6. Political Parties 620 7. The Judiciary and Local Government 626 XXXIV. THE GOVERNMENT OF PORTUGAL 1. A Century of Political Development 629 2. The Government of the Kingdom 634 3. The Revolution of 1910 639 4. The Constitution of 1911 643 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE PART I. GREAT BRITAIN CHAPTER I THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION I. THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 1. Political Pre-eminence of Great Britain. George III. is reported to have pronounced the English constitution the most perfect of human formations. One need hardly concur unreservedly in this dictum to be impressed with the propriety of beginning a survey of the govern- mental systems of modern Europe with an examination of the political principles, rules, and practices of contemporary Britain. The history of no other European nation, in the first place, exhibits a develop- ment of institutions so prolonged, so continuous, and so orderly. The governmental forms and agencies of no other state have been studied with larger interest or imitated with clearer effect. The public policy of no other organized body of men has been more influential in shaping the progress, social and economic as well as political, of the civilized world. For the American student, furthermore, the approach to the institutions of the European continent is likely to be rendered easier and more inviting if made by way of a body of institutions which lies at the root of much that is both American and continental. There are, it is true, not a few respects in which the governmental system of the United States to-day bears closer resemblance to that of France, Germany, Switzerland, or even Italy than to that of Great Britain. The relation, however, between the British and the American is one, in the main, of historical continuity, while that between the French or German and the American is one which arises largely from mere imita- tion or from accidental resemblance. 2. The Continuity of Institutional History. No government can be studied adequately apart from the historical development which 2 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE .has made it what it is; and this ordinarily means the tracing of origins antf, of changes which stretch through a prolonged period of time. Men i^v'esom'ethnes imagined that they were creating a governmental system de now, and it occasionally happens, as in France in 1791 and in Portugal in 1911, that a regime is instituted which has little apparent connection with the past. History demonstrates, however, in the first place, that such a regime is apt to perpetuate more of the old than is at the time supposed and, in the second place, that unless it is con- nected vitally with the old, the chances of its achieving stability or permanence are inconsiderable. In Germany, for example, if the institutions of the Empire were essentially new in 1871, the govern- mental systems of the several federated states, and of the towns and local districts, exhibited numerous elements which in origin were mediaeval. In France, if central institutions, and even the political arrangements of the department and of the arrondissement, do not antedate the Revolution, the commune, in which the everyday political activity of the average citizen runs its course, stands essentially as it was in the age of Louis XIV. If the element of continuity is thus important in the political system of Germany, France, or Switzerland, in that of England it is fun- damental. It is not too much to say that the most striking aspect of English constitutional history is the continual preservation, in the teeth of inevitable changes, of a preponderating proportion of institu- tions that reach far into the past. "The great difficulty which presses on the student of the English constitution, regarded as a set of legal rules," observes a learned commentator, "is that he can never dis- sociate himself from history. There is hardly a rule which has not a long past, or which can be understood without some consideration of the circumstances under which it first came into being." l It is the purpose of the present volume to describe European governments as they to-day exist and operate. It will be necessary in all cases, however, to accord some consideration to the origins and growth of the political organs and practices which may be described. In respect to Great Britain this can mean nothing less than a survey, brief as may be, of a thousand years of history. n. ANGLO-SAXON BEGINNINGS The earliest form of the English constitution was that which existed during the centuries prior to the Norman Conquest. Political or- 1 W. R. Anson, The Law and Custom of the Constitution (30! ed., Oxford, 1897), THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 3 ganization among the Germanic invaders of Britain was of the most rudimentary sort, but the circumstances of the conquest and settle- ment of the island were such as to stimulate a considerable elaboration of governmental machinery and powers. From the point of view of subsequent institutional history the most important features of the Anglo-Saxon governmental system were kingship, the witenagemot, and the units of local administration shire, hundred, borough, and township. 1 3. Kingship. The origins of Anglo-Saxon kingship are shrouded in obscurity, but it is certain that the king of later days was originally nothing more than the .chief tain ofa^jctoriousjwar-band. During the course of the occupation of the conquered island many chieftains attained the dignity of kingship, but with the progress of political consolidation one after another of the royal lines was blotted out, old tribal kingdoms became mere administrative districts of larger king- doms, and, eventually, in the ninth century, the whole of the occupied portions of the country were brought under the control of a single sovereign. Saxon kingship was elective, patriarchal, and, in respect to power, limited. Kings were elected by the impprianljnen sitting in council, and while the dignity was hereditary in a family supposedly descendeH from the gods, an immediate heir was not unlikely to be passeoTover in favor of a relative who was remoter but abler. 2 In both pagan and Christian times the royal office was invested with a pronouncedly sacred character. As early as 690 Ine was king "by God's grace." But tl^ac^alauthority of the king was such as arose principally from the dignity ol nis office and from Jthe_gej^oiialinfluence of" the individual^monarch. 3 The king was primarjly He^wj,s^Ja^-^y^r7^>ut hig^ dooms" were likely txTbe consultation with theTwise men, and they pertained to little else^than 1 See G. B. Adams, The Origin of the English Constitution (New Haven, 1912), Chap. I. That the essentials of the English constitution of modern times, in respect to forms and machinery, are products of the feudalization of England which resulted from the Norman Conquest, and not survivals of Anglo-Saxon governmental arrangements, is the well-sustained thesis of this able study. That many important elements, however, were contributed by Anglo-Saxon statecraft is beyond dispute. 2 Thus, in 871, the minor children of Ethelred I. were passed over in favor of Alfred, younger brother of the late king. 1 The Anglo-Saxon king was "not the supreme law-giver of Roman ideas, nor the fountain of justice, nor the irresponsible leader, nor the sole and supreme politician, nor the one primary landowner; but the head of the race, the chosen representative of its identity, the successful leader of its enterprises, the guardian of its peace, the president of its assemblies; created by it, and, although empowered with a higher sanction in crowning and anointing, answerable to his people." W. Stubbs, Select Charters Illustrative of English Constitutional History (8th ed., Oxford, 1895), 12. GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the preservation of the peace. Hejwaj^sur^nejudge,and all crimes anoTbreaChe^JorSejgea^Talhe to bejbo^jed\ig6n as him; buthe held no courTaHdr^e^Ead m " Over locaTaffairs he had no directcontroT whatever. 4. The Witenagemot. Associated with the king in the conduct of public business was tne cojundl^of wise men r or yritenagemot. The composition of this body, 'being deternrined^iTthe main by the^jffl of the individual monarch, varied widely from time to time. The persons most likely to be summoned were the members of the royal family, the greater ecclesiastics, the king's gesiths or thegns, the ealdormen who administered the shires, other leading officers of state and of the household, and the principal men who held land directly of the king. There were included no popularly elected representatives. As a rule, the witan_was called together three or four times a year. Acting with the king, it made laws, imposficLtaxes, concluded treaties, appointed ealdormen and bishops, and occasionally heard cases not disposed of in the courts of the shire and hundred. It was the witan, furthermore, that elected the king; and since it could depose him, he was obliged to recognize a certain responsibility to it. "It has been a marked and important feature in our constitutional history," it is pointed out by Anson, "that the king has never, in theory, acted in matters of state without the counsel and consent of a body of ad- visers." 1 6. Township, Borough, and Hundred. By reason of their per- sistence, and their comparative changelessness from earliest times to the later nineteenth century, the utmost importance attaches to Anglo-Saxon arrangements respecting local government and adminis- tration. The snglle^t governmental unit was the township, com- prising normally a village surrounded "by arable landsTmeadows, and woodland. The town^mociJ: was a primary assembly of the freemen of the village, by whicrT, under the presidency of a reeve, the affairs of the township were administered. A variation of the township was the burgh, or borough, whose population was apt to be larger and whose political independence was greater; but its arrangements for govern- ment approximated closely those of the ordinary township. A group of townships comprised a hundred. At the head of the hundred was a hundred-man, ordinarily elected, but not infrequently appointed by a great landowner or prelate to whom the lands of the hundred be- longed. Assisting him was a council of twelve or more freemen. In 1 Law and Custom of the Constitution, II., Pt. I., 7. Cf. W. Stubbs, Constitu- tional History of England, I., 127. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 5 the hundred-moot was introduced the principle of representation, for to the meetings of that body came regularly the reeve, the parish priest, and four "best men" from each of the townships and boroughs comprised within the hundred. The hundred-moot met as often as once a month, and it had as its principal function the adjudication of disputes and the decision of cases, civil, criminal, and ecclesiastical. 6. The Shire. Above the hundred was the shire. Originally, as a rule, the shires were regions occupied by small but independent tribes; eventually they became administrative districts of the united kingdom. At the head of the shire was an ealdorman, appointed by the king and witan, generally from the prominent men of the shire. Subordinate to him at first, but in time overshadowing him, was the shire-reeve, or sheriff, who was essentially a representative of the crown, sent to assume charge of the royal lands in the shire, to col- lect the king's revenue, and to receive the king's share of the fines im- posed in the courts. Each shire had its moot, and by reason of the fact that the shires and bishoprics were usually co-terminous, the bishop sat with the ealdorman as joint president of this assemblage. In theory, at least, the shire-moot was a gathering of the freemen of the shire. It met, as a rule, twice a year, and to it were entitled to come all free- men, in person or by representation. It was within the competence of those who did not desire to attend to send as spokesmen their reeves or stewards; so that the body was likely to assume the character of a mixed primary and representative assembly. The shire-moot decided disputes pertaining to the ownership of land, tried suits for which a hearing could not be obtained in the court of the hundred, and ex- ercised an incidental ecclesiastical jurisdiction. 1 1 The classic description of Anglo-Saxon political institutions is W. Stubbs, Con- stitutional History of England in its Origin and Development, 3 vols. (6th ed., Oxford, 1897), especially I., 74-182; but recent scholarship has supplemented and modified at many points the facts and views therein set forth. A useful account (though likewise subject to correction) is H. Taylor, The Origins and Growth of the English Constitution, 2 vols. (new ed., Boston, 1900), I., Bk. i., Chaps. 3-5; and a repository of information is J. Ramsay, The Foundations of England, 2 vols. (London, 1898). A valuable sketch is A. B. White, The Making of the English Constitution, 449-1485 (New York, 1908), 16-62. A brilliant book is E. A. Free- man, The Growth of the English Constitution (4th ed., London, 1884); but by reason of Professor Freeman's over-emphasis of the perpetuation of Anglo-Saxon institutions in later times this work is to be used with caution. Political and insti- tutional history is well set forth in T. Hodgkin, History of England to the Norman Conquest (London, 1906), and C. W. C. Oman, England before the Norman Con- quest (London, 1910). A useful manual is H. M. Chadwick, Studies on Anglo- Saxon Institutions (Cambridge, 1905); and an admirable bibliography is C. Gross, The Sources and Literature of English History (London, 1900). GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE III. THE NORMAN-PLANTAGENET PERIOD At the coming of William the Conqueror, in 1066, two fundamental principles may be said to have been firmly fixed in the English political system. The first was that of thoroughgoing local self-government. The second was that of the obligation of the king, in all matters of first-rate importance, such as the laying of taxes and the making of laws, to seek the counsel and consent of some portion of his subjects. In the period which was inaugurated by the Conquest neither of these principles was entirely subverted, yet the Norman era stands out distinctly as one in which the powers of government were gathered in the hands of the king and of his immediate agents in a measure un- known at any earlier time. Building in so far as was possible upon foundations already laid, William was able so to manceuveu^the_con- sequences of the Conquest as to throw the advantagelfall buTwhoIIy upon the side of the crown. Feudalism, land-tenure, military service, taxation, the church to all was imparted, by force or by craft, such a bent that the will of the sovereign acquired the practical effect of law, and monarchy in England, traditionally weak, was brought to.the verge of sheer absolutism. 7. Extension of Centralized Control. In respect to the actual mechanism of government the principal achievement of the Norman- Plan tagenet period was the overhauling and consolidation" of the agencies of administration. Despite the fact that local institutions of Saxon origin were largely respected, so that they have continued to this day the most substantial Anglo-Saxon contribution to English polity, there was a notable linking-up of these hitherto largely dis- associated institutions with the institutions of the central government. This was accomplished in part by the dissolution of the earldoms by which the monarchy had been menaced in later Saxon days, and in part by a tremendous increase of the power and importance of the sheriffs. It was accomplished still more largely, however, by^the_ organization of two great departments of government those of justice and finance presided over by dignitaries of the royal household and manned by permanent staffs of expert officials. The department of justice comprised the Curia; that of finance, the Exchequer. At the head of the one was the Chancellor; at the head of the other, the Treasurer. The principal officials within the two comprised a single body of men, sitting now &sjustitiarii,or justices, and now asbarones of the Exchequer. The profits and costs of asserting and administering justice and the incomings and outgoings of the Exchequer were but THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 7 different aspects of the same fundamental concerns of state. 1 The justices of the Curia who held court on circuit throughout the realm and the sheriffs who came up twice a year to render to the barons of the Exchequer an account of the sums due from the shires served as the real and tangible agencies through which the central and local govern- ments were knit together. As will appear, it was from the Norman Curia that, in the course of time, there sprang immediately those diversified departments of administration whose heads comprise the actual executive of the British nation to-day. / 8. King and Great Council. Untrammelled by constitutional re- strictions, the Conqueror and his earlier successors recognized such limitations only upon the royal authority as were imposed by powerful and turbulent subjects. Associated with the king, however, was from the first a body known as the Commune Concilium, the Common, or Great, Council. "Thrice a year," the Saxon Chronicle tells us, " King William wore his crown every year he was in England; at Easter he wore it at Winchester; at Pentecost, at Westminster; and at Christmas, at Gloucester; and at these times all the men of England were with him archbishops, bishops and abbots, earls, thegns and knights." By the phrase "all the men of England" is to be understood only the great ecclesiastics, the principal officers of state, and the king's tenants- in-chief in truth, only such of the more important of these as were summoned individually to the sovereign's presence. At least in theory, however, the Norman kings were accustomed to consult this gathering of magnates, very much as their predecessors had been accustomed to consult the witenagemot, upon all important questions of legislation, finance, and public policy. It may, indeed, be said that it is the devel- opment of this Council that comprises the central subject of English constitutional history; for, "out of it, directly or indirectly, by one process or another, have been evolved Parliament, the Cabinet, and the courts of law." 2 9. The Plantagenet Monarchy. During the century and a half following the death of the Conqueror the vigor of the monarchy varied enormously, but not until the days of King John can there be said to have been any loss of power or independence which amounted to more than a passing circumstance. In a charter granted at the beginning of his reign, in noo, Henry I. confirmed the liberties of his subjects and promised to respect the laws of Edward the Confessor; but the new sovereign did not propose, and no one imagined that he intended to propose, to relax any of the essential and legitimate power which had 1 Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, II., Pt. I., n. 2 W. Wilson, The State (rev. ed., Boston, 1903), 369. 8 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE been transmitted to him by his father and brother. The reign of Stephen (1135-1154) was an epoch of anarchy happily unparalleled in the history of the nation. During the course of it the royal authority sank to its lowest ebb since the days of the Danish incursions. But the able and wonderfully energetic Henry II. (1154-1189) recovered all that had been lost and added not a little of his own account. "Henry II.," it has been said, "found a nation wearied out with the miseries of anarchy, and the nation found in Henry II. a king with a passion for administration." l With the fundamental purpose of reducing all of his subjects to equality before an identical system of law, the great Plantagenet sovereign waged determined warfare upon both the rebellious nobility and the independent clergy. He was not en- tirely successful, especially in his conflict with the clergy; but he effectually prevented a reversion of the nation to feudal chaos, and he invested the king's law with a sanction which it had known hardly even in the days of the Conqueror. The reign of Henry II. has been declared, indeed, to "initiate the rule of law." 2 By reviving and placing upon a permanent basis the provincial visitations of the royal justices, for both judicial and fiscal purposes, and by extending in the local administration of justice and finance the principle of the jury, Henry contributed fundamentally to the development of the English Common Law, the jury, and the modern hierarchy of courts. By ap- pointing as sheriffs lawyers or soldiers, rather than great barons, he fostered the influence of the central government in local affairs. By commuting military service for a money payment (scutage), and by a revival of the ancient militia system (thefyrd), he brought the control of the armed forces of the nation effectually under royal control. By the frequent summons of the Great Council and the systematic ref- erence to it of business of moment he contributed to the importance of an institution through whose amplification a century later Parlia- ment was destined to be brought into existence. 10. The Great Charter, 1215. The period of Richard I. (1189-1199) was, in constitutional matters, a continuation of that of Henry II. Richard was absent from the kingdom throughout almost the whole of the reign, but under the guidance of officials trained by Henry the machinery of government operated substantially as before. Under John (1199-1216) came a breakdown, occasioned principally by the sovereign's persistence in evading certain limitations upon the royal authority which already had assumed the character of established rules of the constitution. One of these forbade that the king should impose 1 Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, II., Pt. I., 13. 3 Stubbs, Select Charters, 21. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 9 fresh taxation except with the advice and consent of the Great Council. Another enjoined that a man should not be fined or otherwise despoiled of his property except in virtue of judicial sentence. These and other principles John habitually disregarded, with the consequence that in time he found himself without a party and driven to the alternative of deposition or acceptance of the guarantee of liberties which the barons, the Church, and the people were united in demanding of him. The upshot was the promulgation, June 15, 1215, of Magna Carta. No instrument in the annals of any nation exceeds in importance the Great Charter. The whole of English constitutional history, once remarked Bishop Stubbs, is but one long commentary upon it. The significance of the Charter arises not simply from the fact that it was wrested from an unwilling sovereign by concerted action of the various orders of society (action such as in France and other continental countries never, in mediaeval times, became possible), but principally from the remarkable summary which it embodies of the fundamental principles of English government in so far as those principles had ripened by the thirteenth century. The Charter contained little or nothing that was new. Its authors, the~6drons, sought merely to gather up within a reasonably brief document those principles and customs which the better kings of England had been wont to observe, but which in the evil days of Richard and John had been persistently evaded. There was no thought of a new form of government, or of a new code of laws, but rather of the redress of present and practical grievances. Not a new constitution, but good government in con- formity with the old one, was the essential object. Naturally enough, therefore, the instrument was based, in most of its important provi- sions, upon the charter granted by Henry I. in noo, even as that instrument was based, in the main, upon the righteous laws of Edward the Confessor. After like manner, the Charter of 1215 became, in its turn, the foundation to which reassertions of constitutional liberty in subsequent times were apt to return; and, under greater or lesser pres- sure, the Charter itself was "confirmed" by numerous sovereigns who proved themselves none too much disposed to observe its principles. In effect the Charter was a treaty between the king and his dissatis- fied subjects. It was essentially a feudal document, and the majority of its provisions relate primarily to the privileges and rights of the barons. None the less, it contains clauses that affected all classes of society, and it is especially noteworthy that the barons and clergy pledged themselves in it to extend to their dependents the same cus- toms and liberties which they were themselves demanding of the crown. Taking the Charter as a whole, it guaranteed the freedom of 10 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the Church, defined afresh and in precise terms surviving feudal in- cidents and customs, placed safeguards about the liberties of the boroughs, pledged security of property and of trade, and stipulated important regulations respecting government and law, notably that whenever the king should propose the assessment of scutages or of un- usual aids he should take the advice of the General Council, composed of the tenants-in-chief summoned individually in the case of the greater ones and through the sheriffs in the case of those of lesser importance. Certain general clauses, e. g., that pledging that justice should neither be bought nor sold, and that prescribing that a freeman might not be imprisoned, outlawed, or dispossessed of his property save by the judg- ment of his peers or by the law of the land, meant in effect consider- ably less than they sometimes have been interpreted to mean. 1 Yet even they served to emphasize the fundamental principle upon which the political and legal structure was intended to be grounded, that, namely, of impartial and unvarying justice. 2 1 The term "peers," as here employed, means only equals in rank. The clause cited does not imply trial by jury. It comprises a guarantee simply that the barons should not be judged by persons whose feudal rank was inferior to their own. Jury trial was increasingly common in the thirteenth century, but it was not guaranteed in the Great Charter. 2 Good accounts of the institutional aspects of the Norman-Angevin period are Stubbs, Constitutional History, I., 315-682, II., 1-164; Taylor, Origin and Growth of the English Constitution, L, Bk. 2, Chaps. 2-3; Adams, The Origin of the English Constitution, Chaps. 1-4; and White, Making of the English Constitution, 73-119. Two excellent little books are Stubbs, Early Plantagenets (London, 1876) and Mrs. J. R. Green, Henry II. (London, 1892). General accounts will be found in T. F. Tout, History of England from the Accession of Henry III. to the Death of Edward III., 1216-1377 (London, 1905), and H. W. C. Davis, England under the Normans and the Angevins (London, 1904). A monumental treatise, though one which requires a considerable amount of correction, is E. A. Freeman, History of the Norman Conquest, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1867-69), and a useful sketch is Freeman, Short History of the Norman Conquest (3d ed., Oxford, 1901). Among extended and more technical works may be mentioned: F. Pollock and F. W. Maitland, History of English Law, 2 vols. (2d ed., Cambridge, 1898), which, as a study of legal history and doctrines, supersedes all earlier works; F. W. Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond (Cambridge, 1897); J. H. Round, Feudal England (London, 1895); K. Norgate, England under the Angevin Kings, 2 vols. (London, 1887); ibid., John Lackland (London, 1902), and J. H. Ramsay, The Angevin Empire (London, 1903). The text of the Great Charter is printed in Stubbs, Select Char- ters, 296-306. English versions may be found in G. B. Adams and H. M. Stephens, Select Documents of English Constitutional History (New York, 1906), 42-52; S. Amos, Primer of the English Constitution and Government (London, 1895), 189-201; and University of Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints (transla- tion by E. P. Cheyney), L, No. 6. The principal special work on the subject is W. S. McKechnie, Magna Carta; a Commentary on the Great Charter of King John (Glasgow, 1905). An illuminating commentary is contained in Adams. Origin of the English Constitution, 207-313. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION n IV. THE RISE OF PARLIAMENT 11. Beginnings of the Representative Principle. The thirteenth century was clearly one of the most important periods in the growth of the English constitution. It was marked not merely by the contest which culminated in the grant of the Great Charter but also by the beginnings, in its essentials, of Parliament. The formative epoch in tnehlstory of Parliament may be said to have been, more precisely, the second half of the reign of Henry III. (1216-1272), together with the reign of the legislator-king Edward I. (1272-1307). The creation of Parliament as we know it came about through the signal enlargement of the Norman-Plan tagenet Great Council by the introduction of rep- resentative elements, followed by the splitting of the heterogeneous, mass of members definitely into two co-ordinate chambers. The representative principle was in England no new thing in the thirteenth century. As has appeared, there were important manifestations of it in the local governmental system of Anglo-Saxon times. As brought to bear in the development of Parliament, however, the principle is generally understood to have sprung from the twelfth-century^Dractice of electing assessors to fix the value of real and personal property for purposes of taxation, and of jurors to present criminal matters before the king's justices. ) Thus, Henry II.'s Saladin Tithe of 1188 the first national imposition upon incomes and movable property was as- sessed, at least in part, by juries of neighbors elected by, and in a sense representative of, the taxpayers of the various parishes. By the opening of the thirteenth century the idea was fast taking hold upon the minds of Englishmen, not only that the taxpayer ought to have a voice in the levying of taxes, but that between representation and taxation there was a certain natural and inevitable connection. In the Great Charter, as has been stated, it was stipulated that in the assess- ment of scutages and of all save the three commonly recognized feudal aids the king should seek the advice of the General Council. The^ General Council of the earlier thirteenth century was not regularly a representative body, but it was not beyond the range of possibility to impart to it a representative character, and in point of fact that is precisely what was done. To facilitate the process of taxation it was found expedient by the central authorities to carry over into the do- main of national affairs that principle of popular representation which already was doing approved service within the sphere of local justice and finance, and from this adaptation arose, step by step, the con- version of the old gathering of feudal magnates into a national parlia- mentary assembly. 12 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 12. Early Parliaments. The means by which the transformation was accomplished consisted in the first instance, as has been said, in the introduction into the Council of new and representative elements. The earliest step in this direction was taken in 1213, when King John, harassed by fiscal and political difficulties, addressed to the sheriffs a series of writs commanding that four discreet knights from every county be sent to participate in a deliberative council to be held at - Oxford. The practice took root slowly. Jii 1254 Henry III., in sore need of money for the prosecution of his wars in Gascony, required of the sheriffs that two knights be sent from each county to confer with the barons and clergy relative to the subsidies which should be ac- corded the crown. The desired vote of supplies was refused and the long-brewing contest between the king and the barons broke in civil war. But during the struggle that ensued the foundations of Parlia- ment were still more securely laid. [Following the king's defeat at Lewes, in 1264, Simon de Montfort, leader of the barons, CQnvened a parliament composed of not only barons and clergy but also four knights from each shire, and at London during the following year, he caused again to be assembled, in addition to five earls, eighteen barons, and a large body of clergy, two knights from each of the several shires and two burgesses from each of twenty-one towns known to be friendly to the barons' cause. These proceedings were essentially revolutionary and unauthorized. Even the gathering of 1265, as Stubbs remarks, presented the appearance largely of a party convention, and there is no evidence that its author intended such a body to be regularly or frequently summoned, or even summoned a second time at all. None the less, now for the first time representatives of the towns were brought into political co-operation with the barons, clergy, and knights; and the circumstance was filled with promise. During the ensuing thirty years there were several "parliaments," although the extent to which knights and burgesses participated in them is uncer- tain. The period was one of experimentation. In 1273 four knights from each shire and four citizens from each town joined the magnates in taking the oath of fealty to the new and absent sovereign, Edward I. The First Statute of Westminster, in 1275, declares itself to have been adopted with the assent of the " commonalty of the realm." In 1283 a parliament was held which almost precisely duplicated that of 1265. In 1290, and again in 1294, there was one, in which, however, represen- tation of the towns was omitted. The gathering which served to fix the type for all time to come was Edward I.'s so-called Moxiel Parliament of 1295. To this parliament the king summoned severally the two archbishops, all of the bishops, THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 13 the greater abbots, and the more important earls and barons; while every sheriff was enjoined to see that two knights were chosen from each shire, two citizens fron? each city, and two burgesses from each borough. Each bishop was authorized, furthermore, to bring with him his prior or the dean of the cathedral chapter, the archdeacons of his diocese, one proctor or agent for his cathedral chapter, and two of his diocesan clergy. In the parliament as actually convened there were 2 archbishops, 18 bishops with their lesser clergy, 66 abbots, 3 heads of religious orders, 9 earls, 41 barons, 63 knights of the shire, and 172 representatives of the cities and boroughs an aggregate of approximately 400 persons. There were thus present in the assemblage, in person or by deputy, all of the constituent orders of English society, and the irregular device of Simon de Montfort was vested at last with the character of legality. After Edward I. Parliament may be said to have been an established institution of the realm. Its meetings long continued intermittent and infrequent, and its powers from time to time varied enormously, but the place which it filled in the economy of the nation grew ever more important. 13. Establishment of the Bicameral System. Like its counter- part in France, the Estates- General, the EnglisJiJ^HajnenJ.^omprised the three great estates or orders nobility, clergy, and commons of which, aside from the peasantry, mediaeval' society in 'all western European countries was composed. In the working out of its internal structure, however, two charnbersjesulted, rather than, as in France, three. Originally the three estates sat separately. Their primary business was the voting of supplies and, the principle being that a tax ought to be conceded by those who would be called upon to pay it, the natural course was for theJor^s to grant their scutages and aids, the^cornrnoners their tenths andjSfteenths, and the clergy their subsidies, apart. Indeed there is reason to believe that at times even the knights and the burgesses deliberated separately. Gradually, however, there appeared certain affiliations of interest which operated to modify the original practice. In the first place, the lesser clergy, inconvenienced by attendance and preferring to vote their contribu- tions in the special ecclesiastical. assemblages known as the convoca- tions of Canterbury and York, contrived to throw off entirely their obligation of membership. The greater clergy and the greater barons, in the next place, developed sufficiently large interests in common to be amalgamated with ease in one body. Similarly, the lesser barons found their interests essentially identical with those of the country freeholders, represented by the knights of the shire, and with those of the burgesses. The upshot was a gradual alignment of the aggregate 14 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE membership in two great groups, the one of which became historically the House of Lords, the other the House of Commons. / At the begin- ning of the reign of Edward III. (1327-1377) the three estates still sat separately, but before the close of this period the bicameral ar- rangement seems definitely to have been established. ^ There is np evidence that at any stage of their history the three groups ever sat as a single body. It need hardly be emphasized that the entire course of English history since the fourteenth century has been affected pro- foundly by the fact that the national assembly took the form of two houses rather than of one, as did the Scotch, of three as did the French, or of four as did the Swedish. But for the withdrawal of the lesser clergy, the number might very possibly have been three. 14. Powers of Finance and Legislation. Structurally, the English Parliament is a creation of the Middle Ages; politically, it is a product of modern times, and, in no small measure, of the past hundred years. Before the close of the Middle Ages, however, it had acquired a sum total of authority which at least gave promise of its development into a great co-ordinate, if not a preponderating, power in the state. In the first place, it had forced the establishment of the twin principles of public finance (i) that the right to levy taxes of every sort lay within its hands and (2) that the crown might impose no direct tax without its assent, nor any indirect tax save such as might be justified under the customs recognized in Magna Carta. When Edward I. confirmed the Charter, in 1297, he agreed that no tallages or aids should there- after be taken without the assent of the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and other freemen of the land. A statute of 1340 reiterated the principle still more specifically. In 1395 ap- peared the formula employed to this day in the making of parliamen- tary grants, "by the Commons with the advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal." And in 1407 Henry IV. extended the royal approval to the principle that money grants should be initiated in the Commons, assented to by the Lords, and only thereafter re- ported to the king. For the ancient theory of taxation by estates was substituted, slowly but inevitably, the modern doctrine of the fiscal pre-eminence of the Commons. The second point at which Parliament made decisive advance before the close of the mediaeval period was in respect to powers of ordinary legislation. Originally, Parliament was not conceived of as, in the strict sense, a law-making body at all. The magnates who composed the General Council had exercised the right to advise the crown in legislative matters, and their successors in Parliament con- tinued to do the same, but the commoners who in the thirteenth cen- THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 15 tury were brought in were present, in theory, for fiscal rather than legislative purposes. The distinction, however, was diificult to main- tain, and with the continued growth of the parliamentary body the legislative character was recognized eventually to be inherent in the whole of it. At the opening of the fourteenth century laws were made, technically, by the king with the assent of the magnates at the request of the commoners. The knights and burgesses were recognized as petitioners for laws, rather than as legislators. They could ask for the enactment of a statute, or for a clearer definition of law, but it was for the king and his councillors to determine finally whether legislation was required and what form it should assume. Even when a law which was requested was promised it not infrequently happened that the intent of the Commons was thwarted, for the text of the measure was not drawn up, normally, until after the parliament was dissolved, both form and content were determined arbitrarily by the crown and council, and between petition and statute there might be, and often was, gross discrepancy. 16. Development of the Legislative Process. By a memorable statute of 1322, in the reign of Edward II., it was stipulated that "the matters which are to be established for the estate of our lord the king and of his heirs, and for the estate of the realm and of the people, shall be treated, accorded, and established in parliaments, by our lord the king, and by the assent of the prelates, earls, and barons, and the com- monalty of the realm; according as it hath been before accustomed." l This declaration is understood to have established, not only the es- sentially legislative character of Parliament, but the legislative parity of the commoners with the magnates. It remained, however, to sub- stitute for the right of petition the right of legislating by bill. Through- out the fourteenth century Parliament, and especially the Commons, pressed for an explicit recognition of the principle that the statute in its final form should be identical with the petition upon which it was based. In 1414 Henry V. granted that "from henceforth nothing be enacted to the petitions of his commons that be contrary to their ask- ing, whereby they should be bound without their assent." 2 The prom- ise tended in practice to be evaded, and late in the reign of Henry VI. there was brought about an alteration of procedure in accordance with which measures were henceforth to be introduced in either house, in the form of drafted bills. The legislative process was now essentially reversed. The right of initiative was secured to the Commons, con- currently with the Lords; the crown was restricted to a right of veto 1 Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, 97. 'Ibid., 182. 1 6 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE or assent. The change in procedure was reflected in a change of formula. Statutes began to be made "by the King's most excellent majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same." And these words comprise the formula with which every act of Parliament to-day begins. Technically, the laws were, and are still, made by the crown; practically Parliament, once merely a petitioning and advising body, had become a full- fledged legislative assemblage. Throughout the later fourteenth and earlier fifteenth centuries the growth of Parliament in self-assertiveness was remarkable. Twice during the fourteenth century, in 1327 and in 1399, it exercised the fun- damental prerogative of deposing the sovereign and of bestowing the crown upon a successor. 1 And before the close of the Lancastrian era it had assumed advanced ground in demanding the right of appro- priating (as well as of voting) subsidies, the accounting by the public authorities for moneys expended, the removal of objectionable minis- ters, and the annual assembling of the two houses. During the civil wars of the second half of the fifteenth century parliamentary aggres- siveness and influence materially declined, and at the opening of the Tudor period, in 1485, the body was in by no means the favorable po- sition it had occupied fifty years earlier. As will appear, its eclipse continued largely through the epoch of the Tudors. Yet its broader aspects had been permanently fixed and its perpetuation in the con- stitutional system positively assured. 2 V. ADMINISTRATIVE AND JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENT 16. The Permanent Council. One line, thus, along which were laid the foundations of the English governmental system of to-day comprised the transformation of the Norman Great Council into the semi-aristocratic, semi-democratic assemblage known as Parliament. 1 Strictly, upon the first of these occasions the sovereign, Edward II., was driven by threat of deposition to abdicate. 2 On the rise of Parliament see Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, II., Chaps. 15, 17; Taylor, Origins and Growth of the English Constitution, I., 428-616; G. B. Smith, History of the English Parliament, 2 vols. (London, 1892), I., Bks. 2- 4; White, Making of the English Constitution, 293-401; D. J. Medley, Students' Manual of English Constitutional History (2d ed., Oxford, 1898), 127-150; Tout, History of England from the Accession of Henry III. to the Death of Edward III., Chaps. 5, 6, 10. Valuable biographical treatises are G. W. Prothero, Life of Simon de Montfort (London, 1877); E. Jenks, Edward Plantagenet [Edward I.] the English Justinian (New York, 1902) ; and T. F. Tout, Edward the First (London, 1906). THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 17 A parallel line was the development from the Great Council of a body designated after the thirteenth century as the Permanent, after the fifteenth as the Privy, Council, and likewise of the four principal courts of law. By a very gradual process those members of the orig- inal Council who were attached in some immediate manner to the court or to the administrative system acquired a status which was different from that of their colleagues. The Great Council met ir- regularly and infrequently. So likewise did Parliament. But the services of the court and the business of government must go on con- tinuously, and for the care of these things there grew up a body which at first comprised essentially a standing commission, an inner circle, of the Council, but which in time acquired a virtually independent position and was designated, for purposes of distinction, as the Per- manent Council. The composition of this body varied from time to time. Certain functionaries were included regularly, while the re- maining members owed their places to special summons of the crown. Its powers were enormous, being at the same time administrative, judicial, and financial, and the mass of business to which it was re- quired to give attention was increasingly great. $? The Courts of Law. Three things resulted. In the first place, the Permanent Council acquired, in practice, complete detachment from the older and larger body. In the second place, to facilitate the accomplishment of its work there were introduced into it trained law- yers, expert financiers, and men of other sorts of special aptitudes men, often, who in rank were but commoners. Finally, there split off from the body a succession of committees, to each of which was as- signed a particular branch of administrative or judicial business. In this manner arose the four great courts of law: (i) the Court of Ex- chequer, to which was consigned jurisdiction over all fiscal causes in which the crown was directly concerned; (2) the Court of Common Pleas, with jurisdiction over civil cases between subject and subject; (3) the Court of King's Bench, presided over nominally by the king himself and taking cognizance of a variety of cases for which other pro- vision was not made; and (4) the Court of Chancery, which, under the presidency of the Chancellor, heard and decided cases involving the principles of equity. The differentiation of these tribunals, beginning in the early twelfth century, was completed by the middle of the fourteenth. Technically, all were co-ordinate courts, from which ap- peal lay to the King in Council; and of the judicial prerogative which the Council as a whole thus retained there are still, as will be pointed out, certain survivals. By the time of Henry VI. (1422-1461) the enlargement of membership and the specialization of functions of the 1 3 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Permanent Council had progressed so far that the Council had ceased entirely to be a working unit. In the end what happened was that, precisely as the Permanent Council had been derived by selection from the original Great Council, so from the overgrown Permanent Council was constituted, in the fifteenth century, a smaller and more compact administrative body to which was assigned the designation of "Privy Council." 1 VI. THE TUDOR MONARCHY 18. Popular Absolutism. The salient fact of the Tudor period of English history (1485-1603) is the vigor and dominance of the mon- archy. From the Wars of the Roses the nation emerged in need, above all other things, of discipline and repose. It was the part of the Tudors to enforce relentlessly the one and to foster systematically the other. The period was one in which aristocratic turbulence was repressed, extraordinary tribunals were erected to bring to justice powerful offenders, vagrancy was punished, labor was found for the unem- ployed, trade was stimulated, the navy was organized on a per- manent basis, the diffusion of wealth and of education was encouraged, the growth of a strong middle class was promoted in short, one in which out of chaos was brought order and out of weakness strength. These things were the work of a government which was strongly paternal, even sheerly despotic, and, for a time at least, the evolution of parliamentary machinery was utterly arrested. But it should be observed that the question in sixteenth-century England was not between strong monarchy on the one hand and parliamentary govern- ment on the other. The alternatives were, rather, strong monarchy and baronial anarchy. This the nation clearly perceived, and, of the two, it much preferred the former. "The Tudor monarchy," says an English scholar, "unlike most other despotisms, did not depend on gold or force, on the possession of vast estates, unlimited taxation, or a standing army. It rested on the willing support of the nation at large, a support due to the deeply- rooted conviction that a strong executive was necessary to the na- tional unity, and that, in the face of the dangers which threatened the country both at home and abroad, the sovereign must be allowed a free hand. It was this conviction, instinctively felt rather than def- initely realized, which enabled Henry VIII. not only to crush open 1 Stubbs, Constitutional History, II., Chap. 13; White, Making of the English Constitution, 123-251; Adams, Origin of the English Constitution, 136-143; W. S. Holdsworth, History of English Law, 3 vols. (London, 1903-1909), I., 1-169. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 19 rebellion but to punish the slightest signs of opposition to his will, to regulate the consciences of his subjects, and to extend the legal con- ception of treason to limits hitherto unknown. It was this which ren- dered it possible for the ministers of Edward VI. to impose a Protestant regime upon a Romanist majority, and allowed Mary to enter upon a hateful marriage and to drag the country into a disastrous war. It was this, finally, which enabled Elizabeth to choose her own line in domestic and foreign policy, to defer for thirty years the war with Spain, and to resist, almost single-handed, the pressure for further ecclesiastical change. The Tudor monarchy was essentially a national monarchy. It was popular with the multitude, and it was actively supported by the influential classes, the nobility, the gentry, the lawyers, the merchants, who sat as members of Parliament at West- minster, mustered the forces of the shire as Lords-Lieutenant, or bore the burden of local government as borough magistrates and justices of the peace." 1 19. The Privy Council. The times of the Tudors and of the early Stuarts have been designated with aptness the period of "government by council." Parliament continued to exercise a certain control over legislation and taxation, but it was in and through the Privy Council, together with certain subordinate councils, that the absolute mon- archy, in the main, performed its work. The Privy Council or simply "the Council"- comprised ordinarily about seventeen or eighteen persons, although under Henry VIII. its membership at one time ap- proached forty. The councillors were almost invariably members of one or the other of the two houses of Parliament, an arrangement by which was facilitated the control of the proceedings of that body by the Government, but which did not yet involve any recognized re- sponsibility of the executive to the legislative branch. After Queen Mary the councillors were, with few exceptions, laymen. Technically, the function of the Council was only advisory, but in practice even those sovereigns, as Henry VEIL and Elizabeth, who were most vig- ilant and industrious, were obliged to allow to the councillors large discretion in the conduct of public business, and under the early Stuarts the Council very nearly ruled the realm. Representing at all times the sovereign, who was supposed invariably to be present at its delibera- tions, the Council supervised the work of administration, regulated trade, granted licenses, controlled the press, kept an eye on the law courts, ferreted out plots, took measures to suppress rebellion, con- trolled the movements of the fleet, assisted in the management of 1 G. W. Prothero, Select Statutes and other Constitutional Documents Illustrative of the Reigns of Elizabeth and James L (Oxford, i8g8),xvii-xviii. 20 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE ecclesiastical affairs, and, in short, considered and took action upon substantially all concerns of state. By virtue of its right to issue orders or ordinances it possessed a power that was semi-legislative; through its regulation of trade, its management of loans and benevolences, and its determination of military obligations, it participated actively in the control of taxation; and, under the presidency of the crown, it possessed the functions of a supreme tribunal, whose jurisdiction, in part original and in part appellate, was widespread and peculiarly despotic. 1 C20i Other Councils: The Star Chamber. In 1487 there was created a special tribunal, consisting at the outset of seven great officials and members of the Council, including two judges, to take special cogni- zance of cases involving breaches of the law by offenders who were too powerful to be reached under the operation of the ordinary courts. This was the tribunal subsequently known, from its meeting-place, as the Court of Star Chamber. In effect it was from the beginning a committee of the Privy Council, empowered to exercise a jurisdiction which in truth had long been exercised extra-legally by the Council as a whole. The relation of the two institutions inclined in practice to become ever closer, and by the middle of the sixteenth century the Star Chamber had been enlarged to include all of the members of the Council, together with the two chief justices; and since the Star Cham- ber possessed a statutory sanction which the Council lacked, the judicial business of the older body was despatched regularly by its members sitting under the guise of the newer one. The tendency of the Tudor regime toward the conciliar type of government is mani- fested further by the creation of numerous subsidiary councils and courts whose history cannot be recounted here. Most of these were brought into existence during the reign of Henry VIII. Those of principal importance were (i) the Council of the North, set up in 1539; (2) the Council of Wales, confirmed by statute of 1542; (3) the Court of Castle Chamber, reproducing in Ireland the principal features of the English Star Chamber; (4) the Courts of Augmentation, First Fruits and Annates, and Wards; and (5) the Elizabethan Court of High Commission. 2 1 Prothero, Statutes and Constitutional Documents, cii. See A. V. Dicey, The Privy Council (London, 1887); E. Percy, The Privy Council under the Tudors (Oxford, 1907). 2 A. T. Carter, Outlines of English Legal History (London, 1899), Chap. 12; A. Todd, Parliamentary Government in England, ed. by S. Walpole, 2 vols. (London, 1892), I., Chap. 2; Dicey, The Privy Council, 94-115. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 21 VTI. PARLIAMENT UNDER THE TUDORS 21. Control by the Crown. By the Tudors generally, and espe- cially Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, Parliament was regarded as a tool to be used by the crown, rather than as in any sense an independent, co-ordinate power in the state. When innovations were to be intro- duced, such as those carried through by Henry VIII., it was Tudor policy to clothe them with the vestments of parliamentarism, to the end that they might be given the appearance and the sanction of popular measures; and when subsidies were to be obtained, it was recognized to be expedient to impart to them, in similar manner, the semblance of voluntary gifts on the part of the nation. It was no part of Tudor intent, however, that Parliament should be permitted to initiate measures, or even to exercise any actual discretion in the adoption, amendment, or rejection of proposals submitted by the Government. There were several means by which the crown con- trived to impede the rise of Parliament above the subordinate position which that body occupied at the accession of Henry VII. One was the practice of convening Parliament irregularly and infrequently and of bringing its sessions to an early close. Another, employed especially during Thomas Cromwell's ministry under Henry VIII. and during the reign of Elizabeth, was that of tampering with the freedom of borough and county elections. A third was the habit, also noto- rious under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, of dictating and directing in all that was essential in the proceedings of the chambers. Henry VIII. bullied his parliaments systematically; Elizabeth, by cajolery, flattery, deceit, and other arts of which she was mistress, attained through less boisterous methods the same general end. Measures were thrust upon the chambers accompanied by peremptory demand for their enactment; objectionable projects originated by private members were stifled; and the fundamental parliamentary privileges of free speech, freedom from arrest, and access to the sovereign were ar- bitrarily suspended or otherwise flagrantly violated. 22. The Independence of the Crown. Finally must be mentioned certain devices by which the crown was enabled to evade limitations theoretically imposed by Parliament's recognized authority. One of these was the issuing of proclamations. In the sixteenth century it was generally maintained that the sovereign, acting alone or with the advice of the Council, could issue proclamations controlling the liberty of the subject, so long as such edicts did not violate statute or common law. As a corollary, it was maintained also that the crown 22 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE could dispense with the action of law in individual cases and at times of crisis. The range covered by these prerogatives was broad and undefined, and in the hands of an aggressive monarch they consti- tuted a serious invasion of the powers of legislation nominally vested in Parliament. It is true that the act of 1539 imparting to royal proclamations the force of law was repealed in 1547; but proclama- tions continued, especially under Elizabeth and James L, not only to be numerous, but to be enforced relentlessly by penalties inflicted through the Star Chamber. The most important power of Parliament in the sixteenth century was still that of voting supplies. But in respect to finance, as in respect to legislation, the crown possessed effective means of evading parliamentary control. In the first place, the sovereign possessed large revenues, arising from crown lands, feudal rights, profits of jurisdiction, and ecclesiastical payments, with which Parliament had nothing whatever to do. In the second place, the great indirect taxes customs duties and tonnage and poundage were, in the sixteenth century, voted at the accession of a sovereign for the whole of the reign. It was only in respect to extraordinary taxes "subsidies" and "tenths and fifteenths" that Parliament was in a position effectually to make or mar the fiscal fortunes of the Government; except that, of course, it was always open to Parliament to criticise the financial expedients of the crown, such as the sale of monopolies, the levy of "impositions," and the collection of benevolences, and to influence, if it could, the policy pursued in relation to these matters. 23. The House of Lords in 1486. Despite the numerous strictures that have been mentioned, Parliament in the Tudor period by no means stood still. The enormous power and independence exhibited by the chambers, especially the Commons, in the seventeenth century was the product of substantial, if more or less hidden, growth during the previous one hundred and fifty years. The composition of the two houses at the accession of Henry VII. was not clearly defined. The House of Lords was but a small body. It comprised simply those lords, temporal and spiritual, who were entitled to receive from the king, when a parliament was to be held, a special writ, i. e., an individ- ual summons. The number of these was indeterminate. The right of the archbishops, the bishops, and the abbots to be summoned was immemorial and indisputable, although the abbots in practice evaded their obligation of attendance, save in cases in which it could be shown that as military tenants of the crown they were obligated to perform parliamentary duty. Among the lay nobility the selection of individ- uals for summons seems originally to have been dependent upon the THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 23 royal pleasure. Eventually, however, the principle became fixed that a man once summoned must be summoned whenever occasion should arise, and that, furthermore, his eldest son after him must be sum- moned in similar manner. What was at the outset an obligation became in time a privilege and a distinction, and by the day when it did so the rule had become legally established that the king could not withhold a writ of summons from the heir of a person who had been once summoned and had obeyed the summons by taking his seat. During the fourteenth century the aggregate membership of the chamber fluctuated in the neighborhopd of 150. By reason of the withdrawal of some of the abbots and the decline of the baronage, in the fifteenth century the body was yet smaller. The number of temporal lords summoned to the first parliament of Henry VII. was but 29. 24. The House of Commons in 1486. The House of Commons at the beginning of the Tudor period was a body of some 300 members. It contained 74 knights of the shire, representing all but three of the forty English counties, together with a fluctuating number of rep- resentatives of cities and boroughs. In the Model Parliament of 1295 the number of urban districts represented was 166, but as time went on the number declined, in part because of the discrimination exercised from time to time in the selection of boroughs to be represented, and in part by reason of the fact that in times when representation did not appear to yield tangible results the borough taxpayers begrudged the two shillings per day paid their representatives, in some instances sufficiently to be induced to abandon altogether the sending of mem- bers. By the time of Edward IV. (1399-1413) the number of rep- resented towns had fallen to HI. At the beginning of the fifteenth century county members were elected by the body of freeholders present at the county court, but by statute of 1429 the electoral priv- ilege was restricted to freeholders resident in the county and holding land of the yearly rental value of forty shillings, equivalent, perhaps, to some 30 to 40 in present values. This rule, adopted originally with the express purpose of disfranchising "the very great and out- rageous number of people either of small substance or of no value" who had been claiming an electoral equality with the "worthy knights and squires," continued in operation without amendment until 1832. The electoral systems prevailing in the boroughs exhibited at all times the widest variation, and never prior to 1832 was there serious attempt to establish uniformity of practice. In some places (the so- called "scot and lot" boroughs) the suffrage was exercised by all rate-payers; in others, by the holders of particular tenements ("bur- 24 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE gage" franchise); in others (the "potwalloper" boroughs) by all citizens who had hearths of their own; in many, by the municipal corporation, or by the members of a guild, or even by neighboring landholders. Borough electoral arrangements ran the full gamut from thoroughgoing democracy to the narrowest kind of oligarchy. 25. Development under the Tudors: Composition. During the Tudor period the composition of the two chambers underwent im- portant change. In the Lords the principal modification was the sub- stitution of temporal for spiritual preponderance. This was brought about in two ways. The first was the increase numerically of the hered- itary peers from thirty-six at the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII. to about eighty at the accession of James I. The second was the dropping out of twenty-eight abbots, incident to the closing of the monasteries by Henry VIII. and only partially compensated by the creation at the time of six new bishoprics. In 1 509 the number of lords spiritual was forty-eight; in 1603, it was but twenty-six. The House of Commons under the Tudors was virtually doubled in size. The final incorporation of Wales in 1535 meant the adding of twenty-five members. In 1536 and 1543 the counties of Monmouth and Chester were admitted to representation. There followed the enfranchisement of a number of boroughs, and by the end of the reign of Henry VIII. the representation of counties had been increased from 74 to 90, and that of the boroughs had been brought up to 252, giving the House an aggregate membership of 342. During the reign of Edward VI. twenty new constituencies were created, and during that of Mary twenty-one. But the most notable increase was that which took place in the reign of Elizabeth, the net result of which was the bringing in of 62 new borough representatives, in some cases from boroughs which now acquired for the first time the right of representation, in others from boroughs which once had possessed the right but through disuse had been construed to have forfeited it. The total increase of the Commons in numerical strength during the Tudor period was 1 66. There can be little question that in a few instances parliamen- tary representation was extended with the specific purpose of in- fluencing the political complexion of the popular chamber. But, on the whole, the reason for the notable increase, especially of borough members, is to be found in the growing prosperity of the country and in the reliance which the Tudors were accustomed to place upon the commercial and industrial classes of the population. 26. Other Developments. A second point at which Parliament in the Tudor era underwent modification was in respect to permanence and sittings. Prior to Henry VIII. the life of a parliament was con- . THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 25 fined, as a rule, to a single session, and sessions were brief. But parliaments now ceased to be meetings to be broken up as soon as some specific piece of business should have been completed, and many were brought together in several succeeding sessions. Henry VIII. 's Reformation Parliament lasted seven years. During the forty-five years of Elizabeth there were ten parliaments and thirteen sessions. One of these parliaments lasted eleven years, although it met but three times. It is true that the parliaments of Elizabeth were in session, in the aggregate, somewhat less than three years, an average for the reign of but little more than three weeks a year. But the point is that, slowly but effectually, Parliament as an institution was ac- quiring a recognized position in the political system of the nation. In 1589 Thomas Smith, a court secretary, published a book entitled "The Commonwealth of England and the Manner of Government Thereof," in which was laid down the fundamental proposition that " the most high and absolute power of the realm of England consisteth in the parliament"; and there is no record that the proclamation of this doctrine, even by a court official, elicited serious protest or difference of opinion. It was in the Tudor period, further, that both houses in- stituted the keeping of journals and that the appointment of commit- tees and numerous other aspects of modern parliamentary procedure had their beginnings. Finally, the Elizabethan portion of the period was an epoch during which there took place a very real growth in independence of senti- ment and an equally notable advance in consciousness of power on the part of the popular chamber. Even before the death of Eliza- beth there were ill-repressed manifestations of the feeling that the Tudor monarchy had done its work and that the time for a larger amount of parliamentary control had arrived. Nothing was clearer in 1603 than the fact that the sovereign who should expect to get on agreeably with his Commons must be both liberal and tactful. That the Stuarts possessed the first of these qualities in only a very limited measure and the second one not at all is a fact upon which turns an entire chapter of English constitutional history. 1 1 Excellent works of a general nature on the Tudor period are H. A. L. Fisher, History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of Henry VIII. (London, 1906); A. F. Pollard, History of England from the Accession of Edward VI. to the Death of Elizabeth (London, 1910); and A. D. Innis, England under the Tudors (London, 1905). For institutional history see Taylor, English Constitu- tion, II., Bk. 4. More specialized treatment will be found in Smith, History of the English Parliament, I., Bk. 5; Dicey, The Privy Council, 76-130; and Taswell- Langmead, English Constitutional History, Chaps. 10, 12. An excellent survey of English public law at the death of Henry VII. is contained in F. W. Maitlaod, 26 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE VIII. THE STUARTS: CROWN AND PARLIAMENT 27. Absolutism Becomes Impracticable. Throughout the larger portion of the seventeenth century the principal interest in English politics centers in the contest which was waged between the nation represented in Parliament and the sovereigns of the Stuart dynasty. The question, as one writer has put it, was "at first whether govern- ment should be by the king or by the king in parliament, HIFerwards whether the king should govern or whether parliament should gov- ern." l The Stuart sovereigns brought with them to the English throne no political principles that were new. When James I., in a speech before Parliament March 21, 1610, declared that monarchy "is the supremest thing upon earth," and that, "as to dispute what God may do is blasphemy, ... so is it sedition in subjects to dispute what a King may do in the height of his power," 2 he was but giving expression to a conception of the royal prerogative which had been lodged in the mind of every Tudor, but which no Tudor had been so tactless as publicly to avow. The first two Stuarts confidently ex- pected to maintain the same measure of absolutism which their Tudor predecessors had maintained nothing more, nothing less. There were, however, several reasons why, for them, t^is was an impossibility. The first arose from their own temperament. The bluntness, the lack of perception of the public will, and the disposition perpetually to insist upon the minutest definitions of prerogative, which so pre- eminently characterized the members of the Stuart house must have operated to alienate seventeenth-century Englishmen under even the most favorable of circumstances. A second consideration is the fact, of which the nation was fully cognizant, that under the changed con- ditions that had arisen there was no longer the need of strong mon- archy that once there had been. Law and order had long since been secured; all danger of a feudal reaction had been effectually removed; foreign invasion was no more to be feared. Strong monarchy had served an invaluable purpose, but that purpose Tiad t>een fulfilled. Constitutional History of England (Cambridge, 1911), 165-236. Books of large value on the period include W. Busch, England under the Tudors, trans, by A. M. Todd (London, 1895), the only volume of which published covers the reign of Henry VII.; A. F. Pollard, Henry VIII. (London, 1902 and 1905), and England under the Protector Somerset (London, 1900); and M. Creighton, Queen Elizabeth (new ed., London, 1899). 1 C. Ilbert, Parliament, its History, Constitution, and Practice (London and New York, 1911), 28-29. 8 Prothero, Statutes and Constitutional Documents, 293-204. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 27 28. The Rights of the Commons Asserted. Finally there was the fact of the enormous growth of Parliament as an organ of the public will. The rapidity of that development hi the days of Elizabeth is, and was at the time, much obscured by the disposition of the nation to permit the Queen to live out her days without being seriously crossed in her purposes. But the magnitude of it becomes apparent enough after 1603. In a remarkable document known as the Apology of the Commons, under date of June 20, 1604, the popular chamber stated respectfully but frankly to the new sovereign what it considered to be its rights and, through it, the rights of the nation. "What cause we your poor Commons have," runs the address, "to watch over our privileges, is manifest in itself to all men. The prerogatives of princes may easily, and do daily, grow; the privileges of the subject are for the most part at an everlasting stand. They may be by good provi- dence and care preserved, but being once lost are not recovered but with much disquiet. The rights and liberties of the Commons of England consisteth chiefly hi these three things: first, that the shires, cities, and boroughs of England, by representation to be present, have free choice of such persons as they shall put in trust to represent them; secondly, that the persons chosen, during the time of the parliament, as also of their access and recess, be free from restraint, arrest, and imprisonment: thirdly, that in parliament they may speak freely their consciences without check and controlment, doing the same with due reverence to the sovereign court of parliament, that is, to your Majesty and both the Houses, who all hi this case make but one politic body, whereof your Highness is the head." * The shrewdness of the political philosophy with which this passage opens is matched only by the terseness with which the fundamental rights of the Commons as a body are enumerated. To the enumeration should be added, his- torically, an item con tamed hi a petition of the Commons, May 23, 1 6 10, which reads as follows: "We hold it an ancient, general, and undoubted right of Parliament to debate freely all matters which do properly concern the subject and his right or state; which freedom of debate being once foreclosed, the essence of the liberty of Parliament is withal dissolved." 2 The occasion for this last-mentioned assertion of right arose from the king's habitual assumption that there were various important matters of state, e. g., the laying of impositions and the conduct of foreign relations, which Parliament possessed no right so much as to discuss. 1 Petyt, Jus Parliamentarium (London, 1739), 227-243. Portions of this docu- ment are printed in Prothero, Statutes and Constitutional Documents, 286-293. Commons' Journals, I., 431; Prothero, Statutes, 297. 28 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 29. The Parliaments of James I. and Charles I. The tyranny of James I. and Charles I. assumed the form, principally, of the issue of proclamations without the warrant of statute and the exaction of taxes without the assent of Parliament. Parliament, during the period 1603-1640, was convened but seldom, and it was repeatedly prorogued or dissolved to terminate its inquiries, thwart its protests, or subvert its projected measures. Under the disadvantage of recurrent inter- ruption the Commons contrived, however, to carry on a contest with the crown which was essentially continuous. During the reign of James I. (1603-1625) there were four parliaments. The first, extending from 1604 to 1611, was called in session six times. It sorely displeased the king by remonstrating against his measures, and especially by the persistency with which it withheld subsidies pending a redress of grievances. The second, summoned in 1614, vainly reiterated the complaints of its predecessor and was dissolved without having en- acted a single measure. The third, in 1621, revived the power of impeachment (dormant since the days of Henry VII.), reasserted the right of the chambers to debate foreign relations, and avenged by a fresh protestation of liberties the arrest of one of its members. The fourth, in 1624, abolished monopolies and renewed the attack upon proclamations. The first parliament of Charles I., convoked in 1625, criticised the policy of the new sovereign and was dissolved. The second, in 1626, was dissolved to prevent the impeachment of the king's favorite minister, the Duke of Buckingham. The third, in 1628-1629, drew up the memorable Petition of Right, to which the king gave reluctant assent, and in which arbitrary imprisonment, the billeting of soldiers, the establishment of martial law in time of peace, and the imposition of gifts, loans, benevolences, or taxes without the consent of Parliament were specifically prohibited. 1 The fourth of Charles's parliaments, the so-called Short Parliament of 1640, followed a period of eleven years of personal government and showed no disposition to surrender the rights that had been asserted. The fifth the Long Parliament, convoked also in 1640 imprisoned and executed the king's principal advisers, abolished the Star Chamber and the several other special courts and councils of Tudor origin, pronounced illegal the levy of ship-money and of tonnage and pound- age without parliamentary assent, made provision for the assembling of a parliament within three years of the dissolution of the present one, and forced the king into a position where he was obliged to yield or to resort to war. 1 The text of the Petition of Right is printed in Stubbs, Select Charters, 515-517; Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, 339-342. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 29 30. The Commonwealth and the Protectorate. Between the political theory maintained by the Stuart kings and that maintained by the parliamentary majority it was found impossible to arrive at a compromise. The Civil War was waged, in the last analysis, to deter- mine which of the two theories should prevail. It should be em- phasized that the parliamentarians entered upon the contest with no intent to establish a government by Parliament alone, in form or in fact. It is sufficiently clear from the Grand Remonstrance of 1641 l that what they contemplated was merely the imposing of constitu- tional restrictions upon the crown, together with the introduction of certain specific changes in the political and ecclesiastical order, e. g., the abolition of episcopacy. The culmination of the struggle, however, in the defeat and execution of the king threw open the doors for every sort of constitutional innovation, and between 1649 an d I 66o the nation was called upon to pass through an era of political experimenta- tion happily unparalleled in its history. May 19, 1649, kingship and the House of Lords having been abolished as equally "useless and dangerous," 2 Parliament, to complete the work of transformation, proclaimed a commonwealth, or republic; and on the great seal was inscribed the legend, "In the first year of freedom by God's blessing restored." During the continuance of the Commonwealth (1649-1654) various plans were brought forward for the creation of a parliament elected by manhood suffrage, but with the essential principle involved neither the Rump nor the people at large possessed substantial sym- pathy. In 1654 there was put in operation a constitution the earliest among written constitutions in modern Europe known as the In- strument of Government. 3 The system therein provided, which was intended to be extended to the three countries of England, ScotlandA and Ireland, comprised as the executive power a life Protector, to \ be assisted by a council of thirteen to twenty-one members, and \ as the legislative organ a unicameral parliament of 460 members \ elected triennially by all citizens possessing property to the value of 3oo. 4 Cromwell accepted the office of Protector, and the en- 1 S. R. Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution (Oxford, 1899), 202-232. 8 Gardiner, Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 384-388; Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, 397-400. 8 Gardiner, Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 405-417; Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, 407-416. 4 On the history of this unicameral parliament see J. A. R. Marriott, Second Chambers, an Inductive Study in Political Science (Oxford, 1910), Chap. 3; A. Es- mein, Les constitutions du protectorat de Cromwell, in Revue du Droit Publif, Sept-Oct. and Nov.-Dec., 1899. 30 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE suing six years comprise the period known commonly as the Pro- tectorate. The government provided for by the Instrument was but indif- ferently successful. Between Cromwell and his parliaments relations were much of the time notoriously strained, and especially was there controversy as to whether the powers of Parliament should be con- strued to extend to the revision of the constitution. In 1657 the Protector was asked to assume the title of king. This he refused to do, but he did accept a new constitution, the Humble Petition and Advice, in which a step was taken toward a return to the governmental system swept away in I649. 1 This step comprised, principally, the re-establishment of a parliament of two chambers a House of Com- mons and, for lack of agreement upon a better designation, "the Other House." Republicanism, however, failed to strike root. Shrewder men, including Cromwell, had recognized all the while that the Eng- lish people were really royalist at heart, and it is not too much to say that from the outset the restoration of monarchy was inevitable. Even before the death of Cromwell, in 1658, the trend was distinctly in that direction, and after the hand of the great Protector had been removed from the helm such a consummation was a question but of time and means. May 25, 1660, Charles II., having engaged to grant a general amnesty and to accept such measures of settlement respect- ing religion as Parliament should determine upon, landed at Dover and was received with all but universal acclamation. 2 1 Gardiner, Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 447-459. 2 The best of the general treatises covering the period 1603-1660 are F. C. Mon- tague, The History of England from the Accession of James I. to the Restoration (London, 1907), and G. M. Trevelyan, England Under the Stuarts (London, 1904). The monumental works within the field are those of S. R. Gardiner, i. e., History of England, 1603-1642, 10 vols. (new ed., London, 1893-1895); History of the Great Civil War, 4 vols. (London, 1894); and History of the Commonwealth and Pro- tectorate, 4 vols. (London, 1894-1901). Mr. Gardiner's work is being continued by C. H. Firth, who has published The Last Years of the Protectorate, 1656-1658, 2 vois. (London, 1909). The development of institutions is described in Taswell- Langmead, English Constitutional History, Chaps. 13-14; Smith, History of the English Parliament, I., Bks. 6-7; Pike, History of the House of Lords, passim; J. N. Figgis, The Theory of the Divine Right of Kings (Cambridge, 1896); and G. P. Gooch, History of English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, 1898). An excellent analysis of the system of government which the Stuarts inherited from the Tudors is contained in the introduction of Prothero, Statutes and Constitutional Documents. Of the numerous biographies of Crom- well the best is C. H. Firth, Oliver Cromwell (New York, 1904). A valuable survey 1 of governmental affairs at the death of James I. is Maitland, Constitutional History of England, 237-280. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 31 IX. THE LATER STUARTS: THE REVOLUTION or 1688-1689 31. Charles II. and James II. Throughout the period 1660-1689 there was enacted a final grand experiment to determine whether a Stuart could, or would, govern constitutionally. The constitution in accordance with which Charles II. and James II. were expected to govern was that which had been built up during preceding centuries, amended by the important reforms effected by the Long Parliament in 1641. The settlement of 1660 was a restoration no less of Parliament than of the monarchy, in respect both to structure and to functions. The two chambers were re-established upon their earlier foundations, and in them was vested the power to enact all legislation and to sanc- tion all taxation. The spirit, if not the letter, of the agreement in accordance with which the Stuart house was restored forbade the further imposition of taxes by the arbitrary decree of the crown and all exercise of the legislative power by the crown singly, whether positively through proclamation or negatively through dispensation. It required that henceforth the nature and amount of public ex- penditures should, upon inquiry, be made known to the two houses, and that ministers might regularly be held to account for their acts and those of the sovereign. The easy-going Charles II. (1660-1685) contrived most of the time to keep fairly within the bounds that were prescribed for him. He disliked the religious measures of his first parliament, but he recognized that a fresh election might be expected to result in the choice of a House of Commons still less to his taste, and, accordingly, the Cavalier Parliament was kept in existence through- out the entire period 1661-1679. The parliamentary history of the closing years of the reign centered about the question of the exclusion of the king's Catholic brother, James, from the throne, and was given special interest by the conflict of groups foreshadowing political par- ties; but Charles maintained unfailingly an attitude which, at the least, did not endanger his own tenure of the throne. James II. (1685-1688) was a man of essentially different temper. He was a Stuart of the Stuarts, irrevocably attached to the doctrine of divine right and sufficiently tactless to take no pains to disguise the fact. He was able, industrious, and honest, but obstinate and intolerant. He began by promising to preserve "the government as by law established." But the ease with which the Monmouth upris- ing of 1685 was suppressed deluded him into thinking that through the exemption of the Catholics from the operation of existing laws he might in time realize his ambition to re-establish Roman Catholi- 32 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE cism in England. He proceeded, therefore, to issue decrees dispensing with statutes which Parliament had enacted, to establish an ecclesias- tical commission in violation of parliamentary law of 1641, and, in 1687, to promulgate a declaration of indulgence extending to all Catholics and Non-Conformists a freedom in religious matters which was clearly denied by the laws of the country. 1 By this arbitrary resumption of ancient prerogative the theory underlying the Restora- tion was subverted utterly. 32. The Revolution: the Bill of Rights. Foreseeing no relief from absolutist practices, and impelled especially by the birth, in 1688, of a male heir to the king, a group of leading men representing the various political groups extended to the stadtholder of Holland, William, Prince of Orange, an invitation to repair to England to uphold and protect the constitutional liberties of the realm. The result was the bloodless revolution of 1688. November 5, William landed at Torquay and advanced toward London. James, finding himself without a party, offered vain concessions and afterwards fled to the court of his ally, Louis XIV. of France. By a provisional body of lords, former commoners, and officials William was requested to act as temporary "governor" until the people should have chosen a national "conven- tion." 2 This convention assembled January 22, 1689, resolved that James, by reason of his flight, should be construed to have abdicated, and established on the throne as joint sovereigns William and Mary, with the understanding that the actual government of the realm should devolve upon the king. The Revolution of 1688-1689 was signalized by the putting into written form of no inconsiderable portion of the English constitution as it then existed. February 19, 1698, the new sovereigns formally accepted a Declaration of Right, drawn up by the convention, and by act of Parliament, December 16 following, this instrument, under the name of the Bill of Rights, was made a part of the law of the land. In it were denied specifically a long list of prerogatives to which the last Stuart had laid claim those, in particular, of dispensing with the laws, establishing ecclesiastical commissions, levying imposts without parliamentary assent, and maintaining a standing army under the exclusive control of the crown. In it also were guaranteed certain fundamental rights which during the controversies of the seventeenth century had been brought repeatedly in question, in- cluding those of petition, freedom of elections, and freedom of speech 1 Gee and Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church History, 641-644; Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, 451-454. a Not properly a parliament, because not summoned by a king. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION 33 on the part of members of Parliament. 1 The necessity of frequent meetings of Parliament was affirmed, and a succession clause was inserted by which Roman Catholics and persons who should marry Roman Catholics, were excluded from the throne. In the Bill of Rights were thus summed up the essential results of the Revolution, and, more remotely, of the entire seventeenth-century parliamentary movement. With its enactment the doctrine of divine right dis- appeared forever from the domain of practical English politics. The entire circumstance of William III.'s accession determined the royal tenure to be, as it thereafter remained, not by inherent or vested right, but conditioned upon the national will. 2 1 In this connection should be recalled the Habeas Corpus Act of May 26, 1679, by whose terms the right of an individual, upon arrest, to have his case investigated without delay was effectually guaranteed. Stubbs, Select Charters, 517-521; Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, 440-448. 2 In respect to ecclesiastical affairs the Bill of Rights was supplemented by the Toleration Act of May 24, 1689, in which was provided "some ease to scrupulous consciences in the exercise of religion," i. e., a larger measure of liberty for Protes- tant non-conformists. The text of the Bill of Rights is in Stubbs, Select Charters, 523-528; Gee and Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church History, 645-654; and Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, 462-469; that of the Tolera- tion Act, in Gee and Hardy, 654-664; and, in abridged form, in Adams and Ste- phens, 459-462. General accounts of the period 1660-1689 are contained in R. Lodge, History of England from the Restoration to the Death of William III. (London, 1910), Chaps. 1-15, and in Trevelyan, England Under the Stuarts, Chaps. 11-13. O. Airy, Charles II., is an excellent book. The development of Parliament in the period is described in Smith, History of the English Parliament, I., Bk. 8, II., Bk. 9. CHAPTER II THE CONSTITUTION SINCE THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY I. CROWN AND PARLIAMENT AFTER 1789 33. Elements of Stability and Change. Structurally, the English governmental system was by the close of the seventeenth century substantially complete. The limited monarchy, the ministry, the two houses of parliament, the courts of law, and the local administra- tive agencies were by that time constituted very much as they are to-day. The fundamental principles, furthermore, upon which English government is operated were securely established. Laws could be enacted only by "the king in parliament"; taxes could be levied only in the same manner; the liberty of the individual was safeguarded by a score of specific and oft-renewed guarantees. In point of fact, however, the English constitution of 1689 was very far from being the English constitution of 1912. The overturn by which the last Stuart was driven from the throne not only marked the culmination of the revolution commenced in 1640; it comprised the beginning of a more extended revolution, peaceful but thoroughgoing, by which the governmental system of the realm was amplified, carried in new directions, and successively readapted to fresh and changing condi- tions. At no time from William III. to George V. was there a delib- erate overhauling of the governmental system as a whole. Save in occasional parliamentary enactments and judicial decisions, the con- stitutional changes which were wrought were rarely given documentary expression. Yet it is hardly too much to say that of the principles and practices which to-day make up the working constitution of the United Kingdom almost all were originated or reshaped during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In describing, in succeeding chapters, the principal aspects of this governmental system it will be necessary frequently to allude to these more recent constitutional developments, and it would but involve repetition to undertake an account of them at this point. An enumeration and a brief char- acterization of a few of the more important will serve for the moment to impress the importance constitutionally of the period under con- sideration. 34 THE CONSTITUTION SINCE 1689 35 34. The Decreased Authority of the Crown. First may be men- tioned the gradual eclipse of the crown and the establishment of com- plete and unquestioned ascendancy on the part of" Parliament. In consequence of the Revolution of 1688-1689 the sovereign was shorn definitely of a number of important prerogatives. William III., however, was no figure-head, and the crown was far from having been reduced to impotence. Understanding perfectly the conditions upon which he had been received in England, William none the less did not attempt to conceal his innate love of power. He claimed prerog- atives which his Whig supporters were loath to acknowledge and he exercised habitually in person, and with telling effect, the functions of sovereign, premier, foreign minister, and military autocrat. 1 His successor, Anne, though apathetic, was hardly less attached to the interests of strong monarchy. It was only with the accession of the Hanoverian dynasty, in 1714, that the bulk of those powers of govern- ment which hitherto the crown had retained slipped inevitably into the grasp of the ministers and of Parliament. George I. (1714-1727) and George II. (1727-1760) were not the nonentities they have been painted, but, being alien alike to English speech, customs, and polit- ical institutions, they were in a position to defend but indifferently the prerogatives which they had inherited. Under George III. (1760- 1820) there was a distinct recrudescence of the monarchical idea. The king, if obstinate and below the average intellectually, was honest, courageous, and ambitious. He gloried in the name of Englishman, and, above all, he was determined to recover for the crown some measure of the prestige and authority which his predecessors had lost. The increasingly oligarchical character of Parliament in the period and the disintegration of the ruling Whig party created a condition not unfavorable for the realization of the royal programme, and through at least a score of years the influence which the sovereign exerted personally upon government and politics exceeded anything that had been known since the days of William III. In 1780 the House of Commons gave expression to its apprehension by adopting a series of resolutions, the first of which asserted unequivocally that "the influence of the crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished." After the retirement of Lord North, in 1782, however, the influence of the sovereign declined perceptibly, and during the later portion of the reign, clouded by the king's insanity, all that had been gained for royalty was again lost. Under the Regency (1810-1820) and during 1 On the constitution as it was at the death of William III., see Maitland, Con- stitutional History of England, 281-329. 36 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the reign of the reactionary and scandal-smirched George IV. (1820- 1830) the popularity, if not the power, of the crown reached its nadir. In the days of the genial William IV. (1830-1837) popularity was regained, but not power. The long reign of the virtuous Victoria (1837-1901) served completely to rehabilitate the monarchy in the respect and affections of the British people, a consummation whose stability more recent sovereigns have done nothing to impair. As will be pointed out irj another place, the influence which the sovereign may wield, and during the past three-quarters of a century has wielded, in the actual conduct of public affairs is far from inconsider- able. But, as will also be emphasized, that influence is but the shadow of the authority which the crown once even as late as the opening of the eighteenth century possessed. It is largely personal rather than legal; it is asserted within the domain of foreign relations rather more than within that of domestic affairs; and as against the adverse will of the nation expressed through Parliament it is, in effect, power- less. 1 35. Ascendancy of the House of Commons. A second transfor- mation wrought in the working constitution since 1689 is the shifting of the center of gravity in Parliament from the House of Lords to the House of Commons, together with a notable democratiz- ing of the representative chamber. In the days of William and Anne the House of Lords was distinctly more dignified and influ- ential than the House of Commons. During the period covered by the ministry of Walpole (1721-1742), however, the Commons rose rapidly to the position of the preponderating legislative branch. One contributing cause was the Septennial Act of 1716, whereby the life of a parliament was extended from three years to seven, thus increasing the continuity and desirability of membership in the Commons. Another was the growing importance of the power of the purse as wielded by the Commons. A third was the fact that Walpole, through- out his prolonged ministry, sat steadily as a member of the lower chamber and made it the scene of his remarkable activities. The establishment of the supremacy of the Commons as then constructed did not, however, mean the triumph of popular government. It was but a step toward that end. The House of Commons in the eighteenth 1 On the monarchical revival under George III., see D. A. Winstanley, Personal and Party Government; a Chapter in the Political History of the Early Years of the Reign of George III., 1760-1766 (Cambridge, 1910). For an excellent appraisal of the status of the crown throughout the period 1760-1860 see T. E. May, The Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George III, edited and continued by F. Holland, 3 vols. (London, 1912), I., Chaps. 1-2. THE CONSTITUTION SINCE 1689 37 century was composed of members elected in the counties and boroughs upon a severely restricted franchise or appointed outright by closed corporations or by individual magnates, and it remained for Parliament during the nineteenth century, by a series of memorable statutes, to extend the franchise successively to groups of people hitherto politi- cally powerless, to reapportion parliamentary seats so that political influence might be distributed with some fairness among the voters, and to regulate the conditions under which campaigns should be carried on, elections conducted, and other operations of popular gov- ernment undertaken. Of principal importance among the enactments by which these things were accomplished are the Reform Act of 1832, the Representation of the People Act of 1867, the Ballot Act of 1872, the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act of 1883, the Representation of the People Act of 1884, and the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885. The nature of these measures will be explained subsequently. 1 II. RISE or THE CABINET AND OF POLITICAL PARTIES , 36. Cabinet Origins. In the third place, the period under review is important by reason of the development within it of the most remark- able feature of the English constitutional system to-day, namely, the cabinet. The creation of the cabinet was a gradual jprocesSj and both the process and the product are utterly unknown to the letter of English law. It is customary to regard as the immediate antecedent of the cabinet the so-called "cabal" of Charles II., i. e., the irregular group of persons whom that sovereign selected from the Privy Council and took advice from informally in lieu of the Council itself. In point of fact, by reason principally of the growing unwieldiness of the Privy Council, the practice of deferring for advice to a specially constituted committee, or inner circle, of the body far antedated Charles II. By some it has been traced to a period as remote as the reign of Henry III., and it is known that not only the thing itself, but also the name " cabinet council," existed under Charles I. The essential justification of the creation of the cabinet was stated by Charles II. in 1679 m the declaration that "the great number of the Council has made it unfit for the secrecy and despatch that are necessary in many great affairs." The growing authority of the select circle of advisors was the object of repeated attacks, and the name "cabinet" (arising from the king's habit of receiving the members in a small private room, or cabinet, in the royal palace) was applied at first as a term of reproach. The device met, however, a genuine need, and by 1689 its perpetuation was 1 See pp. 80-86. 38 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE assured. The larger Privy Council was continued in existence, and it exists to-day; but its powers became long ago merely nominal. 1 37. Principles of Cabinet Government Established Under William III. the cabinet took on rapidly the character which it bears to-day. Failing in the attempt to govern with a cabinet including both Whigs and Tories, William, in 1693-1696, gathered about himself a body of advisers composed exclusively of Whigs, and the principle speedily be- came established for all time that a cabinet group must be made up of men who in respect to all important matters of state are in substan- tial agreement. Before the close of the eighteenth century there had been fixed definitely the conception of the ; cajjingt^as^a body neces- sarily consisting (a) of members of Parliament (b) ofth&same political views (c) chosen from the party possessing a majority in the House of Commons (d) prosecuting a concerted policy (e) under a common responsibility to be signified by collective resignation in the event of parliamentary censure, and (f) acknowledging a common subordina- tion to one chief minister. 2 During the eighteenth-century era of royal weakness the cabinet acquired a measure of independence by which it was enabled to become, for all practical purposes, the ruling authority of the realm; and, under the limitation of strict accounta- bility to the House of Commons, it fulfills substantially that function to-day. Its members, as will appear, are at the same time the heads of the principal executive departments, the leaders in the legislative chambers, and the authors of very nearly the whole of governmental policy and conduct. 3 38. Beginnings of Political Parties. A fourth phase of govern- mental development within the period under survey is the rise of political parties and the fixing of the broader aspects of the present party system. In no nation to-day does party play a r61e of larger importance than in Great Britain. Unknown to the written portions of the constitution, and all but unknown to the ordinary law, party management and party operations are, none the less, of constant and fundamental importance in the actual conduct of government. The origins of political parties in England fall clearly within the seven- 1 H. W. V. Temperley, The Inner and Outer Cabinet and the Privy Council, 1679-1683, in English Historical Review, Oct., 1912. 2 H. D. Traill, Central Government (London, 1881), 24-25. 3 On the rise of the cabinet see, in addition to the general histories, M. T. Blau- velt, The Development of Cabinet Government in England (New York, 1902), Chaps. 1-8; E. Jenks, Parliamentary England; the Evolution of the Cabinet Sys- tem (New York, 1903); and H. B. Learned, Historical Significance of the Term "Cabinet" in England and the United States, in American Political Science Review, August, 1909. THE CONSTITUTION SINCE 1689 39 teenth century. It was the judgment of Macaulay that the earliest of groups to which the designation of political parties can be applied were the Cavalier and Roundhead elements as aligned after the adop- tion of the Grand Remonstrance by the Long Parliament in 1641. The first groups, however, which may be thought of as essentially analogous to the political parties of the present day, possessing con- tinuity, fixity of principles, and some degree of compactness of or- ganization, were the Whigs and Tories of the era of Charles II. Divid- ing in the first instance upon the issue of the exclusion of James, these two elements, with the passage of time, assumed well-defined and fundamentally irreconcilable positions upon the essential public ques- tions of the day. Broadly, the Whigs stood for toleration in religion and for parliamentary supremacy in government; the Tories for Anglicanism and the prerogative.. And long after the Stuart mon archy was a thing of the past these two great parties kept up their struggles upon these and other issues. After an unsuccessful attempt to govern with the co-operation of both parties William III., as has been pointed out, fell back definitely upon the support of the Whigs. At the accession of Queen Anne, in 1702, however, the Whigs were turned out of oflke and the Tories (who already had had a taste of power in 1698-1701) were put in control. They retained office during the larger portion of Queen Anne's reign, but at the accession of George I. they were compelled to give place to their rivals, and the period 1714-1761 was one of unbroken Whig ascendancy. This was, of course, the period of the development of the cabinet system, and between the rise of that system and the growth of government by party there was an intimate and inevitable connection. By the close of the eighteenth century the rule had become inflexible that the cabinet should be composed of men who were in sympathy with the party at the time dominant in the House of Commons, and that the returning by the nation to the representative chamber of a majority adverse to the ruling ministry should be followed by the retirement of the ministry. 1 III. THE SCOTTISH AND IRISH UNIONS 39. The Union with Scotland, 1707. Finally may be mentioned the important changes in the governmental structure which arose from the Act of Union with Scotland, in 1707, and the Act of Union with Ireland, in 1801. Except during a brief portion of the period of the Protectorate, the legal relation of England and Wales, on the one 1 For references on the history of English political parties see pp. 144, 160$ 166. s- i IJ 40 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE side, and the kingdom of Scotland, on the other, was from 1603 to 1707 that simply of a personal union through the crown. Scotland had her own parliament, her own established church, her own laws, her own courts, her own army, and her own system of finance. By the Act of 1707 a union was established of a far more substantial sort. The two countries were erected into a single kingdom, known hence- forth as Great Britain. The Scottish parliament was abolished and representation was accorded the Scottish nobility and people in the British parliament at Westminster. The quota of commoners was fixed at forty-five (thirty to be chosen by the counties and fifteen by the boroughs) and that of peers (to be elected by the entire body of Scottish peers at the beginning of each parliament) at sixteen. All laws respecting trade, excises, and customs were required to be uniform throughout the two countries, but the local laws of Scotland upon other subjects were continued in operation, subject to revision by the common parliament. The Scottish judicial system remained un- changed; * likewise the status of the established Presbyterian Church. 2 40. The Union with Ireland, 1801. The history of Ireland, in most of its phases, is that of a conquered territory, and until late in the eighteenth century the constitutional status of the country approx- imated, most of the time, that of a crown colony. During the Middle Ages the Common Law and the institutions of England were introduced in the settled portions of the island (the Pale), and a parliament of the English type began to be developed; but Poynings's Law of 1494, by requiring the assent of the English king and council for the convening of an Irish parliament, by enjoining that all bills considered by the Irish parliament must first have been considered by the English parlia- ment, and by declaring all existing statutes of the English parliament to be binding upon Ireland, effectually stifled, until its repeal hi 1782, Irish parliamentary development. From the middle of the seventeenth century Catholics were debarred from membership, and, from the early eighteenth, from voting at parliamentary elections. The repeal of Poynings's Law in 1782 and the removal of the Catholic disqualifica- tion ten years later bettered the situation, yet at the close of the eighteenth century Irish governmental arrangements were still very unsatisfactory. Parliament was independent in the making of laws, but not in the control of administration; and it was in no true sense a national and representative body. The policy urged by Pitt, namely, 1 Save that appeals might be carried from the Scottish Court of Session to the House of Lords. 2 J. Mackinnon, The Union of England and Scotland (London, 1896). This scholarly volume covers principally the period 1695-1745. THE CONSTITUTION SINCE 1689 41 the establishment of a legislative union on the plan of that which already existed between England and Scotland, gradually impressed itself upon the members of Parliament as more feasible than any other. An Act of Union creating the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" was adopted by the Irish parliament in February, 1800, and by the British parliament five months later, and, January i, 1801, it was put in operation. Under the terms of this measure the Irish parliament was abolished, and it was arranged that Ireland should be represented in the common parliament 1 by four spiritual lords and twenty-eight temporal peers, chosen by the Irish peerage for life, and by one hundred members (sixty-four sitting for counties, thirty-five for boroughs, and one for the University of Dublin) of the House of Commons. The Anglican Church of Ireland was amalgamated with the established Church of England, though, subsequently in 1869, it was disestablished and disendowed. The union with Ireland was in the nature of a contract, and while in a number of respects the conditions which were involved in it have been altered within the past hundred years, its fundamentals stand to-day unchanged. It is these funda- mentals, especially the assimilation of Ireland with Great Britain for legislative purposes, which are the object of relentless attack on the part of the Home Rule and other nationalistic and reforming ele- ments. 2 IV. THE NATURE AND SOURCES OF THE CONSTITUTION 41. The Elusiveness of the Constitution. The description of the British governmental system which is hereafter to be undertaken will be clarified by a word of comment at this point upon the character which the English constitution of to-day has assumed, upon the form in which it exists, and upon the sources from which it has been drawn. The term "constitution," as is familiarly understood, may be em- ployed to denote a written instrument of fundamental law which has been framed by a constituent assembly, drafted by an ordinary legisla- tive body, or promulgated upon the sole authority of a dictator or monarch; or, with equal propriety, it may be used to designate a body 1 Styled "the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland." 2 An abridgment of the text of the Act of Union with Scotland is printed in Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, 479-483; of that of the Act of Union with Ireland, ibid., 497-506. The full text of the former will be found in Robertson, Select Statutes, Cases, and Documents, 92-105; that of the latter, ibid., 157-164. On Ireland before the Union see May and Holland, Constitutional History of England, II., Chap. 16. 42 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of customs, laws, and precedents, but partially, or even not at all, committed to writing, in accordance with which the machinery of a given governmental system is operated. The constitution of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is of this second type. The student who desires to bring together the principles and to tabu- late the working details of the British constitutional order will find no single document, nor any collection of documents, in which these things are wholly, or even largely, set down. For the accomplishment of such a task it would be necessary to review intensively a thousand years and more of history, to lay hold of a statute here and of a judi- cial decision there, to take constant cognizance of the rise and crystal- lization of political usages, and to probe to their inmost recesses the mechanisms of administration, law-making, taxation, elections, and judicial procedure as they have been, and as they are actually operated before the spectator's eyes. Foremost among its compeers in an- tiquity, in comprehensiveness, and in originality, the British constitu- tion is at once the least tangible and the most widely influential among European bodies of fundamental law. 42. Constituent Elements: the Law. The elements of which this constitution is to-day composed have been classified in various ways. For present purposes they may be gathered in five principal cate- gories. In the first place, there are treaties and other international agreements, which in Great Britain as in the United States are invested with the character of supreme law of the land. In the second place, there is a group of solemn engagements which have been entered into at times of national crisis between parties representing opposed, or contracting, political forces. Of such character are the Great Charter, the Petition of Right, and the Bill of Rights. A third and larger category comprises parliamentary statutes which add to or modify governmental powers or procedure. Statutes of this type include clearly the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, the Act of Settlement of 1701, the Septennial Act of 1716, Fox's Libel Act of 1792, the Reform Acts of 1832, 1867, and 1884, the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, the Parliamentary and Municipal Elections Act of 1872, the Local Govern- ment Acts of i88S and 1894, and the Parliament Act of 1911. In the fourth place there is the Common Law, a vast body of legal precept and usage which through the centuries has acquired fundamental and immutable character. The first three elements mentioned, i. e., trea- ties, solemn political engagements, and statutes, exist solely, or almost so, in written form. The rules of the Common Law, however, have not been reduced to writing, save in so far as they are contained in reports, legal opinions, and, more particularly, authoritative decisions THE CONSTITUTION SINCE 1689 43 of the courts, such as those on the rights of jurymen, on the prerogative of the crown, on the privileges of the houses of Parliament and of their members, and on the rights and duties of the police. 43. Constituent Elements: the Conventions. Finally, there are those portions of the constitution which have been denominated with aptness by Mr. Dicey "the conventions." 1 The "law" of the constitution, comprising the four categories of elements which have been enumerated, is at all points, whether written or unwritten, enforceable by the courts; the conventions, although they may and not seldom do relate to matters of vital importance, are not so enforceable. The conventions consist of understandings, practices, and habits by which are regulated a large proportion of the actual operations of the governmental authorities. They may have acquired expression in written form, but they do not appear in the statute- books or in any instrument which can be made the basis of action in a court of law. For example, it is a convention of the constitution which forbids the king to veto a measure passed by the houses of Parliament. IftEi*sovereign were in these days actually to veto a bill, the political consequences might be serious, but there could be no question of the sheer legality of the deed. It is by virtue of a convention, not a law, of the constitution, that ministers resign office when they have ceased to command the confidence of the House of Commons; that a bill must be read three times before being finally voted upon in the House of Commons; that Parliament is convened annually and that it consists of two houses. The cabinet, and all that the cabinet, as such, stands for, rests entirely upon convention. To these things, and many others, the student who is concerned exclusively with the constitutional law of the British nation may give little or no attention. But by one who is seeking to understand the constitutional system as it is and as it operates attention must be fixed upon the conventions quite as steadily as upon the positive rules of law. If the conventions are not to be regarded as technically parts of the constitution, they are at least not infrequently as binding in practice as are these rules; and they may be even more determinative of the operations of the public powers. 2 The English constitution is indeed, as Mr. Bryce has described it, "a mass of precedents carried in men's minds or recorded in writing, dicta of 1 Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (;th ed., London, 1908), 22-29. 2 Convention occupies a large place in most political systems, even in countries which are governed under elaborate written constitutions. Their importance in the government of the United States is familiar (see Bryce, American Common- wealth, 3d ed., I., Chaps. 34-35). On the influence of conventions in France see H. Chardon, L' Administration de la France; les fonctionnaires (Paris, 1008), 79-105. 44 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE lawyers or statesmen, customs, usages, understandings and beliefs, a number of statutes mixed up with customs and all covered over with a parasitic growth of legal decisions and political habits." l At no time has an attempt been made to collect and to reduce to writing this stupendous mass of scattered material, and no such attempt is likely ever to be made. "The English," as remarks the French critic Boutmy, "have left the different parts of their constitution where the waves of history have deposited them; they have not attempted to bring them together, to classify or complete them, or to make of it a consistent or coherent whole." 2 V. THE FLEXIBILITY OF THE CONSTITUTION 44. Aspects of Continuity and of Change. In pursuance of what has been said two observations, representing opposite aspects of the same truth, are pertinent. The first is that in respect to the principles and many of the practices of the English constitution it is pre-eminently true that, to employ a familiar phrase of Bishop Stubbs, the roots of the present lie deep in the past. 3 The second is that the English con- stitution is a living organism, so constantly undergoing modification that any description of it which may be attempted is likely to be subject to correction almost before it can be completed. At no time, as Mr. Freeman wrote, "has the tie between the present and the past been rent asunder; at no moment have Englishmen sat down to put together a wholly new constitution in obedience to some dazzling theory." 4 On the contrary, each step in the growth of the constitu- tional system has been the natural consequence of some earlier step. Great changes, it is true, have been wrought. To mention but the most obvious illustration, autocratic kingship has been replaced by a parliamentary government based upon a thoroughgoing political democracy. None the less, transitions have been regularly so gradual, deference to tradition so habitual, and the disposition to cling to ancient names and forms, even when the spirit had changed, so deep- seated, that the constitutional history of England presents elements of continuity which cannot be paralleled in any other country of Europe. The letter of a written constitution may survive through many decades unchanged, as has that of the Italian Statute of 1848, and as 1 J. Bryce, Flexible and Rigid Constitutions, in Studies in History and Juris- prudence (London and New York, 1901), No. 3. 2 E. Boutmy, Studies in Constitutional Law: France England United States, trans, by E. M. Dicey (London, 1891), 6. 1 Constitutional History of England, I., prefatory note. 4 Growth of the English Constitution, 19. THE CONSTITUTION SINCE 1689 45 did that of the American constitution between 1804 and 1865. No constitutional system, however, long stands still, and least of all one of the English variety, in which there exists but little of even the formal rigidity arising from written texts. Having no fixed and orderly shape assigned it originally by some supreme authority, the constitution of the United Kingdom has retained throughout its history a notably large measure of flexibility. It is by no means to-day what it was fifty years ago; fifty years hence it will be by no means what it is to-day. In times past changes have been accompanied by violence, or, at least, by extraordinary manifestations of the national will. Nowadays they are introduced through the ordinary and peaceful processes of legisla- tion, of judicial interpretation, and of administrative practice. Some- times, as in the instance of the recent overhauling of the status of the House of Lords, they are accompanied by heated controversy and wide- spread public agitation. Not infrequently, however, they represent inevitable and unopposed amplifications of existing law or practice and are taken note of scarcely at all by the nation at large. 46. The Constituent Powers of Parliament. The principal means (/ ^ by which changes are wrought in the English constitution to-day is that of parliamentary enactment. It is to be observed that in Great Britain there is not, nor has there ever been, any attempt to draw a line of distinction between powers that are constituent and powers that are legislative. All are vested alike in Parliament, and in respect to the processes of enactment, repeal, and revision there is no difference whatsoever between a measure affecting the fundamental principles of the governmental system and a statute pertaining to the commonest subject of ordinary law. "Our Parliament," observes Mr. Anson, "can make laws protecting wild birds or shell-fish, and with the same procedure 'could break the connection of Church and State, or give political power to two millions of citizens, and redistribute it among new constituencies." * The keystone of the law of the constitution is, indeed, the unqualified omnipotence which Parliament possesses in the spheres both of constitution-making and of ordinary legislation. In Parliament is embodied the supreme will of the nation; and although from time to time that will may declare itself in widely varying and even inconsistent ways, at any given moment its pronouncements are conclusive. 46. What are " Constitutional " Laws? From this unrestricted competence of Parliament arise two highly important facts. One of them is that the distinction between "constitutional" laws, on the one hand, and ordinary statutes, on the other, is neither so obvious nor so 1 Law and Custom of the Constitution, 4th ed., I., 358. 46 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE essential as under most governmental systems. The concept, even, of constitutional law has developed but slowly among the English, and the phrase is as yet seldom employed in legal discussion. In the United States constitutional amendments or addenda, in so far at least as they assume written form, emanate from sources and by processes different from those that obtain in the enactment of ordinary statutes. In most continental nations the constituent process is at least somewhat different from that employed in the enactment of simple laws. And these specially devised processes are designed to emphasize the essen- tial differentiation of the product from the handiwork of the ordinary legislative bodies. In Great Britain, however, there is, as has ap- peared, no difference of process, and the distinction between the law of the constitution and ordinary statute law is not infrequently all but impossible to trace. If it is to be traced at all, it must be derived from the circumstances of enactment. Some measures, e. g., the Habeas Corpus Act, the Act of Settlement, and the Parliament Act of 1911, relate obviously to the most fundamental and enduring as- pects of state. Others just as clearly have to do with ephemeral and purely legislative concerns. Precisely where the line should be drawn between the two no man can say. It is, in the opinion of Mr. Bryce, because of this obstacle primarily that no attempt has been made to reduce the English constitution to the form of a single fundamental enactment. 1 47. All Parts of the Constitution subject to Amendment. In the second place, no portion whatsoever of the constitution is immune from amendment or abrogation at the hand of Parliament, So forcefully was the French observer De Tocqueville impressed with this fact that he went so far as to assert that there really is no such thing as an English constitution at all. 2 De Tocqueville wrote, however, from the point of view of one who conceives of a constitution as of necessity an "instrument of special sanctity, distinct in character from all other laws, and alterable only by a peculiar process, differing to a greater or less extent from the ordinary forms of legislation"; 3 and this concep- tion is recognized universally nowadays to be altogether inadequate. There is, in every proper sense, an English constitution. No small portion of it, indeed, is in written form. And it is worth observing that in practice there is tending to be established in England in our own day 1 Studies in History and Jurisprudence, I., No. 3. 2 "In England the Parliament has an acknowledged right to modify the consti- tution; as, therefore, the constitution may undergo perpetual changes, it does not in reality exist (die, n'existe point}; the Parliament is at once a legislative and a constituent assembly." (Euvres Completes; I., 166-167. 3 Lowell, Government of England, I., 2. THE CONSTITUTION SINCE 1689 47 some measure of that distinction between constituent and legislative functions which obtains in other countries. There is no disposition to strip from Parliament its constituent powers; but the feeling is gaining ground that when fundamental and far-reaching innovations Y ' are contemplated action ought not to be taken until after there shall have been an appeal to the nation through the medium of a general election at which the desirability of the proposed changes shall be submitted as a clear issue. The principle, broadly stated, is that Parliament ought to exercise in any important matter its constituent powers only under the sanction of direct popular mandate. It was essentially in deference to this principle that the elections of Decem- ber, 1910, turning squarely upon the issue of the reform of the House of Lords, were ordered. Thus, while in numerous continental coun- tries the distinction between constituent and legislative functions is being nowadays somewhat relaxed, in Great Britain there is dis- tinctly a tendency to establish in a measure a differentiation in this matter which long has been in practice non-existent. In effect, every measure of Parliament, of whatsoever nature and under whatsoever circumstances enacted, is "constitutional," in the sense that it is legally valid and enforceable. When an Englishman asserts of a measure that it is unconstitutional he means only that it is inconsistent with a previous enactment, an established usage, the principles of international law, or the commonly accepted standards of morality. Such a measure, if passed in due form by Parliament, be- comes an integral part of the law of the land, and as such will be en- forced by the courts. There is no means by which it may be rendered of no effect, save repeal by the same or a succeeding parliament. In England, as in European countries generally, the judicial tribunals are endowed with no power to pass upon the constitutional validity of legislative acts. Every such act is ipso facto valid, whether it re- lates to the most trivial subject of ordinary legislation or to the or- ganic arrangements of the state; and no person or body, aside from Parliament itself, possesses a right to override it or to set it aside. 1 1 For brief discussions of the general nature of the English constitution see A. L. Lowell, Government of England, 2 vols. (New York, 1909), L, 1-15; T. F. Moran, Theory and Practice of the English Government (new ed., New York, 1908), Chap, i; J. A. R. Marriott, English Political Institutions (Oxford, 1910), Chaps, i, 2; J. Macy, The English Constitution (New York, 1897), Chaps, i, 9; and S. Low, The Governance of England (London, 1904), Chap. i. A suggestive characteriza- tion is in the Introduction of W. Bagehot, The English Constitution (new ed., Boston, 1873). A more extended and very incisive analysis is Dicey, Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution, especially the Introduction and Chaps. 1-3, 13, 14-15. CHAPTER III THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY I. THE CROWN: LEGAL STATUS AND PRIVILEGES 48. Contrasts of Theory and Fact. The government of the United Kingdom is in ultimate theory an absolute monarchy, in form a limited, constitutional monarchy, arid in fact a thoroughgoing^cle- mocracy. 1 At its head stands the sovereign, who is at the same time the supreme executive, a co-ordinate legislative authority (and, in theory, much more than that), the fountain of justice and of honor, the "supreme governor" of the Church, the commander-in-chief of the army and navy, the conservator of the peace, and the parens patriae and ex officio guardian of the helpless and the needy. In law, all land is held, directly or indirectly, of him. Parliament exists only by his will. Those who sit in it are summoned by his writ, and the privilege of voting for a member of the lower chamber is only a franchise, not a right independent of his grant. Technically, the sovereign never dies; there is only a demise of the crown, i. e., a transfer of regal author- ity from one person to another, and the state is never without a rec- ognized head. The assertions that have been made represent with substantial accuracy the ultimate theory of the status of the crown in the govern- mental system. In respect to the form and fact of that system as it actually operates, however, it would hardly be possible to make asser- tions that would convey a more erroneous impression. The breadth of the discrepancy that here subsists between theory and fact will be made apparent as examination proceeds of the organization and work- ings of the executive, the legislative, and the judicial departments of the government of the realm. It is necessary first of all, however, to give attention to certain of the more external aspects of the position which the monarch occupies. 1 From this essential incongruity of theory, form, and fact arises the special difficulty which must attend any attempt to describe with accuracy and complete- ness the British constitutional system. In the study of every government the divergences of theory and fact must be borne constantly in mind, but nowhere are these divergences so numerous, so far-reaching, or so fundamental as in the govern- ment of the United Kingdom. 48 THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 49 49. Title to the Throne: the Act of Settlement, 1701. Since the Revolution of 1688 title to the English throne has been based solely upon the will of the nation as expressed in parliamentary enactment. The statute under which the succession is regulated is the Act of Settle- ment, passed by the Tory parliament of 1701, by which it was pro- vided that, in default of heirs of William III. and Anne, the crown and all prerogatives thereto appertaining should "be, remain, and con- tinue to the most Excellent Princess Sophia, and the heirs of her body, being Protestants." 1 Sophia, a granddaughter of James I., was the widow of the Elector of Hanover, and although in 1701 she was not first in the natural order of succession, she was first among the surviv- ing heirs who were Protestants. It was by virtue of the act mentioned that, upon the death of Anne in 1714, the throne devolved upon the son of the German Electress (George I.). The present sovereign, George V., is the eighth of the Hanoverian dynasty. Although it would be entirely within the competence of Parliament to repeal the Act of Settlement and to vest the crown in a member of some house other than the Hanoverian, there is, of course, no occasion for such an act, and the throne may be expected to continue to pass from one member of the present royal family to another in strict accordance with the principles of heredity and primogeniture. The rules of descent are essentially identical with those governing the inheritance of real prop- erty at common law. 2 Regularly, the sovereign's eldest son, the Prince of Wales, 3 inherits. If he be not alive, the inheritance passes to his issue, male or female. If there be none, the succession devolves upon the sovereign's second son, or upon his issue; and in default thereof, upon the eldest son who survives, or his issue. If the vacancy be not supplied by or through, a son daughters and their issue inherit after a similar order. No Catholic may inherit, nor anyone marrying a Catholic; and by the Act of 1701 it was stipulated that every person who should attain the throne "shall join in communion with the 1 The text of the Act of Settlement is printed in Stubbs, Select Charters, 528-531; Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, 475-479; and Gee and Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church History, 664-670. As safeguards against dangers which might conceivably arise from the accession of a foreign-born sovereign the Act stipulated (i) that no person who should thereafter come into possession of the crown should go outside the dominions of England, Scotland, or Ireland, without consent of Parliament, and (2) that in the event that the crown should devolve upon any person not a native of England the nation should not be obliged to engage in any war for the defense of any dominions or territories not belonging to the crown of England, without consent of Parliament. 2 Lowell, Government of England, I., 17. 8 This title was created by Edward I. in 1301. Its possession has never involved the exercise of any measure of political power. 50 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Church of England as by law established." If after accession the sovereign should avow himself a Catholic, or should marry a Catholic, his subjects would be absolved from their allegiance. It is required, furthermore, that the sovereign shall take at his coronation an oath wherein the tenets of Catholicism are abjured. Until 1910 the phrase- ology of this oath, formulated as it was in a period when ecclesiastical animosities were still fervid, 1 was such as to be offensive not only to Catholics but to temperate-minded men of all faiths. By act of parlia- ment passed in anticipation of the coronation of George V., the lan- guage employed in the oath was made very much less objectionable. The sovereign is required now merely to declare " that he is a faithful Protestant and that he will, according to the true intent of the en- actments which secure the Protestant succession to the throne of the Realm, uphold and maintain the said enactments to the best of his power according to law." 50. Regencies. The age of majority of the sovereign is eighteen. The constitutions of most monarchical states contain more or less elaborate stipulations respecting the establishment of a regency in the event of the sovereign's minority or incapacitation. In Great Britain, on the contrary, the practice has been to make provision for each such contingency when it should arise. A regency can be created and a regent designated only by act of Parliament. Parliamentary enact- ments, however, become operative only upon receiving the assent of the crown, and it has sometimes happened that the sovereign for whom a regent was required to be appointed was incapable of performing any governmental act. In such a case, there has been resort usually to some legal fiction by which the appearance, at least, of regularity has been preserved. A regency act regularly defines the limits of the regent's powers and establishes specific safeguards in respect to the interests of both the sovereign and the nation. 2 61. Royal Privileges: the Civil List. The sovereign is capable of owning land and other property, and of disposing of it precisely as may any private citizen. The vast accumulations of property, how- ever, which at one time comprised the principal source of revenue of the crown, have become the possession of the state, and as such are 1 The words to be employed were prescribed originally in the Act for Establishing the Coronation Oath, passed in the first year of William and Mary. For the text see Robertson, Select Statutes, Cases, and Documents, 65-68. An historical sketch of some value is A. Bailey, The Succession to the English Crown (London, 1879). 2 For the text of the Regency Act of 1811, passed by reason of the incapacitation of George III., see Robertson, Statutes, Cases and Documents, 171-182. For an excellent survey of the general subject see May and Holland, Constitutional His- tory of England, I., Chap. 3. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 51 administered entirely under the direction of Parliament. In lieu of the income derived formerly from land and other independent sources the sovereign has been accorded for the support of the royal household a fixed annual subsidy voted tinder the designation of the Civil List the amount of which is determined afresh at the beginning of each reign. The Civil List was instituted by an act of 1689 in which Parlia- ment settled upon the king for the meeting of personal expenses, the payment of civil officers, and other charges, a stipulated sum, thus separating for the first time the private expenditures of the crown from the public outlays of the nation. 1 The sum given William III. was 700,000. George III., in return for a fixed Civil List, surrendered his interest in the hereditary revenues of the crown, and William IV. went further and, in return for a Civil List of 510,000 a year, sur- rendered not only the hereditary revenues but also a large group of miscellaneous and casual sources of income. 2 At the accession of Queen Victoria the Civil List was fixed at 385,000. The amount was comparatively small, but opportunity was taken at the time finally to transfer to Parliament the making of provision for all charges properly incident to the maintenance of the state. In addition to various annuities payable to the children of the royal family, the Civil List of Edward VII., established by Act of July 2, 1901, amounted to 470,000, of which 110,000 was appropriated to the privy purse of the king and queen, 125,000 to salaries and retiring allowances of the royal household, and 193,000 to household expenses. At the acces- sion of George V., in 1910, the Civil List was continued in the sum of 470,000. 3 The sovereign enjoys unrestricted immunity from political respon- sibility and from personal distraint. The theory of the law has long been that the king can do no wrong, which means that for his public acts the sovereign's ministers must bear complete responsibility and for his private conduct he may not be called to account in any court of law or by any legal process. He cannot be arrested, his goods cannot be distrained, and as long as a palace remains a royal residence no 1 Under Charles II. Parliament began to appropriate portions of the revenue for specific purposes, and after 1688 this became the general practice. Throughout a century the proceeds of particular taxes were appropriated for particular ends. But in 1787 Pitt simplified the procedure involved by creating a single Consolidated Fund into which all revenues were turned and from which all expenditures were met. 2 Accuracy requires mention of the fact that, by exception, the crown still enjoys the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster and the Duchy of Cornwall, the latter being part of the appanage of the Prince of Wales. * On the history of the Civil List see May and Holland, Constitutional History of England, I., 152-175. 52 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE sort of judicial proceeding can be executed in it. Strictly, the revenues are the king's, whence it arises that the king is himself exempt from taxation, though lands purchased by the privy purse are taxed. And chere are numerous minor privileges, such as the use of special liveries and a right to the royal salute, to which the sovereign, as such, is reg- ularly entitled. II. THE POWERS OF THE CROWN 52. Sources: the Prerogative. Vested in the crown is, in the last analysis, an enormous measure of authority. The sum total of powers, whether or not actually exercised by the sovereign immediately, is of two-fold origin. There are powers, in the first place, which have been defined, or conferred outright, by parliamentary enactment. Others there are, however more numerous and more important which rest upon the simple basis of custom or the Common Law. Those powers which belong to the statutory group are, as a rule, specific and easily ascertainable. But those which comprise the ancient customary rights of the crown, i. e., the prerogative, are not always possible of exact delimitation. The prerogative is defined by Dicey as " the res- idue of discretionary or arbitrary authority which at any time is legally left in the hands of the crown." 1 The elements of it are to be ascertained, not from statutes but from precedents, and the sources of it, as enumerated by Anson, are (i) the residue of the executive power which the king in the early stages of English history possessed in all of the branches of government; (2) survivals of the power once accruing to the king as the feudal chief of the country; and (3) attri- butes with which the crown has been invested by legal theory, e.g., the attribute of perpetuity popularly expressed in the aphorism " the king never dies," and that of perfection of judgment, similarly expressed in the saying "the king can do no wrong." 2 The most considerable element in the prerogative is that which Anson first mentions, i. e., the power which the king has carried over, in the teeth of the populari- zation of the governmental system, from days when the royal authority was not hedged about as since the seventeenth century it has been. It is further to be observed that no inconsiderable portion of the royal powers as they exist to-day represent original prerogative worked over and delimited by parliamentary enactment, so that in many instances it becomes difficult to determine whether a given power exists by virtue of a statute, by which it is to be regarded as absolutely defined, 1 Law of the Constitution (yth ed.), 420. 2 Law and Custom of the Constitution, II., Pt. I., 3-5. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 53 or by virtue of an anterior prerogative which may be capable of being stretched or interpreted more or less arbitrarily. Nominally, the sovereign still holds by divine right. At the head of every public writ to-day stand the words " George V., by the Grace of God of Great Britain and Ireland King." But no principle of the working constitu- tion is more clearly established than that in accordance with which the prerogatives of the crown may be defined, restricted, or extended by the supreme legislative power. Among prerogatives once claimed and exercised, but long since rendered obsolete by prohibitive legislation may be mentioned those of imposing taxes without parliamentary consent, suspending or dispensing with laws, erecting tribunals not proceeding according to the ordinary course of justice, declaring for- feit the property of convicted traitors, 1 purveyance, pre-emption, and the alienation of crown lands at pleasure. 63. Powers, Theoretical and Actual. It is not, however, the origin of the royal power, but rather the manner of its exercise, that fixes the essential character of monarchy in Great Britain to-day. The student of this phase of the subject is confronted at the outset with a paradox which has found convenient expression in the aphorism that ' the king reigns but does not govern. The meaning of the aphorism is that, while the sovereign is possessed of all of the inherent dignity of royalty, it is left to him actually to exercise in but a very restricted measure the powers which are involved in the business of government. Technically, all laws are made by the crown in parliament; all judicial decisions are rendered by the crown through the courts; all laws are executed and all administrative acts are performed by the crown. But in point of fact laws are enacted by Parliament independently; verdicts are brought in by tribunals whose immunity from royal domination is thoroughly assured; and the executive functions of the state are exercised all but exclusively by the ministers and their sub- ordinates. One who would understand what English monarchy really is must take account continually both of what the king does and may do theoretically and of what he does and may do in actual prac- tice. The matter is complicated further by the fact that powers once possessed have been lost, that others which have never been formally relinquished have so long lain unused that the question may fairly be debated whether they still exist, and that there never has been, nor is likely ever to be, an attempt to enumerate categorically or to define comprehensively the range of powers, either theoretical or actual. 54. Executive Powers. Disregarding for the moment the means 1 Abolished by the Felony Act of 1870. 54 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE their actual exercise, the powers of the crown to-day may be said to fall into two principal groups. The first comprises those which are essentially executive hi character; the second, those which are shared with the two houses of Parliament, being, therefore chiefly legislative. The first group is distinctly the more important. It includes: (i) the appointment, directly or indirectly, of all national public officers, ex- cept some of the officials of the parliamentary chambers and a few unimportant hereditary dignitaries; (2) the removal, upon occasion, of all appointed officers except judges, members of the Council of India, and the Comptroller and Auditor General ; (3) the execution of all laws and the supervision of the executive machinery of the state throughout all its branches; (4) the expenditure of public money in accordance with appropriations voted by Parliament; (5) the pardon- ing of offenders against the criminal law, with some exceptions, either before or after conviction; l (6) the granting, in so far as not pro- hibited by statute, of charters of incorporation; (7) the creating of all peers and the conferring of all titles and honors; (8) the coining of all money; (9) the summoning of Convocation and, by reason of the headship of the Established Church, the virtual appointment of the archbishops, bishops, and most of the deans and canons; (10) the supreme command of the army and navy, involving the raising and control of the armed forces of the nation, subject to such conditions only as Parliament may impose; (n) the representing of the nation in all of its dealings with foreign powers, including the appointment of all diplomatic and consular agents and the negotiation and con- clusion of peace; and (12) the exercise, largely under statutory au- thority conferred within the past half -century, of supervision or control in respect to local government, education, public health, pauperism, housing, and a wide variety of other social and industrial interests. 65. The Composition of the Executive. The executive branch of the government, through whose agency these powers are exercised, consists of the sovereign, the ministry, and the entire hierarchy of administrative officials reaching downwards from the heads of depart- ments and the under-secretaries at London through the several grades of clerks to the least important revenue and postal employees. There are various points of view from which the chief of the executive may be conceived of as the sovereign, the prime minister, the ministry collec- tively, or the king and ministry conjointly. So far as executive func- 1 This power, in practice, is seldom exercised. The Act of Settlement prescribed that " no pardon shall be pleadable to an impeachment by the Commons in parlia- ment." THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 55 tions go, the sovereign, in law, is very nearly as supreme as in the days of personal and absolute monarchy. The ministers are but his advisers, the local administrative authorities his agents. The govern- ment is conducted wholly in his name. In practice, however, su- preme executive acts of the kinds that have been mentioned are per- formed by the ministers; or, if performed by the crown immediately, will not be undertaken without the ministers' knowledge and assent. The ministers, and not the sovereign, may be held to account by parlia^ ment for every executive act performed, and it is but logical that they should control the time and tenor of such acts. It falls very generally to the prime minister to speak for and otherwise represent the ministerial group. On the whole, however, it accords best with both law and fact to consider the executive under the working con- stitution as consisting of the crown as represented and advised by the ministry. 56. The Crown and Legislation. The second general group of powers lodged in the crown comprises those which relate to legislation. Technically, all legislative authority is vested hi "the king in parlia- ment," by which is meant the king acting in collaboration with the two houses. Parliament transacts business only during the pleasure of the crown. The crown summons and prorogues the houses, and it is empowered at any time to dissolve the House of Commons. No parliamentary act, furthermore, is valid without the crown's assent. It is on the legislative, rather than the executive side, none the less, that the crown has lost most heavily in actual authority. There was a time when the crown possessed inherent law-making power and through the agency of proclamations and ordinances contributed in- dependently to the body of enforceable law. To-day the sovereign may exercise no such power, save alone in the crown colonies. It is true that ordinances with the force of law are still issued, and that their number and importance tend steadily to be increased. But in all cases these ordinances have been, and must be, authorized specifically by statute. As "statutory orders" they emanate from a delegated authority purely and bear no relation to the ancient ordinance by prerogative. The king may not even, by virtue of any inherent power, promulgate ordinances in completion of parliamentary statutes the sort of thing which the French president, the Italian king, and virtually every continental ruler may do with full propriety. Of his own author- ity, furthermore, the sovereign may not alter by one jot or tittle the law of the land. There was a time when the crown claimed and ex- ercised the right to suspend, or to dispense with, laws which had been duly enacted and put in operation. But this practice was forbidden 56 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE definitely in the Bill of Rights, and no sovereign since the last Stuart has sought to revive the prerogative. Still another aspect of the ancient participation by the king in the legislative function was the influencing of the composition of the House of Commons through the right to confer upon boroughs the privilege of electing members. This right, never expressly withdrawn, is regarded now as having been for- feited by disuse. Finally, the power to withhold assent from a meas- ure passed in Parliament has not been exercised since the days of Queen Anne, 1 and while legally it still exists, it is conceded for all practical purposes to have been extinguished. 67. Principles Governing the Actual Exercise of Powers. After full allowances have been made, the powers of the British crown to-day comprise a sum total of striking magnitude. "All told," says Lowell, "the executive authority of the crown is, in the eye of the law, very wide, far wider than that of the chief magistrate in many countries, and well-nigh as extensive as that now possessed by the monarch in any government not an absolute despotism; and although the crown has no inherent legislative power except in conjunction with Parlia- ment, it has been given by statute very large powers of subordinate legislation. . . . Since the accession of the House of Hanover the new powers conferred upon the crown by statute have probably more than made up for the loss to the prerogative of powers which have either been restricted by the same process or become obsolete by disuse. By far the greater part of the prerogative, as it existed at that tune, has remained legally vested in the crown, and can be ex- ercised to-day." 2 The next fundamental thing to be observed is that the extended powers here referred to are exercised, not by the king in person, but by ministers with whose choosing the sovereign has but little to do and over whose acts he has only an incidental and extra-legal control. Underlying the entire constitutional order are two principles whose operation would seem to reduce the sovereign to a sheer nonentity. The first is that the crown shall perform no important governmental act whatsoever save through the agency of the ministers. The second is that these ministers shall be responsible absolutely to Parliament for every public act which they perform. From these principles arises the fiction that "the king can do no wrong," which means legally that the sovereign cannot be adjudged guilty of wrongdoing (and that therefore no proceedings may be instituted against him), and politically 1 In 1707, when the Queen refused her assent to a bill for settling the militia in Scotland. 2 Government of England, L, 23, 26. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 57 that the ministers are responsible, singly in small affairs and con- jointly in more weighty ones, for everything that is done in the crown's name. "In a constitutional point of view," writes an English author- ity, "so universal is the operation of this rule that there is not a mo- ment in the king's life, from his accession to his demise, during which there is not some one responsible to Parliament for his public conduct; and there can be no exercise of the crown's authority for which it must not find some minister willing to make himself responsible." * In continental countries the responsibility of ministers is established very commonly by specific and written constitutional provision. In Great Britain it exists by virtue simply of a group of unwritten prin- ciples, or conventions, of the constitution; but it is there none the less real. In the conduct of public affairs the ministry must conform to the will of the majority in the House of Commons; otherwise the wheels of government would be blocked. And from this it follows that the crown is obliged to accept, with such grace as may be, the measures which the ministry, working with the parliamentary majority, formulates and for which it stands ready to shoulder responsibility. It is open to the king, of course, to dissuade the ministers from a given course of action. But if they cannot be turned back, and if they have the support of a parliamentary majority, there is nothing that the sovereign can do save acquiesce. 58. Appointment of Ministers. In the naming of a new premier, following the retirement of a ministry, the king is legally unhampered; but here again in practice he is bound to designate the recognized leader of the dominant party, and so to pursue a course in which there is left no room for the exercise of discretion. Only when there is no clearly recognized leader, or when circumstances compel the formation of a coalition ministry, is there a real opportunity for the sovereign to choose a premier from a number of more or less available men. 2 In the appointment of the remaining ministers, and of all persons whose offices are regarded as political, the crown yields uniformly to the judgment of the premier. The King's Speech, on the opening of Parlia- ment, is written by the ministers; all public communications of the crown pass through their hands; peers are created and honors bestowed in accord with their advice; measures are framed and executive acts are undertaken by them, sometimes without the sovereign's knowledge and occasionally even contrary to his wishes. 1 Todd, Parliamentary Government in England, I., 81. 2 This sort of situation presented itself several times during the reign of Queen Victoria, but in general it is exceptional. 58 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE III. THE IMPORTANCE AND STRENGTH OF THE MONARCHY 69. The Real Authority and Service of the Crown. It would be an error, however, to conclude that kingship in England is unimportant, or even that the power wielded in person by the crown is negligible. On the contrary, the uses served by the crown are indisputable and the influence exerted upon the course of public affairs may be decisive. The sovereign, in the words of Bagehot, has three rights the right t, be consulte^ the ripftt t.n enrnnrflpe. and the JJfiht to warri. " A king of great sense and sagacity," it is added, "would want no others." 1 Despite the fact that during upwards of two hundred years the sov- ereign has not attended the meetings of the cabinet, and so is deprived of the opportunity of wielding influence directly upon the deliberations of the ministers as a body, the king keeps in close touch with the pre- mier, and cabinet councils at which important lines of policy are to be formulated are preceded not infrequently by a conference in which the subject in hand is threshed out more or less completely by king and chief minister. Merely because the ancient relation has been reversed, so that now it is the king who advises and the ministry that arrives at decisions, it does not follow that the advisory function is an unim- portant thing. Queen Victoria many times wielded influence of a decisive nature upon the public measures of her reign, especially in respect to the conduct of foreign relations. The extent of such influ- ence cannot be made a matter of record, because the ministers are in effect bound not to publish the fact that a decision upon a matter of state has been taken at the sovereign's instance. It is familiarly known, however to cite a recent illustration that Edward VII. approved and encouraged the Haldane army reforms, that he sought to dissuade the House of Lords from the rejection of the Lloyd-George budget of 1909, and that he discouraged the raising, in any form, of the issue of the reconstitution of the upper chamber. In other words while, as a constitutional monarch content to remain in the back- ground of political controversy, the late king not only had opinions but did not hesitate to make them known; and in the shaping and execu- tion of the Liberal programme his advice was at times a factor of im- portance. 2 1 The English Constitution (rev. ed.), 143. 2 The most satisfactory estimate of the political and governmental activities of Edward VII. is contained in Mr. Sidney Lee's memoir of the king, printed in -the Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement (London and New York, 1912), L, 546-610. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 59 60. Why Monarchy Survives. Monarchy in Great Britain is a solid and, so far as can be foreseen, a lasting reality. Throughout the tempestuous years 1909-1911, when the nation was aroused as it had not been in generations upon the issue of constitutional reform, and when every sort of project was being warmly advocated and as warmly opposed, without exception every suggested programme took for granted the perpetuation of the monarchy as an integral part of the governmental system. In the general bombardment to which the hereditary House of Lords was subjected hereditary kingship wholly escaped. The reasons are numerous and complex. They arise in part, though by no means so largely as is sometimes imagined, from the fact that monarchy in England is a venerable institution and the innate conservatism of the Englishman, while permitting him from time to time to regulate and modify it, restrains him from doing anything so revolutionary as to abolish it. That upon certain conspicuous oc- casions, as in the Cromwellian period, and again in 1688, kingship has owed its very life to the conservative instinct of the English people is well enough known to every student of history. But to-day, as ever, the institution rests upon a basis very much more substantial than a mere national predilection. Monarchy remains impregnably en- trenched because the crown, in addition to comprising an accustomed feature of the governmental economy, fulfills specific ends which are recognized universally to be eminently worth while, if not indispensa- ble. As a social, moral, and ceremonial agency, and as a visible symbol of the unity of the nation, king and court occupy an immeasurable place in the life and thought of the people; and even within the domain of government, to employ the figure of Lowell, if the crown is no longer the motive power of the ship of state, it is the spar on which the sail is bent, and as such it is not only a useful but an essential part of the vessel. 1 The entire governmental order of Great Britain hinges upon the parliamentary system, and nowhere has that system been reduced to satisfactory operation without the presence of some central, but essentially detached, figure, whether a king or, as in France, a president with the attributes of kingship. It is fundamentally because the English people have discerned that kingship is not necessarily incom- patible with popular government that the monarchy has persisted. If royalty had been felt to stand inevitably in the path of democratic progress, it is inconceivable that all the forces of tradition could have pulled it through the past seventy-five or eighty years. As it is, while half a century ago there was in the country a small republican group which was fond of urging that the monarchy was but a source of 1 Government of England, L, 49. 60 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE needless expense, to-day there is hardly a vestige, in any grade of society, of anti-monarchical sentiment. 1 IV. PRIVY COUNCIL, MINISTRY, AND CABINET 61. The Privy Council. One who would understand the modes by which the powers of the crown are in practice exercised must begin by fixing firmly in mind the nature and relations of three distinct but closely interrelated institutions, the Privy Council, the ministry, and the cabine^ As has appeared, the ?rwy""Council through a long period of English history comprised the body of men who advised the crown and assisted to some extent in the supervision of administration, he number of councillors from time to time varied widely, but it t tended constantly to be too large to admit of the requisite despatch and secrecy, and by reason principally of this consideration the crown fell into the custom of selecting as advisers a group of persons less numerous, and perhaps more trustworthy, than the whole body of public functionaries collectively designated as the Privy Council. Thus arose the cabinet, which throughout its entire history has been only an inner circle, unknown to the law, of the older and larger body. The Privy Council survives to-day, and in both law and theory it still is the advisory body of the crown. A cabinet member possesses author- ity and is known to the law only as a privy councillor. In point of fact, however, the Privy Council, once highly influential in affairs of state, is now, as such, all but powerless. Such portions of the dignity of its ancient place in the constitution as remain to it are of a purely formal and ceremonial nature. It holds no meetings of a deliberative character, and although legally its action is still essential to many public measures, as the preparation of proclamations and of orders in council, this action may be taken by as few as three persons. 2 All cabinet members are members of the Council, so that even one-fifth or one-sixth of the cabinet group is competent to meet every legal re- x The best brief discussions of the position of the crown in the governmental system are Lowell, Government of England, I., Chap, i ; Moran, English Govern- ment, Chaps. 2-3; Marriott, English Political Institutions, Chap. 3; Macy, English Constitution, Chap. 5; and Low, Governance of England, Chaps. 14-15. More extended treatment of the subject will be found in Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, II., Pt. i, Chaps i and 4; Todd, Parliamentary Government in Eng- land, I., Pt. 2; Bagehot, English Constitution, Chaps. 2-3; H. D. Traill, Central Government, Chap. i. Mention may be made of N. Caudel, Le souverain anglais, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, July, 1910, and J. Bardoux, Le pouvoir politique de la couronne anglaise, in Revue des Deux Mondes, May 15, 1911. 2 On the nature of orders in council see Anson, Law and Custom of the Consti- tution, II., Pt. i, 147-149. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 6 1 quirement imposed upon the Council as a whole. 1 All councillors are appointed by the crown and continue in office for life or until dis- missed. Their number is unlimited, and the only qualification neces- sary for appointment is British nativity. Members fall into three groups: (i) members of the cabinet; (2) holders of certain important non-political offices who by custom are entitled to appointment; (3) persons eminent in politics, literature, law, or science, or by reason of service rendered the crown, upon whom the dignity is conferred as an honorary distinction. Members bear regularly the title of Right Honorable. The President of the Council, designated by the crown, takes rank in the House of Lords next after the Chancellor and Treasurer. 2 62. Ministry and Cabinet.. Another governmental group which, like the Privy Council, differs from the cabinet while containing it, is the ministry. The ministry comprises a large and variable body of functionaries, some of whom occupy the principal offices of state and divide their efforts between advising the crown, i. e., formulating governmental policy, and administering the affairs of their respective departments, and others of whom, occupying less important executive positions, do not possess, save indirectly, the advisory function. The first group comprises, approximately at least, the cabinet. Most heads of departments are regularly and necessarily in the cabinet. A few are in it as a rule, though not invariably. A few, still less im- portant, may be, but are not likely to be, admitted to it. And, finally, a large number of parliamentary under-secretaries, party "whips," and officers of the royal household are certain not to be admitted. 3 V. THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS In respect to both origin and legal status the executive departments of the central government of Great Britain exhibit little of the con- formity to type which characterizes their counterparts in the logical and self-consistent governmental systems of the majority of con- 1 It is to be observed, however, that despite the transfer of the business devolv- ing formerly upon the Council into the hands of the specially constituted depart- ments of government, the Council does still, through the agency of its committees, perform a modicum of actual service. Of principal importance among the com- mittees is the Judicial Committee, which hears appeals in ecclesiastical cases and renders final verdict in all appeals coming from tribunals outside the United King- dom. See p. 173. 2 Traill, Central Government, Chap. 12. 3 On the relations of cabinet and ministry see Lowell, Government of England, I., Chap. 3. 62 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE tinental countries. Under the pressure, however, of custom and of parliamentary control, they have been reduced to essentially a common style of organization and a common mode of administrative procedure. In virtually every instance the department is presided over by a single responsible minister, assisted as a rule by one or more parliamentary under-secretaries and, more remotely, by a greater or lesser body of non-political officials who carry on the actual work of the department and whose tenure is not affected by the political fortunes of their chiefs. 63. The Treasury. Among the numerous departments, some represent survivals of great offices of state of an earlier period, some are offshoots of the ancient secretariat, and some comprise boards and commissions established in days comparatively recent. In the first group fall the offices of the Lord High Treasurer, the Lord High Chan- cellor, and the Lord High Admiral. From the early sixteenth century to the death of Queen Anne the principal official of the Treasury was ,e Lord High Treasurer. Since 1714, however, the office has been egularly in commission. The duties connected with it have been intrusted to a board composed of certain Lords of the Treasury, and no individual to-day bears the Lord High Treasurer's title. When a ministry is made up tfie group of Treasury Lords is renewed, and as a rule the post of First Lord is assumed by the premier. In point of fact, however, the board is never called together, some of its members have no actual connection whatsoever with the Treasury, and the functions of this most important of all departments are in practice exercised by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, assisted by the Junior Lords and the under-secretaries. The Exchequer, i. e., the depart- ment concerned principally with the collection of the taxes, is in fact, though not in name, a branch of the Treasury Board. Within the Treasury, and immediately under the direction of the Chancellor, is drawn up the annual budget, embodying a statement of the con- templated expenditures of the year and a programme of taxation calculated to produce the requisite revenue. The Treasury exercises general control over all other departments of the public service, e. g., the Post-office and the Board of Customs, in which public money is collected or expended. 1 64. The Admiralty Board and the Lord High Chancellorship. A second of the ancient offices of state which survives only in commis- 1 On the organization and workings of the Treasury see Lowell, Government of England, I., Chap. 5; Dicey, Law of the Constitution, Chap. 10; Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, II., Pt. I, 173-190; Traill, Central Government, Chap. 3. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 63 sion is that of the Lord High Admiral. The functions of this important post devolve to-day upon an Admiralty Board, consisting strictly of a First Lord, four Naval Lords (naval experts, usually of high rank), and a Civil Lord, with whom, however, sit a number of parliamentary and permanent secretaries. The First Lord is invariably a member of the cabinet, and while legally the status of the six Lords is identical, in practice the position of the First Lord approximates closely that of the minister of marine in continental countries. Unlike the Treasury Lords, the Lords of the Admiralty actually meet, and transact business. The third of the executive offices which comprise survivals from early times is that of the Lord High Chancellor. There is in Great Britain no single official who fills even approximately the position occupied elsewhere by a minister of justice or an attorney-general, but the most important of several officers who supply the lack is the Chancellor. "The greatest dignitary," says Lowell, "in the British government, the one endowed by law with the most exalted and most diverse functions, the only great officer of state who has retained his ancient rights, the man who defies the doctrine of the separation of powers more than any other personage on earth, is the Lord Chan- cellor." 1 The Lord Chancellor is invariably a member of the Cabinet. He is the chief judge in the High Court of Justice and in the Court of Appeal. He appoints and removes the justices of the peace and the judges of the county courts and wields large influence in appointments to higher judicial posts. He affixes the Great Seal where it is required to give validity to the acts of the crown and he performs a wide variety of other more or less formal services. Finally, it is the Lord High Chancellor who presides in the House of Lords. 65. The Five Secretaries of State. Five of the great departments to-day represent the product of a curious evolution of the ancient secretariat of state. Originally there was but a single official who bore the designation of secretary of state. In the earlier eighteenth century a second official was added, although no new office was created. At the close of the century a third was added, after the Crimean War a fourth, and after the Indian Mutiny of 1857 a fifth. There are now, accordingly, five "principal secretaries of state," all in theory oc- cupying the same office and each, save for a few statutory restrictions, competent legally to exercise the functions of any or all of the others. In practice each of the five holds strictly to his own domain. The group comprises: (i) the assisted by a parliamentary under-secretary and a large s manent officials, and possessing functions of a highly miscellaneous 1 Government of England, I., 131. 64 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE sort those, in general, belonging to the ancient secretariat which have not been assigned to the care of other departments; (2) the Secretary of State fqr Foreign Affajp, at the head of a department which not only conducts foreign relations but administers the affairs of such protectorates as are not closely connected with any of the colonies; (3) the Secretary of State for the Colonies; (4) the Secretary Qf_$ta*e for ffiar: and (5) the Secretary of StateTor India, assisted by a special India Council of ten to fourteen members. 66. The Administrative Boards. The third general group of depart- ments comprises those which have arisen through the establishment in comparatively recent years of a variety of administrative boards or commissions. Two the "Rn^rH ^ T r flifJS and the Board of Education originated as committees of the Privy Council. Three" otherstrie Board of AgrJOiit^re, the Board^fJ^Jjjris, and the Loca^GoyjerrnTient Boarji^-represent the development of aaministrative commissions not conceived of originally as vested with political character. All are in effect independent and co-ordinate governmental departments. The composition and functions of the Board of Trade are regulated by order in council at the opening of each reign, but the character of the other four is determined wholly by statute. At the head of each is a president (save that the chief of the Board of Works is known as First Commissioner), and the membership embraces the five secretaries of state and a variable number of other important dignitaries. This membership, however, is but nominal. No one of the Boards actually meets, and the work of each is performed entirely by its president, with, in some instances, the assistance of a parliamentary under- secretary. "In practice, therefore, these boards are legal phantoms that provide imaginary colleagues for a single responsible minis ter." 1 Very commonly the presidents are admitted to the cabinet, but some- times they are not. 2 VI. THE CABINET: COMPOSITION AND CHARACTER 67. Regular and Occasional Members. The cabinet comprises a variable group of the principal ministers of state upon whom devolves singly the task of administering the affairs of their respective depart- ments and, collectively, that of shaping the policy and directing the conduct of the government as a whole. The position occupied by the 1 Lowell, Government of England. I., 84. 2 On the organization and workings of the executive departments see Lowell, op. cit., I., Chaps. 4-6; Marriott, English Political Institutions, Chap. 5; Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, II., Pt. i, Chap. 3; Traill, Central Govern- ment, Chaps. 3-11. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 65 cabinet in the constitutional system is anomalous, but transcendently important. As has been pointed out, the cabinet as such is unknown to English law. Legally, the cabinet member derives his administra- tive function from the fact of his appointment to a ministerial post, and his advisory function from his membership in the Privy Council. The cabinet exists as an informal, extra-legal ministerial group into whose hands, through prolonged historical development, has fallen the supreme direction of both the executive and the legislative ac- tivities of the state. The composition of the body is determined largely by custom, but in part by passing circumstance. Certain ministerial heads are invariably included: the First Lord of the Treas- ury, the Lord Chancellor, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the five Secretaries of State, and the First Lord of the Admiralty. Two dig- nitaries who possess no administrative function, i. e., the Lord President of the Privy Council and the Lord Privy Seal, 1 are likewise always included. Beyond this, the make-up of the cabinet group is left to the discretion of the premier. The importance of a given office at the moment and the wishes of the appointee, together with general con- siderations of party expediency, may well enter into a decision relative to the seating of individual departmental heads. In recent years the presidents of the Board of Trade, the Board of Education, and the Local Government Board have regularly been included, together with the Lord Lieutenant or the Chief Secretary for Ireland. 2 The Sec- retary for Scotland and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster are usually included; the Postmaster-General and the President of the Board of Agriculture frequently, and the First Commissioner of Works and the Lord Chancellor for Ireland occasionally. 68. Increasing Size. The trend is distinctly in the direction of an increase in the size of the body. The more notable cabinets of the eighteenth century contained, as a rule, not above seven to ten mem- bers. In the first half of the nineteenth century the number ran up to thirteen or fourteen, and throughout the Gladstone-Disraeli period it seldom fell below this level. The second Salisbury cabinet, at its fall in 1892, numbered seventeen, and when, following the elections of 1900, the third Salisbury government was reconstructed, the cabinet 1 The functions of this official are but nominal. In 1870 Sir Charles Dilke moved to abolish the office as useless, but Gladstone urged the desirability of having in the cabinet at least one man who should not be burdened with the management of a department, and the motion was lost. The presidency of the Council is a post like- wise of dignity but of meager governmental power or responsibility. 2 In theory the powers of the executive are exercised in Ireland by the Lord Lieutenant, but in practice they devolve almost entirely upon the nominally in- ferior official, the Chief Secretary. 66 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE attained a membership of twenty. 1 The Balfour cabinet of 1905 and the succeeding Campbell-Bannerman cabinet likewise numbered twenty. The increase is attributable to several causes, especially the pressure which comes from ambitious statesmen for admission to the influential circle, the growing necessity of according representation to varied elements and interests within the dominant party, the multi- plication of state activities which call for direction under new and important departments, and the disposition to accord to every con- siderable branch of the administrative system at least one representa- tive. The effect is to produce a certain unwieldiness, to avoid which, it will be recalled, the cabinet was originally instituted. Only through the domination of the cabinet by a few of its most influential members can expeditiousness be preserved, and during recent years there has been a tendency toward the differentiation of an inner circle which shall bear to the whole cabinet a relation somewhat analogous to that which the cabinet now bears to the ministry. Development in this direction is viewed apprehensively by many people who regard that the concentration of power in the hands of an "inner cabinet" might well fail to be accompanied by a corresponding concentration of recognized responsibility. During more than a decade criticism of the inordinate size of the cabinet group has been voiced freely upon numerous occasions and by many observers. 2 69. Appointment of the Premier. When a new cabinet is to be made up the first step is the designation of the prime minister. Legally the choice rests with the crown, but considerations of practical politics leave, as a rule, no room whatsoever for the exercise of discretion. The crown sends as a matter of course for the statesman who is able to command the support of the majority in the House of Commons. If the retiring ministry has " fallen," i. e., has lost its parliamentary majority, the new premier is certain to be the recognized leader of the party which formerly has played the role of opposition. If there has not occurred a shift in party status, the premiership will be bestowed upon some one of the colleagues, at least upon one of the fellow- partisans, of the retiring premier, nominated, if need be, by the chiefs of the party. Thus, when in 1894 Gladstone retired from office by reason of physical infirmity, the Liberal leaders in the two houses con- ferred upon the question as to whether he should be succeeded by 1 Lord Salisbury at this point retired from the Foreign Office, which was assigned to Lord Lansdowne, and assumed in conjunction with the premiership the less exacting post of Lord Privy Seal. 2 Lowell, Government of England, I., 59; Anson, Law and Custom of the Consti- tution, II., Pt. i, 211. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 67 Sir William Vernon-Harcourt or by Lord Rosebery. They recom- mended Lord Rosebery, who was forthwith appointed by the Queen. If, by any circumstance, the premiership should fall to the Opposition at a moment when the leadership of this element is in doubt, the crown would be guided, similarly, by the informally expressed will of the more influential party members. While, therefore, the appointment of the prime minister remains the sole important governmental act which is performed directly by the sovereign, even here the substance of power has been lost and only the form survives. 70. Selection of Other Members. The remaining members of the cabinet are selected by the premier, in consultation, as a rule, with leading members of the party. Technically, what happens is that the first minister places in the hands of the sovereign a list of the men whom he recommends for appointment to the principal offices of state. The crown accepts the list and there appears forthwith in the London/) Gazette an announcement to the effect that the persons named have been chosen by the crown to preside over the several departments. Officially, there is no mention of the "cabinet." In the selection of his colleagues the premier theoretically has a free hand. Practically he is bound by the necessity of complying with numerous principles and of observing various precedents and practical conditions. Two principles, in particular, must be adhered to in determining the structure of every cabinet. All of the members must have seats in one or the other of th two houses of Parliament, and all must be identified with the party in power, or, at the least, with an allied political group. There was a time, when the personal government of the king was yet a reality, when the House of Commons refused to admit to its membership persons who held office under the crown, and this disqualification found legal expression as late as the Act of Settlement of lyoi. 1 With the ripening of parliamentary government in the eighteenth century, however, the thing that once had been regarded properly enough as objectionable became a matter of unquestionable expediency, if not a necessity. When once the ministers comprised the real executive of the nation it was but logical that they should be authorized to appear on the floor of the two houses to introduce and advocate measures and to explain the acts of the government. Ministers had occupied regularly seats in the upper chamber, and not only was all objection to their occupying seats in the lower chamber removed, but by custom it came to be an inflexible rule that cabinet officers, and indeed the ministers gen- erally, should be drawn exclusively from the membership of the two 1 The clause of this measure which bore upon the point in hand was repealed, however, before it went into operation. 68 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE houses. 1 Under provision of an act of 1707 it is still obligatory upon commoners who are tendered a cabinet appointment, with a few ex- ceptions, to vacate their seats and to offer themselves to their constit- uents for re-election. But re-election almost invariably follows as a matter of course and without opposition. 2 It is to be observed that there are two expedients by which it is possible to bring into the cabi- net a desirable member who at the time of his appointment does not possess a seat in Parliament. The appointee may be created a peer; or he may stand for election to the Commons and, winning, qualify him- self for a cabinet post. 71. Distribution Between the Houses of Parliament. Since the middle of the eighteenth century the tenure of the premiership has been divided approximately equally between peers and commoners, but the apportionment of cabinet seats between the two houses has been extremely variable. The first cabinet of the reign of George III. contained fourteen members, thirteen of whom had seats in the House of Lords, and, in general, throughout the eighteenth century the peers were apt greatly to preponderate. With the growth in importance of the House of Commons, however, and especially after the Reform Act of 1832, the tendency was to draw an ever increasing proportion of the cabinet officers from the chamber in which lies the storm center of English politics. By legal stipulation one of the secretaries of state must sit in the upper house; and the Lord Privy Seal, the Lord Chancellor, and the Lord President of the Council are all but invariably peers. Beyond this, there is no positive requirement, in either law or custom. In the ministries of recent times the number of peers and of commoners has generally been not far from equal. To fill the various posts the premier must bring together the best men he can secure not necessarily the ablest, but those who will work together most effec- tively with but secondary regard to the question of whether they sit in the one or the other of the legislative houses. A department whose chief sits in the Commons is certain to be represented in the Lords by an under-secretary or other spokesman, and vice versa. 3 1 The one notable instance in which this rule has been departed from within the past seventy-five years was Gladstone's tenure of the post of Secretary of State for the Colonies during the last six months of the Peel administration in 1846. 2 On the reasons for the requirement of re-election and the movement for the abolition of the requirement see Moran, The English Government, 108-109. 3 In France and other continental countries in which the parliamentary system obtains an executive department is represented in Parliament by its presiding official only. But this official is privileged, as the English minister is not, to ap- pear and to speak and otherwise participate in proceedings on the floor of either chamber. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 69 72. Political Solidarity. A second fundamental principle whi< dominates the structure of the cabinet is that which requires that th< members be men of one political faith. William III. sought to govei with a cabinet in which there were both Whigs and Tories, but the result was confusion and the experiment was abandoned. Except during the ascendancy of Walpole, the cabinets of the eighteentl century very generally embraced men of more or less diverse politic* affiliations, but gradually the conviction took root that in the interest of unity and efficiency the political solidarity of the cabinet group isj indispensable. The last occasion upon which it was proposed to mak< up a cabinet from utterly diverse political elements was in 1812. scheme was rejected, and from that day to this cabinets have been^ composed regularly, not necessarily of men identified with a comm< political party, but at least of men who are in substantial agreement upon the larger questions of policy and who have expressed their will- 1 ingness to co-operate in the carrying out of a given programme of action. The fundamental requisite is unity. A Liberal Unionis) may occupy a post in a Conservative cabinet and a Laborite in Liberal administration, but he may not oppose the Government upon any important question and expect to continue a member of it, save by the express permission of the premier. It is the obligation of every cabinet member to agree, or to appear to agree, with his colleagues. If he is unable to do this, no course is open to him save resignation. 73. Other Considerations Determining Appointment. In the selec- tion of his colleagues the premier works under still other practical restrictions. One of them is the well-established rule that surviving members of the last cabinet of the party, in so far as they are in active public life and desirous of appointment, shall be given prior considera- tion. Members of the party, furthermore, who have come into special prominence and influence in Parliament must usually be included. In truth, as Bagehot points out, the premier's independent choice is apt to find scope not so much in the determination of the cabinet's personnel as in the distribution of offices among the members selected; and even here he will often be obliged to subordinate his wishes to the inclinations, susceptibilities, and capacities of his prospective col- leagues. In the expressive simile of Lowell, the premier's task is "like that of constructing a figure out of blocks which are too nu- merous for the purpose, and which are not of shapes to fit perfectly together." 1 1 Government of England, I., 57. See MacDonaugh, The Book of Parliament, 148-183. 70 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE' VII. THE CABINET IN ACTION j 74. Ministerial Responsibility. In its actual operation the English > cabinet system involves the unvarying application of three principles : responsibility of cabinet ministers to Parliament; (2) the non- ty of cabinet proceedings; and (3) the close co-ordination of the cabinet group under the leadership of the premier. Every minister whether or not in the cabinet, is responsible individually to Parlia- ment, which in effect means to the House of Commons, for all of his public acts. If he is accorded a vote of censure he must retire. In the earlier eighteenth century the resignation of a cabinet officer did not affect the tenure of his colleagues, the first of cabinets to retire as a unit being that of Lord North in 1782. Subsequently, however, the ministerial body so developed in compactness that in relation to the outside world, and even to Parliament, the individual officer came to be effectually subordinated to the group. Not since 1866 has a cabinet member retired singly in consequence of an adverse parlia- mentary vote. If an individual minister falls into serious disfavor one of two things almost certainly happens. Either the offending member is persuaded by his colleagues to modify his course or to resign before formal parliamentary censure shall have been passed, or the cabinet as a whole rallies to the support of the minister in question and stands or falls with him. This is but another way of saying that, in practice, the responsibility of the cabinet is collective rather than individual, a condition by which the seriousness and effectiveness of it are vastly increased. This responsibility covers the entire range of acts of the executive department of the government, whether regarded as acts of the crown or of the ministers themselves, and it constitutes the most distinctive feature of the English parliamentary system. Formerly the only means by which ministers could be held to account by Parlia- ment was that of impeachment. With the development, however, of the principle of ministerial responsibility as a necessary adjunct to parliamentary government, the occasional and violent process of impeachment was superseded by continuous, inescapable, and pacific legislative supervision. The impeachment of cabinet ministers may be regarded, indeed, as obsolete. 75. How a Ministry may Be Overthrown. A fundamental maxim of the constitution to-day is that a cabinet shall continue in office only so long as it enjoys the confidence and support of a majority in the House of Commons. There are at least four ways in which a parlia- mentary majority may manifest its dissatisfaction with a cabinet, THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 71 and so compel its resignation. It may pass a simple vote of "want of confidence," assigning therefor no definite reason. It may pass a vote of censure, criticising the cabinet for some specific act. It may defeat a measure which the cabinet advocates and declares to be of vital importance. Or it may pass a bill in opposition to the advice of the ministers. The cabinet is not obliged to give heed to an adverse vote in the Lords; but when any of the four votes indicated is carried in the lower chamber the premier and his colleagues must do one of two things resign or appeal to the country. If it is clear that the cabinet has lost the support, not only of Parliament, but also of the electorate, the only honorable course for the ministry is that of resignation. If, on the other hand, there is doubt as to whether the parliamentary majority really represents the country upon the matters at issue, the ministers are warranted in requesting the sovereign to dissolve Parlia- ment and to order a general election. In such a situation the ministry continues tentatively in office. If at the elections there is returned a majority disposed to support the ministers, the cabinet is given a new lease of life. If, on the other hand, the new parliamentary majority is adverse, no course is open to the ministry save to retire. The new parliament will be convoked at the earliest practicable date; but in advance of its assembling the defeated cabinet will generally have resigned and a new government, presided over by the leader of the late Opposition, will have assumed the reins. During the interval required for the transfer of power none save routine business is likely to be undertaken. 76. Secrecy of Proceedings. Perpetually responsible to the House of Commons and imperatively obligated to resign collectively when no longer able to command a working majority in that body, the cabinet must at all times employ every device by which it may be enabled to present a solid and imposing front. Two such devices are those of secrecy and the leadership of the premier. It is a sufficiently famil- iar principle that a group of men brought together to agree upon and execute a common policy in behalf of a widespread and diverse con- stituency will be more likely to succeed if the differences that must inevitably appear within their ranks are not published to the world. It is in deference to this principle that the German Bundesrath trans- acts its business to this day behind closed doors, and it was for an analogous reason that the public was excluded from the sittings of the convention by which the present constitution of the United States was framed. Notices of meetings of the English cabinet and the names of members present appear regularly in the press, but respecting the subjects discussed, the opinions expressed, and the conclusions 72 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE arrived at not a word is given out, officially or unofficially. The oath of secrecy, required of all privy councillors, is binding in a special degree upon the cabinet officer. Not even the sovereign is favored with more than a statement of the topics considered, together with occasionally a formal draft of such decisions as require his assent. In the earlier part of the nineteenth century meager minutes of the proceedings were preserved, but nowadays no clerical employee is allowed to be present and no record whatsoever is kept. 1 For knowl- edge of past transactions members rely upon their own or their col- leagues' memories, supplemented at times by privately kept notes. The meetings, which are held only as occasion requires (usually as often as once a week when Parliament is in session) are notably in- formal. There is not even a fixed place where meetings are held, the members being gathered sometimes at the Foreign Office, sometimes at the premier's house, and, as circumstance may arise, at almost any convenient place. 77. Leadership of the Premier. The unity of the cabinet is further safeguarded and emphasized by the leadership of the prime minister. Long after the rise of the cabinet to controlling influence in the state the members of the ministerial body continued supposedly upon a common footing in respect both to rank and authority. The habitual abstention of the early Hanoverians from attendance at cabinet meet- ings, however, left the group essentially leaderless, and by a natural process of development the members came gradually to recognize a virtual presidency on the part of one of their own number. In time what was a mere presidency was converted into a thoroughgoing leadership, in short, into the premier's office of to-day. It is commonly regarded that the first person who fulfilled the functions of prime minister in the modern sense was Sir Robert Walpole, First Lord of the Treasury from 1715 to 1717 and from 1721 to 1742. The phrase " prime minister" was not at that time in use, but that the realities of the office existed is indicated by a motion made in the Commons attacking Walpole on the ground that he had "grasped in his own hands every branch of government; had attained the sole direction of affairs; had monopolized all the powers of the crown; had compassed the disposal of all places, pensions, titles, and rewards" almost pre- cisely, as one writer puts it, what the present premier is doing and is 1 The same thing is true of the President's cabinet in the United States. The reasons for the policy are obvious and ample; but the preservation of cabinet records, whether in Great Britain or the United States, would, if such records were to be made accessible, facilitate enormously the task of the historian and of the student of practical government. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 73 expected to do. 1 By the time of the establishment of the ministry of the younger Pitt, in 1783, the ascendancy of the premier among his colleagues was an accomplished fact and was recognized as altogether legitimate. The enormous power of the premier, arising immediately upon the ruins of the royal prerogative, was brought virtually to com- pletion when, during the later years of George III., the rule became fixed that in constituting a ministry the king should but ratify the choice of officials made by the premier. Not until 1906 was the premier's office recognized by law, 2 but through more than a century no other public position in the nation has been comparable with it in volume of actual ruling power. Within the ministry, more particularly the cabinet, the premier is the guiding force. He presides, as a rule, at cabinet meetings; he advises with colleagues upon all matters of consequence to the administration's welfare; and, although he will shrink from doing it, he may require of his colleagues that they acquiesce in his views, with the alternative of his resignation. 3 He occupies one of the high offices of state, usually that of First Lord of the Treasury; and, although ordinarily his own portfolio will not require much of his time or energy, he must main- tain as close a watch as may be over the affairs of every one of the de- partments in which his appointees have been placed. The prime min- ister, is, furthermore, the link between the cabinet and, on the one hand, the crown, and, on the other, Parliament. On behalf of the cabinet he advises with the sovereign, communicating information respecting ministerial acts and synopses of the daily debates in Parlia- 1 Moran, The English Government, 99. 2 In a statute fixing the order of precedence of public dignitaries. The premier's position, however, was defined by a royal warrant of December, 1905. 3 The resignation of the premier terminates ipso facto the life of the ministry. An excellent illustration of the accustomed subordination of individual differences of opinion to the interests of cabinet solidarity is afforded by some remarks made by Mr. Asquith, December 4, 1911, to a deputation of the National League for Op- posing Woman Suffrage. The deputation had called to protest against the Govern- ment's announced purpose to attach a suffrage amendment (if carried in the House of Commons) to a forthcoming measure of franchise reform. The Premier ex- plained that he was, and always had been, of the opinion that "the grant of the parliamentary franchise to women in this country would be a political mistake ot a very grievous kind." "So far," he continued, "we are in complete harmony with one another. On the other hand, I am, as you know, for the time being the head of the Government, in which a majority of my colleagues, a considerable majority of my colleaguesI may say that without violating the obligation of cabinet secrecy . . . are of a different opinion; and the Government in those circumstances has announced a policy which is the result of their combined deliber- ations, and by which it is the duty of all their members, and myself not least, to abide loyally. That is the position, so far as I am personally concerned." 74 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE ment. In the house of which he is a member he represents the cabinet as a whole, makes such statements as are necessary relative to general aspects of the government's policy, and speaks, as a rule, upon every general or important projected piece of legislation. As a matter of both theory and historical fact, the premier who belongs to the House of Commons is more advantageously situated than one who sits in the Lords. 1 ^ - 78. The Cabinet's Central Position. In the English governmental .Jt^system the cabinet is in every sense the keystone of the arch. Its mctions are both executive and legislative, and indeed, to employ the gure of Bagehot, it comprises the hyphen that joins, the buckle that tens, the executive and the legislative departments together. 2 As has been pointed out, the uses of the crown are by no means wholly ornamental. None the less, the actual executive of the nation is the cabinet. It is within the cabinet circle that administrative policies are decided upon, and it is by the cabinet ministers and their sub- ordinates in the several departments that these policies, and the laws of the land generally, are carried into effect. On the other side, the cabinet members not only occupy seats in one or the other of the houses of Parliament; collectively they direct the processes of legislation. They primarily the prime minister prepare the Speech from the Throne, in which at the opening of a parliamentary session the state of the country is reviewed and a programme of legislation is outlined. They formulate, introduce, explain, and advocate needful legislative measures upon all manner of subjects; and although bills may be sub- mitted in either house by private members it is a recognized principle that all measures of large importance shall emanate directly or in- directly from the cabinet. Statistics demonstrate that measures in- troduced by private members have but an infinitesimal chance of enactment. In effect, the cabinet comprises a parliamentary committee chosen, as Bagehot bluntly puts it, to rule the nation. If a cabinet group does not represent the ideas and purposes of Parliament as a whole, it at least represents those of the majority of the preponderating chamber; and that is ample to give it, during the space of its tenure of office, a thoroughgoing command of the situation. The basal fact of the political system is the control of party, and within the party the power that governs is the cabinet. "The machinery," says Lowell, "is one 1 Low, The Governance of England, Chap. 9; M. Sibert, tude sur le premier ministre en Angleterre depuis ses origines jusqu'i T6poque contemporaine (Paris, 1009). 2 The English Constitution (new ed.), 79- THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 75 of wheels within wheels; the outside ring consisting of the party that has a majority in the House of Commons; the next ring being the min- istry, which contains the men who are most active within that party; and the smallest of all being the cabinet, containing the real leaders or chiefs. By this means is secured that unity of party action which depends upon placing the directing power in the hands of a body small enough to agree, and influential enough to control." 1 1 Government of England, I., 56. The best discussion of the organization, func- tions, and relationships of the cabinet is contained in Lowell, op. cit., I., Chaps. 2-3, 17-18, 22-23. Other good general accounts are Low, Governance of England, Chaps. 2-4, 8-9; Moran, English Government, Chaps. 4-9; Macy, English Con- stitution, Chap. 6; Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, II., Pt. i, Chap. 2; and Maitland, Constitutional History of England, 387-430. A detailed and still valuable survey is in Todd, Parliamentary Government, Parts 3-4. A brilliant study is Bagehot, English Constitution, especially Chaps, i, 6-9. The growth of the cabinet is well described in Blauvelt, The Development of Cabinet Govern- ment in England; and a monograph of value is P. le Vasseur, Le cabinet britan- nique sous la reine Victoria (Paris, 1902). For an extended bibliography see Select List of Books on the Cabinets of England and America (Washington, 1903), com- piled in the Library of Congress under the direction of A. P. C. Griffin. CHAPTER IV PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 79. Antiquity and Importance. The British Parliament is at once the oldest, the most comprehensive in jurisdiction, and the most power- ful among modern legislative assemblages. In structure, and to some extent in function, it is a product, as has appeared, of the Middle Ages. The term "parliament," employed originally to denote a discussion or conference, was applied officially to the Great Council in I275; 1 and by the opening of the fourteenth century the institution which the English know to-day by that name had come clearly into existence, being then, indeed, what technically it still is the king and the three estates of the realm, i. e., the lords spiritual, the lords temporal, and the com- mons. During upwards of a hundred years the three estates sat and deliberated separately. By the close of the reign of Edward III. (1327- 1377), however, the bicameral principle had become fixed, and through- out the whole of its subsequent history (save during the Cromwellian era of experimentation) Parliament has comprised uninterruptedly, aside from the king, the two branches which exist at the present time, the House of Lords and the House of Commons, or, strictly, the Lords of Parliament and the Representatives of the Commons. The range of jurisdiction which, step by step, these chambers, both separately and conjointly, have acquired has been broadened until, so far as the dominions of the British crown extend, it covers all but the whole of the domain of human government. And within this enormous expanse of political control the competence of the chambers knows, in neither theory nor fact, any restriction. "The British Parlia- ment, . . ." writes Mr. Bryce, "can make and unmake any and every law, change the form of government or the succession to the crown, interfere with the course of justice, extinguish the most sacred private rights of the citizen. Between it and the people at large there is no legal distinction, because the whole plenitude of the people's rights and powers resides in it, just as if the whole nation were present within the chamber where it sits. In point of legal theory it is the nation, being the historical successor of the Folk Moot of our Teutonic fore- 1 In the First Statute of Westminster. 76 PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 77 fathers. Both practically and legally, it is to-day the only and the sufficient depository of the authority of the nation; and it is therefore, within the sphere of law, irresponsible and omnipotent." 1 Whether the business in hand be constituent or legislative, whether ecclesias- tical or temporal, the right of Parliament or, more accurately "the King in Parliament" to discuss and to dispose is indisputable. I. THE HOUSE OF COMMONS PRIOR TO 1832 80. Present Ascendancy. Legally, as has been explained, Parlia- ment consists of the king, the lords spiritual, the lords temporal, and the commons. For practical purposes, however, it is the House of Commons alone. "When," as Spencer Walpole wrote a quarter of a century ago, "a minister consults Parliament he consults the House of Commons; when the Queen dissolves Parliament she dissolves the House of Commons. A new Parliament is simply a new House of Commons." ' The gathering of the "representatives of the commons" at Westminster is, and has long been, without question the most important agency of government in the kingdom. The House of Com- mons consists at the present day of 670 members, of whom 465 sit for English constituencies, 30 for Welsh, 72 for Scottish, and 103 for Irish. Nine of the members are chosen, under somewhat special conditions, by the universities, but the remaining 66 1 are elected in county or borough constituencies under franchise arrangements, which, while based upon residence and property qualifications, fall not far short of man- hood suffrage. The chamber is at the same time the preponderating repository of power in the national government and the prime organ of the popular will. It is in consequence of its prolonged and arduous development that Great Britain has attained democracy in national government; and the influence of English democracy as actualized in the House of Commons upon the political ideas and the governmental agencies of the outlying world, both English-speaking and non-English- speaking, is simply incalculable. 81. Undemocratic Character at the Opening of the Nineteenth Cen- tury. "The virtue, the spirit, the essence of the House of Commons," once declared Edmund Burke, "consists in its being the express image of the nation." In the eighteenth century, however, when this assertion was made, the House of Commons was, in point of fact, far from con- stituting such an "image." Until, indeed, the nineteenth century was well advanced the nominally popular parliamentary branch was in 1 The American Commonwealth (30! ed.), I., 35-36. 8 The Electorate and the Legislature (London, 1892), 48. 78 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE reality representative, not of the mass of the nation, but of the aristo- cratic and governing elements, at best of the well-to-do middle classes; and a correct appreciation of the composition and character of the chamber as it to-day exists requires some allusion to the process by which its democratization was accomplished. In 1832 the year of the first great Reform Act the House of Commons consisted of 658 members, of whom 186 represented the forty counties and 472 sat for two hundred three boroughs. The apportionment of both county and borough members was haphazard and grossly inequitable. In the Unites States, and in many European countries, it is required by con- stitutional provision that following a decennial census there shall be a reapportionment of seats in the popular legislative chamber, the pur- pose being, of course, to preserve substantial equality among the elec- toral constituencies and, ultimately, an essential parity of political power among the voters. At no time, however, has there been in Great Britain either legislation or the semblance of a tradition in respect to this matter. Reapportionment has taken place only partially and at irregular intervals, and at but a few times in the history of the nation have constituencies represented at Westminster been even approxi- mately equal. Save that, in 1707, forty-five members were added to represent Scotland and, in 1801, one hundred to sit for Ireland, the identity of the constituencies represented in the Commons continued all but unchanged from the reign of Charles II. to the reform of 1832. 82. Need of a Redistribution of Seats. The population changes, in respect to both growth and distribution, falling within this extended period were, however, enormous. In 1689 the population of England and Wales was not in excess of 5,500,000. The census of 1831 revealed in these countries a population of 14,000,000. In the seventeenth and earlier eighteenth centuries the great mass of the English people lived in the south and east. Liverpool was but an insignificant town, Man- chester a village, and Birmingham a sand-hill. But the industrial revolution had the effect of bringing coal, iron, and water-power into enormous demand, and after 1775 the industrial center, and likewise the population center, of the country was shifted rapidly toward the north. In the hitherto almost uninhabited valleys of Lancashire and Yorkshire sprang up a multitude of factory towns and cities. In Par- liament these fast-growing populations were either glaringly under- represented or not represented at all. In 1831 the ten southernmost counties of England contained a population of 3,260,00x3 and returned to Parliament 235 members. 1 At the same time the six northernmost 1 That is to say, the quota of members mentioned was returned by the counties and by the boroughs contained geographically within them. PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 79 counties contained a population of 3,594,000, but returned only 68 members. Cornwall, with 300,000 inhabitants, had 42 representatives; Lancashire, with 1,330,000, had 14. Among towns, Birmingham and Manchester, each with upwards of 100,000 people, and Leeds and Sheffield, each with 50,000, had no representation whatever. On the other hand, boroughs were entitled to representation which contained ridiculously scant populations, or even no population at all. Gatto, in Surrey, was a park; Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, was a deserted hill; the remains of what once was Dunwich were under the waves of the North Sea. Bosseney, in Cornwall, was a hamlet of three cottages, eight of whose nine electors belonged to a single family. But Bosseney sent two members to the House of Commons. 83. County and Borough Franchise in 1831. Not only was there, thus, the most glaring lack of adjustment of parliamentary representa- tion to the distribution of population ; where the right of representation existed, the franchise arrangements under which members were elected were hopelessly heterogeneous and illiberal. Originally, as has been pointed out, 1 the representatives of the counties were chosen in the county court by all persons who were entitled to attend and to take part in the proceedings of that body. In 1429, during the reign of Henry VI., an act was passed ostensibly to prevent riotous and dis- orderly elections, wherein it was stipulated that county electors should thereafter comprise only such male residents of the county as possessed free land or tenement which would rent for as much as forty shillings a year above all charges. 2 Leaseholders, copyholders, small free- holders, and all non-landholders were denied the suffrage altogether. Even in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the number of forty- shilling freeholders was small. With the concentration of land in fewer hands, incident to the agrarian revolution of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it bore an increasingly diminutive ratio to the ag- gregate county population, and by 1832 the county electors comprised, as a rule, only a handful of large landed proprietors. Within the boroughs the franchise arrangements existing at the date mentioned were com- plicated and diverse beyond the possibility of general characterization. Many of the boroughs had been accorded parliamentary representation by the most arbitrary and haphazard methods, and at no time prior to 1830 was there legislation which so much as attempted to regulate the conditions of voting within them. There were "scot and lot" boroughs, "potwalloper" boroughs, burgage boroughs, corporation or "dose" boroughs, and "freemen" boroughs, to mention only the more 1 See p. 23. 2 Equivalent in present values to 30 or 40. 8o GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE important of the types that can be distinguished. 1 In some of these the franchise was, at least in theory, fairly democratic; but in most of them it was restricted by custom or local regulation to petty groups of property-holders or taxpayers, to members of the municipal corpora- tions, or even to members of a favored guild. With few exceptions, the borough franchise was illogical, exclusive, and non-expansive. 84. Political Corruption. A third fact respecting electoral conditions in the earlier nineteenth century is the astounding prevalence of ille- gitimate political influence and of sheer corruption. Borough members were very commonly not true representatives at all, but nominees of peers, of influential commoners, or of the government. It has been estimated that of the 472 borough members not more than 137 may be regarded as having been in any proper sense elected. The remainder sat for "rotten" boroughs, or for " pocket" boroughs whose populations were so meager or so docile that the borough might, as it were, be carried about in a magnate's pocket. In the whole of Cornwall there were only one thousand voters. Of the forty-two seats possessed by that section of the country twenty were controlled by seven peers, twenty- one were similarly controlled by eleven commoners, and but one was filled by free election. In 1780 it was asserted by the Duke of Rich- mond that a clear majority of the House of Commons was returned by six thousand persons. Bribery and other forms of corruption were so common that only the most shameless instances attracted public attention. Not merely votes, but seats, were bought and sold openly, and it was a matter of general understanding that 5,000 to 7,000 was the amount which a political aspirant might expect to be obliged to pay a borough-monger for bringing about his election. Seats were not infrequently advertised for sale in the public prints, and even for hire for a term of years. 2 II. PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, 1832-1885 86. Demand for Reform Prior to 1832. Active demand for a ref- ormation of the conditions that have been described antedated the nineteenth century. As early as 1690, indeed, John Locke denounced the absurdities of the prevailing electoral system, 3 although at the time they were inconsiderable in comparison with what they became by 1 See p. 23. 2 The monumental treatise on the House of Commons prior to 1832 is E. Porritt. The Unreformed House of Commons: Parliamentary Representation before 1832, 2 vols. (2d ed., Cambridge, 1909). On the prevalence of corruption see May and Holland, Constitutional History of England, I., 224-238, 254-262. 3 Treatises of Government, II., Chap. 13, 157. PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 8l 1832; and during the second half of the eighteenth century a number of interesting reform proposals notably that of the elder Pitt in 1766, that of Wilkes in 1776, and that of the younger Pitt in 1785 were widely though fruitlessly discussed. In 1780 a group of public-spirited men established a Society for Constitutional Information which during the ensuing decade carried on actively a propaganda in behalf of par- liamentary regeneration, and at a meeting under the auspices of this organization and presided over by Charles James Fox a programme was drawn up insisting upon innovations no less sweeping than the estab- lishment of manhood suffrage, the creation of equal electoral districts, the payment of members, the abolition of property qualifications for members, and adoption of the secret ballot. 1 The revolution in France and the prolonged contest with Napoleon stayed the reform movement, but after 1815 agitation was actively renewed. The economic and social ills of the nation in the decade following the restoration of peace were many, and the idea took hold widely that only through a recon- stitution of Parliament could adequate measures of amelioration be attained. The disposition of the Tory governments of the period was to resist the popular demand, or, at the most, to concede changes which would not affect the aristocratic character of the parliamentary chambers. But the reformers refused to be diverted from their funda- mental object, and in the end the forces of tradition, conservatism, and vested interest were obliged to give way. 2 86. The Reform Act of 1832. The first notable triumph was the enactment of the Reform Bill of 1832. The changes wrought by this memorable piece of legislation were two-fold, the first relating to the distribution of seats in Parliament, the second to the extension of the franchise. The number of Scottish members was increased from 45 to 54; that of Irish, from 100 to 105; that of English and Welsh was reduced from 513 to 499. There was no general reapportionment of seats, no effort to bring the parliamentary constituencies into precise and uniform relation to the census returns. But the most glaringly 1 It is of interest to observe that every one of the demands enumerated found a place half a century later among the "six points" of the Chartists. See pp. 82-83. A bill embodying the proposed reforms was introduced by the Duke of Richmond in 1780, but met with small favor. A second society The Friends of the People was formed in 1792 to promote the cause. 2 The reform movement prior to 1832 is admirably sketched in May and Holland, Constitutional History of England, I., 264-280. See also G. L. Dickinson, The Development of Parliament during the Nineteenth Century (London, 1895), Chap, i ; J. H. Rose, The Rise and Growth of Democracy in Great Britain (London, 1897), Chap, i; C. B. R. Kent, The English Radicals (London, 1899), Chaps. 1-2; and W. P. Hall, British Radicalism, 1791-1797 (New York, 1912). 82 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE inequitable of former conditions were remedied. Fifty-six boroughs, of populations under 2,000, were deprived entirely of representation, 1 thirty-one, of populations between 2,000 and 4,000, were reduced from two members to one, and one was reduced from four members to two. The 143 seats thus made available were redistributed, and the aggregate number (658) continued as before. Twenty-two large boroughs hitherto unrepresented were given two members each; twenty-one others were given one additional member each; and a total of sixty-five seats were allotted to twenty-seven of the English counties, the remaining thirteen being given to Scotland and Ireland. The redistribution had the effect of increasing markedly the political power of the northern and north- central portions of the country. The alterations introduced in the franchise were numerous and important. In the counties the forty- shilling freehold franchise, with some limitations, was retained; but the voting privilege was extended to all leaseholders and copyholders of land renting for as much as 10 a year, and to tenants-at-will holding an estate worth 50 a year. In the boroughs the right to vote was con- ferred upon all "occupiers" of houses worth 10 a year. The total number of persons enfranchised was approximately 455,000. By basing the franchise exclusively upon the ownership or occupancy of property of considerable value the reform fell short of admitting to political power the great mass of factory employees and of agricultural laborers, and for this reason it was roundly opposed by the more advanced liberal elements. If, however, the voting privilege had not been extended to the masses it had been brought appreciably nearer them; and what was almost equally important it had been made substantially uni- form, for the first time, throughout the realm. 2 87. The Chartist Movement. The act of 1832 possessed none of the elements of finality. Its authors were in general content, but with the lapse of time it was made increasingly manifest that the nation was not. Political power was still confined to the magnates of the kingdom, the townsfolk who were able to pay a 10 annual rental, and the well- to-do copyholders and leaseholders of rural districts. Whigs and Tories of influence alike insisted that further innovation could not be contem- plated, but the radicals and the laboring masses insisted no less reso- lutely that the reformation which had been begun should be carried to its logical conclusion. The demands upon which emphasis was especially placed were gathered up in the "six points" of the People's Charter, promulgated in final form May 8, 1838. The six points were: 1 Of the fifty-six all save one had returned two members. 2 The more important parts of the text of the Reform Bill of 1832 are printed in Robertson, Statutes, Cases and Documents, 197-212. PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 83 (i) universal suffrage for males over twenty-one years of age, (2) equal electoral districts, (3) voting by secret ballot, (4) annual sessions of Parliament, (5) the abolition of property qualifications for members of the House of Commons, and (6) payment of members. The barest enumeration of these demands is sufficient to reveal the political back- wardness of the England of three-quarters of a century ago. Not only was the suffrage still severely restricted and the basis of repre- sentation antiquated and unfair; voting was oral and public, and only men who were qualified by the possession of property were eligible for election. 1 88. The Representation of the People Act of 1867. After a decade of spectacular propaganda Chartism collapsed, without having attained tangible results. None the less, the day was not long postponed when the forces of reform, sobered and led by practical statesmen, were en- abled to realize one after another of their fundamental purposes. In 1858 the second Derby government acquiesced in the enactment of a measure by which all property qualifications hitherto required of English, Welsh, and Irish members were abolished, 2 and after 1860 projects for franchise extension were considered with increasing seriousness. In 1 867 the third Derby government, whose guiding spirit was Disraeli, carried a bill providing for an electoral reform of a more thoroughgoing character than any persons save the most uncompromising of the radicals had ever asked or desired. This Representation of the People Act modified but slightly the distribution of parliamentary seats. The total number of seats remained unchanged, as did Ireland's quota of 105 ; Scotland's apportionment was increased from 54 to 60, while that of England and Wales was decreased from 499 to 493; and in the course of the re- allotment that was made eleven boroughs lost the right of representa- tion and thirty-five others were reduced from two members to one. The fifty-two seats thus vacated were utilized to enfranchise twelve new borough and three university constituencies and to increase the repre- sentation of a number of the more populous towns and counties. The most important provisions of the Act were, however, those relat- ing to the franchise. In England and Wales the county franchise was guaranteed to men whose freehold was of the value of forty shillings a year, to copyholders and leaseholders of the annual value of 5, and to 1 Rose, Rise and Growth of Democracy, Chaps. 6-8; Kent, The English Radicals, Chap. 3; and R. G. Gammage, History of the Chartist Movement, 1837-1854 (Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1894). 2 By law of 1710 it had been required that county members should possess landed property worth 600, and borough members worth 300, a year. These qualifications were very commonly evaded, but they were not abolished until 1858. 84 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE householders whose rent amounted to not less than 12 a year. The twelve pound occupation franchise was new, 1 and the qualification for copyholders and leaseholders was reduced from 10 to 5; otherwise the county franchise was unchanged. The borough franchise was modified profoundly. Heretofore persons were qualified to vote as householders only in the event that their house was worth as much as 10 a year. Now the right was conferred upon every man who occupied, as owner or as tenant, for twelve months, a dwelling-house, or any portion thereof utilized as a separate dwelling, without regard to its value. Another newly established franchise admitted to the voting privilege all lodgers occupying for as much as a year rooms of the clear value, unfurnished, of 10 a year. The effect of these provisions was to enfranchise the urban working population, even as the act of 1832 had enfranchised principally the urban middle class. So broad, indeed, did the urban franchise at this point become that little room was left for its modifica- tion subsequently. As originally planned, Disraeli's measure would have enlarged the electorate by not more than 100,000; as amended and carried, it practically doubled the voting population, raising it from 1,370,793 immediately prior to 1867 to 2,526,423 in i87i. 2 By the act of 1832 the middle classes had been enfranchised; by that of 1867 political power was thrown in no small degree into the hands of the masses. Only two large groups of people remained now outside the pale of political influence, i. e., the agricultural laborers and the miners. 89. The Representation of the People Act of 1884. That the quali- fications for voting in one class of constituencies should be conspicuously more liberal than in another class was an anomaly, and hi a period when anomalies were at last being eliminated from the English electoral system remedy could not be long delayed. February 5, 1884, the second Gladstone ministry redeemed a campaign pledge by introducing a bill extending to the counties the same electoral regulations that had been established in 1867 in the towns. The measure passed the Com- mons, but was rejected by the Lords by reason of the fact that it was not accompanied by a bill for the redistribution of seats. By an agree- ment between the two houses a threatened deadlock was averted, and the upshot was that before the end of the year the Lords accepted the Government's bill, on the understanding that its enactment was to be followed immediately by the introduction of a redistribution measure. 1 It may be regarded, however, as taking the place of the 50 rental franchise. 2 It is to be observed that these figures are for the United Kingdom as a whole, embracing the results not merely of the act of 1867 applying to England and Wales but of the two acts of 1868 introducing similar, though not identical, changes in Scotland and Ireland. PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 85 The Representation of the People Act of 1884 is in form disjointed and difficult to understand, but the effect of it is easy to state. By it there was established a uniform household franchise and a uniform lodger franchise in all counties and boroughs of the United Kingdom. The occupation of any land or tenement of a clear annual value of 10 was made a qualification in boroughs and counties alike; and persons occupy- ing a house by virtue of office or employment were to be deemed "occu- piers" for the purpose of the act. The measure doubled the county electorate and increased the total electorate by some 2,000,000, or ap- proximately forty per cent. Its most important effect was to enfranchise the workingman in the country, as the act of 1867 had enfranchised the workingman in the town. 90. The Redistribution of Seats Act, 1886. In 1885, the two great parties co-operating, there was passed the Redistribution of Seats Act which had been promised. Now for the first time in English history attempt was made to apportion representation in the House of Commons in something like strict accordance with population densities. In the first place, the total number of members was increased from 658 1 to 670, and of the number 103 were allotted to Ireland, 72 to Scotland, and 495 to England and Wales. In the next place, the method by which former redistributions had been accomplished, i. e., transferring seats more or less arbitrarily from flagrantly over-represented boroughs to more pop- ulous boroughs and counties, was replaced by a method based upon the principle of equal electoral constituencies, each returning one member. In theory a constituency was made to comprise 50,000 people. Boroughs containing fewer than 15,000 inhabitants were disfranchised as boroughs, becoming for electorial purposes portions of the counties in which they were situated. Boroughs of between 15,000 and 50,000 inhabitants were allowed to retain, or if previously unrepresented were given, one member each. Those of between 50,000 and 165,000 were given two members, and those of more than 165,000 three, with one in addition for every additional 50,000 people. The same general principle was followed in the counties. Thus the city of Liverpool, which prior to 1885 sent three members to Parliament, fell into nine distinct con- stituencies, each returning one member, and the great northern county of Lancashire, which since 1867 had been divided into four portions each returning two members, was now split into twenty-three divisions with one member each. The boroughs which prior to 1885 elected two members, and at the redistribution retained that number, remained single constituencies for the election of those two members. Of these 1 Strictly 652, since after 1867 four boroughs, returning six members, were dis- franchised. 86 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE boroughs there are to-day twenty-three. They, together with the city of London and the three universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, comprise the existing twenty-seven two-member constituencies. By partition of the counties, of the old boroughs having more than two members, and of the new boroughs with only two members, all save these twenty-seven constituencies have been erected into separate, single-member electoral divisions, each with its own name and identity. 1 III. THE FRANCHISE AND THE ELECTORAL QUESTIONS or TO-DAY 91. The Franchise as It Is. By the measures of 1884 and 1885 the House of Commons was placed upon a broadly democratic basis. Both measures stand to-day upon the statute-books, and neither has been amended in any important particular. With respect to the exist- ing franchises there are two preponderating facts. One of them is that individuals, as such, do not possess the privilege of voting; on the contrary, the possession of the privilege is determined all but invariably in relation to the ownership or occupation of property. The other is that the franchise system, while substantially uniform throughout the kingdom, is none the less the most complicated in Europe. There are three important franchises which are universal and two which are not. In the first group are included: (i) occupancy, as owner or tenant, of land or tenement of a clear yearly value of 10; (2) occupancy, as owner or tenant, of a dwelling-house, or part of a house used as a 1 On the reforms of the period 1832-1885 see Cambridge Modern History, X,, Chap. 18, and XI,, Chap. 12; Dickinson, Development of Parliament, Chap. 2; Rose, Rise and Growth of Democracy, Chaps. 2, 10-13; Marriott, English Political Insti- tutions, Chap. 10. An excellent survey is May and Holland, Constitutional History of England, I., Chap. 6, and III., Chap. i. Mention may be made of H. Cox, A His- tory of the Reform Bills of 1866 and 1867 (London, 1868); J. S. Mill, Considerations on Representative Government (London, 1861); and T. Hare, The Election of Rep- resentatives, Parliamentary and Municipal (3d ed., London, 1865). An excellent survey by a Swiss scholar is contained in C. Borgeaud, The Rise of Modern De- mocracy in Old and New England, trans, by B. Hill (London, 1894), and a useful volume is J. Murdock, A History of Constitutional Reform in Great Britain and Ireland (Glasgow, 1885). The various phases of the subject are covered, of course, in the general histories of the period, notably S. Walpole, History of England from the Conclusion of the Great War in 1815, 6 vols. (new ed., London, 1902); W. N. Molesworth, History of England from the year 1830-1874, 3 vols. (London, 1874); J. F. Bright, History of England, 5 vols. (London, 1875-1894); H. Paul, History of Modern England, 5 vols. (London, 1904-1906); and S. Low and L. C. Sanders, His- tory of England during the Reign of Victoria (London, 1907). Three biographical works are of special service: S. Walpole, Life of Lord John Russell, 2 vols. (London, 1889); J- Morley, Life of William E. Gladstone, 3 vols. (London, 1903); and W. F, Monypenny, Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, vols. 1-2 (London and New York, 1910-1912). PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 87 separate dwelling, without regard to its value; and (3) occupancy of lodgings of the value, unfurnished, of 10 a year. The two franchises which are not universal are (i) ownership of land of forty shillings yearly value or occupation of land under certain other specified condi- tions this being applicable only to counties and, to a small extent, to boroughs which are counties in themselves; and (2) residence of free- men in those towns in which they had a right to vote prior to 1832. The conditions and exceptions by which these various franchises are attended are so numerous that few people in England save lawyers make a pretense of knowing them all, and the volume of litigation which arises from the attempted distinction between "householder" and "lodger," and from other technicalities of the subject, is enormous. Voters must be twenty-one years of age, and there are several com- plicated requirements in respect to the period of occupation of land and of residence, and likewise in respect to the fulfillment of the formalities of registration. 1 There are also various incidental dis- qualifications. No peer, other than a peer of Ireland who is in posses- sion of a seat in the House of Commons, may vote; persons employed as election agents, canvassers, clerks, or messengers may not vote, nor may the returning officers of the constituencies, save when necessary to break a tie between two candidates; and aliens, felons, and, under stipulated conditions, persons in receipt of public charity, are similarly debarred. In the aggregate, however, the existing franchises ap- proach measurably near manhood suffrage. It has been computed that the ratio of electors to population is approximately one in six, whereas, the normal proportion of males above the age of twenty- one, making no allowance for paupers, criminals, and other persons commonly disqualified by law, is somewhat less than one in four. The only classes of adult males at present excluded regularly from the voting privilege are domestic servants, bachelors living with their parents and occupying no premises on their own account, and persons whose change of abode periodically deprives them of a vote. "The present condition of the franchise," asserts Lowell, "is, indeed, historical rather than rational. It is complicated, uncertain, expensive in the machinery required, and excludes a certain number of people whom there is no reason for excluding, while it admits many people who ought not to be admitted if any one is to be debarred." 2 During the 1 On the process of registration see Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, I., 134-137, and M. Caudel, L'enregistrement des electeurs en Angleterre, in An- nales des Sciences Politiques, Sept., 1906. 2 Government of England, I,, 213. On the franchise system see Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, I., Chap. 4 and Lowell, op. cit., I., Chap. 9. 88 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE past generation there has been demand from a variety of quarters that the conditions of the franchise, and, indeed, the electoral system as a whole, be overhauled, co-ordinated, and liberalized; and at the date of writing (1912) there is pending in Parliament a measure of fundamental importance looking in this direction. The electoral changes which have been most widely advocated, at least in recent years, are four in number: (i) a fresh apportionment of seats in the Commons in accordance with the distribution of population; (2) the extension of the franchise to classes of men at present de- barred; (3) the abolition of the plural vote; and (4) the enfranchise- ment of women. 92. The Question of Redistribution of Seats. As has been pointed out, the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 established constituencies in which there was some approach to equality. The principle was far from completely carried out. For example, the newly created borough of Chelsea contained upwards of 90,000 people, while the old borough of Windsor had fewer than 20,000. But the inequalities left untouched by the act were slight in comparison with those which have arisen during a quarter of a century in which there has been no reapportionment whatsoever. In 1901 the least populous constituency of the United Kingdom, the borough of Newry in Ireland, contained but 13,137 people, while the southern division of the county of Essex contained 217,030; yet each was represented by a single member. This means, of course, a gross disparity in the weight of popular votes, and, in effect, the over-representation of certain sets of opinions and interests. In January, 1902, an amendment to a parliamentary address urging the desirability of redistribution was warmly debated in the Commons, and, on the eve of its fall, in the summer of 1905, the Balfour govern- ment submitted a Redistribution Resolution designed to meet the demands of the "one vote, one value" propagandists. At this time it was pointed out that whereas immediately after the reform of 1885 the greatest ratio of disparity among the constituencies was 5.8 to i, in twenty years it had risen to 16.5 to i. The plan proposed provided for the fixing of the average population to be represented by a member at from 50,000 to 65,000, the giving of eighteen additional seats to England and Wales and of four to Scotland, the reduction of Ireland's quota by twenty-two, and such further readjustments as would bring down the ratio of greatest disparity to 6.8 to i. Under a ruling of the Speaker to the effect that the resolution required to be divided into eight or nine parts, to be debated separately, the proposal was withdrawn. It was announced that a bill upon the subject would be brought in, but the early retirement of the ministry rendered this PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 89 impossible, and throughout succeeding years this aspect of electoral reform yielded precedence to other matters. 1 A special difficulty inherent in the subject is imposed by the peculiar situation of Ireland. By reason of the decline of Ireland's population during the past half century that portion of the United Kingdom has come to be markedly over-represented at Westminster. The average Irish commoner sits for but 44,147 people, while the average English member represents 66,971. If a new distribution were to be made in strict proportion to members Ireland would lose 30 seats and Wales three, while Scotland would gain one and England about 30. It is contended by the Irish people, however, that the Act of Union of 1800, whereby Ireland was guaranteed as many as one hundred parlia- mentary seats, is in the nature of a treaty, whose stipulations cannot be violated save by the consent of both contracting parties; and so long as the Irish are not allowed a separate parliament they may be depended upon to resist, as they did resist in 1905, any proposal contemplating the reduction of their voting strength in the parliament of the United Kingdom. 93. The Problem of the Plural Vote. Aside from the enfranchise- ment of women, the principal suffrage questions in Great Britain to-day are those pertaining to the conferring of the voting privilege upon adult males who are still debarred, the abolition of the plural vote, and a general simplification and unification of franchise arrangements. The problem of the plural vote is an old one. Under existing law an elector may not vote more than once in a single constituency, nor in more than one division of the same borough; but aside from this, and except in so far as is not prohibited by residence requirements, he is entitled to vote in every constituency in which he possesses a qualifi- cation. In the United States and in the majority of European countries a man is possessed of but one vote, and any arrangement other than this would seem to contravene the principle of civic equality which lies at the root of popular government. In England there have been repeated attempts to bring about the establishment of an unvarying rule of " one man, one vote," but never as yet with success. The number of plural voters some 525,000 is relatively small, but when it is remembered that a single voter may cast during a parliamentary election as many as fifteen or twenty votes it will be observed that the number quite suffices to turn the scale in many closely contested constituencies. An overwhelming proportion of the plural voters are identified with the Conservative party, whence it arises that the Liberals are, and long have been, hostile to the privilege. Following the Liberal triumph 1 Annual Register (1905), 193. 90 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE at the elections of 1906 a Plural Voting Bill was introduced requiring that every elector possessed of more than one vote should be registered in the constituency of his choice and in no other one. The measure passed the Commons, by a vote of 333 to 104, but the Conservative majority in the Lords compassed its defeat, alleging that while it was willing to consider a complete scheme of electoral reform the proposed bill was not of such character. 1 94. The Franchise^ pj" "f iqjQ Soon after the final enactment, in August, 1911, of the Parliament Bill whereby the complete ascen- dancy of the Commons was secured in both finance and legislation 2 the Liberal government of Mr. Asquith made known its intention to bring forward at an early date a comprehensive measure of franchise reform. During the winter of 1911-1912 the project was formulated, and in the early summer of 1912 the bill was introduced. The adoption of the measure in its essentials is not improbable, although at the date of writing 3 it is by no means assured. In the main, the bill makes pro- vision for three reforms. In the first place, it substitutes for the present complicated and illogical network of suffrages a simple residential or occupational qualification, thereby extending the voting privilege to practically all adult males. In the second place, it simplifies the process of registration and, in effect, enfranchises large numbers of men who in the past have been unable to vote because of change of residence or of the difficulties of the registration process. Finally, it abolishes abso- lutely both the plural vote and the separate representation of the uni- versities. The effect of the first two of these provisions, it is estimated, would be to enlarge the electorate by 2,500,000 votes, that of the third, to reduce it by upwards of 600,000; 4 so that the net result of the three would be to raise an existing electorate of eight millions to one of ten millions. A total of twenty-eight franchise statutes are totally, and forty-four others are partially, repealed by the bill. The ground upon which the measure, in its earlier stages, was attacked principally was its lack of provision for a redistribution of seats. The defense of the Government has been that, while the imperative need of redistribution is recognized, such redistribution can be effected only after it shall be 1 May and Holland, Constitutional History of England, III,, 48-49. It may be noted that an able royal commission, appointed in December, 1908, to study for- eign electoral systems and to recommend modifications of the English system, re- ported in 1910 adversely to the early adoption of any form of proportional repre- sentation. 2 See pp. 110-113. 3 October, 1912. 4 The number of plural voters is placed at 525,000; that of graduates who elect the university representatives, at 49,614. PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 91 known precisely what the franchise arrangements of the kingdom are to be. 1 96. The Question of Woman's Suffrage. It will be observed that the Franchise Bill restricts the franchise to adult males. The measure was shaped deliberately, however, to permit the incorporation of an amend- ment providing for the enfranchisement of women. It is a fact not familiarly known that English women of requisite qualifications were at one time in possession of the suffrage at national elections. They were not themselves allowed to vote, but a woman was privileged to pass on her qualifications temporarily to any man, and, prior to the seventeenth century, the privilege was occasionally exercised. It was not indeed, until the Reform Act of 1832 that the law of elections, by in- troducing the phrase "male persons," in effect vested the parliamentary franchise exclusively in men. 2 The first notable attempt made in Parliament to restore and extend the female franchise was that of John Stuart Mill in 1867. His proposed amendment to the reform bill of that year was defeated by a vote of 196 to 73. In 1870 a woman's suffrage measure drafted by Dr. Pankhurst and introduced in the Commons by John Bright passed its second reading by a majority of thirty-three, but was subsequently rejected. During the seventies and early eighties a vigorous propaganda was maintained and almost every session produced its crop of woman's suffrage bills. A deter- mined attempt was made to secure the inclusion of a woman's suffrage clause in the Reform Bill of 1884. The proposed amendment was sup- ported very generally by the press, but in consequence of a threat by Gladstone to the effect that if the amendment were carried the entire measure would be withdrawn the project was abandoned. The next chapter of importance in the history of the movement was inaugurated by the organization, in 1903, of the Women's Social and Political Union. In 1904 a suffrage bill was introduced but failed to become law. Within the past decade, however, the cause has made substantial headway, and by the spectacular character which it has assumed it has attracted wide attention. In March, 1912, a Woman's Enfranchise- ment measure was rejected in the House of Commons by the narrow margin of 222 to 208 votes. Premier Asquith is opposed to female enfranchisement, but his colleagues in the ministry are almost evenly divided upon the issue, and it is not inconceivable that a woman's suffrage measure may be carried through in the guise of an amendment to the pending Franchise Bill. If it were to be, and the qualifications 1 A timely volume is J. King and F. W. Raffety, Our Electoral System; the Demand for Reform (London, 1912). 2 May and Holland, Constitutional History of England, III., 61. 92 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE should be made identical with those of men, the number of women voters would be approximately io,5oo,ooo. 1 96. Qualifications for Election. The regulations governing the quali- fications essential for election to Parliament are to-day, on the whole, simple and liberal. The qualification of residence was replaced in the eighteenth century by a property qualification; but, as has been pointed out, in 1858 this likewise was swept away. Oaths of allegiance and oaths imposing religious tests once operated to debar many, but all that is now required of a member is a very simple oath or affirmation of allegi- ance, in a form compatible with any shade of religious belief or unbelief. Any male British subject who is of age is qualified for election, unless he belongs to one of a few small groups notably peers (except Irish); clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England, and the Church of Scotland; certain office-holders; bankrupts; and persons convicted of treason, felony, or corrupt practices. A member is not required to be a resident of the electoral district which he represents. Once elected, a man properly qualified cannot escape membership by resignation. He may be expelled, but the only means by which he can retire from the House voluntarily is the acceptance of some public post whose occupant is ipso facto disqualified. To serve this end two or three sinecures are maintained, the best known being the stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds. The member who desires to give up his seat accomplishes his purpose by applying for one of these offices, re- ceiving it, and after having disqualified himself, resigning it. IV. ELECTORAL PROCEDURE AND REGULATIONS 97. Writs and Election Days. When a parliament is dissolved the royal proclamation wherein the dissolution is declared expresses the desire of the crown to have the advice of the people and announces the sovereign's will and pleasure to call a new parliament. With this proclamation as a warrant, the chancellors of Great Britain and Ireland forthwith issue writs of election, addressed to the returning officers of the counties and boroughs, i. e., in all Scotch and Irish constituencies and in the English counties the sheriffs, or their deputies, and in the English boroughs the mayors. The form of these writs, as well as the nature of the electoral procedure generally, is prescribed in the Parliamentary and Municipal Elections Act, commonly known as the Ballot Act, of 1 K. Schirmacher, The Modern Woman's Rights Movement, trans, by C. C. Eckhardt (New York, 1912), 58-96; B. Mason, The Story of the Woman's Suffrage Movement (London, 1911); E. S. Pankhurst, The Suffragette; the History of the Woman's Militant Suffrage Movement, 1905-1910 (London, 1911). The subject is surveyed briefly in May and Holland, Constitutional History, III,, 59-66. PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 93 1872. 1 Upon receipt of the proper writ the returning officer gives notice of the day and place of the election, and of the poll if it is known that the election will be contested. In the counties the election must take place within nine days, in the boroughs within four days, after receipt of the writ, but within these limits the date is fixed in each constituency by the returning officer. What actually happens on election day is: (i) all candidates for seats are placed formally in nomination; (2) if within an hour of the time fixed for the election the number of nomi- nated candidates does not exceed the number of places to be filled, the election of these candidates is forthwith declared; and (3) if there is a contest the election is postponed to a polling day, to be fixed by the returning officer, in the counties from two to six, and in the boroughs not more than three, days distant. 98. The Polling. Prior to 1872 candidates were nominated viva wee at the "hustings," an outdoor platform erected for the purpose; but nowadays nominations are made in writing. It is required that a candidate shall be proposed by a registered elector of the constituency and that his nomination shall be assented to formally by nine other electors. The number of uncontested elections is invariably large (especially in Ireland, where, in many instances, it is useless to oppose a candidate to the Nationalists), the proportion reaching sometimes one-fourth, and even one-third. Polling is completed within an in- dividual constituency during the course of a single day, the hours being from eight o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock in the evening, but under the arrangements that have been described it falls out that a national election is extended invariably through a period of more than two weeks. The system operates, of course, to the advantage of the plural voter, who is enabled to present himself at the polls from day to day in widely separated constituencies. For the convenience of voters constituencies are divided regularly into districts, or precincts. When the properly qualified and registered elector appears at the polls a ballot paper is presented to him containing the names of the candidates. He takes this to a screened compartment and places a cross-mark opposite the name or names of those for whom he desires to vote, after which the paper is deposited in a box. At the conclusion of the polling, the boxes are transmitted to the returning officer of the constituency, the votes are counted, and the result is declared. The writ which served as the returning officer's authority is indorsed with a certificate of the election and returned to the clerk of the Crown in Chancery. It is to be observed, however, that hi the universities the Ballot Act does not apply. In these constituencies an elector may deliver his 1 For the form of the writ see Alison, Law and Custom of the Constitution, I., 57. 94 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE vote orally, or he may transmit it by proxy from his place of resi- dence. 1 99. Frequency of Elections: the Campaign. General elections do not take place in Great Britain with periodic regularity. The only positive requirement in the matter is that an election must be ordered when a parliament has attained the maximum lifetime allowed it by law. Prior to 1694 there was no stipulation upon this subject and the king could keep a parliament in existence as long as he liked. Charles II. retained for seventeen years the parliament called at his accession. From 1694 to 1716, however, the maximum term of a parliament was three years; from 1716 to 1911 it was seven years; to-day it is five years. 2 In point of fact, parliaments never last through the maximum period, and an average interval of three or four years between elections has been the rule. In most instances an election is precipitated more or less unexpectedly on an appeal to the country by a defeated ministry, and it not infrequently happens that an election turns all but completely upon a single issue and thus assumes the character of a national referen- dum upon the subject in hand. This was pre-eminently true of the last general election, that of December, 1910, at which the country was asked to sustain the Asquith government in its purpose to curb the independent authority of the House of Lords. In any event, the cam- paign by which the election is preceded is brief, although it continues throughout the electoral period, and, if the outcome is doubtful, tends to increase rather than to diminish in intensity. Appeals to .the, voters are made principally through public^speaking, the controversial and illustratsg^rjress, the circulation of rmmphlets andjiaijdhills, parades anoTlnass-meeTllIgs, and the generous use of placards, cartoons, and other devices designed to attract and focus attention. Plans are laid, 1 On electoral procedure see Lowell, Government of England, I., Chap. 10; M. MacDonaugh, The Book of Parliament (London, 1897), 24-50; H. J. Bushby, Manual of the Practice of Elections for the United Kingdom (4th ed., London, 1874); W. Woodings, The Conduct and Management of Parliamentary Elections (4th ed., London, 1900); E. T. Powell, The Essentials of Self-Government, Eng- land and Wales (London, 1909); P. J. Blair, A Handbook of Parliamentary Elec- tions (Edinburgh, 1909); and H. Eraser, The Law of Parliamentary Elections and Election Petitions (2d ed., London, 1910). A volume filled with interesting in- formation is J. Grego, History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering from the Stuarts to Queen Victoria (new ed., London, 1892). The monumental work upon the entire subject is M. Powell (ed.), Rogers on Elections, 3 vols. (i6th ed., London, 1897). 2 The Representation of the People Act of 1867 made the duration of a parlia- ment independent of a demise of the crown. The text of the Septennial Act and that of the Lords' Protest against the measure are printed in Robertson, Statutes, Cases, and Documents, 117-119. PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 95 arguments are formulated, and leadership in public appeal is assumed by the members of the Government, led by the premier, and, on the other side, by the men who are the recognized leaders of the parlia- mentary Opposition. 1 100. The Regulation of Electoral Expenditure Time was, and within the memory of men still living, when an English parliamentary election was attended by corrupt practices so universal and so shame- less as to appear almost more ludicrous than culpable. Voters as a matter of course accepted the bribes that were tendered them and ate and drank and smoked and rollicked at the candidate's expense through- out the electoral period and were considered men of conscience indeed if they did not end by going over to the opposition. The notorious Northampton election of 1768, in the course of which a body of voters numbering under a thousand were the recipients of hospitalities from the backers of three candidates which aggregated upwards of a million pounds, was, of course, exceptional; but the history of countless other cases differed from it only in the amounts laid out. To-day an alto- gether different state of things obtains. From having been one of the most corrupt, Great Britain has become one of the most exemplary of nations in all that pertains to the proprieties of electoral procedure. The Ballot Act of 1872 contained provisions calculated to strengthen pre-existing corrupt practices acts, but the real turning point was the adoption of the comprehensive Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act of 1883. By this measure bribery (in seven enumerated forms) and treat- ing were made punishable by imprisonment or fine and, under varying conditions, political disqualification. The number and functions of the persons who may be employed by the candidate to assist in a campaign were prescribed, every canoUdate being required to have a single author- ized agent charged with the disbursement of all moneys (save certain specified "personal" expenditures) in the candidate's behalf and with the duty of submitting to the returning officer within thirty-five days after the election a sworn statement covering all receipts and expen- ditures. And, finally, the act fixed, upon a sliding scale in proportion to the size of the constituencies, the maximum amounts which candi- dates may legitimately expend. In boroughs containing not more than 1 M. Ostrogorski, Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties, trans, by F. Clarke, 2 vols. (London, 1902), I,, 442-501; MacDonaugh, The Book of Parlia- ment, 1-23. Among numerous articles descriptive of English parliamentary elec- tions mention may be made of H. W. Lucy, The Methods of a British General Election, in Forum, Oct., 1900; S. Brooks, English and American Elections, in Fortnightly Review, Feb., 1910; W. T. Stead, The General Election in Great Britain, in American Review of Reviews, Feb., 1910; and d'Haussonville, Dix jours en Angle- terre pendant les Elections, in Revue des Deux Mondes, Feb. i, 1910. 96 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 2,000 registered voters the amount is 350, with an additional 30 for every thousand voters above the number mentioned. In rural con- stituencies, where proper outlays will normally be larger, the sum of 650 is allowed when the number of registered electors falls under 2,000, with 60 for each additional thousand. Beyond these sums the candi- date is allowed an outlay of 100 for expenses of a purely personal char- acter. The range of expenditure which is thus permitted by law is, of course, considerable, and the records of election cases brought into the courts demonstrate that not infrequently in practice its limits are exceeded. None the less, the effect of the law has been undeniably to restrain the outpouring of money by candidates, to purify politics, and at the same time to enable men of moderate means to stand for election who otherwise would be at grave disadvantage as against their wealthier and more lavish competitors. It is of interest to observe that by reason of the non-participation of the state in electoral costs there fall upon candidates certain charges which are unknown in the United States and other countries. The bills submitted by the returning officer must be paid by the candidates within the constituency, and these bills cover the publishing of notices of the election, the preparing and supply- ing of nomination papers, the cost of dies, ballot-paper, polling-stations, and printing, the fees of clerks, and, finally, the travelling expenses and fee of the returning officer himself. The candidate's share of this outlay may be as small as 25, but it is likely to be from 200 to 300 and may rise to as much as 6oo. 1 1 On the adoption of the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act of 1883 see May and Holland, Constitutional History of England, III,, 31-33. The actual operation of the system established may be illustrated by citing a specific case. At the election of 1906 the maximum expenditure legally possible for Mr. Lloyd-George in his sparsely populated Carnarvon constituency was 470. His authorized agent, after the election, reported an outlay of 50 on agents, 27 on clerks and messengers, 189 on printing, postage, etc., 30 on public meetings, 25 on committee rooms, and 40 on miscellaneous matters a total of 361. The candidate's personal expenditure amounted to 92, so that the total outlay of 462 fell short by a scant 8 of the sum that might legally have been laid out. Divided among the 3,221 votes that Mr. Lloyd-George received, his outlay per vote was 2s., lod. At the same election Mr. Asquith's expenditure was 727; Mr. Winston Churchill's, 844; Mr. John Morley's, 479; Mr. Keir Hardie's, 623; Mr. James Bryce's, 480. In non-contested constituencies expenditures are small. In 1906 Mr. Red- mond's was reported to be 25 and Mr. William O'Brien's, 20. In 1900 a total of 1,103 candidates for 670 seats expended 777,429 in getting 3,579,345 votes; in 1906, 1,273 candidates for the same 670 seats expended 1,166,858 in getting 5,645,104 votes; in January, 1910, 1,311 candidates laid out 1,296,382 in getting 6,667,394 votes. A well-informed article is E. Porritt, Political Corruption in England, in North American Review, Nov. 16, 1906. CHAPTER V PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF LORDS I. COMPOSITION 101. Origins. With the possible exception of the Hungarian Table of Magnates, the British House of Lords is the most ancient second chamber among parliamentary bodies. It is, furthermore, among second chambers the largest and the most purely hereditary. Its descent can be traced directly from the Great Council of the Plan- tagenet period and, in the opinion of some scholars, from the witenage- mot of Anglo-Saxon times. 1 To the Council belonged originally the nobility, and the clergy, greater and lesser. Practically, the body was composed of the more influential churchmen and the more powerful tenants-in-chief of the crown. In the course of time the lesser clergy found it convenient to confine their attention to the proceedings of the ecclesiastical assemblage known as Convocation; while the lesser nobles, i. e., the poorer and more uninfluential ones, found it to their interest to cast in their lot, not as formerly with the great barons and earls, but with the well-to-do though non-noble knights of the shire. From the elements that remained the higher clergy and the greater nobles developed directly the House of Lords. The lesser barons, the knights of the shire, and the burgesses, on the other hand, com- bined to form the House of Commons. 102. Princes of the Blood and Hereditary Peers. In respect to its fundamental constitution the House of Lords has undergone but slight modification during the many centuries of its existence. In respect, however, to the composition and size of the body changes have been numerous and important. There are in the chamber to-day at least six distinct groups of members, sitting by various rights and possess- 1 "The House of Lords not only springs out of, it actually is, the ancient Witen- agemot. I can see no break between the two." Freeman, Growth of the English Constitution, 62. Professor Freeman, it must be remembered, was prone to glorify Anglo-Saxon institutions and to under-estimate the changes that were introduced in England through the agency of the Norman Conquest. For the most recent statement of the opposing view see Adams, Origin of the English Constitution, Chaps. 1-4. 97 98 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE ing a status which is by no means identical. The first comprises princes of the royal blood who are of age. The number of these is variable, but of course never large. They take precedence of the other nobility, but in point of fact seldom participate in the proceedings of the Cham- ber. The second group is the most important of all. It comprises the peers with hereditary seats and is itself divided properly into three groups: the peers of England created before the union with Scotland in 1707, the peers of Great Britain created between the date mentioned and the union with Ireland in i8oi,and the peers of the United Kingdom created since that date. Technically, peers are created by the crown; but in practice their creation is controlled largely by the premier; and the act may be performed for the purpose of honoring men of distinction in law, letters, science, or business, or for the more practical purpose of altering the political complexion of the upper chamber. 1 The power to create peerages is unlimited 2 and, this being the only means by which the membership of the body can be increased at discretion, the power is one which is not infrequently exercised. Originally the right to sit as a peer was conferred simply by an individual writ of summons, or by the fact that such a writ had been issued to one's ancestor, but this method has long since been replaced by a formal grant of letters pat- ent, accompanied by bestowal of the requisite writ. With exceptions to be noted, peerages are hereditary, and the heir assumes his parlia- mentary seat at the age of twenty-one. Peers are of five ranks- dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons. The complicated rules governing the precedence of these classes are of large social, but of minor political, interest. 103. Representative Peers of Scotland and of Ireland. A third group of members comprises the representative peers of Scotland. Under provision of the Act of Union of 1707, when a new parliament is summoned the whole body of Scottish peers elects sixteen of their 1 The first peerage bestowed purely in recognition of literary distinction was that of Lord Tennyson in 1884, the peerages bestowed upon Macaulay and Bulwer Lytton having been determined upon in part under the influence of political con- siderations. The first professional artist to be honored with a peerage was Lord Leighton, in 1896. Lord Kelvin and Lord Lister are among well-known men of science who have been so honored. Lord Goschen's viscountcy was conferred, with universal approval, as the fitting reward of a great business career. The earldom of General Roberts and the viscountcies of Generals Wolseley and Kitchener were bestowed in recognition of military distinction. With some aptness the House of Lords has been denominated " the Westminster Abbey of living celebrities." 2 Except that, under existing law, the crown cannot (i) create a peer of Scotland, (2) create a peer of Ireland otherwise than as allowed by the Act of Union with Ireland, and (3) direct the devolution of a dignity otherwise than in accordance with limitations applying in the case of grants of real estate. PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF LORDS 99 number to sit as their representatives at Westminster. By custom the election takes place at Holyrood Palace in the city of Edinburgh. 1 The act of 1707 made no provision for the creation of Scottish peers, with the consequence that, through the extinction of noble families and the occasional conferring of a peerage of the United Kingdom upon a Scottish peer, the total number of Scottish peerages has been reduced from 165 to 33. 2 The tenure of a Scottish representative peer at West- minster expires with the termination of a parliament. A fourth group of members is the Irish. By the Act of Union of 1800 it was provided that not all of the peers of Ireland should be accorded seats in the House of Lords, but only twenty-eight of them, to be elected for life by the whole number of Irish peers. The number of Irish peerages was put in the course of gradual reduction and it is now under the prescribed maximum of one hundred. 3 Unlike the English and Scottish peers,, Irish peers, if not elected to the House of Lords, may stand for election to the House of Commons, though they may not represent Irish con- stituencies. 4 While members of the Commons, however, they may not be elected to the Lords, nor may they participate in the choice of repre- sentative peers. 104. The Lords of Appeal. A fifth group of members comprises the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, who differ from other peers created by the crown in that their seats are not hereditary. One of the functions of the House of Lords is to serve as the highest national court of appeal. It is but logical that there should be included within the membership of the body a certain number of the most eminent jurists of the realm, and, further, that the judicial business of the chamber should be trans- acted largely by this corps of experts. In 1876 an Appellate Jurisdic- tion Act was passed authorizing the appointment of two (subsequently increased to four) "law lords" with the title of baron, and by legislation of 1887 the tenure of these members, hitherto conditioned upon the continued exercise of judicial functions, was made perpetual for life. At the present day these four justices, presided over by lie Lord Chan- cellor, comprise in reality the supreme tribunal of the kingdom. Three of them are sufficient to constitute a quorum for the transaction of 1 For a statement of the process of election see Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution (4th ed.), I., 210-229. 2 In 1909. Lowell, Government of England, I,, 395. 8 The crown was authorized to create one Irish peerage only for every three such peerages that should become extinct. During the thirty years preceding the con- ferring of an Irish peerage upon Mr. Curzon, in 1898, the creation of Irish peerages was entirely suspended. 4 Lord Palmerston, for example, was an Irish peer, but sat in the House of Com- mons. ioo GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE judicial business, and although other legal-minded members of the chamber may participate, and technically every member has a right to do so, in most instances this inner circle discharges the judicial func- tion quite alone. 1 106. The Lords Spiritual. Finally, there are the ecclesiastical members not peers, but "lords spiritual." In the fifteenth century the lords spiritual outnumbered the lords temporal; but upon the dis- solution of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII., resulting in the dropping out of the abbots, the spiritual contingent fell permanently into the minority. At the present day the quota of ecclesiastical members is restricted, under statutory regulation, to 26. Scotland, whose estab- lished church is the Presbyterian, has none. Between 1801 and 1869 Ireland had four, but since the disestablishment of the Irish church in 1869 there have been none. In England five ecclesiastics, by statute, are entitled invariably to seats, i. e., the archbishops of Canterbury and York and the bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester. Among the remaining bishops the law allows seats to twenty-one, in the order of seniority. There are always, therefore, some English bishops in 1909, ten who are not members of the chamber. 2 All ecclesiastical members retain their seats during tenure of their several sees, but do not, of course, transmit their rights to their heirs, nor, necessarily, save in the case of the five mentioned, to their successors in office. Bishops and archbishops are elected, nominally, by the dean and chapter of the diocese; but when a vacancy arises the sovereign transmits a conge d'elire containing the name of the person to be elected, so that, practically, appointment is made by the crown, acting under the advice of the prime minister. Bishropics are created by act of Parliament. 3 1 The recognized advisability of strengthening the judicial element in the Lords precipitated at one time a serious issue respecting the power of the crown to create life peerages. In 1856, upon the advice of her ministers, Queen Victoria conferred upon a distinguished judge, Sir James Parke, a patent as Baron Wensleydale for life. The purpose was to introduce into the chamber desirable legal talent without further augmenting the peerage. For the creation of life peerages there was some precedent, but none later than the reign of Henry VI., and the House of Lords, maintaining that the right had lapsed and that the peerage had become entirely hereditary, refused to admit Baron Wensleydale until his patent was so modified that his peerage was made hereditary. 2 The Bishop of Sodor and Man is entitled to a seat, but not to take part in the chamber's proceedings. His status has been compared to that of a territorial dele- gate in the United States. Moran, The English Government, 170. 3 On the composition of the House of Lords see Lowell, Government of England, I., Chap. 21 ; Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, I., Chap. 5; May and Holland, Constitutional History of England, I., Chap. 5; Moran, English Govern- ment, Chap. 10 ; Low, Governance of England, Chap. 12; Courtney, Working PARLIAMENT: THE HOUSE OF LORDS 106. Qualifications and Number of Members:! -A vented from occupying a seat in the chamber by any one of several disqualifications. He must have attained the age of twenty-one ; he must not be an alien; he must not be a bankrupt; he must not be under sen- tence for felony. On the other hand, a man who inherits a peerage cannot renounce the inheritance. Upon more than one occasion this rule has been a matter of political consequence, for its operation has some- times meant that an able and ambitious commoner has been compelled to surrender his seat in the more important chamber and to assume a wholly undesired place in the upper house. In 1895 Mr. William W. Palmer, later Lord Selbourne, inheriting a peerage but desiring to con- tinue for a time in the Commons, put this rule to a definite test by neglecting to apply for a writ of summons as a peer. The decision of . the Commons, however, was that he was obligated to accept membership in the upper chamber, and hence to yield the place which he occupied in the lower. The House of Lords numbers to-day 620 members. In earlier periods of its history it was a very much smaller body, and, indeed, its most notable growth has taken place within the past one hundred and fifty years. During- the reign of Henry VII. there were never more than eighty members, the majority of whom were ecclesiastics. To the first parliament of Charles II. there were summoned 139 persons. At the death of William III. the roll of the upper chamber comprised 192 names. At the death of Queen Anne the number was 209; at that of George I. it was 216; at that of George II., 229; at that of George III., 339; at that of George IV., 396; at that of William IV., 456. Between 1830 and 1898 there were conferred 364 peerages 222 under Liberal ministries (covering, in the aggregate, forty years) and 142 under the Conservatives (covering twenty-seven years). More than one-half of the peerages of to-day have been created within the past fifty years, and of the remainder only an insignificant proportion can be termed ancient. II. THE REFORM OF THE LORDS: THE QUESTION PRIOR TO 1909 107. The Status of the Chamber. As a law-making body the House of Lords antedates the House of Commons. At the beginning of the fourteenth century the theory was that the magnates assented to legis- lation while the Commons merely petitioned for it. In a statute of 1322, Constitution of the United Kingdom, Chap, n; Macy, English Constitution, Chap. 4; Marriott, English Political Institutions, Chaps. 6-7; and Walpole, The Electorate and the Legislature, Chap. 2. The subject is treated in greater detail in Pike. Constitutional History of the House of Lords, especially Chap. 15. Lugnt about that throughout the Empire justice is administered in tribunals whose officials are appointed by the local governments and which render decisions in their name, but whose organization, powers, and rules of procedure are regulated minutely by federal law. The hierarchy of tribunals provided for in the Law of Judicial Organiza- tion comprises courts of four grades. At the bottom are the Amtsger- ichte, of which there are approximately two thousand in the Empire. These are courts of first instance, consisting ordinarily of but a single judge. In civil cases their jurisdiction extends to the sum of three hundred marks; in criminal, to matters involving a fine of not more than six hundred marks or imprisonment of not over three months. In criminal cases the judge sits with two Schoffen (sheriffs) selected by lot from the jury lists. Besides litigious business the Amtsgerichte have charge of the registration of land titles, the drawing up of wills, guardianship, and other local interests. Next above the Amtsgerichte are the 173 district courts, or Land- gerichte, each composed of a president and a variable number of associ- ate judges. Each Landgericht is divided into a civil and a criminal chamber. There may, indeed, be other chambers, as for example a Kammer fur Handelssachen, or chamber for commercial cases. The president presides over a full bench; a director over each chamber. The Landgericht exercises a revisory jurisdiction over judgments of the Amtsgericht, and possesses a more extended original jurisdiction in both civil and criminal matters. The criminal chamber, consisting of five judges (of whom four are necessary to convict), is competent, for example, to try cases of felony punishable with imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years. For the trial of many sorts of criminal cases there are special Schwurgerichte, or jury courts, which sit under the presidency of three judges of the Landgericht. A jury consists of twelve members, of whom eight are necessary to convict. Still above the Landgerichte are the Oberlandesgerichte, of which there are twenty-eight in the Empire, each consisting of seven judges. The Oberlandesgerichte are courts of appellate jurisdiction largely. 1 A convenient manual for English readers is E. M. Borchard, Guide to the Law and Legal Literature of Germany (Washington, 1912), the first of a series of guides to European law in preparation in the Library of Congress. 244 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Each is divided into a civil and a criminal senate. There is a president of the full court and a similar official for each senate. 1 260. The Reichsgericht. At the apex of the system stands the Reichsgericht (created by law of October i, 1879), which, apart from certain administrative, military, and consular courts, 2 is the only German tribunal of an exclusively Imperial, or federal, character. It exercises original jurisdiction in cases involving treason against the Empire and hears appeals from the consular courts and from the state courts on questions of Imperial law. Its members, ninety-two in number, are appointed by the Emperor for life, on nomination of the Bundesrath, and they are organized in six civil and four criminal senates. Sittings are held invariably at Leipzig, in the kingdom of Saxony. All judges in the courts of the states are appointed by the sovereigns of the respective states. The Imperial law prescribes a minimum of qualifications based on professional study and experience, the state being left free to impose any additional qualifications that may be desired. All judges are appointed for life and all receive a salary which may not be reduced; and there are important guarantees against arbi- trary transfer from one position to another, as well as other practices that might operate to diminish the judge's impartiality and in- dependence. 3 1 In Bavaria alone there is an Oberste Landesgericht, with twenty-one judges. Its relation to the Bavarian Oberlandesgerichte is that of an appellate tribunal. 2 The highest administrative court is the Oberverwaltungsgericht, whose mem- bers are appointed for life. Under specified conditions, the "committees" of circles, cities, and districts exercise inferior administrative jurisdiction. For the adjustment of disputed or doubtful jurisdictions there stands between the ordinary and the administrative tribunals a Gerichtshof fur Kompetenz-konflikte, or Court of Conflicts, consisting of eleven judges appointed for life. 3 On the German judiciary see Howard, The German Empire, Chap. 9; La- band, Das Staatsrecht des deutschen Reiches, 83-94; C. Morhain, De I'em- pire allemand (Paris, 1886), Chap. 9. CHAPTER XII THE CONSTITUTION OF PRUSSIA THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY I. THE GERMAN STATES AND THEIR GOVERNMENTS 261. Variations of Type. Within the bounds of Germany to-day there are twenty-five states and one Imperial territory with certain attributes of statehood, Alsace-Lorraine. During the larger portion of the nineteenth century each of these states (and of the several which no longer exist) was possessed of substantial sovereignty, and each maintained its own arrangements respecting governmental forms and procedure. Under the leadership of Prussia, as has been pointed out, the loose Confederation of 1815 was transformed, during the years 1866-1871, into an Imperial union, federal but yet vigorous and inde- structible, and to the constituted authorities of this Empire was in- trusted an enormous aggregate of governmental powers. The powers conferred were, however, not wholly abstracted from the original prerogatives of the individual states. In a very appreciable measure they were powers, rather, of a supplementary character, by virtue of which the newly created central government was enabled to do, on a broadly national scale, what, in the lack of any such central govern- ment, there would have been neither means of doing, nor occasion for doing, at all. Only at certain points, as, for example, in respect to the levying of customs duties and of taxes, was the original independence of the individual state seriously impaired by the terms of the new arrangement. The consequence is that, speaking broadly, each of the German states maintains to this day a government which is essentially com- plete within itself. No one of these governments covers quite all of the ground which falls within the range of jurisdiction of a sovereign state; each is cut into at various points by the superior authority of the Empire; but each is sufficiently ample to be capable of continuing to run, were all of the other governments of Germany instantly to be blotted out. 1 Of the twenty-five state governments, three those of 1 The best survey in English of the governments of the German states is that in Lowell, Governments and Parties, I., Chap. 6. Fuller and more recent is G. Combes de Lestrade, Les monarchies de 1'empire allemand (Paris, 1904). The 24S 246 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the free cities of Bremen, Hamburg, and Liibeck are aristocratic re- publics; all the others are monarchies. Among the monarchies there are four kingdoms: Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Wiirttemberg; six grand-duchies: Baden, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg- Strelitz, Oldenburg, and Saxe- Weimar; five duchies: Anhalt, Bruns- wick, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and Saxe-Meiningen; and seven principalities: Lippe, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg- Sonderhausen, Schaumburg-Lippe, Reuss Alterer Linie, Reuss Jiing- erer Linie, and Waldeck-Pyrmont. 262. The Preponderance of Prussia. From whatever angle one approaches German public affairs, the fact that stands out with great- est distinctness is the preponderant position occupied by the kingdom of Prussia. How it was that Prussia became the virtual creator of the Empire, and how it is that Prussia so dominates the Imperial govern- ment that that government and the Prussian are at times all but inextricable, has already been pointed out. 1 Wholly apart from the sheer physical fact that 134,616 square miles of Germany's 208,780, and 40,163,333 people of the Empire's 64,903,423, are Prussian, the very conditions under which the Imperial organization of the present day came into being predetermined that Prussia and things Prussian should enjoy unfailing pre-eminence in all that pertains to German government and politics. Both because they are extended imme- diately over a country almost two-thirds as large as France, and because of their peculiar relation to the political system of the Empire, the institutions of Prussia call for somewhat detailed consideration. II. THE RISE or CONSTITUTIONALISM IN PRUSSIA 263. Regeneration in the Napoleonic Period. By reason of the vacillating policies of her sovereign, Frederick William III., the succes- sive defeats of her armies at Jena, Auerstadt, and elsewhere, and the loss, by the treaty of Tilsit in 1807, of half of her territory, Prussia realized from the first decade of the Napoleonic period little save humiliation and disaster. Through the years 1807-1815, however, her lot was wonderfully improved. Upon the failure of the Russian most elaborate treatment of the subject is to be found in an excellent series of studies edited by H. von Marquardsen and M. von Seydel under the title Handbuch des Oeffentlichen Rechts der Gegenwart in Monographien (Freiburg and Tubingen, 1883-1909). A new series of monographs, comprising substantially a revision of this collection, is at present in course of publication by J. C. B. Mohr at Tubingen. The texts of the various constitutions are printed in F. Stoerk, Handbuch der deutschen Verfassungen (Leipzig, 1884). 1 See pp. 200-201, 207. THE CONSTITUTION OF PRUSSIA 247 expedition of Napoleon in 1812, Frederick William shook off his appre- hensions and allied himself openly with the sovereigns of Russia and Austria. The people rose en masse, and in the titanic struggle which ensued Prussia played a part scarcely second in importance to that of any other power. At the end she was rewarded, through the agency of the Congress of Vienna, by being assigned the northern portion of Saxony, Swedish Pomerania, her old possessions west of the Elbe, the duchies of Berg and Julich, and a number of other districts in West- phalia and on the Rhine. Her area in 1815 was 108,000 square miles, as compared with 122,000 at the beginning of 1806; but her loss of territory was more than compensated by the substitution that had been made of German lands for Slavic. 1 The homogeneity of her population was thereby increased, her essentially Germanic char- acter emphasized, and her capacity for German leadership en- hanced. It was not merely in respect to territory and population that the Prussia of 1815 was different from the Prussia of a decade earlier. Consequent upon the humiliating disasters of 1806 there set in a moral regeneration by which there was wrought one of the speediest and one of the most thoroughgoing national transformations recorded in history. In 1807 Frederick William's statesmanlike minister Stein accomplished the abolition of serfdom and of all legal distinctions which separated the various classes of society. 2 In 1808 he reformed the municipalities and gave them important powers of self-govern- ment. By a series of sweeping measures he reconstructed the ministe- rial departments, the governments of the provinces, and the local administrative machinery, with the result of creating an executive system which has required but little modification to the present day. In numerous directions, especially in relation to economic conditions, the work of Stein was continued by that of the succeeding minister, Prince Hardenberg. By Scharnhorst and Gneisenau the military regime was overhauled and a body of spiritless soldiery kept in order by fear was converted into "a union of all the moral and physical energies of the nation." By Wilhelm von Humboldt the modern Prussian school system was created; while by Fichte, Arndt, and a galaxy of other writers there was imparted a stimulus by which the 1 L. A. Himly, Histoire de la formation territoriale des Stats de 1'Europe centrale, 2 vols. (Paris, 1876), I., 93-110. 2 It is to be observed that while Stein was officially the author of this reform, the substance of the changes introduced had been agreed upon by the king and his advisers before Stein's accession to office (October 4, 1807). The Edict of Emanci- pation was promulgated October 9, 1807. It made the abolition of serfdom final and absolute on and after October 8, 1810. 248 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE patriotism and aspiration of the Prussian people were raised to an unprecedented pitch. 1 1 264. i Obstacles to the Establishment of a Constitution. Such an epoch of regeneration could not fail to be a favorable period for the growth of liberal principles of government. In June, 1814, and again in May, 1815, King Frederick William promised, through the medium of a cabinet order, to give consideration to the question of the es- tablishment of a constitution in which provision should be made not merely for the estates of the provinces but also for a national diet. After the Congress of Vienna the task of framing such a constitution was actually taken in hand. But the time was not ripe. Liberalism had gained headway as yet among only the professional classes, while the highly influential body of ultra-conservative landholders were unalterably opposed. Between the eastern provinces, still essentially feudal in spirit, and the western ones, visibly affected by French revolutionary ideas, there was, furthermore, meager community of interest. So keen was the particularistic spirit that not infrequently the various provinces of the kingdom were referred to in contemporary documents as "nations." Among these provinces some retained the system of estates which had prevailed throughout Germany since the Middle Ages, but in some of those which had fallen under the control of Napoleon the estates had been abolished, and in others they were in abeyance. In a few they had never existed. Votes were taken in the assemblages of the estates by orders, not by individuals, and the function of the bodies rarely extended beyond the approving of proj- ects of taxation. Within the provinces there existed no sub-structure of popular institutions capable of being made the basis of a national parliamentary system. Notwithstanding these deterring circumstances, it is not improbable that some sort of constitution might have been established but for the excesses of the more zealous Liberals, culminating in the murder of the dramatist Kotzebue in 1819, whereby the king was thrown into an attitude, first of apprehension, and finally of uncompromising reac- tion. By assuming joint responsibility for the Carlsbad Decrees of October 17, 1819, he surrendered completely to the regime of "sta- bility" which all the while had been urged upon him by Metternich. June n, 1821, he summoned a commission to organize a system of provincial estates; 2 but at the same time the project of a national 1 E. Meier, Reform der Verwaltungsorganisation unter Stein und Hardenberg (Leipzig, 1881); J. R. Seeley, Life and Times of Stein, 3 vols. (Boston, 1879), Pt. III., Chaps. 3-4, Pt. V., Chaps. 1-3. 2 The system was created by royal patent June 5, 1823. THE CONSTITUTION OF PRUSSIA 249 constitution and a national diet was definitely abandoned. Under repression Prussian liberalism languished, and throughout the re- mainder of the reign, i. e., to 1840, the issue of constitutionalism was not frequently raised. In Prussia, as in Austria, the widespread rev- olutionary demonstrations of 1830 elicited little response. 266. The Diet of 1847. Upon the accession of Frederick William I vC^so^n of Frederick William III., hi 1840, the hopes of the Liberals were revived. The new sovereign was believed to be a man of ad- vanced ideas. To a degree he was such, as was manifested by his speedy reversal of his father's narrow ecclesiastical policy, and by other enlightened acts. But time demonstrated that his liberalism was not without certain very definite limits. February 13, 1847, he went so far as to summon a Vereinigter Landtag, or "united diet," of Prussia, comprising all members of the existing eight provincial assemblies, and organized in two chambers a house of lords and a house containing the three estates of the knights, burghers, and peas- ants. But the issue was unhappy. As Metternich had predicted, the meeting of the Diet but afforded opportunity for a forceful re- assertion of constitutional aspirations, and the assemblage refused to sanction loans upon which the sovereign was bent until its repre- sentative character should have been more completely recognized. The king, on his part, declared he would never allow " to come between Almighty God in heaven and this land a blotted parchment, to rule us with paragraphs, and to replace the ancient, sacred bond of loy- alty." The deadlock was absolute, and, June 26, the Diet was dis- solved. 266. The Revolution of 1848. The dawn of constitutionalism was, however, near. The fundamental law under which Prussia still is governed was a product one of the few which endured of the widespread revolutionary movement of 1848. Upon the arrival in Berlin of the news of the overthrow of Louis Philippe (February 24) at Paris and of the fall of Metternich (May 13) at Vienna, the Prus- sian Liberals renewed with vigor their clamor for the establishment in Prussia of a government of a constitutional type. The demand was closely related to, yet was essentially distinct from, the con- temporary project for the inauguration of a new constitutional Ger- man Empire. As was proved by the vagaries of the Frankfort Parlia- ment (May, 1848, to June, 1849), conditions were not yet ripe for the creation of a closely-knit empire; 1 and one of the reasons why this was true was that a necessary step toward that culmination was only now about to be taken, i. e., the introduction of constitu- 1 See p. 198. 250 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE tional government in the important kingdom of Prussia. Apprehen- sive lest the scenes of violence reported from Paris should be re-enacted in his own capital, Frederick William acquiesced in the demands of his subjects in so far as to issue letters patent, May 13, 1848, con- voking a national assembly 1 for the consideration of a proposed constitution. Every male citizen over twenty-five years of age was given the right to participate in the choice of electors, by whom in turn were chosen the members of this assembly. May 22, 1848, the assembly met in Berlin and entered upon consideration of the sketch of a fundamental law which the king laid before it. The meeting was attended by disorders in the city, and the more radical deputies further inflamed public feeling by persisting in the discussion of the abolition of the nobility, and of a variety of other more or less im- practicable and revolutionary projects. The king took offense be- cause the assembly presumed to exercise constituent functions in- dependently and, after compelling a removal of the sittings to the neighboring city of Brandenburg, he in disgust dissolved the body, December 5, and promulgated of his own right the constitutional charter which he had drawn. 267. Formation of the Constitution. At an earlier date it had been promised that the constitution to be established should be "agreed upon with an assembly of the nation's representatives freely chosen and invested with full powers;" but it had been suggested to the king that the way out of the existing difficulty lay in issuing a constitutional instrument independently and subsequently allowing the Landtag first elected under it to submit it to a legislative revi- sion, and this was the course of procedure which was adopted. 2 Elections were held and, February 26, 1849, the chambers were as- sembled. Having recognized formally the instrument of December 5, 1848, as the law of the land, the two bodies addressed themselves forthwith to the task of revising it. The result was disagreement and, in the end, the dissolution of the lower house. The constitution of 1848 had been accompanied by an electoral law establishing vot- ing by secret ballot and conferring upon all male citizens equal suf- frage. Upon the dissolution of 1849 there was promulgated by the king a thoroughgoing modification of this democratic measure, whereby voting by ballot was abolished and parliamentary electors were divided into three classes whose voting power was determined by prop- 1 Known technically as Versammlung zur Vereinbarung der preussischen Ver- fassung. 2 The confusion of constitutional and ordinary statutory law inherent in this arrangement has influenced profoundly the thought of German jurists. THE CONSTITUTION OF PRUSSIA 251 erty qualifications or by official and professional status. In other words, there was introduced that peculiar three-class system which was already not unknown in the Prussian municipalities, and which, in both national and city elections, persists throughout the kingdom to the present day. In the elections which were held in the summer of 1849 in accordance with this system the democrats refused to participate. The upshot was that the new chambers, convened August 7, 1849, proved tractable enough, and by them the text of the constitution, after being discussed and revised article by article, was at last accorded formal approval. On the last day of January, 1850, the instrument was duly promulgated at Charlottenburg. 1 By Austria, Russia, and other reactionary powers persistent effort was made during the ensuing decade to influence the king to rescind the concession which he had made. He refused, however, to do so, and, with certain modifications, the constitution of 1850 remains the fundamental law of the Prussian kingdom to-day. 2 268. Nature of the Constitution. The constitution of Prussia is modelled upon that of Belgium. Provisions relating to the powers of the crown, the competence of the chambers, and the functions of the ministers are reproduced almost literally from the older instru- ment. None the less, the two rest upon widely differing bases. The Belgian fundamental law begins with the assertion that "all powers emanate from the nation. " That of Prussia voices no such sentiment, and the governmental system for which it provides has as its corner- stone the thoroughgoing supremacy of the crown. 3 The Liberals of the mid-century period were by no means satisfied with it; and, sixty years after, it stands out among the great constitutional documents of the European world so conspicuous by reason of its disregard of 1 On the establishment of constitutionalism in Prussia see (in addition to works mentioned on p. 201) P. Matter, La Prusse et la revolution de 1848, in Revue Historique, Sept.-Oct., 1002; P. Devinat, Le mouvement constitutionnel en Prusse de 1840 a 1847, ibid., Sept.-Oct. and Nov.-Dec., 1911; Klaczko, L'agitation alle- mande et la Prusse, in Revue des Deux Mondes, Dec., 1862, and Jan., 1863; C. Bornhak, Preussische Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte (Berlin, 1003); H. von Peters- dorff, Konig Friedrich Wilhelm IV. (Stuttgart, 1000); and H. G. Prutz, Preussische Geschichte, 4 vols. to 1888 (Stuttgart, 1900-1902). For full bibliography see Cam- bridge Modern History, XI., 893-898. 2 As is true in governmental systems generally, by no means all of the essential features of the working constitution are to be found in the formal documents, much less in the written constitution alone. In Prussia ordinances, legislative acts, and administrative procedure, dating from both before and after 1850, have to be taken into account continually if one would understand the constitutional order in its entirety. * Dupriez, L,es Ministres, I., 350. 252 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE fundamental democratic principle as to justify completely the charges of anachronism which reformers in Prussia and elsewhere are in these days bringing against it. It provides for the responsibility of ministers, without stipulating a means whereby that responsibility may be enforced. There is maintained under it one of the most an- tiquated and undemocratic electoral systems in Europe. And, as is pointed out by Lowell, even where, on paper, it appears to be liberal, it is sometimes much less so than its text would lead one to suppose. It contains, for example, a bill of rights, which alone comprises no fewer than forty of the one hundred eleven permanent articles of the instrument. 1 In it are guaranteed the personal liberty of the subject, the security of property, the inviolability of personal correspondence, immunity from domiciliary visitation, freedom of the press, tolera- tion of religious sects, liberty of migration, and the right of association and public meeting. But there is an almost total lack of machinery by which effect can be given to some of the most important provi- sions relating to these subjects. Some guarantees of what would seem the most fundamental rights, as those of public assemblage and of liberty of teaching, are reduced in practice to empty phrases. 2 The process of constitutional amendment in Prussia is easy. With the approval of the king, an amendment may at any time be adopted by a simple majority of the two legislative chambers, with the special requirement only that an amendment, unlike a statute, must be voted upon twice, with an interval of three weeks between the two votes. During the first ten years of its existence the constitution was amended no fewer than ten times. Of later amendments there have been six, but none more recent than that of May 27, 1888. The Prussian system of amendment by simple legislative process was incorporated, in 1867, in the fundamental law of the North German Confederation (except that in the Bundesrath a two-thirds vote was required); and in 1871 it was perpetuated in the constitution of the Empire. 3 1 Arts. 3-42. Robinson, Constitution of the Kingdom of Prussia, 27-34. 2 Lowell, Governments and Parties, L, 286. 3 There is an annotated English version of the Prussian constitution, edited by J. H. Robinson, in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Supplement, Sept., 1894. The original text will be found in F. Stoerk, Handbuch der deutschen Verfassungen (Leipzig, 1884), 44-63; also, with elab- orate notes, in A. Arndt, Die Verfassungs-Urkunde ftir den pruessischen Staat nebst Erganzungs- und Ausfuhrungs-Gesetzen, mit Einleitung, Kommentar und Sachregister (Berlin, 1889). The principal treatises on the Prussian constitutional system are H. Schulze, Das preussisches Staatsrecht, auf Grundlage des deutschen Staatsrechtes (Leipzig, 1872-1874); ibid., Das Staatsrecht des Konigreichs Preussen, in Marquardsen's Handbuch (Freiburg, 1884); L. von Ronne, Das Staatsrecht THE CONSTITUTION OF PRUSSIA 253 III. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 269. Status of the Crown. At the head of the state stands the king, in whom is vested the executive, and a considerable share in the legis- lative, power. The crown is hereditary in the male line of the house of Hohenzollern, following the principle of primogeniture. An heir to the throne is regarded as attaining his majority on the completion of his eighteenth year. It has been pointed out that the German Emperor, as such, has no civil list. He has no need of one, for the reason that in the capacity of king of Prussia he is entitled to one of the largest civil lists known to European governments. Since the increase provided for by law of February 20, 1889, the "Krondota- tions Rente, " as it appears in the annual Prussian budget, aggregates 15,719,296 marks; besides which the king enjoys the revenues from a vast amount of private property, comprising castles, forests, and estates in various parts of the realm. There are also certain special funds the income from which is available for the needs of the royal family. 270. Powers. The powers of the crown are very comprehensive. 1 It is perhaps not too much to say that they exceed those exercised by any other European sovereign. The king is head of the army and of the church, and in him are vested, directly or indirectly, all func- tions of an executive and administrative character. All appointments to offices of state are made by him immediately or under his authority. The upper legislative chamber is recruited almost exclusively by royal nomination. And all measures, before they become law, re- quire the king's assent; though, by reason of the sovereign's absolute control of the upper chamber, no measure of which he disapproves can ever be enacted by that body, so that there is never an occasion for the exercise of the formal veto. To employ the language of a celebrated German jurist, the king possesses "the whole and undi- vided power of the state in all its plenitude. It would, therefore, be contrary to the nature of the monarchical constitutional law of Germany to enumerate all individual powers of the king. . . . His sovereign right embraces, on the contrary, all branches of the govern- ment. Everything which is decided or carried out in the state takes place in the name of the king. He is the personified power of the der preussischen Monarchic (Leipzig, 1881-1884); and H. de Grais, Handbuch der Verfassung und Verwaltung in Preussen und dem deutschen Reiche (nth ed., Berlin, 1896). A good brief account is that in A. Lebon, Etudes sur 1'Allemagne politique, Chap. 4. 1 They are enumerated in articles 45-52 of the constitution. Robinson, Consti- tution of the Kingdom of Prussia, 36-37. 254 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE state." 1 Except in so far as the competence of the sovereign is ex- pressly limited or regulated by the constitution, it is to be regarded as absolute. 271. The Ministry: Composition and Status. The organization of the executive the creation of ministerial portfolios, the appointment of ministers, and the delimitation of departmental functions rests absolutely with the king, save, of course, for the necessity of procuring from the Landtag the requisite appropriations. Beginning in the days of Stein with five, the number of ministries was gradually increased until since 1878 there have been nine, as follows: Foreign Affairs; 2 the Interior; Ecclesiastical, Educational, and Sanitary Affairs; Com- merce and Industry; Finance; War; Justice; Public Works; and Agri- culture, Public Domains, and Forests. Each ministry rests upon an essentially independent basis and there has been little attempt to reduce the group to the uniformity or symmetry of organization that characterizes the ministries of France, Italy, and other continental monarchies. Departmental heads, as well as subordinates, are ap- pointed with reference solely to their administrative efficiency, not, as in parliamentary governments, in consideration of their politics or of their status in the existing political situation. They need not be, and usually are not, members of either of the legislative chambers. For it is essential to observe that in Prussia ministers are responsible only to the sovereign, which means that the parliamentary system, in the proper sense, does not exist. The constitution, it is true, pre- scribes that every act of the king shall be countersigned by a minister, who thereby assumes responsibility for it. 3 But there is no machinery whereby this nominal responsibility can be made, in practice, to mean anything. Ministers do not retire by reason of an adverse vote in the Landtag; and, although upon vote of either legislative chamber, they may be prosecuted for treason, bribery, or violation of the constitu- tion, no penalties are prescribed in the event of conviction, so that the provision is of no practical effect. 4 Every minister possesses the right 1 Schulze, Preussisches Staatsrecht, I., 158. 2 The Minister of Foreign Affairs is at the same time the Minister-President of Prussia and the Chancellor of the Empire. On the functions of the various minis- tries see Dupriez, Les Ministres, I., 448-462. 3 Art. 44. 4 Art. 61. Robinson, Constitution of the Kingdom of Prussia, 40. In the words of a German jurist, "the anomaly continues to exist in Prussia of ministerial re- sponsibility solemnly enunciated in the constitution, the character of the respon- sibility, the accuser and the court specified, and at the same time a complete lack of any legal means by which the representatives of the people can protect even the constitution itself against the most flagrant violations and the most dangerous attacks." Schulze, Preussisches Staatsrecht, II., 694. THE CONSTITUTION OF PRUSSIA 255 to appear on the floor of either chamber, and to be heard at any time when no member of the house is actually speaking. In the exercise of this privilege the minister is the immediate spokesman of the crown, a fact which is apt to be apparent from the tenor of his utter- ances. 272. The Ministry: Organization and Workings. The Prussian ministry exhibits little solidarity. There is a "president of the council of ministers," who is invariably the Minister for Foreign Affairs and at the same time the Chancellor of the Empire, but his functions are by no means those of the corresponding dignitary in France and Italy. Over his colleagues he possesses, as president, no substantial authority whatsoever. 1 In the lack of responsibility to the Landtag, there is no occasion for an attempt to hold the ministry solidly together in the support of a single, consistent programme. The ministers are severally controlled by, and responsible to, the crown, and the views or policies of one need not at all be those of another. At the same time, of course, in the interest of efficiency it is desirable that there shall be a certain amount of unity and of concerted action. To attain this there was established by Count Hardenberg a Staats-Ministerium, or Ministry of State, which occupies in the Prussian executive system a position somewhat similar to that occupied in the French by the Council of Ministers. 2 The Ministry of State is composed of the nine ministerial heads, together with the Imperial secretaries of state for the Interior, Foreign Affairs, and the Navy. It holds meetings at least as fre- quently as once a week for the discussion of matters of common ad- ministrative interest, the drafting of laws or of constitutional amend- ments, the supervision of local administration, and, in emergencies, the promulgation of ordinances which have the force of law until the ensuing session of the Landtag. There are certain acts, as the pro- claiming of a state of siege, which may be performed only with the sanction of this body. The fact remains, none the less, that, normally, the work of the several departments is carried on independently and that the ministry exhibits less cohesion than any other in a state of Prussia's size and importance. It is to be observed that there is likewise a Staatsrath, or Council of State (dating originally from 1604 1 The office of Chancellor was discontinued with the death of Hardenberg and that of Minister-President substituted. The Chancellor possessed substantial authority over his colleagues. Since 1871, the Minister-President has been a Chancellor, but of the Empire, not of Prussia. 2 The Staats-Ministerium was called into being, to replace the old Council of State, by an ordinance of October 27, 1810. Its functions were further elaborated in cabinet orders of June 3, 1814, and November 3, 1817. The constitution of 1850 preserved it and assigned it some new duties. 256 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE and revived in 1817), composed of princes, high officials of state, ministers, judges, and other persons of influence designated by the crown. It may be consulted on legislative proposals, disputes as to the spheres of the various ministries, and other important matters. In barrenness of function, however, as in structure, it bears a close resemblance to-day to the British Privy Council. 1 273. Subsidiary Executive Bodies. Two other executive organs possess considerable importance. These are the Oberrechnungs- kammer, or Supreme Chamber of Accounts, and the Volkswirth- schaftsrath, or Economic Council. The Oberrechnungskammer has existed continuously since 1714. Its function is the oversight and revision of the finances of the departments, the administration of the state debt, and the acquisition and disposal of state property. Its president is appointed by the crown, on nomination of the Staats- Ministerium. Its remaining members are designated by the crown on nomination of its own president, countersigned by the president of the Staats-Ministerium. All enjoy the tenure and the immunities of judges, and the body collectively is responsible, not to the Ministry of State, but to the crown immediately. In status and function it resembles somewhat closely the French Cour des Comptes. The same group of men, with additional members appointed by the Bundesrath, serves as the Chamber of Accounts of the Empire. The Volkswirth- schaftsrath consists of seventy-five members named by the king for a term of five years. Its business is to give preliminary consideration to measures vitally affecting large economic interests, to determine what should be Prussia's position in the Bundesrath upon these meas- ures, and to recommend to the crown definite courses of action regard- ing them. Its function is purely consultative. 1 On the organization and functions of the Prussian ministry see Dupriez, Les Ministres, I., 345-462; von Seydel, Preussisches Staatsrecht, 91-104; von Ronne, Das Staatsrecht der preussischen Monarchic, 4th ed., III.; Schulze, Das preussische Staatsrecht, II. CHAPTER XIII THE PRUSSIAN LANDTAG LOCAL GOVERNMENT I. COMPOSITION OF THE LANDTAG 274. The House of Lords : Law of 1853. Legislative authority in the kingdom of Prussia is shared by the king with a national assembly, the Landtag, composed of two chambers, of which the upper is known as the Herrenhaus, or House of Lords, and the lower as the Abgeordnet- enhaus, or House of Representatives. Under the original provisions of the constitution, the House of Lords was composed of (i) adult princes of the royal family; (2) heads of Prussian houses deriving di- rectly from the earlier Empire; (3) heads of families designated by royal ordinance, with regard to rights of primogeniture and lineal descent; (4) 90 members chosen by the principal taxpayers of the kingdom; and (5) 30 members elected by the municipal councils of the larger towns. By law of May 7, 1853, this arrangement was set aside and in its stead it was enacted that the chamber should be made up entirely of persons appointed by the crown in heredity or for life; and, on the authorization of this measure, there was promulgated, Octo- ber 12, 1854, a royal ordinance by which the composition of the body was fixed substantially as it is to-day. The act of 1853 forbids that the system thus brought into operation be further modified, save with the assent of the Landtag; but this does not alter the fact that the present composition of the Prussian upper house is determined, not by the constitution of the kingdom, but by royal ordinance authorized by legislative enactment. 276. The House of Lords To-day. The component elements of the House of Lords to-day are: (i) princes of the royal family who are of age; (2) scions of the Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Hohenzollern- Sigmaringen, and sixteen other once sovereign families of Prussia; (3) heads of the territorial nobility created by the king, and numbering some fifty members; (4) a number of life peers, chosen by the king from among wealthy landowners, great manufacturers, and men of renown; (5) eight titled noblemen appointed by the king on the nom- ination of the resident landowners of the eight older provinces of the kingdom; (6) representatives of the universities, of religious bodies, and of towns of over 50,000 inhabitants, presented by these various 257 258 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE organizations respectively, but appointed ultimately by the king; and (7) an indefinite number of members, chosen by the king for life on any ground whatsoever, and under no restriction except that peers must have attained the age of thirty years. The composition of the chamber is thus extremely complex. There are members ex-officio, members by royal appointment, members by hereditary right. But the appointing power of the crown is so comprehensive that the body partakes largely of the character of a royal creation. Its membership is recruited almost exclusively from the rigidly conservative landowning aristocracy, so that in attitude and policy it is apt to be in no degree representative of the mass of the nation, at least of the industrial classes. As a rule, though not in- variably, it is ready to support cordially the measures of the crown. In any event, through exercise of the unrestricted power of creating peers, the crown is in a position at all times to control its acts. The number of members varies, but is ordinarily about 300. l 276. The House of Representatives. The Abgeordnetenhaus, or House of Representatives, consists of 443 members 362 for the old kingdom, 80 added in 1867 to represent the newly acquired provinces, and one added in 1876 to represent Lauenburg. Representatives are elected for a five-year term, and every Prussian is eligible who has completed his thirtieth year, who has paid taxes to the state during as much as three years, and whose civil rights have not been impaired by judicial sentence. Every Prussian who has attained his twenty- fifth year, and who is qualified to vote in the municipal elections of his place of domicile, is entitled to participate in the choice of a dep- uty. At first glance the Prussian franchise appears distinctly liberal. It is so, however, only in the sense that comparatively few adult males are excluded from the exercise of it. In its actual workings it is one of the most undemocratic in Europe. 277. The Electoral System. Representatives are chosen in electoral districts, each of which returns from one to three members as a rule, two. There has been no general redistribution of seats since 1860 (although some changes were made in 1906), so that in many dis- tricts, especially in the urban centers whose growth has fallen largely within the past fifty years, the quota of representatives is grossly disproportioned to population. Until 1906 the entire city of Berlin returned but nine members, and its quota now is only twelve. 2 The 1 Lebon, fitudes sur I'Allemagne politique, 187-197. 9 Prior to 1906 the Berlin representatives were chosen in four electoral districts, but in the year mentioned the city was divided into twelve single-member con- stituencies. THE PRUSSIAN LANDTAG LOCAL GOVERNMENT 259 enfranchised inhabitants of the district do not, moreover, vote for a representative directly. The essential characteristics of the Prussian electoral system are, first, that the suffrage is indirect, and, second, that it is unequal. The precise method by which a representative is elected l may be indicated as follows: (i) each circle, or district, is divided into a number of Urwahlbezirke, or sub-districts; (2) hi each Urwahlbezirk one Wahlman, or elector, is allotted to every 250 inhab- itants; (3) for the choosing of these WahlmSnner the voters of the sub-district are divided into three classes, arranged in such a fashion that the first class will be composed of the payers of direct taxes, beginning with the largest contributors, who collectively pay one- third of the tax-quota of the sub-district, the second class will include the payers next in importance who as a group pay the second third, and the last class will comprise the remainder; (4) each of these classes chooses, by absolute majority, one- third of the electors to which the Urwahlbezirk is entitled; finally (5) all the electors thus chosen in the various Urwahlbezirke of the district come together as an electoral college and choose, by absolute majority, a representative to sit in the Abgeordnetenhaus at Berlin. 2 278. Origins and Operation of the System. The principal features of this unique system were devised as a compromise between a thoroughgoing democracy based on universal suffrage and a gov- ernment exclusively by the landholding aristocracy. The three- class arrangement originated in the Rhine Province where, by the local government code of 1845, ft was P ut m operation in the elections of the municipalities. In the constitution of 1850 it was adopted for use in the national elections, and in subsequent years it was extended to munic- ipal elections in virtually all parts of the kingdom, so that it came to be a characteristic and well-nigh universal Prussian institution. It need hardly be pointed out that the scheme throws the bulk of political power, whether in municipality or in nation, into the hands of the men of wealth. In not fewer than 2,214 Urwahlbezirke a third of the direct taxes is paid by a single individual, who therefore comprises alone the first electoral class; and in 1703 precincts the first class consists of but two persons. In most cases the number of the least considerable taxpayers who in the aggregate pay the last third of the tax-quota is relatively large. Taking the kingdom as a whole, 1 As stipulated in articles 69-75 of the constitution. Robinson, The Constitution of the Kingdom of Prussia, 42-44. 2 In the event that, between elections, a seat falls vacant, a new member is chosen forthwith by this same body of Wahlmanner without a fresh appeal to the original electorate of the district. 260 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE it was estimated in 1907 that approximately three per cent of the electorate belonged to the first class, about 9.5 per cent to the second, and the remaining 87.5 to the third. In the individual precinct, as in the nation at large, the little group at the top, however, possesses precisely as much political weight as the large group at the bottom, because it is entitled to choose an equal number of Wahlmanner. The result is a segregation of classes which, whatever its merits at certain points, is of very questionable utility as a basis of government. The effect politically is to give an enormous advantage to the conservative and agrarian interests and to deprive the socialists and other popular elements all but completely of representation. At the elections of 1903 the Social Democrats put forth effort for the first time in an organized way to win seats in the Landtag. Under the system which has been described a total of 324,157 Conservative votes sufficed to elect 143 representatives, but 314,149 Social Demo- cratic votes did not secure the return of a single member. In the Imperial elections of the same year, conducted under a scheme of equal suffrage, the popular party sent to the Reichstag eighty members. At the Prussian elections of 1908 a Social Democratic vote which comprised approximately twenty-four per cent of the total popular vote yielded but seven members in a total of 443. So glaringly undemocratic is the prevailing system that even that arch- aristocrat, Bismarck, was upon one occasion moved to denounce the three-class arrangement as "the most miserable and absurd election law that has ever been formulated in any country. J)1 II. THE MOVEMENT FOR ELECTORAL REFORM 279. The Programme Formulated. Throughout more than a generation there has been in Prussia persistent agitation in behalf of electoral reform. In 1883, and again in 1886, the lower chamber debated, but rejected, a project for the substitution of the secret ballot for the existing viva wee method of voting. In 1883 the Social 1 For a brief exposition of the practical effects of the system, especially on political parties, see Lowell, Governments and Parties, I., 305-308. The system as it operates in the cities is described in Munro, The Government of European Cities, 128-135, and in R. C. Brooks, The Three-Class System in Prussian Cities, in Municipal Affairs, II., 3Q6ff. Among special treatises may be mentioned H. Nezard, L'fi volution du suffrage universel en Prusse et dans PEmpire allemand (Paris, 1905); I. Jastrow, Das Dreiklassensystem (Berlin, 1894); R. von Gneist, Die nationale Rechtsidee von den Standen und das preussische Dreiklassensystem (Berlin, 1904); and G. Evert, Die Dreiklassenwahl in den preussischen Stadt-und Landgemeinden (Berlin, 1901). THE PRUSSIAN LANDTAG LOCAL GOVERNMENT 261 Democratic party proclaimed its purpose to abstain from voting until the inequalities arising from " the most wretched of all electoral systems" should have been removed. Gradually there was worked out a programme of reform to which socialists, Liberals, and pro- gressives of various schools gave adherence, wholly or in part, com- prising four principal demands: (i) the abolition of discriminations against the small taxpayer; (2) the introduction of the secret ballot; (3) the replacing of indirect by direct elections; and (4) a redistri- bution of seats. And these are to-day the objects chiefly sought by the reform elements. 280. The Efforts of 1906 and 1908. In 1906 a bill raising the number of representatives from 433 to 443 and making provision for a slight redistribution of seats was carried, but a Radical amend- ment providing for direct and universal suffrage and the secret ballot was opposed with vigor by the Government and failed of adoption. In January, 1908, there were notable socialist demonstrations throughout the country in behalf of the establishment of equal manhood suffrage. Prince von Biilow, while admitting the existing system to be defective, opposed the introduction in Prussia of the electoral system of the Empire, alleging that it would not be compatible with the interests of the state and maintaining that every sound reform of the franchise must retain and secure the preponderance of the great mass of the middle class, and therefore must ami at the establishment of an equitable gradation in the weight of the various classes of votes. It was added that the Government would consider whether this object might best be attained by basing the franchise entirely upon the amount of taxes paid by the voter, or by taking into account age, educational attainments, or other qualifications. When the Radicals introduced in the lower chamber a resolution declaring for equal manhood suffrage the Clericals and the Poles supported it, but the Conservatives and National Liberals of all shades stood by the Government, and the resolution was overwhelmingly rejected. The elections of June, 1908, at which, as has been pointed out, seven Social Democratic members were returned, demonstrated that even under existing electoral arrangements dissatisfaction could find some expression. The National Liberals and the Free Conservatives, who had been outspoken in opposition to the extension of the suffrage, lost, respectively, twelve and four seats. When, however, the Radical reso- lution reappeared it again was thrown out. 281. The Project of 1910. By popular demonstrations in Berlin and in other important towns throughout the kingdom, the Government was brought to the conviction that it was not expedient to maintain 262 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE too long its hitherto inflexible attitude. In a speech from the throne. January n, 1910, the sovereign announced the early introduction of a measure for electoral reform, and a month later it became the unwelcome duty of the new Chancellor, von Bethman-Hollweg, to lay the Govern- ment's project before the chambers. Instantly it was evident, not only that the proposal had been prepared entirely under bureaucratic direc- tion, but that the real purpose of the Government was to carry through the Landtag an electoral bill designed to appease the reformers without yielding the essential features of the existing system. The project provided, in brief: (i) that the tripartite system be retained, though the quota of taxes admitting to the first class should be reduced to a uniform level of five thousand marks (no weight being given to payment beyond that amount), and voters of specified degrees of education, or occupying certain official positions, or having served a stipulated number of years in the army or navy, should be assigned to the higher classes, with but incidental regard to their tax contributions: (2) that viva wee voting be retained; (3) that the choice of electors be by districts rather than by Urwahlbezirke; and (4) that direct voting be substituted for indirect. There was no mention of redistribution, and the secret ballot was specifically withheld. The rearrangement of classes did not touch the fundamental difficulty, and the only demand of the reformers which was really met was that for direct elections. In his speech in defense of the measure the Chancellor frankly admitted that the Government was irrevocably opposed to a suffrage system based on democratic principles. The scheme was ridiculed by the liberal elements. In protest against the nonchalance with which the door had been shut in their faces the working classes in Berlin and elsewhere entered upon a fresh series of demonstrations by reason of which the Government was embarrassed through several weeks. In the Landtag the Conservative and Free Conservative parties, comprising the Government majority, stood solidly for the bill, in the conviction that if there must be change at all those changes which the bill proposed would be less objectionable than those which were being urged by the radicals. The Centre wavered, while the National Liberals, the Poles, the Social Democrats, and the Progressive People's Party stood firmly in opposition. February 13 the bill was referred in the lower house to a committee, by which it was reported so amended as to provide for the secret ballot but not for direct elections. March 16, by a vote of 283 to 168, the measure in this amended form, was passed by the chamber, all parties except the Conservatives and the Centre voting against it. April 29 the bill was passed in the upper chamber, by a vote of 140 to 94, in the form in THE PRUSSIAN LANDTAG LOCAL GOVERNMENT 263 which originally it had been introduced. All efforts on the part of the Government to bring the lower house to an acceptance of the original measure proved fruitless, and the upshot was that, May 27 following, the project was withdrawn from the chambers. The overhauling of the antiquated electoral system in Prussia, both national and municipal, remains a live issue, but agreement upon a definite project of reform is apparently remote. The problem is enormously complicated by the virile traditions of aristocratic, landed privilege which permeate the inmost parts of the Prussian political system. In respect to redistri- bution, too, a fundamental obstacle lies in the consideration that such a step on the part of Prussia would almost of necessity involve a similar one on the part of the Empire. In both instances the insuperable objection, from the point of view of the Government, arises from the vast acquisition of political power which would accrue from such re- form to the socialists and other radical parties. 1 III. ORGANIZATION AND FUNCTIONS OF THE LANDTAG 282. Sessions and Privileges of Members. The maximum life of a Landtag is five years; but the lower house may at any time be dissolved by the crown. A dissolution must be followed by the election of a new chamber within sixty days, and the ensuing session is required to begin within three months. The power of dissolution is not infrequently exercised, and there have been instances of the dissolution of a newly elected chamber, by reason of its objectionable political character, before it had been convened for so much as a single sitting. According to law the Landtag must be convoked in regular session every year, during the period between the beginning of November and the middle of the following January. 2 It may be called in extraordinay session at any time. Without its own consent, it may not be adjourned for more than thirty days, or more than once during a session. Save in the event of the necessity of making provision for a regency, the chambers sit separately; but the two must be convoked, opened, adjourned, and prorogued simultaneously. Each chamber passes upon the qualifications of its members; each elects it own presidents, vice-presidents, and secretaries; and each regulates its own discipline and order of business. Sittings of both chambers are public, save when, on proposal of the president or of ten 1 P. Matter, La re"forme 61ectorale en Prusse, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, Sept., 1910; C. Brocard, La re"forme electorate en Prusse et les partis, in Revue Politique et Parlementaire, Feb., 1912. 2 Art. 76. 264 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE members, it is decided to close the doors. Members are regarded as representatives of the population of the kingdom as a whole. They may not be bound by any sort of instructions; nor may they be called to account legally for votes cast, or for statements made, in the fulfillment, of their legislative functions. Unless taken in the act, or within twenty- four hours thereafter, no member of either house may, without the consent of that house, be arrested or submitted to examination for any penal offense. Members of the lower house receive, and must accept, travelling expenses and a daily allowance of fifteen marks during sessions. At the beginning of each sitting the House of Lords is divided into five Abtheilungen, or sections, and the House of Representatives into seven. In the lower house the division is made by lot; in the upper, by the president. In both instances it is made once for an entire session, not monthly as in France, or bi-monthly as in Italy. The function of the Abtheilungen is to appoint committee members, and, in the lower house, to make preliminary examination of election returns. In each house there are eight standing committees. For the consideration of par- ticular measures special committees are constituted as occasion demands. 283. Powers. The Landtag is, of course, primarily a legislative institution. But the powers of independent deliberation which it exercises are distinctly inferior to those exercised by the British House of Commons, by the French Chamber of Deputies, or by any one of a half score of other European parliamentary bodies. This fact arises from the relatively preponderating influence which is exerted by the Government in its proceedings. In theory each chamber possesses the right to initiate legislation; in practice, virtually all bills are introduced by the Government, and the chambers content themselves with dis- cussion and the proposing of amendments. It not infrequently happens that, as in the case of the Electoral Reform Bill of 1910, the lower house so emasculates a measure as to compel the Government to withdraw it. But, speaking broadly, it may be said that the legislative acts of Prussia are projected and formulated by the crown and the ministers and merely ratified by the Landtag. There is still some question as to whether the stipulation that all laws require the assent of the two houses covers, under every circumstance, the appropriation of money. In practice, appropriations are regularly voted in the chambers, and in fact it is required that the budget and all fiscal measures shall be pre- sented first to the lower house and shall be accepted or rejected as a whole by the upper; but during the years immediately preceding the Austrian war of 1866 the Government asserted and exercised the power of collecting and expending the revenues of the state on the basis of THE PRUSSIAN LANDTAG LOCAL GOVERNMENT 265 standing laws, thus virtually suspending the legislative appropriating power, and the question has never been finally settled by Prussian jurists as to whether such a thing might not again be done. 1 On the side of administration the powers of the Landtag are but nominal. Under provisions of the constitution each chamber has a right to present memorials to the king; to refer to the ministers docu- ments addressed to it, and to demand explanations respecting com- plaints made therein; and to appoint commissions for the investigation of subjects for its own information. The right of interpellation is ex- pressly recognized. But, as has been pointed out, the ministers are not in practice responsible to the legislative chambers, and neither they nor the king himself can be compelled to give heed, unless they so desire, to legislative protests, demands, or censure. Where a parliamentary system does not exist, the influence of the legislative branch upon matters of administration is likely to be confined to the simple assertion of opinion. IV. LOCAL GOVERNMENT: ORIGINS AND PRINCIPLES 2 284. The Measures of Stein and Hardenberg. The origins of the local governmental regime prevailing in the kingdom of Prussia to-day antedate, to some extent, the nineteenth century, but in large part they are to be traced to the period of the Stein-Hardenberg ministries. By the memorable Municipal Edict (Stadt^Ordnung) of November 19, 1808, Stein set up a complete municipal system, with burgomasters, executive boards, and town councils (all elective), and swept away the oligarchy of the guilds, broadened the franchise, and conferred upon the towns almost complete independence, even in the matter of taxation. An edict of 1831 inaugurated a revival of the right of the central authori- ties to supervise local taxation and introduced a number of other changes, but, on the whole, the municipal arrangements of the present day are based upon the edict of Stein. More immediately, they rest upon an act of 1853, applied originally only to the six eastern provinces of the kingdom, but eventually extended to the others. Aside from its introduction of the three-class electoral system, and a few other matters, this law follows closely the measure of 1808 and but consolidates and extends pre-existing arrangements. 3 Neither Stein nor Hardenberg 1 Lowell, Governments and Parties, I., 298. 2 The judicial system of Prussia, regulated in common with that of the other states by Imperial law, is described in Chapter n, pp. 241-244. Articles 86-97 of the Prussian constitution deal with the subject of the judiciary, but many of their provisions have been rendered obsolete by Imperial statutes. 3 The text of the law of 1853 is printed in the appendix of A. W. Jebens, Die Stadtverordneten (Berlin, 1905). 266 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE touched the constitution of the country communes, but the extension, during the Napoleonic occupation, of the French communal system into all the Prussian territories west of the Elbe prepared the way for the essentially uniform system which was established by the Westphalian and Rhineland Edicts of 1841 and 1845. Edicts of 1807 and 1811 abol- ished the aristocratic basis of the ancient circles (Kreise), and after 1815 the circle as a unit of local government next above the commune was extended to all the conquered or reconquered territories. The revival of the old provincial organization was begun also in 1815, when the kingdom was divided into ten provinces; and in the same year there were established twenty-six government districts (Regierungsbezirke), two or three within each province, each under the control of one of the government boards (Regierungen) whose creation had been begun in iSoS. 1 286. The Reforms of Bismarck. Throughout the middle portion of the nineteenth century the administrative system, modified but slightly by legislative enactment, continued to present a curious com- bination of elements which were popular and elements which were narrowly bureaucratic and, in some instances, essentially feudal. Be- ginning in 1872, Bismarck addressed himself to the task of co-ordinating, strengthening, and to a certain extent liberalizing, the local in- stitutions of the kingdom. The ends at which he aimed principally were the abolition of conditions by which it was made possible for the whole machinery of local government to be captured from time to time by a single social class for its own benefit, and the establishment of a system under which all classes of the population might be admitted to participation in the management of purely local affairs. In the course of the reform which was carried through numerous features of English local institutions were copied with some closeness. In a number of scholarly volumes appearing between 1863 and 1872 the genius of these institutions had been convincingly expounded by the jurist Rudolph Gneist, whose essential thesis was that the failure of parliamentary government in Prussia and the success of it in Great Britain was attrib- utable to the dissimilarity of the local governmental systems of the two countries; 2 and by these writings the practical proposals with which Bis- marck came forward were given important theoretic basis. Neither Gneist nor Bismarck sympathized with the ideals of democracy, but 1 E. Meier, Die Reform der Verwaltungsorganisation unter Stein und Harden- berg (Leipzig, 1881). 2 The most important of Gneist's works in this connection are: Geschichte des self-government in England (1863); Verwaltung, Justiz, Rechtsweg (1867); Die preussische Kreis-Ordnung (1871); and Der Rechtsstaat (1872). THE PRUSSIAN LANDTAG LOCAL GOVERNMENT 267 both believed that the local administrative authorities should be made to include not only a paid, expert bureaucracy but a considerable ele- ment of unpaid lay or non-official persons, drawn, however, principally from the large landowners and taxpayers. The obstacles to be overcome, arising from public indifference, the opposition of the existing bureau- cracy, the apprehensions of the Conservatives, and sectional differences and antipathies, were enormous, but by proceeding slowly and in a conciliatory spirit the Government was able eventually to execute the larger portion of its plans. The first enactments, for the circles in 1872 and for the provinces in 1875, were applied only to those provinces which had formed the old monarchy, but during the ensuing ten years similar measures were extended to the remainder of the kingdom, and, finally, after the dismissal of Bismarck, the task was rounded out by a great Landgemeinde-Ordnung issued for the seven eastern provinces in 1891. By this series of enactments the administrative methods and machinery of the kingdom were reduced to substantially the character which they to-day possess. 286. Principles of the Administrative System. Although the sys- tem is still one of the most complicated in Europe, it is infinitely sim- pler than once it was, and the bureaucratic forces in it, if still pre- dominant, have been subjected to a variety of important restraints. The principles which underlie it have been summarized by an English writer as follows: "The first is the careful distinction drawn between those internal affairs in which the central government is thought to be directly concerned, and those which are held to be primarily of only local interest. The former group includes, besides the army, the state taxes and domains, ecclesiastical affairs, police (in the wide Prussian meaning of the term), and the supervision of local author- ities; whilst roads, poor relief, and a number of miscellaneous matters are left to the localities. These two groups are kept carefully separate, even when they are entrusted to the same authority. Secondly, the work of the central government is 'deconcentrated,' that is, the country is divided into districts (which may or may not be co-incident with the areas of local self-government), in each of which there is a delegation of the central authority, doing its work, and thereby lessening the pressure upon the departmental offices in Berlin. Some- thing like this deconcentration is found in the educational organiza- tion of France, and also in the office of the Prefect, but it is far more elaborate, and the machinery much more complex, in Prussia. Thirdly the comparative independence of the executive from the deliberative authority, and the predominance of the officials, which characterize the central government of Prussia, repeat themselves throughout the 268 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE whole of local government. And, finally, in all except the largest of the Prussian areas of local self-government, the executive agents of the locality, elected by it, are also the representatives of the central government; as such they are members of the bureaucracy and con- trolled by it, and in consequence they naturally look to the center for guidance and direction in regard to local affairs. Therefore, whilst it would be inaccurate to say that local self-government, as understood in England, does not exist in Prussia, it is true that self-government there is weak, that it is not so much the exercise of the will of the locality within limits prescribed (for the protection of the whole com- munity) by the central power, as the exercise of the will of the latter by the locality. In fact, the bureaucracy rules; and it is fortunate for Prussia that hitherto the bureaucracy has remained intelligent and respective of new ideas." 1 At the same time it is to be observed that, while the professional, life-long holders of office continue to preponderate as in no other important country of western Europe, the class of non-professionals is large and constantly increasing. As a rule, the first class is salaried, the second is not; the non-professionals being simply citizens who, moved by considerations of a civic and social nature, give their serv- ices without prospect of pecuniary reward. The principle of the system is, as Ashley characterizes it, that of government by experts, checked by lay criticism and the power of the purse, and effectively controlled by the central authorities. And, although the details of local governmental arrangements vary appreciably from state to state, this principle, which has attained its fullest realization in Prus- sia, may be said to underlie local government throughout the Empire in general. V. LOCAL GOVERNMENT: AREAS AND ORGANS 287. The Province. Aside from the cities, which have their special forms of government, the political units of Prussia, in the order of their magnitude, are: (i) the Provinz, or province; (2) the Regierungs- bezirk, or district; (3) the Kreis, or circle; (4) the Amtsbezirk, or court jurisdiction; and (5) the Gemeinde, or commune. Of these, three the first, third, and fifth are spheres both of the central administration and of local self-government; two the second and fourth exist for administrative purposes solely. Of provinces there are twelve: East Prussia, West Prussia, Brandenburg, Pomerania, Silesia, Posen, West- phalia, Saxony, Hanover, the Rhine Province, Schleswig-Holstein, 1 Ashley, Local and Central Government, 130-132. THE PRUSSIAN LANDTAG LOCAL GOVERNMENT 269 and Hesse-Nassau. 1 Unlike the French and Italian departments, the Prussian provinces are historical areas, of widely varying extent and, in some instances, of not even wholly continuous territory. Thus Hanover is, geographically, the kingdom once united with the crown of Great Britain, Schleswig-Holstein comprises the territories wrested from Denmark in 1864, Saxony is the country taken from the kingdom of Saxony at the close of the Napoleonic wars, and Posen represents Prussia's ultimate acquisition from the Polish partitions of the eight- eenth century. In the organization of the province the separation of functions rela- ting to the affairs of the kingdom (Staatsgeschafte) from those which relate only to matters of a local nature is carried out rigidly. In the circle, as will appear, the two sets of functions are discharged by the same body of officials; in the district, the functions performed are wholly of a national, rather than a local, character; but in the province there are not merely two sets of functions but two entirely separate groups of officials. 288. Provincial Organs of the Central Administration. For the administration of affairs of general interest, such as police, education, and religion, the organs within the province are (i) the Oberprasident, or chief president, appointed by the king to represent the central government in the management of all such matters as concern the entire province or reach beyond the jurisdiction of a single Regier- ungsbezirk administration, 2 and (2) the Provinzialrath, a provincial council consisting of, besides the Oberprasident or his representative as presiding officer, one professional member appointed for an in- definite tenure by the Minister of the Interior and five ordinary citizen members elected, usually for a term of six years, by the provincial Ausschuss, or committee. The Oberprasident is the immediate agent of the ministry, as is the prefect in France, though he is a more dignified and important functionary than his French counterpart. None the less, by virtue of the fact that most of the Oberprasident 's acts are valid only after having been accorded the assent of a body the majority of whose members are chosen within the province, the bureaucratic aspect of his position is subjected to a highly important limitation. 289. Provincial Organs of Self-Government. By the side of this official group stands another, quite independent of it, for the control of affairs of purely local concern. Its organs comprise: (i) the Prov- inzialausschuss, or provincial committee, consisting of from seven to 1 For all practical purposes the city of Berlin and the district of Hohenzollern form each a province. If they be counted, the total is fourteen. 2 Schulze, Das Staatsrecht des Konigreichs Preussen, 63. 270 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE fourteen members elected for six years by the provincial Landtag, not necessarily, but almost invariably, from its own membership; (2) a Landeshauptmann or Landesdirektor, a salaried executive official elected by the Landtag for six or twelve years and confirmed by the crown; and (3) the Provinziallandtag, or provincial assembly. The Landeshauptmann is the executive, the Provinzialausschuss the consultative, organ of local self -administration; the Provinziallandtag is the provincial legislature. Members of the Landtag are elected for six years (one-half retiring every three years) by the diets of the cir- cles, and they comprise, as a rule, local administrative officials of the circles, large landowners, and other well-to-do persons. Sessions are convoked by the crown at least every two years. 1 The Landtag's functions are comprehensive. They include the supervision of char- ities, highways, and industry; the voting of local taxes and the appor- tionment of them among the circles; the enactment of local laws; the custody of provincial property; the election of the Landeshauptmann and the members of the provincial committee; and the giving of advice on provincial matters at the request of the central government. The Landtag is in practice less independent, however, than this enumera- tion of powers might seem to imply. All of its legislation requires the assent of the king; most of its fiscal arrangements must be submitted to one or more of the ministers; and the body itself may be dissolved at any time by the crown. 290. The Government District. Each province is divided into a number of Regierungsbezirke, or districts, of which there are now thirty-five in the kingdom. 2 Unlike the province, the district exists for purposes of general administration only. It therefore has no organs of self-government. Its Regierung, or "administration," consists of a body of professional, salaried officials, appointed by the crown and having at its head the Regierungsprasident, who is, on the whole, the most important official in the Prussian local service. The subjects that fall within the jurisdiction of the functionaries of the district, including taxation, education, religion, forests, etc., are very comprehensive, and the work of administration is carried on chiefly through "colleges," or boards. For the management of police and the supervision of local bodies there exists a Bezirksaus- schuss, or district committee, composed of the Regierungsprasident, 1 Towns of twenty-five thousand inhabitants or more may, by ministerial decree, be set off as separate circles. In such circles Landtag members are chosen by the municipal officials. 2 The province of Schieswig-Holstein, however, contains but a single district. The largest number of districts in a province is six, in Hanover. THE PRUSSIAN LANDTAG LOCAL GOVERNMENT 271 two other persons appointed by the crown, and four members elected by the Provinzialausschuss for six years. A very important function which this body has possessed since 1883 is that of sitting, under the presidency of one of its members appointed for his judicial qualifi- cations, as the administrative court of the district. 1 291. The Circle. In the Kreis, or circle, as in the province, there exist two sharply distinguished sets of governmental functions, the general and the local; but for the administration of both there is a single hierarchy of officials. The number of circles within the king- dom is about 490, with populations varying from 20,000 to 80,000. Each includes all towns lying within it which have a population of less than 25,000. A town of over 25,000 is likely to be created, by minis- terial order, a circle within itself, in which case the functions of govern- ment are exercised by the municipal authorities. 2 The essential organs of government within the Landkreise, or country circles, are three: the Landrath, the Kreisausschuss, and the Kreistag. The Landrath is appointed for life by the crown, on nomination frequently by the Kreistag, or diet. He superintends all administrative affairs, general and local, within the circle; fulfills the functions of chief of police; presides over the Kreisausschuss and Kreistag; and, in general, oc- cupies within the circle the place occupied within the province by the Oberprasident. Associated with him, and organized under his presidency, is the Kreisausschuss, or circle committee, composed of six unofficial members elected by the Kreistag for six years. In addi- tion to its consultative functions, the Kreisausschuss sits as an ad- ministrative court of lowest grade. The Kreistag is the legislative body of the circle. Its members, numbering at least twenty-five, are elected for a term of six years by three Verbande, or colleges, the first being made up of the cities, the second of the large rural taxpayers, the third oi a complicated group of rural interests in which the smaller taxpayers and delegates of the communal assemblies preponderate. 3 The Kreistag is a body of substantial importance. It chooses, directly or indirectly, all the elective officials of the circle, of the district, and of the province; it creates local officers and regulates their functions; it enacts legisla- tion of a local nature; and it votes the taxes required for both its own and the provincial administration. J The immediate legal basis of the organization of the district is the Landes- verwaltungsgesetz of 1883. * Approximately one hundred towns have been so constituted. 3 For a fuller statement of the electoral system see Lowell, Governments and Parties, I., 325. 272 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 292. The Commune. The smallest of Prussian governmental units is the Gemeinde, or commune. 1 Of communes there are two distinct types, the rural (Landgemeinde) and the urban (Stadtge- meinde). The governments of the rural communes (some 36,000 in number) are so varied that any general description of them is virtually impossible. They rest largely upon local custom, though reduced at some points to a reasonable uniformity under regulating statutes such as were enacted for the communes of eight of the twelve provinces in the Landgemeinde-ordnung of iSgi. 2 There is invariably an elective Schulze, or chief magistrate. He is assisted ordinarily by from two to six aldermen (Schoffen) or councillors. And there is generally a govern- ing body (Gemeindevertretung), composed of elected representatives, when there are as many as forty qualified electors, otherwise the people acting in the capacity of a primary assembly (Gemeindeversammlung), for the decision of matters relating to local schools, churches, high- ways, and similar interests. It is to be observed, however, that most of the rural communes are so small that they have neither the financial resources nor the administrative ability to maintain a govern- ment of much virility. Such action as is taken within them is taken almost invariably with the approval of, and under the guidance of, the authorities of the circle, principally the Landrath. 3 In their governmental arrangements the urban communes exhibit more uniformity than do the rural, though occasionally among them 1 The Amtsbezirk is essentially a judicial district. See p. 243. In the eastern provinces it is utilized also for purposes of police administration. 2 For an annotated edition of this important instrument see F. Keil, Die Landge- meinde-ordnung (Leipzig, 1890). 8 On Prussian local government see Lowell, Governments and Parties, I., 308- 3335 F. J. Goodnow, Comparative Administrative Law (2d ed., New York, 1903), I., 295-338; and Ashley, Local and Central Government (London, 1906), 125- 186, 263-287. Fuller accounts are contained in Schulze, Das preussische Staats- recht, I., 436-538; K. Stengel, Organisation der preussischen Verwaltung, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1884); C. Bornhak, Preussisches Staatsrecht, 3 vols. (Freiburg, 1888-1890). and Hue de Grais, Handbuch der Verfassung und Verwaltung in Preussen, etc. (i 7th ed., Berlin, 1906). Texts of local government acts are printed in G. Anschutz, Organisations-gesetze der innern Verwaltung in Preussen (Berlin, 1897). The best description in English of Prussian municipal government is that in Munro, The Government of European Cities, 109-208. A good brief sketch is Ashley, Local and Central Government, 153-164. The best account of some length in German is H. Kappleman, Die Verfassung und Verwaltungs-organisation der preussischen Stadte, in Schriften des Vereins fur Sozialpolitik (Leipzig, 1905-1908), vols. 117-119. Mention may be made of A. Shaw, Municipal Government in Continental Europe (New York, 1895), Chaps. 5-6; E. J. James, Municipal Administration in Germany (Chicago, 1901); and Leclerc, La Vie municipale en Prusse, in Anndes de V&cole Libre des Sciences Politiques, Oct., 1888. For ample bibliography see Munro, op. cit., 389-395- THE PRUSSIAN LANDTAG LOCAL GOVERNMENT 273 there is wide variation. The usual organs comprise (i) the Stadtrath, an executive body consisting of a burgomaster and a number of as- sistants, elected for six, nine, or twelve years, or even for life, and (2) the Stadtverordnete, or municipal council, chosen for from three to six years, as a rule by an electorate identical with that which re- turns the members of the lower branch of the Prussian Landtag. CHAPTER XIV THE MINOR GERMAN STATES ALSACE-LORRAINE 293. Essential Similarity of Political Institutions. The prepon- derance of Prussia among the twenty-five states comprised within the German Empire is such as to lend the governmental system of that kingdom an interest and an importance which attaches to the political arrangements of no one of the remaining members of the federation. No description of German governments would be ade- quate, none the less, which should ignore wholly the minor states. A number of these states, especially Bavaria, Baden, Wiirttemberg, and Saxony, are of considerable size, and the populations which are governed within them approximate, or exceed, the populations of certain wholly independent European nations, as Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal, and several of the states of the southeast. It would be unnecessary, however, even were it possible, to describe in this place twenty-five substantially independent German govern- mental systems. Despite no inconsiderable variation, there are many fundamental features which they, or the majority of them, possess in common. All save three Hamburg, Bremen, and Liibeck are monarchies. All save two Mechlenburg-Schwerin and Mech- lenburg-Strelitz have written constitutions : and elective legislative chambers. In every one of the monarchies the total lack of any- thing in the nature of ministerial responsibility to a parliamentary body leaves the way open for the maintenance of vigorous and inde- pendent royal authority, and it is not too much to say that in all of them, as is pre-eminently true in Prussia, the principle of autocracy lies at the root of both the organization and the methods of govern- ment. Local governmental arrangements and systems of adminis- tration of justice have been copied, in most instances, from Prussia. It will suffice to speak very briefly, first of a few of the more important monarchies, and subsequently of the city-state republics. 1 The texts of these constitutions, in the form in which they existed in 1884, are printed in Stoerk, Handbuch der deutschen Verfassungen. Even in the Mecklen- burgs there are certain written instruments by which the curiously mediaeval system of government there prevailing is in a measure regulated. 274 THE MINOR GERMAN STATES 275 I. THE MORE IMPORTANT MONARCHIES 294. Bavaria: Crown and Ministry. After Prussia, the most important of the German states, in point both of area and of popula- tion, is the kingdom of Bavaria. The constitution at present in op- eration in Bavaria was promulgated May 26, 1818, though it has undergone no slight modification through the process of amendment since that date. 1 The original instrument replaced a fundamental law of May, 1808, devised by the king of Bavaria in imitation of the constitution given some months before by Napoleon to the kingdom of Westphalia; and even the present frame of government bears un- mistakable evidence of French influence. The functions and preroga- tives of king and ministers are substantially what they are in Prussia. 2 In addition to the Ministry of State, consisting of the seven heads of departments, there is an advisory Staatsrath, or Council of State, comprising, besides the ministers, one prince of the royal blood and eight other members. In accordance with royal proclamation im- portant acts of the government require the counter-signature of all of the ministers. This, of itself, does not imply any larger measure of ministerial subordination than exists elsewhere in German govern- ments, but it is worth observing that during a prolonged period, espe- cially after 1869, there was persistent effort on the part of the Clericals to inject into the Bavarian system the principle of ministerial respon- sibility in the parliamentary sense of the phrase, and that although the attempt was by no means wholly successful, it is true that in Bavaria the ministers occupy in practice a somewhat less independent posi- tion than in other German monarchies. The device of interpellation, for example, not only exists in theory; it means something, as else- where in Germany it does not, in actual operation. If a minister will not answer an interpellation that is addressed to him, he is obliged by law at least to give reasons for his refusal. 3 295. The Bavarian Landtag. The Landtag of Bavaria consists of two chambers. The upper, designated officially as the Kammer der Reichsrate ("chamber of the council of the Empire"), is com- 1 Among amendments the most notable have been that of March 9, 1828, relating to the composition of the upper legislative chamber; those of June 4, 1848, and March 21, 1881, by which was modified the composition of the lower house; and that of April 8, 1906, whereby direct elections were substituted for indirect. 2 The crown is hereditary in the house of Wittelbach, 'by which it was acquired as early as 1180. From 1886, the king, Otto I., being insane, the powers of the sovereign were exercised by the prince regent Luitpold, until his death December 12, 1912. 8 Lowell, Governments and Parties, I., 338. 276 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE posed of princes of the royal family, crown dignitaries, high eccle- siastics, hereditary nobles, and life members appointed by the crown in all, some eighty-five to ninety persons. The lower chamber, or Abgeordnetenkammer, consists of 163 members. By law of 1881 the class system of voting in Bavaria was replaced by an equal suffrage extended to all males paying a direct tax. Elections continued to be indirect until 1906, when provision was made for elections by direct and secret ballot. 1 Deputies are chosen for a term of six years and are apportioned in such a manner that, normally, there is one for every 38,000 people. Every male inhabitant is entitled to vote who at the time of the election has completed his twenty-fifth year, has been a Bavarian citizen during at least one year, and has paid to tlje state a direct tax during at least the same period. The Landtag must be summoned not less frequently than once every three years. 2 The budget is made up on a two-year basis, so that sessions are held, in point of fact, biennially. 296. Saxony: Crown and Ministry. Third among the states of the Empire in population, though fifth in area, is the kingdom of Saxony. The present Saxon constitution was promulgated September 4, 1831, under the influence of the revolutionary movements of 1830. By it a monarchy governed under a mediaeval system of estates was converted into a monarchy governed, at least nominally, under a modern representative regime. In point of fact, however, the inaugu- ration of constitutionalism tempered the actual authority of the monarch very slightly. The king is still in every sense the supreme authority within the state. 3 He appoints and dismisses ministers at will, issues ordinances with the force of law, and exercises far-reaching control over the processes of legislation. Upon the failure of the chambers to vote supplies which are held to be essential, he may even collect and expend revenues for a year on no authority apart from his own. For purposes of administrative supervision there are ministers of War, Finance, Justice, Foreign Affairs, the Interior, and Education, and the ministers collectively comprise a Gesammt-Ministerium, or ministry of state. Measures of the crown are countersigned by a 1 Grassman, Die bayerische Landtagswahlgesetz vom 8 April, 1906, in Jahrbuch des Oeffentlichen Rechts der Gegenwart, I., 242. A law of April 15, 1908, introduced the principle of proportional representation in Bavarian municipal elections. 2 M. von Seydel, Das Staatsrecht des Konigreichs Bayern, (Freiburg, 1888), in Marquardsen's Handbuch; E. Junod, La Baviere et I'Empire allemande, in An- nales de l'cole Libre des Sciences Politiques, Apr. 15, 1892. 'The crown is hereditary in the Albertine line of the house of Wettin, with reversion to the Ernestine line, of which the duke of Saxe- Weimar is now the head. The present sovereign is Frederick August III. THE MINOR GERMAN STATES 277 minister; but there is no means by which a minister may be forced out of office against the will of the king by a hostile legislative chamber. 297. The Saxon Legislative Chambers. The Saxon legislature (Standeversammlung) consists of two houses. The upper, designated simply as the First Chamber, is a composite body consisting of forty- six members, in addition to a variable number of adult princes of the royal house. The membership comprises, principally, (i) important prelates; (2) certain university officials; (3) proprietors of great estates, twelve elected and ten appointed by the crown for life; (4) the first magistrates of Dresden and Leipzig; (5) six burgomasters of other cities, designated by the king; and (6) five nobles named for life by free choice of the king. The lower house consists of ninety-one dep- uties, of whom forty-three are elected by the towns and forty-eight by the rural communes. At one time members were chosen by direct secret ballot under a general and equal suffrage based upon a small tax qualification. Fear of socialism led, however, to the adoption, in 1896, of a new system under which the tax qualification was retained, indirect elections were substituted for direct and public voting for the secret ballot, and a three-class scheme was brought into operation which threw political preponderance into the hands of the well-to-do scarcely less effectively than does the three-class arrangement in Prussia. After prolonged agitation the reactionary measure of 1896 was replaced by a comprehensive electoral law of May 5, 1909 by which direct and secret voting was re-established and the interests of prop- erty were sought to be safeguarded by a newly devised system of plural votes. As the law now stands (i) all males who have attained the age of twenty-five and who pay direct taxes are entitled to one vote; (2) men owning two hectares of land, or paying a tax upon an annual income of 1,250, 1,400, or 1,600 marks, according, respectively, as such income is drawn from land, public office, or general sources, and men who have passed certain examinations, are entitled to two votes; (3) voters paying taxes yearly, as above, upon an income of 1,600, 1,900, or 2,200 marks, or who possess four hectares of land, or who as teachers, engineers, artists, or writers earn an income of 1,900 marks, possess three votes; (4) persons paying a tax, as above, on an income of 2,200, 2,500, or 2,800 marks, or owning eight hectares of land, have four votes; and (5) every person belonging to the first, second, or third of these classes is allotted an additional vote when he attains the age of fifty, the total number of votes possessed by one elector never exceeding four. Curiously enough, at the first elections held under 278 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE this law, in October, 1909, the socialists, who previously were repre- sented by but a single member, gained twenty-five seats, or upwards of a third of the entire number. The chambers must be summoned by the king at least once in two years. Both may propose measures, but in practice leadership in the business of legislation is left very largely to the king and ministry. 1 298. Wurttemberg: Crown and Ministry. The constitution of the kingdom of Wurttemberg was promulgated, following prolonged political controversy, September 25, 1819. At the head of the state is the king, whose powers are in some respects even larger than those belonging to other German sovereigns. 2 It is required that all political acts, except the bestowing of titles of nobility, shall be performed only with the sanction in writing of a minister; but, by reason of the king's absolute control of the ministry, this constitutes no invasion of the crown's essential prerogative. Of ministers there are six. These collectively comprise the Ministry of State, and they, together with certain appointive councillors, likewise constitute the Geheimerrath, or Privy Council, which the sovereign consults at pleasure. 299. The Assembly of Estates : Proportional Representation. The legislative body of Wurttemberg is known as the Standeversammlung, or Assembly of Estates. The upper chamber, the Standesherren, or House of Lords, consists of princes of the royal family; other princes, under varying conditions; knights; ecclesiastical dignitaries; and members appointed by the crown, in part according to stipulated conditions and in part without reference to any necessary considera- tion of birth, wealth, or religious affiliation. The Abgeordnetenhaus, or House of Deputies, consists of ninety-two members chosen for a term of six years, as follows: one from each of the administrative divisions (Oberamtsbezirke) ; six from Stuttgart and one from each of six other important towns; nine from the Neckar and Jagst circle; and eight from the Black Forest and Danube circle. Election is by direct and secret ballot, on a basis of universal suffrage for males over twenty- five years of age. By constitutional amendment of July 16, 1906, there was introduced a scheme of proportional representation under which the six deputies of Stuttgart and the seventeen of the Neckar and Jagst and the Black Forest and Danube circles are distributed among the several political groups in approximate proportion to the numerical strength attained by these groups at the polls. This system, an inno- vation in Germany, was tested in the elections of December, 1906, and January, 1907, and was by most persons adjudged satisfac- 1 O. Mayer, Das Staatsrecht des Konigreichs Sachsen (Tubingen, 1909). 2 The reigning sovereign is William II. THE MINOR GERMAN STATES 279 tory. 1 The remaining sixty-nine representatives are chosen still in sin- gle member districts. Prior to the amendment of 1906, the chamber was made up of seventy members chosen popularly and of twenty- three who sat as representatives of privileged or corporate interests thir- teen chosen by the landowning nobility, nine dignitaries of the Prot- estant and Catholic churches, together with the Chancellor of the University of Tubingen. 2 300. The Government of Baden. In July, 1808, a constitutional edict was promulgated in Baden in imitation of the fundamental law which Napoleon in the previous year had bestowed upon the kingdom of Westphalia. August 22, 1818, this instrument was replaced by the constitution at present in operation. Executive power is vested in the grand-duke, with the customary provision for ministerial counter- signature. Legislative power is shared by. the monarch with a Land- stande of two houses. Under a liberalizing law of August 24, 1904, the upper chamber consists of princes of the reigning family, nobles oc- cupying hereditary seats, members appointed for four years by the grand-duke, and representatives of a variety of ecclesiastical, educa- tional, and other corporate interests. The lower house is composed of seventy-three representatives elected for four years (twenty-four by the towns and forty-nine by the rural districts) by male citizens over twenty-five years of age. Direct election was substituted for indirect in 1904. Half of the membership of the lower chamber is renewed every two years. In Baden there has been rather more prog- ress than in the majority of German states toward liberal and responsi- ble government. 3 II. THE LESSER MONARCHIES AND THE CITY REPUBLICS 301. Monarchical Variations. With relatively unimportant ex- ceptions, the governments of the remaining seventeen German mon- archies exhibit features substantially similar to those of the govern- 1 J. Fontaine, La representation proportionnelle en Wiirttemberg, in Revue Politique et Parlementaire, Jan., 1911; ibid., La representation proportionnelle en Wurttemberg (Paris, 1909). 2 G. Combes de Lestrade, Monarchies de I'Empire allemand, 181; L. Gaupp, Das Staatsrecht des Konigreichs Wurttemberg (Freiburg and Tubingen, 1884), in Marquardsen's Handbuch; W. Bazille, Das Staats- und Verwaltungsrecht des Konigreichs Wiirttemberg (Hanover, 1908), in Bibliothek des Oeffentlichen Rechts der Gegenwart. The monograph of Gaupp, revised by him in 1895 and by K. Goz in 1904, has been re-issued as essentially a new volume by G6z (Tubingen, 1008). 3 Lowell, Governments and Parties, L, 345; K.'Schenkel, Das Staatsrecht des Grossherzogthums Baden (Freiburg and Tiibingen, 1884), in Marquardsen's Handbuch. 280 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE ments that have been described. In each of the states, except the two grand-duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, there is a written constitution, promulgated, in most instances, during the second or third quarter of the nineteenth century. 1 Executive power in each is vested in the monarch; legislative power in the mon- arch and a Landtag, or assembly. The assembly consists ordinarily of a single chamber, varying in membership from twelve to forty- eight; and in most instances the members are chosen, at least in part, on a basis of manhood suffrage. In some states, as the principality of Lippe, the three-class electoral system prevails; and elections are still very commonly indirect. The trend toward liberalism is, however, all but universal, and within recent years numbers of important changes, e. g., the substitution of direct for indirect elections in Olden- burg and in Saxe- Weimar in 1909, have been brought about. In the curiously intertwined grand-duchies of Mecklenburg the common Landtag remains a typically mediaeval assemblage of estates, based, in the main, on the tenure of land. 2 302. Hamburg. The three free cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Liibeck are survivals of the ancient Hanseatic League. All have republican forms of government, differing in only minor details. The constitution of Hamburg came into operation January i, 1861, and was revised in 1879 and in 1906. The principal organs of government are the Senate and the Biirgerschaft, or House of Burgesses. The Senate consists of eighteen members elected for life by the House of Burgesses, but in accordance with an indirect method so devised that the Senate itself exercises a preponderating influence in the elections. 1 The dates of the original promulgation of constitutions at present in operation are: Saxe-Weimar, 1816; Hesse, 1820; Saxe-Meiningen, 1829; Saxe-Altenburg, 1832; Brunswick, 1832; Lippe, 1836; Oldenburg, 1852; Waldeck, 1852; Saxe-Coburg- Gotha, 1852; Reuss Jiingerer Linie, 1852 and 1856; Schwartzburg-Rudolstadt, 1854; Schwartzburg-Sonderhausen, 1857; Anhalt, 1859; Reuss Alterer Linie, 1867; and Schaumburg-Lippe, 1868. 2 Repeated attempts to bring about a modernization of the Mecklenburg con- stitutional system have failed. Several times the liberal elements in the Reichstag have carried a proposal that to the Imperial constitution there should be added a clause requiring that in every state of the Empire there shall be an assembly repre- sentative of the whole people. On the ground that such an amendment would comprise an admission that the constitutions of the states are subject to revision at the hand of the Empire, the Bundesrath has invariably rejected the proposal. In 1907 the grand-duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin inaugurated a movement for political reform, and in 1908 there was drafted a constitution providing for the establishment of a Landtag whose members should be chosen in part by the landed, industrial, professional, and official classes and in part by manhood suffrage. Late in 1909 the Ritterschaft (i. e., the estate comprising owners of knights' fees) rejected the proposal, as, indeed, it had rejected similar ones on earlier occasions. THE MINOR GERMAN STATES 281 A senator is privileged to retire, if he so desires, at the end of a six- year period, or at the age of seventy. Of the eighteen, half must have studied finance or law, while of the remaining nine at least seven must belong to the class of merchants. The House of Burgesses is composed of 1 60 members, elected for six years by voters whose qualifications are based upon property, tax-paying, or position. An electoral law of March 5, 1906, introduced the principle of proportional repre- sentation, but failed to break the dominance of the well-to-do classes in the chamber. Half of the membership is renewed trien- nially. The service is unpaid and, under ordinary circumstances, compulsory. The larger portion of the executive authority is vested in the Senate. After the fashion of the prince of a monarchical state, this body ap- points officials, designates and instructs the delegate in the Bun- desrath, issues ordinances, and supervises administration. 1 One senator is placed at the head of each of the nine executive departments. In matters of legislation the powers of the Senate and of the Biirger- schaft are concurrent. Both bodies possess the right of legislative initiative, and all laws, treaties, and fiscal arrangements must receive the assent of both. The lower chamber elects and maintains a Biirger- ausschuss, or Committee of the Burgesses, consisting of twenty-five members, whose business it is to watch over the proceedings of the Senate and the administration of the laws. The sessions of both Senate and Biirgerschaft are irregular but frequent. 303. Liibeck and Bremen. The government of Liibeck rests upon a constitution proclaimed December 30, 1848, but revised in later years upon a number of occasions. The system is essentially similar to that in operation in Hamburg, the principal differences being that in Liibeck the full membership of the Biirgerschaft (120) is elected by the citizens directly and that the Biirgerausschuss, of thirty members, performs larger and more independent functions. The constitution of Bremen dates from March 5, 1849, Dut was revised in 1854, 1875, and three times subsequently. As in Liibeck, the Burgerschaft, of 150 members, is elected by all of the citizens, but under a class system according to which citizens who have studied at a university return fourteen members; the merchants, forty; the mechanics and manu- facturers, twenty; and all other citizens who have taken the burgher oath, the remaining seventy-six. The Senate consists of fourteen members. 1 The presiding officer of the Senate is a burgomaster, chosen for one year by the senators from their own number. The burgomaster as such, however, possesses no administrative power. 282 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE III. ALSACE-LORRAINE 304. Original Problem of Organization. By the terms of the Peace of Frankfort, May 10, 1871, France ceded to Germany the province of Alsace and a portion of that of Lorraine an aggregate of 5,605 square miles of hotly disputed territory whose population, while in considera- ble measure German, was none the less predominantly French. The position assigned the newly acquired territory within the Empire was anomalous. It was determined by two principal considerations: first, the fact that the districts comprised conquered territory in- habited by a discontented people and liable both to domestic dis- order and foreign invasion; and, second, the further fact that the newly established Empire consisted of a federation of semi-autonomous states, into which subordinate territory acquired by war could not easily be made to fit. The annexed lands might conceivably have been erected, in 1871, into the twenty-sixth state of the Empire; but in no quarter was this policy so much as suggested. They might have been incorporated with one of the existing states, or divided among two or more of them; but this would have involved friction at a time when the stability of the new regime was not yet assured. The only course that to the statesmen and jurists of the day appeared feasible was to hold the new territories as the joint property of the states, under the sovereign control of the Imperial Government; and the arrangement hit upon in the execution of this policy was perpetuated, with modifi- cation only of administrative machinery, from 1871 until almost the present day. 306. The Imperial Basis of Government. Prior to the enactment of the controverted Alsace-Lorraine Constitution Bill of 1911 Alsace- Lorraine was not a member of the German federation, but was, on the contrary, a mere dependency a Reichsland, or Imperial territory. Beginning with a virtual dictatorship on the part of the Emperor, established under act of June 9, 1871, the governmental arrange- ments within the territory passed through a number of stages of elab- oration. In the main, the organs of government employed until 1911, and a large proportion of those still in operation, were created, or perpetuated, by the constitutional statute of July 4, 1879. By this instrument the sovereignty of the territories was vested specifically in the Empire; the exercise of that sovereignty was vested in the Kaiser, acting alone or in conjunction with the Bundesrath. The Kaiser was represented personally at Strassburg, as he still is, by a Statthalter, or governor-general, whose powers were such as the THE MINOR GERMAN STATES 283 Emperor might from time to time intrust to him. At Strassburg also was a ministry, with a secretary of state at the head, and with under- secretaries, appointed by the Kaiser, in charge of four departments; likewise a council of state, which was a purely advisory body made up of the secretary and under-secretaries, certain jucUcial officials, and from eight to twelve members specially appointed by the Kaiser for a term of three years. 306. The Landesausschuss. Such privileges of self-government as were possessed by the inhabitants of the territory arose from the peculiar and complicated arrangements which were devised for legis- lation. In 1874 an Imperial decree called into being a Landesauss- chuss, or Territorial Committee. This body consisted originally of thirty members ten elected in each of the three districts of Upper Alsace, Lower Alsace, and Lorraine. Its function at the outset was merely to give expert advice on subjects pertaining to local legislation and taxation. By law of 1877, however, it was intrusted with power to initiate legislation in matters pertaining solely to the territory. Measures of any sort designed for Alsace-Lorraine exclusively were enabled to be carried through by enactment in the Territorial Com- mittee, provided they received the assent of the Bundesrath and were duly promulgated by the Emperor. The Committee was enlarged until it consisted of fifty-eight members, thirty-four of whom were elected by the assemblies of the three districts from their own mem- bership, four others being chosen by the communal councils of Strass- burg, Metz, Kolmar, and Miilhausen, and twenty elected by indirect suffrage from the twenty-three circles into which the territories were divided. 307. Legislative Processes. Several conditions, however, operated to impose upon what might appear a fairly liberal system some very serious limitations. In the first place, there was no possibility of legis- lation which was wholly within the control of the inhabitants of the territory. The laws applicable solely to Prussia are made exclusively in Prussia, by Prussian authorities, and in like manner those of every other one of the confederated states. But those of Alsace-Lorraine, while they might be enacted in a provincial legislative chamber, ac- quired no validity until they should have been approved by the Empire through its agents, the Bundesrath and the Kaiser. In the second place, the method of legislation which has been mentioned did not occupy the field alone. With insignificant exceptions, any measure which might be enacted in the fashion described might be enacted in either of two other ways, in neither of which did the inhabitants of the territory have any appreciable influence. A measure might take the form of 284 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE a simple decree of the Kaiser with the consent of the Bundesrath and Reichstag; or, in the case of an ordinance having the provisory force of law, it might be promulgated by the Kaiser with the consent of the Bundesrath alone. The fact that in practice the Territorial Committee ordinarily did participate in the legislative process was largely offset by the exceeding cumbersomeness and indirectness of the system. The normal procedure in the making of a law for the territory involved at least eight steps; (i) the prqjet was drawn up by the Statthalter; (2) it was approved by the Council of State at Strassburg; (3) it was trans- mitted, through the Imperial Chancellor, to the Kaiser; (4) if he approved, it was sent to Strassburg to receive the Statthalter's counter-signature; (5) it was laid before the Bundesrath', the members of which, being but delegates, ascertained from their respective sovereigns how they should vote; (6) if all had gone well, the Territorial Committee, at Strassburg, passed the measure through the usual three readings; (7) it was returned to the Bundesrath again to be approved; and (8) it was promulgated by the Emperor provided he did not see fit to veto and withhold it, as he had an entire right to do. Even if such roundabout law-making were to be considered in itself satisfactory there remained the disquieting condition that the Territorial Committee rested on no basis more substantial than a body of Imperial decrees capable at any time of being altered, or even revoked. Not merely was it altogether lacking in the independence of action enjoyed by the diets of the federated states; its very existence was precarious. 308. The Movement for Autonomy. Throughout a prolonged period there was in the territory insistent demand for the grant of a more independent status, to involve the eventual placing of Alsace-Lorraine on a footing of constitutional equality with Saxony, Bavaria, and the other confederated states. Within very few years after the annexation there sprang up, within the Territorial Committee first of all, a group of "autonomists," led by the secretary of state Baron Zorn von Bulach, who insisted in season and out upon statehood for the conquered ter- ritory, and within a decade the campaign gained momentum until it en- listed the support of men of all political faiths and became the principal rallying issue of Alsatian sentiment and enthusiasm. Until within recent years the tension of the international situation was alone sufficient to restrain the Imperial Government from according the demand favorable consideration. With the passing of time the clanger of inter- national conflict in which Alsace-Lorraine should be involved was, how- ever, perceptibly diminished, and the way was to this extent cleared for a readjustment of the territory's anomalous status on the merits of the purely administrative and constitutional questions involved. THE MINOR GERMAN STATES 285 The programme of the autonomists, as it finally assumed shape, embraced four fundamental points: (i) the elevation of Alsace-Lorraine to membership in the German Empire, with all the rights and immuni- ties commonly possessed by existing members; (2) the vesting of the executive authority in an independent head of the state, whether a king of a newly established line, a regent appointed for life, or even a president of a republic; (3) the establishment within the state of a full- fledged legislative body, with powers equivalent to those exercised by the Landtags of the existing states; and (4) the elimination of Kaiser, Bundesrath, and Reichstag from all legislation which concerns Alsace- Lorraine exclusively. Taking their stand on the situation as it was, and accepting the union with Germany with such grace as they could muster and assuming that it is to be permanent, the exponents of autonomy proposed to make the best of a state of things not of their choosing. 309. The Government Bill of 1910. Under pressure of persistent public demand, the Imperial Government prepared an elaborate measure upon the subject, which, after having been approved by the Bundesrath, was submitted to the Reichstag, December 17, 1910. Although Chan- cellor von Bethmann-Hollweg had declared unreservedly for reform, the Government's proposals fell far short of the demands of the autono- mist leaders. The cardinal features of the Imperial programme, were, in brief: (i) Alsace-Lorraine should remain a dependency of the Empire; (2) sovereign authority therein should continue to be exercised by the Kaiser, as the representative of the states, through his accustomed agent, the Statthalter at Strassburg; (3) the legislative functions of the Bundesrath and Reichstag in matters pertaining exclusively to Alsace- Lorraine should be terminated; and (4) such legislation should thereafter be enacted by a bicameral diet at Strassburg. The members of the upper chamber of this diet, not to exceed thirty-six, were in part to sit by ex-officio right, but some were to be named by chambers of commerce and other professional and business organizations, and a maximum of one-half might be appointed by the Emperor, on nomination of the Bundesrath. The sixty members of the lower house were to be chosen by manhood suffrage, but electors over thirty-five years of age were to have two votes, and those over forty-five three. 310. The Bill Amended and Adopted, 1911. By those whose object was the procuring of statehood for Alsace-Lorraine, this plan was pro- nounced inadmissible. It did not alter the legal status of the territory; neither, it was alleged, did it give promise of increased local independence in law-making or administration. Conservatives, on the other hand, objected to the provision which was made for manhood suffrage. After 286 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE being debated in the Reichstag the measure was referred to a special committee, by which amendments were reported to the effect that the territory should be 'created a state of the Empire and the Statthalter should be appointed for life. The second of these amendments the Government refused positively to accept, but it was agreed finally that the territory should be recognized as substantially a state of the Empire, and, as such, should be allowed three votes in the Bundesrath. Since 1879 the Statthalter had been authorized to send to the Bundes- rath four "commissioners" who might speak when the subject under consideration touched the affairs of Alsace-Lorraine, but might not vote. Since under the new arrangement the three members representing Alsace-Lorraine were to be appointed and instructed by the Statthalter, who is himself practically the delegate of the king of Prussia, the Bundesrath insisted upon and obtained the special stipulation (i) that the votes of Alsace-Lorraine should not be counted in favor of the Prus- sian view of any question except when Prussia should be able to procure a majority without such votes and (2) that they should not be counted for or against any proposal to amend the Imperial constitution. The re- vised bill was passed in the Reichstag, May 26, 1911, and in accordance with a decree of August 26 the new constitution was put in operation September i. 311. The Governmental System To-day. Supreme executive author- ity is lodged, as before, in the Emperor. It is exercised, in the main, by the Statthalter, who is appointed by, and holds office at the pleasure of, the Emperor. In the Statthalter are vested all the rights and privileges in Alsace-Lorraine that hitherto have been held and exercised by the Imperial Chancellor. He appoints and instructs the plenipotentiaries in the Bundesrath, and Imperial orders and decrees have legal effect only when signed by him. All laws require the assent of the Emperor and the two chambers of the diet, and the budget of the year must be laid first before the lower chamber and must be accepted or rejected in its entirety by the upper one. The Emperor has the right to summon, to adjourn, and to dissolve the chambers simultaneously. Members of the popular branch are elected by direct and secret ballot and majority vote by all male German citizens twenty-five years of age who have resided in Alsace-Lorraine at least three years; except that a residence of one year qualifies teachers and occupants of official posts. The plural voting proposal contained in the Government bill of 1910 was abandoned. The first chamber elected under the new system that chosen in October, 1911 contained twenty-five Centre members, eleven Socialists, ten members of the National Alsace-Lorraine group, 1 1 The party which had contended most vigorously for Alsatian autonomy. THE MINOR GERMAN STATES 287 eight Liberal Democrats, and six Independents. The independent attitude promptly assumed by the body elicited from the Emperor, in May, 1912, a threat that the new constitution might be abrogated and Alsace-Lorraine incorporated with Prussia. The incident provoked a storm of criticism, and, outside the rabid Pan-German press, the Im- perial pronouncement was commented upon everywhere adversely. 1 1 On the organization of Alsace-Lorraine prior to 1911 see Howard, The German Empire, Chap. 10; Laband, Das Staatsrecht des deutschen Reiches, 67-69; P. Gerber, La condition de 1'Alsace-Lorraine dans 1'Empire allemand' (Lille, 1906), and L' Administration en Alsace-Lorraine, in Revue du Droit Public, Oct.-Dec., 1909. On the problem of reform and the legislation of 1911 see R. Henry, La question d' Alsace-Lorraine, in Questions Diplomatiques et Coloniales, Feb. i and March 16, 1904; P. Braun, Alsace-Lorraine La rforme de la constitution, ibid., Nov. 16, 1905, and Jan. i, 1906; Alsace-Lorraine en 1908, ibid., March i, 1909; Alsace-Lorraine les preludes d'une lutte nationale, ibid., April 16, 1910; La constitution d' Alsace-Lorraine, ibid., March 16, 1911; A. Wetterle", L'Autonomie de 1'Alsace-Lorraine, in Le Correspondent, Aug. 25, 1910, La nouvelle loi constitu- tionnelle d'Alsace-Lorraine, ibid., June 10, 1911, and Les elections en Alsace- Lorraine, ibid., Nov. 25, 1911; Eccard, L'Autonomie de PAlsace-Lorraine, in Revue Politique et Parlementaire, Nov. 10, 1910; G. Bruck, Die Reform der Ver- fassung von Elsass Lothringen, in Annalen des deutschen Reichs, 1911, I; and P. Heitz, La loi constitutionnelle de 1' Alsace-Lorraine du 31 mai, 1911, in Revue du Droit Public, July-Sept., 1911, containing French translations of the documents. See also Annual Register for 1911, 328-332. PART m. FRANCE CHAPTER XV CONSTITUTIONS SINCE 1789 I. A CENTURY OF POLITICAL INSTABILITY Among European states of the first order there is but a single republic. In Great Britain the conspicuous success with which monarchy has been tempered with democracy has left the partisans of the republican style of government slender ground upon which to stand. Russia has as yet but partially emerged from a political status in which monarchy is both natural and inevitable. Germany and Italy, in days compara- tively recent, achieved nationality through processes absolutely con- ditioned upon monarchical leadership. And it is all but inconceivable that the heterogeneous nationalities of Austria-Hungary should thus long have been held together by any force less tangible and commanding than the personality of a common sovereign. Although in some of these instances the functions ordinarily associated with monarchy are more nominal than actual, the fact remains that in no one of the greater European states, save France, has it as yet been found expedient, or possible, to dispense with royalty as an agency of public authority. 312. The Multiplicity of Constitutions. The chain of circumstances by which the people of France have been brought to their present repub- lican form of government constitutes one of the most remarkable chap- ters in the history of modern Europe. After centuries of governmental centralization, under conditions which enabled monarchy to do its best, and its worst, there came the gigantic disruption of 1789, inaugurating a series of constitutional changes by which was imparted to the political history of the French nation in the nineteenth century a more unsettled character than that exhibited by the public economy of any other European state. France to-day is governed under her eleventh con- stitution since the fall of the Bastile. All but one of the jeleven have been actually in operation, during a longer or a shorter period. But, prior to the fundamental law at present in effect, no one of these in- struments attained its twentieth year. Once having cut loose from her ancient moorings, the nation became through many decades the play- 289 290 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE thing of every current that swept the political sea. It is only within our own generation that she appears definitely to have righted herself for a prolonged and steady voyage. The constitutional system of the Third Republic is a product, not of orderly evolution, but of disruption, experimentation, compromise. It represents a precarious balance which has been struck between those forces of radicalism and conservatism, of progress and reaction, for whose eternal conflict France pre-eminently has furnished a theatre since 1789. Its connection with the remoter past is very much less direct and fundamental than is that of the govern- mental system of England, Russia, Austria-Hungary, or the Scandi- navian states. At certain points, however, as will appear, this connection is vital. And the relation of the constitution of 1871-1875 to the several instruments by which it was more immediately preceded is essential to be observed, because this body of fundamental law comprises but the latest in a series of devices through which France since 1789 has sought orderliness and stability in public affairs. Some of these devices were shaped under the preponderating influence of radical democracy, some under that of monarchical reaction; but all are of interest and importance. For the purpose in hand it will be sufficient to review briefly the princi- pal aspects of the several constitutional systems whose devising or opera- tion has contributed with some directness to the political institutions and experience of the France of to-day. II. THE REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC ERA f\A ,{, Uf V 313. The Constitution of 1791. During the decade which elapsed between the outbreak of the Revolution and the establishment of the Consulate there were in actual operation in France two successive constitutions: that of September 3, 1791, which was in effect sub- verted by the uprising of August 10, 1792, and that of 5 Fructidor of the Year III. (August 22, 1795), terminated by the coup d'etat of 18 .Brumaire of the Year VIII. (November 9, 1799). The instrument of 1791, essentially a compilation of measures voted during the years 1789-1791, was prepared by a committee appointed by the National Assembly, September 15, 1789. 1 It was shaped, in the main, by men who were desirous of preserving the form while destroying the substance of monarchy. At the head of the state was allowed to remain the king, shorn, however, of many of his accustomed prerogatives and obliged to exercise under stringent restraint the few that were left him. " King of the French," he henceforth was to be, "by the grace of God and the 1 A constitutional committee of five had been appointed the previous July 14; but, its recommendation proving unacceptable to the Assembly, it had resigned, September n. FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS SINCE 1789 291 will of the nation." The legislative body (Corps legislatif) was made to consist of a single chamber whose 745 members, chosen for a two-year term according to a system of indirect suffrage, were distributed among the eighty-three newly created departments upon the three-fold basis of extent, population, and contribution of direct taxes. 1 Only male citizens who had attained the age of twenty-five, and whose annual payment of direct taxes was the equivalent of three days' labor, were entitled to participate in the choice of the electors, by whom, in turn, were chosen the deputies. The powers of the legislative body were ample. In respect to measures generally, the king possessed only a suspensive veto; that is to say, any measure passed by three successive legislatures acquired, without the royal sanction, the force of law. Fiscal measures might not be vetoed at all. The king was given no power to prorogue or to dissolve the legislative chamber, and without the assent of that body no proclamation of war, and no treaty, was valid. To it the ministers in charge of the six executive departments were made absolutely responsible. In conformity with prevailing ideas of the sovereignty of the people and the separation of powers, provision was made that all judges should be elected popularly, as also all local adminis- trative authorities. 2 314. The Constitution of the Year I. (1793). The constitution of 1791 was in operation rather less than a twelvemonth. The Corps legislatif elected under it, after precipitating war with Austria, gave way before the rising demand for the abolition of monarchy, called into being a constituent convention of 782 members, and voted its own dissolution. 3 September 21, 1792, the Convention met and de- creed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a re- 1 Of the whole number of deputies, 247 were apportioned according to depart- mental areas and 249 according each to population and tax quotas. 2 The texts of all French constitutions and fundamental laws since 1789 are printed in several collections, of which the best is L. Duguit et H. Monnier, Les constitutions et les principales lois politiques de la France depuis 1789 (Paris, 1898). Other serviceable collections are F. H61ie, Les constitutions de la France (Paris, 1880) and E. Pierre, Organisation des pouvoirs publics; recueil des lois constitutionnelles et organiques (Paris, 1902). For English versions see F. M. Anderson, The Constitutions and other Select Documents illustrative of the His- tory of France, 1789-1907 (2d ed., Minneapolis, 1908). The various constitutions are excellently summarized in M. Block, Dictionnaire ge~n6ral de la politique, 2 vols. (Paris, 1884), I., 494-518. For the text of the constitution of 1791 see Duguit et Monnier, 1-35; H61ie, 268-294; Anderson, 58-95. For summary, Block, I., 494- 497. Dupriez, Les Ministres, II., 253-269; Cambridge Modern History, VIII., Chap. 7. 3 The members of the Convention were elected by manhood suffrage, one of the last acts of the Legislative Body having been the repeal of the tax qualification re- quired by the constitution of 1791. 292 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE public. 1 Mindful for the time of the purpose of its creation, the new assembly appointed, October n, a committee of nine to which was intrusted the task of drafting a republican constitution. February 15, 1793, the committee reported, and June 24 the Convention adopted an ultra-republican frame of government, the principal features of which were an executive council consisting of twenty-four members chosen by the legislative body from candidates named by the second- ary electors of the departments; a unicameral Corps legislatif chosen indirectly by manhood suffrage for one year, with power to enact "decrees," but only to propose "laws"; and an arrangement whereby projected laws were to be communicated to primary assemblies of citizens to be voted upon after the principle of the referendum. 2 315. The Constitution of the Year III. (1795). By reason of the in- tensity of party strife within the Convention, and the critical condi- tion of affairs generally, the constitution of 1793, although duly ratified by the people, was never put in operation. On the basis of a decree of December 4, 1793, the Convention maintained through upwards of two years a revolutionary provisional government, and when, finally, in October, 1795, the body passed out of existence, it left behind it in the Constitution of the Year III. an instrument of government essentially different from the proposed instrument of 1793. The Constitution of the Year III. was framed under a hur- ried order of the Convention by a committee of eleven. The Con- vention adopted the committee's plan with but few modifications, and when the project was submitted to a popular vote it was approved by the overwhelming majority of 1,057,390 to 49,997. September 23, 1795, the new frame of government was solemnly promulgated. The instrument of 1795, like that of 1791, was introduced by a Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, in which were stated succinctly the fundamental principles of the Revolution. Legislative power was henceforth to be vested in two chambers con- jointly a Council of Five Hundred and a Council of Elders the members of which should be chosen by the same electors, but under differing conditions of eligibility. The term of members of both chambers was fixed at three years, and one-third of the membership was renewable annually. The franchise was broader than under 1 September 22 was reckoned the first day of the Year I. of French liberty, and the fundamental law of June 24, 1793, was known as the constitution of the Year I. For an illuminating sketch of the rise of the republic see H. A. L. Fisher, The Re- publican Tradition in Europe (New York, 1911), Chap. 4. 2 Text in Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 66-78; H61ie, Les Constitutions, 376-384; Anderson, Constitutions, 171-184. Summary in Block, Dictionnaire G6n6ral, 497-498. FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS SINCE 1789 293 the constitution of 1791, being extended now to all citizens over twenty-one years of age who were able to read and write and who followed a trade or were liable to direct taxation; but the earlier system of indirect election by means of electoral colleges was retained. Upon the lower chamber alone was conferred the right of initiating legislation. The Elders, whose number was fixed at 250, might ap- prove or reject, but were not permitted to amend, any measure sub- mitted to them. Executive power was vested in a Directory con- sisting of five members chosen for a term of five years, one member retiring annually. Directors were selected by the Council of Elders from a double quota of nominees offered by the Council of Five Hundred. Aside from its creation of a plural, republican executive, the most notable feature of the constitution was its provision for the establishment of a bicameral legislative system, until now generally opposed by French reformers. 1 316. The Constitution of the Year VIII. (1799) : Electoral System. The constitution of the Year III. continued in operation from October, 1795, to Napoleon's coup d'etat of 18 Brumaire of the Year VIII. (November 9, 1799). In the course of a month and a half following the event mentioned there was drawn up a new fundamental law, prepared in the first instance largely by Napoleon and Sieyes, put into final shape by two commissions composed each of twenty-five members of the old Councils, and subsequently ratified by popular vote. 2 Amended from time to time by important organic enactments, the Constitution of the Year VIII. (December 13, 1799) comprised the fundamental law under which Napoleon ruled France until his abdication in 1814. The new instrument, in ninety-five articles, was much briefer than the one which it replaced, 3 but the scheme of government for which it made provision was distinctly more complicated than that previously in operation. In the main, the Napoleonic constitution dealt with three subjects: the electoral system, the assemblies, and the executive. Nominally there was established a system of thorough- 1 For the text of the constitution of 1795 see Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitu- tions, 78-118; H61ie, Les Constitutions, 436-466; Anderson, Constitutions, 212-254. Summary in Block, Dictionnaire General, 498-500. Cambridge Modern History, VIII., Chap. 13; G. Dodu, Le parlementarisme et les parlementaires sous la ReVolu- tion, 1789-1799; origines du regime representatif en France (Paris, 1911); Fisher, Republican Tradition in Europe, Chap. 5. 2 In favor of the new constitution there were cast 3,011,007 votes; against it, 1,562. 3 The constitution of the Year III., containing 377 articles, is one of the lengthiest documents of the sort on record. 294 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE going manhood suffrage. But the conditions under which electoral powers were to be exercised rendered the plan very much less demo- cratic than on the surface it appeared to be. The scheme was one devised by Sieyes under the designation of " lists of notables. " In each communal district citizens twenty-one years of age and inscribed on the civil register were authorized to choose one-tenth of their number to comprise a " communal list." Those named on the com- munal list were to choose in their department a tenth of their number, who formed a "departmental list." And, similarly, those whose names appeared on the departmental list were to choose a tenth of their number, who formed a "national list." From these three lists in order were to be chosen, largely by the Senate, the public of- ficials of the districts, the departments, and the nation. No electoral scheme has ever been devised which, while grounded upon the principle of manhood suffrage, more effectually withdraws from the people the actual choice of public officials, local as well as national. 1 317. Constitution of the Year VIII: Organs of Government. Of national governmental bodies there were four. One was the Tribu- nate, consisting of 100 members, one-fifth of whom were renewable every year. The function of the Tribunate was to discuss, but not necessarily to vote upon, legislative measures. A second was the Corps legislatif, or Legislative Body, of 300 members, one-fifth being renewed annually. To this assembly was committed the power to vote upon, but not to debate, legislative measures. A third was the Senate, consisting at the outset of sixty life members, to be increased through a period of ten years to eighty. The Senate was authorized to pass upon the constitutionality of laws and to choose the Tribunes, the Legislators, and the Consuls from the national list. Its own ranks were to be recruited by co-optation from triple lists of candidates presented by the Tribunate, the Legislative Body, and the First Consul. Finally, there was the Council of State, whose organization was left purposely indefinite. Its members were appointed by the First Consul, and their business consisted principally in the prepara- tion and advocacy of legislative and administrative measures. If under this scheme the legislative organs were weak, the execu- tive authority was notably strong. Powers of an executive character were vested in three consuls, appointed by the Senate for ten years and indefinitely eligible. Upon the First Consul was conferred power to promulgate the laws, to appoint all civil and military officials, and to do many other things of vital importance. Upon the second 1 Under this system the primary electors numbered about 5,000,000; the district notables, 500,000; the departmental notables, 50,000; and the national list, 5,000. FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS SINCE 1789 295 and third consuls was bestowed simply a "consultative voice." Provision was made for a ministry, and under the letter of the con- stitution no act of the government was binding unless performed on the warrant of a minister. But in point of fact the principle of ir- responsibility permeated the Napoleonic regime from the First Con- sul himself to the lowliest functionary. The conferring upon Napo- leon, in 1802, of the consulship for life, and the conversion of the Consulate, in 1804, into the Empire, but concentrated yet more fully in the hands of a single man the whole body of governmental authority in France. 1 III. FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 318. The Constitutional Charter, 1814. May 3, 1814, three weeks after Napoleon's signature of the Act of Abdication, the restored Bourbon king, Louis XVIII., entered Paris. Already the Senate had formulated a document, commonly known as the " Senatorial Constitu- tion," wherein was embraced a scheme for a liberalized Bourbon mon- archy. 2 Neither the instrument itself nor the authorship of it was acceptable to the new sovereign, and by him the task of drafting a constitution was given over to a commission consisting of three repre- sentatives of the crown, nine senators, and nine members of the Legis- lative Body. The task was accomplished with despatch. June 4 the new instrument, under the name of the Constitutional Charter, was adopted by the two chambers, and ten days later it was put in operation. With some modification, principally in 1830, it remained the funda- mental law of France until the revolution of 1848. The governmental system provided for in the Charter was in a number of respects more liberal than that which had prevailed during the dominance of Napoleon. At the head of the state stood the king, inviolable in person, in whose hands were gathered the powers of issuing ordinances, making appointments, declaring war, concluding treaties, commanding the armies, and initiating all measures of legislation. But there was established a bicameral legislature, by which the king's ministers might be impeached, and without whose assent no law might be enacted and no tax levied. The upper house, or Chamber of Peers, was composed of a variable number of members named by the crown 1 The text of the constitution of the Year VIII. is in Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 118-129; H6iie, Les Constitutions, 577-585; and Anderson, Consti- tutions, 270-281. Summary in Block, Dictionnaire G6ne"ral, I., 50x5-505. Cam- bridge Modern History, IX., Chap. i. 2 Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 179-182; Anderson, Constitutions, 446- 450; Block, Dictionnaire G6ne"ral, I., 505-506. 296 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE in heredity or for life. 1 The lower, or Chamber of Deputies, consisted of representatives elected in the departments for a term of five years, one-fifth retiring annually. 2 Provision was made for the annual as- sembling of the chambers; and although the proposing of laws was vested exclusively in the crown, it was stipulated that either house might petition the king to introduce a measure relating to any specific subject. The Charter contained a comprehensive enumeration and guarantee of the civil rights of French citizens. 3 319. The Electoral System. The Charter prescribed the qualifica- tions required of voters and of deputies, but did not define the manner in which deputies should be chosen. The lack was supplied by an election law enacted February 5, 1817. The system established was that of scrutin de liste. Under it the electors men of a minimum age of thirty who paid each year a direct tax of at least three hundred francs were required to assemble in the principal town of the department and there choose the full quota of deputies to which the department was entitled. The system proved of distinct advantage to the liberal elements, whose strength lay largely in the towns, and in 1820 when the conservative forces procured control and inaugurated a general reaction a measure was adopted, though only after heated debate, by which the arrangement was completely altered. The membership of the Chamber was increased from 258 to 430 and for the principle of scrutin de liste was substituted that of scrutin d'arrondissement. Each arrondissement became a single- member district and the electors were permitted to vote for one deputy only. In this manner 258 of the members were chosen. The remaining 172 were elected at the chief departmental towns by the voters of the department who paid the most taxes, an arrangment under which some twelve thousand of the wealthier electors became possessed of a double vote. Voting was by ballot, but the elector was required to write out his ballot in the presence of an appointee of the government and to place it in his hands unfolded. 4 1 By law of December 29, 1831, it was stipulated that only life peers might there- after be appointed, and the king was required to take all appointees from a pre- scribed list of dignitaries. Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 231-232. 2 A law of June 9, 1824, stipulated that thereafter the Chamber of Deputies should be elected integrally for a period of seven years. Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 211. 3 The text of the Charter of 1814 may be found in Duguit et Monnier, Les Con- stitutions, I., 183-190; Helie, Les Constitutions, 884-800; and, in English transla- tion, in Anderson, Constitutions, 457-465, and University of Pennsylvania Trans- lations and Reprints, I., No. 3. Summary in Block, Dictionnaire General, I., 506-508. Cambridge Modern History, IX., Chap. 18. 4 Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 206-209; H61ie, Les Constitutions, 934-936. FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS SINCE 1789 297 320. Liberalizing Changes in 1830-1831. Upon the enforced abdica- tion of Charles X. in 1830 a parliamentary commission prepared a revi- sion of the Charter, which, being adopted, was imposed upon the new sovereign, Louis Philippe, and was continued in operation through the period of the Orleanist monarchy. The preamble of the original docu- ment, in which language had been employed which made it appear that the Charter was a grant from the crown , was stricken out. Suspension of the laws by the sovereign was expressly forbidden. Each chamber was given the right to initiate legislation, the responsibility of the ministers to the chambers was proclaimed, and the sessions of the Peers, hitherto secret, were made public. The integral renewal of the Deputies, es- tablished in 1824, was continued, but the term of membership was restored to five years. The minimum age of electors was reduced from thirty to twenty-five years, and of deputies from forty to thirty. Sub- sequently, April 19, 1831, a law was passed whereby the suffrage so restricted at the close of the Napoleonic regime that in a population of 29,000,000 there had been, in 1814, not 100,000 voters was appreciably broadened. The direct tax qualification of three hundred francs was reduced to one of two hundred, and, for certain professional classes, of one hundred. By this modification the number of voters was doubled, though the proportion of the enfranchised was still but one in one hun- dred fifty of the total population, and it would be a mistake to regard the government of the Orleanist period as in effect more democratic than that by which it was preceded. At the most, it was a government by and for the well-to-do middle class. 1 IV. THE SECOND REPUBLIC AND THE SECOND EMPIRE 321. The Republican Constitution of 1848. With the overthrow of the Orleanist monarchy, in consequence of the uprising of February 24, 1848, France entered upon a period of aggravated political unsettlement. Through upwards of five years the nation experimented once more with republicanism, only at the end of that period to emerge a monarchy, an empire, and the dominion of a Bonaparte. By the provisional govern- ment which sprang from the revolution a republic was proclaimed tentatively and the nation was called upon to elect, under a system of direct manhood suffrage, an assembly to frame a constitution. The 1 For the act of the Chambers relative to the modification of the Constitutional Charter and to the accession of Louis Philippe, see Duguit et Monnier, Les Con- stitutions, 213-218; H61ie, Les Constitutions, 987-992; and Anderson, Constitutions, S 7-5i3- The electoral law of 1831 is in Duguit et Monnier, 219-230. Cambridge Modern History, X., Chap. 15; G. Weill, La France sous la monarchic constitution- nelle, 1814-1848 (new ed., Paris, 1912). 298 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE elections the first of their kind in the history of France were held April 23, 1848, and the National Constituent Assembly, consisting of nine hundred members, eight hundred of whom were moderate republi- cans, met May 4 in Paris. During the summer the draft of a constitution prepared by a committee of eighteen, was duly debated, and November 4 it was adopted by a vote of 739 to 30. The Constitution of 1848 declared the Republic to be perpetual and the people to be sovereign. It asserted, furthermore, that the separation of powers is the first condition of a free government. In respect to the organs of government it provided, in the first place, for a legislative assembly consisting of a single chamber of 750 members 1 chosen integrally for three years, directly by secret ballot on the principle of departmental scrutin de liste, and by electors whose only necessary qualifications were those of age (twenty-one years) and of non-impair- ment of civil rights. 2 Executive powers were vested in a president of the Republic, elected for a term of four years by direct and secret ballot, and by absolute majority of all votes cast in France and Algeria. Under stipulated conditions, e. g., if no candidate should receive an absolute majority and at the same time a total of at least two mil- lion votes, the president was required to be chosen by the Assembly from the five candidates who had polled the largest votes. Save after a four-year interval, the president was ineligible for re-election. Upon him were bestowed large powers, including those of propos- ing laws, negotiating and ratifying treaties with the consent of the Assembly, appointing and dismissing ministers and other civil and military officers, and disposing of the armed forces. With respect to the functions and powers of the ministers the constitution was not explicit, and whether the instrument might legitimately be inter- preted to make provision for a parliamentary system of government was one of the standing issues throughout the days of its duration. 3 322. From Republic to Empire. December 10, 1848, Louis Napoleon, nephew of the first Napoleon, was chosen president by an overwhelming 1 Including representatives of Algeria and the colonies. 8 Electoral law of March 15, 1849. Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 247- 265. 3 Dupriez, Les Ministres, II., 308-312. The text of the Constitution of 1848 is in Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 232-246; Helie, Les Constitutions, 1102- 1113; and Anderson, Constitutions, 522-537. Summary in Block, Dictionnaire General, I., 510-513. Cambridge Modern History, XL, Chap. 5; V. Pierre, His- toire de la re"publique de 1848, 2 vols. (Paris, 1873-1878); P. de la Gorce, Histoire de la deuxieme republique franchise, 2 vols. (Paris, 1887); E. Spuller, Histoire parlementaire de la deuxieme republique (Paris, 1893); Fisher, Republican Tradi- tion in Europe, Chap. 8. FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS SINCE 1789 299 vote, and ten days later he assumed office. In May, 1849, an Assembly was elected, two-thirds of whose members were thoroughgoing mon- archists; so that, as one writer has put it, both the president and the majority of the Assembly were, by reason of their very being, enemies of the constitution under which they had been elected. 1 The new order, furthermore, failed completely to strike root throughout the nation at large. In this state of things the collapse of the Republic was but a question of time. By an electoral law of May 31, 1850, requiring of the elector a fixed residence of three years instead of six months, the suffrage arrangements of 1849 were subverted and the electorate was reduced by three millions, or virtually one- third. 2 December 2, 1851, occurred a carefully planned coup d'etat, on which occasion the Assembly was dis- solved, the franchise law of 1849 was restored, and the people, gathered in primary assemblies, were called upon to intrust to the President power to revise the national constitution. 3 December 20, by a vote of 7,439,216 to 640,737, the people complied. Thereafter, though con- tinuing officially through another year, the Republic was in reality dead. November 7, 1852, the veil was thrown off. A senatus-consulte decreed a re-establishment of the Empire, 4 and by a plebiscite of eleven days later the people, by a vote of 7,824,189 to 253,145, sanctioned what had been done. December 2, Napoleon III. was proclaimed Emperor of the French. 323. The Imperial Constitution, 1862. Meanwhile, March 29, 1852, there had been put in operation a constitution, 5 nominally republican, but in reality strongly resembling that in force during the later years of Napoleon I. The substitution, later in the year, of an emperor for a president upon whom had been conferred a ten-year term was but a matter of detail. A senatus-consvlte of December 25, made all of the necessary adjustments, and the constitution of 1852, with occasional modifications, remained the fundamental law of France until the collapse of the Empire in 1870. Upon the emperor were conferred very extended powers. His control of the administrative system was made practically absolute. He commanded the army and navy, de- cided upon war and peace, concluded treaties, and granted pardons. He alone possessed the power of initiating legislation and of promulgating 1 Hazen, Europe since 1815, 201. 2 The text of this measure is in Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 265-268, and Helie, Les Constitutions, 1149-1150. H. LaferriSre, La loi electorate du 31 mai 1850 (Paris, 1910). 3 Anderson, Constitutions, 538-543. 4 Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 290-292; Anderson, Constitutions, 560- 561. 5 Drawn up by a commission of five, under date of January 14, 1852. 300 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the laws. To him alone were all ministers responsible, and of such parliamentarism as had existed formerly there remained not a vestige. Of legislative chambers there were two: a Corps legislatifoi 251 members elected by direct manhood suffrage every six years, and a Senate com- posed of cardinals, admirals, and other ex-officio members, and of a variable number of members appointed for life by the emperor. The powers of the Senate, exercised invariably in close conjunction with the head of the state, were of some importance, but those of the popular chamber were so restricted that the liberal arrangements which existed respecting the suffrage afforded but the appearance, not the reality, of democracy. 1 324. Constitutional Alterations, 1869-1870. Throughout upwards of two decades the illusion of popular government was maintained as well as might be. The country was prosperous and the government, if illiberal, was on the whole enlightened. Discontent, none the less, was not infrequently in evidence, and during especially the second half of the reign the Emperor found it expedient more than once to make some concession to public sentiment. In the later sixties he was compelled to moderate the laws which dealt with the press and with political meetings, and in 1869-1870 he was brought to the point of approving a series of measures which gave promise of altering in an important manner the entire governmental system. One was a senatus- consulte of September 8, 1869, whereby the sittings of the Senate were made public, the Legislative Body was given the right to elect all of its own officials, and the parliamentary system was nominally re- established. 2 By reason of the fact, however, that ministers were not permitted to be members of either the Legislative Body or the Senate, and that they were declared still to be responsible to the crown, the effects of the last-mentioned feature of the reform were inconsiderable. By a senatus-consulte of April 20, 1870, (approved by a plebiscite of May 8 following) there were adopted still more important constitutional changes. In the first place, the Senate, which hitherto had been virtually an Imperial council, was erected into a legislative chamber co-ordinate with the Legislative Body, and upon both houses was conferred the right of initiating legislation. In the second place, the provision that the ministers should be dependent solely upon the emperor was stricken from the constitution, thus clearing the way for a more effective realization 1 The text of the constitution of 1852 is in Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 274-280; Helie, Les Constitutions, 1167-1171; Anderson, Constitutions, 543-549. Summary in Block, Dictionnaire Gen6ral, I., 513-515. Cambridge Modem History, XI., Chaps. 5, 10. 2 Text in Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 307-308; Helie, Les Constitu- tions, 1314-1315; and Anderson, Constitutions, 579-580. FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS SINCE 1789 301 of the parliamentary system of government. Finally, it was stipulated that the constitution should thereafter be modified only with the express approval of the people. 1 These reforms, however, were belated. They came only after the popularity of the Emperor had been strained to the breaking point, and by reason of the almost immediate coming on of the war with Prussia there was scant opportunity for the testing of their efficacy. V. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE THIRD REPUBLIC 325. The National Assembly. The present French Republic was instituted under circumstances which gave promise of even less stabil- ity than had been exhibited by its predecessors of 1793 and i848. 2 Proclaimed hi the dismal days following the disaster at Sedan, it owed its existence, at the outset, to the fact that, with the capture of Napo- leon III. by the Prussians and the utter collapse of the Empire, there had arisen, as Thiers put it, "a vacancy of power." The proclamation was issued September 4, 1870, when the war with Prussia had been in progress but seven weeks. 3 During the remaining five months of the contest the sovereign authority of France was exercised by a Pro- visional Government of National Defense, with General Trochu at its head, devised in haste to meet the emergency by Gambetta, Favre, Ferry, and other former members of the Chamber of Deputies. Upon the capitulation of Paris, January 28, 1871, elections were ordered for a national assembly, the function of which was to decide whether the war should be prolonged and what terms of peace should be ac- cepted at the hands of the victorious Germans. There was no time in which to frame a new electoral system. Consequently the elec- 1 The text of the measure of April 20, 1870, is in Duguit et Monnier, Les Con- stitutions, 308-314; He"lie, Les Constitutions, 1315-1327; and Anderson, Constitu- tions, 581-586. Cambridge Modern History, XI., Chap. 17; H. Berton, L'e" volu- tion constitutionnelle du second empire (Paris, 1900). An important larger work is P. de la Gorce, Histoire du second empire, 7 vols. (Paris, 1894-1905). 2 The best account of the beginnings of the Third Republic is that in G. Hano- taux, Histoire de la France contemporaine, 4 vols. (Paris, 1903-1909), I. There is an English translation of this important work by J. C. Tarver. A recent book of value is A. Bertrand, Les origines de la troisieme re"publique, 1871-1876 (Paris, 1911). Mention may be made also of E. Zevort, Histoire de la troisieme re"- publique, 4 vols. (Paris, 1896-1901), I.; C. Duret, Histoire de France de 1870 a 1873 (Paris, 1901); A. Callet, Les origines de la troisieme re"publique (Paris, 1889); F. Littre", L'e"tablissement de la troisifcme re"publique (Paris, 1880); L. E. Benoit, Histoire de quinze ans, 1870-1885 (Paris, 1886); F. T. Marzials, Leon Gambetta (London, 1890); and P. B. Ghensi, Gambetta: Life and Letters (New York, 1910). There is an interesting interpretation in Fisher, Republican Tradition in Europe, Chap. ii. 3 Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, cxvi. 302 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE toral procedure of the Second Republic, as prescribed by the law of March 15, 1849, was revived, 1 and by manhood suffrage there was chosen, February 8, an assembly of 758 members, representative of both France and the colonies. Meeting at Bordeaux, February 12, this body, by unanimous vote, conferred upon the historian and parlia- mentarian Thiers the title of " Chief of the Executive Power," without fixed term, voted almost solidly for a cessation of hostilities, and authorized Thiers to proceed with an immediate negotiation of peace. 326. The Problem of a Permanent Government. Pending a diplo-. matic adjustment, the Assembly was disposed to defer the establish- ment of a permanent governmental system. But the problem could not long be kept in the background. There were several possible solutions. A party of Legitimists, i. e., adherents of the old Bourbon monarchy, was resolved upon the establishment of a kingdom under the Count of Chambord, grandson of the Charles X. who had been deposed at the revolution of 1830. Similarly, a party of Orleanists was insistent upon a restoration of the house of Orleans, overthrown in 1848, in the person of the Count of Paris, a grandson of the citizen- king Louis Philippe. A smaller group of those who, despite the dis- credit which the house of Bonaparte had suffered in the war, remained loyal to the Napoleonic tradition, was committed to a revival of the prostrate empire of the captive Napoleon III. Finally, in Paris and some portions of the outlying country there was uncompromising demand for the definite establishment of a republic. 2 In the Assembly the monarchists outnumbered the republicans five to two, and, al- though the members had been chosen primarily for their opinions relative to peace rather than to constitutional forms, the proportion throughout the nation was probably about the same. The republican outlook, however, was vastly improved by the fact that the mon- archists, having nothing in common save opposition to republicanism, were hopelessly disagreed among themselves. 3 327. The Rivet Law, 1871. As, from the drift of its proceedings, the royalist character of the Assembly began to stand out in unmis- takable relief, there arose from republican quarters vigorous opposi- tion to the prolonged existence of the body. Even before the signing of the Peace of Frankfort, May 10, 1871, there occurred a clash be- 1 Most of the disqualifications for voting which were enumerated in the law of 1849 were declared inapplicable in the present election. 2 G. Weill, Histoire du parti republicain en France de 1814 a 1870 (Paris, 1900). 3 Of pure Legitimists there were in the Assembly about 150; of Bonapartists, not over 30; of Republicans, about 250. The remaining members were Orleanists or men of indecisive inclination. At no time was the full membership of the Assembly in attendance. FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS SINCE 1789 303 tween the Assembly and the radical Parisian populace, the upshot of which was the bloody war of the Commune of April-May, iSyi. 1 The communards fought fundamentally against state centralization, whether or not involving a revival of monarchy. The fate of repub- licanism was not in any real measure bound up with their cause, so that after the movement had been suppressed, with startling ruthless- ness, by the Government, the political future of the nation remained no less hi doubt than previously it had been. Thiers continued at the post of Chief of the Executive, and the Assembly, clothed by its own assumption with powers immeasurably in excess of those it had been elected to exercise, and limited by no fixed term, gave not the slightest indication of a purpose to terminate its career. Rather, the body proceeded, August 31, 1871, to pass, by a vote of 491 to 94, the Rivet law, whereby the existing regime was to be perpetuated indef- initely. 2 By this measure unrestricted sovereignty, involving the exercise of both constituent and legislative powers, was declared by the Assembly to be vested in itself. Upon the Chief of the Executive was conferred the title of President of the French Republic; and it was stipulated that this official should thereafter be responsible to the Assembly, and presumably removable by it. A quasi-republic, with a crude parliamentary system of government, thereafter existed de facto; but it had as yet absolutely no constitutional basis. 328. Failure of the Monarchist Programmes. This anomalous condition of things lasted many months, during the course of which Thiers and the Assembly served the nation admirably through the promotion of its recovery from the ravages of war. More and more Thiers, who had begun as a constitutional monarchist, came to be- lieve in republicanism as the style of government which would divide the French people least, and late in 1872 he put himself unqualifiedly among the adherents of the republican programme. Thereupon the monarchists, united for the moment in the conviction that for the good of their several causes Thiers must be deposed from his position of influence, brought about in the Assembly a majority vote in opposi- tion to him, and so induced his resignation, May 24, i873. 3 The opponents of republicanism now felt that the hour had come for the termination of a governmental regime which had by them been re- 1 In March the Assembly had transferred its sittings from Bordeaux to Versailles. 2 Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 315-316; Anderson, Constitutions, 604- 606. 3 Anderson, Constitutions, 622-627; A. LefSvre Pontalis, L* Assembled nationale et M. Thiers, in Le Correspondent, Feb. 10, 1879; A. Thiers, Notes et Souvenirs de 1870 a 1873 (Paris, 1903) ; J. Simon, Le gouvernement de M. Thiers (Paris, 1878); E. de Marcere, L'AssemblSe nationale de 1871 (Paris, 1904). 304 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE garded all the while as purely provisional. The monarchist Marshal MacMahon was made President, a coalition ministry of monarchists under the Orleanist Duke of Broglie was formed, and republicanism in press and politics was put under the ban. Between the Legitimists and the Orleanists there was worked out an ingenious compromise whereby the Bourbon Count of Chambord was to be made king under the title of Henry V. and, he having no heirs, the Orleanist Count of Paris was to be recognized as his successor. The whole project was brought to naught, however, by the persistent refusal of the Count of Chambord to give up the white flag, which for centuries had been the standard of the Bourbon house. The Orleanists held out for the tri- color; and thus, on what would appear to most people a question of distinctly minor consequence, the survival of the Republic was for the time determined. 1 In the hope that eventually they might gain sufficient strength to place their candidate on the throne without the co-operation of the Legitimists, the Orleanists joined with the Bonapartists and the repub- licans, November 20, 1873, m voting to fix the term of President MacMahon definitely at seven years. 2 By the Orleanists it was as- sumed that if within that period an opportunity should be presented for the establishment of the Count of Paris upon the throne, the Pres- ident would clear the way by retiring. The opportunity, however, never came, and the septennial period for the French presidency, established thus by monarchists in their own interest, was destined to pass into the permanent mechanism of a republican state. VI. THE CONSTITUTION OF TO-DAY 329. Circumstances of Formation. Meanwhile the way was open- ing for France to acquire what for some years she had lacked com- pletely, i. e., a constitution. May 19, 1873, the minister Dufaure, in behalf of the Government, laid before the Assembly projets of two organic measures, both of which, in slightly amended form, passed in 1875 mto tne permanent constitution of the Republic. May 24 oc- curred the retirement of President Thiers, and likewise that of Dufaure, but in the Assembly, the two proposed measures were none the less referred to a commission of thirty. Consideration in committee was sluggish, and the Assembly itself was not readily roused to action. During the twelvemonth that followed several projets were brought forward, and there was desultory discussion, but no progress. In the 1 Marquis de Castallane, Le dernier essai de restauration monarchique de 1873, in Nouvelle Revue, Nov. i, 1895. 2 Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 319; Anderson, Constitutions, 630. FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS SINCE 1789 305 summer of 1874 a new commission of thirty was elected and to it was intrusted the task of studying and reporting upon all of the numerous constitutional laws that had been suggested. The majority of this commission, monarchist by inclination, contented itself with pro- posing, in January, 1875, a ^ aw providing simply for the continuance of the existing "septennate." Only after earnest effort, and by the narrow vote of 353 to 352, were the republican forces in the Assembly able to carry an amendment, proposed by the deputy Wallon, in which was made definite provision for the election of the President of the Republic, and therefore, by reasonable inference, for the per- petuity of the Republic itself. 1 Before the year 1875 was far advanced the Assembly threw off its lethargy and for the first time in its history addressed itself system- atically to the drafting of a national constitution. To this course it was impelled by the propaganda of Gambetta and other republican leaders, by fear on the part of the Legitimists and Orleanists that the existing inchoate situation would lead to a Bonapartist revival, and by a new modus operandi which was cleverly arranged between the republicans and the Orleanists. Convinced that an Orleanist monarchy was, at least for a time, an impossibility, and preferring a republic to any alternative which had been suggested, the Orleanist members of the Assembly gave their support in sufficient numbers to the programme of the republicans to render it at last possible to work out for the nation a conservatively republican constitutional system. 330. Texts and General Nature. Of the organic laws which com- prise the constitution of France to-day five which date from 1875 are of principal importance: (i) that of February 24, on the Organiza- tion of the Senate; (2) that of February 25, the most important of all, on the Organization of the Public Powers; (3) that of July 16, on the Relations of the Public Powers; (4) that of August 3, on the Election of Senators; and (5) that of November 30, on the Election of Deputies. Collectively, these measures are sometimes referred to as the "constitution of 1875." Other and later constitutional en- actments of considerable importance include (i) the law of July 22, 1879, relating to the seat of the Executive Power and of the two Chambers at Paris; (2) the law of December 9, 1884, amending ex- isting organic laws on the Organization of the Senate and the Elec- tion of Senators; and (3) laws of June 16, 1885, and February 13 and July 17, 1889, respecting the Election of Deputies. 2 1 Anderson, Constitutions, 633. 2 The original texts of these documents are printed in Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, 319-350, and H61ie, Les Constitutions, 1348-1456. For English GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Springing from the peculiar conditions which have been described, the handiwork of a body in which only a minority felt the slightest degree of enthusiasm for it, the constitution of the French Republic is essentially unlike any instrument of government with which the English-speaking world is familiar. It differs from the British in having been put almost wholly into written form. It differs from the American in that it consists, not of a single document, but of many, and in that it emanated, not from a great constituent assembly, charged with the specific task of formulating a governmental system, but from a law-making body which in truth had never been formally intrusted by the nation with even the powers of legislation proper, and had merely arrogated to itself those functions of constitution- framing which it chose to exercise. 1 It consists simply of organic laws, enacted chiefly by the provisional Assembly of 1871-1875, but amended and amplified to some extent by the national parliament in subsequent years. Unlike the majority of constitutions that went before it in France, it is not orderly in its arrangement or comprehen- sive in its contents. It is devoid of anything in the nature of a bill of rights, 2 and concerning the sovereignty of the people it has nothing to say. Even in respect to many essential aspects of governmental organization and practice it is mute. It contains no provision re- specting annual budgets, and it leaves untouched the entire field of the judiciary. The instrument lays down only certain broad lines of organization; the rest it leaves to be supplied through the channels of ordinary legislation. versions see Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 286-319; C. F. A. Currier, Constitu- tional and Organic Laws of France, in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 1893, supplement; and Anderson, Constitutions, 633- 640. Albert Due de Broglie, Histoire et Politique: fitude sur la constitution de 1875 (Paris, 1897); R. Saleilles, The Development of the Present Constitution of France, in Annals of Amer. Academy, July, 1895. 1 Among French writers upon constitutional law there has been no small amount of difference of opinion as to whether the National Assembly is to be regarded as having been entitled to the exercise of constituent powers. For a brief affirmative argument see Duguit et Monnier, Les Constitutions, cxvii. Cf. Dicey, Law of, the Constitution, 121, note. 2 It is to be observed, however, that many authorities agree with Professor Duguit in his contention that although the individual rights enumerated in the Declaration of Rights of 1789 are passed without mention in the constitutional laws of 1875, they are to be considered as lying at the basis of the French governmental system to-day. Any measure enacted by the national parliament in contravention of them, says Professor Duguit, would be unconstitutional. They are not mere dogmas or theories, but rather positive laws, binding upon not only the legislative chambers but upon the constituent National Assembly. Traite* de droit constitu- tionnel (Paris, 1911), II., 13. FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS SINCE 1789 307 331. Amendment. It was the desire of all parties in 1875 that the constitutional laws should be easy of amendment, and indeed most men of the time expected the governmental system which was being established to undergo, sooner or later, fundamental modification. The process of amendment is stipulated in the law of February 25, I875. 1 Amendments may be proposed by the President of the Re- public or by either of the chambers of Parliament. When, by a majority of votes in each, the Senate and Chamber of Deputies de- clare a revision of the constitutional laws necessary, the two cham- bers are required to be convened in the character of a National As- sembly, and amendments are adopted by absolute majority of this composite body. Contrary to earlier French practice, the exercise of constituent and of ordinary legislative powers is thus lodged in the same body of men, the only difference of procedure in the two instances arising from the temporary amalgamation of the chambers for constituent purposes. The sole limitation that has been imposed upon the revising powers of the Assembly is contained in a clause adopted in an amendment of August 14, 1884, which forbids that the republican style of government be made the subject of a proposed revision. In point of fact, amendments have been few, although some, as that of December 9, 1884, modifying the methods of elect- ing senators and those of June 16, 1885, and February 13 and July 17, 1889, re-establishing single districts for the election of deputies and prohibiting multiple candidatures, have been of a high degree of importance. 1 Art. 8. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 288. CHAPTER XVI THE PRESIDENT, THE MINISTRY, AND PARLIAMENT I. THE PRESIDENT Under the French system of government functions of a purely executive nature are vested in the President of the Republic and the Ministry, assisted by a numerous and highly centralized body of administrative officials. The presidency had its origin in the unsettled period following the Prussian war when it was commonly believed that monarchy, in one form or another, would eventually be re-established. The title "President of the Republic" was created in 1871; but the office as it exists to-day hardly antedates the election of Marshal Mac- Mahon in 1873. The character and functions of the presidency were determined in no small measure by the circumstance that by those who created the dignity it was intended merely to keep the French people accustomed to visible personal supremacy, and so to make easier the future transition to a monarchical system. Counting Thiers, the Republic has had thus far nine presidents: Adolphe Thiers, 1871- 1873; Marshal MacMahon, 1873-1879; Jules Grevy, 1879-1887; F. Sadi-Carnot, 1887-1894; Casimir-Perier, June, 1894, to January, 1895; Felix Faure, 1895-1899; Emile Loubet, 1899-1906; Armand Falh'eres, 1906-1913; and Raymond Poincare elected early in 1913. 332. Election and Qualifications. The President is chosen for seyen_^;ears by an electoral college consisting of the meinbers of _the Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies, meeting at Versailles in National Assembly. The choice is by absolute majority of the Qom- bined body. The constitutional law of July 16, 1875, stipulates that one'month, at least, before the expiration of his term the President shall call together the National Assembly for the election of a successor. In default of such summons, the meeting takes place automatically on the fifteenth day before the expiration; and in the event of the death or resignation of the President the Chambers are required to assemble immediately without summons. 1 There is no vice-president, 1 Art. 3. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 291. 308 THE PRESIDENT, THE MINISTRY, AND PARLIAMENT 309 nor any law of succession, so that whenever the presidential office falls vacant there must be a new election; and, at whatever time and under whatever circumstance begun, the term of the newly elected President is regularly seven years. As upon the occasion of the assassi- nation of Sadi-Carnot in 1894, a vacancy may arise wholly unexpect- edly. Under even the most normal conditions, however, the election of a President in France is attended by no period of campaigning comparable with that which attends a similar event in the United States. The Assembly habitually selects a man who has long been a member, and has perhaps served as president, of one or the other of the chambers, who has had experience in committee work and, as a rule, in one or more ministerial offices, and who, above all things, is not too aggressive or domineering. An election is likely to be carried through all stages within the space of forty-eight hours. The qualifica- tions requisite for election are extremely broad. Until 1884 any male citizen, regardless of age, affiliation, or circumstance, was eligible. In the year mentioned members of families that have reigned in France were debarred, and this remains the only formal disqualification. A President is eligible indefinitely for re-election. 1 333. Privileges. The President is paid the sum of i z 2oo z ooo_francs a year, half as salary, half to cover travelling expenses and the outlays incumbent upon him as the official representative of the nation. He resides in the Palais de PElysee, where he maintains in a measure the state and ceremony that ordinarily are associated only with mon- archy. His dignity is safeguarded by special and effective penalties I for insult and libel. Like the President of the United States, during his term of office he is exempt from the processes of the ordinary courts; but, like his American counterpart, he may be tried by the Senate, on articles of impeachment presented by the lower legislative chamber. The President of the United States may be impeached for "treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors"; the French President may be impeached for treason only. On the other hand, whereas the penalty that may be imposed upon the Amer- ican President by the judgment of the Senate is confined to removal from office and disqualification to hold office, the French constitution fixes no limit to the penalty which may be visited upon a President convicted of treason. So far as the law is concerned, he might be condemned to death. 334. Powers: Participation in Law-making. The President pos- sesses powers which are numerous and, on paper at least, formidable. 1 A. Tridon, France's Way of Choosing a President, in Review of Reviews, Dec., 1912. 310 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE A first group pertains to the making of law. "The President of the Republic," says the constitutional law of February 25, 1875, "shall have the initiative of laws, concurrently with the members of the two chambers. He shall promulgate the laws when they have been voted by the two chambers; and he shall look after and secure their execu- tion." * The concurrent power of initiating legislation, exercised through the Ministry, is something that is not possessed by the Amer- ican President, who can do no more than suggest and recommend measures he deems desirable. The President of France, on the other hand, possesses only a suspensive veto. He may remand a measure of which he disapproves for fresh consideration by Parliament; but if it is re-enacted, by even a simple majority, it is incumbent upon him to promulgate it as law. If, however, the veto power is virtually non- existent, the President possesses an important prerogative in the right of issuing ordinances with the force of supplementary legislation. These may be not merely executive orders in matters of detail, such as are issued by the President of the United States, but sweeping in- junctions deemed essential to the enforcement of the laws in general. The only limitation is that such ordinances must not contravene the constitution or any enactment of the chambers. The power is one which, rather curiously, rests upon no express constitutional provi- sion, but simply upon custom. The right which the President pos- sesses, with the consent of the Senate, to dissolve the ChamBer of Deputies before the expiration of its term, thereby precipitating a general election, may also be made the means of exercising considerable influence upon legislative processes and achievements. y 335. Powers: Executive and Judicial. As the head of the national administration, the President appoints to all civil and military offices connected with the central government. His appointments do not require ratification by the Senate, or by any other body. He may even create, by decree, new offices. And his power of removal from office, save in certain cases, is absolutely without restriction. Appointments and removals, however, are in practice made through the Ministry, and the President has no patronage at his immediate disposal other than that of the posts in his own household. In respect to foreign affairs the President's powers are more substantial. Like the American President, he represents his country in the sending and receiving of ambassadors, ministers, envoys, and consuls, and in the negotiation and conclusion of treaties. Treaties affecting peace, commerce, terri- torial possessions, finances, or the status of Frenchmen in foreign countries, require the ratification of the chambers; others call for no 1 Art. 3. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 286. THE PRESIDENT, THE MINISTRY, AND PARLIAMENT 311 such action, and even a foreign alliance may be concluded by the Executive working independently. On the military side, the President is commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the nation, military and naval. He may not declare war without the consent of the chambers; but through the conduct of foreign affairs he may at any time, very much as may the President of the United States, create a situation by which war will be rendered inevitable. Finally, the President is vested with the powers of pardon and reprieve, although amnesty may be granted only by law. 1 _^ ^^ ^ H. THE MINISTRY '* ^* ' 336. Importance in the Government. "There is," says an English writer of the last generation, "no living functionary who occupies a more pitiable position than a French President. The old kings of France reigned and governed. The Constitutional King, according to M. Thiers, reigns, but does not govern. The President of the United States governs, but he does not reign. It has been reserved for the President of the French Republic neither to reign nor yet to povern." 2 The weakness of the French PresicTent's position arises specifically from two clauses of the constitutional law of February 25, 1875. O ne of them stipulates that "every act of the President of the Republic shall be countersigned by a minister." The other provides that "the ministers shall be collectively responsible to the chambers for the general policy of the government, and individually for their personal acts." 3 Unde"r the operation of these principles ine Ministry becomes the real executive. Like the sovereign of Great Britain, the President can do no wrong, because the acts that are officially his are in reality performed by the ministers, who alone (save in the case of treason) are responsible for them. Chosen by the members of Parliament, the President belongs normally to the party group which is at the time in the ascendant, and by it he is kept in tutelage. The leaders of this group are the ministers, and, in a very large measure, the President simply approves passively the policies of this body of men and signs and promulgates the measures which it carries through the chambers. 337. Organization and Functions. Ministerial portfolios are created 1 Dupriez, Les Ministres, II., 358-372; J. Nadal, Attributions du president de la rSpublique en France et aux fitats-Unis (Toulouse, 1909). For a brief American discussion of the same subject see M. Smith, The French Presidency and the American, in Review of Reviews, Feb., 1906. Cf. A. Cohn, Why M. Fallieres is an Ideal French President, ibid., July, 1908. 2 Henry Maine, Popular Government (London, 1885), 250. 8 Arts. 3 and 6. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 287. 312 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE by executive decree. Their number has been somewhat variable. In 1875 there were nine. In 1879 there was created a tenth. Be- tween 1 88 1 and 1887 there were eleven. To-day there are twelve, as follows: (i) Interior; (2) Finance; (3) War; (4) Justice and Public Worship; (5) Marine; (6) Colonies; (7) Public Instruction: (8) Foreign Affairs; (9) Commerce; (10) Agriculture; (n) Public Works and Ppsts, Telegraphs, and Telephones; and (12) Labor. Portfolios may be not only created but rearranged by simple executive decree, though of course the necessary financial provisions are conditioned upon the approval of the chambers. The premier may occupy any, one of the ministerial posts, or even two, of them at one time. He is named by the President, and he, acting with the President, designates his col- leagues and allots to them their respective portfolios. Usually, though not necessarily, the ministers are members of the Senate or of the Chamber of Deputies, principally the latter. 1 Whether members or not, they have a right to attend all sessions of both chambers and to take an especially privileged part in debate. Ministers receive annual salaries of 60,000 francs and reside, as a rule, in the official mansions maintained for the heads of the departments they control. Collectively the ministers possess two sets of functions which are essentially distinct. The one they fulfill as a "council"; the other as a " cabinet." In the capacity of a council they exercise a general super- vision of the administration of the laws, to the end that there may be efficiency and unity in the affairs of state. In the event of the Pres- ident's death, incapacitation, or resignation, the Council is authorized to act as head of the state until the National Assembly shall have chosen a successor. As a cabinet the ministers formulate the funda- mental policies of the Government and represent it in the chambers. The Council is administrative and is expressly recognized by law; the Cabinet is political and is not so recognized. In the meetings of the Council the President of the Republic not only sits, but presides; in those of the Cabinet he rarely even appears. Aside from the President, however, the two bodies, in personnel, are identical. 2 338. The Parliamentary System: Multiplicity of Parties. On paper France has to-day a parliamentary system of government sub- 1 In earlier days the ministers of war and of the marine were selected not infre- quently from outside Parliament, but this practice has been discontinued. 2 Dupriez, Les ministres, II., 332-357. A recent treatise of value is H. Noell, L' Administration centrale; les ministSres, leur organisation, leur role (Paris, 1911). Mention may be made of L. Rolland, Le Conseil d' fitat et les rSglements d'admin- istration publique, in Revue du Droit Public, April-June, 1911; J. Barthelemy, Les sous-secre"taires d'etat, ibid.; P. Ma, reorganisation du Ministfcre des Colonies, in Questions Diplomatiques et Coloniales, Sept. i, 1910. THE PRESIDENT, THE MINISTRY, AND PARLIAMENT 313 stantially like that which prevails in Great Britain. The President's / authority is but nominal. The real executive consists of the ministers. These ministers are responsible, collectively in general matters and individually in particular ones, to the chambers, in reality to the ^*0, S Chamber of Deputies. When defeated on any important proposition, they resign as a body. Parliamentary government in France means, however, in practice, something very different from what it means across the Channel. The principal reason why this is so is to be found in the totally different status of political parties in the two countries. In Great Britain, while in later years small political groups have sprung up to complicate the situation, the political life of the nation is still confined very largely to the two great rival parties, which oppose to each other a fairly united front, and between which there is not likely to be anything like fusion or affiliation. In France, on the contrary, there is a multiplicity of parties and no one of them is likely ever to be in a position to dominate the Government alone. The election of 1910 sent to the Chamber of Deputies representatives of no fewer than nine distinct political groups. No ministry can be made up with any hope of its being able to command a working major- ity in the Chamber unless it represents in its membership a coalition of several parties. A Government so constituted, however, is almost inevitably vacillating and short-lived. It is unable to please all of the groups and interests upon which it relies; it dares displease none; it ends not infrequently by displeasing all. 339. Frequency of Ministerial Changes. It is from this condition of things that there arises the remarkable frequency with which ministerial crises and ministerial changes take place in France. The ministry of M. Poincare, established in January, 1912, was the forty- fifth in the history of French parliamentarism since 1875 a period of but thirty-seven years. Between 1875 and 1900 but four years elapsed without at least one change of ministry. Since 1900 changes have been somewhat less frequent. The Waldeck-Rousseau ministry of 1899- 1902 the longest-lived since 1875 endured virtually three years; the Combes ministry of 1902-1905 lasted more than two years and a half; and the Clemenceau ministry of 1906-1909 fell but little short of two years and nine months. None the less, a total of nine ministries within the space of thirteen years means an average of but one year and a half to the ministry. It is but fair to say that the ordinary "crisis" is not likely to involve a complete ministerial change. Defeated in the Chamber, or unable to make progress, the ministry as a body resigns; but, as a rule, many of the members are immediately reappointed, with perhaps a change of portfolios. A certain continuity arises also 314 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE from the fact that the subordinate officials in the various departments enjoy a reasonable fixity of tenure. Nevertheless the most obvious feature of parliamentary government as it exists to-day in France, and in other continental countries, is its instability. Only where, as in England, there are two great parties, each possessing solidarity and sufficient strength, if returned to power, to support a homogeneous and sympathetic ministry, can the more desirable results of the parlia- mentary system be realized in full. There is as yet no evidence that such parties are in France in process of development. 1 340. Interpellation. The precariousness of the position occupied by French ministries is enhanced by the parliamentary device of inter- pellation. As in Great Britain, every member of the two chambers possesses the right at any time to put to an executive head a direct question concerning any affair of state which, without impropriety, may be made the subject of open discussion. A minister may not, however, be questioned without his consent, and the incident ordinarily passes without debate. In France, however, any member may direct at a minister an interpellation, designed not to obtain information, but to put the Government on the defensive and to precipitate a debate which may end in the overthrow of the ministry on some mere tech- nicality or other matter in itself of but slight importance. The inter- pellation is a challenge. It is made the special order for a day fixed by the chamber, and it almost invariably results in a vote of confidence, or want of confidence, in the ministers. As employed in France, the interpellation lends itself too readily to the ends of sheer factiousness to be adjudged a valuable feature of parliamentary procedure. 2 1 A French scholar writes: "Power cannot pass alternately, as in England and the United States, from the party on one side over to the party in opposition. This alternation, this game of see-saw between two opposing parties, which certain theorists have declared to be the indispensable condition of every parliamentary r6gime, does not exist, and has never existed, in France. The reason why is simple. If the party of the Right, hostile to the Republic, should come into power, the temptation would be too strong for them to maintain themselves there by estab- lishing an autocratic government, which would put an end to the parliamentary regime, as in 1851. The electors are conscious of this tendency of the Conserva- tives, and will not run the risk of entrusting the Republic to them. When they are discontented with the Republicans in power, they vote for other Republicans. Thus, new Republican groups are being ceaselessly formed, while the old ones fall to pieces." C. Seignobos, The Political Parties of France, in International Monthly, Aug., 1901, 155. On the French parliamentary system see Dupriez, Les Ministres, II., 345-357, 373-461; E. Pierre, Principes du droit politique electoral et parlemen- taire en France (Paris, 1893). 2 Dupriez, Les Ministres, II., 432-461. L. Gozzi, L'Interpellation a 1'assemble'e pationale (Marseilles, 1909); J. Poudra and E. Pierre, Traite" pratique de droit parlementaire, 8 vols. (Versailles, 1878-1880), VII., Chap. 4. THE PRESIDENT, THE MINISTRY, AND PARLIAMENT 315 III. PARLIAMENT: SENATE AND CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES 341. The Bicameral System. With the dissolution of the States General in 1789, France definitely abandoned a parliamentary system based upon the mediaeval principle of orders or estates. Throughout upwards of a hundred years, however, the scheme of parliamentary or- ganization which was to take the place of that which had been cast aside continued uncertain. During the Revolution ultra-democratic re- formers very generally favored the maintenance of a national assembly of but a single house, and it was not until the promulgation of the constitution of 1795 that a frame of government including provision for a legislature of two houses was brought into operation. The bkam- eral system of 1795-1799 was succeeded by the anomalous legislative regime of Napoleon, but under the Constitutional Charter of 1814 the two-house principle was revived and continuously applied through a period of thirty-four years. The legislative organ of the Second Re- public was a unicameral assembly, but an incident of the transition to the Second Empire was the revival of a Senate, and throughout the reign of Napoleon III. the legislative chambers were nominally two in number, although it was not until 1870 that the Senate as a legislative body was made co-ordinate with the Corps legislatif. On the whole, it can be affirmed that at the period when the constitution of the Third Republic was given form, the political experience of the nation had demonstrated the bicameral system to be the most natural, the safest, and the most effective. The opening stipulation of the Constitutional Law on the Organization of the Public Powers, adopted February 25, 1875, was that the law-making power of France should be exercised by a national parliament consisting of (i) a Chamber of Deputies and (2) a Senate. The one, it was determined, should rest upon a broadly democratic basis. The other was planned, as is customary with second chambers, to stand somewhat further removed from the immediate control of the voters of the country. But the two were intended to exist fundamentally to enact into law the will of the people, in whom the sovereignty of the French nation is clearly lodged. And even the most casual survey of the French governmental system as it operates to-day will impress the fact that the structure and organi- zation of the parliamentary body have lent themselves to the usages of a democratic state in a measure even exceeding that intended by the founders of the existing order. 342. The Senate as Originally Established. Having determined that the parliament should consist of two branches, the National Assembly, 3i6 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE in 1875, faced the difficult problem of constituting an upper chamber that should not be a mere replica of the lower, and yet should not inject into a democratic constitutional system an incongruous element of aristoc- racy. The device hit upon was a chamber, seats in which should be wholly elective, yet not at the immediate disposal of the people. By the constitutional law of February 24, 1875, it was provided that the Senate should consist of three hundred members, of whom two hundred twenty- five should be elected by the departments and colonies and seventy- five by the National Assembly itself. 1 The departments of the Seine and of the Nord were authorized to elect five senators each, the others four, three, or two, as specified in the law. The senators of the depart- ments and of the colonies were to be elected by an absolute majority and by scrutin de liste, by a college meeting at the capital of the depart- ment or colony, composed of the deputies and general councillors and of delegates elected, one by each municipal council, from among the vot- ers of the communes. Senators chosen by the Assembly were to be elec- ted by scrutin de liste and by an absolute majority of votes. No one should be chosen who had not attained the age of forty years, and who was not in enjoyment of full civil and political rights. The seventy-five elected by the Assembly were to retain their seats for life, vacancies that should arise being filled by the Senate itself. All other members were to be elected for nine years, being renewed by thirds every three years. 343. The Senate: Composition and Election To-day. The sys- tem thus devised continues, in the main, in effect at the present day. The principal variations from it are those introduced in a constitutional law of December 9, 1884, whereby it was provided (i) that the co-optative method of election should be abolished, and that, while present life members should retain their seats as long as they should live, all vacancies thereafter arising from the decease of such members should be filled within the departments in the regular manner, and (2) that the electoral college of the de- partment should be broadened to include not merely one delegate from each municipal council, but from one to twenty-four (thirty in the case of Paris), according to the number of members in the council. 2 By the same law members of families that have reigned in France were declared ineligible; and by act of July 20, 1895, no one may become a member of either branch of Parliament un- less he has complied with the law regarding military service. Few of the life members survive to-day. When they shall have disappeared, the French Senate will comprise a compact body of 1 Dodd, Modern Constitutions, L, 288. 2 Ibid., L, 310. THE PRESIDENT, THE MINISTRY, AND PARLIAMENT 317 ^L three hundred men apportioned among the departments in ap- proximate accordance with population and chosen in all cases by bodies of electors all of whom have themselves been elected directly by the people. The present apportionment gives to the department of the Seine ten members; to that of the Nord, eight; to others, five four, three, and two apiece, down to the territory of Belfort and the three departments of Algeria, and the colonies of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion, and the French West Indies, which return one each. From having long been viewed by republicans with sus- picion, the Senate has come to be regarded by Frenchmen gener- ally as perhaps the most perfect work of the Republic. 1 In these days its membership is recruited very largely from the Deputies, so that it includes not only many men of distinction in letters and science but an unusual proportion of experienced debaters and parliamentarians. A leading American authority has said that it is " composed of as impressive a body of men as can be found in any legislative chamber the world over." 2 The sittings of the Senate, since 1879, nave been held in the Palais du Luxembourg, a splendid structure on the left bank of the Seine dating from the early seventeenth century. 3 344. The Chamber of Deputies: Composition. The 597 mem- bers of the lower legislative branch are chosen directly by the people, ^-, under conditions regulated by a series of electoral measures, prin- cipally the organic law of November 30, i875. 4 The franchise^ '*' extended to all male inhabitants who have attained the age of twenty-one, and who are not convicts, bankrupts, under guardian- ship, or in active military or naval service. Of educational or prop- erty qualifications there are none. The only requirements are that the voter shall have his name inscribed on the electoral lists and shall be able to prove a residence of six months in the commune in which he proposes to cast his ballot. The conditions of the fran- chise are prescribed by the state; but the keeping and the annual revision of the electoral lists devolves upon the commune, and the lists are identical for communal, district, departmental, and national elections. The French registration system is notably effective and, as compared with the British, inexpensive. 345. Electoral Unit and Parliamentary Candidacies. The electo- ral area in France is the arrondissement, an administrative sub- 1 J. C. Bracq, France under the Republic (New York, 1910), 8. 'Lowell, Governments and Parties, I., 22. But compare the view set forth in J. S. C. Bodley, France, 2 vols. (London, 1898), I., 46-60. 8 O. Pyfferoen, Du s6nat en France et dans les Pays-Bas (Brussels, 1892). * Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 302-308. 3iS GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE division of the department. Each arrondissement returns one deputy, unless its population exceeds 100,000, in which case it is divided into single-member constituencies, one for each 100,000 or remaining fraction thereof. A fresh apportionment is made after each quinquennial census, when to each of the eighty-six depart- ments is allotted a quota of representatives proportioned to popula- tion. The present method of election, under which the individual elector votes within his arrondissement or district for one deputy only, is known as the scrutin d' arrondissement. Established in 1876, the scrutin d' arrondissement was employed until 1885, when, at the behest of Gambetta, a change was made to a system under which deputies for an entire department were voted for on a general ticket, as, for example, presidential electors are voted for in an American state. This system the so-called scrutin de liste was maintained in operation only until 1889, when the scrutin d' arrondissement was re-established. 1 The full membership of the Chamber is elected simultaneously, for a four-year term, save in the event that the Chamber shall be sooner dissolved. No nomination, or similar formality, is required of the candidate. To be eligible, however, he must be a qualified voter and as much as twenty-five years of age. By law of Novem- ber 30, 1875, state officials are forbidden to become candidates in dis- tricts where their position might enable them to influence elections, and by act of June 16, 1885, members of families who have ever reigned in France are debarred. All that is required of a person who, possessing the requisite legal qualifications, wishes to be a candidate is that five days before the election he shall deposit with the prefect of the department within which the polling is to take place a declaration, witnessed by a mayor, of the name of the con- stituency in which he proposes to seek election. Even this trifling formality was introduced only by the Multiple Candidature Act of 1889, by which it is stipulated that no person shall be a candidate in more than one district. The French electorate is proverbially indifferent concerning the exercise of the suffrage, but the methods of campaigning which have become familiar in other countries are employed systematically, and no small measure of popular interest is occasionally aroused. 2 1 Laws of June 16, 1885, and February 13, 1889; Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 316-318. 2 "During the electoral period, circulars and platforms signed by the candidates, electoral placards and manifestoes signed by one or more voters, may, after being deposited with the public prosecutor, be posted and distributed without previous authorization." Organic Law of November 30, 1875, Art. 3. THE PRESIDENT, THE MINISTRY, AND PARLIAMENT 319 346. The Conduct of Parliamentary Elections. The electoral process is simple and inexpensive. Voting is by secret ballot, and the balloting lasts one day only. As a rule, the polling takes place in the mairie, or municipal building, of the commune, under the immediate supervision of an electoral bureau consisting of a presi- dent (usually the mayor), four assessors, and a secretary. The state does not provide ballot-papers, but one or more of the candidates may be depended upon to supply the deficiency. The count is public and the result is announced without delay. If it is found that no candidate within the district has polled an absolute majority of the votes cast, and at the same time a fourth of the number which the registered voters of the district are legally capable of casting, a second balloting (the so-called ballottage) is ordered for one week from the ensuing Sunday. No one of the candidates voted for drops out of the con- test, unless by voluntary withdrawal; new candidates, at even so late a day, may enter the race; and whoever, at the second balloting, secures a simple plurality is declared elected. By observers gener- ally it is considered that the principle of the second ballot, in the form in which it is applied in France, possesses no very decisive value. Through a variety of agencies the central government is accustomed to exert substantial influence in parliamentary elections ; but all of the more important political groups have profited at one time or another by the practice, and there is to-day a very general acquiescence in it, save on the part of unsuccessful candidates whose prospects have been injured by it. IV. THE PROBLEM OF ELECTORAL REFORM 347. Scrutin de liste and scrutin d'arrondissement. Within recent years there has arisen, especially among the Republicans and Socialists, an insistent demand for a thoroughgoing reform of the electoral process. Those who criticise the present system are far from agreed as to precisely what would be more desirable, but, in general, there are two preponderating programmes. One of these calls simply for abandonment of the scrutin d'arrondissement and a return to the scrutin de liste. The other involves both a return to the scrutin de liste and the adoption of a scheme of proportional representation. The arrondissement, many maintain, is too small to be made to serve satisfactorily as an electoral unit. Within a sphere so restricted the larger interests of the nation are in danger of being lost to view and political life is prone to be reduced to a wearisome round of compromise, demagogy, and trivialities. If, 320 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE it is contended, all deputies from a department were to be elected on a single ticket, the elector would value his privilege more highly, the candidate would be in a position to make a more dignified cam- paign, and issues which are national in their scope would less fre- quently be obscured by questions and interests of a petty and purely local character. Professor Duguit, of the University of Bordeaux, who is one of the abler exponents of this proposed reform, contends (i) that the scheme of scrutin de liste harmonizes better than does that of scrutin d'arrondissement with the fundamental theory of representation in France, which is that the deputies who go to Paris do so as representatives of the nation as a whole, not of a single locality; (2) that the scrutin d'arrondissement facilitates corruption through the temptation which it affords candidates to make to voters promises of favors, appointments, and decorations, and (3) that the prevailing system augments materially the more or less questionable influence which the Government is able to bring to bear in the elec- tion of deputies. 1 It does not appear that in the period 1885-1889 when the scrutin de liste was in operation the very desirable ends now expected to be attained by a restoration of it were realized; indeed the system lent itself more readily to the menacing operations of the ambitious Boulanger than the scrutin d 1 arrondissement could pos- sibly have done. It is but fair, however, to observe that the trial of the system was very brief and that it fell in a period of unusual political unsettlement. 348. Proportional Representation. In the judgment of many reformers a simple enlarging of the electoral unit, however desirable in itself, would be by no means adequate to place the national parliament upon a thoroughly satisfactory basis. There is in France a growing demand for the adoption of some scheme whereby minori- ties within the several departments shall become entitled to a pro- portionate voice in the Chamber at Paris. And hence a second programme of reform is that which calls not merely for the scrutin de liste, but also for proportional representation. Within the past two decades the spread of the proportional representation idea in Europe has been rapid. Beginning in 1891, the device has been adopted by one after another of the Swiss cantons, until now it is in use in some measure in upwards of half of them. Since 1899 Belgium has employed it in the election of all members of both chambers of her parliament. In 1906 it was adopted by Finland and by the German state of Wiirttemberg. In 1908 Denmark, in which country the system has been employed in the election of 1 L. Duguit, Trait6 de droit constitutionnel, I., 375-376. THE PRESIDENT, THE MINISTRY, AND PARLIAMENT 321 members of the upper chamber since 1867, extended its use to elec- tions in the municipalities. 1 In 1907 an act of the Swedish parlia- ment (confirmed after a general election in 1909) applied it to elec- tions for both legislative chambers, all parliamentary committees, and provincial and town councils. In France there was organized in 1909, under the leadership of M. Charles Benoist, a Proportional Representation League by which there has been carried on in recent years a very vigorous and promising propaganda. The principal arguments employed by the advocates of the proposed reform are (1) that the effect of its adoption would be greatly to increase the aggregate vote cast in parliamentary elections, since electors be- longing to minority parties would be assured of actual representation; (2) that it would no longer be possible, as is now regularly the case, for the number of voters unrepresented by deputies of their own political faith to be in excess of the number of electors so represented; 2 and (3) that a parliament in which the various parties are represented in proportion to their voting strength can be depended upon to know and to execute the will of the nation with more precision than can a legislative body elected after the principle of the majority system. 3 349. The Government and Reform. During upwards of a decade the successive ministries of France have been committed to the cause of electoral reform. In March, 1907, a special committee of the Chamber of Deputies (the Commission du Suffrage Universe!), appointed to con- sider the various bills which had been submitted upon the subject, reported a scheme of proportional representation whereby it was be- lieved certain disadvantages inherent in the "list system" of Belgium might be obviated. Elections were to be by scrutin de liste and the elector was to be allowed to cast as many votes as there were places to be filled and to concentrate as many of these votes as he might choose upon a single candidate. 4 In November, 1909, the Chamber of Deputies J The first English-speaking state to adopt the system was Tasmania, where, after being in partial operation in 1896-1901, it was brought fully into effect in 1907. By an electoral law of 1900 Japan adopted it for the election of the members of her House of Commons. The plan was put in operation in Cuba April i, 1908, and was adopted in Oregon by a referendum of June i, 1908. 2 It is the assertion of M. Benoist that this situation has existed unbrokenly since 1 88 1. An interesting fact cited is that the notable Separation Law of 1905 was adopted in the Chamber by the votes of 341 deputies who represented in the aggre- gate but 2,647,315 electors in a national total of 10,967,000. 3 Duguit, op. cit. y argues forcefully in behalf of the proposed change. For ad- verse views, cogently stated by an equally eminent French authority, see A. Es- mein, Droit Constitutionnel (sth ed., Paris, 1911), 253. 4 The text of the proposed measure, in English translation, will be found in J. H. Humphreys, Proportional Representation (London, 1911), 382-385. 322 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE passed a resolution favoring the establishment of both scrutin de liste and proportional representation, but no law upon the subject was enacted, and at the elections of April-May, 1910, the preponderating issue was unquestionably that of electoral reform. According to a tabulation undertaken by the Ministry of the Interior, of the 597 deputies chosen at this time 94 had not declared themselves on electoral reform; 35 were in favor of no change from the existing system; 32 were in favor of a slightly modified scrutin d 'arrondissement; 64 were parti- sans of the scrutin de liste pure and simple; 272 were on record in favor of the scrutin de liste combined with proportional representation; and 88 were known to be in favor of electoral reform, though not committed to any particular programme. The majority favoring change of some kind was thus notably large. 360. The Briand Programme. June 30, 1910, the Briand ministry brought forward a plan which was intended as an alternative to the proposals of the Universal Suffrage Committee. The essential features of it were: (i) a return to scrutin de liste, with the department as the electoral area, save that a department entitled to more than fifteen deputies should, for electoral purposes, be divided, and one entitled to fewer than four should be united with another; (2) an Allotment of one deputy to every 70,000 inhabitants, or major fraction thereof; (3) the division of the total number of electors on the register within a depart- ment by the number of deputies to which the department should be entitled, the quotient to supply the means by which to determine the number of deputies returned to the Chamber from each competing ticket; (4) the determination of this number by a division of the fore- going quotient into the average number of votes obtained by the candi- dates on each competing ticket, thus introducing the element of propor- tional representation; (5) the making up of tickets in each department from candidates nominated by one hundred electors; (6) the restriction of each elector to a vote for but a single ticket; and (7) an extension of the life of the Chamber from four to six years, one-third of the members to be chosen biennially. In the minisierial declaration accompanying the announcement of this scheme Premier Briand declared that the effect of the scrutin d j arrondissement had been to narrow the political horizon of the deputies; that the electoral area must be broadened so that the interests of the nation may be made to predominate over those of the district; and that, while in a democracy the majority must rule, the Government was favorable to proportional representation in so far as the adoption of that principle can prevent the suppression of really important minorities. 361. The Electoral Reform Bill of 1912. In February, 1911, while THE PRESIDENT, THE MINISTRY, AND PARLIAMENT 323 the Briand Electoral Reform Bill was pending, there occurred a change of ministries. The Monis government which succeeded maintained, during its brief tenure (March- June, 1911), the sympathetic attitude which had been exhibited by its predecessor, and at the beginning of the period the Commission du Suffrage Universel laid before the Cham- ber the draft of a new bill whereby the details of the proportional plan were brought back into closer accord with those of the Belgian system. During the period of the Caillaux ministry (June, 1911, to January, 1912) there was continued discussion, but meager progress. The Poincare ministry, established at the beginning of 1912, declared that the nation had expressed forcefully its desire for far-reaching reform and promised that, in pursuance of the work already accomplished by the parlia- mentary commission, it would take steps to carry a measure of reform which should "secure a more exact representation for political parties and lend those who are elected the freedom that is required for the sub- ordination of local interests in all cases to the national interest." During the earlier months of 1912 consideration of the subject was pressed in the Chamber and July 10 the whole of the Government's Electoral Reform Bill was adopted by a vote of 339 to 217. At the date of writing (October, 1912) the measure is pending in the Senate. The bill as passed in the Chamber comprises essentially the Briand proposals of 19 lo. 1 Through the revival of scrutin de liste, with a large department or a group of small ones as the electoral area, and with the device of J The most systematic account of the electoral franchise in France since 1780 is A. Tecklenburg, Die Entwickelung des Wahlrechts in Frankreich seit 1789 (Tii- bingen, 1911). The French electoral system is described at length in E. Pierre, Code des Elections politiques (Paris, 1893); Chaute-Grellet, Trait6 des elections, 2 vols. (Paris, 1897); M. Block, Dictionnaire de l'administration franchise ($th ed., Paris, 1905), I., 1208-1244. The literature of the subject of electoral reform is very extensive. Mention may be made of C. Benoist, Pour la reforme electorate (Paris, 1908); J. L. Chardon, La reforme electorate en France (Paris, 1910); J. L. Breton, La reforme electorate (Paris, 1910); C. Francois, La representation des inte"rets dans les corps elus (Paris, 1900); F. Faure, La legislature qui finit et la r6forme electorate, in Revue Politique et Parlementaire, Dec. 10, 1909; Marion, Comment faire la reforme electorate, ibid., Feb. 10 and March 10, 1910; M. Deslanders, La reforme electorate, ibid., July 10, 1910; A. Varenne, La r^forme electorate d'abord, ibid., Nov. 10, 1910; G. Lachapelle, La discussion du projet de re"forme electorate, ibid., May 10, 1912; F. Faure, Le vote de la relorme electorate, ibid., Aug. 10, 1912 (contains the text of the Electoral Law) ; L. Milhac, Les partis politiques francais dans leur programme et devant le suffrage, in Annales des Sciences Politiques , July 15, 1910; G. Scelle, La representation politique, in Revue du Droit Public, July-Sept., IQII; L. Marin, Le vote personnel, in La Grande Revue, March 25, 1911; and G. Trouillot, La reforme electorate au Senat, ibid., Sept. 25, 1912. The text of the bill of 191 2 is to be found also in Revue du Droit Public, July-Sept., 1912. On the question of proportional representation see G. Tronqual, La representation pro- portionnelle devant le parlement francais (Poitiers, 1910); F. L6pine, La repr6sen- 324 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE representation of minorities added, the measure, in the event of its probable final enactment, will largely transform the conditions under which the parliamentary elections of to-day are conducted. tation proportionnelle et sa solution (Paris, 1911); N. Saripolos, La democratic et I'&ection proportionnelle (Paris, 1900); G. Lachapelle, La representation propor- tionnelle (Paris, 1910); ibid., Representation proportionnelle, in Revue de Paris, Nov. 15, 1910; ibid., L'Application de la representation proportionnelle, in Revue Politique et Parlementaire, Dec. 10, 1910. See also Anon., La sophistication du suffrage universel, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, July, 1909, and May, 1910; E. Zevort, La France sous le regime du suffrage universel (Paris, 1894). The subject of proportional representation in France is fully discussed in a Report of the British Royal Commission on Electoral Systems (1910). Report, Cd. 5,163; Evidence, Cd. 5,352. CHAPTER XVH PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE-POLITICAL PARTIES I. ORGANIZATION AND WORKINGS or THE CHAMBERS 362. Sessions. By the constitutional law of July 16, 1875, it is required that the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate shall assemble annually on the second Tuesday of January, unless convened at an earlier date by the President of the Republic, and that they shall con- tinue in session through at least five months of each year. The President may convene an extraordinary session, and is obligated to do so if at any time during a recess an absolute majority of both chambers request it. The President may adjourn the chambers, but not more than twice during the same session, and never to exceed one month. The sessions of the Deputies are held in the Palais Bourbon, situated in the immediate neighborhood of a group of ministerial buildings at the end of the Boulevard St. Germain, directly acrossthe Seine from the Place de la Concorde; those of the Senate, in the Palais du Luxembourg. The sittings are by law required to be public, though there is provision for occasional secret sessions. Sine 3 January i, 1907, deputies have received 15,000 francs a year (increased by law of November, 1906, from 9,000) ; and they are entitled, on payment of a nominal sum, to travel free on all French railways. The emoluments of senators are identical with those of deputies. 363. Officers, Bureaus, and Committees. The presiding officer of the Deputies is known as the president. He is elected by the Chamber and, far from being a mere moderator, as is the Speaker of the British House of Commons, he is ordinarily an aggressive party man, not indisposed to quit the chair to participate in debate, and therefore bearing an inter- esting resemblance to the Speaker of the American House of Representa- tives. Besides the president, there are four vice-presidents, eight secretaries, and three questors, all chosen by the Chamber. The vice- presidents replace the president upon occasion; the secretaries (of whom half must always be on duty when the Chamber is in session) super- vise the records of the meetings and count the votes when there is a division; the questors have in charge the Chamber's finances. Collec- tively, this group of sixteen officials comprises what is known as the 325 326 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE " bureau" of the Chamber. It manages the business of the body during a session and, if need be, acts in its name during a recess. Every month during the course of a session the entire membership of the Chamber is divided by lot into eleven other bureaus of equal size. These bureaus meet from time to time separately to examine the credentials of members, to give formal consideration to bills which have not yet been referred to a committee, and, most important of all, to select one of their number to serve on each of the committees of the Chamber. In the case of very important committees, the bureaus may be instructed by the Chamber to designate two members, or even three, each. Thus, the Budget Committee contains three represent- atives of each bureau. This committee and another constituted to audit the accounts of the Government are created for a year. Others serve a single month. Theoretically, indeed, every measure is referred to a committee constituted specifically for the purpose; but practically the consequence of such a procedure would be confusion so gross that the greater committees, as those on labor, railways, and the army, are allowed to acquire some substantial measure of permanence. Committee positions are quite generally objects of barter on the part of party groups and leaders. 1 364. Procedure. Immediately upon assembling, each of the chamoers validates the elections of its own members, chooses its bureau of presi- dent, vice-presidents, secretaries, and questors, and adopts its own rules of procedure. At an early date the premier communicates orally a "ministerial declaration," in which are outlined the policies to which the Government is committed ; and certain of the measures therein pro- posed are likely to take precedence in the ensuing deliberations. The hall in which each body sits is semi-circular, with as many seats and desks as there are members to be accommodated. In the centre stands a raised arm-chair for the use of the president, and in front of it is a platform, or "tribune," which every member who desires to speak is required to mount. On either side of the tribune are stationed stenog- raphers, whose reports of the proceedings are printed each morning in the Journal Officiel. The first tier of seats in the semi-circle, facing the tribune, is reserved for the Government, i. e., the members of the ministry; behind are ranged the remaining members of the Chamber, with the radicals on the president's left and the conservatives on his right. Of the bureaus into which, at the beginning of each month, the mem- bers of each chamber are divided, there are, as has been said, eleven in 1 A. de la Berge, Les grands comit6s parlementaires, in Revue des Deux Mondes, Dec. i, 1889. PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE POLITICAL PARTIES 327 the Deputies; in the Senate there are nine. When a bill is introduced it is referred first of all to these bureaus, each of which designates one or more commissioners, who, acting together as a committee, are expected to make a careful examination of the measure. The report of this committee is printed and distributed, whereupon general discussion begins in the chamber. Every measure must pass two readings in each chamber, with an interval of five days, unless otherwise ordered by a majority vote. A member wishing to take part in the debate indicates his desire by inscribing his name on lists kept by the secretaries. On the motion of any member, the closure may be applied and a vote ordered. The division may be taken by a show of hands, by rising, or by a ballot in which a white voting paper denotes an affirmative, and a blue one a negative, vote. Voting by proxy, long permitted, has been recently abolished. No decision is valid unless an absolute majority of the members (151 in the Senate and 299 in the Deputies) has partici- pated in the vote. In the upper branch proceedings are apt to be slow and dignified; in the lower they are more animated, and not infre- quently tempestuous. The duty of keeping order at the sittings falls to the president. In aggravated cases he is empowered, with the consent of a majority of the chamber, to administer a reprimand carry- ing with it temporary exclusion from the sessions. 1 365. Powers and Functions: the National Assembly. Speaking broadly, the functions of the French chambers are three-fold constit- uent, elective, and legislative. The first two are required to be exercised by the two houses conjointly. By the constitutional law of February 25, 1875, there is provided the only means whereby the constitution of the Republic may be amended. "The chambers," it is stipulated, "shall have the right by separate resolutions, taken in each by an absolute majority of votes, either upon their own initiative or upon the request of the President of the Republic, to declare a revision of the constitu- tional laws necessary. After each of the two chambers shall have come to this decision, they shall meet together in National Assembly to pro- ceed with the revision. The acts affecting revision of the constitutional laws, in whole or in part, shall be passed by an absolute majority of the members composing the National Assembly." 2 The power of con- stitutional amendment is therefore vested absolutely in the parliamen- 1 A. P. Usher, Procedure in the French Chamber of Deputies, in Political Science Quarterly, Sept., 1906; J. S. Crawford, A Day in the Chamber of Deputies, in Gunton's Magazine, Oct., 1901; M. R. Bonnard, Les modifications du reglement de la Chambre des Deputes, in Revue du Droit Public, Oct.-Dec., 1911. The standard treatise on French parliamentary procedure is J. Poudra et E. Pierre, Traite" pratique de droit parlementaire, 8 vols. (Versailles, 1878-1880.) 2 Art. 8. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 288. 328 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE tary chambers, under the requirement simply that it be exercised in joint session. The only limitation that has been imposed on parlia- mentary omnipotence in this direction is a clause adopted in an amend- ment of August 13, 1884, to the effect that "the republican form of government shall not be made the subject of a proposed revision." l As in the British system, constituent and legislative powers are lodged in the same body of men; and not merely the powers of constitution- making, but the exclusive right to pronounce upon the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of legislation. The principal difference is that, whereas the British Parliament exercises the sum total of its powers hi an unvarying manner, the French, when acting in its constituent capacity, follows a specially designed procedure. One other function the two chambers sitting conjointly possess, i. e., that of electing the President of the Republic. Under normal con- ditions, the chambers are called together in National Assembly to choose a President one month or more before the expiration of the seven-year presidential term. In the event of vacancy by death, by resignation, or by reason of any other unanticipated circumstance, the meeting of the Assembly takes place forthwith, without summons. 2 Election is by ballot, and by absolute majority of the members. All meetings of the National Assembly are held, not in Paris, but in the old royal palace at Versailles, which indeed was the sole seat of the present republican government until 1879. No elective session may exceed in length the five months allotted to an ordinary legislative session. 356. Legislation and Special Powers. The two chambers possess concurrent powers in all that pertains to the initiation, the enactment, and the amending of laws, save that money bills must be introduced in and passed by the Chamber of Deputies before being considered in the upper branch. Except for this limitation, measures may be pre- sented in either house, by the ministers in the name of the President, or by private members. The vast fabric of Napoleonic law which has survived to the present day hi France has narrowed perceptibly the range of legislative activity under the Republic. During the first generation after 1871 few great statutes were enacted, save those of a constitutional character. In our own day, however, the phenomenal expansion of social and industrial legislation, which has been a striking feature of the public life of most European nations, has imparted a new vigor and productiveness to French parliamentary activity. Each of the chambers possesses certain functions peculiar to itself. As i Aside from the initiation of money bills, the principal such function 1 Art. 8. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 294. 1 Law of July 16, 1875, art. 3. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, L, 291 PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE POLITICAL PARTIES 329 of the DepiUies is the bringing of charges of impeachment against the President of ^ministers. The Senate possesses the exclusive power to try cases of impeachment. It is given the right to assent or to withhold its assent when the President proposes to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies before the expiration of its term. And by decree of the Pres- ident, issued in the Council of Ministers, it may be constituted a court of justice to try any person accused of attempts upon the safety of the state. 1 II. POLITICAL PARTIES SINCE 1871 367. Republicans and Conservatives. In its larger aspects the alignment of political parties in France to-day dates from the middle of the nineteenth century. In the National Assembly of 1848 the first representative body elected in France by direct universal suffrage the line was sharply drawn between the republicans of the Left, who wished to maintain the Republic and with it a liberal measure of democracy, and the reactionaries of the Right, who began by insist- ing upon a restoration of clerical privilege and bourgeois rule and ended, in the days of the Legislative Assembly, by clamoring for a restoration of monarchy itself. After the coup d'etat of 1851 both groups were silenced, though even in the politically stagnant era of the early Empire they did not lose altogether their identity. With the re- vival, however, after 1860, of a vigorous political life the two worked together, and with success, to accomplish the overthrow of the personal government of Napoleon III. Upon the collapse of the Empire in 1870 the original cleavage reappeared. The National Assembly elected in 1871 was divided broadly into Republicans and Conservatives (which name gradually replaced that of Reactionaries), and dur- ing the five years covered by the life of this extremely important body these two great groups struggled continuously over the supreme question of the day, i. e., the style of government which should be adopted permanently for France. Each of the groups comprised a variety of elements. To the Republicans belonged the Radical Ex- treme Left of Gambetta, the Left of Grevy, Freycinet, and Loubet, and the Centre Left of Thiers and Jules Simon. To the Conservatives belonged the Legitimate Extreme Right, an Orleanist Centre Right, and, eventually, the Imperialists. Following the definite establish- ment, in 1875, of the republican constitution, the lines by which these various elements had been marked off grew less distinct, and Republi- cans and Conservatives acquired in each case a more homogeneous character. 1 Y. Guyot, Relations between the French Senate and Chamber of Deputies, in Contemporary Review, Feb., 1910. 330 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 368. Rise of the Radicals. After the first election under the new constitution that of 1876 the Senate remained in the control of the Conservatives, but the Chamber of Deputies was found to contain a Republican majority of more than two to one. From that day until the present the Republican ascendancy in the lower house has been maintained uninterruptedly; and since 1882 there has been likewise always a Republican majority in the Senate. It is to be observed, of course, that Republican control in both chambers has meant regularly not the absolute dominance of a single compact party group, but the preponderance of a coalition of two or more groups broadly to be described as "republican." During the early eighties there sprang up a flourishing group which, reviving the original programme of Gambetta, assumed the name Radical, and in the elections of 1885 this group acquired such a quota of seats in the Chamber (150) as to render it impossible for the Republicans alone to retain control. Thereafter there were three principal party groups the Conserva- tives and the two republican groups, the Republicans proper and the Radicals. No one of the three being sufficiently strong to obtain a majority which would enable it to rule alone, the politics of a long succession of years turned upon the adoption of one or the other of two lines of tactics the coalition of the two republican divisions to the end that they might rule as against a Conservative minority (the so- called policy of "republican concentration"), and the allying of one of these groups with the Right against the other Republican group (spoken of commonly as a "pacification"). The first " concentration " ministry was that of Brisson, formed in March, 1885; the first "pacifi- cation" ministry was that of Rouvier, formed in 1887. In the middle of the nineties some attempts were made to create and maintain homo- geneous ministries. The Bourgeois ministry of 1895-1896 was com- posed entirely of Radicals and the Meline ministry of 1896-1898 of Moderate Republicans. But at the elections of 1898 the Repub- lican position in the Chamber broke down and it was neces- sary to return, with the Dupuy ministry, to the policy of con- centration. Meanwhile, in the early nineties, from the Conservative and Repub- lican extremes respectively had been detached two new party groups. From the ranks of the Conservatives had sprung a body of Catholics who, under papal injunction, had declared their purpose to rally to the support of the Republicans; whence they acquired the designation of the "Rallies." And from the Radical party had broken off a body of socialists of such consequence that in the elections of 1893 it succeeded in carrying fifty seats. PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE POLITICAL PARTIES 331 359. The Bloc. A new era in the history of French political parties was marked by the elections of May, 1898. Some 250 seats, and with them the effectual control of the Chamber, were acquired by the Radi- cals, the Socialists, and an intermediary group of Radical-Socialists. The Moderate Republicans, to whom had been given recently the name of Progressives, were reduced to 200; while the Right retained but 100. The Socialists alone polled nearly twenty per cent of the total popular vote. The remarkable agitation by which the Dreyfus affair was attended had the effect of consolidating further the parties of the Left, and the bloc which resulted not only has subsisted steadily from that day to the present but has controlled very largely the policies of the government. The first conspicuous leader and spokesman of the coalition was Waldeck-Rousseau, premier from 1899 to 1902, and its first great achievement was the separation of church and state, accom- plished through the means of the Law of Associations of July i, 1901, the abrogation of the Concordat, December 9, 1905, and the law of January 2, 1907, restricting further the privileges of the Roman Catholic Church in France. A socialist now appeared for the first time in the cabinet. At the elections of April, 1902, the policies of the Government were vindicated by the return of 321 avowed " ministerialists" and of but 268 representatives of the opposi- tion. 360. The Elections of 1906. June 3, 1902, the longest-lived min- istry since the Third Republic was established was brought to an end by the voluntary retirement of Waldeck-Rousseau. The new premier, Combes, was a member of the Radical party, and the anti-clerical, radical policies of the preceding government were maintained through- out the ensuing two and a half years, as also they were during the premiership of Rouvier (1905-1906). In March, 1906, a new ministry, in which Clemenceau was actual chief, was formed with the Radical Sarrien as premier, and at the elections which came two months later the groups of the Left won another signal victory. Prior to the bal- loting the majority in support of the radical policy of the Government bloc could muster in the Chamber some 340 votes; afterwards, it could muster at least 400. The Right retained its numerical strength (about 130), but the extreme Left made decided gains at the expense of the moderates, or Progressives. The number of Progressive seats, 120 prior to the election, was reduced by half; while the aggregate of Socialist and Radical-Socialist seats rose to 230. On all sides Moderate Republicanism fell before the assaults of Socialism. At the same time it was demonstrated unmistakably that the anti-clerical measures of the recent governments were in substantial accord with the 33 2 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE will of the nation. October 25, 1906, Clemenceau assumed the pre- miership. 361. The Elections of 1910. The Clemenceau ministry, which survived until July, 1909, adopted a programme which was more frankly socialistic than was that of any of its predecessors. It added to the system of state-owned railways the Great Western Line; it inaugurated a graduated income tax and put the measure in the way of enactment at the hand of the Chamber; it carried fresh and more rigcrous legislation in hostility to clericalism; and, in general, it gave free expression to the unquestionable trend of the France of to-day away from the individualism of the Revolutionary period in the direction of the ideals of collectivism. The Briand ministry by which it was succeeded followed in the same lines, three of its members, indeed, being active socialists. Prior to the elections of April-May, 1910, there took place some readjustment of political forces, but, on the whole, no change of large importance. The bloc, however, more than once showed signs of breaking up, and the majority of the party groups arrived at the electoral season devoid of harmony and paralyzed by uncertainty of policy. The Radicals were divided upon the ques- tion of the income-tax; the Socialists, upon the question of the party's attitude toward trade-unions; and all parties, upon the issue of pro- portional representation. That the voters were no less bewildered than were the party leaders appeared from the fact that in 231 con- stituencies almost an unprecedented number 1 second ballotings were required. With the issues so confused, the results could hardly prove of large significance. The lines which separate party groups to-day in France are not infrequently both ill-defined and shifting, with the consequence that it is not possible to express party strength by exact numbers, as may be done in the case of the parties of Great Britain or of the United States. A deputy may even belong to two groups at one time. The composition of the Chamber following the elections of 1910 can be stated, therefore, only approximately. Com- posing the Right were (i) the Right proper, 19; (2) the Action Liberale Populaire organized originally to combat the radicalism of Waldeck- Rousseau, 34; (3) the Progressives, now to be identified with the Right, 76 a total of 129. Identified with the Left were (i) the Republicans, 73; (2) the Radicals, 112; and (3) the Radical-Socialists, 149 a total of 334. Comprising the Extreme Left were the Socialists (Independent 30; Unified, 75), aggregating 105. Finally, of Independents there were upwards of 20. The continued preponderance of the Left was assured, although to prolong their mastery of the situation the Rad- 1 Absolutely so, save for the scnUin de liste election of 1885. PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE POLITICAL PARTIES 333 icals and Radical-Socialists fell under the necessity of securing the support of either the Republicans or the Independent Socialists. 1 362. Changes since 1871. "The political history of France since the beginning of the Republic," says a scholarly French observer, "presents, instead of an alternation between two parties of opposing programmes, like those of Belgium or England, a continual evolution along one line, the constant growth of the strength of parties which represent the democratic, anti-clerical tendency." 2 The fundamental division of Conservative and Republican persists, but both of these terms have long since lost their original definiteness of meaning. The Conservatives have ceased, in large part, to be "reactionaries." Few of them are even royalists, and the old distinction of Legitimist, Orleanist, and Bonapartist has disappeared entirely. The Right is essentially "republican," as is evidenced by the further fact that the majority of its members in the Chamber are Progressives, whose forerunners composed the real Republican party of a generation ago. The Republican groups of to-day comprise simply those numerous and formidable political elements which are more republican that is to say, more radical than are the adherents of the Right. Among themselves, however, they represent a very wide gradation of rad- icalism. 363. French Socialism. The history of socialism in France since 1871 has been stormy. During the seventies proselyting effort was directed chiefly toward the influencing of the trade-unions to declare for socialism. In 1879 the general trade-union congress at Marseilles took the desired step, but in the congress of the following year at Havre there arose a schism between the " collectivists " and the "co- operatives " which in reality has never been healed. During the eight- ies and nineties the process of disintegration continued, and there came to be a half-dozen socialist parties, besides numerous local groups of independents. During the years 1898-1901 continued effort was made to bring the various socialist elements into some sort of union, and in 1900 a national congress of all French socialist parties 1 The political history of the period since the elections of 1910 has been remarkable by reason chiefly of the absorption of public attention by the issues of electoral reform and labor legislation. Embarrassed by interpellations with reference to its ecclesiastical policy, the Briand ministry (reconstituted in November, 1910) re- tired in February, 1911. The Monis government which succeeded lacked coher- ence, as also did the ministry of Caillaux (June, 1911 to January, 1912). The cardinal achievement of the Poincare" ministry has been the carrying of the Elec- toral Reform Bill of 1912 in the lower chamber. See p. 323. 2 C. Seignobos, The Political Parties of France, in International Monthly, Aug., 1901, 155- 334 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE and organizations was held at Paris. An incident of the Dreyfus con- troversy was the elevation of an independent socialist, Etienne Mill- erand, to a portfolio in the ministry of Waldeck-Rousseau, and this event became the occasion of a new socialist breach. The Parti Social- ist Francais, led by the elequent Jaures, approved Millerand's op- portunism; the Parti Socialist de France opposed. In 1905, however, these two bodies were amalgamated in the Parti Socialist of the pres- ent day, with a programme which calls for the socializing of the means of production and exchange, i. e., the transforming of the capitalistic organization of society into a collectivist or communistic organization. The means by which the party proposes to bring about the transforma- tion is the industrial and political organization of the working classes. In respect to its aim, its ideals, and its means, the French Socialist party, while ready to support the immediate reforms demanded by laboring people, is to a greater degree than the German Social Democ- racy a party of class struggle and revolution. In 1885, when the French socialists waged their first campaign in a parliamentary elec- tion, the aggregate number of socialist votes was but 30,000. By 1889 the number had been increased to 120,000; by 1898 to 700,000; and by 1906 to 1,000,000. At the election of 1910 the popular vote was in- creased by 200,000, and the number of socialist deputies was raised to a total of 105. Within recent years socialism, formerly confined almost wholly to the towns and cities, has begun to take hold among the wage-earners, and even the small proprietors, in the rural portions of the country. 1 1 The best accounts in English of the French parties and party system are Lowell, Governments and Parties, I., Chap. 2; Bodley, France, Book IV., Chaps. 1-8; and C. Seignobos, The Political Parties of France, in International Monthly, Aug., 1901. The last-mentioned is brief, but excellent. A valuable work is P. Laffitte, Le suffrage universel et la regime parlementaire (2d ed., Paris, 1889). Among useful articles may be mentioned: J. Meline, Les partis dans la republique, in Revue P'olitique et Parlementaire, Jan., 1900; M. H. Doniol, Les idees politiques et les partis en France durant le XIX. e siecle, in Revue du Droit Public, May-June, 1902; and A. Charpentier, Radicaux et socialistes de 1902 a 1912, in La Nouvelle Revue, May i, 1912. On socialism in France see J. Peixotto, The French Revolution and Modern French Socialism (New York, 1901); R. T. Ely, French and German Socialism in Modern Times (New York, 1883); P. Louis, Histoire du socialisme francais (Paris, 1901); E. Villey, Les perils dela democratic francaise (Paris, 1910); and A. Fouillee, La democratic politique et sociale en France (Paris, 1910). CHAPTER XVIII JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT I. FRENCH LAW The law of France is of highly composite origin. Its sources lie far back in the Roman law, the canon law, and the Germanic law of the Middle Ages. As late as 1789 there had been no attempt at a complete codification of it. Under the operation of a succession of royal ordi- nances, criminal law, civil and criminal procedure, and commercial law, it is true, had been reduced by the opening of the Revolution to a reasonable measure of uniformity. The civil law existed still, however, in the form of "customs" (coutumiers) , which varied widely from province to province. A code of civil law which should be established uniformly throughout the realm was very generally demanded in the cahiers of 1789, and such a code was specifically promised in the con- stitution of 1791 364. The Code Napoleon. Toward the work of codification some beginnings were made by the first two Revolutionary assemblies, but the development of a coherent plan began only with the Convention. 1 In the period of the Consulate the task was continued and progress was rapid. The governmental mechanism under the constitution of 1799 was cumbersome enough, but it was not ill adapted to the pros- ecution of a project of this particular character. To a special commis- sion, appointed by the First Consul, was intrusted the drafting of the codes, and the ultimate decision of difficult or controverted questions fell to the Council of State, over whose deliberations Na- poleon not infrequently presided in person. March 31, 1804, less than two months before the proclamation of the Empire, the new Code civil des Franqais was promulgated in its entirety. Septem- ber 3, 1807, the instrument was given officially the name of the Code Napoleon. By a measure of 1818 the original designation was restored; but a decree of March 27, 1852, revived the Napoleonic nomenclature. Since September 4, 1870, the instrument has been cited officially simply as the Code Civil. In arrangement the Code resembles the Institutes of 1 H. Cauvifcre, L'idee de codification en France avant la redaction du Code Civil (Paris, 1911). 335 336 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Justinian. In content it represents a very successful combination of the two great elements with which the framers had to deal, i. e., the ancient heterogeneous law of the French provinces and the law which was originated, or which was given shape, during the course of the Revolution. With the progress of time certain defects have appeared in the Code, and since 1871 more than a hundred modifications, some important and some otherwise, have been introduced in it. Upon the occasion of the celebration, in 1904, of the centenary of its promulgation there was created an extra-parliamentary commission charged with the task of preparing a revision of the instrument. 1 In the main, the faults to be corrected are those which have arisen inevitably from the growth of new interests and the development of new conditions since 1804, in respect, for example, to insurance and to labor. In Belgium the Code Napol6on survives to this day, and the codes of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland, and many of the Latin American states are mod- elled upon it. 365. Other Codes. Aside from the Civil Code of 1804, containing an aggregate of 2,281 articles, the larger part of the law of France to- day is comprised in four great codes, all drawn up and promulgated during the era of the Consulate and the Empire. These are: (i) the Code of Civil Procedure, of 1,042 articles, in 1806; (2) the Code of Commerce, of 648 articles, in 1807; (3) the Code of Criminal Instruc- tion, of 648 articles, in 1808; and (4) the Penal Code, of 484 articles, in i8io. 2 The last two codes were submitted to a general revision in 1832, and various supplementary codes, e. g., the Forest Code, of 226 articles, in 1827, have been promulgated. But the modifications introduced since Napoleon's day have involved principally mere de- tails or the addition of subjects originally omitted. No one of the codes represented at the time of its promulgation a new body of law. On the contrary, all of them, and especially the fundamental Civil Code of 1804, merely reduced existing law to systematic, written form, intro- ducing order and uniformity where previously there had been diversity and even chaos. By the process the law of France was given a meas- ure of unity and precision which it had never before possessed, with the disadvantage, however, that it lost the flexibility and dynamic character that once had belonged to it. Throughout the past hundred years the whole of France has been a country of one written law a 1 The task of revision has not yet been accomplished. See La Code Civil, livre du centenaire (Paris, 1904) a volume of valuable essays by French and foreign lawyers. 2 M. Leroy, Le centenaire du code pe"nal, in Revue de Paris, Feb. i, 1911. JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 337 law so comprehensive in both principles and details that, until com- paratively recently, there has seemed to be small room or reason for its modification. The history of French parliamentary assemblies has been affected perceptibly by the narrowing of the field of legisla- tion arising from this circumstance. 1 II. THE COURTS 366. The Ordinary Courts : Justice of the Peace. In French prac- tice the distinction which is drawn between private law and public law is so sharp that there have been built up two hierarchies of courts the ordinary and the administrative each of which maintains practically exclusive jurisdiction within an independent field. The ordinary courts comprise civil and criminal tribunals, together with certain special tribunals, such as the tribunaux de commerce. At the bottom stands the court of the justice of the peace (juge de paix) of the canton. This tribunal was created by the first of the Revolutionary assemblies and it has existed continuously to the present day. The justice of the peace takes cognizance of disputes where the amount involved does not exceed 600 francs, and of contraventions of law punishable by a fine not exceeding fifteen francs or imprisonment not beyond five days. In civil cases involving more than 300 francs, and in criminal cases involving imprisonment or a fine exceeding five francs, appeal lies to a higher tribunal. 367. The Courts of First Instance. Next above the court of the justice of the peace stands the tribunal de premiere instance, or tribunal d'arrondissement. Of such courts there is, with a few excep- tions, one in each arrondissement or district. Each consists of a president, at least one'vice-president, and a variable number of judges, three of whom form a court with full powers. To each is attached a procureur, or public prosecutor. This tribunal takes cognizance of all kinds of civil cases. In appeals from the justices of the peace, actions relating to personal property to the value of 1500 francs, actions relating to land to the value of sixty francs per year, and all cases of registration, there lies no appeal from its de- cisions. The jurisdiction of the court in penal cases extends to all offenses of the class known as delits (misdemeanors), i. e., offenses involving penalities which are heavier than those attached to the contraventions dealt with by the justices of the peace, yet less serious than those prescribed for crimes. When sitting as a criminal court, *J. Brissaud, History of French Private Law, trans, by R. Howell (Boston, 1912). 338 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the court of first instance is known as a tribunal correctionnel, or " cor- rectional court." All of its judgments in criminal cases are subject to appeal. 368. The Courts of Appeal and of Assize. Above the courts of first instance are twenty-six cours d'appel, or courts of appeal, each of which exercises jurisdiction within a territory comprising from one to five departments. At the head of each is a president, and each maintains an elaborate parquet, or permanent staff of officials, in which are included several procureurs-generaux and awcats- generaux. For the transaction of business the court of appeal is divided into chambers, or sections, each consisting of a president and four conseillers, or judges. The primary function of the court is the hearing of appeals, in both civil and criminal causes, from the courts of first instance. Original jurisdiction is limited and incidental. Closely related to the courts of appeal are the cours d'assises, or courts of assize. These are not separate or permanent tribunals. Every three months there is constituted in each department, ordi- narily in the chief town thereof, a court of assize consisting of a specially designated member of the court of appeals within whose jurisdiction the department lies and two other magistrates, who may be chosen either from the remaining conseillers of the court of appeals or from the justices of the local court of first instance. The courts of assize are occupied exclusively with serious offenses, such as in the Penal Code are classified as crimes. In them, and in them only among French tribunals, is the device of the jury regu- larly employed. A jury consists of twelve men, whose verdict is rendered by simple majority. As in Great Britain and some of the American states, the jurors determine the fact but do not apply the law. 369. The Court of Cassation. At the apex of the hierarchy of ordinary tribunals is the Court of Cassation. This court sits at Paris, and in all matters of ordinary private law it is the supreme tribunal of the state. It consists of a first president, three sectional presidents, and forty-five judges. Attached to it are a procurator-general and six advocates-general. For working purposes it is divided into three sections : the Chambre des Requetes, or Court of Petitions, which gives civil cases a preliminary hearing; the Civil Court, which gives them a final consideration; and the Criminal Court, which disposes of criminal cases on appeal. It is within the competence of the Court of Cassation to review the decisions of any tribunal in France, save those of an administrative character. It passes, not upon fact, but upon the principles of law involved and upon the competence of the court rendering the original decision. A decision which is overruled JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 339 is said to be casse, i. e., annulled. The purpose of the Court of Cassa- tion is not alone to further the interests of justice, but also to pre- serve the unity of French jurisprudence. 370. Appointment and Tenure of Judges. All judges attached to the ordinary tribunals are appointed by the President of the Re- public, on the recommendation, and under the responsibility, of the Minister of Justice. With the exception of justices of the peace in France, and of judges of all grades hi Algeria and the colonies, tenure of judicial office continues during good behavior; and, outside of the classes mentioned, no judicial officer may be dismissed without the consent of the Court of Cassation. There is, however, an age limit, varying with the official grade, at which retirement is expected and virtually required. Justices of the peace and Algerian and colonial judges may be dismissed by the President. Salaries range from 1,600 francs per year in the case of the justice of the peace to 30,000 in that of the President of the Court of Cassation. 1 371. Administrative Law and Administrative Tribunals. Actions at law arising out of the conduct of administration are brought, not in the regular courts connected with the Ministry of Justice, but in special administrative tribunals connected with the Ministry cf the Interior. Administrative courts exist for the application of ad- ministrative law, and administrative law may be defined in brief as that body of legal principles by which are determined the status and liabilities of public officials, the rights and liabilities of private individuals in their dealings with the official representatives of the state, and the procedure by which these rights and liabilities may be enforced. The idea underlying it is that the government, and every agent of the government, possesses a body of rights, privileges, and prerogatives which are sharply marked off from those of the private citizen, and that the nature and extent of these rights and privileges are to be determined on principles essentially distinct from those which govern in the fixing of the rights and privileges of citizens in relation one to another. This conception is foreign to the English- speaking world, and neither Great Britain nor any nation of English origin possesses more than here and there an accidental trace of ad- ministrative law. Among continental European states, however, the maintenance cf a body of administrative legal principles un- 1 The best treatise upon the French judicial system and upon proposed reforms of it is J. Coumoul, Trait6 du pouvoir judiciaire; de son r61e constitutionnel et de sa re'forme organique (2d ed., Paris, 1911). See Vicomte d'Avenel, La re'forme administrative la justice, in Revue des Deux Mondes, June i. 1889; L. Irwell, The Judicial System of France, Green Bag, Nov.. 1002. 340 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE codified and flexible, but fundamental is all but universal. In some states, as Belgium, the rules of administrative law are inter- preted and enforced by the ordinary courts; but in others, as in France, they are dealt with by an entirely separate hierarchy of tribunals, made up of officials in the service of the government and dismissable at any time by the head of the state. "In France," as one writer puts it, "there is one law for the citizen and another for the public official, and thus the executive is really independent of the judiciary, for the government has always a free hand, and can violate the law if it wants to do so without having anything to fear from the ordinary courts." 1 Although not without precedent in the Old Regime, the distinction between ordinary and administra- tive law in France was first clearly established by Napoleon in the constitution of 1799, and the system of administrative courts erected under that instrument has survived in large part to the present day. 2 372. The Council of State. The most important of the administra- tive tribunals is the Cornell d'Etat, or Council of State, a body which once possessed large functions of an executive and legislative character, but whose influence to-day arises almost exclusively from its supreme administrative jurisdiction. The Council of State is composed of 32 councillors en service ordinaire, 19 councillors en service extraordinaire (Government officials deputed to guard the interests of the various executive departments), 32 maitres des requetes, and 40 auditors. All members are appointed by, and dismissable by, the President. For purposes of business the body is divided into four sections, each corre- sponding to a group of two or three ministerial departments, and a fifth section which deals more directly with questions of administrative law. It is the function of the Council to consider and make reply to all questions relating to administrative affairs which the Government may lay before it; and in all administrative cases at law it is the court of last resort. Below it stands, in each department, a conseil de prefecture, or prefectural council, which is the court of first instance in all litigation arising out of the application of administrative law. A specialized function of the prefectural council is the determining of the validity of arrondissement and municipal elections. 3 1 Lowell, Governments and Parties, I., 58. 2 It need hardly be explained that the First Consul's intention was that the or- dinary judges should not be allowed to obstruct by their decisions the policies of the government. 3 For an account of the administrative law of France see A. V. Dicey, The Law of the Constitution (yth ed., London, 1908), Chap. 12. Important French works on the subject include H. Barth61emy, Traite" elementaire de droit administratif (5th ed., Paris, 1908); H. Chardon, L'administration de la France, les fonction- JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 341 373. Other Courts. Between the hierarchy of ordinary courts and that of administrative tribunals stand a variety of courts of special character courts of commerce, courts of accounts, courts of public instruction. There is a Tribunal des Conflits, or Court of Conflicts, composed of the Minister of Justice, three members of the Court of Cassation, three of the Council of State, and two elected by these seven. Under the presidency of the Minister of Justice, it determines, in the event of doubt or dispute, the competent jurisdiction, ordinary or ad- ministrative, to be extended to a particular case. Finally the fact may be recalled that to take cognizance of attacks upon the safety of the state, as well as for the trial of an impeachment proceeding, the Senate may be constituted a high court of justice. III. LOCAL GOVERNMENT: DEVELOPMENT SINCE 1789 374. Stability of Local Institutions. Students of political science are familiar with the fact that governmental systems are, as a rule, less stable at the top than at the bottom. Local institutions, embedded in the interests of the community and supported by the native conserva- tism of the ordinary man, strike root deeply; the central, national agencies of law-making and of administration are played upon by larger, more unsettling forces, with the consequence of greatly increased likelihood of change. Of this principle the history of modern France affords notable illustration. Throughout a century of the most remark- able instability in the organization of the central government of the nation the scheme of local government which operates at the present day has been preserved almost intact. The origins of it, it is true, are to be traced to revolution. In most of its essentials it was created by the National Assembly of 1789 and by Napoleon, and it rose upon the wreck- age of a system whose operation had been extended through many centuries of Capetian and Bourbon rule. Once established, however, it proved sufficiently workable to be perpetuated under every one of the governmental regimes which, between 1800 and the present day, have filled their successive places in the history of the nation. 376. Local Government Under the Old Regime. Prior to the Revolu- tion the French administrative system was centralized and bureaucratic, but heterogeneous and notoriously ineffective. The provinces had naires Paris, 1908); G. Jeze, Les principes gen6raux du droit administratif (Paris, 1904) ; and J. L. Aucoc, Conferences sur 1 'administration et le droit administratif (3d ed., Paris, 1885). Mention may be made also of E. J. Laferridre, Trait6 de la juris- diction administrative et des recours contentieux (Paris, 1887-1888), and Varagnac, Le Conseil d'fitat et les projets de rforme, in Rewt des Deux Mondes, Aug. 15, and Sept. 15, 1892. 342 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE ceased almost completely to be political units. In but few of them did the ancient assembly of the estates survive, and nowhere did it possess more than merely formal administrative powers. The "governments" of later times, corresponding roughly to the provinces, had fallen like- wise into desuetude and the governors had become inactive pensioners. Of political units possessing some vitality there were but two the generality and the commune. The generalite was the jurisdiction of a royal officer known as an intendant, to whom was assigned the conduct of every kind of administrative business. The number of generalites in the kingdom varied from thirty to forty. The commune was an irre- ducible local unit whose history was unbroken from the era of Roman dominion in Gaul. Its constitution in the eighteenth century was in appearance democratic. To the communal assembly belonged all persons who were liable to the taitte, and this body elected communal officers, cared for communal property, and regulated local affairs. In point of fact, however, the measure of real independence which the assembly enjoyed was meager. The intendant dictated or controlled virtually its every act. Of true local government it may be said that in pre-revolutionary France there was little or none. 1 376. The Reconstitution of 1789-1791. One of the earlier perform- ances of the National Assembly of 1789 was to sweep away relentlessly the administrative system of the Old Regime and to substitute therefor an order which was all but entirely new. The communes, to the number of upwards of forty-four thousand, were retained. But the provinces and the generalites were abolished and in their places was erected a system of departments, districts, and cantons. For historic boundary lines, physical demarcations, and social cleavages only incidental al- lowance was made. Eighty-three departments in all were created. In each there were, on an average, six or seven districts, and in each of these an average of eight or nine cantons. The cantons, in turn, were made up of widely varying numbers of communes. The most striking aspects of the system were its symmetry and its detachment from history and tradition. Departments, districts, and cantons presented, and were intended to present, a tabula rasa upon which the law-makers of France might impress any pattern whatsoever. For the time being the ideal of democracy was predominant, and by the measures of 1789, re-enforced by the constitution of 1791, the entire administration of local affairs was transferred at a stroke from the agents of the crown to the elected representatives of the new governmental 1 A. Babeau, La ville sous Pancien r6gime (Paris, 1880); A. Luchaire, Les com- munes franchises (Paris, 1890); H. Barth61emy, Trait6 de droit administratif ($th ed., Paris, 1908); A. Esmein, Histoire du droit Irancais (8th ed., Paris, 1908). JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 343 units. In the department was established an administrative group consisting of thirty-six persons, elected for a term of two years, and divided into an executive directory of nine and a deliberative council of twenty-seven. In the district was established a similar, but smaller, elective directory and council, and in the commune provision was made for the election, under a broadly democratic franchise, of a mayor and a council. The canton was not employed for administrative purposes. 1 377. The Revival of Centralization, 1795-1800. Experience proved that in the direction both of democracy and of decentralization the re- formers had gone too far. With the re-establishment of order following the close of the Revolution proper, in 1795, there was revived the rule of official experts, together with the maintenance over the local adminis- trative organs of a highly centralized supervision. The Constitution of the Year III. (1795), while perpetuating the elective principle in respect to local officers, replaced the commune by the canton as the basal administrative unit and made provision in a variety of ways for the effective control of local affairs by the national Directory. 2 Under the Napoleonic regime, established in 1799-1800, the centralizing process was carried yet further. The canton was reduced to the status of a judicial district and the commune was restored as the basal adminis- trative unit; 3 but it was stipulated that the mayor, the adjoints, or deputies, and the council of the commune should be no longer elective, but should be appointed by the central government, directly or by its departmental agents. By law of February 17, 1800, there was estab- lished in each department a prefect, appointed by the First Consul, responsible only to him, and endowed with functions scarcely less com- prehensive than, in the days of the Old Regime, had been those exer- cised by the intendant. The general council of the department was perpetuated, but its sixteen to twenty-four members were henceforth to be named for a term of three years by the First Consul. Each de- partment, furthermore, was divided for administrative purposes into arrondissements, within each of which were established a sub-prefect and a council of eleven members, likewise appointive. The arrondisse- rnent represented substantially a revival of the district, established by law of December 22, 1789, and extinguished by the constitution of 1795. The sub-prefect served as a local deputy of the prefect, and one 1 For the text of the De"cret sur les Municipality's of December 14, 1789, see He"lie, Constitutions, 59-72. An English version is in Anderson, Constitutions, 24-33. 2 Anderson, Constitutions, 233-236. The canton, suppressed by law of June 26, I 793> was now revived. 8 The number of communes was reduced at this time from 44,000 to 36,000. 344 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of his principal duties was to assist in the continuous and close super- vision of the affairs of the communes within his jurisdiction. 1 378. From Napoleon to the Third Republic. The Napoleonic ad- ministrative system simple, symmetrical, bureaucratic, and ab- solutely centralized has persisted in France, in a large measure, to the present day. 2 The most important modifications that have been introduced in it are those which have arisen from a cautious revival of the elective principle in the constitution of the various local govern- mental bodies. The fall of Napoleon brought no change of consequence, and none ensued until after the revolution of 1830. In the days of the Orleanist monarchy, however, the rigor of the Napoleonic system was in some measure relaxed. A law of 1831 made the municipal council elective, one of 1833 did the same thing for the councils of the depart- ment and the arrondissement, and both measures established a fairly liberal arrangement in respect to the local franchise. In 1838 the powers of the two councils were materially increased. 3 At the establishment, in 1848, of the Second Republic, the essen- tials of the administrative system then prevailing were retained. It was enacted merely that the various councils should be elected on a basis of manhood suffrage, and that in communes of fewer than six thousand inhabitants the council should be permitted to elect the mayor and the deputies, while in the larger ones appointment should be made as heretofore by the central authorities. With the conversion, in 1851- 52, of the Second Republic into the Second Empire, this decentralizing tendency suffered a distinct check. Throughout the reign of Napoleon III. the communal council continued to be elected, at least nominally, upon the principle of manhood suffrage; but so throughgoing was the prefectorial supervision that there remained to the councils very little of initiative or independence of action. Even the privilege which the smaller communes possessed of choosing their own mayors was speedily lost, while by a decree of March 25, 1852, the powers of the prefect in 1 Anderson, Constitutions, 283-288. G. Alix, Les engines du syst&ne adminis- tratif francais, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, July-Nov., 1899. 2 Its influence upon the administrative systems of other countries Belgium, Italy, Spain, and even Greece, Japan, and various Latin American states has been profound. "Judged by its qualities of permanence and by its influence abroad, the law of 1800 is one of the best examples of Bonaparte's creative statesmanship, taking rank with the Code and with the Concordat among his enduring non- military achievements. If, in the nineteenth century, England has been the mother of parliaments and has exercised a dominant influence upon the evolution of na- tional governments, France has had an equally important rdle in moulding systems of local administration among the nations." Munro, Government of European Cities, 7. 3 The texts of these acts are in He"lie, Constitutions, 1019-1050. JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 345 communal affairs were substantially extended. Many matters per- taining to departmental and communal interests which this official had been accustomed to refer to the authorities at Paris he was now author- ized to dispose of at his own discretion. Throughout the Second Empire the prefect, more truly than ever before, was the pivot of the adminis- trative system. Despite the survival of elective councils in the depart- ments, the arrondissements, and the communes, local autonomy all but disappeared. 379. Changes Under the Third Republic. Upon the establishment of the Third Republic the Napoleonic system was discontinued in only some of its more arbitrary aspects. The National Assembly of 1871 revived tentatively the scheme laid down in the constitution of 1848, save that once again the councils of smaller communes were authorized to elect the mayors and deputies. Even at such a time of unsettlement, when the liberal elements were insistent upon changes that were funda- mental, there was slender indication of any real desire on the part of the French people for an essentially decentralized administrative regime. At the most, the demand was but for the autonomy of the commune, while the canton, arrondissement, and department should continue to be administered by, and largely in the interest of, the national govern- ment. By law of March 28, 1882, the demand in behalf of the communes was met. Upon every commune, large and small (except Paris), was conferred the privilege of choosing freely its entire quota of adminis- trative officials; and in the great municipal code of April 5, 1884, drafted by a commission of nine constituted in the previous year, this privilege, with others, was specifically guaranteed. 1 Departments and arrondisse- ments, however, continued to be primarily spheres within which the general government, acting through its own agents, brought home im- mediately to the people the reality and comprehensiveness of its author- ity. And to this day France presents the curious spectacle of a nation broadly democratic in respect to its constitution and central government, yet more closely bound by a hard and fast administrative regime than any other principal state of western Europe. 2 1 Text in J. Duvergier, Collection complete des lois, de*crets, ordonnances, re"gle- ments, avis du conseil d'6tat (Paris, 1834-1907), LXXXIV., 99-148. 2 On the French administrative system two admirable general works are H. Barthe'lemy, Trait6 de droit administratif (5th ed., Paris, 1908), and A. Esmein, Histoire du droit francais (8th ed., Paris, 1908). An older treatise of value is E. Monnet, Histoire de Padministration provincial, de"partementale et communale en France (Paris, 1885). Three works in which the subject is dealt with in a com- parative fashion are P. P. Leroy-Beaulieu, Administration locale en France et en Angleterre (Paris, 1872); P. W. L. Ashley, Local and Central Government (London, 1906); and F. J. Goodnow, Comparative Administrative Law (2d ed., New York, 346 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE IV. LOCAL GOVERNMENT TO-DAY 380. The Department: the Prefect. For administrative purposes, the Republic is divided, first of all, into 86 departments, besides which there is the "territory" of Belfort, a remnant of the department of the Upper Rhine, most of which was acquired by Germany in 1871. Since 1 88 1 the three departments of Algeria have been dealt with substan- tially as if included within continental France. At the head of each of the departments is a prefect, appointed and removed nominally by the President of the Republic, but in reality by the Minister of the Interior. The prefect, who is much the most important of all local officials, is at the saine time an agent of the general government and the executive head of the department in the administration of local affairs. As agent of the general government he acts, in some instances, upon detailed instructions; in others, he enjoys a wide range of discretion. His powers extend to virtually all public matters affecting the department. He supervises the execution of the laws; maintains a vigorous control over all administrative officials of the department, upon occasion annulling their acts; gives the authorities at Paris information and advice respecting the affairs of the department; nominates to a variety of subordinate offices; exer- cises an oversight of the communes, some of whose measures become effective only after receiving his assent; and, in certain instances indicated by law, acts as a judge. He is assisted by a secretary and a conseil de prefecture, appointed by the President. This prefectorial council, consisting of from three to nine members, advises the prefect and, in certain cases, exercises jurisdiction as an administrative tri- bunal. The prefect is essentially a political official. He owes his ap- pointment not infrequently to political considerations, and with the fall of the ministry his tenure is apt to be terminated. 381. The Department: the General Council. As executive head of the department the prefect is required to work with a conseil general, or representative assembly, elected by the inhabitants of the depart- ment on a basis of manhood suffrage. This council comprises one member chosen in each canton for a period of six years, half of the number retiring every three years. The actual powers of the body are not large. Aside from the apportioning of the direct taxes among the arrondissements, they are restricted pretty generally to the admin- istration of highways, canals, schools, asylums, and similar interests. 1903). A study of some value is J. T. Young, Administrative Centralization and Decentralization in France, in Annals ofAmer. Acad. of Political and Social Science t Jan., 1898. JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 347 Questions of a political nature or of a national bearing are rigorously excluded from consideration. The council has but two ordinary sessions a year one extending through not more than fifteen days, the other not more than a month. The longer begins regularly in August and is devoted to the consideration of the budget. During the intervals between sessions the council is represented by a commission departementale, or permanent delegation, of from four to seven mem- bers. Neither the council nor the delegation possesses any considerable measure of control over the prefect. The council's acts may be vetoed by the President of the Republic, and, except when the national parlia- ment is in session, the body may be dissolved by the same power. The department is an essentially artificial political unit. During the century and a quarter of its existence it has not become indeed has been prevented deliberately from becoming a sphere of forceful, independent governmental activity. 1 382. The Arrondissement and the Canton. Next to the depart- ment stands the arrondissement, or district, created originally in 1799. Within the bounds of France there are to-day 362 of these districts. Except those in the department of the Seine, and three containing the capitals of departments elsewhere, each has in its chief town a sub- ^ prefect, who serves as a district representative of the prefect. Every jf^ one has a conseil d' arrondissement, or arrondissement council, con- - sisting of at least nine members, elected by manhood suffrage for a v term of six years. But since the arrondissement has no corporate * personality, no property, and no budget, the council possesses but a single function of importance, that, namely, of allotting among the communes their quotas of the taxes assigned to the arrondissement by 1 An administrative reform which appears not infrequently in current political discussion in France is the grouping of the departments into "regions" possessing a certain community of character and interest. Each of a score or more of regions might conceivably be made to have an assembly of its own, and within each of them one of the departmental prefects might be given a certain superiority over his colleagues. The principal purpose would be to offset somewhat the nation's present excess of administrative centralization. On this proposal see C. Beauquier, Un pro jet de reforme administrative; 1'organisation regionale en France, in Revue Politique et Parlementaire, Nov. 10, 1909. Cf. A. Brette, La r6forme des departe- ments a propos d'une proposition de loi, ibid. On the department as at present constituted the monumental treatise is G. Bouffet et L. Pe"rier, Trait6 du de"parte- ment, 2 vols. (Paris, 1894-1895). In M. Laferriere, Loi organique de"partementale du 10 Aout 1871 (Paris, 1871) is an annotated copy of the organic statute of ^871. See also G. Dethan, De 1'organisation des conseils ge'ne'raux (Paris, 1889); A. Nectoux, Des attributions des conseillers gene"raux (Paris, 1895); and P. Chardenet, Les 61ec- tions dSpartementales (Paris, 1895). An excellent brief statement will be found in M. Block, Dictionnaire de 1'administration francaise ($th ed., Paris and Nancy, 1905), I., 933-948, 1101-1116. 348 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the general council of the department. The arrondissement is, how- ever, the electoral district for the Chamber of Deputies, and also nor- mally the seat of a court of first instance. 1 The canton is an electoral and a judicial, but not strictly an admin- istrative, unit. It is the area from which are chosen the members of both the departmental general council and the council of the arron- dissement, and it constitutes the jurisdiction of the justice of the peace. The total number of cantons is 2,911. As a rule each con tarns about a dozen communes, though a few of the larger communes are so populous as to be divided into a number of cantons. 383. The Commune. The most fundamental of the administrative divisions of France, and the only one whose origins antedate the Revolution, is the commune. The commune is at the same time a territorial division and a corporate personality. "On the one hand," to employ the language of a recent writer, "it is a tract of territory the precise limits of which were denned by the law of December 22, 1789, or by some subsequent law or decree; for by the law of 1789 all local units which had a separate identity during the old regime were author- itatively recognized as communes, and since that enactment there have been a number of suppressions, divisions, consolidations, and creations of communal units. On the other hand, the commune is an agglomeration of citizens united by life in a common locality and hav- ing a common interest in the communal property. A commune ranks as a legal person: it may sue and be sued, may contract, acquire, or convey property, it may, in general, exercise all of the ordinary rights of a corporation." 2 Of communes there are, in all, under the territorial land survey of 1909, 36,229. In both size and population they vary enormously. Some comprise but diminutive hamlets of two or three score people; others comprise cities like Bordeaux, Lyons, and Marseilles, each with a population in excess of a quarter of a million. At the last census 27,000 communes had a population of less than one thousand; 17,000, of less than five hundred; 9,000, of less than three hundred; 137, of less than fifty. On the other hand, 250 contained each a population of more than ten thousand, and fourteen of more than one hundred thousand. In area they vary all the way from a few acres to the 254,540 acres of the commune of Aries. 3 384. The Communal Council. Except Paris and Lyons, all com- munes are organized and governed in the same manner. In each 1 Block, Dictionnaire de Padministration francaise, I., 256-260. 2 Munro, Government of European Cities, 15. 3 A. Porche, La question des grandes et des petits communes (Paris, 1900). JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 349 is a council, whose members are elected by manhood suffrage and, normally, on the principle of the scrtUin de liste, for a term of four years. The body is renewed integrally, on the first Sunday in May in every fourth year. In communes whose population is under five hun- dred the number of councillors is ten; in those whose population ex- ceeds five hundred the number is graduated on a basis such that a commune of sixty thousand people has a council of thirty-six, which is the maximum. The council holds annually four ordinary sessions in February, May, August, and November besides which special meetings may be convoked at any tune by the prefect, the sub-prefect, or the mayor. Sessions are held in the mairie, or municipal building, and are regularly open to the public. Except the May session, during which the budget is considered, a meeting may not be prolonged be- yond fifteen days, save with the consent of the sub-prefect. The normal maximum of the May sitting is six weeks. Speaking broadly, the functions of the council may be said to com- prise the administration of the purely local affairs of the commune and the formulation and expression of local needs and demands. In the code of 1884 the powers of the body are defined with exceeding minute- ness. Some are purely advisory, to be exercised when the council is called upon by the higher administrative authorities for an expression of local interest or desire in respect to a particular question. Advice thus tendered may or may not be heeded. Other powers involve the initiation by the council of certain kinds of measures, which, however, may be carried into effect only with the assent of the higher author- ities. Among the thirteen such measures which are enumerated in the code the most important are those pertaining to the purchase, sale, or other legal disposition of property belonging to the commune. Finally, there is a group of powers relating principally to the various communal services, e. g., parks, fire-protection, etc. which are vested in the communal authorities (council and mayor) independently. But the predominating fact is that even to-day the autonomy of the com- mune is subject to numerous and important limitations. Many com- munal measures become valid only upon receiving the approval of the prefect, and virtually any one of them may be suspended or annulled by that official. Some require the consent of the departmental council, or even of the President of the Republic; and by decree of the President the council itself may be dissolved at any time. 386. The Mayor and his Assistants. The executive head of the commune is the maire, or mayor, who is elected by the municipal council, by secret ballot, from its own membership, for a term of four years. Associated with the mayor is, in communes of 2,500 inhabitants 350 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE or fewer, an adjoint, or assistant, similarly chosen. In communes of 2,500 to 1 0,000 inhabitants there are two assistants, and in those of over 10,000 there is an additional one for every 25,000 people in excess of the figure named. Except in Lyons, however, where there are seventeen, the number may not exceed twelve. The mayor plays the dual role of executive head of the commune and representative (though not the appointee) of the central government. The powers which he exercises vary widely according to the size and importance of the commune. But in general it may be said that he appoints to the majority of municipal offices, publishes laws and decrees and issues arretes, or ordinances, supervises finance, organizes and controls the local police, executes measures for public health and safety, safeguards the prop- erty interests of the commune, and represents the commune in cases at law and on ceremonial occasions. The functions of the mayoral office are in practice distributed by the mayor among the assistants, to each of whom is assigned a specific department, such as that of streets, of sanitation, or of fire-protection. As a rule, the mayor reserves to himself the control of police. For the acts of the assistants, however, the mayor is directly responsible, and all acts, whether of the mayor or of the assistants, which relate to the interests of the general government are performed under the strictest surveillance of the prefectorial authorities. The mayor may be sus- pended from office for a month by the prefect, or for three months by the Minister of the Interior; and he may be removed from office al- together by order of the President. Despite the restrictions which are placed upon it, the commune remains the true focus of local life in France. 1 Its activities, on a suffi- 1 Among general treatises on the French commune may be mentioned M. Block, Entretiens sur 1'administration; la commune (Paris, 1884); L. Bequet, Traite" de la commune (Paris, 1888); P. Andre and F. Marin, La loi sur 1'organisation munic- ipale du 5 avril 1884 (Paris, 1884); and F. Grelot, Loi du 5 avril 1884 (Paris, 1889). The best and most recent extensive work is L. Morgand, La loi municipale, 2 vols. (;th ed., Paris, 1907). The most convenient brief discussion in French is in Block, Dictionnaire de l'administration francaise, L, 738-852. In English a good descrip- tion is in A. Shaw, Municipal Government in Continental Europe (New York, 1897), and a fuller and more recent one in W. B. Munro, The Government of European Cities, 1-108. On municipal elections the best work is M. J. Saint-Lager, Elections municipales (6th ed., Paris, 1904). Worthy of mention are Chardenet, Panhard, and Gerard, Les elections municipales (Paris, 1896), and J. Dorlhac, De I'electorat politique: 6tude sur la capacite electorate et les conditions d'exercise du droit de vote (Paris, 1890). An excellent study is P. Lavergne, Du pouvoir central et des conseils municipaux, in Revue Gtnirale d' Administration, 1900. See also A. G. Desbats, Le budget municipal (Paris, 1895); M. Peletant, De 1'organisation de la police (Dijon, 1899); and R. Griffin, Les biens communaux en France (Paris, 1899). JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 351 ciently petty scale though they not infrequently are, run the gamut of finance, commerce, industry, education, religion, and politics. So strong is the communal spirit that public sentiment will acquiesce but rarely in the suppression of a commune, or even in the union of two or more diminutive ones; and, in truth, the code of 1884 recognized the fixity of communal identity by permitting changes of communal boundaries to be undertaken by the departmental authorities only after there shall have been held an enquete and local susceptibilities shall have been duly consulted. Save by special decree of the Presi- dent of the Republic, not even the name of a commune may be altered. On the government of Paris the reader may be referred to G. Artigues, Le regime municipal de la ville de Paris (Paris, 1898), and M. Block, L' Administration de la ville de Paris et du d6partement de la Seine (Paris, 1898). Excellent bibliographies art printed in Munro, op. cit., 380-389, and in Block, Dictionnaire, L, 850-852. PART IV. ITALY CHAPTER XIX CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY I. THE ERA OF NAPOLEON 386. Italy in the Later Eighteenth Century. The dominant forces in the politics of Europe since the French Revolution have been the twin principles of nationality and democracy; and nowhere have the fruits of these principles been more strikingly in evidence than in the long disrupted and misgoverned peninsula of Italy. The awaken- ing of the Italian people to a new consciousness of unity, strength, and aspiration may be said to date from the Napoleonic invasion of 1796, and the first phase of the Risorgimento, or "resurrection," may, therefore, be regarded as coincident with the era of French domination, i. e., 1796-1814. At the opening of this period two non-Italian dynasties shared the dominion of much the larger portion of Italy. To the Austrian Hapsburgs belonged the rich duchies of Milan (including Mantua) and Tuscany, together with a prepon- derating influence in Modena. To the Spanish Bourbons belonged the duchy of Parma and the important kingdom of Naples, includ- ing Sicily. Of independent states there were six the kingdom of Sardinia (comprising Piedmont, the island of Sardinia, and, nominally, Savoy and Nice), where alone in all Italy there lingered some measure of native political vitality; the Papal States; the petty monarchies of Lucca and San Marino; and the two ancient republics of Venice and Genoa, long since shorn of their empires, their maritime power, and their economic and political importance. All but universally absolu- tism held sway, and in most of the states, especially those of the south, absolutism was synonymous with corruption and oppression. 387. The Cisalpine Republic, 1797. During the two decades which comprehended the public career of Napoleon it was the part of the French to overturn completely the long existing political arrange- ment of Italy, to abolish altogether the dominion of Austria and to substitute therefor that of France, to plant -in Italy a wholly new and revolutionizing set of political and legal institutions, and, quite un- 353 354 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE intentionally, to fan to a blaze a patriotic zeal which through genera- tions had smouldered almost unobserved. The beginning of these transformations came directly in consequence of the brilliant Napo- leonic incursion of 1796. One by one, upon the advance of the victori- ous French, were detached the princes who, under English and Aus- trian tutelage, had been allied hitherto against France. The king of Naples sought an armistice; the Pope made peace; at Arcole and Rivoli the Austrian power was shattered. October 16, 1796, there was proclaimed, with the approval of the conqueror, a Cispadane Republic, including Modena, Reggio, Ferrara, and Bologna; and March 27, 1797, there was promulgated for the new state a constitu- tion which, after having been adopted by representatives of the four districts, had been ratified by a vote of the people. This constitution the first in the history of modern Italy was modelled immediately upon the French instrument of 1795. It provided for a legislative council of sixty members, with exclusive power to propose measures, another of thirty members, with power to approve or reject measures, and an executive directory of three, elected by the legislative bodies. In Lombardy a similar movement produced similar results. Through the spring and early summer of 1797 four commissions, constituted by Napoleon, worked out a constitution which likewise reproduced all of the essential features of the French model, and, July 9, the Transpadane Republic was inaugurated, with brilliant ceremony, at Milan. Provision was made for a directory and for two legislative councils consisting of one hundred sixty and eighty members respec- tively; and the first directors, representatives, and other officials were named by Napoleon. At the urgent solicitation of the Cispa- danes the two republics were united, July 15, and upon the com- bined commonwealth was bestowed the name of the Cisalpine Republic. 1 During the preceding May the venerable but helpless Venetian republic had been crushed, and when, in the treaty of Campo Formio, October 17, 1797, Austria was brought to the point of recognizing the new Cisalpine state, she was compensated in some degree by being awarded the larger part of the Venetian territories, including the city of Venice. 2 388. The Ligurian, Roman, and Parthenopaean Republics, 1797- 1799. In the meantime, in June, 1797, the ancient republic of Genoa had undergone a remodelling. The ruling oligarchy, driven from power by Napoleon, gave place to a democracy of a moderate ^he Cisalpine constitution was amended September i, 1798, when there was introduced in the republic the French system of administrative divisions. 2 E. Bonnal de Ganges, La chute d'une rpublique (Paris, 1885). ITALIAN CONSTITUTIONS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY 355 type, the legislative functions being intrusted to two popularly elected chambers, while the executive power was vested in a doge and twelve senators; and to the new commonwealth, French in all but name, was given the designation of the Ligurian Republic. The Ligurian con- stitution was accepted by the people December 2, 1797. During the winter of 1797-1798 the French Directory, openly hostile to the papacy, persistently encouraged the democratic party at Rome to overthrow the temporal power and to set up an independent republic. February 15, 1798, with the aid of French arms, the democrats se- cured the upper hand, assembled in the Forum, declared for the restoration of the Roman Republic, and elected as head of the state a body of seven consuls. The aged pontiff, Pius VI., was maltreated and eventually transported to France. For the new Tiberine, or Roman, Republic was promulgated, March 20, 1798, a constitution providing for the customary two councils a Senate of thirty members and a Tribunate of sixty and a directory, christened a consulate, consisting of five consuls elected by the councils. Within a twelve- month thereafter (January 23, 1799), following a clash of arms be- tween the French and the Neapolitan sovereign, Ferdinand IV., Naples was taken and the southern kingdom was converted into the Par- thenopaean Republic. A constitution was there promulgated providing for a directory of five members, a Senate of fifty, possessing exclusive right of legislative initiative, and a Tribunate of one hundred twenty. 1 389. Constitutional Revisions. During the absence of Napoleon on the Egyptian expedition the armies of France suffered repeated reverses in Italy, and by the end of 1799 all that had been gained for France seemed to be, or about to be, lost. By the campaign which culminated at Marengo (June 14, 1800), however, Napoleon not only clinched his newly won position in France but brought Italy once more to his feet. Under the terms of the treaty of Luneville (February 9, 1801) Austria recognized the reconstituted Cisalpine and Ligurian republics, while Modena and Tuscany reverted to French control, and French ascendancy elsewhere was securely established. September 21, 1802, Piedmont was organized in six departments and incorporated in the French Republic. During the winter of 1802-1803 the constitutions of the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics were remodelled in the interest of that same autocratic domination which already was fast ripening in France. In each republic were established at first three bodies an executive consulta? a legislature of 150 members, and a court which 1 For an interesting portrayal of the workings of republican idealism in the Neapolitan republic see Fisher, Republican Tradition in Europe, 150-157. 2 An advisory council of state, consisting of eight members. 356 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE were chosen by three electoral colleges comprising (i) the possidenti, or landed proprietors, (2) the dotti, or scholars and ecclesiastics, and (3) the commercianti, or merchants and traders; but the legislature could be overridden completely by the consulta, and the consulta was little more than the organ of Napoleon. Incidentally, the Cisalpine Re- public at this point was renamed the Italian Republic. Within a twelve- month the new constitutions, proving too democratic, were revised io such a manner that for the legislative body was substituted a senate of thirty members presided over by a doge, in which were concentrated all political and administrative powers. 390. The Kingdom of Italy (1805) and the Napoleonic Kingdom of Naples, 1807. The stipulation of the treaty of Luneville to the effect that the Italian republics should remain entirely independent of France was all the while disregarded. Politically and commercially they were but dependencies, and, following the proclamation of the French empire (May 18, 1804), the fact was admitted openly. To Napoleon it seemed incongruous that an emperor of the French should be a patron of re- publics. How meager was the conqueror's concern for the political liberty of the Italians had been demonstrated many times, never more forcefully than in the cynical treatment which he accorded Venice. No one knew better, furthermore, how ill-equipped were the Italians for self-government. Gradually, therefore, there was framed a project for the conversion of the Italian Republic into a kingdom which should be tributary to France. Napoleon's desire was that his eldest brother, Joseph, should occupy the throne of this kingdom. But Joseph, not caring to jeopardize his chances of succession in France, demurred, as did also the younger brother, Louis. The upshot was that by a con- stitutional statute of March 17, 1805, the Emperor caused himself to be called to the throne of Italy, and May 26 following, in the cathedral at Milan, he placed upon his own head the iron crown of the old Lombard kings. The sovereign's step-son, Eugene Beauharnais, was designated regent. In June of the same year, in response to a petition which Na- poleon himself had instigated, the Ligurian Republic was proclaimed an integral part of the French empire. The annexation of Parma and Piacenza promptly followed. Against the coalition of Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Naples, which was prompted immediately by the Ligurian annexation, Napoleon was completely successful. By the treaty of Pressburg (December 26, 1806) Austria ceded to the Italian kingdom her portion of Venetia, together with the provinces of Istria and Dalmatia. 1 Following a vigorous campaign conducted by Joseph Bonaparte, the restored Bour- 1 The incorporation of Dalmatia with the kingdom of Italy was but temporary., ITALIAN CONSTITUTIONS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY 357 bon family was driven again from Naples, whereupon Joseph allowed himself to be established there as king. In 1808 he was succeeded by Napoleon's ambitious marshal and brother-in-law Murat. From Bayonne, Joseph issued a constitution for his former subjects, pro- viding for a council of state of from twenty-six to thirty-six members and a single legislative chamber of one hundred members, of whom eighty were to be named by the king and twenty were to be chosen by electoral colleges. Not until 1815, however, and then but during the space of a few weeks, was this instrument actually in operation. 391. The End of French Dominance. Finally, there were brought under complete control the papal territories. Following prolonged friction with the Pope, Napoleon first of all (April 2, 1808) annexed to the kingdom of Italy the papal march of Ancona and the duchies of Urbino, Macerata, and Camerina, and then (by decrees of May 17, 1809, and February 17, 1810) added to the French empire Rome itself and the Patrimonium Petri. The Roman territory was divided into two departments, and in them, as in all of the Italian provinces which fell under Napoleon's rule, a thoroughgoing French system of law and administration was established. To all of the tributary districts alike were extended the Code Napoleon, and in them were organized councils, courts, and agencies of control essentially analogous to those which comprised the Napoleonic governmental regime in France. In them, likewise, were undertaken public works, measures for public education, and social reforms similar to those which in France consti- tuted the most permanent and the most beneficent aspects of the Na- poleonic domination. For the first time since the age of Justinian the entire peninsula was brought under what was in fact, if not in name, a single political system. If the rise of French power in Italy had been brilliant, however, the collapse of that power was speedy and complete. It followed hard upon Napoleon's Russian campaign and the defeat at Leipzig. The final sur- render, consequent upon Napoleon's first abdication was made April 16, 1814, by the viceroy Beauharnais, whereupon the Austrians resumed possession in the north, the Bourbons in the south, and the whole problem of permanent adjustment was given over to the congress of the powers at Vienna. 1 1 For brief accounts of the Napoleonic regime in Italy see Cambridge Modern History, IX., Chap. 14; B. King, A History of Italian Unity (London, 1899), I., Chap. i. Works of value dealing with the subject include P. Gaffarel, Bonaparte et les r6publiques italiennes, 1796-1799 (Paris, 1895); A. Dufourcq, Le regime jacobin en Italic, 1796-1799 (Paris, 190x3); F. Lemmi, Le origini del risorgimento italiano (Milan, 1906); G. Sabini, I primi esperimenti costituzionali in Italia, 1797- 358 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE II. THE RESTORATION AND THE REVOLUTION or 1848 392. Italy in 1816. By the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna, June 9, iSi^Ttaly^was remanded to a status such that the name of the peninsula could be characterized with aptness by Metternich as merely a geographical expression. In essentials, though not in all respects, there was a return to the situation of pre-Napoleonic times. When the bar- gainings of the diplomats were concluded it was found that there re- mained, in all, ten Italian states, as follows: the kingdom of Sardinia, Lombardo-Venetia, Parma, Modena, Lucca, Tuscany, Monaco, San Marino, the kingdom of Naples, and the States of the Church. To the kingdom of Sardinia, reconstituted under Victor Emmanuel I., France retroceded Nice and Savoy, and to it was added the former republic of Genoa. Lombardo-Venetia, comprising the duchy of Milan and all of the continental possessions of the former Venetian republic, including Istria and Dalmatia, was given into the possession of Austria. 1 Tuscany was restored to the grand-duke Ferdinand III. of Hapsburg-Lorraine; the duchy of Modena, to Francis IV., son of the archduke Ferdinand of Austria; Parma and Piacenza were assigned to Maria Louisa, daughter of the Austrian emperor and wife of Napoleon; the duchy of Lucca, to Maria Louisa of Bourbon-Parma. In the south, Ferdinand IV. of Naples, restored to all of his former possessions, was recognized under the new title of Ferdinand I. And, finally, Pope Pius VII., long held semi-prisoner by Napoleon at Fontainebleau, recovered the whole of the dominion which formerly had belonged to the Holy See. Respecting the entire arrangement two facts are obvious. The first is that there was not, in the Italy of 1815, the semblance, even, of national unity. The second is that the preponderance of Austria was scarcely less thoroughgoing than in Napoleon's time had been that of the French. Lombardo-Venetia Austria possessed outright; Tuscany, Modena, and Parma were ruled by Austrian princes; Ferdinand of Naples was an Austrian ally, and he had pledged himself not to in- troduce in his possessions principles of government incompatible with those employed by the Austrians in the north; while even Victor Emman- uel of Sardinia the only important native sovereign, aside from the Pope, in the peninsula was pledged to a perpetual Austrian alliance. 2 1815 (Turin, 1911); and R. M. Johnston, The Napoleonic Empire in Southern Italy, 2 vols. (London, 1904). An older work is E. Ramondini, L'ltalia durante la dominazione francese (Naples, 1882). 1 By decree of April 24, 1815, these territories were erected into a kingdom under Austrian control, though possessing a separate administration. 2 W. R. Thayer, The Dawn of Italian Independence, 2 vols. (Boston, 1893), L, 116-178. ITALIAN CONSTITUTIONS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY 359 393. Foreshadowings of Unity. "Italy," wrote Napoleon some time after his banishment to St. Helena, "isolated between her natural limits, is destined to form a great and powerful nation. Italy is one nation; unity of language, customs, and literature, must, within a period more or less distant, unite her inhabitants under one sole government. And, without the slightest doubt, Rome will be chosen by the Italians as their capital." 1 At the time when this prophecy was written the unification of Italy appeared, upon the surface, the most improbable . of events. It was, none the less, impending, and to it Napoleon must be adjudged to have contributed in no unimportant measure. In the words of a recent writer, "the brutalities of Austria's white coats in the north, the unintelligent repression then characteristic of the house of Savoy, the petty spite of the duke of Modena, the mediaeval ob- scurantism of pope and cardinals in the middle of the peninsula, and the clownish excesses of Ferdinand in the south, could not blot out from the minds of the Italians the recollection of the benefits derived from the just laws, vigorous administration, and enlightened aims of the great emperor. The hard but salutary training which they had undergone at his hands had taught them that they were the equals of the northern races both in the council chamber and on the field of battle. It had further revealed to them that truth, which once grasped can never be forgotten, that, despite differences of climate, character, and speech, they were in all essentials a nation." 2 It is not too much to say that Napoleon sowed the seed of Italian unity. 394. Attempted Revolution, 1820-1832. From 1815 to 1848 Austrian influence, shaped largely by Metternich, was everywhere reactionary, and during this prolonged period there was no government anywhere in Italy that was not of the absolutist type. No one of the states had a constitution, a parliament, or any vestige of popular political procedure. In July, 1820, Ferdinand of Naples was compelled by a revolutionary uprising to promulgate a constitution which was identical with that forced in the same year upon Ferdinand VII. of Spain. This ready-made instrument provided for a popularly elected parliament of one chamber, upon which were conferred large powers; a council of state composed of twenty-four members to advise the king; an independent judiciary; and a parliamentary deputation of seven members elected by the parlia- ment, whose duty it was, in the event of the dissolution of parliament, to safeguard the observance of the constitution. In March, 1821, revolution broke out in Piedmont and, after the mild-tempered king, 1 M. Cesaresco, The Liberation of Italy (London, 1895), 3. 2 J. Holland Rose, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, nth ed., XV., 48. See also Fisher, The Republican Tradition in Europe, 158-159. 360 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Victor Emmanuel, had abdicated in favor of his brother, Charles Albert, a temporary regent, the Prince of Carignano, under pressure, conceded to the people a replica of the Spanish fundamental law. In both Naples and Piedmont, however, the failure of the progressives was complete. The reformers proved to be lacking in unity of purpose, and when, under authorization of the greater continental powers, Austria inter- vened, every gleam of constitutionalism was promptly snuffed out. Similarly, in 1831-1832, there was in Modena, Parma, and the Papal States, widespread insurrection, and with rather more evidence of a growing national spirit; but again, with Austrian assistance, the out- breaks were suppressed. 1 395. The Revolution of 1848 and the New Constitutions. The turning point came with the great year ui revolution, 1848. During the thirties and forties, by public agitation, by the organization of Mazzini's "Young Italy," by the circulation of patriotic literature, and in a variety of other ways, the ground was prepared systematically for the risorgimento upon which the patriots and the prophets had set their hearts. In 1846 a liberal-minded pope, Pius IX., instituted a series of reforms, and the example was followed forthwith by the princes of Piedmont (Sardinia) and Tuscany. In January, 1848, revolution broke out afresh in Naples and within a month Ferdi- nand II. was obliged to yield to public demand for a constitution. The instrument, promulgated February 10, provided for a legislative body consisting of a chamber of peers, appointed by the king for life, and a chamber of deputies, elected by the people. February 15 the sovereign of Tuscany, Leopold II., granted to his subjects a constitu- tion of a similar character, making provision for a complete representa- tive system. February 5 the municipality of Turin, voicing a demand in which many of the nobility and high officials of state concurred, petitioned Charles Albert of Piedmont for the grant of a constitution. Three days subsequently, at the conclusion of a series of secret sessions of his council, the sovereign announced that "of his free and entire will" he believed the time to have come for an extension to his sub- jects of a full-fledged representative system of government, and March 4 there was promulgated a remarkable instrument the Statute fondamentale del Regno, modelled on the amended French Charter of 1830 which, with absolutely no modification of text, survives to the present day as the constitution of the Italian king- 1 Cambridge Modern History, X., Chap. 4; Johnston, Napoleonic Empire in Southern Italy, II., Chap. 4; Thayer, Dawn of Italian Independence, I., 215-278. ITALIAN CONSTITUTIONS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY 361 dom. 1 March 14 there was issued by the Pope an instrument known as the Statuto fondamentale del Governo temporale, by which were con- stituted two legislative bodies a high council and a chamber of depu- ties and a council of state, composed of ten members and twenty- four advisors, to which was committed the task of preparing measures. Bills passed by the parliament were to be submitted to the Supreme Pontiff, who, after their discussion in consistory, should extend to them, or withhold from them, final approval. Before the year was far advanced the news of the overthrow of Louis Philippe, of the uprising in Germany, and of the fall of Metternich plunged the whole of Italy afresh in insurrection. Under the pressure of popular demand the Pope and the King of Naples sent troops to aid the northern states in the liberation of the peninsula from Austrian des- potism, and for a time, under the leadership of the Piedmontese monarch, Charles Albert, all Italy seemed united in a broadly na- tionalistic movement. July 10 a new and extremely liberal constitu- tion was adopted by a constituent assembly in Naples, and, February 9, 1849, following a breach between the Pope and the Roman parliament, the temporal power of the papacy was once more swept away and Rome, under an appropriate constitution, was proclaimed a republic. 2 396. The Reaction. The reaction, however, was swift and seem- ingly all but complete. At the earliest possible moment the king of Naples withdrew from the war, revoked the constitution which he had granted, and put the forces of liberalism to rout. With the assistance of France, Austria, and Naples, the Pope extinguished the Roman republic and re-established in all of its vigor the temporal power. By Austrian arms one after another of the insurrectionary states in the north and center was crushed, and Austrian influence in that quarter rose to its former degree of ascendancy. Constitu- tionalism gave place to absolutism, and the liberals, disheartened and disunited, were everywhere driven to cover. Only in Piedmont, whose sovereign, after the bitter defeat at Novara, had abdicated in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel II. (March 23, 1849), was there left any semblance of political independence or civil liberty. 3 1 The nature of the governmental system provided in this instrument will be explained at length in the succeeding chapter. 2 G. Garavani, La costituzione della repubblica romana nel 1798 e nel 1849 (Fermo, 1910). 3 Elaborate accounts of the revolution of 1848 in Italy are contained in King, History of Italian Unity, I., Chaps. 9-19, and Thayer, Dawn of Italian Independ- ence, II., Bks. 4-5. A good brief account is Cambridge Modern History, XI., Chap. 4 (bibliography, pp. 908-913). A suggestive sketch is Fisher, Republican Tradition in Europe, Chap. 9. 362 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE HI. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF UNIFICATION 397. The Leadership of Piedmont. To all inducements to abrogate the constitution which his father had granted Victor Emmanuel continued deaf, and the logic of the situation began to point unmistak- ably to Piedmont as the hope of the patriotic cause. After 1848 the building of the Italian nation becomes, indeed, essentially the story of Piedmontese organization, leadership, conquest, and expansion. Victor Emmanuel, honest and liberal-minded, was not a statesman of the first rank, but he had the wisdom to discern and to rely upon the statesmanship of one of the most remarkable of ministers in the history of modern Europe, Count Cavour. When, in 1850, Cavour entered the Piedmontese ministry he"was known already as an ardent advocate of both constitutionalism and national unification, and after, in 1852, he assumed the post of premier he was allowed virtually a free hand in the prosecution of policies designed to contribute to a realization of these ends. The original purpose of the king and of his minister was to bring about the exclusion of Austrian influence from Italy and to organize the various states of the peninsula into a confederacy under the nominal leadership of the Pope, but under the real supremacy of the sovereign of Piedmont. Ultimately the plan was so modified as to contemplate nothing short of a unification of the entire country under the control of a centralized, national, tem- poral government. 398. The Annexations of 1859-1860. In 1855 Cavour signed an offen- sive and defensive alliance with France, and in 1859 Piedmont, with the connivance of her ally, precipitated war with Austria. According to an understanding arrived at by Cavour and the Emperor Napo- leon III. at Plombieres (June 20, 1858) Austria was to be expelled ab- solutely from Italian soil; Lombardo-Venetia, the smaller duchies of the north, the papal Legations, and perhaps the Marches, were to be annexed to Piedmont, the whole to comprise a kingdom of Upper Italy; Umbria and Tuscany were to be erected into a kingdom of Central Italy; the Pope was to retain Rome and Ferdinand Naples; and the four states thus constituted were to be formed into an Italian confederation. In the contest which ensued the Austrians were roundly defeated, but their only immediate loss was the ancient duchy of Lombardy. Despite Napoleon's boast that he would free Italy to the Adriatic, Venetia was retained yet seven years by the Hapsburgs. Under the terms of the treaty of Zurich (November 10), in which were ratified the preliminaries of Villafranca (July n), Lombardy was ITALIAN CONSTITUTIONS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY 363 annexed to Piedmont. Years before (June 8, 1848) a Lombard pleb- iscite upon the question of such annexation had brought out an affirmative vote of 561,002 to 68I. 1 The gain arising from the annexation of Lombardy was in a measure counterbalanced by the cession of Savoy and Nice to France, in con- formity with an agreement entered into before the war. In point of fact, none the less, the benefits which accrued to Piedmont from the Austrian war were enormous. Aroused by the vigor and promise of Piedmontese leadership, a large portion of central Italy broke into revolt and declared for union with Victor Emmanuel's dominion. In September, 1859, four assemblies, representing the grand-duchy of Tuscany, the duchies of Modena and Parma, and the Romagna (the northern portion of the Papal States), met at Florence, Modena, Parma, and Bologna, respectively, and voted unanimously for in- corporation with Piedmont. During March, 1860, the alternatives of annexation and independence were submitted to the choice of the inhabitants of each of these districts, all males of age being privileged to vote, with the result of an aggregate of 792,577 affirmative votes in a total of 807,502. Under authority conferred by the Piedmontese parliament the king accepted the territories, the formal proclamation of the incorporation of Parma, Modena, and the Romagna being dated March 18, and that of the incorporation of Tuscany, March 22. Dep- uties were elected forthwith to represent the annexed provinces, and April 2, 1860, the enlarged parliament was convened at Turin. Within the space of a year the population of the kingdom had been more than doubled. It was now 11,000,000, or approximately half of that of the peninsula. 399. Further Annexations: the Kingdom of Italy, 1861. Mean- while the programme of Cavour and the king had been broadened to comprise a thoroughgoing unification of the entire country. With amazing rapidity the task was carried toward completion- Aided by Garibaldi and his famous Thousand, the people of Sicily and Naples expelled their Bourbon sovereign, and, at the plebiscite of October 21, 1860, they declared, by a vote of 1,734,117 to 10,979, f r annexation to Piedmont. At the same time Umbria and the Marches were occupied by the Piedmontese forces, leaving to the Pope nothing save the Eternal City and a bit of territory immediately surrounding it. By votes of 97,040 to 380 and 133,077 to 1,212, respectively, these districts declared for annexation, and, December 17, 1860, a royal decree an- nounced their final incorporation, together with that of Naples. January 27, 1861, general elections were held, and, February 18, there 1 King, History of Italian Unity, II., Chap. 27. 364 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE was convened at Turin a new and enlarged parliament by which, March 18, was proclaimed the united Kingdom of Italy. Over the whole of the new territories was extended the memorable Statuto granted to Piedmont by Charles Albert thirteen years before, and Victor Emmanuel II. was acknowleged "by the grace of God and the will of the nation, King of Italy.' 7 1 400. The Completion of Unification, 186fcr.18.71. It remained but to consolidate the kingdom and to accomplish the annexation of the two Italian districts, Venetia and Rome, which were yet in foreign hands. Venetia was acquired in direct consequence of Italy's alliance with Prussia against Austria in 1866. A plebiscite of October 21-22, 1866, following the enforced cession of Venetia by Austria, October 3, yielded a vote of 647,246 to 47 for annexation. The union was sanc- tioned by a decree of November 4, 1866, and ratified by a law of July 1 8, 1867. The acquisition of Rome was made possible four years later by the exigencies of the Franco-German war. The conviction had been ripening that eventually Rome must be made the kingdom's capital, and when, in 1870, there was withdrawn from the protection of the papacy the garrison which France had maintained in Italy since 1849, the opportunity was seized to follow up fruitless diplomacy with military demonstrations. September 20 the troops of General Cadorna forced an entrance of the city and the Pope was compelled to capitulate. October 2 the people declared, by a vote of 133,681 to 1,507, for annexation; October 9 the annexation was proclaimed; and December 31 it was ratified by act of parliament. The guarantees of independence to be accorded the papacy were left to be determined in a subsequent statute. 2 By an act of February 3, 1871, the capital of the kingdom already, in 1865, transferred from Turin to Florence was removed to Rome; and in the Eternal City, November 27 follow- ing, was convened the eleventh parliament since the revolution of 1848, the fourth since the proclamation of the kingdom of Italy, the first since the completion of Italian unity. 3 1 King, History of Italian Unity, II., Chaps. 29-32. 2 The resulting measure, the Law of Papal Guarantees, was enacted May 13, 1871. Seep. 388. 3 For a brief account of the final stages in the unification of Italy see Cambridge Modern History, XI., Chaps. 14, 19. The best presentation of the entire subject is that in the two volumes of King, History of Italian Unity, 1814-1871. Other works of value are W. J. Stillman, The Union of Italy, 1815-1895 (Cambridge, 1898); J. Probyn, Italy, 1815-1890 (London, 1884); M. Cesaresco, The Liberation of Italy (New York, 1894); P. Orsi, LTtalia moderna (Milan, 1901); F. Bertolini, Storia dTtalia dal 1814 al 1878 (Milan, 1880-1881) ; and E. Sorin, Histoire de ITtalie depuis 1815 jusqu'a la mort de V. Emm. (Paris, 1910). Among biographies mention may ITALIAN CONSTITUTIONS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY 365 IV. THE CONSTITUTION 401. The Statute. The formal constitution of the kingdom of Italy to-day is the Statuto fondamentale del Regno granted March 4, 1848, by Charles Albert to his Piedmontese subjects. To each of the territories successively annexed to the Piedmontese kingdom this instrument was promptly extended, on the basis of popular ratifica- tions, or plebiscites; and when, in 1861, the kingdom of Piedmont was converted into the kingdom of Italy, the fundamental law, modified in only minor respects, was continued in operation. The Statuto was granted originally as a royal charter, and its author seems to have expected it to be final, at least until it should have been replaced as a whole by some other instrument. At the same time, there is little reason to doubt that from the outset there was contemplated the possibility of amendment through the agencies of ordinary legislation. In any case, there was put into the instrument no stipulation whatso- ever relating to its revision, and none has ever been added. Upon a number of occasions since 1861 possible modifications of the con- stitutional text have been suggested, and even debated, but no one of them has been adopted. But this does not mean that the constitutional system of Italy has stood all the while unchanged. On the contrary, that system has exhibited remarkable vitality, growth, and adaptive capacity. In Italy, as in other states the constitution as it exists in writing is supplemented in numerous important ways by unwritten custom, and Italian jurists are now substantially agreed that custom is legitimately to be considered a source of public law. 402. Legislative Amendment. A more important matter, however, is the extension and the readaptation of the constitution through par- liamentary enactment. In the earlier days of the kingdom there was a disposition to observe rather carefully in practice the distinction be- tween functions and powers of a legislative, and those of a constitu- tional, character. Gradually, however, the conviction grew that the be made of G. Godkin, Life of Victor Emmanuel II. (26 ed., London, 1880); M. Cesaresco, Cavour (London, 1898); D. Zanichelli, Cavour (Florence, 1905); B. King, Mazzini (London, 1902). A very valuable biography, which indeed com- prises virtually a history of the period 1848-1861, is W. R. Thayer, Count Cavour, 2 vols. (Boston, 1911). The monumental Italian work in the field is C. Tivaroni,, Storia critica del risorgimento italiano, 9 vols. (Turin, 1888-1897). The principal documentary collection is N. Bianchi, Storia documentata della diplomazia Europea in Italia dall' anno 1814 all' anno 1861, 8 vols. (Turin, 1865-1872). In- valuable are L. Chiala, Lettere del Conte di Cavour, 7 vols. (Turin, 1883-1887), and D. Zanichelli, Scritti del Conte di Cavour (Bologna, 1892). For full bibliography- see Cambridge Modern History, XL, 908-913. 366 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE constitutional system of the nation might be modified through the processes of ordinary legislation, and in Italy to-day the theory of parliamentary omnipotence is scarcely less firmly entrenched than it is in Great Britain. The parliamentary chambers have never directly avowed a purpose to amend a single article of the Statute, but nu- merous measures which they have enacted have, with clear intent, taken from the instrument at some points, have added to it at others, and have changed both its spirit and its application. Care has been exercised that such enactments shall be in harmony with the public will, and in practice they are rarely brought to a final vote until the country shall have been given an opportunity to pass upon them at a general election. What has come to be the commonly accepted doc- trine was stated forcefully, in the session of July 23, 1881, by Crispi, as follows: "I do not admit the intangibility of the Statuto. Statutes are made to prevent governments from retrograding, not from advanc- ing. Before us there can be nothing but progress. ... If we retain immutable the fundamental law of the state, we desire immobility, and should throw aside all advances which have thus far been made by the constituted authorities. I understand that in the Statute of Charles Albert nothing is said of revision, and this was prudent. But how should this silence be interpreted? It should be interpreted in the sense that it is not necessary to the Italian Constitution that a con- stituent assembly should be expressly convoked, but that Parliament in its usual manner of operation is always constituent and constituted. Whenever public opinion has matured a reform, it is the duty of Parlia- ment to accept it, even though the reform may bring with it the modifi- cation of an article of the Statuto" 1 It is in accord with the principles here enunciated that to mention but a few illustrations the law of December 6, 1865, regulating the organization of the judiciary, the Law of Papal Guarantees of 1871, and the measures of 1882 and 1895 overhauling and extending the franchise, were placed upon the stat- ute books. 403. Nature of the Constitution. The Statuto, in eighty-four articles, is an instrument of considerable length. It deals, successively, with the Crown, the rights and duties of citizens, the Senate, the Cham- ber of Deputies, the Ministers, the Judiciary, and matters of a miscel- laneous character. The bill of rights contained in Articles 24-32 guarantees to all inhabitants of the kingdom equality before the law, liberty of person, inviolability of domicile and of property, freedom of the press, exemption from non-parliamentary taxation and, with 1 Quoted by G. A. Ruiz, The Amendments to the Italian Constitution, in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Sept., 1895, 38. ITALIAN CONSTITUTIONS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY 367 qualifications, freedom of assembly. It is constantly to be borne in mind, however, that, so overlaid is the Statuto with statutory enact- ments and with custom, that one cannot apprehend adequately the working constitution of the kingdom to-day, in respect to either gen- eral principles or specific governmental organs, through an examination of this document alone. In the language of an Italian publicist, the Italian constitution no longer consists of the Statute of Charles Albert. This forms simply the beginning of a new order of things. Many in- stitutions have been transformed by laws, decrees, usages, and neglect, whence the Italian constitution has become cumulative, consisting of an organism of law grouped about a primary kernel which is the Statuto. 1 1 Ruiz, Amendments to the Italian Constitution, loc. cit., 57. The text of the Statuto appears in P. Coglio e Malchiodi, Codice Politico Amministrativo. Raccolta completa di tutte le leggi e regolamenti concernenti la pubblica amminis- trazione nei suoi rapporti politici e ammimstrativi (6th ed., Florence, 1907), and in V. Gioia, Le leggi di unificazione amministrativa precedute dalla legge fonda- mentale del regno, 2 vols. (Palermo, 1879). It is printed also in Lowell, Govern- ments and Parties, II., 346-354. There is a French version in F. R. Dareste, Les constitutions modernes, 2 vols. (Paris, 1883) I., 550-560. There is an English trans- lation in Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 5-16, and another, by S. M. Lindsay and L. S. Rowe, in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Nov., 1894. The Codice Politico Amministrativo contains a good collection of statutes, ordinances, and administrative regulations. The most comprehensive work on Italian constitutional law which has been written is F. Racioppi and I. Brunelli, Commento allo statute del regno, 3 vols. (Turin, 1909). Among other treatises the following are of principal value: G. Arangio Ruiz, Storia costituzionale del regno di Italia, 1848-1898 (Florence, 1898); E. Brusa, Das Staatsrecht des Konigreichs Italien (Leipzig, 1892), in Marquardsen's Handbuch; E. del Guerra, L'Amministrazione pubblica in Italia (Florence, 1893); and, for briefer treatment, G. Mosca, Appunti di diritto costituzionale (Milan, 1908) and I. Tambaro, II diritto costituzionale italiano (Milan, 1009). CHAPTER XX THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM I. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 404. Status of the Sovereign. The constitutional system of Italy comprises, according to the phraseology of the Statute, a " representa- tive monarchical government." The throne is hereditary, after the principle of the Salic Law; that is, it may be inherited only by and through males. Elaborate provision is made for the exercise of regal authority in the event of the minority or the incapacity of the sover- eign. During a minority (which terminates with the close of the king's eighteenth year) the prince who stands next in the order of succession, provided he be twenty-one years of age, is authorized to act as regent. In the lack of male relatives the regency devolves upon the queen-mother, and in default of a queen-mother the regent is elected by the legislative chamber. 1 Upon ascending the throne, the king is required to take an oath in the presence of the legislative chambers faithfully to maintain and observe the constitution of the realm. The monarch is declared to be sacred and inviolable in his person, and there is settled upon him a civil list of 16,050,000 lire, of which amount at present, however, the sum of one million lire is repaid annually to the state. Since 1870 the royal residence has been the Palazzo del Quirinale, a palace which for generations, by reason of its elevated and healthful situation, was much frequented by the popes. 406. Powers and Functions of the Crown. On paper, the powers of the crown appear enormous; in reality they are much less consider- able, as is inevitably the fact wherever monarchy is tempered by parliamentarism. In the king alone is vested, by the Statuto, the executive power, and to him alone this power, in theory, still belongs. The exercise of it, however, devolves almost wholly upon a group of ministers, who are responsible, not to the crown, but to the parliament. In no continental country has there been a more deliberate or a more unreserved acceptance of the essential principles which underlie the 1 Arts. 11-17. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 6* 368 THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM 369 parliamentary system of Great Britain. No one of the three sov- ereigns of united Italy has ever sought for an instant to establish any- thing in the nature of personal government. The principle that the ministry shall constitute the working executive, and that it shall be continually responsible to the lower chamber of Parliament, has been so long observed in practice that it is now regarded as an inflexible law of the constitution. Under these limitations, however, the king approves and promulgates the laws, grants pardons and commutes sentences, declares war, commands all military and naval forces, concludes treaties, issues ordinances, creates senators, and makes appointments to all offices of state. 1 By the Statute it is provided that treaties involving financial obligations or alterations of the territory of the state shall be effective only after receiving the sanction of the legislative chambers. In practice, treaties of all kinds are submitted regularly for such approval, save only such as comprise military conventions or foreign alliances. The power of the veto exists, but it is in practice never used. Rarely does the king attend the sessions of the cabinet, in which the policies of the government are discussed and its measures formulated and, save through the designation of the premier, in the event of a cabinet crisis, and within the domain of foreign relations, the royal power may be said to be brought to bear in direct manner upon the affairs of state only incidentally. As head of the nation, however, and visible token of its hard-won unification, the monarch fulfills a distinctly useful function. The reigning family, and especially the present sovereign, Victor Emmanuel III., is ex- tremely popular throughout the country; so that, although in Italy, as elsewhere among European monarchies, there is an avowed repub- lican element, there is every indication that royalty will prove an en- during institution. 406. The Ministry: Composition. From what has been said it follows that the ministry in Italy, as in Great Britain and France, constitutes the actual executive. Nominally it consists of heads of departments, although occasionally a member is designated without portfolio. Of departments there are at present eleven, as follows: Foreign affairs; War; Marine; the Interior; Finance; the Treasury; 2 Public Instruction; Public Works; Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs; Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture; and Posts and Telegraphs. Ordinarily the premier, or "president of the council," occupies the portfolio of the Interior. He is named by the king, and inasmuch as, 1 Arts. 5-8. Dodd, Modem Constitutions, II., 5. Dupriez, Les Ministres, I., 292-297. 2 Separated from Finance in 1889. 370 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE by reason of the multiplicity of Italian political parties, there is often no clearly distinguished "leader of the opposition," such as all but invariably stands ready to assume office in Great Britain, in the making of the appointment there is room for the exercise of consid- erable discretion. All remaining members of the ministry are desig- nated by the crown, on nomination of the premier. In accordance with the provisions of a law of February 12, 1888, each minister is assisted by an under-secretary of state. All ministers and under-secretaries possess the right to appear on the floor of either of the legislative chambers, and to be heard upon request; but no one of them is entitled to vote in either body unless he is a member thereof. 1 To be eligible for appointment to a port- folio or to an under-secretaryship it is not necessary that a man be a member of either chamber; but if an appointee is not in possession of such membership it is customary for him to seek the next seat that falls vacant in the Deputies, unless in the meantime he shall have been created a senator. In point of fact, the ministers are selected regularly from among the members of Parliament, and predominantly from the Chamber of Deputies. Only rarely has the premiership devolved upon a senator. Ministers of war and of marine, being chosen largely by reason of technical qualifications, are frequently members of the Senate by special appointment. 407. The Ministry: Organization and Functions. The internal organization of the ministry the inter-relations of the several depart- ments and the relations sustained by each minister with the premier are regulated largely by a decree of March 28, 1867, promulgated afresh, with minor modifications, August 25, 1876. Among matters which are required to be brought before the ministerial council are all projects of law which are to be submitted to the chambers, all treaties, all con- flicts of administrative jurisdiction, all proposals relating to the status of the Church, petitions from the chambers, and nominations of senators, diplomatic representatives, and a wide range of administrative and judicial functionaries. By law there is enumerated further an extended list of matters which must be brought to the ministry's attention, though action thereupon is not made compulsory; and the range of subjects which, upon the initiative of the premier or that of other ministers, may be submitted for consideration is left purposely without limit. It is the business of the premier to convoke the ministers in coun- cil, to preside over their deliberations, to maintain, in respect to both ad- ministrative methods and political policy, as large a measure of ministe- rial uniformity and solidarity as may be; and to require from time to time 1 Art. 66. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 13. THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM 371 from his colleagues full and explicit reports upon the affairs of each of the several departments. By reason, however, of the multiplicity of party groups in the chambers, the necessarily composite character politically of every cabinet, and the generally unstable political condition of the country, ministries rarely possess much real unity, and in the adminis- tration of the public business they are likely to be handicapped by internal friction. "The Italian ministry," says an able French writer, "is manifestly unable to fulfill effectively the three-fold purpose of a parliamentary cabinet. It exercises the executive power in the name, and under the authority, of the king; but it does not always know how to restrain Parliament within the bounds of its proper control, and it is obliged to tolerate the interference of deputies in the administration. Through the employment of the initiative, and of influence upon the acts of Parliament, it is the power which impels legislation; but not in- frequently it is lacking in the authority essential to push through the reforms which it has undertaken, and the Chamber evades easily its control. It seeks to maintain harmony between the two powers (execu- tive and legislative) ; but the repeated defeats which it suffers demon- strate to what a degree its work is impeded by the disorganization of parties." l For all of their acts the ministers are responsible directly to Parliament, which means, in effect, to the Chamber of Deputies; and no law or governmental measure may be put in operation until it has received the signature of one or more of the ministerial group, by whom responsibility for it is thereby explicitly assumed. 408. The Promulgation of Ordinances. The administrative system of Italy is modelled, in the main, upon that of France. In the effort to achieve national homogeneity the founders of the kingdom indulged to excess their propensity for centralization, with the consequence that Italy has exhibited regularly an admixture of bureaucracy and liberal- ism even more confounding than that which prevails in the French Republic. In theory the administrative system is broadly democratic and tolerant; in practice it not infrequently lends itself to the employ- ment of the most arbitrary devices. Abuse arises most commonly from the powers vested in the administrative officials to supplement legis- lation through the promulgation and enforcement of ordinances. By the constitution it is stipulated that the Executive shall "make decrees and regulations necessary for the execution of the laws, without suspend- ing their execution, or granting exemptions from them." 2 This power, however, in practice, is stretched even further than is the similar power of the Executive in France, and with the result not infrequently of the 1 Dupriez, Les Ministres, L, 291. 8 Art. 6. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 5. 372 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE creation of temporary law, or even the virtual negation of parliamentary enactment. Parliament is seldom disposed to stand very rigidly upon its rights; indeed, it sometimes delegates expressly to the ministry the exercise of sweeping legislative authority. The final text of the great electoral law of 1882, for example, was never considered in the chambers at all. After debating the subject to their satisfaction, the two houses simply committed to the Government the task of drawing up a per- manent draft of the measure and of promulgating it by executive decree. The same procedure has been followed in other fundamental matters. And not merely the ministers at Rome, but also the local administrative agents, exercise with freedom the ordinance-making prerogative. "The preference, indeed," as is observed by Lowell, "for administrative regulations, which the government can change at any time, over rigid statutes is deeply implanted in the Latin races, and seems to be especially marked in Italy." 1 II. PARLIAMENT: THE SENATE 409. Composition. Legislative power in Italy is vested conjointly in the king and Parliament, the latter consisting of two houses an upper, the Senato, and a lower, the Camera de ' Depulati. The Senate is composed entirely of members appointed for life by the crown. The body is no true sense a house of peers. Its seats are not hereditary and its members represent not alone the great proprietors of the country but a wide variety of public functionaries and men of achievement. In the making of appointments the sovereign is restricted by the necessity of taking all appointees from twenty-one stipulated classes of citizens, and it is required that senators shall be of a minimum age of forty years. The categories from which appointments are made including high ecclesiastics, ministers of state, ambassadors, deputies of prolonged service, legal and administrative officials, men who during as much as seven years have been members of the Royal Academy of Sciences or of the Superior Council of Public Instruction may be reduced, broadly, to three: (i) high officials of church and state; (2) persons of fame in science or literature, or who by any kind of serv- ices or merit have brought distinction to the country; and (3) persons who for at least three years have paid direct property or business taxes to the amount of 3000 lire ($600). The total number of members when the Statute was put in effect in 1848 was 78; the number in 1910 was 383. The last-mentioned number comprised the president of the 1 Lowell, Governments and Parties, L, 166. On the Italian executive see Dupriez, Les Ministres, I., 281-329. An essay of value is M. Caudel, Parlementarisme italien, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, Sept., 1900. THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM 373 Chamber of Deputies, 147 ex-deputies of six years' service (or men who had been elected to as many as three parliaments), one minister of state, six secretaries of state, five ambassadors, two envoys extraordinary, 23 officials of the courts of cassation and of other tribunals, 33 military and naval officials, eight councillors of state, 21 provincial functionaries, 41 members of the Royal Academy of Sciences, three members of the Superior Council of Public Instruction, two persons of distinguished services to the country, 71 payers of direct taxes in the amount of 3,000 lire, and 19 other scattered representatives of several categories. The absence of ecclesiastical dignitaries is to be accounted for by the rupture with the Vatican. The last members of this class to be named were appointed in 1866. 410. Legislative Weakness. The prerogative of senatorial appoint- ment has been exercised upon several occasions for the specific purpose of influencing the political complexion of the upper chamber. In 1886 forty-one appointments were made at one stroke; in 1890, seventy-five; and in 1892, forty-two. The Senate guards jealously its right to de- termine whether an appointee is properly to be considered as belonging to any one of the twenty-one stipulated categories, and if it decides that he is not thus eligible, he is refused a seat. But as long as the sovereign keeps clearly within the enumerated classes, no practical limitation can be placed upon his power of appointment. 1 In practice, appoint- ment by the king has meant regularly appointment by the ministry commanding a majority in the lower chamber; and so easy and so effective has proved the process of "swamping" that the legis- lative independence of the Senate has been reduced almost to a nullity. In general it may be said that the body exercises the function of a revising, but no longer of an initiating or a checking, chamber. During the period 1861-1910 the government presented in the Chamber of Deputies a total of 7,569 legislative proposals, in the Senate but 598; and the number of projects of law originated within the Senate during this same period was but thirty-nine. In volume and range of legislative activity the nominated senate of Italy is distinctly inferior to the elected senate of France. 2 411. Projected Reform. Within recent years there has arisen a persistent demand for a reform of the Senate, to the end that the 1 Of 1,528 appointments made between 1848 and 1910 but 63 were refuseci con- firmation by the Senate. 2 It is interesting to observe that, in the interest of governmental stability and permanence, Cavour favored the adoption of the elective principle in Italy. For illustrations of the weakness of the Italian Senate see C. Morizot-Thibault, Des droits des chambers hautes ou senats en matiere des lois de finance (Paris, 1891), 156-175- 374 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE body may be brought into closer touch with the people and may be restored to the position of a vigorous and useful second chamber. In the spring of 1910 the subject was discussed at some length within the Senate itself, and at the suggestion of the ministry a special commission of nine members was created to study "the timeliness, the method, and the extent " of the proposed reforms. December 5, 1910, this commission brought in an elaborate report, written principally by Senator Arcoleo, a leader among Italian authorities upon con- stitutional law. After pointing out that among European nations the reconstitution and modernization of upper chambers is a subject of large current interest, the commission proposed a carefully considered scheme for the popularizing and strengthening of the senatorial body. The substance of the plan was, in brief; (i) that the chamber henceforth should be composed of 350 members; (2) that the membership should be divided into three categories, designated, respectively, as officials, men of science and education, and men of political or economic status; and (3) that members of the first category, not to exceed 120, should be appointed, as are all members at present, by the crown; but members of the other two should be elected by fifteen special colleges so con- stituted that their membership would represent actual and varied groups of interests throughout the nation. The professors in the universities, for example, organized for the purpose as an electoral college, should be authorized to choose a contingent of thirty representatives. Other ele- ments to be admitted to a definite participation in the elections should include former deputies, larger taxpayers, provincial and communal assemblies, chambers of commerce, agricultural societies, and working- men's associations. The primary idea of those who propounded the scheme was that through its adoption there would be established a more vital contact between the Senate and the varied forces that contribute to the life of the nation than can subsist under the existing order. Unfor- tunately, as many consider, the Senate voted not to approve the com- mission's project. It contented itself, rather, with a vote in favor of an enlargement of the classes of citizens from which senators may be appointed by the king, although, in February, 1911, it went so far as to request the ministry to present new proposals, and, in particular, a proposal to vest in the Senate the choice of its presiding officer. To- ward a solution of the problems involved there has been (to 1912) no further progress. It is not improbable, however, that upon some such plan of modernization as was prepared by the commission of 1910 agree- ment eventually will be reached. 1 1 E. Pagliano, II Senate e la nomina dei senator! (Rome, 1006); L. A. Magro, L' aristocrazia e il Senate (Catania, 1909); I. Tambaro, La rforme du Senat THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM 375 412. Privileges and Powers. Within the Senate, as to-day con- stituted, the president and vice-president are named by the king; the secretaries are selected by the body from its own membership. The privileges of members are denned minutely. Save by order of the Senate itself, no senator may be arrested, unless apprehended in the commission of an offense; and the Senate is constituted sole judge of the alleged misdemeanors of its members a curious duplication of an ancient prerogative of the British House of Lords. Ministers are responsible only to the lower house, and although there are instances in which a minister has retired by reason of an adverse vote in the Senate, in general it may be affirmed that the Senate's importance in the parliamentary regime is distinctly subordinate. The two chambers possess concurrent powers of legislation, except that all measures im- posing taxes or relating to the budget are required to be presented first in the Deputies. By decree of the crown the Senate may be constituted a High Court of Justice to try cases involving treason or attempts upon the safety of the state, and to try ministers impeached by the Chamber of Deputies. When acting in this capacity the body is a tribunal of justice, not a political organization; but it is forbidden to occupy itself with any judicial matters other than those for which it was convened. 1 III. THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE 413. Composition: Franchise Law of 1882. The lower legislative chamber is composed of 508 members chosen by the voters of the realm under the provisions of the electoral law of March 28, 1895. ^ n no country of western Europe is the privilege of the franchise more restricted than in Italy; yet progress toward a broadly democratic scheme of suffrage has been steady and apparently as rapid as condi- tions have warranted. The history of the franchise since the estab- lishment of the present kingdom falls into three periods, delimited by the electoral laws of 1882 and 1895. Prior to 1882 the franchise was, in the main, that established by the electoral law of December 17, 1860, modified by amendments of July, 1875, and May, 1877. It was restricted to property-holders who were able to read and write, who had attained the age of twenty-five, and who paid an annual tax italien, in Revue du Droit Public, July-Sept., 1910, and Les d6bats sur la re"forme du Senat italien, ibid., July-Sept., 1911; M. Scelle, Re'forme du Snat italien, ibid., Oct.-Dec., 1911; Nazzareno, La riforma del Senate, in Rivista di Diritto Pubbltca, III., 171. The report of the commission of 1910 is contained in Per la riforma del Senate; relazione della commissione (Rome, 1911). 1 Art. 36. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 10. 376 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of at least forty lire. Under this system less than two and a half per cent of the population possessed the right to vote. In 1882, after prolonged consideration of the subject, the Govern- ment carried through Parliament a series of measures co-ordinated in the royal decree of September 24 by which the property qualifica- tion was reduced from forty lire to nineteen lire eighty centesimi and the age limit was lowered to twenty-one years. The disqualification of illiteracy was retained, and a premium was placed upon literacy by the extension of the franchise, regardless of property, to all males over twenty-one who had received a primary school education. There were minor extensions in other directions. The net result of the law of 1882 was to raise the number of voters at a stroke from 627,838 to 2,049,461, about two- thirds of the new voters obtaining the franchise by reason of their ability to meet the educational qualification. 1 An incidental effect of the reform was to augment the political influence of the cities, because in them the proportion of illiterates was smaller than in the country districts. Small landed proprietors, though of a more conservative temperament, and not infrequently of a better economic status, than the urban artisans, were commonly unable to fulfill the scholarship qualification. The law of 1882 provided for elections by general ticket, i. e., on the principle of scrutinio di lista. An act of May 8, 1891, abolished the general ticket and created a commission by which the country was divided into 508 electoral districts, each entitled to choose one deputy. By a law of June 28, 1892, there were introduced various reforms in the control and supervision of elections, and by another of July n, 1894, new provisions were established for the revision of electoral and registration lists. Finally, March 28, 1895, there was promulgated an elaborate royal decree whereby the entire body of electoral laws en- acted since the establishment of constitutional government, and at the time continuing in operation, was co-ordinated afresh. The existing system was not altered fundamentally, although the method of making up the voting-lists was changed, with the result that the number of electors was somewhat diminished. 414. The Franchise To-day. The Italian voter to-day must possess the following qualifications: (i) Italian citizenship; (2) age of twenty- one, or over; (3) ability to read and write; and (4) successful passage of examinations in the subjects comprised in the course of compulsory elementary education. The last-mentioned qualification is not, how- ever, required of officials, graduates of colleges, professional men, persons who have served two years in the army, citizens who pay a 1 Lowell, Governments and Parties, I., 157. THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM 377 direct tax annually of not less than nineteen lire eighty centesimi, those who pay an agricultural rental of 500 lire, those who pay house rent of from 150 lire in communes of 2,500 people to 400 lire in communes of over 150,000, and certain less important classes. So serious at all times has seemed the menace of illiteracy in Italy that the establish- ment of manhood suffrage has but rarely been proposed. Under the existing system the extension of education carries with it automatically the expansion of the franchise, though the obstacles to universal educa- tion are still so formidable that the democratizing of the state proceeds but slowly. 1 In 1904 the number of enrolled electors was 2,541,327 29 per cent of the male population over twenty-one years of age, and 7.67 per cent of the total population exclusive of 26,056 electors temporarily disfranchised by reason of being engaged in active military service. At the elections of November, 1904, the number of qualified electors who voted was 1,593,886, or but 62.7 per cent of those who possessed the privilege. The proportion of registered electors who ac- tually vote is kept down by the prosaic character of Italian electoral campaigns, by the influence of the papal Non Expedit, 2 and, most of all, by the habitual indifference of citizens, who, if the truth be told, for the most part have never displayed an insatiable yearning for the possession of the voting privilege. With the exception of the Socialists, no party has a clear-cut, continuous programme; none, save again the socialists, attempts systematically to arouse the voters at election time. 416. Electoral Reform. Notwithstanding these facts, there has been, in recent years, a somewhat insistent demand for electoral reform. The Luzzatti ministry fell, in March, 1911, primarily because a plan of suffrage extension which it had proposed was not to be put in operation before 1913. June 10, 1911, the Giolitti ministry which succeeded laid before the Chamber the text of a measure which, if adopted, would go far toward the establishment of universal male suffrage. The proposal was that practically all male citizens over thirty years of age, and all over twenty-one who have performed the military service required by the state, should be given the privilege of voting, irrespective of their ability to read and write. This project, after being debated at length, was adopted in the Chamber of Deputies early in 1912 by the enormous majority of 392 to 61. In the event of its final enactment the existing electorate will be increased from three millions to two and a half times that number and a general overhauling of electoral methods and machinery will be rendered necessary. The 1 King and Okey, Italy To-day, Chap. 12. See p. 400. 378 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE grounds upon which the change is urged are, first, the example of other nations and, second, the political and economic progress which Italy has achieved within the past generation. Serious students doubt whether the time is ripe for so radical a step. One half of the pro- posed electorate would be wholly illiterate. 1 416. Electoral Procedure. Save during the years 1882-91, when the scrutinio di lista was in operation, deputies have been chosen uni- formly from single-member districts. There are to-day 508 such dis- tricts. No candidate is returned unless he not only polls a number of votes in excess of one-sixth of the total number of enrolled electors within the district, but has also an absolute majority of all the votes cast. If, after balloting, it is found that no candidate meets this re- quirement, a second ballot (ballottaggio) takes place one week subse- quently. 2 At each polling place the presiding officer and "scrutineers" are chosen by the voters present. The method of voting is simple. In the polling-booth stands a table, on which are placed two square glass boxes, one empty, the other containing the voting papers. As the list of enrolled electors is read alphabetically, each man steps forward, receives a ballot paper, takes it to an adjoining table and writes on it the name of the candidate for whom he wishes to vote, folds the paper, and deposits it hi the box reserved for the purpose. After the list has been read through it is the right of any voter who was not present to respond when his name was called to cast his ballot in a similar manner. The polling hours extend, as a rule, from 9 A. M. to 4 P. M. 3 417. Qualifications and Privileges of Members. A deputy is not required to be a resident of the district from which he is chosen. He must, however, be a citizen; must be at least thirty years of age; must be in possession of full civil and political rights; and must not belong 1 For the text of the Giolitti proposals see // Seculo, June n, 1911. On Italian electoral reform see A. Piebantoni, La riforma della legge elettorale (Naples, 1909); G. Bandini, La riforma elettorale con la rappresentanza proporzionale nelle elezioni politiche (Rome, 1910); G. Sabini, La riforma del sistema elettorale in Italia (Turin, 1910); Siotto-Pintor, Estensione del suffragio e distribuzione della rap- presentanza, in Rivista di Diritto Pubblico, Dec., 1911, and Le riforma del regime elettorale e le dottrine della rappresentanza politica e dell' elettorato nel secolo XX. (Rome, 1912). 2 At the elections of March, 1909, in 75 of the 508 districts no candidate received an adequate majority. In 57 of these districts the candidate who, at the first ballot, had received the largest number of votes was elected at the second ballot. The political effect of the second ballot is slight. At the election of 1900 there were 77 second ballotings; at that of 1904, 39. A. N. Holcombe, Direct Primaries and the Second Ballot, in Amer. Political Science Review, Nov., 1911; A. F. Locatelli, Considerazioni intorno all' opportunita di abolire il ballottaggio, in La Riforma Sociale, July-Aug., 1910. 3 King and Okey, Italy To-day, 14. THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM 379 to any of the classes or professions whose members are debarred by law. All salaried government officials, all persons receiving stipends from the state, and all persons ordained for the priesthood or filling clerical office are disqualified outright. Furthermore, while officers in the army and navy, ministers, under-secretaries, and various other higher functionaries may be elected, their number must never exceed forty, not including the ministers and under-secretaries. Neither senators nor deputies receive a salary or other compensation, a fact that undoubtedly accounts hi some measure for the uniformly slender attendance in the chambers. Members are permitted, however, to travel free throughout Italy by rail, or on steamers belonging to lines that have a government contract containing a stipulation upon the subject. Measures providing for the payment of members have been proposed from time to time, but none have received the approval of the two chambers. A measure of the sort introduced in 1882 by Fran- cesco Crispi, when a deputy, was rejected by the lower house. More recently, in the electoral bill voted by the Chamber of Deputies in 1912 provision is made for the payment of deputies; but at the time of writing final action upon this project has not been taken. Deputies are elected nominally for a five-year period, which is the maximum duration of a parliament. In point of fact, a dissolution is practically certain to intervene before the expiration of the full term, and the average interval between elections is nearer three years than five. If for any reason a deputy ceases to perform his duties, the electoral district that chose him is called upon forthwith to elect a new repre- sentative. 418. The Chambers: Organization. The constitution does not prescribe definitely that the parliament shall be assembled annually. It stipulates merely that the sessions of the two houses shall begin and end at the same time, that a meeting of one house at a time when the other is not in session is illegal, and that measures enacted under such circumstances are void. 1 Custom and the necessities of admin- istration, however, render it incumbent upon the crown to convoke the chambers in at least one session each year, unless, indeed, as has sometimes happened, a session is so prolonged as to extend, with occasional recesses, over an entire year, or even two years. The president and vice-president of the Senate are designated by the crown, but the president, vice-presidents, and secretaries of the lower chamber are chosen by the chamber itself from among its own members at the beginning of each session, for the entire session. The president of the Deputies, although empowered to appoint certain 1 Art. 48. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 12. 380 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE committees, such as those on rules and contested elections, is not infrequently re-elected again and again without regard to party affil- iations, after the manner of the Speaker of the British House of Com- mons. The membership of the Chamber of Deputies is divided into nine uffici, or sections, and that of the Senate into five. A fresh divi- sion, by lot, takes place every two months. The principal function of the ufficl is the election of those committees for whose constitution no other provision is made. In each chamber the most important of all committees, that on the budget, is elected directly by the cham- ber. In the Deputies certain other committees are elected in the same way, while, as has been said, those on elections and on rules are ap- pointed by the president. But committees specially constituted for the consideration of particular measures are made up of members chosen from the various uffici, unless the chamber prefers to designate some other method. 419. The Chambers: Procedure. Each house frames its own rules of procedure. By the constitution it is stipulated that the sessions shall be public (with the provision that upon the written request of ten members secret sessions may be held) ; that Italian shall be the official language; that no session or vote of either house shall be valid unless an absolute majority of the members is present; and that neither house shall receive any deputation, or give hearings to persons other than the legislative members, ministers, and commissioners of the Government. 1 Except such as relate to finance, bills on any subject may originate in either house, and at the initiative of the Government or of private members, though in practice all proposals of importance emanate from the Quirinal. The ministers appear regularly on the floor of the two chambers, to advocate the measures of the Government and to reply to inquiries. The right of interpellation is not infrequently exercised, though the debate and vote following a challenge of the ministry fall regularly after an interval of some days, instead of at once, as in the French system, thus guarding somewhat against precipitancy of ac- tion. A measure which is passed in one house is transmitted to the other for consideration. After enactment in both houses, it is pre- sented to the king for approval, which, in practice, is never with- held. A bill rejected by the crown, or by either house, may not be reintroduced during the same session. Votes are taken by rising and sitting, by division, or by secret ballot. The third of these methods is obligatory in all final votes on enactments, and on measures of a 1 Arts. 52-54, 59, 62. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 12-13. In practice the requirement of the presence of an absolute majority of members is sometimes dis- regarded. THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM 381 personal character. It is specifically enjoined that deputies shall represent the nation as a whole, and not the districts from which they are chosen, and to this end no binding instructions may be imposed upon them by the electors. 1 Except when taken in the actual com- mission of an offense, deputies are exempt from arrest during the continuance of a session, and they may not be proceeded against in criminal matters without the previous consent of the Chamber. Neither senators nor representatives may be called to account for opinions expressed, or for votes cast, in the performance of their offi- cial functions. IV. THE JUDICIARY 420. General Aspects. The provisions of the Statute respecting the administration of justice are brief and general. Justice, it is declared, emanates from the king and is administered in his name by the judges whom he appoints. These judges, after three years of service, are irremovable. Proceedings of courts in civil cases and hearings in criminal cases are required to be public. No one may be withdrawn from his ordinary legal jurisdiction; and no modification may be introduced in respect to courts, tribunals, or judges, save by law. 2 On the basis of these principles there has been built up a system of tribunals which differs in but few important respects from the systems in operation in the other Latin countries of Europe. It consists, in part, of courts which have been carried over from the period preceding Italian unification and, in part, of courts which owe their existence to legislation subsequent to 1861. The model upon which the system has been developed is the judicial hierarchy of France, and it differs from this system in little save the existence, as will appear, of five largely independent courts of cassation instead of one. 421. The Ordinary Courts. For purposes of justice the kingdom is divided into 1,535 mandamenti? 162 tribunal districts, and 20 appellate court districts. Within each mandamento is a pretura, or magistracy, which exercises jurisdiction in civil cases and in cases of misdemeanors (contrawenzioni) and offenses (delitte) punishable by imprisonment not exceeding three months, or banishment not exceeding one year, 1 Art. 41. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., n. 2 Arts. 68-73. Ibid., II., 14-15. 3 Prior to 1901 the administrative and electoral mandamenti and the mandamenti gitidiziarii were identical geographically, and there were i ,805 of them in the king- dom. By a law of the year mentioned the judicial mandamenti were reduced in number to 1,535. 382 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE or a fine not exceeding 1,000 lire. In minor civil cases, involving sums not in excess of 100 lire, jurisdiction is vested in justices of the peace (giudici conciliator i) who likewise, upon request, act as arbitrators in cases involving any amount. In each of thirteen of the largest towns there is a pretura which exercises penal jurisdiction exclusively. Next above the pretori stand the penal courts, one in each of the 162 tribunal districts. These exercise jurisdiction in the first instance in offenses involving a maximum imprisonment of ten years or a fine of more than 1,000 lire. To them appeal may be carried from the decisions of the pretori. Closely associated are the courts of assize, which possess original jurisdiction in cases involving a penalty of imprisonment for life, or for a period longer than a minimum of five, and a maximum of ten, years. Save when the Senate is constituted a high court of justice, these tribunals have exclusive jurisdiction of all press offenses and of all cases involving attacks upon the security of the state. As a rule, the courts of assize make use of the jury. From their decisions there is no appeal, save upon a point of form, and appeal lies solely to the court of cassation at Rome. From the penal tribunals appeal lies, in cases not dealt with by the assize courts, to the twenty courts of appeal. At the top of the system stand five largely independent courts of cassation, located at the old capitals of Turin, Florence, Naples, Palermo, and Rome. Each of these exercises, within its own territory, final jurisdiction in all cases involving the ordinary civil law. The court of cassation at Rome, it is true, has been given exclusive jurisdic- tion in conflicts of competence between different courts, conflicts between the courts and the administrative authorities, the transfer of suits from one tribunal to another, writs of error in criminal cases, and a variety of other special matters. But, aside from this, the five tribunals are absolutely equal in function; there is no appeal from one to another, and the decisions arrived at by one do not constitute precedents which the others are obligated to recognize. One of the most striking aspects, indeed, of the Italian judicial system is its lack of centralization; though it should be added that the centralizing principle which, since 1870, has dominated so notably all other depart- ments of the government has been gradually winning its way in the judiciary. 422. The Administrative Courts. In Italy, as in continental countries generally, there is preserved a sharp distinction between public and private law; but the separation of functions of the ordinary and the administrative courts is much less clear-cut than in France and elsewhere. In 1865, indeed, the surviving administrative courts THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM 383 of the states which had been drawn into the kingdom were abolished and it was arranged that the ordinary courts should exercise unre- stricted jurisdiction in all criminal cases and in all civil cases in which, by the decision of the Council of State, a civil or political right was involved. The system worked poorly and by laws of June 2, 1889, and May i, 1800, a special section of the Council of State (composed of a president and eight councillors named by the king) was set off to serve as an administrative court, while at the same time an inferior admin- istrative jurisdiction was conferred upon the giunta (prefect and cer- tain assistants) of the province. In practice to-day, when the legality of acts committed by the administrative officials is called in question, the ordinary courts exercise jurisdiction, if the question is one of private right; if it is one merely of private interest, it goes for decision to an administrative tribunal. In most continental countries all cases in- volving the legality of official acts fall within the domain of the ad- ministrative courts. 1 V. LOCAL GOVERNMENT 423. Historical Basis. In her ancient territorial divisions Italy had once the basis of a natural and wholesomely decentralized sys- tem of local government. Instead of availing themselves of it, how- ever, the founders of the present kingdom preferred to reduce the realm to a tabula rasa and to erect within it a wholly new and sym- metrical hierarchy of territorial divisions and governmental organs. By a great statute of March 20, 1865, there was introduced in the kingdom a system of provincial and communal organization, the essentials of which were taken over in part from Belgium, but more largely from France. The functions and relations of the various local agencies were amplified and given substantially their present form in the law of December 30, 1888, supplemented and amended by acts of July 7, 1889, and July n, 1894. So closely has the French model been adhered to throughout that the resemblance between the two systems amounts almost to duplication. The system of Italy calls, therefore, for no very extended independent description. The units of local government are four in number the province, the circondaro, the mandamento, and the commune. Of these, the first and last alone possess vitality, distinct interests, and some meas- ure of autonomy; and throughout the entire series runs that same principle of thoroughgoing centralization which is the pre-eminent 1 There is a brief description of the Italian judicial system in Lowell, Govern- ments and Parties, II., 170-178. 384 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE characteristic of the local governmental system of France. The circondaro, corresponding to the French arrondissement, is essentially an electoral division. Strictly, there are in the kingdom 197 circondarii; but 87 districts comprising the province of Mantua and the eight provinces of Venetia are, in all save name, circondarii also. The 1806 mandamenti, or cantons, are but subdivisions of the provinces for administrative purposes. 424. The Province : Prefect and Council. There are in the kingdom 69 provinces, varying considerably in size but with an average popula- tion of 450,000 to 500,000. The Italian province corresponds closely to the French department. At its head is a prefect, appointed by the crown and directly responsible to the Minister of the Interior. Like the French prefect, the Italian is a political official, and the fact not merely influences his appointment but affects greatly his conduct in office. As representative and agent of the central government the prefect publishes and executes the laws, supervises the provincial adminis- tration, opens and closes sessions of the provincial council and sanctions or vetoes the measures of that body, and safeguards in general the interests of the Government in the province. Within each province is a council of from 20 to 60 members, elected for a period of six years on a franchise somewhat broader than that which prevails in parliamentary elections. One-half of the membership is renewed triennially. The council meets regularly once each year, nominally for a month's session; but an extraordinary session may be convened at any time by the prefect, by the deputation, or upon call of one-third of the councillors. Aside from the voting of the provincial budget, the powers of the council are relatively meager. In part, e. g., in respect to the maintenance of highways, the control of secondary and technical education, and a share in the supervision of charity, they are obligatory; in part they are merely permissive. A deputation, or com- mission, of from six to ten persons, elected by the council from its own membership, represents the council in the intervals between its sittings and carries on the work which it may have in hand. The prefect is advised by a prefectorial council of three members appointed by the Government, and he is further assisted by a giunta of six members, four of whom are elected by the provincial council, the other two being drawn from the prefectorial council. It is the business of the giunta to assist the prefect and sub-prefects in the supervision of local adminis- tration and to serve as a tribunal for the trial of cases arising under the administrative law. The prefect and the giunta possess large, and to a considerable degree, discretionary powers of control over the proceedings of the council; and the prefect, representing as he does the central gov- THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM 385 ernment exclusively, can be called to account only by his superiors at Rome. 426. The Commune: Syndic and Council. As in France, the com- mune is the least artificial and the most vigorous of the local govern- mental units. In June, 1911, there were in Italy a total of 8,323 communes, besides four boroughs in Sardinia not included in the com- munal organization. Each commune has a council of from 15 to 80 members, according to its population, elected for a period of six years, one-half retiring every three years. The communal franchise is appre- ciably broader than the parliamentary. It extends to all Italian citizens twenty-one years of age who can read and write, provided they are on the parliamentary list, or pay any direct annual contribution to the commune, or comply with various other very easy conditions. The council holds two regular sessions a year, though in the large towns it, in point of fact, meets much more frequently. Between sittings its work is carried on by a giunta, which serves as a committee to execute the resolutions of the council and to draft its budget and by-laws. The powers of the council are comprehensive. It is obligated to main- tain streets, roads, and markets; to provide for elementary education; to make suitable arrangements for the relief of the poor, the registration of births and deaths, and of electors; to establish police regulations and prisons; and, under varying conditions, to attend to a wide variety of other matters. The range of its optional activities is almost bound- less. The council may establish theatres, found museums, subsidize public amusements, and, indeed, go to almost any length in the regu- lation of local affairs and the expenditure of local funds. 1 As its chief official, every commune has a sindaco, i. e., a syndic, or mayor. Prior to 1896 the syndic was chosen by the communal council from its own members, if the commune had more than 10,000 inhabitants, or was the capital of a province or circondaro; otherwise he was appointed from among the members of the council by the king. In the great majority of communes the procedure was of the second type. Since 1896 the syndic has been chosen regularly in all communes by the council, for a term of three years, together with a secretary, elected in the first instance for two, but afterwards for periods of not less than six, years. Despite the fact that the syndic is now elected universally by the communal council, his position is not that exclusively of executive head of the local community. Like the prefect, he is a gov- ernment official, who, save under very exceptional circumstances, may be removed only with the prefect's permission. He may not be called 1 For an arraignment of the extravagance of the local governing authorities see King and Okey, Italy To-day, 267. 386 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE to account except by his superiors, or sued save with the permission of the crown. 1 1 For a brief account of local government in Italy see King and Okey, Italy To-day, Chap. 14. More extended treatment will be found in E. del Guerra, L'Am- ministrazione pubblica in Italia (Florence, 1893) and G. Greco, II nuova diritto amministrativo Italiano (Naples, 1896). CHAPTER XXI STATE AND CHURCH POLITICAL PARTIES I. QUIRINAL AND VATICAN Italy differs from other nations of importance in containing what is essentially a state within a state. The capital of the kingdom is likewise the capital of the Catholic world the administrative seat of a govern- ment which is not only absolutely independent of the government of the Italian nation but is in no small degree antagonistic to it. It need hardly be remarked that the consequences of this anomalous situation affect profoundly the practical operations of government, and espe- cially the crystallization and programmes of political parties, in the peninsula. 426. Termination of the Temporal Power. One goal toward which the founders of the kingdom directed their efforts was the realization ' of the ideal of Cavour, "a free church in a free state." A thorough- going application of this principle proved impracticable, but such progress has been made toward it as to constitute, for Italy, a veritable revolution. On the 2oth of September, 1870, the armed forces of King Victor Emmanuel crossed the bounds of the petty papal dominion about Rome, entered the city, and by a few sharp strokes beat down all forcible opposition to the sovereignty of the united Italian nation. Pope Pius IX. refused absolutely to acquiesce in the loss of his temporal dominion, but he was powerless to prevent it. His sole hope of indemnity lay in a possible intervention of the Catholic powers in his behalf a hope which by Prussia's defeat of France and the downfall of the Emperor Napoleon III. was rendered extremely unsubstantial. The possibility of intervention was, however, sufficiently considerable to occasion real apprehension on the part of Victor Emmanuel and of those attached to the interests of the young nation. In part to avert com- plications abroad, as well as with an honest purpose to adjust a difficult situation, the Government made haste to devise what it considered a fair, safe, and honorable settlement of its relations with the papal authority. The result was the fundamental statute known as the Law of the Papal Guarantees, enacted March 21, 1871, after a heated pariia- 387 388 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE mentary contest lasting upwards of two months, and promulgated under date of May 13 following. 1 427. The, Law of Papal Guarantees, 1871: Papal Prerogatives. This important measure, which remains to this day unchanged, falls into two principal parts. The first is concerned with the prerogatives of the Supreme Pontiff and of the Holy See; the second regulates the legal relations of church and state within the kingdom. In a series of thirteen articles there is enumerated a sum total of papal privileges which constitutes the Vatican an essentially sovereign and independent power. First of all, the Pope is declared sacred and inviolable, and any offense against his person is made punishable with the same penalty as a similar offense against the person of the king. In the second place, the Italian Government "grants to the Supreme Pontiff, within the kingdom, .sovereign honors, and guarantees to him the pre-eminence customarily accorded to him by Catholic sovereigns." 2 Diplomatic agents ac- credited to him, and envoys whom he may send to foreign states, are en- titled to all the prerogatives and immunities which international law ac- cords to diplomatic agents generally. In lieu of the revenues which were cut off by the loss of the temporal dominion there is settled upon the Pope a permanent income to be paid from the treasury of the state. For the uses of the Holy See the preservation and custody of the apostolic palaces, compensation and pensions for guards and attaches, the keeping of the Vatican museums and library, and any other needful purposes there is reserved the sum of 3,225,000 lire ($645,000) annually, to be " entered in the great book of the public debt as a perpetual and inalienable income of the Holy See." 3 The obligation thus assumed by the state may never be repudiated, nor may the amount stipulated be reduced. Permanent possession, furthermore, of the Vatican and Lateran palaces, with all buildings, museums, libraries, gardens, and lands appertaining thereto (including the church of St. Peter's), to- gether with the villa at Castel Gandolfo, is expressly guaranteed, and it is stipulated, not only that these properties shall be exempt from all taxation and charges and from seizure for public purposes, but that, except with papal permission, no public official or agent in the perform- ance of his public duties shall so much as enter the papal palaces or grounds, or any place where there may be in session at any time a conclave or ecumenical council. During a vacancy of the pontifical chair no judicial or political functionary may, on any pretext, invade 1 Text in Coglio e Malchiodi, Codice Politico Amministrativo. An English ver- sion is printed in Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 16-21. 2 Art. 3. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 16. 3 Art. 4. Ibid., 17. STATE AND CHURCH POLITICAL PARTIES 389 the personal liberty of the cardinals, and the Government engages specifically to see to it that conclaves and ecumenical councils shall not be molested by external disorder. 428. Papal Freedom in the Exercise of Spiritual Functions. In the exercises of spiritual functions the independence of the Holy See is fully secured. The Pope may correspond freely with the bishops and with "the whole Catholic world," without interference from the Government. 1 Papers, documents, books, and registers deposited in pontifical offices or in congregations of an exclusively spiritual character are exempt from all legal processes of visit, search, or sequestration, and ecclesiastics may not be called to account by the civil authorities for taking part officially in the promulgation of any act pertaining to the spiritual ministry of the Holy See. To facilitate the administration of papal affairs the right is granted of maintaining separate postal and telegraph offices, of transmitting sealed packages of correspondence under the papal stamp, either directly or through the Italian post, and of sending couriers who, within the kingdom, are placed on an equal footing with emissaries of foreign governments. 429. Legal Relations of Church and State. The regulations by which the relations of church and state are governed more specifically begin with the abolition of all restrictions upon the right of members of the Catholic clergy to assemble for ecclesiastical purposes. With provisional exceptions, the exequatur, the placet, and all other forms of civil authori- zation of spiritual measures are done away. 2 The state yields its ancient right of nominating to bishoprics, and the bishops themselves are no longer required to take oath of fidelity to the king. In matters of spir- itual discipline it is stipulated that there shall be no appeal to the civil courts from the decisions of the ecclesiastical authorities. If, however, any ecclesiastical decision or act contravenes a law of the state, subverts public order, or encroaches upon the rights of individuals, it is, ipso facto, of no effect; and in respect to these things the state is constituted sole judge. The Church, in short, is granted a very large measure of freedom and of autonomy; but at the same time it is not so far privileged as to be removed beyond the pale of the public law. If its measures constitute offenses, they are subject to the provisions of the ordinary criminal code. 3 1 Art. 12. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 19. 2 On the Government's use of the exequatur since 1871 see King and Okey, Italy To-day, 253. 3 By act of July 12, 1871, articles 268-270 of the Italian penal code were so modified as to render ecclesiastics liable to imprisonment of from six months to five years, and to fines of from one thousand to three thousand lire, for spoken or written attacks upon the state, or for the incitement of disorder. 390 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 430. Papal Opposition to the Existing System. The arrangements thus comprised in the Law of Guarantees have never received the sanction of the papacy. They rest exclusively upon the authority of the state. Pope Pius IX., flatly refusing to accept them, issued, May 15, 1871, an encyclical to the bishops of the Church repudiating the Law and calling upon Catholic princes everywhere to co-operate in the res- toration of the temporal power. The call was unheeded, and the Pope fell back upon the obstructionist policy of maintaining absolutely no re- lations with the Italian kingdom. His successor, Leo XIII., pre- served essentially the same attitude, and, although many times it has been intimated that the present Pope, Pius X., is more disposed to a conciliatory policy, it still is true that the only recognition which is accorded the Quirinal by the Vatican is of a purely passive and involun- tary character. The Pope persists in regarding himself as " the prisoner of the Vatican." He will not so much as set foot outside the petty domain which has been assigned to him, because his doing so might be construed as a virtual recognition of the legality of the authority of the kingdom within the Eternal City. Not a penny of the annuity whose payment to the Holy See was stipulated in 1871 has been touched. By the Italian Government the annuity itself has been made subject to quinquennial prescription, so that in the event of a recognition of the Law at any time by the papacy not more than a five-year quota, with interest, could be collected. As to the measure of fidelity with which the Government has fulfilled the obligations which it assumed under the Law, there is, naturally, a wide divergence of opinion. The authors of what is probably the most authoritative book on Italy written from a detached and impartial point of view say that " on the whole, one is bound to conclude that the Government has stretched the Law of Guarantees in its own interest, but that the brevity and incompleteness of the Law is chiefly responsible for the difficulty in construing it." 1 Undoubtedly it may be affirmed that the spirit of the Law has been observed with consistency, though the exigencies of temporal interest have compelled not infrequently the non-observance of the letter. So long as the Vatican persists in holding rigidly aloof from co-operation in the arrangement the Law obviously cannot be executed with the spontaneity and completeness that were intended by its framers. The situation is unfortunate, alike for state and church, and subversive of the best interests of the Italian people. 2 1 King and Okey, Italy To-day, 255. 2 For a brief discussion of the subject of church and state in Italy see King and Okey, Italy To-day, Chaps. 2 and 13. A useful book is R. de Cesare, Roma e lo stato del papa dal ritorno di Pio IX., 2 vols. (Rome, 1907), of which there is an STATE AND CHURCH POLITICAL PARTIES 391 II. PARTIES AND MINISTRIES, 1861-1896 431. Party Beginnings: the Conservative Ascendancy, 1861-1876. In Italy, as in France, political parties are numerous and their con- stituencies and programmes are subject to rapid and bewildering fluctuation. In the earliest days of the kingdom party lines were not sharply drawn. In the parliament elected in January, 1861, the supporters of Cavour numbered 407, while the strength of the opposi- tion was but 36. After the death of Cavour, however, June 6, 1861, the cleavage which already had begun to mark off the Radicals, or Left, from the Conservatives, or Right, was accentuated, and the Left grew rapidly in numbers and hi influence. During the period between 1861 and 1870 the two parties differed principally upon the question of the completion of Italian unity, the Conservatives favor- ing a policy of caution and delay, the Radicals urging that the issue be forced at the earliest opportunity. With the exception of brief intervals in 1862 and 1867, when the Radicals, under Rattazzi, gained the upper hand, the government during the period indicated was administered by the Conservative ministries of Ricasoli (the successor of Cavour), Minghetti, La Marmora, Menabrea, and Lanza. Each of the Rattazzi ministries had as one of its principal incidents an invasion of the papal territory by Garibaldi, and each fell primarily because of the fear of the nation that its continuance hi power would mean war with France. The unification of the peninsula was left to be accomplished by the Conservatives. After 1870 the dominance of the Conservatives was prolonged to 1876. The Lanza government, whose most distinguished member was the finance minister Sella, lasted until July 10, 1873, and the sec- ond ministry of Minghetti, given distinction by the able foreign minis- ter Visconti-Venosta, filled out the period to March 18, 1876. Upon these two ministries devolved the enormous task of organizing more fully the governmental system of the kingdom, and especially of bring- ing order out of chaos in the national finances. The work was effec- tively performed, but when it had been completed the nation was more than ready to drive the Conservatives from office. The Conserv- ative administration had been honest and efficient, but it had been rigid and at times harsh. It had set itself squarely against the democ- abridged translation by H. Zimmera, The Last Days of Papal Rome, 1850-1870 (Boston, 1909). Mention may be made of M. Pernot, La politique de Pie X (Paris, 1910); A. Brunialto, Lo stato e la chiesa in Italia (Turin, 1892); G. Barzellotti, L'ltalia e il papato, in Nuova Antologia, March i, 1904; and F. Nielsen The History of the Papacy in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1906). 392 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE racy of Garibaldi, Crispi, and Depretis; it had sought to retain the im- portant offices of state in the hands of its own immediate adherents; and in the execution of its fiscal measures it had been exacting, and even ruthless. March 18, 1876, the Minghetti government found it- self lacking a majority in the Chamber, whereupon it retired and was replaced by a Radical ministry under the premiership of Depretis, suc- cessor of Rattazzi in the leadership of the Left. A national election which followed, in November, yielded the new Government the over- whelming parliamentary majority of 421 to 87. 432. The Rule of the Radicals, 1876-1896. Prior to their accession to power the Radical leaders had criticized so sharply the fiscal and administrative policies of their opponents that they were expected by many persons to overturn completely the existing order of the state. As all but invariably happens under such circumstances, however, when the "outs" became the "ins" their point of view, and conse- quently their purposes, underwent a remarkable transformation. In almost every essential the policies, and even the methods, of the Conservatives were perpetuated, and the importance of the political overturn of 1876 arises, not from any shift which took place from one style of government to another, but from its effects upon the com- position and alignment of the parties themselves. During its fifteen- year ascendancy the Right had exhibited again and again a glaring lack of coherence; yet its unity was in reality considerably more sub- stantial than was that of the Left. So long as the Radicals occupied the position of opponents of the Government they were able, indeed, to present a seemingly solid front. But when it fell to them to or- ganize ministries, to frame and enact measures, and to conduct the administration, the fact appeared instantly that they had neither a constructive programme nor a unified leadership. The upshot was that upon its advent to power the Left promptly fell apart into the several groups of which it was composed, and never thereafter was there substantial co-operation among these groups, save at rare inter- vals when co-operation was necessary to prevent the return to office of the Conservatives. 433. The Depretis Ministries, 1876-1887. That portion of the party which first acquired ascendancy was the more moderate, under the leadership of Depretis. Its programme may be said to have embraced the extension of the franchise, the enforcement of the rights of the state in relation to the Church, the incompatibility of a parlia- mentary mandate with the holding of public office, the maintenance of the military and naval policy instituted by the Conservatives, and, eventually, fiscal reform, though the amelioration of taxation was STATE AND CHURCH POLITICAL PARTIES 393 given no such prominence as the nation had been led to expect. Save for the brief intervals occupied by the two Cairoli ministries of 1878 and 1879-1881, Depretis continued in the office of premier from 1876 until his death, in the summer of 1887. Again and again during this period the personnel of the ministry was changed. Ministers who made themselves unpopular were replaced by new ones, 1 and so com- plete became the lack of dividing principles between the parties that in 1883 there was established a Depretis cabinet which represented a coalition of the moderate Left and the Right. 2 The coalition, how- ever, proved ill-advised, and when, July 27, 1887, Depretis died he left behind him a government which represented rather a fusion of the moderate and radical wings of the Left. By reason of the disintegrated condition of parties Depretis had been able to override habitually the fundamental principles of parliamentarism and to maintain through many years a government which lived from hand to mouth on petty maneuvers. The franchise, it is true, had been broadened by the law of 1882, and some of the more odious taxes, e. g., the much complained of grist tax, had been abolished. But electoral corruption had been condoned, if not encouraged; the civil service had been degraded to a mere machine of the ministerial majority; and the nation had been led to embark upon highly questionable policies of colo- nial expansion, alliance with Germany and Austria, and protective tariffs. 434. The First Crispi, First Rudini, and First Giolitti Ministries, 1887-1893. The successor of Depretis was Crispi, in reality the only man of first-rate statesmanship in the ranks of the Left. To him it fell to tide the nation safely over the crises attendant upon the death (January 9, 1878) of King Victor Emmanuel II. and that (February 7 following) of Pope Pius IX. The personality of Crispi was very much more forceful than was that of Depretis and the grasp which he secured upon the political situation rendered his position little short of that of a dictator. The elections of 1876 had reduced to impotence the old Right as a party of opposition, and although prior to Crispi's ministry there had been some recovery, the Left continued in all but uncon- tested power. In the elections of November, 1890, the Government was accorded an overwhelming majority. None the less, largely by reason of his uncontrollable temper, Crispi allowed himself, at the end 1 This partial renewal of a ministry, known in Italy as a rimpasto, was, and still is, rendered easy by the average ministry's lack of political solidarity. 2 This coalition policy the so-called transformismo did not originate with Depretis. As early as 1873 a portion of the Right under Minghetti, by joining the Left, had overturned the Lanza-Sella cabinet; and in 1876 Minghetti himself had fallen a victim to a similar defection of Conservative deputies. 394 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of January, 1891, to be forced by the Conservatives into a position such that the only course open to him was to resign. There followed a transitional period during which the chaos of party groups was made more than ever apparent. The Rudini ministry, composed of representatives of both the Right and the Left, survived little more than a year. May 5, 1892, the formation of a ministry was intrusted by King Humbert to Giolitti, a Piedmontese deputy and at one tune minister of finance in the Crispi cabinet. The product was a ministry supported by the groups of the Centre and the Left, but opposed by those of the Right and of the Extreme Left. Parlia- ment was dissolved and during the ensuing November were held national elections in which, by exercise of the grossest sort of official pressure, the Government was able to win a substantial victory. The period covered by Giolitti's ministry marked by a cringing foreign policy, an almost utter breakdown of the national finances, and the scandals of 1893 in connection with the management of state banks, especially the Banca Romana may well be regarded as the most unfortunate in Italian history since the completion of national unity. The revelations made, November 23, 1893, by a committee appointed by Parliament to investigate the bank scandals were of such a char- acter that the Giolitti ministry retired from office, November 24, without so much as challenging a vote of confidence. After prolonged delay a new ministry was made up, December 10, by Crispi, whose return to power was dictated by the conviction of the nation that no one else was qualified to deal with a situation so desperate. 435. The Second Crispi Ministry, 1893-1896. The second Crispi ministry extended from December, 1893, to March, 1896. Politically, the period was one of extreme unsettlement. Supported by the Centre and the Left, substantially as Giolitti had been, the Govern- ment suppressed disorder, effected economies, and entered upon an ambitious attempt at colonial aggrandizement in East Africa. But it was opposed by the Extreme Left, a large portion of the Right, and the adherents of Giolitti, so that its position was always precarious. In December, 1894, Giolitti produced papers purporting to show that Crispi himself had been implicated in the bank irregularities. The effort to bring about the premier's fall failed, although there ensued a veritable war between the cabinet and the chambers, in the course of which even the appearance of parliamentary government was abandoned. In the elections of May, 1895, the Government was victorious, and it was only by reason of public indignation arising from the failure of the Eritrean enterprise that, finally, March 5, 1896, Crispi and his colleagues surrendered office. STATE AND CHURCH POLITICAL PARTIES 395 III. THE ERA OF COMPOSITE MINISTRIES, 1896-1912 During the period which was terminated by the retirement of Crispi the successive ministries, while occasionally including repre- sentatives of more than a single political group, exhibited normally a considerable degree of solidarity. After 1896 there set in, however, an epoch during which the growing multiplicity of parties bore fruit in cabinets of amazingly composite character. In the place of the fairly substantial Conservative and Radical parties of the seventies stood now upwards of half a score of contending factions, some dur- able, some but transitory. No government could survive a month save by the support of an affiliation of a number of these groups. But such affiliations were, in the nature of things, artificial and pro- visional, and ministerial stability became what it remains to-day, a thing universally desired but rarely enjoyed. 436. The Second Rudini and the Pelloux Ministries, 1896-1900. To General Ricotti-Magnani was committed, at Crispi's fall in 1896, the task of forming a new ministry. After some delay the premiership was bestowed upon Rudini, now leader of the Right. The new Govern- ment, constructed to attract the support of both the Right and the Extreme Left, took as its principal object the elimination of Crispi from the arena of politics. In time its foreign policy was strengthened appreciably by the return of Visconti-Venosta, after twenty years, to the foreign office, but home affairs were administered in a grossly inefficient manner. Bound by a secret understanding with Cavalotti, the leader of the Extreme Left, Rudini was obliged to submit habit- ually to radical dictation, and the elections of 1899, conducted specif- ically to crush the adherents of Crispi, threw open yet wider the door of opportunity for the Socialists, the Republicans, and the radical elements generally. The Rudini ministry survived until June 18, 1898, when it was overthrown in consequence of riots occasioned in southern Italy by a rise in the price of bread. June 29, 1898, a ministry was made up by General Pelloux which was essentially colorless politically and whose immediate programme consisted solely in the passage of a public safety measure originated during the preceding ministry. When, in June, 1900, the Government dissolved parliament and appealed to the country the result was an- other appreciable increase of power on the part of the radicals. In the new chamber the extremists Radicals, Republicans, and Socialists numbered nearly 100, or double their former strength. The Pelloux government forthwith retired, and a Liberal ministry was constituted 396 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE (June 24, 1900) under Saracco, president of the Senate. Five weeks later, upon the assassination of King Humbert, occurred the accession of the present sovereign, Victor Emmanuel III. 437. The Saracco and Zanardelli Ministries, 1900-1903. The Sa- racco ministry, formed as a cabinet of pacification, was overthrown Feb- ruary 7, 1901, in consequence of its hesitating attitude towards a dock strike at Genoa. It was succeeded by a ministry containing Giolitti (in the portfolio of the interior) and presided over by Zanardelli, long a leader of the extremer wing of the Radicals. The members of the new Gov- ernment were drawn from several groups. Three were of Zanardelli's following, three were adherents of Giolitti, three belonged to the Right, one was a Crispian, and two were Independents. Such was their forced reliance, however, upon the support of the Extreme Left that the forma- tion of this cabinet served as an impetus to a notable advance on the part of the extremer groups, especially the Socialists. 438. Giolitti, Fortis, and Sonnino, 1903-1909. In October, 1903, Premier Zanardelli retired, by reason of ill-health, and the cabinet was reconstituted under Giolitti. Aside from the premier, its most distin- guished members were Tittoni, minister of foreign affairs, and Luzzatti, minister of finance. The position of the new Government was insecure, and although the elections of November, 1904, resulted in the return of a substantial ministerial majority, the cabinet, realizing that it really lacked the support of the country, resigned in March, 1905. A new and colorless ministry, that of Fortis, lasted less than a year, i. e., until February 2, 1906. The coalition cabinet of Sonnino proved even less long-lived. The well-known statesmanship of Sonnino, together with the fact that men of ability, such as Luzzatti and Guicciardini, were placed in charge of various portfolios, afforded ground for the hope that there might ensue an increased measure of parliamentary stability. But the hope was vain and, May 17, 1906, the ministry abandoned office. Curiously enough, the much desired stability was realized under a new Giolitti government, composed, as all Italian governments in these days must be, of representatives of a number of political groups. In part by reason of the shrewdness of the premier and his colleagues, in part by reason of sheer circumstance, the Giolitti cabinet maintained steadily its position until December 2, 1909, although, as need hardly be observed, during these three and a half years there were numerous changes in the tenure of individual portfolios. 439. Second Sonnino and Luzzatti Ministries, 1909-1911. Upon the retirement of Giolitti there was constituted a second Sonnino minis- try, composed of elements drawn from all of the moderate groups from the Liberal Right to the Democratic Left. The programme which it an- STATE AND CHURCH POLITICAL PARTIES 397 nounced included electoral reform, the improvement of primary educa- tion, measures for the encouragement of agriculture, reorganization of local taxation, reduction of the period oi military service to two years, and a multiplicity of other ambitious projects. Scarcely more fortunate, however, was the second Sonnino government than had been the first, and, in the midst of the turmoil attending the debates upon a Shipping Conventions bill, the premier and his colleagues felt themselves forced to retire, March 21, 1910. Giolitti refused to attempt the formation of another ministry, and the task devolved upon the former minister of finance, Luzzatti. In the new cabinet the premier and one other member represented the Liberal element of the Right; one member represented the Centre; three were adherents of Giolitti; two were Radicals; one was a Socialist; and two professed independence of all groups. Whatever of advantage might be supposed to accrue from a government which was broadly representa- tive could legitimately be expected from this combination; although the composite character of the ministry, it was well enough understood, must of necessity operate to the detriment of the Government's unity and influence. The programme which the Luzzatti ministry announced was no less ambitious than that put forward by its predecessor. In- cluded in it were the establishment of proportional representation, the extension of the suffrage, measures to remedy unemployment and other industrial ills, compulsory insurance for agricultural laborers, re- sistance to clerical intrigue and the prevention of anti-clerical provoca- tions, and the usual pledge to maintain the Triple Alliance. 440. Giolitti and the Left, 1911- .The life of the Luzzatti government covered barely a twelvemonth. March 29, 1911, Giolitti returned to the premiership, signalizing his restoration to power by avowing in the Chamber a programme of policies which, for the time at least, elicited the support of all of the more important party groups. The composition of the new government differed but slightly from that of the former one, but the fact was undisguised that Giolitti relied for support principally upon the more radical elements of the nation, and that, furthermore, he did so with the full assent of the king. A strik- ing evidence of this was the invitation which was extended the socialist leader Bissolati to assume a post in the ministry. Certain obstacles arose which prevented acceptance of the offered position, but when the Government's programme was being given shape Bissolati was called repeatedly into counsel, and it is understood that the ministry's pro- nouncement in behalf of universal suffrage and the reduction of military and naval expenditures was inspired immediately by socialist influence. Socialism in Italy, it may be observed, is not entirely anti-monarchical, 398 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE as it is in France and Spain; on the contrary, it tends constantly to subordinate political to social questions and ends. Bissolati is himself an exponent of the evolutionary type of socialism, as is Briand in France. The first vote of confidence accorded the Giolitti government was participated in by the Giolitti Liberals, the Democratic Left, the Radi- cals, and a section of the Socialists by, in short, a general coalition of the Left. The shift of political gravity toward the Left, of which the vote was symptomatic, is the most fundamental aspect of the political situation in Italy to-day, even as it is in that of France. During more than a generation the grouping of parties and factions has been such as to preclude the formation of a compact and disciplined majority able and willing to grapple with the great social questions which successive ministries have inscribed in their programmes. But it seems not im- possible that a working entente among the groups of the Left may in time produce the legislative stability requisite for systematic and fruitful legislation. IV. PHASES OF PARTY POLITICS 441. lack of a Conservative Party : Effects. " From the beginning," says an Italian writer, " the constitution of our parties has been deter- mined, not at all by great historical or political considerations, but by considerations of a purely personal nature, and this aspect has been accentuated more and more as we have progressed in constitutional development. The natural conditions surrounding the birth and growth of the new nation did not permit the formation of a true conservative party which could stand in opposition to a liberal party. The liberal party, therefore, occupying the entire field, divided empirically into groups, denominated not less empirically Right and Left, in accordance with simple distinctions of degrees and forms, and perchance also of personal disposition." 1 The preponderating facts, in short, relative to political parties in Italy are two: (i) the absence of any genuine conservative party such as in virtually every other European state plays a role of greater or lesser importance, and (2) the splitting of the liberal forces, which elsewhere are bound to co-operate against the conservatives, into a number of factional groups, dominated largely by factional leaders, and unwilling [to unite save in occasional coalitions for momentary advantage. The lack of a genuine conservative party is to be explained largely by the anomalous situation which has existed since 1870 in respect to church and state. Until late years that important element, the clericals, which normally would have constituted, as does its counterpart in 1 Cordon, Del governo nella monarchia costituzionale, 125. STATE AND CHURCH POLITICAL PARTIES 399 France, the backbone of a conservative party has persisted in the purely passive policy of abstention from national politics. In the evolution of party groupings it has had no part, and in Parliament it has been totally unrepresented. Until recently all active party groups were essen- tially "liberal," and rarely did any one of them put forward a programme which served to impart to it any vital distinction from its rivals. Each was little more than a faction, united by personal ties, fluctuating hi membership and in leadership, fighting with such means as for the mo- ment appeared dependable for the perquisites of office. Of broadly national political issues there were none, just as indeed there were no truly national parties. 442. The Groups of the Extreme Left. More recently there has De^un to be a certain development in the direction of national parties and of stable party programmes. This is coming about primarily through the growth of the Extreme Left, and especially of the Socialists. Although the effects are as yet scarcely perceptible, so that the poli- tics of the country exhibit still all of the changeableness, ineffective- ness, and chaos characteristic of the group system, the development of the partiti populari which compose collectively the Extreme Left, i. e., the Republicans, the Radicals, and the Socialists, is an interesting political phenomenon. 1 The Republicans are not numerous or well organized. Quite impotent between 1870 and 1890, they gained no little ground during the struggle against Crispi; but the rise of socialism has weakened them, and the party may now be said to be distinctly in de- cline. To employ the expressive phrase of the Italians, the Republicans are but quattro nod in un sacco, four nuts rattling in a bag. The Radi- cals are stronger, and their outlook is much more promising. They are monarchists who are dissatisfied with the misgovernment of the older parties, but who distrust socialism. They draw especially from the artisans and lower middle class, and are strongest in Lombardy, Venetia, and Tuscany. 443. The Rise of Socialism. In not a few respects the master fact of Italian politics to-day is the remarkable growth of the Socialist party. The origins of the socialist movement in Italy may be traced to the Congress of Rimini in 1872, but during a considerable period Italian socialism was scarcely distinguishable from Bakuninian anarch- ism, and it was not before 1890 that the line between the two was drawn with precision. In 1891 was founded the collectivist journal Critica Sociale, and in the same year was held the first Italian congress which was distinctively socialist. In 1892 came the final bieak with the 1 For an exposition of party conditions during the past decade see A. Labrioli, Storia di died anni, 1899*1909 (Milan, 1910). 400 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE anarchists, and since this date socialism in Italy has differed in no essential particulars from its counterpart in other countries. Between 1891 and 1893 the new party was allied with the Right, but Crispi's re- lentless policy of repression in 1894 had the effect of driving gradually the radical groups, Republicans, Radicals, and Socialists, into co- operation, and it is to this period that the origins of the present coalition of the groups of the Extreme Left are to be traced. During the years 1895-1900 the Socialists assumed definitely the position of the advanced wing of a great parliamentary party, with a very definite programme of political and social reform. This "minimum programme," as it was gradually given shape, came to comprise as its most essential features the establishment of universal suffrage for adults of both sexes, the payment of deputies and members of local councils, the enactment of a more humane penal code, the replacing of the standing army by a national militia, improved factory legislation, compulsory insurance against sickness, the reform of laws regulating the relations of land- lords and tenants, the nationalization of railways and mines, the ex- tension of compulsory education, the abolition of duties on food, and the enactment of a progressive income tax and succession duty. The widespread dissatisfaction of Italians with the older parties, the practical character of the socialist programme, and the comparatively able leadership of the socialist forces have combined to give socialism an enormous growth within the past fifteen years. In 1^95 the party polled 60,000 votes and returned to the Chamber of Deputies 12 members. In 1897 it polled 108,000 votes and returned 16 members. Thereafter the quota of seats carried at successive elections rose as follows: 1900, 33' IOQ4, 26; 1906, 42; and 1909, 43. 444. The Catholics and Politics: the Non Expedit. Aside from the growth of socialism, the most important development in recent Italian politick has been the changed attitude of the Holy See with respect to the participation of Catholics in political affairs. The term "Catholic" in Italy has a variety of significations. From one point of view it denotes the great mass of the people 97.1 per cent in 1910 who are not Prot- estants, Greeks, Jews, or adherents of any faith other than the Roman. In another sense it denotes that very much smaller portion of the people who regularly and faithfully observe Catholic precepts of worship. Finally, it denotes also the still smaller body of men who yield the Pope implicit obedience in all matters, civil as well as ecclesiastical, and who, with papal sanction, are beginning to constitute an organized force in politics. After it had become manifest that the Holy See might not hope for assistance from the Catholic powers in the recovery of its temporal possessions and of its accustomed independence, there was STATE AND CHURCH POLITICAL PARTIES 401 worked out gradually at the Vatican a policy under which pressure was to be brought to bear upon the Italian state from within. This policy /- / comprised abstention from participation in national political life on the *H part of as many citizens as could be induced to admit the right of the papal government to control their civic conduct. In protest against the alleged usurpations of secular power Pope Pius IX. promulgated, - ^ in 1883, the memorable decree Non Expedit, by which it was declared " inexpedient" that Catholics should vote at parliamentary elections. IjL^/ Leo XIII. maintained a similar attitude; and in 1895 he went a step further by expressly forbidding what hitherto had been pronounced simply inexpedient. At no time, before or after Pope Leo's decree of prohibition, was the policy of abstention widely enforced, and very many Catholics, both in and out of Italy, warmly opposed it. The stricture was applied only to parliamentary, not to municipal, elections; yet in the two the per- centages of the enfranchised citizens who appeared at the polls continued to be not very unequal, and there is every reason to believe that the meagerness of these percentages has been attributable at all times to the habitual indifference of the Italian electorate rather than to the restrain- ing effects of the papal veto. None the less, in the strongly Catholic province of Bergamo and in some other quarters, the papal regulations, by common admission, have cut deeply into what otherwise would have been the normal parliamentary vote. 445. Relaxation of the Papal Ban. In the elections of 1904 many Catholics who hitherto had abstained from voting joined with the Government's supporters at the polls in an effort to check the growing influence of the more radical political groups, justifying their conduct by the conviction that the combatting of socialism is a fundamental Catholic obligation. Pope Leo XIII. was ready to admit the force of the argument, and in June of the following year there was issued an encyclical which made it the duty of Catholics everywhere, Italy in- cluded, to share in the maintenance of social order, and permitted, and even enjoined, that they take part in political contests in defense of social order whenever and wherever it was obviously menaced. At the same time, such participation must be, not indiscriminate, but disciplined. It must be carried on under the direction of the ec- clesiastical hierarchy, and with the express approval of the Vatican. Theoretically, and as a general rule, the Non Expedit remains. But where the rigid application of the law would open the way for the triumph of the enemies of society and of religion (as, from the papal point of view, socialists inevitably are) the rule, upon request of the bishop and sanction by the Holy See, is to be waived. A corollary 402 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of this new policy is that, under certain circumstances, Catholics may not merely vote but may stand for parliamentary seats. By the en- cyclical it is prescribed that such candidacies shall be permitted only where absolutely necessary to prevent the election of an avowed ad- versary of the Church, only where there is a real chance of success, and only with the approbation of the proper hierarchical authorities; and even then the candidate shall seek office not as a Catholic, but although a Catholic. 1 The partial lifting of the Non Expedit has had two obvious effects. In the first place, it has stimulated considerably the political activities of the Catholics. In the elections of 1906 and 1909 the number of Catholic voters and of Catholic candidates was larger than ever be- fore, and in the Chamber of Deputies the group of clerical members gives promise of attaining some real importance. A second result has been, on the other hand, a quickening of the anti-clerical spirit, with a perceptible strengthening of the radical-republican-socialist bloc. By providing the Left with a solidifying issue it may yet prove that the papacy has rendered unwittingly a service to the very ele- ments against whom it has authorized its adherents to wage relent- less war. 2 446. The Election of 1909. In respect to the parliamentary strength of the several party groups the elections of the past decade have produced occasional changes of consequence, but the situation to-day is not widely different from what it was at the opening of the century. In the Chamber elected in 1900 the Extreme Left obtained, in all, 107 seats. In 1904 the total fell to 77. In 1906, however, the Radicals secured 44, the Socialists 42, and the Republicans 23 an aggregate of 109; and following the elections of March 7 and 14, 1909, the quotas were, respectively, 37, 43, and 23, aggregating 103. The falling-off in 1904 is to be explained principally by the activity of the Catholics in the elections of that year, and the recovery in 1906 by the fact that, sobered by their reverses, the Socialists had abandoned in the meantime the extremer phases of their revolutionary propaganda. The elections of 1909 were precipitated by Giolitti's dissolution of the Chamber, February 6, in consequence largely of the dissatis- faction of the nation with the ministry's conciliatory attitude toward Austria-Hungary following the annexation by that power of the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Despite the excitement by which it was preceded, however, the campaign was a listless one. The foreign situation as an issue was soon forgotten, and no preponder- 1 The idea is expressed in the phrase cattolici deputaii, si, deputati cattolici, no. 8 Eufrasio, II Non Expedit, in Nuow Antologia, Sept. i, 1904. STATE AND CHURCH POLITICAL PARTIES 403 ating national question rose to assume its place. The Left made the most of the opportunity to increase its parliamentary strength, and the Catholics were more than ever active. The two forces, however, in a measure off-set each other, and the mass of the nation, unreached by either, returned the customary overwhelming Governmental majority. When various electoral contests had been decided the quota of seats retained by each of the party groups in the Chamber was found to be as follows: Radicals, 37; Socialists, 43; Republicans, 23; Catholics, 16; Constitutional Opposition (separated from the Government upon no vital matter of principle), 42; and Ministerial- ists, or supporters of the Government, 346. These supporters of the Government include men of varied political opinions, but collectively they correspond approximately to the elements which in other coun- tries are apt to be designated Liberals, Progressives, or Moderates. 1 1 The political parties of Italy are described briefly in Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., Chap. 4, and at more length in King and Okey, Italy To-day, Chaps. 1-3. Special works of importance upon the subject include M. Minghetti, I parti ti politic! e la ingerenza loro nella giustizia e nelP amministrazione (26. ed., Bologna, 1881); P. Penciolelli, Le gouvernement parlementaire et la lutte des partis en Italic (Paris, 1911); and S. Sighele, II nazionalismo e i partiti politici (Milan, 1911). Of value are R. Bonfadini, I partiti parlamentari, in Nuova Antologia, Feb. 15, 1894, and A. Torresin, Statistica delle elezioni generali politiche, in La Riforma Sociale, Aug. 15, 1900. A useful biography is W. J. Stillman, Francesco Crispi (London, 1899), an d an invaluable repository of information is M. Prichard-Agnetti (trans.), The Memoirs of Francesco Crispi, 2 vols. (New York, 1912). On the parties of the Extreme Left the following may profitably be consulted: F. S. Nitti, II partito radicale (Turin and Rome, 1907); P. Villari, Scritti sulla questione sociale in Italia (Florence, 1902); R. Bonghi, Gli ultimi fatti parlamentari, in Nuova Antolo- gia, Jan. i, 1895; G. Alessio, Partiti e programmi, ibid., Oct. 16, 1900; G. Louis- Jaray, Le socialisme municipal en Italic, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, May, 1904; R. Meynadier, Les partis d'extreme gauche et la monarchic en Italic, in Ques- tions Diplomatiques et Coloniales, April i, 1908; F. Magri, Riformisti e rivoluzionari nel partito socialists, italiano, in Rassegna Nazionale, Nov. 16, 1906, and April i, 1907; R. Soldi, Le varie correnti nel partito socialista italiano, in Giornale degli Economist}, June, 1903. On recent Italian elections see G. Gidel, Les 61ections generates italiennes de novembre 1904, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, Jan., 1905; P. Quentin-Bauchart, Les elections italiennes de mars 1909, ibid., July, 1909. PART V. SWITZERLAND CHAPTER XXII THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM THE CANTONS I. THE CONFEDERATION AND ITS CONSTITUTIONS Among the governments of contemporary Europe that of the federal republic of Switzerland is unique; and the constitutional experiments which have been, and are being, undertaken by the Swiss people give the nation an importance for the student of politics altogether out of proportion to its size and population. Nowhere in our day have been put to the test in more thoroughgoing fashion the principles of federal- ism, of a plural executive, of proportional representation, of the in- itiative and the referendum, and, it may be said, of radical democracy in general. The results attained within a sphere so restricted, and under conditions of race, religion, and historical tradition so unusual, may or may not be accepted as evidence of the universal practicability of these principles. At the least, they are of acknowledged interest. 447. The Confederation in the Eighteenth Century. In the form in which it exists to-day the Swiss Confederation is a product of the middle and later nineteenth century. The origins of it, however, are to be traced to a very much remoter period. Beginning with the alliance of the three forest cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden in 1 29 1, 1 the Confederation was built up through the gradual creation 1 For an English version of the Perpetual League of 1291 see Vincent, Govern- ment in Switzerland, 285-288. The best account in English of the origins of the Confederation is contained in W. D. McCrackan, The Rise of the Swiss Republic (zd ed., New York, 1901). Important are A. Rilliet, Les engines de la confid6ra- tion suisse (Geneva, 1868); P. Vauchier, Les commencements de la confederation suisse (Lausanne, 1891); W. Oechsli, Die Anfange der schweizerischen Eidgenossen- schaft (Zurich, 1891). Of the last-mentioned excellent work there is a French translation, under the title Les engines de la confederation suisse (Bern, 1891). The origins of the Swiss Confederation were described in a scientific manner for the first time in the works of J. E. Kopp: Urkunden zur Geschichte der eidgenossischen Bttnde (Leipzig and Berlin, 1835), and Geschichte der eidgenossischen Btlnde (Leipzig and Berlin, 1845-1852). The texts of all of the Swiss alliances to 1513 are printed in J. von Ah, Die Bundesbriefe der alten Eidgenossen (Einsiedeln, 1891). 405 406 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of new cantons, the splitting of old ones, the reorganization of depend- ent territories, and the development of a federal governmental system, superimposed upon the constitutional arrangements of the affiliated states. In 1789, when the French Directory, at the instigation of Napoleon, took it upon itself to revolutionize Switzerland, the Con- federation consisted of thirteen cantons. 1 With it were associated certain Zugewandte Orte, or allied districts, some of which eventually were erected into cantons, together with a number of Gemeine Vogteien y or subject territories. The Confederation comprised simply a Staaten- bund, or league of essentially autonomous, states. Its only organ of common action was a diet, in which each canton had a right to one vote. Save in matters of a purely advisory nature, the powers of this diet were meager indeed. Of the cantons, some were mod- erately democratic; others were highly aristocratic. The political institutions of all were, in large measure, such as had survived from the Middle Ages. 448. The Helvetic Republic. The result of the French interven- tion of 1798 was that, almost instantly, the loosely organized Swiss confederation was converted into a centralized republic, tributary to France, and under a constitution which was substantially a reproduc- tion of the French instrument of 1795. Under the terms of this con- stitution the territories of the Confederation were split up into twenty- three administrative districts, corresponding in but rare instances to the earlier cantons, 2 a uniform Swiss citizenship was established, a common suffrage was introduced, freedom of speech and of the press was guaranteed, and unity was provided for in the coinage, the postal service, and the penal law. A government of ample powers was set up, with its seat at Lucerne, its organs comprising a Grand Council of deputies elected indirectly in the cantons in proportion to population, a Senate of four delegates from each canton (together with retiring members of the Directory), and an Executive Directory of five mem- 1 Lucerne joined the alliance in 1332; Zurich in 1351; Glarus and Zug in 1352; Bern in 1353; Freiburg and Solothurn in 1481; Basel and Schaffhausen in 1501; and Appenzell in 1513. "Swiss history is largely the history of the drawing to- gether of bits of each of the Imperial kingdoms (Germany, Italy, and Burgundy) for common defense against a common foe the Hapsburgs; and, when this family have secured to themselves the permanent possession of the Empire, the Swiss league little by little wins its independence of . the Empire, practically in 1499, formally in 1648. Originally a member of the Empire, the Confederation becomes first an ally, then merely a friend." Encyclopedia Britannica, nthed., XXVI., 246. 2 To these districts, however, the name canton was applied; and, indeed, this was the first occasion upon which the name was employed officially in Switzer- land. THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM THE CANTONS 407 bers, with whom were associated, for administrative purposes, four appointed heads of departments. The French intervention was ruthless and the governmental order thrust upon the Swiss had no root in national tradition or interest. The episode served, however, to break the shackles of mediaevalism and thus to contribute to the eventual establishment of a modernized nationality. July 2, 1802, following a series of grave civil disturbances, the constitution of 1798 was superseded by a new but similar instrument, which was imposed by force despite an adverse popular vote. 1 449. The Act of Mediation, 1803. Under the circumstances re- action was inevitable, and the triumph of the "federalists" came more speedily than might have been expected. In deference to pre- ponderating sentiment in the territories, Napoleon, February 19, 1803, promulgated the memorable Act of Mediation, whereby he authorized the re-establishment of a political system that was essentially federal. 2 Once again there was set up a loose confederation, under a constitution which, however, provided for a central government that was distinctly more substantial than that which had prevailed prior to 1798. The right, for example, to make war and to conclude treaties, withdrawn entirely from the individual cantons, was conferred specifically upon the federal Diet. To the thirteen original cantons were added six new ones Aargau, Thurgau, Vaud, Ticino, and the Grisons (St. Gall and Graubiinden) the first four formed from districts which under the old regime had occupied the status of subordinate territory, the last two having been formerly "allied states." In the Diet six cantons (Bern, Zurich, Vaud, Aargau, St. Gall, and Graubiinden) which had a population in excess of 100,000 were given each two votes. All others retained a right to but one. The executive authority of the Confedera- tion was vested by turns in the six cantons of Bern, Freiburg, Lucerne, Zurich, Basel and Solothurn, the "directorial" canton being known as the Vorort, and its chief magistrate as the Landammann, of the Con- federation. The principle of centralization was in large part aban- doned; but the equality of civil rights which the French had introduced was not allowed by Napoleon to be molested. It may be observed further that by the accession of the newly created cantons, containing large bodies of people who spoke French, Italian, and Romansch, the 1 McCrackan, Rise of the Swiss Republic, 295-312; A. von Tillier, Geschichte der helvetischen Republik, 3 vols. (Bern, 1843); Muret, L'Invasion de la Suisse en 1798 (Lausanne, 1881-1884); L. Marsauche, La confe"de"ration helvetique (Neu- chatel, 1890). 2 It is in this instrument that the Confederation was for the first time designated officially as "Switzerland." 408 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE league ceased to be so predominantly German as theretofore it had been. 1 460. The Pact of 1816 and the Revival of Particularism. The Act of Mediation, on the whole not unacceptable to the majority of the Swiss people, save in that it had been/imposed by a foreign power, continued in operation until 1813. During the decade Switzerland was essentially tributary to France. With the fall of Napoleon the situa- tion was altered, and December 29, 1813, fourteen of the cantons, through their representatives assembled at Zurich, declared the in- strument to be no longer in effect. Led by Bern, eight of the older cantons determined upon a return to the system in operation prior to 1798, involving the reduction of the six most recently created cantons to their former inferior status. Inspired by the Tsar Alexander I., however, the majority of the Allies refused to approve this pro- gramme, and, after the Congress of Vienna had arranged for the ad- mission to the confede/acy x of the three allied districts of Valais, Geneva, and Neuchatel, there was worked out, by the Swiss themselves, a constitution known as the "Federal Pact," which was formally approved by the twenty- two cantons at Zurich, August 7, i8i5. 2 By this instrument the ties which bound the federation together were still further relaxed. The cantons regained almost the measure of independence which they had possessed prior to the French inter- vention. The Diet was maintained, on the basis now of one vote for each canton, regardless of size or population. 3 It possessed some powers, for example, that of declaring war or peace, with the consent of three-fourths of the cantons, but there were virtually no means by which the body could enforce the decrees which it enacted. The execu- tive authority of the Confederation was vested in the governments of the three cantons of Zurich, Lucerne, and Bern, which, it was stipu- lated, should serve in rotation, each during a period of two years. Practically all of the guarantees of common citizenship, religious toleration, and individual liberty which the French had introduced were rescinded, and during the decade following 1815 the trend in most of the more important cantons was not only particularistic but also 1 Cambridge Modern History, IX., Chap. 4 (bibliography, pp. 805-807). The best general work on the period 1798-1813 is W. Oechsli, Geschichte der Schweiz im XIX. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1903), I. 2 This statement needs to be qualified by the observation that the half-canton Nidwalden approved the constitution August 30, and only when compelled by force to do so. 3 Three of the cantons Unterwalden, Basel, and Appenzell were divided into half-cantons, each with a government of its own; but each possessed only half a vote in the Diet. THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM THE CANTONS 409 distinctly reactionary. The smaller and poorer ones retained largely their democratic institutions, especially their Landesgemeinden, or primary assemblies, but it was only after 1830, and in some measure under the stimulus of the revolutionary movements of that year, that the majority of the cantonal governments underwent that re- generation in respect to the suffrage and the status of the individual which lay behind the transforming movements of I848. 1 461. Attempted Constitutional Revision: the Sonderbund. The period between 1830 and 1848 was marked by not fewer than thirty revisions of cantonal constitutions, all in the direction of broader democracy. 2 The purposes of the liberal leaders of the day, however, extended beyond the democratization of the individual cantons. The thing at which they aimed ultimately was the establishment, through the strengthening of the Confederation, of a more effective nationality. On motion of the canton of Thurgau, a committee was authorized in 1832 to draft a revision of the Pact. The instrument which resulted preserved the federal character of the nation, but provided for a perma- nent federal executive, a federal court of justice, and the centraliza- tion of the customs, postal service, coinage, and military instruction. By a narrow majority this project, in 1833, was defeated. It was too radical to be acceptable to the conservatives, and not sufficiently so to please the advanced liberals. The obstacles to be overcome native conservatism, intercantonal jealousy, and ecclesiastical heterogeneity were tremendous. More than once the Confederation seemed on the point of disruption. In September, 1843, the seven Catholic cantons 3 entered into an alliance, known as the Sonderbund, for the purpose of defending their pecu- liar interests, and especially of circumventing any reorganization of the confederacy which should involve the lessening of Catholic privilege; and, hi December, 1845, this affiliation was converted into an armed league. In July, 1847, the Diet, in session at Bern, decreed the dissolution of the Sonderbund; but the recalcitrant cantons re- fused to abandon the course upon which they had entered, and it was only after an eighteen-day armed conflict that the obstructive league was suppressed. 4 1 B. Van Muyden, La suisse sous le pacte de 1815, 2 vols. (Lausanne and Paris, 1890-1892); A. von Tillier, Geschichte der Eidgenossenschaft wahrend der sogen. Restaurationsepoche, 1814-1830, 3 vols. (Bern and Ztlrich, 1848-1850); ibid., Ge- schichte der Eidgenossenschaft wahrend der Zeit des sogeheissenen Fortschritts, 1830-1846, 3 vols. (Bern, 1854-1855). 2 McCracken, Rise of the Swiss Republic, 325-330. 3 Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Freiburg, and the Valais. 4 A. Stern, Zur Geschichte des Sonderbundes, in Historische Zeitschrift, 1879; 410 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 462. The Constitution of 1848 and the Revision of 1874. The war was worth while, because the crisis which it precipitated afforded the liberals an opportunity to bring about the adoption of a wholly new constitution. For a time the outlook was darkened by the possibility of foreign intervention, but by the outbreak of the revolution of 1848 at Paris that danger was effectually removed. The upshot was that, through the agency of a committee of fourteen, constituted, in fact, February 17, 1848 one week prior to the overthrow of Louis Philippe the nationalists proceeded to incorporate freely the reforms they desired in a constitutional projet, and this instrument the Diet forth- with revised slightly and placed before the people for acceptance. By a vote of 15^ cantons (with a population of 1,900,000) to 6^2 (with a population of 290,000), the new constitution was approved. The adoption of the constitution of 1848, ensuring a modified revival of the governmental regime of 1798-1803, comprised a dis- tinct victory for the Radical, or Centralist, party. During the two decades which followed this party maintained complete control of the federal government, and in 1872 it brought forward the draft of a new constitution whose centralizing tendencies were still more pro- nounced. By popular vote this proffered constitution was rejected. Another draft, however, was prepared and, April 19, 1874, by a vote of 14^2 cantons against 7^, it was adopted. The popular vote was 340,149 to 198,013. Amended subsequently upon a large number of occasions, 1 the instrument of 1874 is the fundamental law of the Swiss Confederation to-day, altnough it is essential to observe that it represents only a revision of the constitution of 1848. As a recent writer has said, "the one region on the continent to which the storms of 1848 brought immediate advantage was Switzerland, for to them it owes its transformation into a well-organized federal state." 2 W. B. Duffield, The War of the Sonderbund, in English Historical Review, Oct., 1895; and P. Matter, Le Sonderbund, in Annales de VJLcole Libre des Sciences Politiques, Jan. 15, 1896. 1 For the methods of constitutional amendment see p. 431. 2 W. Oechsli, in Cambridge Modern History, XI., 234. A brief survey of the constitutional history of Switzerland from 1848 to 1874 is contained in Chap. 8 of the volume mentioned (bibliography, pp. 914-918). Two excellent works are C. Hilty, Les constitutions f6d6rales de la conf6d6ration suisse; expos6 historique (Neuchatel, 1891), and T. Curti, Geschichte der Schweiz im XIX. Jahrhundert (Neuchatel, 1902). A fairly satisfactory book is L. Hug and R. Stead, Switzerland (New York, 1889). The text of the constitution may be found in S. Kaiser and J. Strickler, Geschichte und Texte der Bundesverfassungen der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft von der helvetischen Staatsumwalzung bis zur Gegenwart (Bern, 1901), and in Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., 405-431. English versions are printed in Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 257-290; McCrackan, THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM THE CANTONS 411 II. THE NATION AND THE STATES 453. Dominance of the Federal Principle. In its preamble the Swiss constitution proclaims its object to be "to confirm the alliance of the Confederation and to maintain and to promote the unity, strength, and honor of the Swiss nation; " and in its second article it affirms that it is the purpose of the Confederation "to secure the in- dependence of the country against foreign nations, to maintain peace and order within, to protect the liberty and the rights of the confed- erates, and to foster their common welfare." * The use of the term "nation" (which, curiously, nowhere occurs in the constitution of the United States) might seem to imply a considerably larger measure of centralization than in fact exists. For although the effect of the constitution of 1848 was to convert a loosely organized league into a firmly constructed state to transform, as the Germans would say, a Staatenbund into a Bundesstaat the measure of consolidation attained fell, and still falls, somewhat short of that which has been realized in the United States, and even in Germany. There are in the Con- federation twenty-two cantons, of which three (Unterwalden, Basel, and Appenzell) have split into half-cantons; so that there are really twenty-five political units, each with its own government, its own laws, and its own political conditions. In territorial extent these cantons vary all the way from 2,773 to J 4 square miles, and in popula- Rise of the Swiss 'Republic, 373-403; Vincent, Government in Switzerland, 289- 332; and Old South Leaflets, General Series, No. 18. The texts of all federal con- stitutions after 1798 are included in the work of Kaiser and Strickler. A good collection of recent documents is P. Wolf, Die schweizerische Bundesgesetzgebung (2d ed., Basel, 1905-1908). The principal treatises on the Swiss constitutional system are J. J. Blumer, Handbuch des schweizerischen Bundesstaatsrechtes (2d ed., Schaffhausen, 1877-1887); J. Schollenberger, Bundesverfassung der schweiz- erischen Eidgenossenschaft (Berlin, 1905); ibid., Das Bundesstaatsrecht der Schweiz Geschichte und System (Berlin, 1902); and W. Burckhardt, Kommentar der Schweiz; Bundeverfassung vom 29 Mai 1874 (Bern, 1905). Two excellent briefer treatises are N. Droz, Instruction civique (Lausanne, 1884) and A. von Orelli, Das Staatsrecht der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft (Freiburg, 1885), in Marquardsen's Handbuch. The best treatise in English upon the Swiss govern- mental system is J. M. Vincent, Government in Switzerland (New York, 1900). Older works include B. Moses, The Federal Government of Switzerland (Oakland, 1889); F. Adams and C. Cunningham, The Swiss Confederation (London, 1889); and B. Winchester, The Swiss Republic (Philadelphia, 1891). Mention should be made of A. B. Hart, Introduction to the Study of Federal Government (Boston, 1891); also of an exposition of Swiss federalism in Dicey, Law of the Constitution, 7th ed., 517-529- 1 Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 257. 412 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE tion, from 642,744 to 13,796; 1 and the primary fact of the Swiss governmental system is the remarkable measure of political independ- ence which these divisions, small as well as large, possess. 454. The Sovereignty of the Cantons. In the United States there was throughout a prolonged period a fundamental difference of opinion relative to the sovereignty of the individual states composing the Union. The Constitution contains no explicit affirmation upon the subject, and views maintained by nationalists and state right's ad- vocates alike have always been determined of necessity by interpreta- tion of history and of public law. In Switzerland, on the contrary, there is, upon the main issue, no room for doubt. "The cantons are sovereign," asserts the constitution, "so far as their sovereignty is not limited by the federal constitution; and, as such, they exercise all the rights which are not delegated to the federal government." 2 As in the United States, the federal government is restricted to the exercise of powers that are delegated, while the federated states are free to exercise any that are not delegated exclusively to the nation, nor prohibited to the states. In the Swiss constitution, however, the delimitation of powers, especially those of a legislative character, is so much more minute than in the American instrument that compar- atively little room is left for difference of opinion as to what is and what is not "delegated." 3 455. Federal Control of the Cantons. After the analogy of the United States, where the nation guarantees to each of the states a republican form of government, the Swiss Confederation guarantees to the cantons their territory, their sovereignty (within the limits fixed by the fundamental law), their constitutions, the liberty and rights of their people, and the privileges and powers which the people have conferred upon those in authority. The cantons are empowered, and indeed required, to call upon the Confederation for the guaranty of their constitutions, and it is stipulated that such guaranty shall be accorded in all instances where it can be shown that the constitution 1 The total area of the Confederation is approximately 16,000 square miles; the total population, according to the census of December i, 1910, is 3,741,971. 2 Art. 3. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II.. 257. 3 In the form in which it now exists the Swiss constitution is one of the most comprehensive instruments of the kind in existence. Aside from various temporary provisions, it contains, in all, 123 articles, some of considerable length. As is true of the German constitution, there is in it much that ordinarily has no place in the fundamental law of a nation. A curious illustration is afforded by an amendment of 1893 to the effect that "the killing of animals without benumbing before the drawing of blood is forbidden; this provision applies to every method of slaughter and to every species of animals." Art. 25. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 263. The adoption of this amendment was an expression of antisemitic prejudice. THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM THE CANTONS 413 in question contains nothing contrary to the provisions of the federal constitution, that it assures the exercise of political rights according to republican forms, that it has been ratified by the people, and that it may be amended at any time by a majority of the citizens. 1 A cantonal constitution which has not been accorded the assent of the two houses of the federal assembly is inoperative; and the same thing is true df-even tiielninutest amendment. The control of the federal government over the constitutional systems of the states is thus more immediate, if not more effective, than in the United States, where, after a state has been once admitted to the Union, the federal power can reach its constitutional arrangements only through the agency of the courts. Finally, in the event of insurrection the government of the Confederation possesses a right to intervene in the affairs of a canton, with or without a request for such intervention by the constituted cantonal authorities. This right was exercised very effectively upon the occasion of the Ticino disorders of 1889-1890. Like the American states, but unlike the German, the Swiss cantons enjoy a complete equality of status and of rights. They are forbidden to enter into alliances or treaties of a political nature among them- selves, though they are permitted to conclude intercantonal conven- tions upon legislative, administrative, and judicial subjects, pro- vided such conventions, upon inspection by the federal officials, are found to be devoid of stipulations contrary to the federal constitution or inimical to the rights of any canton. In the event of disputes be- tween cantons, the questions at issue are required to be submitted to the federal government for decision, and the individual canton must refrain absolutely from the use of violence, and even from military preparation. 466. Powers Vested Exclusively in the Confederation. Within the text of the constitution the division of powers between the federal and the cantonal governments is minute, though far from systematic. The clearest conception of the existing arrangements may perhaps be had by observing that provision is made for three principal categories of powers: (i) those that the Confederation has an exclusive right to exercise, some being merely permissive, others obligatory; (2) those which the Confederation is required, or allowed, to exercise in con- currence with the cantons; and (3) those which are not permitted to be exercised at all. Of powers committed absolutely to the Confederation, the most important are those of declaring war, making peace, and concluding alliances and treaties with foreign powers, especially treaties relating 1 Arts. 5 and 6. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 258. 414 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE to tariffs and commerce. 1 The Confederation is forbidden to main- tain a standing army, and no canton, without federal permission, may maintain a force numbering more than three hundred men. None the less, by law of 1907, every male Swiss citizen between the ages of twenty and forty-eight is liable to military service, and the constitu- tion vests not only the sole right of declaring war but also the or- ganization and control of the national forces in the Confederation. 2 The neutralized status with which, by international agreement, Switzerland has been vested renders a war in which the nation should be involved, other, at any rate, than a civil contest, extremely im- probable. 3 Within the domain of international relations, the cantons retain the right to conclude treaties with foreign powers respecting border and police relations and the administration of public property. All remaining phases of diplomatic intercourse are confided exclusively to the Confederation. Other functions vested in the federal author- ities alone include the control of the postal service and of telegraphs; the coining of money and the maintenance of a monetary system; the issue of bank notes and of other forms of paper money; the fixing of standards of weights and measures; the maintenance of a monopoly of the manufacture and sale of gunpowder; and the enactment of supplementary legislation relating to domicile and citizenship. 467. Concurrent Powers and Powers Denied the Confederation. Among powers which are intrusted to the Confederation, to be exer- cised in more or less close conjunction with the cantonal governments, are: (i) the making of provision for public education, the cantons maintaining a system of compulsory primary instruction, the Confeder- ation subsidizing educational establishments of higher rank; 4 (2) the regulation of child labor, industrial conditions, emigration, and in- surance; (3) the maintenance of highways; (4) the regulation of the press; and (5) the preservation of public order and of peace between members of different religious organizations. Several explicit prohibitions rest upon the authorities of both Con- federation and cantons. No treaties may be concluded whereby it is agreed to furnish troops to other countries. No canton may expel from its own territory one of its citizens, or deprive him of his rights. No person may be compelled to become a member of a religious soci- ety, to receive religious instruction, to perform any religious act, or to 1 Art. 8. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 258. 2 Arts. 15-23. Ibid., II., 260-262. 1 McCrackan, Rise of the Swiss Republic, 354-363; Payen, La neutralisation dfc la Suisse, in Annales de Vttcole Libre des Sciences Polttiques, Oct. 15, 1892. 4 Art. 27. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 263. THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM THE CANTONS 415 incur penalty of any sort by reason of his religious opinions. 1 No death penalty may be pronounced for a political offense. The pro- hibitions, in short, which the constitution imposes upon federal and cantonal authorities comprise essentially a bill of rights, com- parable with any to be found in a contemporary European con- stitution. 468. General Aspects. The fundamental thing to be observed is that under the Swiss constitution, as under the German, the legislative powers of the federal government are comprehensive, while the execu- tive authority, and especially the executive machinery, is meager. The Confederation has power to legislate upon many subjects military service, the construction and operation of railroads, educa- tion, labor, taxation, monopolies, insurance, commerce, coinage, banking, citizenship, civil rights, bankruptcy, criminal law, and nu- merous other things. In respect to taxation the federal government possesses less power than does that of Germany, and distinctly less than does that of the United States, for this power is confined to the single field of customs legislation; 2 but in virtually every other direc- tion the legislative competence of the Swiss central authorities is more extended. It is worth observing, furthermore, that the centralizing tendency since 1874 has found expression in a number of constitutional amendments whose effect has been materially to enlarge the domain covered by federal legislation. Among these may be mentioned the amendment of July n, 1897, granting the Confederation power to enact laws concerning the traffic in food products, that of November 13, 1898, extending the federal legislative power over the domain of civil and criminal law, that of July 5, 1908, conferring upon the Con- federation power to enact uniform regulations respecting the arts and trades (thus bringing substantially the entire domain of industrial legislation within the province of the Confederation), and that of October 25, 1908, placing the utilization of water-power under the supervision of the central authorities. 1 Art. 49. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 271-272. 2 "The customs system shall be within the control of the Confederation. The Confederation may levy export and import duties." Art. 28. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 263. The constitution stipulates further that imports of mate- rials essential for the manufactures and agriculture of the country, and of neces- saries of life in general, shall be taxed as low as possible; also that export taxes shall be kept at a minimum. Art. 42 prescribes that the expenditures of the Confedera- tion shall be met from the income from federal property, the proceeds of the postal and telegraph services, the proceeds of the powder monopoly, half of the gross receipts from the tax on military exemptions levied by the cantons, the proceeds of the federal customs, and, finally, in case of necessity, contributions levied upon the cantons in proportion to their wealth and taxable resources. Dodd, II., 269. 416 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Within the domain of administrative functions, the principle is rather that of committing to the federal agencies a minimum of author- ity. Beyond the management of foreign relations, the administration of the customs, the postal, and the telegraph services, and of the alcohol and powder monopolies, and the control of the arsenals and of the army when in the field, the federal government exercises directly but inconsiderable executive authority. It is only in relation to the cantonal governments that its powers of an administrative nature are large; and even there they are only supervisory. In a number of highly important matters the constitution leaves to the canton the right to make and enforce law, at the same time committing to the Confederation the right to inspect, and even to enforce, the execution of such measures. Thus it is stipulated that the cantons shall provide for primary instruction which shall be compulsory, non-sectarian, and free; and that "the Confederation shall take the necessary measures against such cantons as do not fulfill these duties." 1 Not only, there- fore, does the federal government enforce federal law, through its own officials or through those of the canton; it supervises the enactment and enforcement of measures which the constitutiBn~eTl}ol6s~^on the cantons. 2 in. CANTONAL LEGISLATION: THE REFERENDUM AND THE INITIATIVE 459. Variation of Cantonal Institutions. In its fundamental features the federal government of Switzerland represents largely an adaptation of the political principles and organs most commonly prevailing within the individual cantons; from which it follows that an understanding of the mechanism of the federation is conditioned upon an acquaintance with that of the canton. 3 Anything, however, in the nature of a de- scription which will apply to the governmental systems of all of the twenty-five cantons and half-cantons is impossible. Variation among them, in both structure and procedure, is at least as common and as wide as among the governments of the American commonwealths. Each canton has its own constitution, and the Confederation is bound to guarantee the maintenance of this instrument regardless of the pro- visions which it may contain, provided only, as has been pointed out, 1 Art. 27. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 263. 2 A. Souriac, Involution de la juridiction federate en Suisse (Paris, 1909). 3 On the governments of the cantons the principal general works are J. Schollen- berger, Grundriss der Staats- und Verwaltungsrechts der schweizerischen Kantone, 3 vols. (Zurich, 1898-1900), and J. Dubs, Das offentliche Recht der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft (Zurich, 1877-1878), I. Brief accounts will be found in Vin- cent, the Government of Switzerland, Chaps. 1-12. THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM THE CANTONS 417 that there is in it nothing that is contrary to the federal constitution, that it establishes a republican system of government, and that it has been ratified by the people and may be amended upon demand of a ma- jority. The constitutions of the cantons are amended easily and frequently; but while it may be affirmed that, in consequence of their flexibility, they tend toward more rather than toward less uniformity, the diversity that survives among them still proclaims strikingly their separatist origin and character. The point at which the governments of the cantons differ most widely is in respect to arrangements for the exercise of the functions of legislation. Taking the nature of the legislative process as a basis of division, there may be said to be two classes of cantonal govern- ments. One comprises those in which the ultimate public powers are vested in a Landesgemeinde, or primary assembly of citizens; the other, those in which such powers have been committed to a body of elected representatives. The second class, as will appear, falls again into two groups, i. e., those in which the employment of the referendum is obliga- tory and those in which it is merely optional. 460. The Landesgemeinde. Prior to the French intervention of 1798 there were in the Confederation no fewer than eleven cantons whose government was of the Landesgemeinde type. To-day there are but six cantons and half-cantons those, namely, of Uri, Glarus, the two Unterwaldens, and the two Appenzells. Under varying circum- stances, but principally by reason of the increasingly unwieldy character of the Landesgemeinde as population has grown, the rest have gone over to the representative system. All of those in which the institution survives are small in area and are situated in the more sparsely popu- lated mountain districts where conditions of living are primitive and where there is little occasion for governmental elaborateness. 1 Nominally, the Landesgemeinde is an assembly composed of all male citizens of the canton who have attained their majority. Actually, it is a gathering of those who are able, or disposed, to be present. The assembly meets regularly once a year, in April or May, at a centrally located place within the canton, and usually in an open meadow. When necessity arises, there may be convened a special session. With 1 The area of Zug is 92 square miles; of Glarus, 267; of the Unterwaldens, 295; of the Appenzells, 162. The longest dimension of any one of these cantons is but thirty miles, and the distance to be traversed by the citizen who wishes to attend the Landesgemeinde of his canton rarely exceeds ten miles. It was once the fashion to represent the Swiss Landesgemeinde as a direct survival of the primitive Ger- manic popular assembly. For the classic statement of this view see Freeman, Growth of the English Constitution, Chap. i. There is, however, every reason to believe that between the two institutions there is no historical connection. 418 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the men come ordinarily the women and children, and the occasion partakes of the character of a picturesque, even if solemn and cere- monious, holiday. Under the presidency of the Landammann, or chief executive of the canton, the assembly passes with despatch upon whatsoever proposals may be laid before it by the Landrath, or Greater Council. In the larger assemblies there is no privilege of debate. Measures are simply adopted or rejected. In the smaller gatherings, however, it is still possible to preserve some restricted privilege of discussion. Unless a secret ballot is specifically demanded, voting is by show of hands. Theoretically, any citizen possesses the right to initiate propositions. In practice, however, virtually all measures emanate from the Greater Council, and if the private citizen wishes to bring forward a proposal he will be expected to do so by suggesting it to the Council rather than by introducing it personally in the assembly. The competence of the Landesgemeinde varies somewhat from canton to canton, but in all cases it is very comprehensive. The assembly authorizes the revision of the constitution, enacts all laws, levies direct taxes, grants public privileges, establishes offices, and elects all executive and judicial officials of the canton. Directly or indirectly, it discharges, indeed, all of the fundamental functions of government. It is the sover- eign organ of a democracy as thoroughgoing as any the world has ever known. 1 461. The Greater Council. In every canton, whether or not of the Landesgemeinde type, there is a popularly elected representative body, the Greater Council, which performs a larger or smaller service in the process of legislation. This body is variously known as the Grosser Rath, the Landrath, and the Kantonsrath. In the cantons that maintain the Landesgemeinde the functions of the Greater Council are subsidiary. It chooses minor officials, audits accounts, and passes unimportant ordinances; but its principal business is the preparation of measures for the consideration of the Landesgemeinde. In the cantons, however, in which the Landesgemeinde does not exist, the Greater Coun- cil is a more important institution, for there it comprises the only law- making body which is ever brought together at one time or place. Where there exists the obligatory referendum, i. e., where all legislative measures are submitted to a direct popular vote, the decisions of the Council are but provisional. But where the referendum is optional the Council acquires in many matters the substance of final authority. Members of the Council are elected regularly in districts by direct popular vote. The size of constituencies varies from 188 people in Obwalden and 250 in Inner Appenzell to 1,500 in St. Gall and Zurich 1 H. D. Lloyd, A Sovereign People (New York, 1907), Chap. 4. THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM THE CANTONS 419 and 2,500 in Bern. The electors include all males who have completed their twentieth year and who are in possession of full civil rights. The term of members varies from one to six years, but is generally three or four. There are, as a rule, two meetings annually, in some cantons a larger number. Beginning with the canton of Ticino hi 1891, there has been introduced into the governmental systems of several cantons and of the two cities of Bern and Basel the principle of proportional representation. The details vary, but the general principle is that each political party shall be entitled to seats in the Greater Council in the closest practicable proportion that the party vote bears to the entire vote cast within the canton. Those cantons where this principle is in operation are laid out in districts, each of which is entitled to two or more representatives, and the individual elector, while forbidden to cast more than one vote for a given candidate, casts a number of votes corresponding to the number of seats to be filled. 1 462. The Referendum: Origins and Operation. The most interesting if not the most characteristic, of Swiss political institutions is the refer- endum. The origins of the referendum in Switzerland may be traced to a period at least as early as the sixteenth century. The principle was applied first of all in the complicated governments of two territories the Grisons and the Valais which have since become cantons but which at the time mentioned were districts merely affiliated with the Confederation. In the later sixteenth century there were traces of the same principle in Bern and in Zurich. And, in truth, the political arrangements of the early Confederation involved the employment of a device which at least closely resembled the referendum. Delegates sent by the cantons to the Diet were commissioned only ad audiendum et referendum-, that is to say, they were authorized, not to agree finally to proposals, but simply to hear them and to refer them to the cantonal governments for ultimate decision. In its present form, however, the Swiss referendum originated in the canton of St. Gall in 1830. It is distinctively a nineteenth century creation and is to be regarded as a product of the political philosophy 1 For an excellent account of the introduction of proportional representation in the canton of Ticino see J. Galland, La democratic tessinoise et la representation proportionnelle (Grenoble, 1909). The canton in which the principle has been adopted most recently is St. Gall. In 1893, JQ 01 * and 1906 it was there rejected by the people, but at the referendum of February, 1912, it was approved, and in the following November the cantonal legislature formally adopted it. For a brief exposition of the workings of the system see Vincent, Government in Switzerland,, Chap. 4. An important study of the subject is E. Kloti, Die Proportionalwahl in der Schweiz; Geschichte, Darsteltung und Kritik (Bern, 1901). On the proposed introduction of proportional representation in the federal government see p. 433. 420 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of Rousseau, the fundamental tenet of which was that laws ought to be enacted, not through representatives, but by the people directly. 1 The principle of the referendum may be applied in two essentially dis- tinct directions, i. e., to constitutions and constitutional amendments and to ordinary laws. The referendum as applied to constitutional instruments exists to-day in every one of the Swiss cantons. 2 It is in no sense, however, peculiar to Switzerland. The same principle obtains in several English-speaking countries, as well as upon occasion elsewhere. The referendum as applied to ordinary laws, on the other hand, is distinctively Swiss. In our own day it is being brought into use in certain of the American commonwealths and elsewhere, but it is Swiss in origin and spirit. Inaugurated in part to supply the need created by a defective system of representation and in part in deference to advanced democratic theory, the referendum for ordinary laws exists to-day in every canton of Switzerland save only that of Freiburg. In some cantons the referendum is obligatory, in others it is "facultative," y or optional. Where the referendum is obligatory every legislative/ measure must be referred to popular vote; where it is optional, a measure is referred only upon demand of a specified number or proportion of voters. A petition calling for a referendum must be presented to the executive council of the canton, as a rule, within thirty days after the enactment of the measure upon which it is proposed that a vote be taken. The number of signers required to make the petition effective varies from 500 in Zug to 6,000 in St. Gall. Likewise, the proportion of voters which is competent to reject a measure is variable. In some cantons a majority of all enfranchised citizens is required; in others, a simple majority of those actually voting upon the proposition in hand. In the event of popular rejection of a measure which the cantonal legis- lature has passed, the executive council gives the proper notice to the legislature, which thereupon pronounces the measure void. 3 1 Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., 243. 2 It will be observed, of course, that in the cantons which maintain a Landes- gemeinde there is no occasion for the employment of the referendum upon either constitutional or legislative questions. The people there act directly and nec- essarily upon every important proposition. 3 Important treatises on the Swiss referendum are T. Curti, Geschichte der schweizerischen Volksgesetzgebung (Zurich, 1885); ibid., Die Volksabstimmung in der schweizerischen Gesetzgebung (Zurich, 1886). A French version of the former work, by J. Ronjat, has appeared under the title Le referendum: histoire de la 16gis- lation populaire en Suisse (Paris, 1905). Of large value is Curti, Die Resultate des schweizerischen Referendums (26. ed., Bern, 1911). An older account is J. A. Herzog, Das Referendum in der Schweiz (Berlin, 1885). An excellent book is S. Duploige, Le referendum en Suisse (Brussels, 1892), of which there is an English translation, by C. P, Trevelyan, under the title The Referendum in Switzerland THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM THE CANTONS 421 463. The Initiative. The complement of the referendum is the initiative. Through the exercise of the one the people may prevent the taking effect of a law or a constitutional amendment to which they object, through the exercise of the other they may not merely bring desired measures to the attention of the legislature; they may secure the enactment of such measures despite the indifference or opposition of the legislative body. In current political discussion, and in their actual operation, the two are likely to be closely associated. They are, however, quite distinct, as is illustrated by the fact that the earliest adoptions of the initiative in Switzerland occurred in cantons (Vaud in 1845 an d Aargau in 1852) in which as yet the referendum did not exist. Among the Swiss cantons the right of popular legislative initiative is now all but universal. It has been established in all of the cantons save Freiburg, Lucerne, and Valais. As a rule, measures may be proposed by the same proportion of voters as is competent to overthrow a measure referred from the legislature; and any measure proposed by the requisite number of voters must be taken under consideration by the legislature within a specified period. If the legislature desires to prepare a counter-project to be submitted to the voters along with the popularly initiated proposition, it may do so. But the original proposal must, in any case, go before the people, accompanied by the legislature's opinion upon it; and their verdict is decisive. 1 IV. THE CANTONAL EXECUTIVE AND JUDICIARY 464. The Council of State. Executive authority within the canton is vested regularly in an administrative council, variously designated as a Regierungsrath, a Standeskommission, or a Conseil d'Etat. The Council of State (employing this phrase to designate each body of the kind, however named) consists of from five to thirteen members, serving for from one to five years. In more than half of the cantons the members are chosen by popular vote; in the rest, they are elected by the Greater Council, or legislature. By the Council of State (in a few instances by the legislature) is chosen a chairman, or president, known in the German cantons as the Landammann. 2 The office of Landammann is (London, 1898). Of value also are Stiissi, Referendum und Initiative in den Scheiz- erkantonen (Zurich, 1894), and J. Signorel, Etude de legislation compared sur le referendum legislatif (Paris, 1896). Mention may be made of J. Delpech, Quelques observations a propos du referendum et des Landesgemeinde suisse, in Revue du Droit Public, April- June, 1906. *A. Keller, Das Volksinitiativrecht nach den schweizerischen Kantonsverfas- sungen (Zurich, 1889). 2 In the Landesgemeinde cantons the Landammann is elected by the primary assembly. 422 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE one of dignity and honor, at least locally, but it is not one of large authority. The Landammann is the chief spokesman of the canton, but legally his status is scarcely superior to that of his fellow councillors. The functions of the Council embrace the execution of the laws, the preservation of order, the drawing up of fiscal statements, the drafting of proposed legislation, the rendering of decisions in cases on appeal, and, in general, the safeguarding of the interests of the canton. For purposes of convenience the functions of the Council are divided among departments, to each of which one of the councillors is assigned. All acts, however, are performed in the name of the Council as a whole. In those cantons which have fullfledged legislative chambers councillors may attend sessions and speak, though as a rule they may not vote. 465. Local Administration. For purposes of administration all cai\ton^, save a few of the smaller ones, are divided into districts (187 in the aggregate), at the head of each of which is placed a prefect or Bezirksammann. This official, whether chosen by the Council of State, by the Greater Council, or even by the people of the district, is in every sense a representative of the cantonal government. Sometimes he is assisted by a Bezirksrath, or district council; frequently he is not. In Schwyz there is a Bezirksgemeinde, or popular assembly, in each of the six districts, but this is wholly exceptional. Each canton is built up of communes, or Gemeinden, and these communes, 3,164 in number, comprise the most deeply rooted political units of the country. Legally, each is composed of all male Swiss citizens over twenty years of age resident within the communal bounds during a period of at least three months. The meeting of these persons is known as the Gemeindeversammlung, or the assemblee generate. By it are chosen an executive council (the Gemeinderath or conseil municipal) and a mayor (Gemeindeprasident). A principle adhered to by the cantonal governments generally is that in the work of local adminis- tration the largest possible use shall be made of the mayors of towns, the headmen of villages, and other minor local dignitaries. 1 466. Justice. Each canton has a judicial system which is essentially complete within itself. Judges are elected by the people. The hierarchy of civil tribunals the Vermittler, or justice of the peace, the Bezirks- gericht, or district court, and the Kantonsgericht is paralleled by a hierarchy of courts for the trial of criminal cases, a special committee or chamber of the Kantonsgericht serving as the criminal court of last resort. Only in few and wholly exceptional instances may appeal be carried from a cantonal to a federal tribunal. 1 Vincent, Government in Switzerland, Chap. 10; Adams and Cunningham, The Swiss Confederation, Chap. 8; Lloyd, A Sovereign People, Chap. 3. CHAPTER XXIII THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT I. THE EXECUTIVE 467. The Federal Council: the President. At the framing of the Swiss constitution, as at that of the American, there arose the question of a single or a plural executive. In the United States the disadvantages assumed to be inherent in an executive which should consist of a number of persons who were neither individually responsible nor likely to be altogether harmonious determined a decision in favor of a single presi- dent. In Switzerland, on the other hand, the cantonal tradition of a (T collegiate executive, combined with an exaggerated fear of the concen- tration of power, determined resort to the other alternative. There is a president of the Swiss Confederation. But, as will appear, his status is altogether different from that of the President of tie United States, and likewise from that of the President of France. The Swiss executive consists rather of a Bundesrath, or Federal Council, in which the President is little more than chairman. "The supreme directive and executive authority of the Confederation," says the constitution, " shall be exercised by a Federal Council, composed of seven members." 1 The members of the Federal Council are elected by the Federal Assembly, i. e., the National Council and the Council of the States in joint session, from among all citizens eligible to the National Council, or popular legislative body, with the condition simply that not more than one member may be chosen from the same canton. Nominally, the term of members is three years; practically, it is variable, for whenever the National Council is dissolved prior to the expiration of its triennial period the new Assembly proceeds forthwith to choose a new Federal Council. Two officials, designated respectively as President of the Confederation and Vice-President of the Federal Coun- cil, are elected annually by the Assembly from among the seven mem- bers of the Council. A retiring president may not be elected president or vice-president for the succeeding year; nor may any member occupy the vice-presidency during two consecutive years. By custom the 1 Art. 95, Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 281. 423 424 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE vice-president regularly succeeds to the presidency. The function of the President, as such, is simply that of presiding over the deliberations of the Council. He has no more power than any one of his six colleagues. Like each of them, he assumes personal direction of some one of the principal executive departments. 1 The only peculiarity of his status is that he performs the ceremonial duties connected with the titular headship of the state and draws a salary of 13,500 francs instead of the 12,000 drawn by each of the other councillors. He is in no sense a "chief executive." 468. The Executive Departments. The business of the Council is divided among the seven departments of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Justice and Police, Military Affairs, Imposts and Finance, Posts and Railways, and Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture. Each depart- ment is presided over by a member of the Council, and to each is assigned from time to time, by the President, such subjects for considera- tion as properly fall within its domain. It is stipulated by the constitu- tion, however, that this distribution shall be made for the purpose only of facilitating the examination and despatch of business. All decisions are required to emanate from the Council as a body. 2 Ordi- narily a councillor remains at the head of a department through a con- siderable number of years, 3 and it may be added that, by reason of an increase in the aggregate volume of governmental business, the depart- mental head enjoys to-day a larger measure of independence than formerly. A quorum of the Council consists of four- members, and no member may absent himself from a session witnout excuse. Except in elections, voting is viva wee, and an abstract of proceedings is pub- lished regularly in the official gazette of the Republic. 469. Actual Character of the Council. The Federal Council, although at certain points resembling a cabinet, is not a cabinet, and no such thing as cabinet government, or a parliamentary system, can be said to exist uTSwitzerland. The Council does, it is true, prepare measures and lay them before the Assembly. Its^ members even appear on the floor of the two chambers and defend these measures. But the coun- cillors are not, and may not be, members of the Assembly; they do not, of necessity, represent a common political party, faith, or programme, they are not necessarily agreed among themselves upon the merits or 1 No longer, as prior to 1888, necessarily that of foreign affairs. 2 Art. 103. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 284. For a synopsis of the law of July 8, 1887, whereby an apportionment of functions was made among the various departments see Dupriez, Les Ministres, II., 239-246. 1 Members of the Council are re-elected, almost as a matter of course, as long as they are willing to serve. Between 1848 and 1893 the average period of service exceeded ten years. Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., 203. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 425 demerits of a particular legislative proposal; and if overruled by a majority of the Assembly they do not so much as think of retiring from office, for each member has been elected by a separate ballot for a fixed term. 1 In other words, the Council is essentially what Swiss writers have themselves denominated it, i. e., arj^executive committee of the Federal Assembly. It possesses a large measure of solidarity, but only for the purposes of routine business. Quite superior to it in every way so much so that even its most ordinary administrative measures may be set aside is the Assembly, as against which the Council possesses not a shred of constitutional prerogative. In the-^isembly is vested ultimate authority, and in the event of a clash of policies what the Assembly orders the Council performs. Between the executive and the legislative branches of the government the relation is quite as close as it is in a parliamentary system, but the relation is of a totally different sort. 2 470. The Council's Functions. The functions of the Council are at the same time executive, legislative, and judicial. On the executive side it is the duty of the body to'^execute ihelaws and resolutions of the Confederation and the judgments of the Federal Court"; to watch over the external interests of the Confederation and to conduct foreign relations; to safeguard the welfare, external and internal, of the state; to make such appointments as are not intrusted to any other agency; to administer the finances of the Confederation, introduce the budget, and submit accounts of receipts and expenses; to supervise the con- duct of all officers and employees of the Confederation; to enforce the observance of the federal constitution and the guaranty of the can- tonal constitutions; and to manage the federal military establishment. In respect to legislation it is made the duty of the Council to introduce bills or resolutions into the Federal Assembly and to give its opinion upon the proposals submitted to it by the chambers or by the cantons; also to submit to the Assembly at each regular session an account of its own administration, together with a report upon the internal con- ditions and the foreign relations of the state. 3 The* Council possesses no veto upon the Assembly's measures. The judicial functions of the Council are such as arise from the fact that there are in Switzerland 1 The resignation, in 1891, of M. Weld, a member of the Council since 1867, by reason of the fact that the people rejected his project for the governmental purchase of railway shares occasioned general consternation. 5 For interesting observations upon the advantages and disadvantages of the Swiss system see Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., 204-208. See also Vincent, Government in Switzerland, Chap. 16; Dupriez, Les Ministres, II., 188-203. 3 Art. 102. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 282-284; Dupriez, Les Ministres, II., 218-225. 426 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE no administrative courts, so that the varied kinds of administrative cases which have been withheld from the jurisdiction of the Federal Tribunal are in practice dealt with directly by the Federal Council, with appeal, as a rule, to the Assembly. 1 n. LEGISLATION: THE FEDERAL ASSEMBLY With specific reservation of the sovereign rights of the people and of the cantons, the constitution vests the exercise of the supreme author- ity of the Confederation in the Bundesversammlung, or Federal Assembly. Unlike the cantonal legislatures, the Federal Assembly consists of two houses a Nationalrath, or National Council, and a Standerath, or Council of the States. 2 The one comprises essentially a house of representatives; the other, a senate. The adoption, in the constitution of 1848, of the hitherto untried bicameral principle came about as a compromise between conflicting demands of the same sort that were voiced in the Philadelphia convention of 1787 the demand, that is, of the smaller federated units for an equality of political power and that of the larger ones for a proportioning of such power to popula- tion. 471. The National Council: Composition and Organization. The National Council is composed of deputies chosen at a general election, for a term of three years, by direct manhood suffrage. The constitu- tion stipulates that there shall be one representative for every 20,000 inhabitants, or major fraction thereof, and a reapportionment is made consequent upon each decennial census. The electoral districts are so laid out that no one comprises portions of different cantons; but they are of varying sizes and are entitled to unequal numbers of representatives, according to their population. Within the district all representatives, if there are more than one, are chosen on a general ticket, and the individual elector has a right to 'vote for a number of candidates equal to the number of seats to be filled. The quota of representatives falling to the various cantons under this arrangement varies from one in Uri and in Zug to twenty-two in Zurich and twenty- nine in Bern. Every canton and each of the six half-cantons is en- titled to at least one deputy. The total number in 191 1 was 189. The 1 Art. 113. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 286. The nature and functions of the Swiss executive are treated briefly in Vincent, Government in Switzerland, Chap. 17, and Adams and Cunningham, The Swiss Confederation, Chap. 4. An excellent account is that in Dupriez, Les Ministres, II., 182-246. Of value are Blumer and Morel, Handbuch des schweizerischen Bundesstaatsrechts, III., 34-92, and Dubs, Le droit public de la confederation suisse, II., 77-105. 2 In French, the Conseil National and the Conseil des fitats. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 427 electorate consists of all male Swiss who have attained their twentieth year and who are in possession of the franchise within their respective cantons. The establishment of electoral districts, as well as the regula- tion of the conduct of federal elections, has been accomplished, under provision of the constitution, by federal statute. Voting is in all cases by secret ballot, and elections take place always on the same day (the last Sunday in October) throughout the entire country. An abso- lute majority of the votes cast is necessary for election, save that, following twcTuhsuccessful attempts to procure such a majority within a district, at the third trial a simple plurality is sufficient. Except that no member of the clergy may be chosen, every citizen in possession of the federal franchise is eligible to a seat in the National Council. 1 Members receive a, small salary, which is proportioned to days of ac- tual attendance and paid out of the federal treasury. At each regular or extraordinary session the National Council chooses from among its members a president, a vice-president, and four tellers, under the provision, however, that a member who during a regular session has held the office of president is ineligible either as president or vice-president at the ensuing regular session, and that the same member may not be vice-president during two consecutive regular sessions. In all elections within the National Council the president participates as any other member; in legislative matters he possesses a vote only in the event of a tie. The president, vice-presi- dent, and tellers together comprise the "bureau" of the Council, by which most of the committees are nominated, votes are counted, and routine business is transacted. 2 472. The Council of the States: Composition and Status. Super- ficially, the Swiss Council of the States resembles the American Senate, and it is commonly understood that the framers of the constitution of 1848 created the institution not merely by reason of an inevitable tendency to perpetuate in some measure the purely federal features of the old Diet, but also in consequence of a deliberate purpose to set up a legislative body which should fulfill essentially those comple- mentary and restraining functions which in the United States were assigned to the upper chamber. In point of fact, however, the Swiss Council has little in common with its American counterpart. It con- sists of forty-four members, two chosen within each canton; and to this extent it indeed resembles the Senate, llie manner of election and the qualifications of members, however, as well as tenure of office and the arrangements made for remuneration, are not regulated, as 1 This denial of clerical eligibility was inspired by fear of Catholic influences. 'Arts. 72-79. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 277-278. 428 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE are similar matters in the United States, by the constitution, or by federal authority, but, on the contrary, are left entirely to be deter- mined by the individual cantons. The consequence is a total lack of uniformity in these highly important matters. In some cantons mem- bers are elected by popular vote; in others, by the legislative assembly. In some they are chosen for one year; in others, for two; in still others, for three. The consequence is that the Council is commonly lacking in compactness and morale. More serious still is the fact that the func- tions of the upper chamber are in all respects identical with those of the lower. The American Senate has power and character of its own, quite apart from that of the House of Representatives; the Swiss Council has nothing of the kind. Its organization, even, is an almost exact replica of that of the lower chamber. 1 In the earlier days of the present constitutional system the Council enjoyed high prestige and influence; but by reason of the conditions that have been described the body in time fell into decline. Able and ambitious statesmen have preferred usually to be identified with the lower house. The upper chamber possesses large powers powers nominally co-ordinate with those of the lower one and it has acted not infrequently with suffi- cient independence to defeat measures advocated by the National Coun- cil. But, without being the feeble upper chamber that is commonly associated with a parliamentary system of government, it is yet es- sentially lacking in the initiative and independence of a true senate. 2 473. Powers of the National Assembly. In the constitution it is stipulated that the National Council and the Council of the States shall have the right to consider all subjects placed within the compe- tence of the Confederation and not assigned to any other federal authority. 3 The range of this competence is enormous. There are, in the first place, certain functions which the two houses perform while sitting jointly under the direction of the president of the National Council. These are electoral and judicial in character and comprise (i) the election of the Federal Council, or executive committee of the Confederation, the federal judges, the chancellor, 4 and the generals 1 "Neither the president nor the vice-president may be ehosen at any session from the canton from which the president for the preceding session was chosen; and the vice-presidency may not be held during two successive regular sessions by representatives of the same canton." Art. 82. 2 Arts. 80-83. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 278. 3 Art. 84. Ibid., II., 278. 4 The principal duty of the chancellor is the keeping of the minutes of the National Council. A vice-chancellor, appointed by the Federal Council, per- forms a similar function in the Council of States, under responsibility to the chan- cellor. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 429 of the federal army; (2) the granting of pardons; and (3) the adjust- ment of jurisdictional conflicts between different branches of the federal governmental system. Much more extensive are the powers which the houses, sitting separately, exercise concurrently. The constitution requires that the councils be assembled at least once annually. In practice, they meet in June and December of each year, regular sessions extending as a rule through four or five weeks. At the request of either one-fourth of the members of the National Councillor of five cantons an extraordi- nary session must be held, and there is a probability of one such ses- sion each year, ordinarily in March. The powers assigned the cham- bers to be exercised in their concurrent capacities may be classified variously. The more important are: (i) the enactment of laws and ordinances upon the organization and election of federal authorities and upon all subjects which by the constitution are placed within the federal competence; (2) the conduct of foreign relations, particu- larly the concluding of treaties and alliances with foreign powers, the supervision of conventions entered into by the cantons (in the event that the Federal Council, or any canton, protests against such cantonal arrangements), the declaring of war and the concluding of peace, and the taking of measures for the safety, independence, and neutrality of the Confederation; (3) the control of the federal army; Q.) the adoption of the annual budget, the authorizing of federal loans, and the auditing of public accounts; (5) the taking of measures for the enforcement of the provisions of the federal constitution, for the carrying out of the guaranty of the cantonal constitutions, for the fulfillment of federal obligations, and for the supervision of the federal administration and of the federal courts; and (6) the revision of the federal constitution. 1 It will be perceived that the powers exercised by the chambers are principally legislative, but also in no small degree executive and judicial; that, as has already been em- phasized, the two councils comprise the real directive agency of the Confederation. 474. The Assembly's Procedure. Federal laws, decrees, and resolutions are passed only by agreement of the two councils. Any measure may originate in either house and may be introduced by any member. There are committees upon various subjects, but bills are referred to them only by special vote. Committee members are chosen by the chamber directly or by the chamber's "bureau," as the cham- ber itself may determine. In each house a majority constitutes a quorum for the transaction of business, and measures are passed by 1 Art. 85, 1-14. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 278-279. 43 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE a simple majority. Sittings, as a rule, are public. It is expressly forbidden that members shall receive from their constituents, or from the cantonal governments, instructions respecting the manner in which they shall vote. 1 III. LEGISLATION: THE REFERENDUM AND THE INITIATIVE From the domain of cantonal legislative procedure there has been carried over into federal law-making the fundamental principle of the referendum. The federal referendum exists to-day in two forms, i. e., the optional and the obligatory. The one appeared for the first time in the revised constitution of 1874 and is applicable exclusively to projects of ordinary legislation. The other was established by the constitution of 1848 and is applicable solely to. proposed amendments of that instrument. 476. The Optional Referendum: Laws and Resolutions. After a law which has been enacted by the Federal Assembly has been published it enters regularly upon a probationary period, of ninety days during which, under stipulated conditions,^ may l5e referred directly to the people for ratification or rejection. The only excep- tions are afforded by those measures which, by declaration of the councils, are of a private rather than a general character, and those which are "urgent." Such acts take effect at once. But all others are suspended until there shall have been adequate opportunity for the carrying through of a referendum. At any time within the ninety- day period a referendum may be demanded, either by the people directly or by the cantonal governments. Petitions signed by as many as ^0,000 voters, or adopted by the legislatures of as many as eight cantons, render it obligatory upon the Federal Council to ar- range for the submission of a measure to a referendum within four weeks after the announcement of the demand has been made. The method of the referendum is carefully prescribed by federal legislation. Every citizen in possession of unimpaired civil rights is entitled to vote, and the voting takes place under the supervision of the authori- ties of the commune and of the canton. If in a majority of the can- tons a preponderance of votes is cast in favor of the measure in hand, the Federal Council proclaims the fact and the measure goes at once into operation. An adverse majority, on the other hand, renders the measure null. In the event that no referendum is demanded, the measure, of course, goes automatically into effeqt at the expira- 1 For a brief account of the procedure of the chambers see Vincent, Government in Switzerland, 181-187. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 431 tion of the ninety-day period. Since its introduction into the federal constitution the principle of the legislative referendum has beer brought to bear upon a not inconsiderable number of legislative projects. The proportion, indeed, of laws falling within the range. of the system which have been subjected to the popular vote, while varying widely from time to time, has been not far from ten per cent ; and of the measures actually voted upon several of importance have been rejected. In all instances the demand has arisen directly from citizen^petitioners, not from the cantonal governments. 1 476. The Obligatory Referendum: Constitutional Amendments. In its application to laws and resolutions the referendum is optional; in application to constitutional amendments it is obligatory. Revi- sion of the Swiss constitution may be accomplished at any time, in whole or in part, and in a variety of modes. In the event that the legislative councils are able to agree upon a scheme of revision they vote the adoption of the proposed amendment precisely as if it were an ordinary statute, and it is thereupon submitted to the people for acceptance or rejection. If, however, the two houses disagree upon the question of a total revision, or if as many as 50,000 voters make demand for a total revision, there must be put to the people the pre- liminary question as to whether there shall be a revision at all. If the will of the majority is affirmative, new legislative councils must be elected, and to them falls the obligation of executing the popular mandate. When the question is one of but partial revision the procedure is somewhat different. Partial revision may be instituted either by the councils or by petition of 50,000 voters. When a popular petition is presented there are four possible courses of action: (i) if the project is presented in general terms and the councils are in agreement upon it, they reduce the proposal to specific form and submit it to the *On the operation of the optional referendum see Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., 252-261. "From 1874 till 1908 the Federal Assembly passed 261 bills and resolutions which could constitutionally be subjected to the referendum. Thirty of these 261 were actually voted on by the people, who ratified eleven and rejected nineteen of them. The effect of the federal optional legislative referendum was, then, to hold up a little more than seven per cent of the statutory output of the Federal Assembly." W. E. Rappard, in American Political Science Review, Aug., 1912, 357. On the most recent exercise of the federal referendum (the adop- tion, February 4, 1912, of a national Accident and Sickness Insurance bill) see M. Turmann, Le referendum suisse du 4 f6vrier la loi f6drale sur 1'assurance- maladie et 1'assurance accident, in Le Correspondant, Feb. 10, 1912. This particu- lar referendum was called for by 75,000 voters. The measure submitted was approved by a vote of 287,566 to 241416, on a poll of 63.04 per cent of the registered electorate. 432 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE people; (2) if the councils are not in agreement upon the project they put to the people the preliminary question of whether an amendment of the general type proposed is desirable, and if the vote is affirmative they proceed with the revision; (3) if the petition is presented in a form that is specific and final and the councils are in agreement upon it, the project is submitted forthwith to the people; and (4) if the councils are not in agreement upon a specific project so advanced, they may prepare a project of their own, or recommend the rejection of the proposed amendment, and they may submit their counter- project or their recommendation at the same time that the initiative petition is presented to the people. 1 In no case may an amendment be put into effect until it has received the assent of a majority of those voting thereon in a majority of the cantons. Of seventeen constitu- tional amendments submitted by the Federal Assembly between 1874 and 1908 twelve were ratified and five were rejected. 477. The Popular Initiative. The right of popular initiative in the revision of the constitution was established by an amendment of July 5, 1891, through the united efforts of all the anti-Radical parties and groups. The purpose underlying the amendment was to break the monopoly long enjoyed by the Radicals by placing within the hands of any fifty thousand citizens the power to compel the federal government to take under consideration proposed modifications of the constitution, to prepare projects relating to them, and to submit these projects to the ultimate decision of the people. When the sys- tem was established many persons seriously feared that the way had been thrown open for frequent, needless, and revolutionary change, by which the stability of the state would be impaired. Such appre- hension, however, has been proved groundless. During a score of years only nine popularly-initiated amendments have been voted upon, and only three have been incorporated in the fundamental law. One of the three, adopted in 1893, prohibited the Jewish method of slaughtering animals, and was purely a product of the antisemitic movement. The other two were adopted in 1908. One authorized for the first time legislation by the federal authorities upon subjects relating to the trades and professions; the other prohibited the manu- facture and sale of absinthe. A number of other more or less sweeping amendments, it is true, have been proposed, but all alike have failed of adoption. Thus, in 1894, perished a socialistic scheme whereby the state was to obligate itself to provide employment for every able- bodied man, and in the same year, a project to pay over to the cantons a bonus of two francs per capita from the rapidly increasing returns 1 Arts. 118-123. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 287-289. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 433 of the customs duties. 1 Similarly, in 1900, failed two interesting pro- jected reforms relating to the federal electoral system. One of these provided for the introduction, in the various cantons, of the principle of proportional representation in the election of members of the Na- tional Council. The other provided for the election of the members of the Federal Council, not, as at present, by the General Assembly, but by direct popular vote, the whole mass of electors voting, not by cantons, but as one national constituency. In June, 1900, both of these electoral proposals were rejected by the legislative chambers, and in the ensuing November the people ratified the rejection. In 1903, there was defeated in the same way a proposal to base repre- sentation hi the National Council, not upon the total population of the country, but upon the Swiss population alone. In 1909-10 the proportional representation project was revived, but with a negative result. 2 Among reforms that have been much discussed in recent years has been the extension of the initiative and of the obligatory referen- dum to all federal legislation. Both apply as yet only to constitutional amendments. In 1906 the Federal Council went so far as to submit to the legislative councils a proposal intended to meet the first of these ends. The purport of the proposal was that fifty thousand voters, 1 C. Borgeaud, Le p!6biscite du 4 novembre 1894, in Revue du Droit Public, Nov.-Dec., 1894. The adverse votes were decisive, i. e., 308,289 to 75,880 and 347,401 to 145*362 respectively. 2 The introduction of proportional representation in Switzerland is advocated especially by the Socialists and the Clericals, to whom principally would accrue the benefits of the system. The Liberals are favorable to the principle, though they prefer to postpone the issue. The Radicals are solidly opposed. At the referendum of 1900 the project was rejected by n> to io> cantons, and by a popular majority of 75,000; at that of October 23,1910, it was approved by 12 to 10 cantons, but was rejected popularly by a majority of less than 25,000 (265,194 negative, 240,305 affirmative). Rather curiously, the defeat arose largely from the defection of the Catholic canton of Freiburg, which in 1900 was favorable by a vote of 13,000 to 3,800. The canton's vote in 1910 was for rejection, by 11,200 to 3,900. By those best acquainted with the situation this astonishing reversal is explained by the influence which is exercised in the canton to-day by M. Python, a dictator who opposes any innovation whereby his own controlling position would be menaced. Not unnaturally, the friends of the project (and in 1910 all parties save the Radicals gave it their support) regard the outcome in 1910 as a certain forecast of eventual victory. In nine of the cantonal governments, beginning with that of Ticino in 1891, the principle has been already put in operation. In truth, the defeat of 1910 was followed promptly by a triumph in the important canton of St. Gall, where the proportional system was adopted for the first time, February 5, 1911, for elections of the cantonal council. See E. Secretan, Suisse, in Revue Politique et Parlementaire, Feb., 1911; G. Daneo, La rappresentanza proporzionale nella Svizzera, in Nuova Antologia, Sept. 16, 1910. 434 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE or eight cantons, should have the right at any time to demand the passage, modification, or repeal of any sort of federal law or federal decree. In December, 1906, the project was debated in the National Council, after which it was referred to the Federal Council for further consideration. The proposal is still pending, but its eventual adop- cion is probable. 1 IV. POLITICAL PARTIES 478. Centralism vs. Federalism. Until the middle of the nine- teenth century the most fundamental of political questions in modern Switzerland was that of centralization, and the most enduring of political cleavages among the people was that which marked off the " centralists " from the " federalists." There was a time when the annihilation of the cantons and the establishment .of a thoroughly consolidated state was not only openly advocated but confidently predicted. With the establishment, however, of the reasonable com- promise embodied in the constitution of 1848 the issue of centraliza- tion dropped pretty much into the background. There continued to be, and still are, "centralizers;" but the term has come long since to denote merely men who, with due regard for the susceptibilities of the cantons, direct their influence habitually to the strengthening of the central agencies of government. The constitution of 1848 was the work of a combination of cen- tralist elements which acquired the general designation of Radicals. Opposed to the Radicals were the federalist Moderates. Between 1848 and 1874 controlling influence was maintained steadily by the Radicals, although during the decade 1850-1860 there was a fusion of parties in consequence of which there existed through many years an extremely intricate political situation. Gradually there emerged a three-fold party grouping, which has survived uninterruptedly from the era of the constitutional revision of 1874 until our own day. The three parties, as aligned now through more than a generation in the National Council, are: (i) the Right, or Clericals; (2) the Left, or Radicals; and (3) the Centre, or Liberals. To these, in very recent times, must be added a small but growing group of the Extreme Left, comprising ultra-democrats and socialists. 479. The Parties of To-day. The basis of segregation of the Right is primarily religious. The party is thoroughly clerical, and it has for 1 Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 280-281. For references on the initiative and the referendum see p. 420. A very satisfactory appraisal of the operation of these principles in Switzerland may be found in Lloyd, A Sovereign People, chaps. 14-15. See also W. E. Rappard, The Initiative and the Referendum in Switzerland, in American Political Science Review, Aug., 1912. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT its fundamental object the defense of the Catholic church and the interests of the Catholic population. In the Catholic cantons it oc- cupies the field almost alone, and everywhere it is the most compact and zealous of the parties, although even it is not without a certain amount of division of opinion and of policy. The Left, or JRaolical party^has always represented a combination of widely varied shades "ofradicalism and democracy. Its greatest strength lies in the predom- inantly Protestant cantons, and it is distinctly anti-clerical. Large portions of the party have ceased long since to be really radical, although on one side there is an imperceptible shading off into the ranks of the advanced democrats and socialists. Through many years the party has been lacking notoriously in cohesion. Between the Con- servative Right and the Radical Left stands the Centre, or the Liberal group, lacking most notably of all in unity, but preserving the tradi- . ' * tional Swiss principles of personal freedom in defiance of the tendency of the state in the direction of paternalism. The Liberals are not strong numerically, but they comprise men of wealth and influence (largely conservative Protestants), and in the shaping of economic policies, in which they are interested principally, they sometimes exercise a powerful influence. During the years immediately follow- ing the constitutional revision of 1874 no one of these three parties possessed in the Federal Assembly a clear majority, with the conse- quence that the Centre was able to maintain a balance between the other two. Gradually, however, the Radicals regained their former ascendancy, and in subsequent years their preponderance, in especially the lower chamber, has tended steadily to be increased. 480. Party Stability and Strength. Concerning the political parties of Switzerland two or three things are worthy of special observation. The first is the remarkable stability which these parties, despite their obvious lack of cohesion, exhibit from the point of view both of party identity and of party strength. Except the Socialists, who have ceased to vote and act with the Radicals, there has sprung into exist- ence not one new political party since 1874. Numerous and varied as have been the political issues of these four decades, no one of them has given rise to a new party grouping. And, save for the gradual augmentation of Radical strength to which allusion has been made, there has been in this period no noteworthy change in the relative strength of the party groups. Sudden fluctuations, such as in other countries are common, are in Switzerland quite unknown. The reasons are varied and not wholly clear, but among them seem to be the brevity of national legislative sessions, the lack of federal patronage whereby party zeal may be whetted, the indirect method of electing the 436 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Federal Council, and the essentially non-partisan character of the referendum. 1 Party strength in the National Council following the election of 1878 was: Clericals, 35; Liberals, 31; Radicals, 69. After the election of 1881 it was: Clericals, 36; Liberals, 26; and Radicals, 83. In these proportions the six triennial elections between 1884 and 1902 produced no important change, although in 1890 the Socialists broke somewhat into the balance by winning six seats. After the census of 1900 the number of members of the Council was raised from 147 to 167, and the results of the election of 1902 were as follows: Clericals, 35 ; Liberals, 25; Radicals, 97; Socialists, 9; and Independents, i. In 1905 the Radicals, who hitherto had co-operated with the Socialists in many constituencies, broke with them upon the question of military policy, with the result that the Socialist contingent in the Council was cut to two. In 1908 and 1911 the Socialists made, however, some recovery; so that, on the whole, the party situation in the Council remains to- day very nearly what it was ten years ago. By popular suffrage the Radicals are continued uninterruptedly in control, although the people do not hesitate again and again to reject measures framed by Radical administrators and law-makers and submitted to the vote of the na- tion. 481. The Inactivity of Parties. A second important fact respecting the parties of Switzerland is their all but total lack of organization and machinery. Parties are little more than groups of people who hold similar views upon public questions. Of office-seekers there are few, and of professional politicians fewer still. Elections are not infrequently uncontested, and only at rare intervals do they serve to awaken any considerable public enthusiasm. There are no campaign managers and funds, no platforms, no national committees, no elaborate systems of caucuses or conventions. Candidates for seats in the National Council are nominated by political gatherings in the several districts, but the proceedings are frequently of an all but purely non-partisan character. Political congresses are held occasionally, and a few political associations exist, but their activities are limited and comparatively unimportant. So far as there is party vigor at all, it is expended prin- cipally upon local issues and contests within the cantons. Finally, it must be observed that the Swiss government is not a government by party at all. The Federal Council regularly includes members of more than one party, and there is no attempt to preserve in the body a homogeneous partisan character. Even in the legislative councils considerations of party are but incidental. Upon by no means 1 Upon this subject, especially the effects of the referendum upon political parties, see Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., 314-332. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 437 all public issues are party lines drawn, and where they are drawn there is seldom that compactness and discipline of party to which legis- lative assemblies in other nations are accustomed. An evidence of the secondary importance of party demarcation is afforded by the fact that, instead of being arranged in groups according to party affiliations, the members of the National Council are so placed, as a rule, that all of the deputies of a canton occupy contiguous seats. The Federal Council, being elected by the Federal Assembly, is practically certain to reflect the preponderating political complexion of that body. But, in the entire absence of the parliamentary system, there is no essential reason why politically the executive and legislative organs should be in accord. 1 V. THE JUDICIARY 482.; The Federal Court: Civil Jurisdiction. In respect toorganiza- tibQyXhe Swiss federal judiciary is very simple; in respect to functions, it is extremely complex. It comprises but a single tribunal, the Bundes- gericht, or Federal Court. The court, created originally in 1848, con- sists to-day of sixteen judges and nine alternates, all chosen by the Federal Assembly for a term of six years. Any citizen eligible to the National Council may be elected to the Federal Court, but it is incum- bent upon the Assembly to take care that all of the three officially recognized languages German, French, and Italian are represented. The president and vice-president of the court are designated by the Assembly, for a two years' term, but the court is authorized to organize its own secretariat and to appoint the officials thereof. Judges are forbidden to sit in either house of the federal legislature, to occupy any other office, or to engage in any alien pursuit or profession. Their yearly salary is 12,000 francs. The seat of the Court is Lausanne, in the French province of Vaud. The jurisdiction of the Federal Court extends not only to ordinary civil and criminal cases but also to cases arising under public law. The competence of the tribunal in civil cases is very considerable. It extends to all suits between the Confederation and the cantons; between the Confederation and corporations or individuals, when such corpora- tions or individuals appear as plaintiffs, and when the amount involved exceeds 3,000 francs; between cantons; and between cantons and cor- porations or individuals, upon request of the parties, and when the amount involved exceeds 3,000 francs. The constitution authorizes the 1 On Swiss political parties see Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., Chap. 13; Adams and Cunningham, The Swiss Confederation, Chap. 7. 438 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Confederation to enlarge, by legislation, the competence of the Court, 1 and from time to time a variety of specific fields of civil jurisdiction have been opened to it, such as those of transportation and bankruptcy. In addition to original jurisdiction in all matters that have been named, the Court is required by the constitution to exercise appellate juris- diction in cases carried on appeal, by mutual consent of the parties, from the cantonal courts. For the adjudication of civil cases the Court divides itself into two chambers of seven members each, presided over respectively by the president and vice-president. 483. Criminal and Public Law Jurisdiction. The tribunal's criminal jurisdiction is less extensive. It covers, in the main, cases of high treason against the Confederation, crimes and misdemeanors against the law of nations, political crimes and misdemeanors of such seriousness as to occasion armed federal intervention, and charges against officers appointed by a federal authority, when such authority makes applica- tion to the Federal Court. In cases falling within any one of these categories the Court is required to employ a jury to decide questions of fact. With the consent of the Federal Assembly, criminal cases of other kinds may be referred to the Federal Court by the cantonal govern- ments, ^^or the trial of criminal cases the Court is divided each year into four chambers, each of three members, save the fourth and highest, the Kassationshof, or Court of Appeals, which has five. The Confeder- ation is divided into three Assizenbezirke, or assize districts, and from time to time one of the criminal chambers sits in each. Within the domain of public law the Court is given cognizance of conflicts of jurisdiction between federal and cantonal authorities, con- flicts between cantons when arising out of questions of public law, complaints of violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, and complaints of individuals by reason of the violation of concordates or treaties. In actual operation, the range of powers which would appear thus to be conferred is much restricted by a clause which declares that "conflicts of administrative jurisdiction are reserved, and are to be settled in a manner prescribed by federal legislation." 2 Legislation in pursuance of this clause has withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Court a long list of possible subjects of litigation. Like European courts generally, the Swiss Federal Court possesses no power to determine the constitutionality of law, federal or cantonal. On the contrary, it is obligated to apply all law, by whatever proper authority enacted. 3 1 Art. 114. Dodd, Modem Constitutions, II., 287. 2 Art. 112. Ibid., II., 286. s On the Swiss federal judiciary see Vincent, Government in Switzerland, Chap. 15; Adams and Cunningham, The Swiss Confederation, Chap. 5. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 439 ,484^ The Civil Code. In 1898 the nation, through the means of a referendum, adopted the principle of the unification of all cantonal legal systems, civil and criminal, in a set of federal codes. Through more than a decade the task has been in progress, drafts being prepared by experts and submitted from time to time for criticism to special com- missions and to public opinion. Early in 1908 the Assembly adopted an elaborate Civil Code which in this way had been worked out, and January i, 1912, this monumental body of law was put in operation. By it many long established practices within the individual cantons were abolished or modified; but the humane and progressive character of the Code won for it such a measure of public approval that there was not even demand that the instrument be submitted to a referendum. PART VI. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY CHAPTER XXIV AUSTRIA-HUNGARY PRIOR TO THE AUSGLEICH '486/ The Dual Monarchy. The dual monarchy Austria-Hungary, iprising a sixteenth of the area, and containing an eighth of the population, of all Europe, is an anomaly among nations. It consists, strictly, of two sovereign states, each of which has a governmental system all but complete within itself. One of these is known officially as "The Kingdoms and Lands represented in the Reichsrath," but more familiarly as Cisleithania, or the Empire of Austria. The other, officially designated as "The Lands of St. StephenVCrown," is commonly called Transleithania, or the Kingdom of Hungary. By certain historical and political ties the two are bound togetheTunder the official name of the Osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchic, or Austro-Hungarian Mon- archy. 1 In the one the common sovereign is Emperor; in the other, Apostolic King. " If," says a modern writer, " France has been a laboratory for political experiments, Austria-Hungary is a museum of political curiosities, but it contains nothing so extraordinary as the relation between Austria and Hungary themselves." 2 In its present form this relation rests upon the memorable Ausgleich, or Compromise, of 1867. The historical phases of it, however, may be traced to a period as remote as the first half of the sixteenth century, when, in 1526, after the Hungarians had suffered overwhelming defeat by the Turks at the Battle of Mohacs, a Hapsburg prince, the later Emperor Ferdinand I., assumed, upon election by the Hungarian diet, the throne of the demoralized eastern kingdom. 3 Until the eighteenth century the union of the two monarchies was always precarious, much of the time practically non-existent. Set in the midst of a whirlpool of races and political powers, the ancient Hungarian state, recovered from its days of disaster, struggled unre- mittingly to preserve its identity, and even to regain its independence, 1 This designation was first employed in a diploma of the Emperor Francis Joseph I., November 14, 1868 (see p. 459). 2 Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., 177. * See p. 448. 441 442 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE as against the overshadowing Imperial authority of which Austria was the seat. The effort was fairly successful and as late as the Napo- leonic period Hungary, while bound to her western neighbor by a per- sonal union through the crown, maintained not only her essential auton- omy but even the constitutional style of government which had been hers since at least the early portion of the thirteenth century. A rapid sketch of the earlier political development of the two states seems a necessary introduction to an examination of the institutions, joint and separate, which to-day enter into the texture of their governmental organization. I. AUSTRIAN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT TO 1815 486. Origins. The original Austria was a mark, or border county, lying along the south bank of the Danube, east of the river Enns, and founded by Charlemagne as a bulwark of the Frankish kingdom against the Slavs. During the ninth century the territory was overrun suc- cessively by the Moravians and the Magyars, or Hungarians, and all traces of Frankish occupation were swept away. At the middle of the tenth century, however, following Otto the Great's signal triumph over the Hungarians on the Lech in 955, the mark was reconstituted; and from that point the development of modern Austria is to be traced con- tinuously. The name Osterreich, i. e., "eastern empire" or "do- minion," appears in a charter as early as 996. The first notable period of Austrian history was that covered by the rule of the house of Babenberg. The government of the mark was intrusted by the Emperor Otto II. to Leopold of Babenberg in 976, and from that date to the extinction of the fa,mily in 1246 the energies of the Babenbergs were absorbed principally in the enlargement of the boundaries of their dominion and in the consolidation of its adminis- tration. In 1156 the mark was raised by King Frederick I. to the dignity of a duchy, and such were the privileges conferred upon it that the duke's only obligation consisted in the attending of any Imperial diet which should be held in Bavaria and the sending of a contingent to the Im- perial army for such campaigns as should be undertaken in countries adjoining the duchy. 487. The Establishment of Hapsburg Dominion, 1276. In 1251 five years after the death of the last Babenberg the estates of the duchy elected as duke Ottakar, son of Wenceslaus I., king of Bohemia. In 1276, however, Duke Ottakar was compelled to yield his three dominions of Austria, Styria, and Carinthia to Rudolph of Hapsburg, who, in 1273, upon the breaking of the Interregnum, had become German king and emperor; and at this point began in Austria the AUSTRIA-HUNGARY PRIOR TO THE AUSGLEICH 443 rule of the illustrious Hapsburg dynasty of which the present Emperor Francis Joseph is a representative. Under the adroit management of Rudolph the center of gravity of Hapsburg power was shifted per- manently from the Rhine to the Danube, and throughout the re- mainder of the Middle Ages the history of Austria is a story largely of the varying fortunes of the Hapsburg interests. In 1453 the duchy was raised to the rank of an archduchy, and later in the century the Emperor Maximilian I. entertained plans for the establishment of an Austrian electorate, or even an Austrian kingdom. These plans were not carried into execution, but the Austrian lands were constituted one of the Imperial circles which were created in 1512, and in 1518 repre- sentatives of the various Austrian Landtage, or diets, were gathered for the first time in national assembly at Innsbruck. 488. Austro-Hungarian Consolidation. In 1519 Maximilian I. was succeeded in the archduchy of Austria, as well as in the Imperial office, by his grandson Charles of Spain, known thenceforth as the Emperor Charles V. To his brother Ferdinand, however, Charles resigned the whole of his Austrian possessions, and to Austrian affairs he gave throughout his reign but scant attention. Ferdinand, in turn, devoted himself principally to warfare with the Turks and to an at- tempt to secure the sovereignty of Hungary. His efforts met with a measure of success and there resulted that affiliation of Austria and Hungary which, though varying greatly from period to period in strength and in effect, has been maintained to the present day. Dur- ing a century succeeding Ferdinand's accession to the Imperial throne in 1556, the affairs of Austria were inextricably intertwined with those of the Empire, and it was only with the virtual disintegration of the Empire in consequence of the Thirty Years' War that the Hapsburg sovereigns fell back upon the policy of devoting themselves more immediately to the interests of their Austrian dominion. The fruits of this policy were manifest during the long reign of Leopold L, who ruled in Austria from 1655 to 1705 and was likewise emperor during the last forty-eight years of this period. At the close of a prolonged series of Turkish wars, the Peace of Karlowitz, Jan- uary 26, 1699, added definitely to the Austrian dominion Slavonia, Transylvania, and all Hungary save the banat of Temesvar, and thus completed the edifice of the Austrian monarchy. 1 The period was 1 At the diet of Pressburg, in 1687-1688, the Hungarian crown had been declared hereditary in the house of Hapsburg, and the Austrian heir, Joseph, had been crowned hereditary king. In 1697 Transylvania was united to the Hungarian monarchy. The banat of Temesvar was acquired by the Hapsburgs in 1718. The term " banat " denotes a border district, or march. 444 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE likewise one of internal consolidation. The Diet continued to be summoned from time to time, but the powers of the crown were aug- mented enormously, and it is to these years that scholars have traced the origins of that thoroughgoing bureaucratic regime which, assuming more definite form under Maria Theresa, continued unimpaired until the revolution of 1848. It was in the same period that the Austrian standing army was established. 489. Development of Autocracy Under Maria Theresa, 1740-1780. The principal threads in Austrian history in the eighteenth century are the foreign entanglements, including the war of the Spanish Suc- cession, the war of the Austrian Succession, and the Seven Years' War, and the internal measures, of reform and otherwise, undertaken by the successive sovereigns, especially Maria Theresa (1740-1780) and Joseph II. (1780-1790). For Austria the net result of the wars was the loss of territory and also of influence, among the states of the Empire, if not among those of all Europe. On the side of internal affairs it may be observed simply that Maria Theresa became virtually the founder of the unified Austrian state, and that, in social conditions generally, the reign of this sovereign marks more largely than that of any other the transition in the Hapsburg dominions from mediaeval to modern times. Unlike her doctrinaire son and successor, Joseph, Maria Theresa was of an eminently practical turn of mind. She intro- duced innovations, but she clothed them with the vestments of an- cient institutions. She made the government more than ever auto- cratic, but she did not interfere with the nominal privileges of the old estates. In Hungary the constitution was left untouched, but during the forty years of the reign the Diet was assembled only four times, and government was, in effect, by royal decree. Joseph II. assumed the throne in 1780 bent primarily upon a policy of "reform from above." Utterly unacquainted with the actual conctttion of his dominions and unappreciative of the difficulties inherent in their administration, the new sovereign set about the sweeping away of the entire existing order and the substituting of a governmental scheme which was logical enough, to be sure, but entirely impracticable. The attempt, as was inevitable, failed utterly. 490. Austria and France, 1789-1816. Leopold II. inherited, in 1790, a dominion substantially as it was at the death of Maria Theresa. Prior to his accession Leopold had acquired a reputation for liberalism, but apprehension aroused by the revolution in France was of itself sufficient to turn him promptly into the traditional paths of Austrian autocracy. His reign was brief (1790-1792), but that of his son and successor, Francis II., which continued through the revolutionary AUSTRIA-HUNGARY PRIOR TO THE AUSGLEICH 445 epoch, was essentially a continuation of it, and from first to last there was maintained with complete success that relentless policy of "sta- bility" so conspicuously associated later with the name of Metternich. Hardly any portion of Europe was less affected by the ideas and trans- formations of the Revolution than was Austria. Having resisted by every means at her disposal, including resort to arms, the progress of revolution, Austria set herself firmly, likewise, in opposition to the ambitions of Napoleon. Of the many conse- quences of the prolonged combat between Napoleon and the Haps- burg power, one only need be mentioned here. August n, 1804, Francis II., archduke of Austria and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, assumed the name and title of Francis I., emperor of Austria. To the taking of this step the Hapsburg monarch was influenced in part by Napoleon's assumption, three months previously, of the title of emperor of the French, and in part by anticipation that the Holy Roman Empire would soon be subverted completely by the conqueror. The apprehension proved well-founded. Within two years it was made known definitely that the Napoleonic plan of international read- justment involved as one of its principal features the termination, once for all, of an institution which, as Voltaire had already said, was "no longer holy, Roman, or an empire." August 6, 1806, the title and functions of Holy Roman Emperor were relinquished formally by the Austrian monarch. The Austrian imperial title of to-day, dates, however, from 1804. II. HUNGARIAN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT TO 1815 491. Beginnings. According to accounts which are but indif- ferently reliable, the Magyars, or Hungarians, lately come as invaders from Asia, made their first appearance in the land which now bears their name in the year 895. Certain it is that during the first half of the tenth century they terrorized repeatedly the populations of Ger- many and France, until, in 955, their signal defeat at the Lechfeld by the German king (the later Emperor Otto I.) checked effectually their onslaughts and re-enforced the disposition already in evidence among them to take on a settled mode of life. In the second half of the tenth century they occupied definitely the valleys of the Danube and the Theiss, wedging apart, as do their descendants to this day, the Slavs of the north and those of the Balkan regions. 492. Institutional Growth Under Stephen I., 997-1038. The prin- cipal formative period in the history of the Hungarian nation is the long reign of Stephen I., or, as he is more commonly known, St. 446 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Stephen. In this reign were established firmly both the Hungarian state and the Hungarian church; and in the organization of both Stephen exhibited a measure of capacity which entitles him to high rank among the constructive statesmen of mediaeval Europe. Under his predecessor the court had accepted Roman Christianity, but during his reign the nation itself was Christianized and the machinery of the Church was for the first time put effectively in operation. In the year i ooi Pope Sylvester II. accorded formal recognition to Magyar na- tionality by bestowing upon Prince Stephen a kingly crown, and to this day the joint sovereign of Austria-Hungary is inducted into office as Hungarian monarch with the identical crown which Pope Sylvester transmitted to the missionary-king nine centuries ago. In the elaboration of a governmental system King Stephen and the ad- visers whom he gathered from foreign lands had virtually a free field. The nation possessed a traditional right to elect its sovereign and to gather in public assembly, and these privileges were left untouched. None the less, the system that was set up was based upon a conception of royal power unimpaired by those feudal relationships by which in western countries monarchy was being reduced to its lowest estate. The old Magyar tribal system was abolished and as a basis of admin- istration there was adopted the Frankish system of counties. The central and western portions of the country, being more settled, were divided into forty-six counties, at the head of each of which was placed a count, or lord-lieutenant (foispdn), appointed by the crown and authorized in turn to designate his subordinates, the castellan (vdrnagy), the chief captain (hadnagy), and the hundredor (szazados). This transplantation of institutions is a matter of permanent impor- tance, for, as will appear, the county is still the basal unit of the Hun- garian administrative system. 493. The Golden Bull, 1222. During the century and a half which followed the reign of Stephen the consolidation of the kingdom, despite frequent conflicts with the Eastern Empire, was continued. The court took on something of the brilliancy of the Byzantine model, and in the later twelfth century King Bela III. inaugurated a policy that of crowning as successor the sovereign's eldest son while yet the sovereign lived by which were introduced in effect the twin prin- ciples of heredity and primogeniture. In 1222 King Andrew II. (1204-1235) promulgated a famous instrument, the Bulla Aurea, or Golden Bull, which has been likened many times to the Great Charter conceded to his barons by King John of England seven years earlier. The precise purport of the Golden Bull is somewhat doubtful. By some the instrument has been understood to have comprised a virtual AUSTRIA-HUNGARY PRIOR TO THE AUSGLEICH 447 surrender on the part of the crown in the interest of a class of in- solent and self-seeking nobles with which the country was cursed. By others it has been interpreted as a measure designed to strengthen the crown by winning the support of the mass of the lesser nobles against the few greater ones. 1 The exemption of all nobles from taxation was confirmed; all were exempted likewise from arbitrary arrest and pun- ishment. On the other hand, it was forbidden expressly that the titles and holdings of lords-lieutenant should become hereditary. The most reasonable conclusion is that the instrument represents a compromise designed to afford a working arrangement in a period of unusual stress between crown and nobility. Although the document was amplified in 1231 and its guarantees were placed under the special guardianship of the Church, it does not appear that its positive effects in the period immediately following were pronounced. The Golden Bull, none the less, has ever been regarded as the foundation of Hungarian constitutional liberty. As such, it was confirmed specifi- cally in the coronation oath of every Hapsburg sovereign from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. 494. Three Centuries of Constitutional Unsettlement. The last cen- tury of the Arpad dynasty, which was ended in 1308, was a period of depression and of revolution. The weakness of the later Arpads, the ruin wrought by the Tatar invasion of 1241-1242, the infiltration of feu- dalism, and perennial civil discord subverted the splendid monarchical establishment of King Stephen and brought the country into virtual subjection to a small body of avaricious nobles. The Arpads were suc- ceeded by two Angevin princes from the kingdom of Naples Charles I. (1310-1342) and Louis I. (1342-1382) under whom notable prog- ress was made toward the rehabilitation of the royal power. Yet in the midst of then- reforms appeared the first foreshadowings of that great Turkish onslaught by which eventually the independent Hungarian monarchy was destined to be annihilated completely. The long reign of Sigismund (1387-1437) was occupied almost wholly in resistance to the Ottoman advance. So urgent did this sovereign deem the pushing of military preparations that he fell into the custom of summoning the Diet once, and not infrequently twice, a year, and this body acquired rapidly a bulk of legislative and fiscal authority which never before had been accorded it. Persons entitled to membership were regularly the nobles and higher clergy. But hi 1397 the free and royal towns were invited to send deputies, and this privilege seems to have been given statutory confirmation. By the ripening of the Hungarian feudal 1 J. Andrassy, Development of Hungarian Constitutional Liberty (London, 1008), 93. 448 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE system, however, and the struggles for the throne which followed the death of King Albert V. (1439), much that was accomplished by Sigis- mund and his diets was undone. Ultimately, measures of vigilance were renewed under John Hunyadi, by voice of the Diet "governor" of Hungary, 1446-1456, and, under his son King Matthias I. (1458-1490). During the last-mentioned reign fifteen diets are known to have been held, and no fewer than 450 statutes to have been enacted. The Hunga- rian common law was codified afresh and the entire governmental system overhauled. But again succeeded a period, from the accession of Wladis- laus II. to the battle of Mohacs, during which turbulence reigned su- preme and national spirit all but disappeared. 496. The Establishment of Austrian Dominion. In 1526 the long expected blow fell. Under the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent the Turks invaded the Hungarian kingdom and at the battle of Mohacs, August 28, put to rout the entire Hungarian army. The invading hosts chose to return almost instantly to Constantinople, but when they withdrew they left one-quarter of the Hungarian dominion in utter desolation. It was at this point, as has been stated, that the Hapsburg rulers of Austria first acquired the throne of Hungary. The death of King Louis at Mohacs was followed by the election of John Zapolya as king. But the archduke Ferdinand, whose wife, Anne, was a sister of Louis, laid claim to the throne and, in November, 1527, contrived to procure an election thereto at the hand of the Diet. In 1529 the de- posed Zapolya was reinstated at Buda by the Sultan. The upshot was civil war, which was terminated in 1538 by a treaty under whose terms the kingdom was divided between the two claimants. Zapolya re- tained approximately two-thirds of the country, while to Ferdinand was conceded the remaining portion, comprising Croatia-Slavonia and the five westernmost counties. The government which Zapolya maintained at Buda had rather the better claim to be considered the continuation of the old Hungarian monarchy; but from 1527 onwards some portion of Hungary, and eventually the whole, was attached regularly to the Hapsburg crown. In 1540 Zapolya died and the Diet at Buda elected as king his infant son John Sigismund. On the basis of earlier pledges Ferdinand laid claim to Zapolya's possessions, but the Sultan intervened and in 1547 there was worked out a three-fold division of the kingdom, on the principle of uti possedetis, under which thirty-five counties (including Croatia and Slavonia) were assigned to Ferdinand, Transylvania and sixteen adjacent counties were retained by John Sigismund, while the remaining portions of the kingdom were annexed to the dominions of the Sultan. With frequent modifications in detail, this three-fold AUSTRIA-HUNGARY PRIOR TO THE AUSGLEICH 449 division persisted through the next century and a hah . The period was marked by frequent wars, by political confusion, and by the assumption on the part of the Hapsburg sovereigns of an increasingly autocratic attitude in relation to their Hungarian dependencies. It was brought to a close by the Peace of Karlowitz, January 26, 1699, whereby the Hapsburg dynasty acquired dominion over the whole of Hungary, except the banat of Tamesvar, which was acquired nineteen years later. 496. Austrian Encroachment: the Pragmatic Sanction. The im- mediate effect of the termination of the Turkish wars was to enhance yet further the despotism of the Hapsburgs in Hungary. In 1687 the Emperor Leopold I. induced a rump diet at Pressburg to abrogate that clause of the Golden Bull which authorized armed resistance to unconstitutional acts of the sovereign, and likewise to declare the Hungarian crown hereditary in the house of Hapsburg. After upwards of seven hundred years of existence, the elective Hungarian monarchy was brought thus to an end. In 1715 King Charles III. 1 persuaded the Diet to consent to the establishment of a standing army, recruited and supported under regulation of the Diet but controlled by the Austrian council of war. By the diet of 1722 there was established a Hungarian court of chancery at Vienna and the government of Hungary was com- mitted to a stadtholder at Pressburg who was made independent of the Diet and responsible to the sovereign alone. The diet of 1722 likewise accepted formally the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 by which the Emperor Charles settled the succession to his hereditary dominions, in default of male heirs, upon his daughter Maria Theresa and her heirs; 2 and in measures promulgated during the succeeding year the Emperor entered into a fresh compact with his Hungarian subjects which continued the basis of Hapsburg-Hungarian relations until 1848. On the one hand, Hungary was declared inseparable from the Hapsburg dominions, so long as there should be a legal heir; on the other, the crown was sworn to preserve the Hungarian constitution intact, with all the rights, privileges, laws, and customs of the kingdom. The net result of all of these measures, none the less, was to impair perceptibly the original autonomy of the Hungarian state. 497. The Later Eighteenth Century. Maria Theresa cherished a genuine interest in Hungarian affairs and was deeply solicitous con- cerning the welfare of her Hungarian subjects. It was never her intent, however, to encourage Hungarian self-government. The constitution 1 Charles VI. as emperor. a The Pragmatic Sanction was accepted at different dates by the various diets of the Austro-Hungarian lands: in 1713 by Croatia, and from 1720 to 1724 by the other diets. It was finally proclaimed a fundamental law in 1724. 450 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of the kingdom was not subverted; it was simply ignored. The Diet was summoned but seldom, and after 1764 not at all. Reforms were introduced, especially in connection with education, but through the medium of royal decrees alone. Joseph II. continued nominally the policy of enlightened despotism, but in so tactless a manner that most of his projects were brought to nought. Approaching the problem of Hungarian administration with his accustomed idealism, he undertook deliberately to sweep away not only the constitution of the kingdom but the whole body of Hungarian institutions and traditions. He refused even to be crowned king of Hungary or to recognize in any manner the established status of the country. His purpose was clearly to build of Austria and Hungary one consolidated and absolute state a purpose which, it need hardly be remarked, failed of realization. The statesmanship of Leopold II. averted the impending revolt. The constitution was restored, the ancient liberties of the kingdom were con- firmed, and it was agreed that the Diet should be assembled regularly every three years. Through a quarter of a century the principal interest of Leopold's successor, Francis II. (I7Q2-I835), 1 was the waging of war upon revolutionary France and upon Napoleon, and during this period circumstances conspired to cement more firmly the relations between the Hapsburg monarchy and the Hungarian people. In Hun- gary, as in Austria, the time was one of political stagnation. Prior to 1811 the Diet was several times convened, but never for any purpose other than that of obtaining war subsidies. m. THE ERA OF METTERNICH In the thoroughgoing reaction which set in with the Congress of Vienna it fell to Austria to play the principal role. This was in part because the dominions of the Hapsburgs had emerged from the revolu- tionary epoch virtually unscathed, but rather more by reason of the remarkable position occupied during the period 1815-1848 by Emperor Francis I.'s minister and mentor, Prince Metternich. Easily the most commanding personality in Europe, Metternich was at the same tune the moving spirit in international affairs and the autocrat of Austro-Hungarian politics. Within both spheres he was, as he declared himself to be, "the man of the status quo." Innovation he abhorred; immobility he glorified. The settlement at Vienna he re- garded as essentially his own handiwork, and all that that settlement involved he proposed to safeguard relentlessly. Throughout a full generation he contrived, with consummate skill, to dam the stream of liberalism in more than half of Europe. 1 As emperor of Austria, Francis I. (1804-1835). AUSTRIA-HUNGARY PRIOR TO THE AUSGLEICH 451 498. Condition of the Monarchy in 1816. In the dominions of the Hapsburgs the situation was peculiarly such as to render all change, from the point of view of Metternich, revolutionary and ruinous. In respect to territory and prestige Austria emerged from the Napoleonic wars with a distinctly improved status. But the internal condition of the monarchy, now as ever, imparted a forbidding aspect to any policy or movement which should give promise of unsettling in the minutest degree the delicate, haphazard balance that had been arrived at among the multiplicity of races, religions, and interests represented in the Emperor's dominions. In the west were the duchies, essentially German, which comprised the ancestral possessions of the Hapsburg dynasty; in the north was Bohemia, comprising, besides Bohemia proper, Silesia, and Moravia, and containing a population largely Czech; to the south lay the lately acquired Italian kingdom of Lombardo-Venetia; to the east lay the kingdom of Hungary, including the kingdom of Croatia and the principality of Transylvania, with a population preponderantly Slavic but dominated politically by the Magyars. Several of these com- ponent states retained privileges which were peculiar to themselves and were bound to the Hapsburg monarchy by ties that were at best pre- carious. And the differences everywhere of race, religion, language, tradition, and interest were such as to create for the Vienna Govern- ment a seemingly impossible task. So decadent and ineffective was the Austrian administrative sys- tem when Metternich entered, in 1809, upon his ministry that not even he could have supposed that change would not eventually have to come. Change, however, he dreaded, because when change begins it is not possible to foresee how far it will go, or to control altogether the course it shall follow. Change, therefore, Metternich resisted by every available means, putting off at least as long as might be the evil day. The spirit of liberalism, once disseminated throughout the conglomerate Empire, might be expected to prompt the various nationalities to demand constitutions; constitutions would mean autonomy; and autonomy might well mean the end of the Empire itself. Austria entered upon the post-Napoleonic period handicapped by the fact that the principle upon which Europe during the nine- teenth century was to solve many of her problems the principle of nationality contained for her nought but the menace of disintegra- tion. Conservatism, as one writer has put it, was imposed upon the Empire by the very conditions of its being. 499. Metternich's System: the Rise of Liberalism. The key to Austrian history during the period 1815-1848 is, then, the maxim of the Emperor Francis, ' ' Govern and change nothing. ' ' In Hungary govern- 45 2 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE ment was nominally constitutional; elsewhere it was frankly absolute. The diets of the component parts of the Empire were not abolished, nor were the estates of the several Austrian provinces. But, consti- tuted as they generally were on an aristocratic basis and convened but irregularly and for brief periods, their existence was a source neither of embarrassment to the Government nor of benefit to the people. "I also have my Estates," declared the Emperor upon one occasion. "I have maintained their constitution, and do not worry them; but if they go too far I snap my fingers at them or send them home." The Diet of Hungary was not once convened during the years 1812-1825. On the side of administration Metternich did propose that the various executive departments, hitherto gathered under no common man- agement nor correlated in any degree whatsoever, should be brought under the supervision of a single minister. But not even this project was carried out effectively. Throughout the period the central government continued cumbersome, disjointed, and in- efficient. With every passing decade the difficulties of the Government were augmented. Despite a most extraordinary censorship of education and of the press, western liberalism crept slowly into the Empire and the spirit of disaffection laid hold of increasing numbers of people. The revolutions of 1820 passed without eliciting response; those of 1830 occasioned but a ripple. But during the decade 1830-1840, and especially after 1840, the growth of liberalism was rapid. In 1835 the aged Francis I. was succeeded by Ferdinand I., but as the new sov- ereign was mentally incapacitated the dominance of Metternich continued unimpaired. 1 In Bohemia, Hungary, and elsewhere there were revivals of racial enthusiasm and of nationalistic aspirations which grew increasingly ominous. The Hungarian diet of 1844 sub- stituted as the official language of the chambers Magyar for Latin, and during the forties there was built up, under the leadership of Louis Kossuth and Francis Deak, a flourishing Liberal party, whose aim was the re-establishment of the autonomy of the kingdom and the thor- oughgoing reform of the government. By 1847-1848 this party was insisting strenuously upon the adoption of its "Ten Points," in which were included a responsible ministry, the abolition of serfdom, equality of citizens before the law, complete religious liberty, fuller representa- 1 Technically the control of the government was vested in a small group of dignitaries known as the Staatskonferenz, or State Conference. The nominal president of this body was the Archduke Louis, representing the crown; but the actual direction of its proceedings fell to Metternich. H. von Sybel, Die Osterreichische Staatskonferenz von 1836, in Historische Zettschrift, 1877. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY PRIOR TO THE AUSGLEICH 453 tion in the Diet, taxation of the nobles, and control by the Diet of all public expenditures. 1 IV. THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 500. The Fall of Metternich. The crash came in 1848. Under the electrifying effect of the news of the fall of Louis Philippe at Paris (February 24), and of the eloquent fulminations of Kossuth, translated into German and scattered broadcast in the Austrian capital, there broke out at Vienna, March 12-13, an insurrection which instantly got quite beyond the Government's power to control. Hard righting took place between the troops and the populace, and an infuriated mob, breaking into the royal palace, called with an insistence that would not be denied for the dismissal of Metternich. Recognizing the uselessness of resistance, the minister placed in the hands of the Em- peror his resignation and, effecting an escape from the city, made his way out of the country and eventually to England. March 15 there was issued a hurriedly devised Imperial proclamation, designed to appease the populace, in which was promised the convocation of an assembly with a view to the drafting of a national constitution. 601. Hungary: the March Laws. On the same day the Diet of Hungary, impelled by the oratory of Kossuth, began the enactment of an elaborate series of measures the so-called March Laws by which was carried rapidly toward completion a programme of modernization which, in the teeth of Austrian opposition, had been during some years under way. The March Laws fell into two principal categories. The first dealt with the internal government of the kingdom, the second with the relations which henceforth were to subsist between Hungary and the Austrian Empire. For the ancient aristocratic machinery of the monarchy was substituted a modern constitutional system of government, with a diet whose lower chamber, of 337 members, was to be elected by all Hungarians of the age of twenty who possessed property to the value of approximately $150. Meetings of this diet were to be annual and were to be held, no longer at Pressburg, near the Austrian border, but at the interior city of Budapest, the logical capital of the kingdom. Taxation was extended to all classes; feudal serv- itudes and titles payable by the peasantry were abolished; trial by jury, religious liberty, and freedom of the press were guaranteed. In 1 On Austria during the period of Metternich see Cambridge Modern History, X., Chap, n, XL, Chap. 3; Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generale, X., Chap. 17; A. Stern, Geschichte Europas (Berlin, 1904-1911), I., Chap. 3; A. Springer, Ge- schichte Osterreichs seit dem Wiener Frieden 1809 (Leipzig, 1863), I., 275-322; H. Meynert, Kaiser Franz I. (Vienna, 1872). 454 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the second place, it was stipulated that henceforth Hungary should have an entirely separate and a responsible ministry, thus ensuring the essential autonomy of the kingdom. The sole tie remaining be- tween the two monarchies was to be the person of the sovereign. Impelled by the force of circumstances, the Government at Vienna designated Count Louis Batthyany premier of the first responsible Hungarian ministry and, April 10, accorded reluctant assent to the March Laws. These statutes, though later subverted, became thence- forth the Grundrechte of the Hungarian people. 602. The Austrian Constitution of 1848. In the meantime, the Austrians were pressing their demand for constitutionalism. The framing of the instrument which had been promised was intrusted by the Emperor to the ministers, and early in April there was sub- mitted to an informal gathering of thirty notables representing various portions of the Empire a draft based upon the Belgium constitution of 1831. This instrument was given some consideration in several of the provincial diets, but was never submitted, as it had been promised in the manifesto of March 15 it should be, to the Imperial Diet, or to any sort of national assembly. Instead it was promulgated, April 25, on the sole authority of the Emperor. The territories to which it was made applicable comprised the whole of the Emperor's domin- ions, save Hungary and the other Transleithanian lands and the Italian dependencies. By it the Empire was declared an indissoluble constitutional monarchy, and to all citizens were extended full rights of civil and religious liberty. There was instituted a Reichstag, or generaljiiet^ to consist of an upper house of princes of the royal family and nominees of the landlords, and a lower-of 383 members, to be elected according to a system to be devised by the l^eicflstafi Itself. All ministers were to be responsible to this diet. July 22 there was convened at Vienna the first assembly of the new type, and the or- ganization of constitutional government was put definitely under way. 503. The Reaction. Recovery, however, on the part of the forces of reaction was rapid. In Hungary the same sort of nationalistic feeling that had inspired the Magyars to assert their rights as against Austria inspired the Serbs, the Croats, and the Roumanians to demand from the Magyar Government a recognition of their several traditions and interests. The purpose of the Magyars, however, was to main- tain absolutely their own ascendancy in the kingdom, and every de- mand on the part of the subject nationalities met only with contemp- tuous refusal. Dissatisfaction bred dissension, and dissension broke speedily into civil war. With consummate skill the situation was exploited by the Vienna Government, while at the same time the AUSTRIA-HUNGARY PRIOR TO THE AUSGLEICH 455 armies of Radetzky and Windischgratz were stamping out every trace of insurrection in Lombardo-Venetia, in Bohemia, and eventu- ally in Vienna itself. December 2, 1848, the easy-going, incompetent Emperor Ferdinand was induced by the reactionaries to abdicate. His brother, Francis Charles, the heir-presumptive, renounced his claim to the throne, and the crown devolved upon the late Emperor's youthful nephew, Francis Joseph I., whose phenomenally prolonged reign has continued to the present day. Under the guidance of Schwarzenberg, who now became the dominating figure in Austrian politics, the Hungarian March Laws were abrogated and preparations were set on foot to reduce Hungary, as other portions of the Imperial dominions had been reduced, by force of arms. Pronouncing Francis Joseph a usurper, the Magyars rose en masse in defense of their con- stitution and of the deposeoTFerdinand. In the conflict which ensued they were compelled to fight not only the Austrians but also their rebellious Roumanian, Croatian, and Slavonian subjects, and their chances of success were from the outset slender. In a moment of exultation, April 14, 1849, the Diet at Budapest went so far as to de- clare Hungary an independent nation and to elect Kossuth to the presidency of a supposititious republic. The only effect, however, was to impart to the contest an international character. Upon appeal from Francis Joseph, Tsar Nicholas I. intervened in behalf of the " legitimate" Austrian power; whereupon the Hungarians, seeking in vain for allies, were overcome by the weight of the odds against them, and by the middle of August, 1849, the war was ended. 604. Restoration of Autocracy. In Austria and Hungary alike the reaction was complete. In the Empire there had been promulgated, March 4, 1849, a revised constitution; but at no tune had it been in- tended by the sovereign or by those who surrounded him that con- stitutionalism should be established upon a permanent basis, and during 1850-1851 one step after another was taken in the direction of the re- vival of autocracy. December 3 1 , 185 1 , " in the name of the unity of the Empire and of monarchical principles," the constitution was revoked by Imperial patent. At a stroke all of the peoples of the Empire were deprived of their representative rights. Yet so incompletely had the liberal regime struck root that its passing occasioned scarcely a murmur. Except that the abolition of feudal obligations was permanent, the Em- pire settled back into a status which was almost precisely that of the age of Metternich. Vienna became once more the seat of a government whose fundamental objects may be summarized as (i) to Germanize the Magyars and Slavs, (2) to restrain all agitation in behalf of con- stitutionalism; and (3) to prevent freedom of thought and the establish- 456 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE ment of a free press. Hungary, by reason of her rebellion, was con- sidered to have forfeited utterly the fundamental rights which for centuries had been more or less grudgingly conceded her. She not only lost every vestige of her constitutional system, her diet, her county assemblies, her local self-government; large territories were stripped from her, and she was herself cut into five districts, each to be ad- ministered separately, largely by German officials from Vienna. So far as possible, all traces of her historic nationality were obliterated. 1 V. THE REVIVAL OF CONSTITUTIONALISM: THE AUSGLEICH 605. Constitutional Experiments, 1860-1861. The decade 1850- 1860 was in Austria-Hungary a period of political and intellectual torpor. Embarrassed by fiscal difficulties and by international complications, the Government at Vienna struggled with desperation to maintain the status quo as against the numerous forces that would have overthrown it. For a time the effort was successful, but toward the close of the decade a swift decline of Imperial prestige compelled the adoption of a more conciliatory policy. The Crimean War cost the Empire both allies and friends, and the disasters of the Italian campaigns of 1859 added to the seriousness of the Imperial position. By 1860 both the Emperor and his principal minister, Goluchowski, were prepared to un- dertake in all sincerity a reformation of the illiberal and unpopular gov- ernmental system. To this end the Emperor called together, March 5, 1860, representatives of the various provinces and instructed them, in conjunction with the Reichsrath, or Imperial Council, to take under consideration plans for the reorganization of the Empire. The majority of this "reinforced Reichsrath" recommended the establishment perma- nently of a broadly national Reichsrath, or Imperial assembly, together with the reconstitution of the old provincial diets. The upshot was the promulgation, October 20, 1860, of a "permanent and irrevocable" diploma in which the Emperor made known his intention thereafter to share all powers of legislation and finance with the diets of the various 1 Brief accounts of the revolution of 1848-1849 in Austria-Hungary will be found in Cambridge Modern History, XI., Chaps. 6-7 (bibliography, pp. 887-893), and Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Gene"rale, XI., Chap. 4. The most important treatise is H. Friedjung, Osterreich von 1848 bis 1860 (2d ed., Stuttgart and Berlin, 1908), the first volume of which covers the period 1848-1851. There is a serviceable account in L. Leger, History of Austria-Hungary from the Beginning to the Year 1878, trans, by B. Hill (London, 1889), Chaps. 30-33. Older accounts in English in- clude W. H. Stiles, Austria in 1848-9 (New York, 1852), and W. Coxe, History of the House of Austria (3d ed., London, 1907). The Hungarian phases of the subject are admirably presented in L. Eisenmann, Le compromis austro-hongroise (Paris, 1904). AUSTRIA-HUNGARY PRIOR TO THE AUSGLEICH 457 portions of the Empire, and with a central Reichsrath at Vienna, the latter to be made up of members chosen by the Emperor from triple lists of nominees presented by the provincial diets. In Hungary this programme was received with favor by the conserva- tive magnates, but the Liberals, led by Deak, refused absolutely to ap- prove it, save on the condition that the constitutional regime of the king- dom, abrogated in 1849, should be regarded as completely restored. At Vienna there had been no intention that the proposed innovation should , entail such consequences, and within four months of its promulgation the diploma of 1860 was superseded by a patent of February 26, 1861, whereby the terms demanded by the Deak party were specifically denied. In this patent the handiwork principally of Anton von Schmerling, Goluchowski's successor in the office of Minister of the Interior was elaborated further the plan of the new Reichsrath. Two chambers there were to be an upper, or House of Lords, to be made up of members appointed by the Emperor in consideration of birth, station, or merit, and a lower, or House of Representatives, to consist of 343 members \^ (Hungary sending 85 and Bohemia 54), to be chosen by the provincial diets from their own membership. Sessions of the body were to be annual. The new instrument differed fundamentally from the old, not simply in that it substituted a bicameral for a unicameral parliamentary body, but also in that it diverted from the local diets to the Reichsrath a wide range of powers, being designed, indeed, specifically to facilitate the centralization of governmental authority. 606. The Hungarian Opposition. By reason chiefly of the refusal of the Deak party to accept for Hungary anything short of the autonomy which had been enjoyed prior to 1849, the new scheme of government was for a time only partially successful. In one after another of the com- ponent parts of the Empire the provincial diets were called back to life, and the Reichsrath itself was started upon its career. But the Hunga- rians held aloof. The position which they assumed was that Hungary had always been a separate nation; that the union with Austria lay only through the person of the monarch, who, indeed, in Hungary was king only after he should have sworn to uphold the ancient laws of Hungary and should have been crowned in Hungary with the iron crown of St. Stephen; that no change in these ancient laws and practices could legally be effected by the emperor-king alone; that the constitution of i86i.was inadequate, not only because it had been "granted" and might as easily be revoked, but because it covered both Austria and Hungary, reduced Hungary to the position of a mere province, and was not at all identical with the Hungarian fundamental law abrogated in 1849. April 6, 1861, the Hungarian Diet was assembled for the first 45$ GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE time since the termination of the revolution of 1848, and the patent of the preceding February 26 was laid forthwith before it. After four months of heated debate the body refused definitely to accept the instrument and, on the contrary, adopted unanimously an address drawn up by Deak calling upon the Vienna authorities to restore the political and territorial integrity of the Hungarian kingdom. The sovereign's reply was a dissolution of the Diet, August 21, and a levy of taxes by military execution. Hungary, in turn, refused to be represented in the Reichsrath, or in any way to recognize the new order. 507. Influences toward Conciliation. Through four years the dead- lock continued. During the period Hungary, regarded by the authori- ties at Vienna as having forfeited the last vestige of right to her ancient constitution, was kept perpetually in a stage of siege. As time went by, however, it was made increasingly apparent that the surrender by which concord might be restored would have to be made in the main by Austria, and at last the Emperor was brought to a point where he was willing, by an effectual recognition of Hungarian nationality, to supply the indispensable condition of reconciliation. In June, 1865, the sovereign paid a visit to the Hungarian capital, where he was re- ceived with unexpected enthusiasm, and September 20 the patent of 1 86 1, which the Hungarians had refused to allow to be put into exe- cution, was suspended. For the moment the whole of the Hapsburg dominion reverted to a state of absolutism; but negotiations were set on foot looking toward a revival of constitutionalism under such con- ditions that the demands of the Hungarians might be brought into harmony with the larger interests of the Empire. Proceedings were interrupted, in 1866, by the Austro-Prussian war, but in 1867 they were pushed to a conclusion. In anticipation of the international outbreak which came in June, 1866, Deak had reworked a programme of con- ciliation drawn up in the spring of 1865, holding it in readiness to be employed as a basis of negotiation in the event of an Austrian triumph, as an ultimatum in the event of an Austrian defeat. The Austrians, as it proved, were defeated swiftly and decisively, and by this de- velopment the Hungarians, as Deak had hoped would be the case, were given an enormously advantageous position. Humiliated by her ex- pulsion from a confederation which she had been accustomed to dom- inate, Austria, after the Peace of Prague (August 20, 1866), was no longer in a position to defy the wishes of her disaffected sister state. On the contrary, the necessity of the consolidation of her resources was never more apparent. 508. The Compromise Effected, 1867. July 3 occurred the disaster at Sadowa. July 15 the Emperor summoned Deak to Vienna and put AUSTRIA-HUNGARY PRIOR TO THE AUSGLEICH 459 to him directly the question, What does Hungary want? Two days later he accorded provisional assent to the fundamentals of the Deak projet and designated as premier of the first parliamentary ministry of Hungary Count Julius Andrassy. The working out of the precise settlement between the two states fell principally to two men Deak, representing the Hungarian Liberals, and Baron Beust, formerly chief minister of the king of Saxony but in 1866 brought to Vienna and made Austrian chancellor and minister-president. After prolonged negotia- tion a projet, differing from the original one of Deak in few respects save that the unity of the monarchy was more carefully safeguarded, was made ready to be acted upon by the parliaments of the two states. February 17, 1867, the Andrassy ministry was formed at Budapest and May 29, by a vote of 209 to 89, the terms of the Ausgleich, or Com- promise, were given formal approval by the Diet. At Vienna the Reichsrath would probably have been disposed to reject the proposed arrangement but for the fact that Beust held out as an inducement the re-establishment of constitutionalism in Austria. The upshot was that the Reichsrath added some features by which the projet was liberalized still further and made provision at the same time for the revision and rehabilitation of the Imperial patent of 1861. During the summer two deputations of fifteen members each, representing the respective parliaments, drew up a plan of financial adjustment between the two states; and by acts of December 21-24 final approval was accorded on both sides to the whole body of agreements. Already, June 8, in the great cathedral at Buda, Francis Joseph had been crowned Apostolic King of Hungary and the royal succession under the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, after eighteen years of suspension, had been definitely resumed. 1 1 On Austro-Hungarian affairs in the period 1860-1867 see Cambridge Modern History, XI., Chap. 15, XII., Chap. 7 (bibliography, pp. 876-882), and Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Ge'ne'rale, XI., Chap. 13. The best treatise is L. Eisemann, Le compromis austro-hongroise (Paris, 1904). _ An account by an active partici- pant is J. Andrdssy, Ungarns Ausgleich mit Osterreich von Jahre 1867 (Leipzig, 1897). The best detailed account in English is Leger, History of Austria-Hungary, Chaps. 34-35. Two important biographies are: A. Forster, Francis Dedk, a Memoir (London, 1880), and E. Ebeling, F. F. Graf von Beust (Leipzig, 1870-71). CHAPTER XXV THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA I. THE CONSTITUTION 609. Texts. The fundamental law of the Austrian Empire, 1 in so lar as it has been reduced to writing, exists in the form of a series of diplomas, patents, and statutes covering, in all, a period of some two hundred years. Of these instruments the most important are: (i) the Pragmatic Sanction of the Emperor Charles VI., promulgated orig- inally April 19, 1713, and in final form in 1724, by which is regulated the succession to the throne; (2) the Pragmatic Patent of the Em- peror Francis II., August i, 1804, in accordance with which the sov- ereign bears in Austria the Imperial title; (3) the diploma of the Emperor Francis Joseph I., October 20, 1860, by which was introduced in the Empire the principle of constitutional government; (4) the pat- ent of Francis Joseph, February 26, 1861, by which was regulated in detail the nature of this government; and (5) a series of five funda- mental laws (Staatsgrundgesetze), all bearing the date December 21, 1867, and comprising a thoroughgoing revision and extension of the patent of 1861. In a narrower sense, indeed, the constitution may be said to consist of these five documents, all of which were sanctioned by the crown as a portion of the same general settlement by which the arrangements comprehended in the Ausgleich were effected. Of them, one, in twenty articles, is essentially a bill of rights; a second, in twenty-four sections, is concerned with Imperial representation; a third, in six articles, provides for the establishment of the Reichs- gericht, or Imperial court; a fourth, in fifteen articles, covers the sub- ject of the judiciary; and the fifth, in twelve articles, deals with the exercise of administrative and executive powers. 510. The Style of Government. Under the provisions of these instruments Austria is constituted a limited monarchy, with a respon- 1 It should be emphasized that the phrase "Austrian Empire," properly used, denotes Austria alone. Hungary is no part of the Empire. Throughout the follow- ing description effort has been made to avoid inaccuracy of expression by referring to Austria-Hungary as the "dual monarchy," or simply as "the monarchy." The nomenclature of the Austro-Hungarian union is cumbersome, but therein it merely reflects the character of the union itself. 460 THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 461 sible ministry, a bicameral legislative body, and a considerable meas- ure of local self-government. For the exercise, upon occasion, of essentially autocratic power, however, the way was left open through the famous Section 13 of the patent of 1861, become Section 14 of the Law concerning Imperial Representation of 1867. Around no portion of the constitution has controversy raged more fiercely during the past generation. The article reads: "If urgent circumstances should render necessary some measure constitutionally requiring the consent of the Reichsrath, when that body is not in session, such measure may be taken by Imperial ordinance, issued under the collective responsi- bility of the ministry, provided it makes no alteration of the funda- mental law, imposes no lasting burden upon the public treasury, and alienates none of the domain of the state. Such ordinances shall have provisionally the force of law, if they are signed by all of the ministers, and shall be published with an express reference to this provision of the fundamental law. The legal force of such an ordinance shall cease if the Government neglects to present it for the approval of the Reichsrath at its next succeeding session, and indeed first to the House of Representatives, within four weeks of its convention, or if one of the houses refuses its approval thereto." * The prolonged exercise of autocratic power might seem here to be sufficiently guarded against, but in point of fact, as was demonstrated by the history of the notable parliamentary deadlock of 1897-1 904,2 the government can be, and has been, made to run year after year upon virtually the sole basis of the article mentioned. It is only fair to add, however, that, but for some such practical resource at the disposal of the executive, con- stitutional government might long since have been broken down com- pletely by the recurrent obstructive tactics of the warring nation- alities. 511. Amendment. The constitution promulgated March 4, 1849, made provision for a definite process of amendment. Upon declara- tion by the legislative power that any particular portion of the funda- mental law stood in need of revision, the chambers were to be dis- solved and newly elected ones were to take under consideration the proposed amendment, adopting it if a two-thirds majority could be obtained in each house. Upon all such proposals the veto of the Emperor, however, was absolute. Neither the diploma of October 20, 1860, nor the patent of February 26, 1861, contained any stipulation upon the subject, nor did any one of the fundamental laws of 1867 as originally adopted. By act of April 2, 1873, however, passed at 1 Dodd, Modem Constitutions, I., 81. 2 See p. 479. 462 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the time when the lower house of the Reichsrath was being converted into an assembly directly representative of the people, the Law con- cerning Imperial Representation was so modified as to be made to in- clude a specific stipulation with respect to constitutional amendment in general. Under the terms of this enactment all portions of the written constitution are subject to amendment at the hand of the Reichsrath. As in European countries generally, no essential differentiation of powers that are constituent from those that are legislative is attempted. The process of revision is made even easier than that prescribed by the ill-fated instrument of 1849. It differs in no respect from that of ordinary legislation save that proposed amendments require a two- thirds vote in each of the chambers instead of a simple majority. Since 1873 there have been adopted several amendments, of which the most notable were those of 1896 and 1907 relative to the election of representatives. 612. The Rights of Citizens. For all natives of the various king- doms and countries represented in the Reichsrath there exists a com- mon right of Austrian citizenship. The complicated conditions under which citizenship may be obtained, exercised, and forfeited are pre- scribed in legislative enactments of various dates. One of the five fundamental laws of 1867, however, covers at some length the general rights of citizens, and certain of its provisions are worthy of mention. 1 All citizens, it is declared, are equal before the law. Public office is open equally to all. Freedom of passage of persons and property, within the territory of the state, is absolutely guaranteed, as is both liberty of person and inviolability of property. Every one is declared free to choose his occupation and to prepare himself for it in such place and manner as he may desire. The right of petition is recognized; likewise, under legal regulation, that of assemblage and of the forma- tion of associations. Freedom of speech and of the press, under legal regulation, and liberty of religion and of conscience are guaranteed to all. Science and its teaching is declared free. One has but to recall the repression of individual liberty and initiative by which the era of Metternich was characterized to understand why, with the liberalizing of the Austrian state under the constitution of 1867, it should have been deemed essential to put into the fundamental law these and similar guarantees of personal right and privilege. 2 1 Law concerning the General Rights of Citizens. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 71-74. 2 The texts of the fundamental laws at present in operation are printed in E. Bernatzik, Die osterreichischen Verfassungsgesetze (2d ed., Vienna, 1911), and in a collection issued by the Austrian Government under the title Die Staatsgrundgesetze THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 463 II. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 613. The Emperor's Status. The sovereign authority of the Em- pire is vested in the Emperor. Duties are assigned to the ministers, and privileges are granted to the legislative bodies ; but all powers not expressly conferred elsewhere remain with the Emperor as supreme head of the state. The Imperial office is hereditary in the male line of the house of Hapsburg-Lothringen, and the rules governing the suc- cession are substantially those which were laid down originally in the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 1 promulgated by the Emperor Charles VI. to render possible the succession of his daughter Maria Theresa. Females may inherit, but only in the event of the failure of male heirs. By the abdication of the direct heir, the throne may pass to a member of the royal family who stands farther removed, as it did in 1848 when the present Emperor was established on the throne while his father was yet living. By reason of the unusual prolongation of the reign of Francis Joseph, there has been no opportunity in sixty years to put to a test the rules by which the inheritance is regulated. Since the death of the Crown Prince Rudolph the heir-presumptive has been the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, son of the Archduke Charles Louis, and nephew of the ruling Emperor. It is required that the sovereign be a member of the Roman Catholic Church. 614. His Powers. By fundamental law it is declared that the Emperor is "sacred, inviolable, and irresponsible." His powers of government are exercised largely, however, through ministers who are at least nominally responsible to the Reichsrath, and through officers and agents subordinate to them. Most important among the powers expressly conferred upon the Emperor, and indirectly exercised by him, are: (i) the appointment and dismissal of ministers; (2) the nam- ing of all public officials whose appointment is not otherwise by law provided for; (3) supreme command of the armed forces, with the (7th ed., Vienna, 1900). The statutes of 1867 are in Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., 378-404, and, in English translation, in Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 71-89. The best description in English of the Austrian governmental system is Lowell, op. cit., II., Chap. 8. The best extended treatise is J. Ulbrich, Lehrbuch des osterreichischen Staatsrechts (Vienna, 1883). Excellent briefer works are L. Gumplowicz, Das osterreichische Staatsrecht (3d ed., Vienna, 1907); J. Ulbrich, Osterreichisches Staatsrecht (3d ed., Tubingen, 1004), in Marquardsen's Hand- buch; and R. von Herrnritt, Handbuch des osterreichischen Verfassungsrechtes (Tubingen, 1910). On the workings of the governmental system something may be gleaned from G. Drage, Austria-Hungary (London, 1909); S. Whitman, Austria (New York, 1879) and H. Rumbold, Francis Joseph and his Times (New York, 1909). 1 Issued definitely in 1724. 464 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE power of declaring war and concluding peace; (4) the conferring ot titles, orders, and other public distinctions, including the appointment of life peers; (5) the granting of pardons and of amnesty; (6) the sum- moning, adjourning, and dissolving of the various legislative bodies; ^7) the issuing of ordinances with the provisional force of law, and (8) the concluding of treaties, with the limitation that the consent of the Reichsrath is essential to the validity of treaties of commerce and political treaties which impose obligations upon the Empire, upon any part thereof, or upon any of its citizens. Further than this, the right to coin money is exercised under the authority of the Emperor; and the laws are promulgated, and all judicial power is exercised, in his name. Before assuming the throne, the Emperor is required to take a solemn oath in the presence of the two houses of the Reichsrath "to maintain inviolable the fundamental laws of the kingdoms and countries repre- sented in the Reichsrath, and to govern in conformity with them, and in conformity with the laws in general." * The present Emperor-King has a civil list of 22,600,000 crowns, half of which is derived from the revenues of Austria and half from those of Hungary. The Imperial residence in Vienna, the Hofburg, has been the seat of the princes of Austria since the thirteenth century. 515. The Ministers: Responsibility. The Austrian ministry com- prises portfolios as follows: Finance, the Interior, Railways, National Defense, Agriculture, Justice, Commerce, Labor, and Instruction and Worship. Three important departments those of War, Finance, and Foreign Affairs and the Imperial and Royal House are main- tained by the affiliated monarchies in common. 2 And there are usu- ally from one to four ministerial representatives of leading racial ele- ments without portfolio, there being in the present cabinet one such minister for Galicia. All ministers are appointed and dismissed by the Emperor. Under the leadership of a president of the council or premier (without portfolio), they serve as the Emperor's councillors, execute his will, and administer the affairs of their respective branches of the public service. It is provided by fundamental law that they shall be responsible for the constitutionality and legality of govern- mental acts performed within the sphere of their powers. 3 They are responsible to the two branches of the national parliament alike, and 1 Law concerning the Exercise of Administrative and Executive Power, Decem- ber 21, 1867, 8. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 88. 2 There is a joint ministry of finance, though each of the monarchies maintains a separate ministry for the administration of its own fiscal affairs. On the joint ministries see p. 510. 3 Law concerning the Exercise of Administrative and Executive Power, Decem- ber 21, 1867, 9. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 88-89. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 46$ may be interpellated or impeached by either. For impeachment an elaborate procedure is prescribed, though thus far it has not proved of practical utility. Every law promulgated in the Emperor's name must bear the signature of a responsible minister, and several sorts of ordinances such as those proclaiming a state of siege or suspending the constitutional rights of a citizen require the concurrent signature of the entire ministry. Every minister possesses the right to sit and to speak in either chamber of the Reichsrath, where the policy of the Government may call for explanation or defense, and where there are at least occasional interpellations to be answered. Nominally, the parliamentary system is in vogue, but at best it operates only indifferently. Supposedly responsible, collectively and individually, to the Reichsrath, the ministers are in practice far more dependent upon the Emperor than upon the chambers. In France the inability of political parties to coalesce into two great opposing groups largely defeats the best ends of the parliamentary system. In Austria the numerous and ineradicable racial divisions deflect the system further still from the lines upon which theoretically it should operate. No political group is sufficiently powerful to rule alone, and no work- ing affiliation can long be made to subsist. The consequence is, not only that the Government can ordinarily play off one faction against another and secure pretty much its own way, but also that the re- sponsibility of the ministers to the chambers is much less effective in practice than on paper it appears to be. 1 III. THE REICHSRATH THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 516. The House of Lords. The Reichsrath consists of two cham- bers. The upper is known as the Herrenhaus, or House of Lords; the lower, as the Abgeordnetenhaus, or House of Representatives. The Herrenhaus consists of a somewhat variable number of men who sit in part by ex-officio right, in part by hereditary station, and in part by special Imperial appointment. At the close of 1910 there were in the chamber 266 members, distributed as follows: (i) princes of the Impe- rial family who are of age, 15; (2) nobles of high rank qualified by the possession of large estates and nominated to an hereditary seat by the Emperor, 74; (3) ecclesiastics 10 archbishops and 8 bishops who are of princely title inherent in their episcopal seats, 18; and (4) persons nominated by the Emperor for life in recognition of special service 1 W. Beaumont, Cabinets e"phemeres et ministeres provisoires en Autriche, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, March, 1900; H. Hantich, Nouvelle phase du parlementarisme en Autriche, in Questions Diplomatiques et Coloniales, February i, 1910. 466 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE rendered to the state or the Church, or unusual distinction attained in literature, art, or science, 159. By law of January 26, 1907, the num- ber of members in the last-mentioned group may not exceed 170, nor be less than I50. 1 Within these limits, the power of the Emperor to create life peers is absolute. The prerogative is one which has several times been exercised to facilitate the enactment of measures upon whose adoption the Government was determined. The president and vice-president of the chamber are appointed from its members by the Emperor at the beginning of each session; but the body chooses all of its remaining officers. The privileges and powers of the Herrenhaus are co-ordinate with those of the Abgeordnetenhaus, save that money bills and bills fixing the number of military recruits must be presented first in the lower chamber. 617. The House of Representatives: Composition. The lower chamber, as constituted by fundamental law of 1867, was made up of 203 representatives, apportioned among the several provinces and elected by the provincial diets. The system worked poorly, and a law of 1868 authorized the voters of a province to elect the stipulated quota of representatives in the event that the Diet failed to do so. Still there was difficulty, arising largely from the racial rivalries in the provinces, and by an amendment of April 2, 1873, the right of election was vested exclusively in the enfranchised inhabitants of the Empire. The number of members was at the same time increased to 353, though without modifying the proportion of representatives of the various provinces. Further amendment, in 1896, brought up the membership to 425, where it remained until 1907, when it was raised to the present figure, 516. 618. Early Electoral Arrangements: Law of 1873. The broadly democratic electoral system which prevails in the Austrian dominions to-day is a very recent creation. With the introduction of consti- tutionalism in 1867 the problem of the franchise became one of pecu- liar and increasing difficulty, and the process by which the Empire has been brought laboriously to its present condition of democracy has constituted one of the most tortuous chapters in recent political history. The conditions by which from the outset the problem was complicated were three in number: first, the large survival of self-assertiveness on the part of the various provinces among whom parliamentary repre- sentatives were to be distributed; second, the keenness of the ambi- tions of the several racial elements for parliamentary power; and third, 1 It is interesting to observe that this guarantee against the wholesale creation of peers was brought forward with the object of winning for the Government's Uni- versal Suffrage Bill the assent of the upper chamber. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 467 the utter lack of experience and of traditions on the part of the Aus- trian peoples in the matter of democratic government. When, in 1873, the right of electing deputies was withdrawn from the provincial diets it was conferred, without the establishment of a new electorate, upon those elements of the provincial populations which had been accustomed to take part in the election of the local diets. These were four in number: (i) the great land-owners, com- prising those who paid a certain land tax, varying in the several provinces from 50 to 250 florins ($20 to $100), and including women and corporations; (2) the cities, in which the franchise was extended to all males of twenty-four who paid a direct tax of ten gulden annu- ally; (3) chambers of commerce and of industry; and (4) rural com- munes, in which the qualifications for voting were the same as in the cities. To each of these curiae, or classes, the law of 1873 assigned a number of parliamentary representatives, to be elected thereafter in each province directly by the voters of the respective classes, rather than indirectly through the diets. The number of voters in each class and the relative importance of the individual voter varied enormously. In 1890, in the class of land-owners there was one deputy to every 63 voters; in the chambers of commerce, one to every 27; in the cities, one to every 2,918; and in the rural districts, one to every n^oo. 1 619. The Taaffe Electoral Bill of 1893. During the period covered by the ministry of Count Taaffe (February, 1879, to October, 1893) there was growing demand, especially on the part of the Socialists, Young Czechs, German Nationalists, and other radical groups, for a new electoral law, and during the years 1893-1896 this issue quite over- shadowed all others. In October, 1893, Taaffe brought forward a sweeping electoral measure which, if it had become law, would have transferred the bulk of political power to the working classes, at the same time reducing to impotence the preponderant German Liberal party. The measure did not provide for the general, equal, and direct suffrage for which the radicals were clamoring, and by which the num- ber of voters would have been increased from 1,700,000 to 5,500,000. But it did contemplate the increase of the electorate to something like 4,000,000. This it proposed to accomplish by abolishing all property qualifications of voters hi the cities and rural communes 2 and by ex- tending the voting privilege to all adult males who were able to read and write and who had resided in their electoral district a minimum of six months. To avoid the danger of an excess of democracy Taaffe planned to retain intact the curiae of landed proprietors and chambers 1 Hazen, Europe since 1815, 399. 2 By a law of 1882 the direct-tax qualification had been reduced to 5 florins. 468 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of commerce, so that it would still be true that 5,402 large landholders would be represented in the lower house by 85 deputies, the chambers of commerce by 22, and the remainder of the nation some 24,000,000 people by 246. Impelled especially by fear of socialism, the Con- servatives, the Poles, the German Liberals, and other elements opposed the project, and there never was any real chance of its adoption. By reason of its halfway character the Socialists, in congress at Vienna in March, 1894, condemned it as "an insult to the working classes." Even in Hungary (which country, of course, the measure did not immediately concern) there was apprehension, the ruling Magyars fearing that the adoption of even a partial universal suffrage system in the affiliated state would prompt a demand on the part of the numer- ically preponderant Slavic populations of Hungary for the same sort of thing. Anticipating defeat, Taaffe resigned, in October, 1893, before the measure came to a vote. 620. The Electoral Law of 1896. Under the Windischgratz and Kielmansegg ministries which succeeded no progress was realized, but the cabinet of the Polish Count Badeni, constituted October 4, 1895, made electoral reform the principal item in its programme and succeeded in carrying through a measure which, indeed, was but a caricature of TaafiVs project, but which none the less marked a dis- tinct stage of progress toward the broad-based franchise for which the radicals were clamoring. The Government's bill was laid before the Reichsrath, February 16, 1896, and was adopted unchanged within the space of two weeks. The general suffrage which the Socialists de- manded was established, for the election, however, not of the 353 representatives already composing the lower chamber, but merely of a body of 72 new representatives to be added to the present membership. In the choice of these 72 additional members every male citizen twenty-four years of age who had resided in a given district as much as six months prior to an election was to be entitled to participate; but elections were to be direct only in those districts in which indirect voting had been abolished by provincial legislation. Votes were to be cast, as a rule, by ballot, though under some circumstances orally. All pre-existing classes of voters were left unchanged, and to them was simply added a fifth. The aggregate number of electors in the Empire was raised to 5,333,000. Of the number, however, the 1,732,000 com- prised in the original four curiae were still to elect 353 of the 425 mem- bers of the chamber, with the further inequity that many of the per- sons who profited by the new arrangement were included already in one or another of the older classes, and hence were vested by it with a plural vote. Although, therefore, the voting privilege was THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 469 now conferred upon millions of small taxpayers and non-taxpayers who never before had possessed it, the nation was still very far from a fair and democratic suffrage system. 621. Renewed Agitation: the Universal Suffrage Law of 1907. Throughout the decade following 1896 electoral agitation was continu- ous and widespread, but not until 1905 did the situation become favor- able for further reform. In September of the year mentioned Francis Joseph approved the proposal that universal suffrage be included in the programme of the Fejervary cabinet in Hungary, and the act was taken at once to mean that the sovereign had arrived at the conclusion that the democratizing of the franchise was inevitable in all of his dominions. In point of fact, by reason of the prolonged parliamentary crisis of late years at Vienna, the Emperor was fast arriving at precisely such a con- clusion. Stimulated by current developments in Hungary and in Russia, the Austrian Socialists, late in 1905, entered upon a notable series of demonstrations, and, November 28, Premier Gautsch was moved to pledge the Government to introduce forthwith a franchise reform bill based upon the principle of universal suffrage. February 23, 1906, the promise was redeemed by the presentation in the Reichsrath of proposals for (i) the abolition of the system of electoral curiae, (2) the extension of an equal franchise to all males over twenty-four years of age and resident in their district a year, (3) the division of Austria racially into compartments so that each ethnic group might be protected against its rivals, and (4) the increase of the number of seats from 425 to 455, a fr^d number to be allotted to each province, and in each province to each race, in accordance with numbers and tax-paying capacity. The outlook for the bill in which these proposals were incorporated was at first not promising. The Social Democrats, the Christian Social- ists, and the Young Czechs were favorable; the Poles were reserved in their attitude, but inclined to be hostile; practically all of the German Liberals were opposed; and the landed proprietors, long accustomed to dominate within the preponderant German element in the Reichsrath, were violently hostile. In April, 1906, while the bill was pending, the Gautsch ministry found itself without a parliamentary majority and was succeeded by a ministry made up by Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst. This ministry lasted but six weeks, and June 2 the coalition cabinet of Baron Beck assumed office. Convinced that the establishment of universal and direct suffrage would afford the best means of stimulating loyalty to the dynasty, as well as the only practicable means of freeing the Government from parliamentary obstructionism, Emperor Francis Joseph accorded the Beck ministry his earnest support in its purpose 470 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE to push to a conclusion the task of electoral reform. The effort attained fruition in the memorable Universal Suffrage Law passed by both houses of the Reichsrath in the closing days of 1906 and approved by the Emperor January 26 of the following year. The measure, which was in form an amendment of the fundamental law of December 21, 1867, concerning Imperial Representation, was opposed by the conservative and aristocratic members of both houses and by the extremer rep- resentatives of the various nationalities; but, like other portions of the constitutional system of the Empire, it may not be amended save by a two-thirds vote of both houses, and it is likely to endure through a considerable period unchanged. 522. Racial and Geographical Distribution of Seats. In the course of the prolonged negotiations between the Government and represent- atives of the various nationalities by which the preparation of the law was attended there was worked out a fresh allotment of seats to the several racial groups of the Empire, in proportion, roughly, to tax- paying capacity. The total number of seats was raised from 425 to 5 16. Their distribution among the races, as compared with that formerly existing, was arranged as follows: 1 Before 1907 After igoy Germans of all parties 205 233 Czechs 81 108 Poles 71 80 South Slavs (Slovenes, Croats, Serbs) 27 37 Ruthenes n 34 * Italians 18 19 Roumanians 5 5 418 516 The striking feature of this readjustment is, of course, the increased number of seats assigned to the non-German nationalities. In pro- portion strictly to population, the Germans still possess a larger number of seats than that to which they are entitled. But the aggregate is only 233, while the aggregate of Slavic seats is 259. Even if the former German-Italian bloc were still effective it could control a total of only 257 votes; but, in point of fact, the Italians in the Reichsrath to-day are apt to act with the Slavs rather than with the Germans. After decision had been reached regarding the distribution of seats in accordance with races it remained to effect a distribution geographic- ally among the provinces of the Empire. To each of the several prov- 1 For tables exhibiting comparatively the distribution of seats in 1867, 1873, 1896, and 1907, see W. Beaumont, Le suffrage universel en Autriche: la loi du 26 Janvier 1907 in Annales des Sciences Politiques, Sept., 1907. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 471 inces was assigned an aggregate quota which, in turn, was distributed within the province among the racial groups represented in the provincial population. The allotment made, in comparison with that prevailing under the law of 1896, was as follows: Before 1907 After igo? Kingdom of Bohemia no 130 Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, with the grand- duchy of Cracow 78 106 Archduchy of Lower Austria 46 64 Margravate of Moravia 43 49 Duchy of Styria 27 30 Princely County of Tyrol 21 25 Archduchy of Upper Austria 20 22 Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia 12 15 Duchy of Bukovina n 14 Duchy of Carniola u 12 Kingdom of Dalmatia n n Duchy of Carinthia .- 10 10 Duchy of Salsburg 6 7 Margravate of Istria 5 6 Princely County of Gorz and Gradisca 5 6 City of Trieste and its territory 5 5 Territory of Vorarlberg 4 4 425 5i6 523. Electoral Qualifications and Procedure. By the law of 1907 the class system of voting was abolished entirely in national elections, and in its stead was established general, equal, and direct manhood suffrage. With insignificant exceptions, every male citizen who has attained the age of twenty-four, and who, at the time the election is ordered, has resided during at least one year in the commune in which the right to vote is to be exercised, is qualified to vote for a parliamentary representative. And any male thirty years of age, or over, who has been during at least three years a citizen, and who is possessed of the franchise, is eligible to be chosen as a representative. Voting is by secret ballot, and an absolute majority of all votes cast is necessary for a choice. In default of such a majority there is a second ballot between the two candidates who at the first test received the largest number of votes. It is stipulated, further, that when so ordered by the provincial diet, voting shall be obligatory, under penalty of fine, and in the prov- inces of Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Silesia, Salsburg, Moravia, and Vorarlberg every elector is required by provincial regulation to appear at every parliamentary election in his district, and to present his ballot, the penalty for neglect (unless explained to the satisfaction of the proper magistrate) being a fine ranging from one to fifty crowns. In the House 472 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of Lords, where there was strong opposition to the principle of manhood suffrage, effort was made to introduce in the act of 1907 a provision for the conferring of a second vote upon all voters above the age of thirty- five. By the Emperor and ministry it was urged, however, that the injection of such a modification would wreck the measure, and when the lower chamber tacitly pledged itself to enact a law designed to prevent the " swamping " of the peers by Imperial appointment at the behest of a parliamentary majority, the plural voting project was abandoned. 1 So far as practicable, the electoral constituencies in the various provinces are arranged to preserve the distinction between urban and rural districts and to comprise racial groups that are essentially homo- geneous. In regions, as Bohemia, where the population is especially mixed separate constituencies and registers are maintained for the electors of each nationality, and a man may vote on only the register of his own race and for a candidate of that race. Germans, thus, are obliged to vote for Germans, Czechs for Czechs, Poles for Poles; so that, while there may be a contest between a German Clerical and a German Liberal or between a Young Czech and a Radical Czech, there can be none be- tween Germans and Czechs, or between Poles and Ruthenes. In general, each district returns but one representative. The 36 Galician districts, however, return two apiece. Each elector there, as elsewhere, votes for but one candidate, the device permitting the representation of minori- ties. The population comprising a constituency varies from 26,693 in Salsburg to 68,724 in Galicia. The average is 49,676^ 624. The Reichsrath: Sessions and Procedure. By the law of 1867 no limit was fixed for the period of service of the parliamentary repre- sentative. The life of the Reichsrath, and consequently the tenure of the individual deputy, was terminated only by a dissolution. Under provision of an amendment of April 2, 1873, however, members of the lower chamber are elected for a term of six years, at the expiration of which period, as also in the event of a dissolution, a new election must be held. Representatives are indefinitely eligible for re-election. Vacancies are filled by special elections, which may be held at any time, according to procedure specified by law. Representatives receive a stipend of 20 crowns for each day's attendance, with an allowance for travelling expenses. 1 As has been pointed out, the pledge was redeemed in 1907 by a measure fixing the minimum number of life peers at 150 and the maximum at 170. See p. 466. 2 On the electoral law of 1907 see W. Beaumont, Le suffrage universel en Au- triche: la loi du 26 Janvier 1907, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, Sept., 1907; H. Hantich, Le suffrage universel en Autriche, in Questions Diplomatiques et Colon- tales, Feb. 16, 1907; M. E. Zweig, La re'forme electorate en Autriche, in Revue du Droit Public, April-June and July-Sept., 1907. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 473 The fundamental law prescribes that the Reichsrath shall be con- vened annually, "during the winter months when possible." 1 The Emperor appoints the president and vice-president of the Herrenhaus, from among the members of the chamber, and for the period of a session. The Abgeordnetenhaus elects from its members its president and vice- president. Normally, the sessions of both houses are public, though upon request of the president, or of at least ten members, and by a decision taken behind closed doors, each house possesses the right, in exceptional instances, to exclude spectators. Projects of legislation may be submitted by the Government or by the individual members of the chambers. Measures pass by majority vote; but no act is valid unless at the time of its passage there are present in the lower house as many as 100 members, and in the upper house as many as 40. A curious provision touching the relations of the two houses is that if, on a question of appropriation or of the size of a military contingent, no agreement can be reached between the two houses after prolonged deliberation, the smallest figure approved by either house shall be re- garded as voted. 2 By decree of the Emperor the Reichsrath may at any time be adjourned, or the lower chamber dissolved. Ministers and chiefs of the central administration are entitled to take part in all deliberations, and to present their proposals personally or through repre- sentatives. Each house may, indeed, require a minister's attendance. Members of the chambers may not be held responsible for any vote cast; and for any utterances made by them they may be held responsible only by the house to which they belong. Unless actually apprehended in a criminal act, no member of either house may be arrested or pro- ceeded against judicially during the continuance of a session, except by the consent of the chamber to which he belongs. 3 525. The Reichsrath: Powers. The powers of the Reichsrath are, in general, those ordinarily belonging to a parliamentary body. Accord- ing to fundamental law of 1867, they comprise all matters which relate to the rights, obligations, and interests of the provinces represented in the chambers, in so far as these matters are not required to be handled conjointly with the proper representatives of the Hungarian portion of the monarchy. The Reichsrath examines and ratifies or rejects com- mercial treaties, and likewise political treaties which place a fiscal bur- 1 Law of December 21, 1867, concerning Imperial Representation, 10. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 77. 2 Law of December 21, 1867, concerning Imperial Representation, 13. Dodd, Ibid., L, 81. 3 For a collection of the rules of order of the Austrian Parliament see K. and O. Neisser, Die Geschaftsordnung des Abgeordnetenhaus des Reichsrates, 2 vols. (Vienna, 1909). 474 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE den on the Empire or any portion of it, impose obligations upon in- dividual citizens, or involve any change of territorial status. It makes provision for the military and naval establishments. It enacts the budget and approves all taxes and duties. It regulates the monetary system, banking, trade, and communication. It legislates on citizen- ship, public health, individual rights, education, criminal justice and police regulation, the duties and interrelations of the provinces, and a wide variety of other things. It exercises the right of legalizing or annull- ing Imperial ordinances which, under urgent circumstances, may be promulgated by the Emperor with the provisional force of law when the chambers are not in session. 1 Such ordinances may not introduce any alteration in the fundamental law, impose any lasting burden upon the treasury, or alienate territory. They must be issued, if issued at all, under the signature of all of the ministers, and they lose their legal force if the Government does not lay them before the lower chamber within the first four weeks of its next ensuing session, or if either of the two houses refuses its assent thereto. Each of the houses may inter- pellate the ministers upon all matters within the scope of then* powers, may investigate the administrative acts of the Government, demand information from the ministers concerning petitions presented to the houses, may appoint commissions, to which the ministers must give all necessary information, and may give expression to its views in the form of addresses or resolutions. Any minister may be impeached by either house. 2 IV. POLITICAL PARTIES 626. Racial Elements in the Empire. The key to the politics of Austria is afforded by the racial composition of the Empire's popula- tion. In our own day there is a tendency, in consequence of the spread of socialism and of other radical programmes which leap across racial and provincial lines, toward the rise of Austrian parties which shall be essentially inter-racial in their constituencies. Yet at the elections of 1907 the first held under the new electoral law of the twenty- six party affiliations which succeeded in obtaining at least one parlia- mentary seat all save possibly two comprised either homogeneous racial groups or factions of such groups. Fundamentally, the racial question in Austria has always been that of German versus non- German. The original Austria was preponderantly German; the 1 Issued under warrant of the much-controverted Section 14. See p. 461. 2 Law of December 21, 1867, concerning Imperial Representation, 21. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 83. A work of value is G. Kolmer, Parlament und Ver- fassung in Osterreich (Vienna, 1909). THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 475 wealthiest, the best educated, the most widespread of the racial elements in the Empire to-day is the German; and by the Germans it has regularly been assumed that Austria is, and ought to be, essentially a German country. 1 In this assumption the non-German populations of the Empire have at no time acquiesced; and while they have never been able to combine long or effectively against the dominating Ger- manic element, they have sought persistently, each in its own way, to compel a fuller recognition of their several interests and rights. The nationalities represented within the Empire fall broadly into three great groups: the German, the Slavic, and the Latin. In an aggregate population of 26,107,304 hi 1900 the Germans numbered 9,171,614, or somewhat more than 35 per cent; the Slavs, 15,690,000, or somewhat more than 60 per cent; and the Latins, 958,065, or approx- imately 3.7 per cent. The Germans, comprising the most numerous of the individual nationalities, occupy exclusively Upper Austria, Salsburg, and Vorarlberg, the larger portion of Lower Austria, north- western Carinthia, the north and center of Styria and Tyrol, and, in fact, are distributed much more generally over the entire Empire than is any one of the other racial elements. The Slavs are in two principal groups, the northern and the southern. The northern includes the Czechs and Slovaks, dwelling principally in Bohemia and Moravia, and numbering, in 1900, 5,955,397; the Poles, comprising a compact mass of 4,252,483 people in Galicia and Silesia; and the Ruthenes, numbering 3,381,570, in eastern Galicia and in Bukovina. The south- ern Slavic group includes the Slovenes, numbering 1,192,780, hi Carniola, Gorz, Gradisca, Istria, and Styria, and the Servians and Croats, numbering 711,380, in Istria and Dalmatia. The peoples of Latin stock are the Italians and Ladini (727,102), in Tyrol, Gorz, Gradisca, Dalmatia, and Trieste, and the Roumanians (230,963) in Bukovina. Within many of the groups mentioned there is meager survival of political unity. There are German Clericals, German Progressives, German Radicals, German Agrarians; likewise Old Czechs, Young Czechs, Czech Realists, Czech Agrarians, Czech Cler- icals, and Czech Radicals. Austrian party history within the past fifty years comprises largely the story of the political contests among the several nationalities, and of the disintegration of these nationali- ties into a bewildering throng of clamorous party cliques. 627. Centralists and Federalists. The more important of the party groups of to-day trace their origins to the formative period in recent Austro-Hungarian constitutional history, 1860-1867. During this period the fundamental issue in the Empire was the degree ol cen- 1 Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., 95. GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE tralization which it was desirable, or possible, to achieve in the re- shaping of the governmental system. On the one hand were the cen- tralists, who would have bound the loosely agglomerated kingdoms, duchies, and territories of the Empire into a consolidated state. On the other were the federalists, to whom centralization appeared dangerous, as well as unjust to the Empire's component nationalities. Speaking broadly, the Germans, supported by the Italians, comprised the party of centralization; the Slavs, that of federalism. The estab- lishment of the constitution of 1867, as we ll as of the Compromise with Hungary in the same year, was the achievement of the cen- tralists, and with the completion of this gigantic task there gradually took form a compactly organized political party, variously known as the National German party, the German Liberals, or the Constitutional- ists, whose watchwords were the preservation of the constitution and the Germanization of the Empire. For a time this party maintained the upper hand completely, but its ascendancy was menaced not only by the disaffected forces of federalism but by the continued tenseness of the clerical question and, after 1869, by intestine conflict. As was perhaps inevitable, the party split into two branches, the one radical and the other moderate. During the earlier months of 1870 the Rad- icals, under Hasner, were in control; but in their handling of the vexa- tious Polish and Bohemian questions they failed completely and, April 4, they gave place to the Moderates under the premiership of the Polish Count Potocki. The new ministry sought to govern in a con- ciliatory spirit and with the support of all groups, but its success was meager. February 7, 1871, a cabinet which was essentially federalist was constituted under Count Hohenwart. Its decentralizing policies, however, were of such a character that the racial question gave promise of being settled by the utter disintegration of the Empire, and after eight months it was dismissed. 628. Rule of the German Liberals, 1871-1879. With a cabinet presided over by Prince Adolf Auersperg the German Liberals then returned to power. Their tenure was prolonged to 1879 and might have been continued beyond that date but for the recurrence of factional strife within their ranks. The period was one in which some of the obstructionist groups, notably the Czechs, fell into division among themselves, so that the opposition which the Liberals were called upon to encounter was distinctly less effective than otherwise it might have been. At no time since 1867 had the Czechs consented to be represented in the Reichsrath, a body, indeed, which they had persisted in refusing to recognize as a legitimately constituted parlia- ment of the Empire. During the early seventies a party of Young THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 477 Czechs sprang up which advocated an abandonment of passive re- sistance and the substitution of parliamentary activity in behalf of the interests of the race. The Old Czechs were unprepared for such a shift of policy, and in 1873 they played directly into the hands of the Liberal government by refusing to participate in the consideration of the electoral reform by which the choice of representatives was taken from the provincial diets and vested in the four classes of pro- vincial constituencies. For the carrying of this measure a two-thirds majority was required, and if the Czechs had been willing to vote at all upon it they might easily have compassed its defeat. As it was, the amendment was carried without difficulty. A tenure of power which not even the financial crisis of 1873 could break was, however, sacri- ficed through factional bickerings. Within both the ministry and the Reichsrath, the dominant party broke into three groups, and the up- shot was the dissolution, February 6, 1879, of the ministry and the creation of a new one under the presidency of Count Taaffe, long identified with the Moderate element. Three months later the House of Representatives was dissolved. In the elections that followed the Liberals lost a total of forty-five seats, and therewith their position as the controlling party in both the Reichsrath and the nation. Taaffe retained the premiership, but his Liberal colleagues were replaced by Czechs, Poles, Clericals, and representatives indeed of pretty nearly all of the existing groups save the Germans. 1 629. The Taaffe Ministry, 1879-1893. The prolonged ministry of Count Taaffe comprises the second period of Austrian parlia- mentary history. Of notably moderate temper, Taaffe had never been a party man of the usual sort, and he entered office with an honest purpose to administer the affairs of the nation without regard to considerations of party or of race. The establishment of his recon- stituted ministry was signalized by the appearance of Czech deputies for the first time upon the floor of the national parliament. The Taaffe government found its support in what came to be known as the Right a quasi-coalition of Poles, Czechs, Clericals, and the Slavic and conservative elements generally. 2 It was opposed by the Left, comprising principally the German Liberals. In 1881 the various factions of the German party, impelled by the apprehension that German ascendancy might be lost forever, drew together again and entered upon a policy of opposition which was dictated purely and 1 As at first reconstituted, the ministry contained a German Liberal, but he soon resigned. 2 In the Chamber the Czechs, Poles, and Clericals controlled each approximately 55 votes. GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE frankly by racial aspirations. Attempts to embarrass the Government by obstruction proved, however, only indifferently successful. In 1888 the party was once more reconstructed. Among the diverse groups by which the Taaffe government was supported there was just one common interest, namely, the preven- tion of a return to power on the part of the German Liberals. Upon this preponderating consideration, and upon the otherwise divergent purposes of the Government groups, Taaffe built his system. Main- taining rigidly his determination to permit no radical alteration of the constitution, he none the less extended favors freely to the non- Germanic nationalities, and so contrived to prolong through nearly a decade and a half, by federalist support, an essentially centralist government. Government consisted largely, indeed, in perennial bargainings between the executive authorities on the one hand and the parliamentary groups on the other, and in the course of these bargainings it was ever the legislative chambers, not the Government, that lost ground. The bureaucracy increased its hold, the adminis- trative organs waxed stronger, the power of the Emperor was magni- fied. The ministry became pre-eminently the ministry of the crown, and despite strictly observed constitutional forms the spirit of abso- lutism was largely rehabilitated. 1 630. The German Recovery: Badeni, 1895-1897. To the eventual breakdown of the Taaffe regime various circumstances contributed. Two of principal importance were the defection of the Young Czechs and the iailure of the several attempts to draw to the support of the Government the moderate German Liberals. At the elections of 1891 the Young Czechs obtained almost the entire quota of Bohemian seats, and at the same tune the Liberals recovered enough ground to give them the position uf the preponderant group numerically in the lower chamber. Neither ol these two parties could be persuaded to 1 The forcefully expressed view of an em'nent Austrian authority, written during the parliamentary deadlock which marked the 'close of the last century, is of in- terest. "His [Taaffe's] prolonged ministry had decisive enects upon the political life of Austria. It rendered forever impossible a return to Germanizing centralism. It filled the administrative hierarchy with Slavs, who, remaining Slavs, placed at the service of their national propaganda their official influence. In combatting the Liberal party it restored the power of the court, of the aristocracy, of the Church, and it facilitated the obnoxious restoration of clericalism, by which Austria to-day is dominated. It at the same time aroused and corrupted the nationalities and the parties. It habituated them to give rein unceasingly to their ambitions and to seek to attain them less by their own force and labor than by intrigue. The public demoralization, illustrated to-day so clearly by the Austrian crisis, is properly the result of the Taaffe system." M. L. Eisenmann, in Lavisse et Rambaud, His- toire G6n6rale, XII., 177. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 479 accord the Government its support, and during 1891-1893 Taaffe labored vainly to recover a working coalition. Finally, in 1893, as a last resource, the Government resolved to undermine the opposi- tion, especially German Liberalism, by the abolition of the property qualification for voting in the cities and rural communes. The nature of Taaffe's electoral reform bill of 1893 has been explained elsewhere, and likewise the reason for its rejection. 1 Anticipat- ing the defeat of the measure, the premier retired from office Octo- ber 23, 1893. The Germans now recovered, not their earlier power, but none the less a distinct measure of control. November 12 there was established, under Prince Windischgratz a coalition ministry, comprising repre- sentatives of the German Liberals, the Poles, and the Clericals, and this cabinet was very sucessful until, in June, 1895, it was wrecked by the secession of the Liberals on a question of language reform in Styria. After four months, covered by the colorless ministry of Count Kielmansegg, Count Badeni became minister-president (October 4, 1895) and made up a cabinet, consisting largely of German Liberals, but bent upon an essentially non-partisan administration. The two tasks chiefly which devolved upon the Badeni ministry were the reform of the electoral system and the renewal of the decennial economic compromise with Hungary, to expire at the end of 1897. The first was accomplished, very ineffectively, through the electoral measure of 1896; the second, by reason of factional strife, was not accomplished at all. 631. The Language Question: Parliamentary Deadlock. The elec- tions of 1897 marked the utter dissolution of both the United German Left and the coalition which had borne the designation of the Right. Among the 200 Germans elected to the Chamber there were distinguish- able no fewer than eight groups; and the number of groups represented in the aggregate membership of 425 was at least twenty-four. Of these the most powerful were the Young Czechs, with 60 seats, and the Poles, with 59. Profiting by the recently enacted electoral law, the Socialists at this point made their first appearance in the Reichsrath with a total of 14 seats. Taking the Chamber as a whole, there was a Slavo-Clerical majority, although not the two-thirds requisite for the enactment of constitutional amendments. The radical opponents of the Govern- ment were represented by the 51 German Liberals only. But no one of the Slavic groups was disposed to accord its support save in return for favors received. In the attempt to procure for itself a dependable majority the Badeni government succeeded but in creating confusion 1 See p. 467. 480 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE twice confounded. The Young Czechs, whose support appeared indis- pensable, stipulated as a positive condition of that support that Czech should be recognized as an official language in Bohemia and Moravia, and by ordinances of April-May, 1897, the Government took it upon itself to meet this condition. Within the provinces named the two languages, Czech and German, were placed, for official purposes upon a common footing. The only result, however, was to drive the Germans, already hostile, to a settled course of parliamentary ob- struction, and before the year was out the Badeni cabinet was com- pelled to retire. The Gautsch ministry which succeeded proposed to maintain the equality of the Czech and German tongues in Bohemia; wherefore the German Liberals persisted in their obstructionist policy and declared that they would continue to do so until the objectionable ordinances should have been rescinded. March 5, 1898, the Government pro- mulgated a provisional decree in accordance with which in one portion of Bohemia the official tongue was to be Czech, in another German, and in the third the two together. But no one was satisfied and the ministry resigned. The coalition government of Count Thun Hohen- stein which succeeded labored in the interest of conciliation, but with absolutely no success. Parliamentary sittings became but occasions for the display of obstructive tactics, and even for resort to violence, and legislation came to a standstill. By the vise of every known device the turbulent German parties rendered impossible the passage of even the most necessary money bills, and the upshot was that, hi the summer of 1898, the Government was obliged to fall back upon that extraordinary portion of the Austrian constitution, commonly known as Section 14, by which, in default of parliamentary legislation, the crown is authorized to promulgate ordinances with the force of law. The period of extra parliamentary government here inaugurated was destined to be extended through more than six years and to comprise one of the most remarkable chapters in recent political history. 632. The Nadir of Parliamentarism. Following the retirement of the Thun Hohenstein ministry, at the end of September, 1899, the government of Count Clary- Aldingen revoked the language decrees; but the parliamentary situation was not improved, for the Czechs resorted forthwith to the same obstructionist tactics of which the Germans had been guilty and the government had still to be operated principally on the basis of Section 14. A provisional government under Dr. Wittek, at the close of 1899, was followed by the ministry of Dr. Korber, established January 20, 1900; but all attempts at concilia- tion continued to be unavailing. In September, 1900, the Reichsrath THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 481 was dissolved and the order for the new elections was accompanied by the ominous declaration of the Emperor that the present appeal to the nation would be the last constitutional means which would be em- ployed to bring the crisis to an end. Amid widespread depression, threats of Hungarian independence, and rumors of an impending coup d'etat, the elections took place, in January, 1901. The German par- ties realized the largest gains, but the parliamentary situation was not materially altered, and thereafter, until its fall, December 31, 1904, the Korber ministry continued to govern substantially without parlia- mentary assistance. In 1901-1902, by various promises, the premier induced the combatants to lay aside their animosities long enough to vote the yearly estimates, a military contingent, and certain much- needed economic reforms. But this was virtually the sole interruption of a six-year deadlock. 633. Electoral Reform and the Elections of 1907. With the estab- lishment of the second Gautsch ministry, December 31, 1904, a truce was declared and interest shifted to the carrying out of the Imperial programme of electoral reform. From the proposed liberalization of the suffrage many of the party groups were certain to profit and others had at least a chance of doing so; and thus it came about that the great electoral law of 1907 was carried through its various stages under parlia- mentary conditions which were substantially normal. Its progress was attended by the fall, in April, 1906, of the Gautsch ministry and, six weeks later, by that of its provisional successor. But by the coalition government of Baron Beck (June 2, 1906 to November 8, 1908) the project was pushed to a successful conclusion, and in its final form the law was approved by the Emperor, January 26, 1907. The promulgation of the new electoral measure was followed, May 14, by a general election, the results of which may be tabulated as shown on the following page. Each of the twenty-six groups here enumerated maintained at the time of the election an independent party organization, although in the Chamber the representatives of certain of them were accustomed to act in close co-operation. To the clericals and conservatives of all shades fell an aggregate of 230 seats; but among the various groups of this type there has never been sufficient coherence to permit the formation of a compact conservative party. Among the liberal and radical groups lack of coherence was, and remains, still more pronounced. The most striking feature of the election of 1907 was the gains made by the Social Democrats and the Christian Socialists, to be explained largely by the extension of the franchise to the non-taxpaying and small taxpaying population. 482 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Seats after Seats in election of previous 1907 Chamber Social Democrats 90 n Christian Socialists 67 26 German Clericals 29 29 German Progressives 23 60 German Radicals 24 46 German Agrarians 21 4 Independent Pan-Germans 8 7 Pan-Germans 3 15 Polish Club 54 66 Polish Radicals 16 o Polish Independent Socialists 3 o Ruthenes 28 9 Jewish Zionists 3 o Young Czechs 19 47 Old Czechs 6 3 Czech Realists 2 o Czech Agrarians 25 5 Czech Clerical 19 2 Czech Radicals 10 8 Slovene Clericals 22 19 Slovene Liberals 3 6 Italian Liberals 4 12 Italian Clericals 10 6 Croats 9 7 Serbs 2 o Roumanians 5 4 534. The Elections of 1911. The truce by which the election of 1907 was accompanied was not of long duration, and November 8, 1908, the ministry of Baron Beck was driven by German obstructionism to resign. After three months as provisional premier Baron von Bienerth, former Minister of the Interior, made up a cabinet which included representatives of a number of parties and which, despite occasional readjustments of portfolios, exhibited a fair measure of stability throughout upwards of two years. In December, 1910, the Czechs and Poles precipitated a cabinet crisis in consequence of which the ministry was reconstructed (January 9, 1911) in such a manner as to strengthen the Slavic and weaken the Germanic element. But the forces of opposition were not appeased, and as a last resort the Govern- ment determined upon a dissolution and an appeal to the country. The results, however, were by no means those which were desired. At the general elections, which took place June 13 and 20, the Christian Socialists, from whom the Government had drawn its most consistent support, were roundly beaten, and June 26 Baron von Bienerth and THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 483 his colleagues resigned. The ministry thereupon made up was pre- sided over by Baron Gautsch. It, however, endured only until October 31, when it was succeeded by that of Count Stuergkh. The elections of 1911 were hotly contested. The 516 seats to be filled were sought by 2,987 candidates, representing no fewer than fifty-one parties and factions, and second ballotings were required in almost two-thirds of the constituencies. The Czechs returned with undiminished strength, and the German Radicals and Progressives realized substantial gains. The most notable feature, however, was the victory of the Social Democrats over the Christian Socialists, especially in the capital, where the quota of deputies of the one party was raised from ten to nineteen and that of the other was cut from twenty to four. The Christian Socialists, it must be observed, are not socialists in the ordinary meaning of the term. The party was founded by Dr. Liiger a few years ago in the hope that, despite the establish- ment of manhood suffrage in the Empire, the Social Democrats might yet be prevented from acquiring a primacy among the German parties. It is composed largely of clericals, and in tone and purpose it is essen- tially reactionary. By maintaining an active alliance with the German Clerical party it contrived to hold in check the Social Democracy throughout the larger portion of the period 1907-1911. But it was handicapped all the while by internal dissension, and the defeat which it suffered at the last elections has relegated it, at least for the time being, to a subordinate place. 1 V. THE JUDICIARY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 635. General Principles: the Ordinary Tribunals. All judicial power in the Austrian Empire is exercised, and all judgments and sentences are executed, in the name of the Emperor. Judges are appointed for life, by the Emperor or in his name, and they may be 1 On Austrian party politics see Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., 94-123; Drage, Austria-Hungary, Chaps, i, 3, 12; K. Schwechler, Die osterreichische Sozialdemokratie (Graz, 1907); S. Marmorek, L'Obstruction au parlement au- trichien (Paris, 1908); and E. Bene"s, Le problme autrichien et la question teh6que; 6tude sur les luttes politiques des nationalites slaves en Autriche (Paris, 1908). Among valuable articles in periodicals may be mentioned: W. Beaumont, La crise du parlementarisme au Autriche; les elections legislatives et la situation politique, in Annalesdes Sciences Politiques, March 15, 1901; K. Kramer, La situation politique en Autriche, ibid., October 15, 1901; G. L. Jaray, L' Autriche nouvelle: sentiments nationaux et preoccupations sociales, ibid., May 15 and Sept. 15, 1908, and La physionomie nouvelle de la question austro-hongroise, in Questions Diplomatique? et Coloniales, Dec. 16, 1910; Kolmer, La vie politique et parlementaire en Autriche, in Revue Politique et Parlementaire, July 10, 1911; and G. Blondel, Les dernires Elections en Autriche-Hongrie, in La Reforme Sociale, Aug. i and 15, 1911. 484 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE removed from office only under circumstances specified by law and by virtue of a formal judicial sentence. On taking the oath of office all judicial officials are required to pledge themselves to an inviolable observance of the fundamental laws. The Law of December 21, 1867, concerning the Judicial Power withholds from the courts the power to pronounce upon the validity of statutes properly promulgated, though they may render judgment on the validity of Imperial ordi- nances involved in cases before them. 1 With some exceptions, fixed by law, proceedings in both civil and criminal cases are required to be oral and public; and in all cases involving severe penalties, as well as in all actions arising from political crimes and misdemeanors and offenses committed by the press, the guilt or innocence of the accused must be determined by jury. By the law of 1867 it is stipulated that there shall be maintained at Vienna a Supreme Court of Justice and Cassation (Oberste Gerichts- und Kassationshof) for all of the kingdoms and countries represented in the Reichsrath, and that the organization and jurisdiction of inferior courts shall be determined by law, Of inferior tribunals there have been established 9 higher provincial courts (Oberlandesgerichte), 2 74 provincial and district courts (Landes-und Kreisgerichte) , and 96 county courts (Bezirksgerichte). The provincial and district courts .and the county courts, together with a group of jury courts main- tained in connection with the provincial and district tribunals, are courts of first instance; the higher provincial courts and the Supreme Court exercise a jurisdiction that is almost wholly appellate. There exist also special courts for commercial, industrial, military, fiscal, and other varieties of jurisdiction. 536. The Imperial Court. In Austria, as in France and other continental countries, cases affecting administration and the adminis- trative officials are withheld from the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts and are committed to special administrative tribunals. By law of 1867 provision was made for an Imperial Court (Reichsgericht) , to exercise final decision in conflicts of jurisdiction between the two sets of courts and, in general, in all disputed questions of public law, after the manner of the Court of Conflicts in France. The Imperial Court was organized by law of April 18, 1869. It sits at Vienna, and it is composed of a president and deputy president, appointed by the Emperor for life, and of twelve members and four substitutes, also appointed for life by the Emperor upon nomination by the Reichsrath. 1 Art. 7. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 86. 2 Located at Vienna, Graz, Trieste, Innsbruck, Zara, Prague, Briinn, Cracow, and Lemberg. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 48$ It decides finally all conflicts of competence between the administra- tive and the ordinary judicial tribunals, between a provincial diet and the Imperial authorities, and between the independent public authorities of the several provinces of the Empire. Very important in a country so dominated by a bureaucracy as is Austria is the power which by fundamental law is vested in the Imperial Court to pass final verdict upon the merits of all complaints of citizens arising out of the alleged violation of political rights guaranteed to them by the constitution, after the matter shall have been made the subject of an administrative decision. The purpose involved is to afford the citizen who, believing himself deprived of his constitutional rights, has failed to obtain redress in the administrative courts, an opportunity to have his case reviewed by a tribunal constituted with special view to per- manence, independence, and impartiality. High-handed administra- tive acts which are covered by statute, however, are beyond its reach, for, like all Austrian tribunals, it is forbidden to question the validity of a duly promulgated law. 1 637. The Provincial Governments: Composition of the Diet. Each of the seventeen political divisions of the Empire has a government of its own, established on the basis of its Landesordnung, or provincial constitution. The executive, for affairs that are considered strictly divisional, consists of a provincial council, the Landesausschuss, com- posed of the president of the diet (nominated by the Emperor) as ex- officio chairman and from four to eight members variously elected within the province. Imperial interests are specially represented in the province, however, by a Statthalter, or Landesprdsident, appointed by the crown, and independent of local control. Functions of legislation are vested in a Landtag, or diet. The provincial diet of the modern type came into being under the operation of the Imperial diploma of October 20, 1860 (superseded by that of February 26, 1861), replacing the ancient assembly of estates which in most provinces had persisted until 1848. From 1860 onwards diets were established in one after another of the provinces, until eventually all were so equipped. Originally the diets were substantially uniform in respect to both composition and powers. Aside from certain ex- officio members, they were composed of deputies chosen for six years by four electoral curiae: the great proprietors, the chambers of com- merce, the towns, and the rural communes; and, until 1873, one of their principal functions was the election of the provincial delegation in the lower house of the Reichsrath. Each of the seventeen provincial diets as to-day constituted consists of a single chamber, and in most 1 Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 84-85. 486 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE instances the body is composed of (i) the archbishops and bishops of the Catholic and Orthodox Greek churches; (2) the rectors of univer- sities, and, in Galicia, the rector of the technical high school of Lemberg and the president of the Academy of Sciences of Cracow; (3) the representatives of great estates, elected by all landowners paying land taxes of not less than 100, 200, 400, or 500 crowns, according to the provinces in which their estates are situated; (4) the representatives of towns, elected by citizens who possess municipal rights or pay a stipulated amount of direct taxes; (5) the representatives of boards of commerce and industry, chosen by the members of these bodies; and (6) representatives of the rural communes, elected in eight prov- inces directly, in the others indirectly, by deputies (Wahlmanner) returned by all inhabitants who pay direct taxes to the amount of 8 crowns yearly. In a few of the provinces there is, besides these, a general electoral class composed of all qualified male subjects of the state over twenty-four years of age; 1 and there are some other varia- tions, as for example, in Moravia, where, by a law of November 27, 1905, the proportional system of representation was introduced. The diets vary in membership from 26 in Vorarlberg and 30 in Gorz and Gradisca to 151 in Moravia, 161 in Galicia, and 242 in Bohemia. The deputies are elected in all cases for a period of six years, and the diets assemble annually. But a session may be closed, and the diet may be dissolved, at any time by the presiding officer, under the direc- tion of the Emperor. 638. Functions of the Diet. The powers of the diets are not enu- merated, but, rather, are residual. By fundamental law of 1867 it is stipulated that "all matters of legislation other than those expressly reserved to the Reichsrath by the present law belong within the power of the Provincial Diets of the kingdoms and countries represented in the Reichsrath and are constitutionally regulated by such Diets." 2 1 When the class system of voting for members of the Reichsrath was on the point of being abolished by the law of January 26, 1907, there was raised the question as to whether a similar step should not be taken in respect to provincial elections. It was generally agreed, however, that the absence of an aristocratic upper chamber in the provincial diet renders the class system within the province not wholly undesirable. The provinces were encouraged to liberalize their franchise regula- tions, but not to abandon the prevailing electoral system. The province of Lower Austria led the way by increasing the membership of its diet from 79 to 127, to b* elected as follows: 58 by manhood suffrage throughout the province, 31 by the rural communes, 16 by the large landholders, 15 by the towns, and 4 by the cham- bers of commerce. Two bishops and the rector of the University of Vienna were continued as members. 2 Law of December 21, 1867, concerning Imperial Representation, 12. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 79. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF AUSTRIA 487 In certain matters, naturally those of an essentially local character, the diet may act with absolute freedom, save that it is within the com- petence of the Emperor to veto any of its measures. In other matters, such as education and finance, which fall within the range of the Reichsrath's competence, the powers of the diet are limited and sub- sidiary. A policy very generally pursued has been that of formulating at Vienna general regulations for the entire Empire, leaving to the diets the task of devising legislation of a local and specific character for the execution of these regulations; though it can hardly be main- tained that the results have been satisfactory. The diets are not infrequently radical, and even turbulent, bodies, and it has been deemed expedient ordinarily by the Imperial authorities to maintain a close watch upon their proceedings. 639. The Commune. Throughout the Empire the vital unit of local government is the commune. As is true of the province, the commune is an administrative district, and one of its functions is that of serving as an agency of the central government in the conduct of public affairs. Fundamentally, however, the commune is an auton- omous organism, rooted in local interest and -tradition. As such, it exercises broad powers of community control. It makes provision for the safety of person and property, for the maintenance of the local peace, for the supervision of traffic, for elementary and secondary education, and for a variety of other local interests. Except in respect to affairs managed by the commune as agent of the Imperial govern- ment, the local authorities are exempt from discipline at the hand of their superiors, and, indeed, an eminent Austrian authority has gone so far as to maintain that the communes of Austria possess a larger independent competence than do the communes of any other European state. 1 Except in the case of some of the larger towns, which have special constitutions, the rural and urban communes of the Empire are or- ganized upon the same pattern. The executive authority is vested in an elective committee, or council, presided over by a Vorsteher, or burgomaster, chosen from the members of the committee. The Vorsteher is not removable by the central authorities, and over his election they possess no control. In certain of the towns the place of the communal committee is taken by a corporation. In every com- mune there is an assembly (the Gemeindevertretung) , the members of which are elected for three (in Galicia six) years by all resident citizens who are payers of a direct tax. For the purpose of electing assembly- 1 J. Redlich, Das Wesen der osterreichischen Kommunalverfassung (Leipzig, 1910). 488 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE men the voters are divided into three classes, very much as under the Prussian electoral system, and this arrangement, indeed, comprises virtually the only non-democratic aspect of the communal constitu- tion. In Galicia, Styria, and Bohemia there exists also a district assembly, elected for three years (in Galicia six) and made up of representatives of great estates, the most highly taxed industries and trades, towns and markets, and rural communes. A committee of this body, known as the Bezirksausschuss, administers the affairs of the district. CHAPTER XXVI THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF HUNGARY I. THE CONSTITUTION 640. Antiquity. By reason of both its antiquity and its adaptabil- ity to varying conditions, the constitution of the kingdom of Hungary deserves to be considered one of the most remarkable instruments of its kind. Like the fundamental law of England, it is embodied in a maze of ancient statutes and customs, and it is the distinctive creation of a people possessed of a rare genius for politics and government. On the documentary side its history is to be traced at least to the Golden Bull of Andrew II., promulgated in 1222; though that instrument, like the contemporary Great Charter in England, comprised only a con- firmation of national liberties that were already old. 1 Under Hapsburg domination, from the early sixteenth century onwards, the fundamen- tal political system and the long established laws of the Hungarian kingdom were repeatedly guaranteed. Much of the time they were, in practice, disregarded; but the nationalistic vigor of the Hungarian people invested them with unlimited power of survival, and even dur- ing the reactionary second quarter of the nineteenth century they were but held in suspense. 641. Texts: the " March Laws." In large part, the constitution to- day in operation took final form in a series of measures enacted by the Hungarian parliament during the uprising of 1848. Thirty-one laws, in all, were at that time passed, revising the organization of the legisla- tive chambers, widening the suffrage, creating a responsible cabinet, abolishing feudal survivals, and modernizing, in general, the institu- tions of the kingdom. The broad lines which remained were those marked out in the ancient constitutional order; the new measures merely supplemented, revised, and imparted definite form to pre- existing laws, customs, and jealously guarded rights. Not all of these inherited constitutional elements, however, were included in the new 1 There is an interesting comparative study of the Bulla Aurea and the Great Charter in E. Hantos, The Magna Carta of the English and of the Hungarian Con- stitution (London, 1904). 489 490 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE statutes; and to this day it is true that in Hungary, as in Great Brit- ain, a considerable portion of the constitution has never been put into written form. The fate of the measures of 1848 was for a time adverse. The Austrian recovery in 1849 remanded Hungary to the status of a subject province, and it was not until 1867, after seven years of ardu- ous experimentation, that the constitution of 1848 was permitted again to come into operation. The Ausgleich involved as one of its fundamentals a guarantee for all time of the laws, constitution, legal independence, freedom, and territorial integrity of Hungary and its subordinate countries. And throughout all of the unsettlement and conflict which the past half-century has brought in the Austro- Hungarian world the constitution of kingdom and empire alike has stood firm against every shock. The documents in which, chiefly, the written constitution is contained are: (i) Law III. of 1848 concerning the Formation of a Responsible Hungarian Ministry; (2) Law IV. of 1848 concerning Annual Sessions of the Diet; (3) Law XXXIII. of 1874 concerning the Modification and Amendment of Law V. of 1848, and of the Transylvanian Law II. of 1848; and (4) Law VII. of 1885 altering the organization of the Table of Magnates. 1 1 The texts of all of the fundamental laws of Hungary at present in operation are printed in G. Steinbach, Die ungarischen Verfassungsgesetze fod ed., Vienna, 1900). English translations of the more important are in Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 93-111. The standard treatise on the Hungarian constitutional system is S. Rado- Rotheld, Die ungarische Verfassung (Berlin, 1898), upon which is based A. de Bertha, La constitution hongroise (Paris, 1898). In both of these works the Magyar domination in Hungary is regarded with favor. A readable book is A. de Bertha, La Hongrie moderne de 1849 & 1901; tude historique (Paris, 1901). An older treatise, in three volumes, is A. von Virozil, Das Staatsrecht des Konigsreichs Un- garn (Pest, 1865-1866). Valuable works of more recent publication include G. Steinbach, Die ungarischen Verfassungsgesetze (Vienna, 1906); A. Timon, Un- garisehe Verfassungs-und Rechtsgeschichte (2d ed., Berlin, 1908); H. Marczoll, Ungarisches Verfassungsrecht (Tubingen, 1909); and especially G. von Ferdinandy, Staats und Verwaltungsrecht des Konigreichs Ungarn und seiner Nebenlander (Hanover, 1909). Worthy of mention is P. Matter, La constitution hongroise, in Annales de V&cole Libre des Sciences Politiques, July 15, 1889, and April 15, 1890. Excellent discussions for English readers will be found in J. Andrassy, The Development of Hungarian Constitutional Liberty (London, 1908); C. M. Knatch- bull-Hugessen, The Political Evolution of the Hungarian Nation (London, 1908); and P. Alden (ed.), Hungary of To-day (London and New York, 1910). The cele- bration, in 1896, of the thousandth anniversary of the establishment of the Magyars in Europe was made the occasion of the publication of a multitude of more or less popular books devoted, as a rule, to a review of Hungarian national development. Among them may be mentioned: A. Vamb6ry, Hungary in Ancient and Modern Times (London, 1897); R. Chelard, La Hongrie millenaire (Paris, 1906); and M. Gel- leri, Aus der Vergangenheit und Gegenwart des tausendjahrigen Ungarn (Budapest, 1896). THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF HUNGARY 491 II. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 642. The Working Executive. The constitutional arrangements respecting the executive branch of the Hungarian government are set forth principally in Law III. of 1848 "concerning the Formation of a Responsible Hungarian Ministry." The king attains his position ipsojure, by reason of being Emperor of Austria, without the necessity of any distinct act of public law. Within six months of his accession at Vienna he is crowned monarch of Hungary at Budapest, in a special ceremony in which is used the crown sent by Pope Sylvester II. up- wards of a thousand years ago to King Stephen. The new sovereign is required to proffer Parliament an "inaugural certificate," as well as to take a coronation oath, to the effect that he will maintain the fundamental laws and liberties of the country; and both of these instruments are incorporated among the officially published documents of the realm. The entire proceeding partakes largely of the character of a contractual arrangement between nation and sovereign. As in Austria, the powers of the crown are exercised very largely through the ministry. And, by reason of the peculiar safeguards in the Hungarian laws against royal despotism, as well as the all but uninterrupted absence of the king from the dominion, the ministry at Budapest not only constitutes the Hungarian executive in every real sense, but it operates on a much more purely parliamentary basis than does its counterpart at Vienna. "His Majesty," says the law of 1848, "shall exercise the executive power in conformity with law, through the independent Hungarian ministry, and no ordinance, order, decision, or appointment shall have force unless it is countersigned by one of the ministers residing at Budapest." 1 Every measure of the crown must be countersigned by a minister; and every minister is immediately and actually responsible to Parliament for all of his official acts. 643. Composition and Status of the Ministry. The ministry con- sists of a president of the council, or premier, and the heads of nine departments, as follows: Finance, National Defense, Interior, Educa- tion and Public Worship, Justice, Industry and Commerce, Agricul- ture, the Ministry for Croatia and Slavonia, and the Ministry near the King's Person. The last-mentioned portfolio exists by virtue of the constitutional requirement that "one of the ministers shall always be in attendance upon the person of His Majesty, and shall take part in all affairs which are common to Hungary and the hereditary prov- inces, and in such affairs he shall, under his responsibility, represent 1 Law III. of 1848, 3. Dodd, Modem Constitutions, I., 94. 492 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Hungary." 1 All ministers are appointed by the king, on nomination of the premier. All have seats in Parliament and must be heard in either chamber when they desire to speak. They are bound, indeed, to attend the sessions of either house when requested, to submit official papers for examination, and to give "proper explanations" respecting governmental policies. They may be impeached by vote of a majority of the lower chamber, in which event the trial is held before a tribunal of twelve judges chosen by secret ballot by the upper house from among its own members. Inasmuch, however, as the lower house has acquired the power by a simple vote of want of confidence to compel a cabinet to resign, the right of impeachment possesses in practice small value. The ministry is required to submit once a year to the lower house for its examination and approval a statement of the income and needs of the country, together with an account of the in- come administered by it during the past twelve months. 2 III. PARLIAMENT THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 644. The Table of Magnates. The Hungarian parliament consists of two houses, whose official designations are Forendihaz Table, or Chamber, of Magnates and Kepviselohdz, or Chamber of Deputies. The upper house is essentially a perpetuation of the ancient Table of Magnates which, in the sixteenth century, began to sit separately as an aristocratic body made up of the great dignitaries of the kingdom, the Catholic episcopate (also, after 1792, that of the Orthodox Greek Church), the " supreme courts," and the adult sons of titled families. The reforms of 1848 left the Chamber untouched, though its composi- tion was modified slightly in i885. 3 At the session of 1910-1911 it con- tained 1 6 archdukes of the royal family (eighteen years of age or over) ; 15 state dignitaries; 2 presidents of the High Courts of Appeal; 42 archbishops and bishops of the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches; 13 representatives of the Lutheran, Calvinist, and Unitarian faiths; 236 members of the hereditary aristocracy (i. e., those of the whole number of the nobility who pay a land tax to the amount of at least 6,000 crowns annually); 3 members elected by the provincial diet of Croatia; and 60 life peers, appointed by the crown or chosen by the Chamber of Magnates itself a total of 387 4 The membership is 1 Law III. of 1848, 13. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 94. 2 Law III. of 1848, 37. Ibid., L, 97. 3 Law VII. of 1885 altering the Organization of the Table of Magnates. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 100-105. 4 The number is, of course, variable. The old Table of Magnates was a very large body, consisting of more than 800 members. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF HUNGARY 493 therefore exceedingly complex, resting on the various principles of hereditary right, ex-officio qualification, royal nomination, and elec- tion. In practice the upper house is distinctly subordinate to the lower, to which alone the ministers are responsible. Any member may acquire, by due process of election, a seat in the lower chamber, and the privilege is one of which the more ambitious peers are not reluctant to avail themselves. Upon election to the lower house a peer's right to sit hi the upper chamber is, of course, suspended; but when the term of service in the popular branch has expired, the prior right is revived automatically. 646. The Chamber of Deputies: the Franchise. By law of 1848, amended in 1874, it is stipulated that the Chamber of Deputies, historically descended from the ancient Table of Nuncios, shall con- sist of 453 members, "who shall enjoy equal voting power, and who shall be elected in accordance with an apportionment made on the basis of population, territory, and economic conditions." 1 Of the total number of members, 413 are representatives of Hungary proper and 40 are delegates of the subordinate kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia. This kingdom possesses its own organs of government, including a unicameral diet which exercises independent legislative power in all internal affairs. Its forty deputies take part in the pro- ceedings at Budapest only when subjects are under consideration which are of common concern to all of the countries of St. Stephen's crown, such as questions pertaining to finance, war, communications, and relations with Austria. 2 The election of deputies is governed by an elaborate statute of November 10, 1874, by which were perpetuated the fundamentals of the electoral law of 1848. In respect to procedure, the system was further amended by a measure of 1899. Qualifications for the exercise of the suffrage are based on age, property, taxation, profession, official position, and ancestral privileges. Nominally liberal, they are, in actual operation, notoriously illiberal. The prescribed age for an elector is twenty years, indeed, as compared with twenty-four in Austria; but the qualifications based upon property-holding are so exacting that they more than off-set the liberality therein involved. These qualifications too complicated to be enumerated here vary according as they arise from capital, industry, occupation, or property- holding. With slight restrictions, the right to vote is possessed without regard to property or income, by members of the Hungarian Academy 1 Law V. of 1848 concerning the Election of Representatives, 5. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 105. 2 On the status of the Croatian kingdom see p. 507. 494 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of Sciences, professors, notaries public, engineers, surgeons, druggists, graduates of agricultural schools, foresters, clergymen, chaplains, and teachers. On the other hand, state officials, soldiers in active service, customs employees, and the police have no vote; servants, apprenticed workingmen, and agricultural laborers are carefully excluded; and there are the usual disqualifications for crime, bankruptcy, guardian- ship, and deprivation by judicial process. In an aggregate population of approximately 20,000,000 to-day there are not more than 1,100,000 electors. 646. The Magyar Domination. The explanation of this state of affairs is to be sought in the ethnographical composition of Hungary's population. Like Austria, Hungary contains a melange of races and nationalities. The original Hungarians are the Magyars, and by the Magyar element attempt has been made always to preserve as against the affiliated German and Slavic peoples an absolute superiority of social, economic, and political power. The Magyars occupy almost exclusively the more desirable portion of the country, i. e., the great central plain intersected by the Danube and the Theiss, where they preponderate decidedly in as many as nineteen counties. Clustered around them, and in more or less immediate touch with kindred peo- ples beyond the borders, are the Germans and the Slavs the Slovaks in the mountains of the north, the Ruthenes on the slopes of the Carpathians, the Serbs on the southeast, and the Croats on the south- west. When the census of 1900 was taken the total population of Hungary (including Croatia-Slavonia) was 19,254,559. Of this number 8,742,301 were Magyars; 8,029,316 were Slavs; 2,135,181 were Germans; and 397,761 were of various minor racial groups. To put it differently, the Magyars numbered 8,742,301; the non-Magyars, 10,512,258. The fundamental fault of the Hungarian electorate is that it has been shaped, and is deliberately maintained, in the interest of a race which comprises numerically but 45.4 per cent of the coun- try's population. 1 So skillfully, indeed, have electoral qualifications and electoral proceedings been devised in the Magyar interest that the non-Magyar majority has but meager representation, and still less in- fluence, at Budapest. 2 Even in Hungary proper the electorate in 1906 comprised but 24.4 per cent of the male population over twenty years of age; and, despite the disqualifications that have been mentioned one- fourth of the men who vote are officials or employees of the state. 1 It is but fair to say that in Hungary proper the Magyar percentage in 1000 was 51.4. 1 Of the 413 representatives of Hungary at Budapest in 1909, but 26 were non- Magyars, and after the elections of June, 1910, but 7. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF HUNGARY 495 647. The Demand for Electoral Reform: the Franchise Reform Bill of 1908. In recent years, especially since the Austrian electoral reform of 1906-1907, there has been in Hungary an increasingly in- sistent demand that the Magyar parliamentary hegemony be over- thrown, or at least that there be assured to the non-Magyar peoples something like a proportionate share of political influence. As early as 1905 the recurrence of legislative deadlocks at Budapest influenced Francis Joseph to ally himself with the democratic elements of the kingdom and to declare for manhood suffrage; and in the legislative programme of the Fejervary government, made public October 28, 1905, the place of principal importance was assigned to this reform. Fearing the swamping of the popular chamber by the Slavs and Ger- mans, the Magyars steadily opposed all change, and for the time being the mere threat on the part of the Government was sufficient to restore tolerable, if not normal, parliamentary conditions. The Wekerle coalition cabinet of 1906 announced electoral reform as one of its projected tasks, but as time elapsed it became apparent that no positive action was likely to be taken. During 1907 and 1908 riotous demonstrations on the part of the disappointed populace were fre- quent, and at last, November n, 1908, Count Andrassy, Minister of the Interior, introduced in the Chamber the long-awaited Franchise Reform Bill. The measure fell far short of public expectation. It was drawn, as Count Andrassy himself admitted, in such a manner as not "to compromise the Magyar character of the Hungarian state." After a fashion, it conceded manhood suffrage. But, to the end that the Magyar hegemony might be preserved, it imposed upon the exercise of the franchise such a number of restrictions and assigned to plural voting such an aggregate of weight that its concessions were regarded by those who were expected to be benefited by it as practically value- less. The essentials of the measure were : (i) citizens unable to read and write Hungarian should be excluded from voting directly, though they might choose one elector for every ten of their number, and each elector so chosen should be entitled to one vote; (2) every male citizen able to read and write Hungarian should be invested, upon completing his twenty-fourth year and fulfilling a residence requirement of twelve months, with one vote; (3) electors who had passed four standards of a secondary school, 1 or who paid yearly a direct tax amounting to at least twenty crowns ($4.16), or who fulfilled various other condi- tions, should be entitled to two votes; and (4) electors who had com- pleted the course of secondary instruction, or who paid a direct tax of 1 Equivalent to the completion of one-half of the course of secondary instruction. 496 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 100 crowns (approximately $21), should be possessed of three votes. As before, voting was to be oral and public. In the preamble of the measure the cynical observation was offered that "the secret ballot protects electors in dependent positions only in so far as they break their promises under the veil of secrecy." It was announced that the passage of the bill would be followed by the presentation of a scheme for the redistribution of seats. 548. Rejection of the Bill. According to calculations of the Neue Freie Presse, the effect of the measure would have been to increase the aggregate body of electors from 1,100,000 to 2,600,000, and the number of votes to something like 4,000,000. The number of persons entitled to three votes was estimated at 200,000; to two votes, at 860,000; to one vote, at 1,530,000; to no vote, at 1,270,000. An ag- gregate of 1,060,000 persons in the first two classes would cast 2,320,000 votes; an aggregate of 2,800,000 in the last two would cast 1,530,000 votes. The number of persons participating in parliamentary elec- tions would be more than doubled, but political power would remain where it was already lodged. The measure would have operated, in- deed, to strengthen the Magyar position, and while the Germans would have profited somewhat by it, the Slavs would have lost largely such power as they at present possess. Based as the scheme was upon a curious elaboration of the educational qualification, it was recognized instantly, both in the kingdom and outside, as an instrument of de- liberate Magyar domination. Among the Slavic populations the prevalence of illiteracy is such that the number of persons who could attain the possession of even one direct vote would be insignificant. By the Socialists, and by the radical and Slavic elements generally, the scheme was denounced as a sheer caricature of the universal, equal, and direct suffrage for which demand had been made. Upon the introduction of the bill parliamentary discord broke out afresh, and through 1909 there was a deadlock which effectually pre- vented the enactment of even the necessary measures of finance. In January, 1910, the sovereign at last succeeded in securing a new ministry, presided over by Count Hedervary, and in the programme of this Government the introduction of manhood suffrage was ac- corded a place of principal importance. June 26, 1910, the Speech from the Throne, at the opening of the newly elected parliament, announced that a franchise bill would be submitted "on the basis of universal suffrage and in complete maintenance of the unitary national character of the Hungarian state." Various circumstances co-operated, however, to impose delay and, despite the sovereign's reiterated in- terest in the reform, no action as yet has been taken. The Hungarian THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF HUNGARY 497 franchise remains the most illiberal and the most antiquated in Europe. The racial situation seems utterly to preclude the possibility of a reform that will be in all respects satisfactory; indeed, it seems almost to preclude the possibility of reform at all. Yet, that the pressure will be continued until eventually there shall be an overhauling of the present inadequate system can hardly be doubted. 1 649. Electoral Procedure. Elections are conducted in each town or comitat (county) by a central electoral committee of at least twelve members, chosen by the municipal council of the town or by the general council of the comitat. The list of voters in each district is drawn up by a sub-committee of this body. When an election is to be held, the Minister of the Interior fixes, thirty days in advance^ a period of ten days during which the polling must be completed. As in Great Britain, the elections do not take place simultaneously, and a candidate defeated in one constituency may stand, and possibly be successful, in another. All polling within a particular town or comitat, however, is concluded within one day. Candidates may be nominated by any ten electors of the district, and candidacies may be declared until within thirty minutes of the hour (eight o'clock A. M.) for the polling to begin. Voting is everywhere public and oral. Each elector, after giving his name and establishing his identity, simply proclaims in a loud voice the name of the candidate for whom he desires to have his vote recorded. If no candidate obtains an absolute majority, the central committee fixes a date (at least fourteen days distant) for a second polling, on which occasion the contest lies between the two candidates who at the first balloting polled the largest number of votes. Prior to a law of 1899 defining jurisdiction in electoral matters, Hungarian elections were tempestuous, and not infrequently scandalous. Begin- ning with the elections of 1901, however, electoral manners have shown considerable improvement; though ideal conditions can hardly be realized until oral voting shall have been replaced by the secret 1 On the question of the Hungarian suffrage see S. Aberdam, La crise hongroise, in Revue Politique ei Parlementaire, Oct. 10, 1009, and Les r6centes crises politiques en Hongrie, in Revue des Sciences Politiques, May- June and July-Aug., 1912; G. Louis- Jaray, Le suffrage universel en Hongrie, in Questions Diplomatiques et Coloniales, February 16, 1909; R. Henry, La crise hongroise, ibid., June i, 1910; J. Mailath, Les elections g6n6rales hongroises, ibid., Aug. 16, 1910, and The Hungarian Elections, in Contemporary Review, Oct., 1910; F. de Gerando, Le rad- icalisme hongroise, in Revue Politique et Parlementaire, July, 1911; A. Duboscq, La reforme electorate en Hongrie, in Questions Diplomatiques et Coloniales, July i, 1912; S. Huszadik, La Hongrie contemporaine et le suffrage universel (Paris, 1909); and B. Auerbach, Races et nationality en Autriche-Hongrie (2d ed., Paris, 1910). 498 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE ballot. 1 Any elector who has attained the age of twenty-four, is a registered voter, and can speak Magyar (the official language of Hungarian parliamentary proceedings) is eligible as a candidate. Deputies receive a stipend of 4,800 crowns a year, with an allowance of i, 600 crowns for house rent. 650. Parliamentary Organization and Procedure. The national parliament assembles in regular session once a year at Budapest. Following a general election, the Chamber of Deputies meets, under the presidency of its oldest member, after a lapse of time (not exceed- ing thirty days) fixed by the royal letters of convocation. The Cham- ber of Magnates being convoked by the crown at the same date, all members repair to the royal palace to hear the Speech from the Throne, which is delivered by the king in person or by an especially appointed royal commissioner. 2 The lower chamber then passes upon the validity of the election of its members, though by law of 1899 the actual exer- cise of this jurisdiction is committed in large part to the Royal High Court. 3 The president and vice-president of the Chamber of Magnates are appointed by the king from the members of that house; the secre- taries are elected by the house from its own members, by secret ballot. The lower house elects, from its members, all of its officials a presi- dent, two vice-presidents, and a number of secretaries. The presidents of the two houses are chosen for the entire period of the parliament; all other officials are chosen annually at the beginning of a session. Each house is authorized, at its first annual session after an election, to adopt an order of business and to make the necessary regulations for the maintenance of peace and propriety in its deliberations. The president, with the aid of sergeants-at-arms, is charged with the strict enforcement of all such rules. Sittings of the two houses are required to be public, but spectators who disturb the proceedings may be ex- cluded. The maximum life of a parliament was raised, in 1886, from three years to five. It is within the power of the king, however, not only to extend or to adjourn the annual session, but to dissolve the lower chamber before the expiration of the five-year period. In the event of a dissolution, orders are required to be given for a national election, and these orders must be so timed that the new parliament may be assembled within, at the most, three months after the dissolu- tion. And there is the further requirement that, in the event of a dis- 1 Seatus Viator, Corruption and Reform in Hungary: a Study of Electoral Prac- tice (London, 1911). 2 King Francis Joseph I. has been absent upon this important occasion but once since 1867. Apponyi, in Alden, Hungary of To-day, 166. 'Ibid., 166-175. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF HUNGARY 499 solution before the budget shall have been voted for the ensuing year, the convocation of the new parliament shall be provided for within such a period as will permit the estimates for the succeeding year to be considered before the close of the current year. 651. The Powers of Parliament: the Parliamentary System. In the Hungarian constitutional system Parliament is in a very real sense supreme. The king can exercise his prerogatives only through min- isters who are responsible to the lower chamber, and all arrangements pertaining to the welfare of the state fall within the competence of the legislative branch. Within Parliament it is the Chamber of Deputies that preponderates. Aside from the king and ministry, it alone enjoys the power of initiating legislation; and the opposition with which the Chamber of Magnates may be disposed to meet its measures invariably melts away after a show of opinion has been made. By a simple majority vote in the lower chamber a minister may be impeached for bribery, negligence, or any act detrimental to the independence of the country, the constitution, individual liberty, or property rights. Trial is held before a tribunal composed of men chosen by secret ballot by the Chamber of Magnates from its own members. For the purpose thirty-six members in all are required to be elected. Of the number, twelve may be rejected by the impeachment commission of the lower house, and twelve others by the minister or ministers under impeach- ment. Those remaining, at least twelve in number, try the case. Procedure is required to be public and the penalty to be "fixed in proportion to the offense." 1 The statement which has sometimes been made that the parlia- mentary system operates to-day in the kingdom of Hungary in a fuller measure than in any other continental country requires qualifica- tion. Nominally, it is true, an unfavorable vote in the Deputies upon a Government measure or action involves the retirement of a minister, or of the entire cabinet, unless the crown is willing to dissolve the Chamber and appeal to the country; and no Government project of consequence can be carried through without parliamentary approval. Practical conditions within the kingdom, however, have never been favorable for the operation of parliamentarism in a normal manner. In the first place, the parliament itself is in no wise representative of the nation as a whole. In the second place, the proceedings of the body are not infrequently so stormy in character that for months at a time the essential principles of parliamentarism are hopelessly sub- verted. Finally, and most fundamental of all, at no period in the 1 Law III. of 1848 concerning the Formation of a Responsible Hungarian Minis- try, 33-34- Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 97. 500 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE kingdom's history have there been two great parties, contending on fairly equal terms for the mastery of the state, each in a position to assume direction of the government upon the defeat or momentary discomfiture of the other. From 1867 to 1875, as will appear, there was but one party (that led by Deak) which accepted the Compromise, and hence could be intrusted with office; and from 1875 to the present day there has been but one great party, the Liberal, broken at times into groups and beset by more or less influential conservative elements, but always sufficiently compact and powerful to be able to retain control of the government. Under these conditions it has worked out in practice that ministries have retired repeatedly by reason of decline of popularity, internal friction, or request of the sovereign, and but rarely in consequence of an adverse vote in Parliament. IV. POLITICAL PARTIES 662. The Question of the Ausgleich. Throughout half a century the party history of Hungary has centered about two preponderating problems, first, the maintenance of the Compromise with Austria and, second, the preservation of the political ascendancy of the Mag- yars. Of these the first has been the more fundamental, because the ascendancy of the Magyars was, and is, an accomplished fact and upon the perpetuation of that ascendancy there can be, among the ruling Magyars themselves, no essential division. The issue upon which those elements of the population which are vested with political power (and which, consequently, compose the political parties in the true sense) have been always most prone to divide, is that of the per- petuation and character of the Ausgleich. To put it broadly, there have been regularly two schools of opinion in respect to this subject. There have been the men, on the one hand, who accept the arrange- ments of 1867 and maintain that by virtue of them Hungary, far from having surrendered any of her essential interests, has acquired an influence and prestige which otherwise she could not have enjoyed. And there have been those, on the other hand, who see in the Aus- gleich nothing save an abandonment of national dignity and who, therefore, would have the arrangement thoroughly remodelled, or even abrogated outright. Under various names, and working by different methods, the parties of the kingdom have assumed almost invariably one or the other of these attitudes. 653. Formation of the Liberal Party. As has been pointed out, the Compromise was carried through the Hungarian parliament in 1867 by the party of Deak. Opposed to it was the Left, who favored the THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF HUNGARY 501 maintenance of no union whatsoever with Austria save through the crown. The first ministry formed under the new arrangement, pre- sided over by Count Andrassy, was composed of members of the Deak party, and at the national elections of 1869 this party obtained a substantial, though hard-won, majority. In 1871 Andrassy resigned to become the successor of Count Beust in the joint ministry of for- eign affairs at Vienna, and two years later Deak himself, now an aged man, withdrew from active political life. There followed in Hungary an epoch of political unsettlement during the course of which min- istries changed frequently, finances fell into disorder, and legislation was scant and haphazard. The Deak party disintegrated and, but for the fact that the Left gradually abandoned its determination to overthrow the Ausgleich, the outcome might well have been a con- stitutional crisis, if not war. As it was, when, in February, 1875, the leader of the Left, Kalman Tisza, publicly acknowledged his party's conversion to the Austrian affiliation, the fragments of the Deak party amalgamated readily with the Left to form the great Liberal party by which the destinies of Hungary have been guided almost uninterruptedly to the present day. Except for the followers of Kossuth, essentially irreconcilable, the Magyars were now united in the support of some sort of union with Austria, and most of them were content for the present to abide by the arrangement of 1867. Before the close of 1875 Tisza was established at the head of a Liberal cabinet, and from that time until his fall, in March, 1890, he was continuously the real ruler of Hungary. 554. The Liberal Ascendancy: Tisza, Szapary, Wekerle, and Banff y. The primary policy of Tisza was to convert the polyglot Hungarian kingdom into a centralized and homogeneous Magyar state, and to this end he did not hesitate to employ the most relentless and some- times unscrupulous means. Nominally a Liberal, he trampled the principles of liberalism systematically under foot. To the disordered country, however, his strong rule brought no small measure of benefit, especially in respect to economic conditions. He supported faithfully the Compromise of 1867; but when, in 1877, the commercial treaty between the two halves of the monarchy expired he contrived to pro- cure increased advantages for Hungary, and among them the con- version of the Austrian National Bank into a joint institution of the two states. Opposition to the Tisza regime arose from two sources principally, i. e., the Kossuth party of Independence, which clung still to the principles of 1848, and the National party, led by the brilliant orator Count Albert Apponyi, distinguishable from the Independence group, on the one hand, by its provisional acquiescence 502 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE in the Ausgleich and from the Liberals, on the other, by its still more enthusiastic advocacy of Magyarizatien. At Vienna, Tisza was re- garded as indispensable; but growing discontent in Hungary under- mined his position and March 13, 1890, he retired from office. With the fall of Tisza there was inaugurated a period of short min- istries whose history it would be unprofitable to attempt to recount in detail. The Liberal party continued in control, for there had ap- peared no rival group of sufficient strength to drive it from power. But the rise of a series of issues involving the relations of church and state injected into the political situation a number of new elements and occasioned frequent readjustments within the ministerial group. The ministry of Count Szapary, which succeeded that of Tisza was followed, November 21, 1892, by that of Dr. Sandor Wekerle, and it, in turn, after a number of the religious bills had been passed, was succeeded, January n, 1895, by a cabinet presided over by Baron Banffy. At the elections of 1896 the Liberals were overwhelmingly triumphant, acquiring in the lower chamber a majority of two to one. The Nationalist contingent was reduced from 57 to 35. 556. The Era of Parliamentary Obstructionism. The period cov- ered by the Banffy ministry (January, 1895, to February, 1899) was one of the stormiest in Hungarian parliamentary history. At the close of 1897 the decennial economic agreement with Austria came automatically to an end, and despite its best efforts the Government was unable to procure from Parliament an approval of a renewal of the arrangement. Through two years successively the existing agreement was extended provisionally for twelve months at a time. It was only during the ministry of Szell, who took office in February, 1899, that a renewal was voted, covering the period to 1907. In Hungary there is no constitutional provision equivalent to Section 14 of the constitution of Austria, but during 1897-1899 the utter breakdown of legislation at Budapest drove Premier Banffy to a policy of government by decree very similar to that which was at the same time being employed at Vienna. The Government had all of the while a substantial majority, but the obstructionist tactics of the Independence group, the Apponyi Nationalists, and the Clericals were of such a nature that normal legislation was impossible. Under the regime of Szell (February, 1899, to May, 1903), who was a survivor of the old Deak group, con- stitutionalism was rehabilitated and the Liberals who had been al- ienated by Banffy's autocratic measures were won back to the Govern- ment's support. Nationalist obstruction likewise diminished, for the primary object of Apponyi's followers had been to drive Banffy from power. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF HUNGARY 503 The brief ministry of Count Khuen-Hedervary (May i to Sep- tember 29, 1903) was followed by a ministry presided over by Count Istvan [Stephen] Tisza, son of Kalman Tisza, premier from 1875 to 1890. The principal task of the younger Tisza's ministry was to effect an arrangement whereby the Hungarian army, while remaining essen- tially Hungarian, should not be unpaired in efficiency as a part of the dual monarchy's military establishment. During parliamentary con- sideration of this subject obstruction to the Government's proposals acquired again such force that, under the accustomed rules of proce- dure, no action could be taken. November 18, 1904, the opposition shouted down a Modification of the Standing Orders bill, designed to frustrate obstruction, and would permit no debate upon it; whereupon, the president of the Chamber declared the bill carried and adjourned the house until December 13, and subsequently until January 5, 1905. The opposition commanded now 190 votes in a total of 451. When the date for the reassembling arrived members of the obstructionist groups broke into the parliament house and by demolishing the furni- ture rendered a session for the time impossible. In disgust Tisza appealed to the country, only to be signally defeated. The Govern- ment carried but 152 seats. The Kossuth party of Independence alone carried 163; the Liberal dissenters under Andrassy got 23; the Clerical People's party, 23 ; the Banffy group, 1 1 ; and the non-Magyar nation- alities, 8. Tisza sought to retire, but not until June 17, 1905, would the sovereign accept his resignation. 656. The Government's Partial Triumph. Incensed by the pro- longed, and in many respects indefensible, character of the parlia- mentary deadlock, Francis Joseph resolved to establish in office an essentially extra-constitutional ministry which should somehow con- trive to override the opposition, and likewise to set on foot a movement looking toward the revolutionizing of Hungarian parliamentary con- ditions by the introduction of manhood suffrage. Under the ministry of Baron Fejervary, constituted June 21, 1905, there was inaugurated a period of frankly arbitrary government. Parliament was prorogued repeatedly, and by censorship of the press, the dragooning of towns, and the dismissal of officers the Magyar population was made to feel unmistakably the weight of the royal displeasure. For awhile there was dogged resistance, but in time the threat of electoral reform took the heart out of the opposition. Outwardly a show of resistance was maintained, but after the early months of 1906 the Government may be said once more to have had the situation well in hand. Two events of the year mentioned imparted emphasis to the profound change of political conditions which the period of conflict had produced. The 504 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE first was the establishment, under the premiership of the Liberal leader Dr. Wekerle, of a coalition cabinet embracing a veritable galaxy of Hungarian statesmen, including Francis Kossuth, Count Andrassy, and Count ApponyL The second was the all but complete annihilation, at the national elections which ensued, of the old Liberal party, and the substitution for it, in the role of political preponderance, of the Kossuth party of Independence. The number of seats carried by this rapidly developing party was 250, or more than one-half of the entire number in the Chamber. 667. The Parliamentary Conflict Renewed. The Wekerle cabinet entered office pledged to electoral reform, although in the subject it in reality cherished but meager interest. In 1908, as has been re- lated, it was impelled by popular pressure to submit a new electoral scheme; 1 but that scheme was conceived wholly in the Magyar interest and did not touch the real problem. It very properly failed of adop- tion. Meanwhile the ministry fell into hopeless disagreement upon the question of whether Hungary should consent to the renewal of the charter of the Austro-Hungarian Bank (to expire December 31, 1910) or should hold out for the establishment of a separate Hungarian Bank, and, April 27, 1909, Premier Wekerle tendered his resignation. At the solicitation of the sovereign he consented to retain office until a new ministry could be constituted, which, in point of fact, proved to be until January 17, 1910. Added to the problem of the Bank was an even more vexatious one, that, namely, of the Magyarization of the Hungarian regiments. The extremer demands in the matter of Magyarization emanated, of course, from the Independence party, though upon the issue the party itself became divided into two fac- tions, the extremists being led by Justh and the more moderate ele- ment by Kossuth. The coalition was disrupted utterly; the Wekerle ministry dragged on simply because through many months no other could be brought together to take its place. The year 1909 passed without even the vote of a budget. January 17, 1910, Count Hedervary succeeded in forming a cabinet, and there ensued a lull in the political struggle. At the elections of June, the Government representing virtually the revived Liberal party carried 246 seats, while the two wings of the Independence party secured together only 85. The Clericals were reduced to 13 and the non-Magyars to 7. Under the leadership of Istvan Tisza there was organized, at the beginning of 1910, a so-called "National Party of Work," which by the emphasis which it laid upon its purpose of practical achievement commended itself to large elements of the 1 See p. 495. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF HUNGARY 505 nation. By the Hedervary government it was announced that the franchise would be reformed in such a manner as to maintain, without the employment of the plural vote, the historical character of the Magyar state; but the bitterness of Magyar feeling upon the subject continued to preclude all possibility of action. The embarrassments continually suffered by the Hedervary ministry reached their culmina- tion in the winter of 1911-1912, at which time the relations between Austria and Hungary became so strained that Emperor Francis Joseph threatened to abdicate unless pending difficulties should be adjusted. The question of most immediate seriousness pertained to the adoption of new regulations for the military establishment, but the electoral issue loomed large in the background. The retirement of the Heder- vary cabinet, March 7, 1912, and the accession of a ministry presided over by Dr. de Lukacs affected the situation but slightly. The new premier made it clear that he would labor for electoral reform, and issue was joined with him squarely upon this part of his programme by the aristocracy, the gentry, the Chamber of Magnates, and all the adherents of Andrassy, Apponyi, and Kossuth, with the deliberately conceived purpose of frightening the Government, and especially the Emperor-King, into an abandonment of all plans to tamper with existing electoral arrangements. During the earlier months of the ministry efforts of the premier to effect a working agreement with the forces of opposition were but indifferently successful. 1 V. THE JUDICIARY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 568. Law and Justice. The law of Hungary, like that of England, is the product of long-continued growth. It consists fundamentally of the common law of the mediaeval period (first codified by the jurist Verboczy in the sixteenth century), amplified and modernized in more recent times, especially since the reforms of 1867, so that what originally was little more than a body of feudal customs has been transformed into a comprehensive national code. Hungarian criminal law, codified in 1878, is recognized to be the equal of anything of the kind that the world possesses. Since 1896 there has been in progress a codification of the civil law, and the task is announced to be ap- proaching completion. There are numerous special codes, pertaining to commerce, bankruptcy, and industry, whose promulgation from time to time has marked epochs in the economic development of the nation. The lower Hungarian tribunals, or courts of first instance, comprise 1 For a brief account of Hungarian party politics to 1896 see Lowell, Govern- ments and Parties, II., 152-161. For references to current periodicals see p. 497. $o6 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 458 county courts, with single judges, and 76 district courts, with two or more judges each. Both exercise jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases; but the jurisdiction of the county courts in civil cases extends only to suits involving not more than 1,200 crowns, while in criminal cases these tribunals are not competent to impose punishment exceed- ing a single year's imprisonment. The district courts serve as courts of appeal from the county courts. Of superior courts there are four- teen twelve "royal tables," or courts of appeal, a Supreme Court of Justice at Agram, and a Royal Supreme Court at Budapest. The twelve contain, in all, 200 judges; the Royal Supreme Court contains 92. All judges are appointed by the king. Once appointed, they are independent and irremovable. Only Hungarian citizens may be ap- pointed, and every appointee must have attained the age of twenty- six, must be of good moral character, must be familiar with the lan- guage of the court in which he is to serve, and must have passed the requisite legal examinations. Salaries vary from 3,840 to 10,000 crowns. Supreme administrative control of the judicial system is vested in the Minister of Justice. The sphere of his authority is regulated minutely by parliamentary statute. In the main, he super- vises the judges, attends to the legal aspects of international relations, prepares bills, and oversees the execution of sentences. 559. Local Government: the County. The principal unit of local government in Hungary is the county. The original Hungarian county instituted by St. Stephen about the year 1000, was simply a district, closely resembling the English county or the French department, at the head of which the king placed an officer to represent the crown in military and administrative affairs. Local self-government had its beginning in the opposition of the minor nobility to this centralizing agency, and in periods of royal weakness the nobles usurped a certain amount of control, first in justice, later in legislation, and finally in the election of local officials, which in time was extended legal recognition. At all points the county became substantially autonomous. Indeed, by 1848 Hungary was really a confederation of fifty- two counties, each not far removed from an aristocratic republic, rather than a centralized state. For a time after 1867 there was a tendency toward a revival of the centralization of earlier days. In 1876 laws were enacted which vested the administration of the county in a committee composed in part of members elected within the county, but also in part of officials designated by the crown; and a statute of 1891 went still further in the direction of bureaucratic centralization. More recently, however, the county has undergone a slight measure of democratization. THE GOVERNMENT AND PARTIES OF HUNGARY 507 Exclusive of Croatia-Slavonia, there are in Hungary to-day 63 rural counties and 36 urban counties or towns with municipal rights. In Croatia-Slavonia the numbers are 8 and 4 respectively. The urban counties are in reality municipalities and are essentially separate from the rural counties in which they are situated. The governmental system of the county comprises a council of twenty, composed half of members chosen by the electors for six years and half of persons who pay the highest taxes, together with an especially appointed com- mittee which serves as the local executive. At the head of the assembly is the foispdn, or lord lieutenant, appointed by the crown. Legally, the counties may withhold taxes and refuse to furnish troops, but there is no popular representation hi the true sense in the county governments. The franchise is confined to the very restricted parlia- mentary electorate. The subject races and the working classes are unrepresented and the real possessors of power are the Magyar land- owners. 660. Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia. To the kingdom of Hun- gary proper are attached certain partes adnexce which enjoy a large measure of political autonomy. Dalmatia, united to Hungary at the beginning of the twelfth century, belongs de jure to Hungary and de facto to Austria; Croatia and Slavonia belong both de jure and de facto to Hungary. 1 Croatia and Slavonia, as Hungarian dominions, have always possessed a peculiar status. They are inalienable por- tions of the kingdom, and in all that pertains to war, trade, and finance they are on precisely the same footing as any other part of the state. In other matters, however, i. e., in religion, education, justice, and home affairs generally, they enjoy a wide range of independent control. The administration of common affairs is vested in the Hun- garian ministry, which must always contain a minister with the special function of supervision of Croatian interests. In the parliament at Budapest Croatia-Slavonia is represented by 40 members (sent from its own diet) in the Chamber of Deputies and three members in the Chamber of Magnates. These arrangements exist in virtue originally of an agreement concluded between the Magyars and the Croats in 1868, and they are closely analogous to the relationships established by the Compromise of the previous year between Hungary and Austria. The compact of 1868 was renewed upon several occasions prior to 1 Until 1848 the grand-principality of Transylvania also enjoyed a considerable measure of autonomy. In 1848 it was united with Hungary. In 1849 it regained its ancient independence, but in 1867 it was again joined with Hungary. By legis- lation of 1868 and 1876 it was fully incorporated in the kingdom, 75 seats being awarded it in the Chamber of Deputies at Budapest hi lieu of its provincial diet, which was abolished. 508 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 1898, since which time it has been intermittently under process of revision. Among the Croats there has long been insistent demand for its fundamental modification. The charge, in general, is that as at present administered the arrangement operates all but exclusively to the benefit of the Hungarians. 1 The Wekerle coalition ministry of 1906 promised a redress of grievances, but none was forthcoming, and in more recent years, especially 1907-1908, riots and other anti- Magyar demonstrations have been not uncommon in the territories. The local Croatian-Slavonian diet is a unicameral body consisting of 90 deputies elected by districts, and of dignitaries (ecclesiastics, prefects of counties, princes, counts, and barons) to the number of not more than half of the quota of elected members. The executive con- sists of the three departments of Interior and Finance, Culture and Education, and Justice. At the head of each is a chief, and over them all presides an official known as the Banus. The Banus is appointed by the crown on the nomination of the premier. He is ex-officio a member of the Chamber of Magnates, and it is his function to super- vise all matters of administration in the provinces, under the general direction of the Croatian minister, who constitutes the vital tie be- tween the central government at Budapest and the dependent terri- tories. Local government is administered in eight rural and four urban counties. 2 1 Under the agreement 44 per cent of the Croatian-Slavonian revenue is re- tained for local needs and the remaining 56 per cent is devoted to common expendi- tures of the kingdom upon the army, public works, and the national debt. It is alleged, among other things, that this apportionment is unjust, and, furthermore, that the Hungarian authorities systematically divert local funds to national uses. 2 An English version of the statute of 1868 regulating the status of Croatia- Slavonia is printed in Drage, Austria-Hungary, 767-783. For extended discus- sions of the subject see Drage, op. cit., Chap, n; Geosztanyi, in P. Alden (ed.), Hungary of To-day, Chap, n; G. Horn, Le Compromis de 1868 entre la Croatie et la Hongrie (Paris, 1007); G. de Montbel, La condition politique de la Croatie-Slavonie dans la monarchic austro-hongroise (Toulouse, 1909); and R. Gonnard, Entre Drave et Save; e"tudes economiques, politiques, et sociales sur la Croatie-Slavonie (Paris, 1911). See also R. Henry, La Hongrie, la Croatie, et les nationality's, in Questions Diplomatique* et Coloniales, Aug. 16, 1907; J. Mailath Hongrie et Croatie, ibid., Nov. i, 1907. CHAPTER XXVII AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: THE JOINT GOVERNMENT 561. The Ausgleich. The unique political relation which subsists to-day between the Empire of Austria and the kingdom of Hungary rests upon the Ausgleich, or Compromise, of 1867, supplemented at certain points by agreements of more recent date. The fundamental terms of the arrangement, worked out by the Emperor Francis Joseph, Deak, and Baron Beust, were incorporated in essentially identical statutes enacted by the Hungarian Parliament and the Austrian Reichsrath December 21 and 24 of the year mentioned. Between the demand of Hungary, on the one hand, for independence (save only in respect to the crown), and that of Austria, on the other, for the thoroughgoing subordination of the Hungarian to an Imperial min- istry, there was devised a compromise whose ruling principle is that of dualism rather than that of either absolute unity or sub- ordination. Under the name Austria-Hungary there was established a novel type of state consisting of an empire and a kingdom, each of which, retaining its identity unimpaired, stands in law upon a plane of complete equality with the other. Each has its own constitu- tion, its own parliament, its own ministry, its own administration, its own courts. Yet the two have but one sovereign and one flag, and within certain large and important fields the governmental ma- chinery and public policy of the two are maintained in common. The laws which comprise the basis of the arrangement are the product of international compact. They provide no means by which they may be amended, and they can be amended only in the manner in which they were adopted, i. e., by international agreement supplemented by reciprocal parliamentary enactment. 1 1 Drage, Austria-Hungary, Chap. 12; H. Fried jung, Der Ausgleich mit Ungarn (Leipzig, 1877); Count Andrassy, Ungarns Ausgleich mit Osterreich von Jahre 1867 (Leipzig, 1897); L. Eisenmann, Le compromis austro-hongroise (Paris, 1904). The Austrian and Hungarian texts of the Ausgleich laws, with German versions in parallel columns, are printed in I. Zolger, Der staatsrechtliche Ausgleich zwischen Osterreich und Ungarn (Leipzig, 191 1). English versions are in Dodd, Modern Con- stitutions, L, 1 14-1 22, and Drage, Austria-Hungary, 744-750, 753-766. In a speech in the Hungarian Chamber November 23, 1903, Count Istvln Tisza sought to dem- 509 510 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE I. THE COMMON ORGANS OF GOVERNMENT 662. The Emperor-King. Of organs of government which the two dominions possess in common, and by which they are effectually tied to- gether administratively, there are three: (i) the monarch; (2) the min- istries of Foreign Affairs, War, and Finance; and (3) the Delegations. The functions and prerogatives of the monarch are three-fold, i. e., those which he possesses as emperor of Austria, those which belong to him as king of Hungary, and those vested in him as head of the Austro-Hun- garian union. In theory, and largely in practice, the three sets of rela- tionships are clearly distinguished. All, however, must be combined in the same individual. The law of succession is the same, and it would not be possible for Francis Joseph, for example, to vacate the kingship of Hungary while retaining the Imperial office in the co-ordinated state. But there is a coronation at Vienna and another at Budapest; the royal title reads "Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, etc., and Apostolic King of Hungary"; and the relations of the sovereign with each of the two governments are most of the time conducted precisely as if the other of the two were non-existent. In the capacity of dual sovereign the monarch's principal functions comprise the command of the army and navy, 1 the appointment of heads of the joint ministries, the promulgation of ordinances applying to the states in common, and the giving of assent to measures enacted by the dual legislative body. 663. The Joint Ministries. By the Compromise of 1867 the three departments of administration which most obviously require concen- tration and uniformity were established upon a basis of community between the two governmental systems. The first of these is the min- istry of Foreign Affairs. Neither Austria nor Hungary as such main- tains diplomalic'mTercburse with other powers. Under the direction of the Foreign Minister (known, until 1871, as the Imperial Chan- cellor) are maintained all relations with foreign governments, through a diplomatic and consular service which represents in every respect onstrate that, properly, there is no such thing as an Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich that the two instruments of 1867 are not only of different date but are essentially independent, each being revocable at will by the power by which it was enacted. An able polemic in opposition to the views of Tisza is to be found in F. Tezner, Ausgleichrecht und Ausgleichspolitik (Vienna, 1907). Tezner is an Austrian pub- licist. 1 As an illustration of the sensitiveness of the Hungarians in the matter of their Austrian relations the fact may be cited that in 1889, after prolonged effort, an arrangement was procured in accordance with which the joint sovereign, in the capacity of commander of the armed forces, is known as Emperor and King, not as Emperor-King. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: THE JOINT GOVERNMENT 511 the monarchy as a whole. Commercial treaties, and treaties stipulat- ing changes of territory or imposing burdens upon the state or upon any part of it, require the assent of both the parliament at Vienna and that at Budapest. The second common ministry is that of War. With respect to mili- tary and naval administration there has been no little misunderstand- ing, and even ill-feeling, between the two states. The instruments of 1867 vest the supreme command of the army and navy in the joint monarch, yet the armed establishments of the states are maintained on the basis of separate, even if approximately identical, laws, and each is placed under the immediate supervision of a separate minister of national defence. Each country maintains its independent ar- rangements for the raising of the yearly contingent of recruits. It is only after the quotas have been raised that the dual monarch can exercise his power of appointing officers and regulating the organiza- tion of the forces. The authority of the joint war minister is confined largely to matters of secondary importance, such as equipment and the commissariat. Only a close understanding between the ministries at Vienna and Budapest can be depended upon, in the last analysis, to avert an utter breakdown of the admittedly precarious military establishment. 1 The third common ministry is that of Finance. Each of the two states maintains an independent finance ministry and carries its own budget, because, within certain limitations, the administration of fiscal matters is left to the states in their separate capacities; but questions of joint expenditure, the establishment of the joint budget, and the examination of accounts are committed to a common ministry at Vienna. The powers of the joint minister of finance are, in point of fact, limited. Like the other joint ministers, he may not be a member of either the Austrian or the Hungarian cabinet, nor may he have access to the separate parliaments. His function is essentially that of a cashier. He receives the contributions made by the two states to the common expenses and hands them over to the several depart- ments. Until the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1908, it devolved upon him, by special arrangement, to administer the affairs of these semi-dependent territories. 664. Fiscal and Economic Arrangements. In 1867 it was agreed that the common expenditures of Austria and Hungary should be met, 1 V. Duruy, L'Annde austro-hongroise, in Revue de Paris, Jan. 15, 1909; M. B., L'Arme" autrichienne, in Annales ties Sciences Politiques, May, 1909; Com. Davin, La marine austro-hongroise, in Questions Diplomatique* et Coloniales, Aug. 16, 1909. 512 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE in so far as possible, from the joint revenues, especially the customs, and that all common outlays in excess of these revenues should be borne by the states in a proportion to be fixed at decennial intervals by the Reichsrath and the Hungarian Parliament. Other joint inter- ests of an economic nature trade, customs, the debt, and railway policy were left likewise to be readjusted at ten-year intervals. In respect to contributions, the arrangement hit upon originally was that all common deficits should be made up by quotas proportioned to the tax returns of the two countries, namely, Austria 70 per cent and Hungary 30 per cent. As has been pointed out, the periodic over- hauling of the economic relationships of the two states has been pro- ductive of frequent and disastrous controversy. The task was accom- plished successfully in the law of June 27, 1878, and again in that of May 21, 1887. But the readjustment due in 1897 had the curious fortune not to be completed until the year in which another readjust- ment was due, i. e., 1907. To the parliamentary contests, at both Vienna and Budapest, by which the decade 1897-1907 was filled some allusion has been made. 1 They involved distinctly the most critical test of stability to which the Ausgleich has been subjected since its establishment. During the period various features of the pre-existing arrangements were continued in force by royal decree or by provisional parliamentary vote, but not until October, 1907, were the economic re- lation of the two states put once more upon a normal basis. Through- out the decade the Emperor-King exercised repeatedly the authority with which he is invested by law of 1867 to fix the ratio of contribu- tions for one year at a time, when action cannot be had on the part of the legislative bodies. The ratio prevailing during the period was Austria 66|-f per cent and Hungary 33^ per cent. By the agreement of 1907, concluded for the usual ten-year period, the Hungarian quota was raised from the figure mentioned to 36.4 per cent. The customs alliance, established in 1867 and renewed in 1878 and 1887, was superseded by a customs and commercial treaty, in accordance with which each state maintains what is technically a separate customs system, although until the expiration of existing conventions with foreign powers in 1917 the tariff arrangements of the two states must remain identical. Under the conditions which have arisen the customs unity of the monarchy is likely to be disrupted in fact, as already it is in law, upon the advent of the year mentioned. Thereafter commercial treaties with foreign nations will be nego- tiated in the name of the two states concurrently and will be signed, not merely by the common minister of foreign affairs, but 1 See pp. 479-48i, 502-504- AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: THE JOINT GOVERNMENT 513 also by a special Austrian and a special Hungarian representa- tive. 1 666. The Delegations: Organization and Sessions. All legislative power of the Reichsrath and of the Hungarian Parliament, in so far as it relates to the joint affairs of the states, is exercised by two "delega- tions, " one representing each of the two parliaments. ThlFAustrian Delegation consists of sixty members, twenty of whom are chosen by the Herrenhaus from its own members, and the other forty of whom are elected by the Abgeordnetenhaus in such manner that the deputies from each province designate a number of delegates allotted to them by law. The Hungarian Delegation consists likewise of sixty members, twenty elected by and from the upper, forty by and from the lower, chamber, with the further requirement that there shall be included four of the Croatian members of the Chamber of Deputies and one of the Croatians in the Chamber of Magnates. All members of both Delegations are elected annually and may be re-elected. They must be convoked by the Emperor-King at least once a year. Every device is employed to lay emphasis upon the absolute equality of the two Delegations, and of the states they represent, even to the extent of having the sessions held alternately in Vienna and Budapest. The two bodies meet in separate chambers, each under a president whom it elects, but the proposals of the Government are laid before both at the same time by the joint ministry. In the Austrian Delegation all pro- ceedings are conducted in the German tongue; in the Hungarian, in Magyar; and all communications between the two are couched in both languages. Sittings, as a rule, are public. In the event of a failure to agree after a third exchange of communications there may be, upon demand of either Delegation, a joint session. Upon this occasion there is no debate, but merely the taking of a vote, in which there must participate an absolutely equal number of members of the two organ- izations. 666. The Delegations: Powers. The members of the common ministry have the right to share hi all deliberations of the Delegations and to present their projects personally or through deputies. They must be heard whenever they desire. Each Delegation, on the other hand, has a right to address questions to the joint ministry, or to any one of its members, and to require answers and explanations. By concurrent vote of the two bodies a joint minister may be impeached. 1 L. Louis- Jaray, Les relations austro-hongroises et le nouveau compromis 6co- nomique, in Questions Diplomatiques et Coloniales, Jan. 16 and Feb. i, 1908; and Les dispositions 6conomiques du nouveau compromis austro-hongrois, in Revue Itconomique Internationale, March, 1908. 514 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE In such a case the judges consist of twenty-four independent and legally trained citizens representing equally the two countries, chosen by the Delegations, but not members thereof. The power is one very unlikely to be exercised; in truth, the responsibility of the ministers to the Delegations is more theoretical than actual. The functions of the Delegations are severely restricted. They ex- tend in no case beyond the common affairs of the two states; and they comprise little more than the voting of supplies asked by the Govern- ment and a certain supervision of the common administrative ma- chinery. Of legislative power, in the proper sense, the two bodies possess virtually none. Practically all law in the dual monarchy takes the form of statutes enacted concurrently by the separate parlia- ments of Austria and Hungary. The system is not ideal. It involves delay, confusion, and an excess of partisan wrangling. Probably upon no other basis, however, would even the semblance of an Austro- Hungarian union be possible. The existing arrangement operates somewhat to the advantage of Hungary, because the Hungarian Delegation is a body which votes solidly together, whereas the Austrian is composed of mutally hostile racial and political groups. II. THE TERRITORIES OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 567. Annexation of the Provinces, 1908. By the Congress of Berlin, in 1878, Austria was authorized, ostensibly in the interest of the peace of Europe, to occupy and administer the neighboring prov- inces of Bosnia and Herzegovina; and from that date until 1908, al- though the provinces continued under the nominal sovereignty of the Sultan of Turkey, their affairs were managed regularly by the Austro-Hungarian minister of finance. The eventual absorption of the territories by the dual monarchy was not unexpected, but it came in virtue of a coup by which the European world was thrown for a time into some agitation. The revolution at Constantinople during the summer of 1908, accompanied by the threatened dissolution of Eu- ropean Turkey, created precisely the opportunity for which the au- thorities at Vienna had long waited. October 5, Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria proclaimed the complete separation of Bulgaria from the Sultan's dominions and assumed the title of king. Two days later Emperor Francis Joseph proclaimed to the inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina the immediate extension of Austro-Hungarian sov- ereignty over them, alleging that the hour had arrived when they ought to be raised to a higher political level and accorded the benefits of Austro-Hungarian constitutionalism. Among the population of the AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: THE JOINT GOVERNMENT 515 annexed provinces the Roman Catholic element approved the union, but the Greek Orthodox and Mohammedan majority warmly opposed it. The people of the provinces are Servian in race, and in the interest of the Servian union which it was hoped at some time to bring about Servia and Montenegro protested loudly, and even began preparations for war. The annexation constituted a flagrant infraction of the Ber- lin Treaty, and during some weeks the danger of international com- plications was grave. Eventually, however, on the understanding that the new possessor should render to Turkey certain financial com- pensation, the various powers more or less grudgingly yielded their assent to the change of status. 668. The Constitution of 1910: the Diet At the time of the an- nexation it was promised that the provinces should be granted a con- stitution. The pledge was fulfilled in the fundamental laws which were promulgated by the Vienna Government February 22, 1910. The constitution proper consists of a preamble and three sections, of which the first relates to civil rights, the second to the composition of the Diet, and the third to the competence of the Diet. Under the terms of the preamble the pre-existing military and administrative arrange- ments are perpetuated. The civil rights section extends to the an- nexed provinces the principal provisions of the Austrian constitution in respect to equality before the law, freedom of personal movement, the protection of individual liberty, the independence of judges, freedom of conscience, autonomy of recognized religious communities, the right of free expression of opinion, the abolition of restrictive censorship, the freedom of scientific investigation, secrecy of postal and telegraphic communications, and the rights of association and public meeting. The second section creates a diet of seventy-two elected and twenty ex-officio representatives, fifteen of the latter being dignitaries of the Mohammedan, Servian, Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic religious communities. The presidential bureau, consisting of one president and two vice-presidents, is appointed annually by the crown at the opening of the session. Each creed is regularly to be represented in the bureau, the presidential office being held by a Servian, a Moham- medan, and a Croat in annual rotation. To be valid, the decisions of the Diet require the presence of a majority of the members, except when ecclesiastical matters are under discussion. Upon such occasions the presence of four-fifths of the Diet, and a two-thirds majority, is required. The third section excludes from the legislative competence of the Diet all joint Austro-Hungarian affairs and questions pertaining to 516 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the armed forces and to customs arrangements. The Diet is, however, empowered to elect a national council of nine members and to com- mission it to lay the views of the Diet before the Austro-Hungarian Government. In all other matters, such as civil, penal, police and commercial law, industrial and agrarian legislation, sanitation, com- munications, taxation, the provincial estimates, the issue and conver- sion of loans, and the sale or mortgaging of provincial property, the Diet has a free hand. Government measures to be submitted to the Diet require, however, the previous sanction of the Austrian and the Hungarian cabinets, whose assent is also necessary before bills passed by the Diet can receive the sanction of the crown. 669. The Electoral System. Subsequent statutes regulate the fran- chise and electoral procedure. First of all, the seventy-two elective seats in the Diet are divided among the adherents of the various reli- gious denominations, the Servians receiving 31, the Mohammedans 24, and the Catholic Croats 16. One seat is reserved for a representative of the Jews. The seats are divided, furthermore, into three curiae, or electoral classes, eighteen being allotted to a first class composed of large landed proprietors and the heaviest taxpayers, twenty to a sec- ond class composed of urban electors, and thirty-four to a third class composed of rural electors. The franchise is bestowed upon all subjects of the crown, born in the provinces or possessing one year's residential qualification, who are of the male sex and have completed their twenty- fourth year. In the first of the three classes women possess the fran- chise, although they may exercise it only by male deputy. Candidates for election must have completed their thirtieth year and must be of the male sex and in full enjoyment of civil rights. Civil and railway servants, as well as public school teachers, are not eligible. In the first and second classes votes are recorded in writing, but in the third, or rural, class, voting, by reason of the large proportion of illiterates, is oral. In the second and third (urban and rural) classes the sys- tem of single-member constituencies has been adopted. The prov- inces are divided into as many Servian, Mohammedan, and Catholic constituencies, with separate registers, as there are seats allotted to the respective creeds. For the Jews all the towns of the two provinces form a single constituency. 1 1 The texts of the organic acts of 1910 are printed in K. Lamp, Die Rechtsnatur der Verfassung Bosniens und der Herzegowina vom 17 Februar 1910, in Jahrbuch des Offentlichen Rechts (Tiibingen, 1911), V.; L. Geller, Bosnisch-herzegowinische Verfassungs und politische Grundgesetze (Vienna, 1910); and in Zeitschrift fiir Volkerrecht und Bundesstaatsrecht, IV., No. 5. See also F. Komlossy, Das Rechts- verhaltniss Bosniens und des Herzegowina zu Ungarn (Pressburg, 1911). PART VII. THE LOW COUNTRIES CHAPTER XXVIII THE GOVERNMENT OF HOLLAND I. A CENTURY OF POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT Geographical juxtaposition, combined with historical circum- stance, has determined that between the two modern kingdoms of Holland and Belgium, widely as they differ in many fundamental characteristics, relations should be continuous and close. Both na- tions have sprung from groups of provinces comprised within the original Low Countries, or Netherlands. Following the memorable contest of the Dutch with Philip II. of Spain, the seven provinces to the north achieved their independence at the beginning of the seven- teenth century and, under the name of the United Provinces, built up a system of government, republican in form though in operation much of the time really autocratic, which survived through more than two hundred years. The ten provinces to the south continued under the sovereignty of Spain until 1713, when by the Treaty of Utrecht they were transferred to Austria. They did not attain the status of independent nationality until 1831. 570. The French Domination, 1793-1814. The constitutional arrangements operative in the Holland and Belgium of to-day are to be regarded as products largely of the era of the French Revolution and of the Napoleonic domination. Between 1795 and 1810 both groups of Low Country provinces were absorbed by France, and both were forced quite out of their accustomed political channels. The provinces comprising the Austrian Netherlands were overrun by a French army early in 1793. By decree of October i, 1795, they were incorporated in the French Republic, being erected into nine departments; and by the Treaty of Luneville, February 9, 1801, they were definitely ceded by Austria to France. 1 February i, 1793, the French Republic de- clared war upon Holland. During the winter of 1794-1795 the Dutch 1 L. Delplace, La Belgique sous la domination franfaise, 2 vols. (Louvain, 1896); L. de Lanzac de Laborie, La domination frangaise en Belgique, 2 vols. (Paris, 1895). 517 518 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE provinces were occupied, and by the Treaty of The Hague, May 16, 1795, they were erected into a new nationality known as the Batavian Republic, under the protection of France. 1 The constitution of the old republic was thoroughly overhauled and the stadtholderate, long in the possession of the house of Orange, was abolished. To the con- siderable body of anti-Orange republicans the coming of the French was, indeed, not unwelcome. May 24, 1806, the Batavian Republic was converted by Napoleon into the kingdom of Holland, and Louis Bonaparte, younger brother of the French Emperor, was set up as the unwilling sovereign of an unwilling people. Nominally, the new king- dom was both constitutional and independent; practically, it was an autocracy and a dependency of France. King Louis labored con- scientiously to safeguard the interests of his Dutch subjects, but in vain. After four years he abdicated, under pressure; whereupon, July 9, 1 8 10, an Imperial edict swept away what remained of the independent status of the Dutch people and incorporated the kingdom absolutely with France. The ancient provinces were replaced by seven departments; to the Dutch were assigned six seats in the French Senate, three in the Council of State, and twenty-five in the Legisla- tive Body; a lieutenant-general was established at the head of the administrative system; and no effort was spared to obliterate all survivals of Dutch nationality. 571. The Settlement by the Congress of Vienna: the Constitution of 1815. With the overthrow of Napoleon the fate of both the Dutch and the Belgian provinces fell to the arbitrament of the allied powers. In the first Treaty of Paris, concluded May 30, 1814, between the Allies on the one side and France on the other, it was stipulated that the Belgian territories should be joined with Holland and that the whole, under the name of the Kingdom of the United Netherlands, should be assigned to the restored house of Orange, in the person of William I., son of the stadtholder William V. Already, consequent upon the Dutch revolt which followed the defeat of Napoleon at Leipzig, William had been recalled from his eighteen-year exile. December i, 1813, he had accepted formally the sovereignty of the Dutch provinces, and early in 1814 a constitution had been drawn up and put in opera- tion. The desire of the Allies, particularly of Great Britain, was that there should be brought into existence in the Low Countries a state which should be sufficiently powerful to constitute a barrier to possible aggressions of France upon the north. The union of the Belgian with the Dutch provinces, was intended furthermore, to compensate the 1 L. Legrand, La revolution franfaise en Hollander la republique batave (Paris. 1894). THE GOVERNMENT OF HOLLAND 519 Dutch in some measure for their losses of colonial possessions to Great Britain during the war. By the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna, June 9, 1815, and by the second Peace of Paris, November 20 following, the arrangement was ratified. With Holland and the Austrian Netherlands were united in the new state the bishopric of Liege, the duchy of Limburg, and the duchy (henceforth to be known as the grand-duchy) of Luxemburg. The last-mentioned territory, while included in the Germanic Confederation, was bestowed upon the Dutch sovereign in compensation for German principalities ceded by him at this time to Prussia. 1 March 15, 1815, William began his reign under the new regime in Holland, and September 27 following he was crowned at Brussels. In fulfillment of a promise made his people, King William promul- gated, August 24, 1815, a new constitution, drafted by a commission consisting of an equal number of Dutch and Belgian members. The instrument provided for a States-General of two chambers, one con- sisting of members appointed for life by the crown, the other com- posed of an equal number (55) of Dutch and Belgian deputies elected 1 These ceded territories comprised the ancestral domains of the house of Nassau which lay in Germany Dietz, Siegen, Hadamar, and Dillenburg. The grand- duchy of Luxemburg was joined with the Netherlands by a personal union only, and in its capital, as a fortress of the German Confederation, was maintained a Prussian garrison. William dealt with the territory, however, precisely as if it were an integral part of his kingdom, extending to it the constitution of 1815 and administering its affairs through the agency of Dutch officials. At the time of the Belgian revolt, in 1830, Luxemburg broke away from Dutch rule and there ensued in the history of the grand-duchy an anomalous period during which the legal status of the territory was hotly disputed. In 1839 the Conference of London as- signed to Belgium that portion of the grand-duchy which was contiguous to her frontiers and remanded the remainder to the status of an hereditary possession of the house of Nassau. In 1856 a separate constitution was granted the people of the territory, and in 1867, following the dissolution of the old Germanic Confedera- tion, the grand-duchy was declared by an international conference at London to be a sovereign and independent (but neutral) state, under the guaranty of the powers. The connection between Luxemburg and Holland was thereafter purely dynastic. Until the death of William III., in 1890, the king of the Netherlands was also grand-duke of Luxemburg; but with the accession of Queen Wilhelmina the union of the two countries was terminated, by reason of the fact that females were at that time excluded from the throne of the grand-duchy. A law of 1907, how- ever, vested the succession in the princess Marie, eldest daughter of the reigning Grand-Duke William; and upon the death of her father, Feb. 26, 1912, this heiress succeeded to the grand-ducal throne. The head of the state is the grand-duke (or grand-duchess). There is a council of state nominated by the sovereign and a cham- ber of deputies of 53 members, elected directly by the cantons for six years. The state has an area of but 998 square miles and a population (in 1910) of 259,891. P. Eyschen, Das Staatsrecht des grossherzogtums Luxemburg (Tubingen, 1910). 520 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE by the provincial estates. Bills might be rejected, but might not be originated or amended, by this assembly. The suffrage was severely restricted; trial by jury was not guaranteed; the budget was to be voted for a number of years at a time; ministers were declared re- sponsible solely to the king; and, all in all, there was in the new system little enough of liberalism. When the instrument was laid before a Belgian assembly it was overwhelmingly rejected. None the less it was declared in effect, and it continued the fundamental law of the united dominions of William I. until 1830. 672. The Belgian Revolution* 1830-1831. Friction between the Dutch and the Belgians was from the outset incessant. The union was essentially an artificial one, and the honest efforts of the king to bring about a genuine amalgamation but emphasized the irreconcilable dif- ferences of language, religion, economic interest, and political inheri- tance that separated the two peoples. The population of Belgium was 3,400,000; that of Holland but 2,000,000. Yet the voting power of the former in the lower legislative chamber was no greater than that of the latter, and in fact the Dutch were able all the while to maintain in that body a small working majority. Administrative offices were filled, in large part, by Dutchmen, and the attitude quite commonly assumed (in a measure, without doubt, unconsciously) by the public authorities strongly suggested that Holland was the preponderating power and Belgium little more than so much subjugated territory. The upshot was discontent and eventual rebellion. In 1828 the principal political parties of Belgium, the Catholics and the Liberals, drew together in the " Union," the object of which was to bring about the recognition of Belgian independence, or, in the event that this should prove im- possible of attainment, the establishment of thoroughgoing Belgian autonomy, with no union with Holland save of a purely personal character through the crown. Inspired by the success of the July Revolution in France, and hopeful of obtaining French assistance, the Belgians in August, 1830, broke into open revolt. After a period of violence, a provisional government at Brussels, October 4, 1830, proclaimed Belgium's independence and summoned a national con- gress to which was committed the task of drawing up a scheme of government. Aroused by the imminent loss of half of his dominion, King William, after an ineffectual display of military force, offered concessions; and the States-General went so far as to authorize the establishment in the southern provinces of a separate administrative system, such as at one time would have met the Belgian demand. The day for compromise, however, had passed. The Belgian congress voted overwhelmingly for the establishment of an independent mon- THE GOVERNMENT OF HOLLAND 521 archy, adopted (February 7, 1831) a liberal constitution, and, after offering the throne without avail to the Duke of Nemours, second son of Louis Philippe of France, selected as king the German Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who, under the title of Leopold I., was crowned July 21 of the same year. 673. The Independence of Belgium. These proceedings involved the overturning of an arrangement which the Allies in 1815 had con- sidered essential to the security of Europe. Several considerations, however, among them the outbreak of insurrection in Poland, induced the powers to acquiesce with unexpected readiness in the dissolution of the loose- jointed monarchy. December 20, 1830, a conference of the five principal powers at London formally pronounced in favor of a permanent separation, and when, in August, 1831, a Dutch army crossed the frontier and inflicted upon the Belgians an overwhelming defeat, a French force compelled the invaders to sur- render the fruits of their victory and to retire from the country. A treaty of separation was drawn up by the London conference under date of November 25, 1831, under whose terms there were recog- nized both the independence and the neutrality of the new Bel- gian monarchy. William of Holland protested and flatly refused to sign the instrument. The British and French governments com- pelled him outwardly to acquiesce in the agreement, although it was not until April 19, 1839, that he gave it his formal assent. Embittered by his losses and chagrined by the constitutional amendments to which his own people compelled him to submit, he abdicated in 1840 in favor of his son. 1 574. Constitutional Revision in Holland. After 1831 the con- stitutional development of Holland and that of Belgium move in sepa- rate channels. 2 In Holland the fundamental law of 1815 was retained, but the modifications which have been introduced in it, notably in 1840, 1848, and 1887, have so altered its character as to have made of it an essentially new instrument. The revision of 1840 was forced upon the king by the Liberals, whose position was strengthened by 1 On the constitutional aspects of Dutch-Belgian history in the period 1815-1840 see Cambridge Modern History, X., Chap. 16 (bibliography, pp. 848-851); D. C. Boulger, History of Belgium, 2 vols. (London, 1909), I.; Stern, Geschichte Europas, IV., Chap. 2. General works of importance include J. B. Nothomb, Essai his- torique et politique sur la revolution beige, 3 vols. (4th ed., Brussels, 1876); C. White, The Belgian Revolution, 2 vols. (London, 1835); C. V. de Bavay, Histoire de la Evolution beige de 1830 (Brussels, 1873); L- Hymans, Histoire politique et parlementaire de la Belgique de 1814 a 1830 (Brussels, 1869); J. J. Thonissen, La Belgique sous le rgne de Leopold I", 3 vols. (Louvain, 1861). 2 For that of Belgium see p. 534. 522 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the fiscal chaos into which the nation had fallen under the previous autocratic regime. The reformers got very much less than they de- manded. Instead of the ministerial responsibility and the public control of the finances for which they asked they procured only an arrangement to the effect that the budget should be submitted to the States-General every two years and the colonial balance sheet yearly, together with certain changes of detail, including a curtailment of the civil list and a reduction of the membership of the States-General in consequence of the loss of Belgium. Yet these reforms were well worth while. During the reign of William II. (1840-1849) the demand for con- stitutional revision was incessant. The king was profuse in promises, but vacillating. In 1844, and again in 1845, a specific programme of revision failed of adoption. By 1848, however, economic distress and popular discontent had become so pronounced that the sovereign was forced to act. The overthrow of Louis Philippe at Paris, too, was not without effect. March 17 the king named a state commission of five members which was authorized to draft a revision of the con- stitution, and the resulting instrument, after being adopted in an extraordinary session of the States-General, was promulgated Novem- ber 3. The revision of 1848 introduced into the Dutch constitutional system many fundamental changes. Instead of being appointed by the crown, members of the upper branch of the States-General were thereafter to be elected by the provincial estates; and in the choice of members of the lower house, direct popular elections were sub- stituted for indirect. The ministers of the king were made responsible to the States- General, and the powers of the legislative body were otherwise increased through the extension of its authority over colo- nial affairs, provision for a regular annual budget, and, most of all, recognition of the right to initiate and to amend projects of legisla- tion. Constitutional government in Holland may be said virtually to have had its beginning in 1848. 675. The Constitution To-day. Through several decades following the accession of William III., in 1849, the political history of Holland comprises largely a story of party strife, accentuated by the efforts of the various political groups especially the Liberals, the Conserva- tives, and the Catholics to apply in practice the parliamentary system. 1 The death of Prince Alexander, June 21, 1884, occasioned a constitutional amendment to provide for the accession of a female sovereign and the establishment of a regency, and three years later a parliamentary deadlock compelled the king to authorize a general 1 Cambridge Modern History, XI., Chap. 23. THE GOVERNMENT OF HOLLAND 523 revision of the fundamental law whereby the number of citizens in possession of the franchise was more than tripled. The constitution of Holland at the present day is the amended instrument of November 6, 1887. It comprises more than two hundred articles, being, indeed, one of the lengthiest documents of its kind in existence. Like most European constitutions, it may be amended by the ordinary legislative organs, though under specially prescribed conditions. The first step in the amending process consists in the adoption by the legislative chambers of a resolution affirming that there is sufficient reason for taking under consideration the amendment or amendments in hand. Following the promulgation of this resolution the chambers are re- quired to be dissolved. The newly elected houses then take up the project for final disposition, and if by a two-thirds vote they adopt it, and if the sovereign assents, it goes into operation. 1 IE. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 676. Status of the Sovereign. The government of Holland 2 is in form a constitutional, hereditary monarchy. Until 1884 the royal succession was vested exclusively in the direct male line of the house of Orange-Nassau in the order of primogeniture. The death, however, in the year mentioned, of the sole surviving male heir occasioned, as has been stated, an amendment of the constitution authorizing the succession of a female heir, in default of a male; and, upon the death of William III., November 23, 1890, the throne accordingly passed to his only daughter, the present Queen Wilhelmina. 3 In default of a legal heir, the successor to the throne is to be designated by a law presented by the crown and acted upon by a joint meeting of the legis- 1 Arts. 194-197. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 118. The text of the consti- tution, in English translation, is printed in Dodd, II., 80-119. An excellent anno- tated edition of the instrument, in Dutch, is G. L. van den Helm, De Grondwet voor het koningrijk der Nederlanden (The Hague, 1889). An elaborate commen- tary is contained in J. T. Buijs, De Grondwet, 3 vols. (Arnheim, 1883-1888). One of the best expositions of the Dutch constitutional system is L. de Hartog, Das Staatsrecht des Konigreichs der Niederlande (Freiburg, 1886), in Marquardsen's Handbuch, though this work antedates the amendments of 1887. More recent is J. van Hamel, Staats- und Verwaltungsrecht des Konigreichs der Niederlande (Hanover, 1910). 2 The official title is "The Kingdom of the Netherlands." In ordinary usage, however, the term "Holland" is more commonly employed. 3 Wilhelmina was at the time but ten years of age. Until she attained her ma- jority, August 31, 1898, a regency was exercised by the Queen-Dowager Emma. E. Lemonon, La accession au trdne n6erlandais, in Questions Diplomatiques et Coloniales, December i, 1908. 524 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE lative chambers, each house containing for this purpose double its usual number of members. In the event of the minority or the incapacity of the sovereign a regency is established, and the regent is named by law enacted by the States-General in joint session. 1 The sovereign, at accession, is installed in a public joint meeting of the two chambers in the city of Amsterdam, and is required to take oath always "to observe and maintain the constitution;" whereupon the members of the chambers solemnly pledge themselves "to do everything that a good and loyal States-General ought to do." The person of the monarch is declared inviolable. For the maintenance of the royal establishment the constitution stipulates that, in addition to the revenue from the crown lands, the sovereign shall be entitled to a yearly income, to be paid out of the national treasury, together with summer and winter residences, the maximum public expenditure upon which, however, is restricted to 50,000 florins a year. At each accession the amount of the annual stipend is fixed by law for the entire reign. William II. 's civil list was 1,000,000 guilders, but at the acces- sion of William III. in 1849 the amount was reduced to 600,000, where it has remained to the present day. The family of Orange is possessed of a large private fortune, most of which was accumulated by William I. from a variety of commercial and industrial ventures. The Prince of Orange, as heir apparent, is accorded by the state an annual income of 100,000 florins, which is increased to 200,000 upon his contracting a marriage authorized by law. 677. The Ministry. Associated with the sovereign is a Council of State, consisting of the Prince of Orange (when above eighteen years of age) and of a variable number of members appointed by the crown. The number of members is at present fourteen. By the terms of the constitution the sovereign is required to submit for discussion in the Council of State all matters to be presented to the States- General, and all general administrative questions of the kingdom and of its colonies and possessions throughout the world. 2 Besides this advisory Council of State there is a Council of Ministers, comprising the heads of nine executive departments established by the sovereign. Nominally the ministers are appointed and dismissed by the crown at will, but actually the parliamentary system has acquired sufficient foothold to impose upon the sovereign a considerable measure of re- striction at this point. All decrees and orders must be countersigned by the head of one of the ministerial departments ; and it is expressly stipulated that responsibility for all royal acts shall lie with the min- 1 Arts. 20-21. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 84. 2 Art. 75. Ibid., II., 94. THE GOVERNMENT OF HOLLAND 525 isters. 1 The heads of ministerial departments are privileged to occupy seats in both branches of the States-General, but unless elected reg- ularly as members they possess only a deliberative voice in the pro- ceedings of the chamber in which they sit. 2 678. The Exercise of Executive Powers. Despite the liberalizing tendencies which underlie Dutch constitutional history since 1815, the powers of the crown are still enormous. Executive authority is vested solely in the sovereign and the ministers, and there are not a few acts of importance which the sovereign may perform quite in- dependently. The sovereign exercises supreme control over foreign relations, declares war, concludes and ratifies treaties, 3 confers titles of nobility, appoints to public offices, coins money, grants pardons in cases of penalties imposed by judicial sentence, maintains supreme con- trol over the land and naval forces, settles certain types of disputes arising between provinces, or between provinces and communes or corporations, issues general administrative regulations, recommends projects of law to the States-General, and approves or rejects all meas- ures adopted by that body. The sovereign is, however, in no sense above the law. Many things may not be done at all, save under the authority of a regularly enacted piece of legislation. Dispensations from legal provisions, for example, may be granted by the crown only under the authority of law. In still other respects the sweeping grants of power contained within the constitution are tempered by counter- balancing stipulations. Thus, the sovereign has the right to coin money; but it is also prescribed that "the monetary system shall be regulated by law." 4 And the crown has "supreme control of the colonies and possessions of the kingdom in other parts of the world;" but " the regulations for the conduct of the government in the colonies and possessions shall be established by law." 5 III. THE STATES-GENERAL AND POLITICAL PARTIES 579. The Chambers: Earlier Electoral Arrangements. Legislative power within the kingdom is vested jointly in the sovereign and a States-General, or parliament, of two chambers. The upper chamber 1 Art. 54. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 90. 2 Art. 94. Ibid., II., 99. 3 Save that treaties which provide for modifications of the boundaries of the state, or impose a public pecuniary obligation, or contain any other provision touching legal rights, may not be approved by the crown until after sanction shall have been accorded by the States-General, unless the power has been reserved to the crown by law to conclude such a treaty. Art. 59. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 91. 'Art. 61. Ibid., II., 91. 6 Art. 61. Ibid. 526 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE consists of fifty members elected in varying proportions by the "es- tates," or representative assemblies, of the eleven provinces. 1 The term of office is nine years, and one-third of the members retire tri- ennially. Male citizens who have attained the age of thirty, who are in full control of their property, and who have not been disqualified by judicial sentence, are eligible to membership, provided either that they are among the heaviest payers of direct national taxes or that they hold, or have held, one or more principal public offices designated by law. 2 The lower chamber consists of one hundred members elected di- rectly by the voters of the kingdom for a term of four years. Under the original constitution of 1815 members of the lower house were chosen by the provincial estates. Direct election was introduced by the constitutional revision of 1848. During several decades the fran- chise, based upon tax-paying qualifications, was narrowly restricted. After 1870 the Liberals carried on a persistent campaign in behalf of a broader electorate, and by a constitutional amendment of 1887 the franchise was extended to all males twenty-three years of age and over, who are householders paying a minimum house-duty, lodgers who for a time have paid a minimum rent, or who are possessed of '" signs of fitness and social well-being." The provisions relating to householders and lodgers alone increased the electorate at a stroke from approximately 100,000 to 300,000. The precise meaning and application of the phrase "fitness and social well-being" were left to be defined by law, and through upwards of a decade political con- toversy in Holland centered principally about this question. The coalition Catholic-Conservative ministry of 1888-1891 refused flatly to sanction the enactment of any sort of law upon the subject. In 1893 the Liberal Minister of the Interior, Tak van Poortvliet, brought forward a project whereby it was proposed to put upon the qualifying phrase an interpretation of well-nigh the broadest possible character. A man was to be regarded as fulfilling the educational requirement if he were able to write, and the social requirement if simply he were not a recipient of public charity. By the adoption of this scheme the num- ber of electors would have been raised to something like 800,000, and Holland would have attained a reasonable approximation of manhood suffrage. The Moderate Liberals, the Conservatives, and most of the 1 The provincial quotas are as follows: South Holland, 10; North Holland, 9; North Brabant and Gelderland, 6 each; Friesland, 4; Overyssel, Groningen, and Limberg, 3 each; Zealand, Utrecht, and Drenthe, 2 each. Prior to the constitutional revision of 1848 members of the upper house were appointed by the king. 2 Art. 90. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 98. THE GOVERNMENT OF HOLLAND 527 Catholics opposed the proposition, and the elections of 1894 proved the supporters of the van Poortvliet programme to be in the minority. The total strength of the "Takkians" in the new chamber was 46, of whom 35 were Liberals; that of the "anti-Takkians" was 54, of whom 24 were Catholics. 580. The Electoral Law of 1896 and the Question of Electoral Reform. In the newly constituted ministry it fell to Samuel van Houten, leader of a radical group that had opposed the van Poort- vliet project, to prepare an alternative measure. In the notable electoral law of 1896 the compromise proposals of van Houten were definitely accepted, and they constitute the essential features of the electoral system at the present day. Under this arrangement the members of the lower chamber are elected in one hundred single- member districts by male citizens of the age of twenty-five and over, who meet any one of the following qualifications: (i) payment of a direct tax of at least one florin; (2) payment of a minimum rental as householders or lodgers; (3) proprietorship or rental of a vessel of at least twenty-four tons; (4) the earning of a wage or salary varying from 275 to 550 florins a year; (5) investment of one hundred florins in government bonds, or of fifty florins in a savings bank; and (6) the passing of an examination required for entrance upon a public office or upon a private employment. By the reform of 1896 the number of voters in the realm was increased to 700,000. In 1905 there was created a royal commission of seven members to which was assigned the task of considering and reporting proposals relative to proportional representation, the salaries of members, and other questions of constitutional revision. The Government, however, reserved to itself specifically the right to bring forward proposals relating to the actual extension of the franchise. The report of this commission, submitted late in 1907, recommended, among other things, the introduction of proportional representation and (by a vote of six out of seven) the extension of the franchise to women. These suggestions failed of adoption, but late in 1910 a new commission was appointed, under the presidency of the Conservative premier Heems- kerk, and to this body was given power to propose changes in any portion whatsoever of the governmental order. The successful opera- tion of proportional representation in adjoining countries, especially Belgium and Sweden, renders it probable that the system will be adopted ultimately hi Holland. The future of woman's suffrage is more problematical. Women already possess the right to vote in the proceedings of the dike associations if they are taxpayers or if they own property adjoining the dikes, and in June, 1908, the Lutheran 528 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Synod gave women the right to vote in ecclesiastical affairs on a footing with men. Since 1894 there has been a National Woman's Suffrage Society, to which was added, in 1906, a Woman's Suffrage League; and women are freely admitted to membership in the political clubs maintained by the adherents of the various parties. Any male citizen who has attained his thirtieth year, who is in full possession of property, and who has not been disqualified by judicial sentence, is eligible to a seat in the popular chamber. By constitu- tional provision, members are allowed, in addition to travelling ex- penses, a salary of 2,000 florins a year; and, under law of May 4, 1889, members of the upper house who do not live in the place of meeting receive a per diem of ten florins during the continuance of each session. 681. The States-General: Organization and Powers. The consti- tution requires that the States-General shall assemble at least once each year and that its regular annual session shall be opened on the third Tuesday in September. The sovereign may convoke an ex- traordinary session at any time; but regular sessions are not dependent upon the royal summons. The crown possesses the right to dissolve the houses, separately or simultaneously; but a decree of dissolution must contain an order for the election of the new house, or houses, within fourteen days, and for the assembling of the houses within two months. 1 Except in the event of a dissolution, a regular session is required to extend through at least twenty days; but upon the ex- piration of the twenty-day period the sovereign may terminate the sitting whenever in his judgment " the interests of the state no longer require its continuance." 2 The president of the upper house is ap- pointed by the crown from among the members for the period of one session. The corresponding officer of the lower house is similarly appointed from a list of three members submitted by the chamber. Each house appoints, from non-members, its clerk and such other officials as may be required; each examines the credentials of its newly elected members and renders final verdict upon their validity; and each regulates the details of its own procedure. Except when one-tenth of the members of a chamber request the closing of the doors, or the president deems such a step necessary, sessions are public. Neither house may take action upon any matter unless at least half of its mem- bers are present, and final action upon all propositions is taken by an absolute majority of the members present. A portion of the business of the States- General is transacted in joint sessions of the two houses. In joint session the two are regarded as one chamber, under the pres- 1 Art. 73. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 94. 2 Art. 103. Ibid., II., 100. THE GOVERNMENT OF HOLLAND 529 idency of the president of the upper house. For the changing of the order of royal succession or the appointment of an heir to the throne, the constitution requires that the membership of each chamber be doubled. In such an event there is added to the regular members of each house an equal number of extraordinary members, elected in the same manner as the regular members. 1 In the proceedings of the States-General the lower chamber enjoys a distinct preponderance. The upper chamber, indeed, is commonly regarded as constitutionally the weakest body of its kind in Europe. It possesses neither the power to initiate legislation, general or finan- cial, nor power to amend projects of law. Any measure which comes before it must be accepted or rejected as it stands. Bills may be originated either by the Government or by members of the lower chamber, and it is required that the sovereign shall send all recom- mendations, whether pertaining to laws or to other matters, to the lower house, in a written message or by committee. 2 The projects of the general financial laws must be presented annually to the lower house in the name of the crown, immediately after the opening of the regular session. No taxes may be levied save by law. In addi- tion to its powers of a purely legislative character, the States-General is authorized to investigate, either as separate chambers or in joint session, the executive conduct of public affairs. 3 Under stipulated conditions, the States-General, by a two-thirds vote, and with the assent of the crown, may amend the constitution. 4 582. Political Parties: Election of 1903. Since the middle of the nineteenth century political preponderance has alternated irregularly between two principal party groups. One of these is the Liberals, representative especially of the commercial towns, and falling into the two general categories of Moderates and Progressives. The other is the Conservatives, consisting largely of orthodox Protestants, es- pecially the Calvinistic peasantry, and supported, as a rule, by the Catholics. In more recent times the Socialists have made their ap- pearance as a distinct political element, but thus far they have cast in their lot regularly with the Liberals. Between 1871 and 1888 the Liberals were in power continuously; and, after a brief interval covered by a Conservative-Catholic ministry, they regained control and kept it throughout the decade 1891-1901. In 1901 a coalition min- istry was created, under the premiership of the Conservative Dr. Kuyper. This lasted until 1903. In the spring of the year mentioned the lower house rejected 1 Art. 83. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 96. * Art. no. Ibid., II., 101. * Art. 95. Ibid., II., 99. 4 See p. 523. 530 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE an important measure relating to higher education upon whose enact- ment the Kuyper ministry was determined. The Chamber was dis- solved and in June elections were held. Prior to the elections the Chamber contained 58 Ministerialists and 42 anti-Ministerialists (Liberals and Socialists). The opposition elements were far from united. The Socialists insisted upon an immediate amendment of the constitution to provide for universal suffrage; the Progressive Liberals favored only the eventual adoption of such an amendment; the Moderate Liberals were opposed to it altogether. None the less, the result of the elections was to terminate the Conservative majority and to replace it by a slender but indubitable Liberal majority of four. The Conservatives carried 48 seats; the Liberals 45; and the Social- ists 7. The Kuyper ministry forthwith resigned. 683. The Political Situation Since 1909. The period from June, 1905, to December, 1907, was covered by the two successive Liberal ministries of Borgesius and De Meester. Each was essentially color- less. Efforts to bring about an extension of the suffrage failed, and during 1907 the Liberal majority virtually disappeared. The upshot was that, February 8, 1908, there was created a new ministry, under Dr. Heemskerk, whose members were drawn from the Conservatives. At the general election of June n, 1909, the Conservatives recovered supremacy completely. Following the grouping which prevails at the present day, the results of this election were as follows: (i) Anti- Revolutionaries (largely rural Calvinists), 23 members; (2) Historic Christians, 12; (3) Roman Catholics, 25 a total Conservative quota of 60; (4) Free Liberals, 4; Union Liberals, 21; Liberal Democrats, 8; Socialists, 7 a total Liberal contingent of 40. Furthermore, while the Conservatives were compactly organized, the Liberals were divided hopelessly among themselves and quite unable to offer sub- stantial resistance to their opponents. With a majority of 20 in the lower chamber and of 19 in the upper, with a popular vote in excess by 80,000 of that of the Liberals, and with a ministry in office which, if not brilliant, was at least popular, the Conservatives came off from the campaign in a position to maintain through an extended period, so far as may be foreseen, their control of public affairs. Quite the con- trary of the contemporary situation in Belgium, the rifts which sep- arate the various Liberal groups tend in Holland to deepen, and the political impotence of Liberalism consequently to be accentuated. 1 1 On Dutch political parties see P. Verschave, La Hollande politique; le idle des catholiques nderlandais depuis dix ans, in Le Correspondant, April 10, 1908; Les elections generates et la situation politique aux pays-bas: Porganisation de la campagne 61ectorale, ibid., Nov. 25, 1909; and La Hollande politique; un parti catholique en pays protestant (Paris, 1910). THE GOVERNMENT OF HOLLAND 531 IV. THE JUDICIARY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 684. Judicial Principles. The constitution guarantees various fundamental personal rights, including those of petition, assembly, free speech, and equality before the law in all matters pertaining to the protection of person and property. It likewise undertakes to guarantee the individual against partiality and arbitrariness in the administration of justice. Except in unusual cases, prescribed by law, no one may be taken into custody except upon a warrant issued by a judge, stating specifically the reason for arrest. No one may be re- moved against his will from the jurisdiction of the tribunal in which he has a right to be tried. General confiscation of the property of a person adjudged guilty may not be imposed as a penalty for any offense. Save in exceptional cases, specified by law, or when in the opinion of the judge public order and morals forbid, the sessions of all courts are required to be public. Judgments must be pronounced in public session. They must be accompanied by a statement of the considerations upon which they are based, and, in criminal cases, by a citation of the specific provisions of law upon which the sentence is founded. 1 686. The Courts. Justice is administered throughout the king- dom in the name of the crown, and all judicial officers are appointed by the crown. Within the constitution provision is made only for a supreme tribunal known as the High Court (Hooge Raad) of the Netherlands, sitting at The Hague. Minor courts exist by virtue of ordinary law. The judges of the High Court, five in number, are appointed by the crown from lists prepared by the lower house of the States-General. The junctions of the High Court are of large impor- tance. On appeal from inferior tribunals it may annul any judicial proceeding, decree, or judgment held by it to be unwarranted by law. It is charged with the duty of seeing that suits are properly tried and decided, and that judicial officials comply with the laws. Inferior judges are appointed normally for life, but under conditions prescribed by law they may be dismissed or relieved of their duties by decision of the High Court. Finally, the High Court constitutes a tribunal before which, upon charges brought by either the sovereign or the lower chamber, members of the States-General, heads of the min- isterial departments, governors-general, members of the Council of State, and commissioners of the crown in the provinces, may be pros- ecuted upon charge of offenses committed in office. Such prosecution 1 Arts. 149-161. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 110-112. 532 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE may be instituted either during an official's tenure of office or after his retirement. 1 Of inferior tribunals there are three grades. At the bottom are the cantonal courts, 106 in number, consisting each of a single judge and taking cognizance of claims under 200 guilders, breaches of police regulations, and other cases of a minor nature. Next are the district courts, 23 in number, each consisting of three judges and exercising within the arrondissement jurisdiction in matters of more weight. Still above the district tribunals are five courts of appeal, each com- prising a body of three judges. Trial by jury is unknown in Holland. 586. Local Government: the Province. The constitution of the Netherlands is somewhat peculiar in that it prescribes at length not merely the form and character of the national government, but also the arrangements that shall prevail respecting the governments of the provinces and the communes throughout the kingdom. Of provinces there are eleven; of communes, 1,123. The importance of the province is enhanced by the fact that the nation has sprung from a pure con- federation, the original autonomy of the federated provinces having never been wholly obliterated under the present centralized regime. Each province has its own representative body, or " provincial estates," a unicameral assembly whose members are chosen directly for six years by all inhabitants of the province who are entitled to vote for members of the lower house of the States-General. Half of the mem- bers retire every three years. The number of members varies, accord- ing to the population of the province, from eighty in South Holland to thirty-five in Drenthe. The assembly meets at least twice a year. Its powers are extensive, although it can perform no legislative act without the assent of the crown. It enacts ordinances, levies taxes, prepares and submits to the sovereign an annual budget, controls in certain respects the municipalities,' and elects those members of the upper branch of the States-General to which the individual province is entitled. For the exercise of executive authority within the province there are two agencies. The provincial assembly appoints from its own mem- bers a committee of six, known as the " deputed states," to which, in accordance with conditions fixed by law, the daily administration of affairs is intrusted. Furthermore the sovereign appoints and estab- lishes in each province a commissioner who is charged with the execu- tion of royal orders and with a general supervision of the acts of the local authorities. This royal commissioner presides over the delibera- tions of both the provincial estates and the committee of six, possessing 1 Arts. 162-166. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 112-113. THE GOVERNMENT OF HOLLAND 533 in the committee the power also of voting. He is distinctly the chief magistrate of the province, and at the same time the effective tie be- tween the central and the provincial governments. 1 587. Local Government: the Commune. In all essential respects the government of the Dutch communes is prescribed by the national constitution, with the result that that government is characterized by uniformity no less thoroughgoing than is the communal government of France. Within each commune is a council of from seven to forty-five members elected directly by the people of the commune for a term of six years under franchise arrangements identical with those obtaining in the election of members of the provincial estates, save that no one, although otherwise qualified to vote for communal councillors, may exercise the privilege unless he contributes a minimum amount yearly to the communal rates. One-third of the members of the council retire every two years. The council meets publicly as frequently as business requires. It enacts by-laws, levies taxes, supervises education, and represents the interests of the commune, if occasion arises, before the sovereign, the States-General, and the provincial estates. All of its legislative acts are liable to veto by the crown, and the municipal budget requires regularly the approval of the committee of the pro- vincial estates. Executive authority within the commune is vested in a burgomaster, or mayor, appointed by the sovereign for a term of six years, and a board of two to six wethouders, or aldermen, elected by and from the council. The burgomaster presides in the council and, as a representative of the royal authority, may suspend for a period of thirty days any measure enacted. 2 1 Arts. 127-141. Dodd, Modem Constitutions, II., 105-108. 2 Arts. 142-148. Ibid., II., 108-110. CHAPTER XXDC THE GOVERNMENT OF BELGIUM I. THE CONSTITUTION THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 688. The Constitution : Liberalism and Stability. The constitution of the kingdom of Belgium was framed, consequent upon the declara- tion of Belgian independence October 4, 1830, by a national congress of two hundred elected delegates. It was promulgated February 7, 1831, and July 21 of the same year the first independent Belgian sovereign, Leopold I., took oath to observe and maintain it. Circum- stances conspired to give the instrument a pronouncedly liberal character. Devised in the midst of a revolution brought on principally by the autocratic rule of King William I., it is, and was intended to be, uncommonly explicit in its definition of the royal prerogative. There were Belgians in 1831, indeed, who advocated the establishment of a republic. Against such a course various considerations were urged, and with effect; but the monarchy which was set up, owing clearly its existence to popular suffrage, is of the strictly limited, constitutional type. "All powers," it is asserted in the fundamental law, "emanate from the people." 1 The principles of liberalism are the more in evidence by reason of the fact that the framers of the constitution deliberately accepted as models the French instruments of 1791 and 1830 and were likewise influenced profoundly by their admiration for the constitutional system of Great Britain. A striking testimony to the thoroughness with which the work was done, and to the advanced character of the governmental system established, is the fact that the text of the Belgian fundamental law endured through more than half a century absolutely unchanged^jind, fUf tllegrtfiat whenlli 6Uf own generation fhe task oramendmenTwas undertaken not e\ren thejnost ardent feVlBioniblb taied lu 'iuajs.t upon than the overhauling of the arrangements respecting the fran- Leopold!. (1831-1865), and Leopold II. after him (1865-1909), frankly recognized the co^jj^onal^basis of the royaj^tejaure and, al- though conspicuously active in the management of public affairs, 1 Art. 25. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 130. 534 THE GOVERNMENT OF BELGIUM 535 afforded by their conduct slight occasion for popular criticism or disaffection. Even the revolutionary year 1848 passed without pro- ducing in Belgium more than a mere ripple of unrest. In 1803 the,) constitution was amended to provide for mjiersamale suffrage, and I in 1899 a further amendment institutecfa representation. Otherwise, the instrument as itwasput into operation in 1831. It need hardly be remarked that, in Belgium as elsewhere, the written constitution does not by any means contain the whole of the actually operative political system. Numerous aspects of parliamentarism, and of other well-established governmental forms ali6!~gifaT^ices, depend for their sanction upon the contentions^ rather than upon th*e law, nt the trjev_arenone Tthe less reaT and enduring. 689. Content and Amendment. The Belgium, like that of Holland, is comp prises an extended foil ftf rights: a of the national pYprurive T iePT^a.tivp JL a.nri judicial ^written constitution of ve in scoe^ It com- provisions, relating to finance and the arm^; and an enumeration of the prjndgies underlying the provincial and co: tiojk It contains a total of 139 articles, of whicET eight, being tem- porary in character, are inoperative. The process of amendment is identical with that which prevails in Holland. Upon declara- tion bv the legislative chambers to the effect that as] the chambers are ibsa facto dissolv elected"" s desirale, ^KS^MMH^M^B thereuon d- the >rove the proposition by a two- * j. ' i i* **S it is declared - and the sov aopted; x Art. 131. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 146. The text of the constitu- tion of Belgium, in English translation, is printed in Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 126-148, and in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May, 1896, Supplement (translation by J. M. Vincent). French texts of the constitution and of important laws will be found in F. Larder, Code politique et administratif de la Belgique (ad ed., Brussels, 1893). The standard commen- tary is J. J. Thonissen, La constitution beige ^d ed., Brussels, 1879). Works of value relating to, the amendments of 1893-1894 are C. Thiebault et A. Henry, Commentaire legislatif des articles revises de la constitution beige (Brussels, 1894), and Beltjens, La constitution beige revisee (Lie"ge, 1895). The best trea- tises on the Belgian constitutional system are P. Errera, Das Staatsrecht des Konigreichs Belgien (Tubingen, 1909), and Trait6 de droit public beige: droit constitutionnel, droit administratif (Paris, 1908), and O. Orban, Le droit const! tu- tionnel de la Belgique, 3 vols. (Liege, 1906-1911). An older but excellent work is A. Giron, La droit public de la Belgique (Brussels, 1884). A convenient elementary book on the subject is F. Masson et C. Wiliquet, Manuel de droit constitutionnel (yth ed., Brussels, 1904). A useful volume is E. Flandin, Institutions politiques de 1'Europe contemporaine (2d ed., Paris, 1907), I. 536 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 690. The Crown. Kingship in Belgium is hereditary in the direct x- male line in the order of primogeniture. In default of male descend- ants, the king, with the consent of the legislative chambers, may name his successor. 1 A king or heir to the throne attains his majority at the age of eighteen. In the event of a minority, or of the incapacity of the sovereign, the two houses are required to meet in a single assembly for the purpose of making provision for a regency. The powers of regent may not be conferred upon two or more persons jointly, and during the continuance of a regency no changes may be made in the con- stitution. 2 If by chance the throne should fall wholly vacant, the choice of a sovereign would devolve upon the legislative chambers, specially re-elected for the purpose, and deliberating in joint session. The civil list of the crown is fixed at the beginning of a reign. That of Leopold II., as established by law of December 25, 1865, was 3,300,000 francs, and that of the present sovereign, Albert I., is the same. 691. The Ministers and the Parliamentary System. The Council , /^i Ministers consists of ten heads of py^fjitive Hpparfjpent*- These, together with a va.ria.h)e pumper ^fl F" ni '^g rs without portfolio, com- \s'' prise the Qo^m^iLoLSiate, an advisory bo{iv conTened bv the crown as s occasion requires. All ^ijlfctorfi flrp ^PP " 1 ^: directly or indirectly, and all may be olismissed, by the k,jng. All must be Belgian citizens, and no member of the royal family may be tendered an appointment. Ministers are all but invariably members of one or the other* of the legislative houses, principally of the Hpyse, of Representatives. 3 Whether members or not, they are privileged to attend all sessions and to be hearcUtt theirjownjequest. The houses, indeed, possess the right to demand their attendance. But no ministerjnav voJ:e. save_m_a house oTwficlTHeis a member. 4 Belgium is one oFtne few continental states in which the parlia- mentary system is thoroughly operative. At no point is the constitu- tion more explicit than in its stipulation of the responsibility of min- isters. Not only is it declared that the king's ministers are responsible ; it is stipulated that "no decree of the king shall take effect unless it is countersigned by a minister, who, by that act alone, renders himself 1 This privilege was conferred by an amendment^ Art. 61) adopted September 7, 1893- 2 Arts. 60, 70-85. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 136, 138-139. 3 The minister of war, regularly an active military official, has been usually not a legislative member. Aside from this one post, however, the custom of selecting ministers exclusively from the chambers has been followed almost as rigorously in Belgium as in Great Britain. And so largely are the ministers taken from the lower house that the Senate not infrequently has no representative at all in the cabinet. 4 Arts. 86-91. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 139-140. THE GOVERNMENT OF BELGIUM 537 responsible for it"; also that "in no case shall the verbal or written order of the king relieve a minister of responsibility." The House of Representatives is vested with the right to accuse ministers and to i arraign them before the Court of Cassation; and the king may not pardon a minister who has been sentenced by this tribunal, save upon request of one of the two legislative chambers. A ministry which finds that it cannot command the support of a majority in the House of Representatives has the right to determine upon the dissolution of either of the houses, or of both. If after a general election there is still lack of harmony, the ministry, as would be the procedure in a similar situation in Great Britain, retires from office, the sovereign calls upon an opposition party leader to assume the premiership and to form a cabinet, and the remainder of the ministers are selected from the dominant parties by this official, in consultation with the king. By reason of the multiplicity of party groups in Belgium, the king is apt to be allowed somewhat wider latitude in the choice of a premier than is possible in Great Britain. 2 692. The Exercise of Executive Powers. The powers of the execu- tive, exercised nominally by the king, but actually by the ministry, are closely defined in the constitution; and there is the stipulation, unusual in European constitutions, that the king shall possess no powers other than thoseiwhich the constitution, and the special laws enacted under the constitution, confer explicitly upon him. 3 Unddr the conditions that have been explained, the king appoints all officials who are attached to the general administrative and foreign services, but other officials only in so far as is expressly authorized by law. He commands the forces by land and sea, declares war, and concludes peace. He negotiates treaties, with the limitation that treaties of commerce and treaties which impose a burden upon the state, or place under obligation individual Belgian citizens, take effect only after receiving the approval of the two houses; and with the further condi- -~. tion that no cession, exchange, or acquisition of territory may be /J carried through save by warrant of a law. The king promulgates all ^ legislative measures, and he is authorized tolssue all regulations and decrees' necessary for the execution of the laws. In theory he pos- sesses the power of the veto, but in the Belgian, as in parliamentary governments generally, there is no occasion for the actual exercise of * this power. The king convokes, prorogues, and dissolves the cham- * 1 Arts. 63-64, 89. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, L, 137, 140. 2 Dupriez, Les Ministres, L, 210-230; O. Kerchove de Denterghem, De la respon- sabilit6 des ministres dans le droit public beige (Paris, 1867). 8 Art. 78. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, L, 138. 538 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE bers; thpugh the provisions of the constitution relating to the legisla- tive sessions are so explicit that the crown is left small discretion in the matter. The king, finally, is authorized to remit or to reduce the penalties imposed by the tribunals of justice, to coin money, to confer titles of nobility (which must be purely honorary), and to bestow military orders in accordance with provisions of law. 1 II. THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 693. The Senate. The Belgian parliament consists of two houses, both elective and both representative of the nation as a whole. The upper house, or Senate, is composed of 112 members, chosen for a term of eight years. With respect to the method of their election, the mem- bers fall into two categories. Under constitutional provision, as amended by law of September 7, 1893, a number of senators equal to of members of tlie^Houseof^Representatives is be voters, in propU^Je^Jolriej2Opilation of the several provinces. The electorate which returns theSe^senators is identical with that which returns the deputies, and by law of December 29, 1899, the principle of proportional representation, as applied in ^ elections of the lower chamber, is applied to senatorial elections within each province. A second group of members consists of those elected v by the provincial councils, to the number of two for each province hav- ing fewer than 500,000 inhabitants, of three for each province having from 500,000 to 1,000,000 inhabitants, and of four for each province having more than 1,000,000 inhabitants. The proportion of senators >/ elected directly by the people is approximately three-fourths, being at present 76 to 26. Prior to the amendment of 1893 all members of the Senate were chosen by the same electorate which chose the members of the lower chamber. Inasmuch as only payers of direct taxes to the amount of 2,000 francs a year were eligible as senators, the upper house >i represented almost exclusively the interests of wealth. By vesting in the provincial councils the choice of a portion of the senators, who should be eligible regardless of tax-paying qualifications, it was hoped to impart to the Senate a more broadly representative character. At the same time the tax qualification for popularly elected members was reduced by a third. It may be noted that there is a possibility of a small non-elective element in the Senate. According to the terms of the constitution, the sons of the king, or if there be none, the Belgian princes of the branch of the royal family designated to succeed to the throne, shall be by right senators at the age of eighteen, though 1 Arts. 66-67. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 137-138. THE GOVERNMENT OF BELGIUM 539 without deliberative vote until the age of twenty-five. 1 Prior to his ac- cession to the throne, in 1909, the present sovereign Albert I., nephew and heir-presumptive of Leopold II., was entitled to a senatorial seat. - There is at present no representative of royalty who is eligible. All elective senators must be Belgian citizens and Belgian residents, \at least forty years of age, and in the unrestricted enjoyment of civil and political rights. Senators elected by the provincial councils are '< subject to no property qualifications, 2 but those elected directly by the people must be drawn from either payers of as much as 1,200 francs of direct national taxes or proprietors or lessees of Belgian real estate of an assessed income of at least 12,000 francs. In provinces, however, where the number of eligible persons falls short of the proportion of one for every 5,000 inhabitants, the list is completed by the addition of such a number of the heaviest tax-payers of the province as may be necessary to establish this proportion. 3 Save passes on the national * railways, senators receive no salary or other emolument. 594. The House of Representatives: Earlier Electoral Arrangements. The lower legislative chamber consists of deputies elected directly by the voters of the kingdom. The number of seats is determined by law, under the general provision that it may not exceed the proportion of one for 40,000 inhabitants. Prior to 1899 it was 152; to-day it is 1 86. The term is four years. Half of the membership retires every two years, though in the event of a dissolution the house is entirely renewed.^ The qualifications which the constitution requires of dep- uties are those of citizenship, residence in Belgium, attainment of the age of twenty^five, and possession of civil and political rights. Deputies receive an honorarium of 4,000 francs a year, together with ^ free transportation upon all state and concessionary railways between the places of their respective residences and Brussels, or any other city in which a session may be held. The Belgian electoral system at the present day is noteworthy by v reason of three facts: (i) it is based upon the principle of universal manhood suffrage; (2) it embraces a scheme of plural voting; and (3) H provides" iot tffe proportional representation of parties! Under the original constitution of 1831 the Irancnise, while not illiberal for the time, was restricted by property qualifications of a somewhat sweeping character. Deputies were elected by those citizens only who paid yearly a direct tax varying in amount, but in no instance of less than 1 Art. 58. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 135. 2 They may not be, and may not have been within two years preceding then- election, members of the assembly which returns them. 8 Art. 56. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 135. This is true also of the Senate. 540 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROP 2 twenty florins. In 1848 there was enacted a series of electoral laws whereby the property qualification was reduced to a uniform level of twenty florins and the number of voters was virtually doubled. With this arrangement the Liberals were by no means satisfied, and agitation in behalf of a broader electorate was steadily maintained. As early as 1865 the Liberal demands were actively re-enforced by those of organizations of workingmen, and in 1870 the Catholic ministry found itself obliged to sanction a considerable extension of the fran- chise in elections within the provinces and the communes. After 1880 the brunt of the electoral propaganda was borne by the Socialists, and the campaign for constitutional revision was directed almost solely against the 47th article of the fundamental law, in which was con- tained the original stipulation respecting the franchise. Since 1830 the population of Belgium had all but doubled, and there had been in the country an enormous increase of popular intelligence and of eco- nomic prosperity. That in a population of 6,000,000 (in 1890) there should be an electorate of but 135,000 was a sufficiently obvious anomaly. The broadly democratic system by which members of the French Chamber of Deputies and of the German Reichstag were elected was proclaimed by the revisionists to be the ideal which it was hoped to realize in Belgium. 696. The Electoral Reform Act of 1893. In 1890 the Catholic ministry, recognizing in part the justice of the demand, and preferring, if there were to be revision, to carry it through, rather than to incur the risk of having it carried through by a radical cabinet, yielded to the pressure and consented to the formal consideration of the electoral question upon the floors of the two chambers. Three years of inter- mittent, but animated, discussion ensued. At length, in May, 1892, the chambers were able to agree upon the primary proposition that some sort of revision was necessary. Then' came the dissolution which is required by the constitution in such a case, followed by a general election. The newly chosen chambers, which for the purpose in hand comprised virtually a constituent convention, entered upon their task later in the same year. In both the Catholics maintained a majority, but by reason of the requirement of a two-thirds vote for the adoption of a constitutional amendment, they were none the less obliged to rely upon the Liberals for a certain amount of support. In the scheme of re- vision which was finally adopted all parties had some substantial share. No fewer than fourteen distinct programmes of reform were laid before the chambers. 1 The Conservatives, in general, desired the 1 It will be remembered that for the purpose of considering constitutional amend- ments the chambers meet in joint session. THE GOVERNMENT OF BELGIUM 541 introduction of a system based upon occupation combined with the payment of taxes; the majority of the Liberals sought to secure special recognition for electors of approved capacity in brief, an educational qualification; the Radicals inside, and the Socialists outside, Parlia- ment carried on a relentless propaganda in behalf of universal, direct, and equal suffrage. The rejection in committee (April, 1893) of a plan of universal suffrage occasioned popular demonstrations which required the calling out of the military, and when it was proposed to stop with a reduction of the age limit for voters there were threats of a universal industrial strike. In the end all elements wisely receded from their extreme demands and it was found possible to effect agree- ment upon a compromise. A Catholic deputy Albert Nyssens, pro- fessor at the University of Louvain came forward with a scheme for manhood suffrage, safeguarded by the plural vote, and September 3, - 1893, the plan was adopted. 1 ^ 696. The Franchise To-day. By the terms of the law of 1893, one vote is allotted to every male Belgian citizen who has attained the / age of twenty-five years, who is in unrestricted eniovment of jus civil and political rights, and who has been resident at least one year in a given commung. There is nothing whatsoever in the nature of either an educational or a property qualification. Having conferred, however, upon the mass of male citizens the right to vote, the law proceeds to define the conditions under which a citizen may be en- titled to two votes, or even three. One supplementary vote is rnn- 4 i erred upon (i) every male citizen over t.hij-t. ^ or a widower, with legitimate offspring, and paying to the state as a householder a tax"oi not less than nve francs, unless exempfrby reason of his profession, and (2) every male citizen over twenty-five years of agejowninq real estate to the assessed va.1 IIP of ^ ) Qnnfrar t rg J O r pos- sessing income from land corresponding to such valuation, or who for two years has derived a minimum interest return of one hundred francs a year from Belgian funds, in the form of either government bonds or obligations of the Belgian government savings-bank. Two_ supplementary votes are_cor >fprrp d upon citizens over twenty-five years^ot_a^e who (i) hold a diploma from stf\ institution oi_lMgher V learning, or an indorsed certificate testifying to the completion of a course of secondary education of the higher grade; or (2) occupy or have occupied a public office, hold or have held a position, prac- tice or have practiced a protession, whicn presupposes the knowf- edge imparted in secondary instruction of the higher grade-^such 1 The Nyssens scheme was brought to the attention of the Belgian people through the medium of a pamphlet entitled "Le suffrage universel tempere"." GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE offices, positions, and professions to be defined fropi time to time by law. 1 What, therefore, the law of 1893 does is, broadly, to confer upon every male citizen one vote and to specify three principal conditions under which this basal voting power may be augmented. Asjfrp .bead of a family, the citizen's suffrage may be doubled. By reason of his possession of property or of capital, it likewise may be doubled. On the basis of a not unattainable educational gyjalifica.^^ it may be tripled. Under no circumstances may an individual be entitled to more than three votes. The plural vote of Belgium differs, therefore, from that of Great Britain, not only in that it is based upon a variety of qualifications of which property ownership is but one, but also in that there is fixed an absolute and reasonably low maximum of votes. It is of interest further to observe that voting is declared by the Belgian constitution to be obligatory. Failure to appear at the polls, without adequate excuse made to the election officer, is a misdemeanor, punishable by law. The citizen may, if he likes,' evade the law by depositing a blank ballot. But he must deposit a ballot of some sort. 2 III. PARTIES AND ELECTORAL REFORM SINCE 1894 PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE 597. The Adoption of Proportional Representation, 1899. The first election held under the law of 1893, that of October 14, 1894, demonstrated that by that measure the number of electors had been multiplied almqffet exactly by ten. The total number of voters was now 1,370,000; the number of votes cast was 2,111,000. Con- trary to general expectation, the election gave the Catholics an over- whelming majority in the lower chamber. They obtained 105 seats, the Socialists 2^ and the Liberals onlyj. The elections of 1896 and 1 Art. 47. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 132-133. 2 On the earlier aspects of Belgian electoral reform see J. Van den Heuvel, De la revision de la constitution (Brussels, 1892); L. Arnaud, La revision beige, 1890-1893 (Paris and Brussels, 1894); La reforme electorale en Belgique, in Annales de rfccole Libre des Sciences Politiques, July, 1894; E. Van der Smissen, L'fitat actuel des partis politiques en Belgique, ibid., Sept., 1898. An important work by a leading socialist and a deputy from Brussels is L. Bertrand, Histoire de la democratic et du socialisme en Belgique depuis 1830, 2 vols. (Brussels and Paris, 1906-1907). Men- tion may be made also of E. Vandervelde et J. Destree, Le socialisme en Belgique (2d ed., Paris, 1903) and the older work of E. de Laveleye, Le parti clerical en Belgique (Brussels, 1874). A careful study is J. Barthelemy, L'organisation du suf- rage et rexp6rience beige (Paris, 1912). In 1910-1911 the number of parliamentary electors was 1,697,619, of whom 993,070 had one vote, 395,866 had two votes, and 308,683 had three votes. THE GOVERNMENT OF BELGIUM 543 1898 gave the Catholics a still more pronounced preponderance. At the beginning of 1899 the parties of the opposition could muster in the lower house only forty votes and in the upper only thirty-one. The Liberal party was threatened with extinction. Its popular strength, however, was still considerable, and from both Liberals and So- cialists there arose an insistent demand for the adoption of a scheme whereby the various parties should be accorded seats in the law-making bodies in proportion to their popular vote. The idea of proportional representation was not at this time in Belgium a new one. It had been formulated and defended in the lower chamber as early as 1866. Since 1881 there had been main- tained a national reform organization whose purpose was in part to propagate it; and it is worthy of note that at the time of the revision of 1893 the ministry, led by the premier Beernaert, had advocated its adoption. 1 In 1895 the principle was introduced in a statute relating to communal elections. Following a prolonged contest, which in- volved the retirement of two premiers, a bill extending the plan to parliamentary elections was pressed upon the somewhatj..di'vided Catholic forces and, December 29, 1899, was enacted into la-vJU^er the provisions of this measujfecfepufies and the popularly elected senators continue to be chosen within-the arrondissement by scrutin de liste. Within each arrondissement the seats to be filk<3. are dis- tributed among the parties in proportion to the party strength as revealed at the poll^ the allotment taking place in accordance with the list system'tormulated by Victor d'Hondt, of the University of Ghent. The number of deputies elected in an arrondissement varies from three to twenty-one. When an elector appears at the polls he presents his official "summons" to vote and receives from the pre- siding officer one, two, or three ballot papers according to the number of votes to which he is entitled. He takes these papeVs to a private compartment, marks them, places them in the ballot^DOx, and has returned to him his letter of summons stamped in such a way as to show that he has fulfilled the obligation imposed upon him by law. The candidates of the various parties are presented in lists, and the task of the elector is merely to indicate his approval of one list for each of the votes to which he is entitled. This he does by pencilling white spots contained in the black squares at the head of the lists or against the names of individual candidates. He may pencil only the spot 1 Another interesting proposal in 1893 was that at the discretion of the crown a legislative measure might be submitted to direct popular vote. By reason of the fear that such a scheme would vest in the crown an excess of power the experiment was not tried. 544 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE at the head of a list, thereby approving the order in which the can- didates have been arranged by the party managers; or, by marking spaces opposite names of candidates, he may indicate his preference for a different order. 698. How Seats Are Allotted. The process of the apportionment of seats may be illustrated by a hypothetical case. Let it be assumed that within a given arrondissement four lists of parliamentary can- didates have been presented and that at the polls an aggregate vote of 33,000 is distributed as follows: Catholics, 16,000; Liberals, 9,000; Socialists, 4,500; and Christian Democrats, 3,500. Let it be assumed, further, that the arrondissement is entitled to eight seats. The total number of votes for each list is divided successively by the numbers i, 2, 3, 4, etc., and the results are arrayed thus: Christian Catholic Liberal Socialist Democrat List 1 List List List Divided by i ........ 16,000 9,000 4,500 3,5oo Divided by 2 ........ 8,000 4,5oo 2,250 i,75o Divided by 3 ........ 5,333 3>ooo 1,500 1,166 Divided by 4 ........ 4,000 2,250 1,125 875 Divided by 5 ........ 3,200 1,800 900 700 The eight highest numbers (eight being the number of seats to be filled) are then arranged in order of magnitude as follows: 16,000 9,000 8,000 5,333 4,5oo 4,5oo 4,000 The lowest of these numbers, 3,500, becomes the common divisor, or the "electoral quotient." The number of votes cast for each list is divided by this quotient, and the resulting numbers (fractions being disregarded) indicate the quota of seats to which each of the parties is entitled. In the case in hand the results would be : 16,000 divided by 3,500=4 Catholic seats 9,000 divided by 3,500= 2 Liberal seats 4,500 divided by 3,500=1 Socialist seat 3,500 divided by 3,500=1 Christian Democrat seat 1 In point of fact, the lists as published and as placed before the voter are in- dicated merely by number. THE GOVERNMENT OF BELGIUM 545 699. The Making up of the Lists. Lists of candidates are made up, , and the order in which the names of candidates appear is determined, by the local organizations of the respective parties. In order to be presented to the electorate a list must have the previously expressed support of at least one hundred electors. A candidate may stand as an independent, and his name will appear in a separate "list," providing his candidacy meets the condition that has been mentioned; and it is within the right of any organization or group, political or non-political, to place before the electorate a list. The power of the organization responsible for the presentation of a list to fix the order of candidates' names is not a necessary feature of the proportional system and it has been the object of much criticism, but it is not clear that serious abuse has arisen from it. Candidates whose names stand near the top of the list are, of course, more likely to be elected than those whose names appear further down, for, under the prevailing rules, all votes indicated in the space at the head of a list form a pool from which the candidates on the list draw hi succession as many votes as may be necessary to make their individual total equal to the electoral quotient, the process continuing until the pool is exhausted. Only by receiving a large number of individual preferential votes can a candidate be elected to the exclusion of a candidate whose name precedes his. 1 600. The Elections of 1906, 19<)8, and 1910. The first parliamentary election following the adoption, of the proportional system that of May, 1900 left the Catholics "with a larger preponderance in the lower chamber than they had daripd expect. 2 None the less, the effect of the change was distinctly to \revive the all but defunct Liberal party, to stimulate enormously the aspirations of the Socialists, and, 1 Valuable books dealing with proportional representation in Belgium are G. Lachapelle, La representation proportionnelle en France et en Belgique (Paris, 1911); F. Goblet d'Alviella, La representation proportionelle en Belgique, and La representation proportionelle integrate (Paris, 1910); Barriety, La representa- tion proportionelle en Belgique (Paris, 1906); Dubois, La representation pro- portionelle soumise a 1'experience beige (Lille, 1006); and J. Humphreys, Pro- portional Representation (London, 1911). A careful account is contained in the Report and Evidence of the British Royal Commission on Electoral Systems (1910), Report, Cd. 5,163; Evidence, Cd. 5,352. Useful articles are: E. Mahaim, Proportional Representation and the Debates upon the Electoral Question in Belgium, in Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science, May, 1900; E. Van der Smissen, La representation proportionnelle en Belgique et les elections generates de mai 1900, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, July-Sept., jooo; and J. Humphreys, Proportional Representation in Belgium, in Contemporary Review, Oct., 1908. 2 It will be recalled that the term of deputies is four years, half retiring every two years. There is, therefore, a parliamentary election, but not throughout the entire country, every second year. GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE ^ in general, to replace the crushing Catholic plurality of former years v'by a wide distribution of seats among representatives of the various parties and groups. Prior to the election of 1890 the Catholic majority was 32. The election of 1900 left it at 16; that of 1902, at 26; that of 1904, at 20; that of 1906, at 12; that of 1908, at 8; and that of 1910, at 6. Following the elections which took place in five of the nine provinces in 1906, party strength in the Chamber was as follows: Catholics, 89; Liberals, 46; Socialists, 30; Christian Democrats, i. After the elections in the other four provinces in 1908, it was: Cath- olics, 87; Liberals, 43; Socialists, 35; Christian Democrats, i. The elections of May, I9IO, 1 were contested with unusual keenness by reason of the fact that the Liberal-Socialist coalition seemed to have, for the first time in a quarter of a century, a distinct chance for victory. The Catholics were notoriously divided upon certain public issues, notably Premier Schollaert's Compulsory Military Service bill, and it was believed in many quarters that their tenure of power was near an end. The Liberal hope, however, was doomed to disappoint- ment; for, although both Liberals and Socialists realized considerable gains in the popular vote in some portions of the kingdom, in only a single constituency was the gain sufficient to carry a new seat. The consequence was that the Catholic majority was reduced, but not below six, and party strength in the Chamber stood: Catholics, 86; Liberals, 45; Socialists, 34; Christian Democrats, i. Among reasons that may be assigned for the Liberal failure are the fact that the country was prosperous and not disposed to precipitate a change of governments, the alienation of some voters by the working relations that had been established between the Liberals and the Socialists, and the advantage that regularly accrues to the Catholics from the plural vote. 601. The Catholic Triumph in 1912. During the years 1910-1912 the Catholic tenure of power, prolonged uninterruptedly since 1884, seemed more than once on the point of being broken. Most of the time, however, the legislative machine performed its functions suffi- ciently well with a majority of but half a dozen seats, and the drift of affairs operated eventually to strengthen the Catholic position. In March, 1911, Premier Schollaert introduced an education bill looking toward the placing of church schools upon a footing financially with the schools maintained by the communes, and the opposition to this measure acquired such intensity that the author of the bill was forced to retire. But his successor, De Broqueville, a man of con- 1 In the five provinces of Brabant, Anvers, Namur, West Flanders, and Luxem- burg, the term of whose deputies was about to expire. THE GOVERNMENT OF BELGIUM 547 dilatory temperament, formed a new Catholic cabinet which, by falling back upon a policy of " marking time," contrived to stave off a genuine defeat. In the municipal elections held throughout the country October 15, 1911, the Liberal-Socialist candidates were very generally successful, but the parliamentary elections which took place June 2, 1912, had the unexpected result of entrenching the Catholic party more securely in power than in upwards of a decade. The com- bined assault of the Liberals and the Socialists upon "clericalism" fell flat, and against the Government's contention that the extraor- dinary and incontestable prosperity of the country merited a con- tinuance of Catholic rule no arguments were forthcoming which carried conviction among the voters. The Catholic vote showed an increase of 130,610, the Liberal and Socialist opposition an in- crease of 40,402, and the Christian Democrats a decrease of 4,692. The new chamber consists of 101 Catholics, 45 Liberals, 38 Socialists, and 2 Christian Democrats, giving the Government a clear majority of ^ v sixteen. The elections were marked by grave public unrest, involving widespread strikes and anti-clerical demonstrations, with some loss f ' of life. More clearly than before was exhibited in this campaign the essentially bourgeois and doctrinaire character of the present Liberal party. The intimate touch with the masses which in the days of its ascendancy, prior to 1884, the party enjoyed has been lost, and more and more the proletariat is looking to the Socialists for propagation of the measures required for social and industrial amelioration. 602. The Demand for Further Reform. A project upon which the Socialists and Liberals in the last election, as upon several former occasions, have found it possible to unite is the abolition of the plural vote. Almost immediately after the adoption of the amendment of 1893 the Socialists declared their purpose to wage war unremittingly upon this feature of the new system. In its stead they demanded that there be substituted the rule of un homme, un vote, "one man, one vote," with the age limit reduced to twenty-one years. Following the triumph of the Catholics in 1900, the agitation of the Socialists was redoubled, and in it the Liberals very generally joined. Between the two groups there arose seemingly irreconcilable differences of method, the Liberals being unable to approve the obstructionism and other violent means employed by their allies. In time, however, the Social- ist methods became more moderate, and the realization on the part of both elements that only by fighting together might they hope to win induced a fuller and more durable co-operation between the two. For the time being the Socialists have subordinated to the establish- ment of universal and equal suffrage all other features of their political 548 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE and industrial programme. 1 Upon the desirability of maintaining proportional representation all parties are agreed, and it is probably but a question of time until the principle will be applied fully, as it is not to-day, in the elections of the provinces and communes. 603. The Legislative Chambers: Organization and Procedure. The two houses meet by established right on the second Tuesday in No- vember of each year, at the Palais de la Nation, in Brussels. A regular session must continue through a period of at least forty days. The king may convene the chambers in extraordinary session. He may adjourn them, save that in no case may an adjournment exceed the term of one month; nor may it be renewed during the same session, without the consent of the houses. Finally, the king may dissolve the chambers, or either of them; but the act of dissolution must include an order for an election within forty days and a summons of the newly elected parliament to meet within two months. 2 Each house judges the qualifications of its members and decides all contests arising in relation thereto; each elects, at the opening of a session, its president, vice-president, secretaries, and other officials; each determines by its own rules the manner in which its powers shall be exercised. Sessions are normally public; but by vote of an absolute majority, taken at the instigation of the president or of ten members, either body may decide to consider a specific subject behind closed doors. Votes are taken viva wee or by rising, but a vote on a bill .as a whole must always be by roll call and viva wee. Except on prop- ositions pertaining to constitutional amendments and a few matters (upon which a two- thirds vote is required), measures are passed by abso- lute majority. They must, however, be voted upon article by article. From the essentially democratic character of the Belgian govern- ment, it follows that the powers of the legislative chambers are com- prehensive. The functions of legislation are vested by the constitu- tion conjointly in the king and the two houses, but in practice they are 1 August 15, 1911, Socialists and Liberals combined in an anti-plural-vote demon- stration in Brussels in which 150,000 people are (estimated to have taken part. For an able defense of plural voting under the system prevailing in Belgium see L. Du- priez, L'Organisation du suffrage universel en Belgique. Cf. E. Van der Smissen, La question du suffrage universel en Belgique, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, Sept., 1902. On recent aspects of Belgian politics consult L. Dupriez, L'6volution des partis politiques en Belgique et les elections de mai 1906, ibid., Sept., 1906; A. Kahn, Les elections beiges, in Questions Diplomatiques et Coloniales, June 16, 1910; and J. Van den Heuvel, Les elections beiges, in Le Correspondant, June 25, 1912. J. H. Humphreys, Proportional Representation in Belgium, in Contemporary Review, Oct., 1908, contains a concrete account of the elections of 1908. A useful volume is A. Fromes, Code electoral beige (Brussels, 1908). 2 Arts. 70-72. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 137. THE GOVERNMENT OF BELGIUM 549 exercised in a very large measure by the houses alone. Each house, as well as the crown, possesses full rights of legislative initiative, though it is required that all laws relating to the revenues or expenditures of the state, or to military contingents, shall be voted first by the House of Representatives. Authoritative interpretation of measures enacted K / is confided exclusively to the legislative power, and each house is guaranteed the right to inquire into the conduct of public affairs and to compel the attendance of ministers for the purpose of interpellation, although the lower house alone is given power to formulate charges against public officials and to arraign them before the Court of Cassa- tion. IV. THE JUDICIARY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 604. The Courts. Aside from special military, commercial, and labor tribunals, the courts of Belgium comprise a symmetrical hier- archy modelled upon that created under the Cofje Napnlgn At thp ^ bottom are the courts of the 222 cantons,, each consisting of a single * justice of the peace, vested in ordinary breaches of police regulations with sole authority, though in more serious cases associated with the burgomaster of the commune. Next above are the tribunals of first .. instance, one in each of the twenty-six arrondissements into which the kingdom is divided, and each consisting of three judges. The court of first instance serves as a court of appeal from the decisions of the cantonal tribunal, and at the same time it possesses original jurisdiction in more serious cases of crime and misdemeanors within the arrondisse- ment. Above the courts of first instance stand the three courts of ^ appeal, sitting at Brussels, Ghent, and Liege. That at Brussels con- Fists of four chambers. At the apex is the Court of Cassation ^sit- the capital. In this supreme tribunal there is but a single fudge, but associated with him is a large staff of assistants. TheJurLC- tion of the Court of Cassation is to determine whether the decisions^ y inferior tribunals are in accord with the law and to annul such as are jiot. It is of interest to observe, however, that it is the Court of Cassation that tries a minister upon charges preferred bv the House ~j of Representatives^, and this is the only circumstance under which^the tribunal exercises any measure of original jurisdiction. The creation of the Court of Cassation and of the three courts of appeal is specifically provided for within the constitution. All inferior tribunals are created by law, and none are permitted to be established otherwise. For the trial of criminal cases there are special tribunals, in three grades: police courts, correctional courts, and courts of assize. All judges and justices of the peace are appointed by the king for 550 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE life. Members of the courts of appeal and the presidents and vice- presidents of the courts of original jurisdiction are selected from two double lists presented, the one by these courts and the other by the provincial councils. Members of the Court of Cassation are selected from two double lists presented, the one by the Senate and the other by the Court itself. All other judicial officers are appointed by the crown independently. Except for urgent reasons of public order or morals, sessions of all tribunals are public, and every judgment must be pronounced in open court. Unlike Holland, Belgium has a well ' developed system of trial by jury. Jury trial, is guaranteed by the constitution in all criminal cases and in all cases involving political or press offenses. As in England and the United States, it is the func- tion of the jury to determine whether or not the accused is guilty and that of the court to explain the law and to pronounce sentence. A jury consists regularly of twelve members. 1 605. Local Government: Province and Arrondissement. Upon the subject of local government the constitution of Belgium is less explicit than is that of Holland. Aside from specifying that provincial and communal institutions shall be regulated by law, it contents it- self with an enumeration of certain principles among them direct elections, publicity of sittings of provincial and communal councils, publicity of budgets and accounts whose application is regularly ^ to be maintained. 2 Of local governmental units there are three: 3 the province, the arrondissement, and the commune. The provinces L are nine in number^ In each is a council, elected by all resident citizens who are entitled to participate in the direct election of senators. The term is eight years, half of the membership being renewed every four years. The council meets at least once a year, on the first Tuesday in July. Its sessions must not exceed four weeks in length nor be briefer than fifteen days. Special sessions may be called by the king. _ The council considers and takes action upon substantially all legisla- . tive, administrative, and fiscal affairs which concern the province alone. It elects from its own members a permanent deputation of six men which is charged with the government of the province while the council is not in session. This deputation is presided over by the governor-general of the province who is appointed by the crown and 1 Arts. 92-107. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, L, 140-142. Roubion, La separa- tion des pouvoirs administratif et judiciaire en Belgique (Paris, 1905). 2 Arts. 108-109. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, L, 142-143. 3 Not including the canton, which exists purely for judicial purposes. It is the jurisdiction of the justice of the peace. 4 Antwerp, Brabant, East Flanders, West Flanders, Hainaut, Liege, Limburg, Luxemburg, and Namur. THE GOVERNMENT OF BELGIUM 551 *_z_ who serves as the principal intermediary between the provincial ano? the central governments. The arrondissement, or district (twenty-six in number), isinujojtant v chiefly as an electoral and judicial unft. Members of the lower house of the national parliament are elected within the arrondissement under the scheme nf proportional representation yhich has been described; and, as has been pointed out, each arrondissement is the seat of a court of first instance. 606. The Commune. In Belgium, as in France and other con- tinental countries, the vital organism of local government is the com- mune. The total number of communes in the kingdom is 2,620. The principal agency of government within each is a council. Members of this council are elected for a term of eight years, under arrangements of a somewhat complicated character determined by the population of the commune. Voting is viva wee; plural votes (to a maximum of four) are authorized; and seats, under certain conditions, are allocated in accordance with the principle of proportional representation. A somewhat singular fact is that the aggregate communal electorate of the kingdom is perceptibly smalfer than the provincial or the national percepti largely f The fact arises largely from the circumstance that the^ommunal voter is required to have been domiciled at least three years m the commune, while residence of but a single year is required for participation in provincial and parliamentary elections.* The administrative body of the commune consists of a burgomaster^ or mayor, appointed by tne crown J,in tammUhes whose population exceeds 5,000 elected by the communal council) for a term of ten years, and a college of tchevins, or aldermen, elected By and .Horn tne com- munal council. The burgomaster is head of the local police, and to him and to the council fall the keeping of the register of births, mar- riages, and deaths, the making and enforcing of local ordinances, and, in general, the safeguarding of the welfare of the community. The S more important measures of the communal council become valid only after they have received the approval of the provincial deputation, or even of the ministry at Brussels; and there are special officials, known as commissaires d? arrondissement,' appointed by the provincial deputation, to maintain supervision over the communes and their governing authorities. A fundamental characteristic, indeed, of Belgian~administration is the combination of constant supervision by * the central powefc with a really large measure of local autonomy. 2 1 In 1902, 1,146,482 communal electors cast a total of 2,007,704 votes. In 1910- 1911 there were 1,440,141 provincial, and 1,300,514 communal, voters. 2 Dupriez, Les Ministres, 262-276; E. de Laveleye, Local Government and Taxa- tion, in Cobden Club Essays (London, 1875). PART Vm. SCANDINAVIA CHAPTER XXX THE GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK I. DEVELOPMENT PRIOR TO 1814 The kingdom of Denmark is among the smallest of European states. Its area is but 15,582 square miles, which is less than one-third of that of the state of New York, and its population, according to the returns of 1911, is but 2,775,076. The nation is one whose social experiments, economic enterprises, and political practices abound in interest. As a power, it counts nowadays for little. Time was, how- ever, when it counted for much, and the developments by which the kingdom has been reduced to its present status among the nations comprise one of the remarkable chapters of modern European history. 607. Union of Kalmar, 1397. The maximum of Danish dominion was attained by virtue of the Union of Kalmar, in 1397, whereby the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden were united under the regency of Margaret, daughter of the Danish king Valdemar IV. 1 By the terms of this arrangement the native institutions and the separate administration of each of the three states were guaranteed; and, in point of fact, so powerless at times during succeeding genera- tions was the Danish sovereign in his over-sea dominions that for all practical purposes each of the three affiliated kingdoms may be re- garded as having retained essentially its original independence. Dur- ing an extended period at the middle of the fifteenth century Sweden even had a king of her own. None the less, there was a form of union, and at times the preponderance of Denmark tended to reduce the northern nations to the status of mere dependencies. The union with Sweden lasted only a century and a quarter. Under the leadership of Gustavus Vasa the Swedish people, in 1523, effectually regained their independence, although in accordance with the Treaty of Malmo, in 1524, certain of the southernmost Swedish provinces remained for a 1 The nominal sovereign was Margaret's great-nephew, Eric of Pomerania, who was elected at a convention of representatives of the three kingdoms held simul- taneously with the establishment of the Union. Eric was deposed in 1439. 553 554 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE time under Danish control. 1 It was the lot of Norway, on the other hand, not alone to be brought more thoroughly into subjection to Denmark than was Sweden, but to continue under Danish sovereignty until 1814, and even at that date to pass instantly from the control of Denmark into that of Sweden, rather than to regain her ancient independence. 608. The Loss of Norway, 1814. The loss of Norway by Denmark was an incident of the Napoleonic wars. During the course of those wars Denmark, as long as was practicable, maintained a policy of neutrality. But in 1807, after she had rejected an offer of a British alliance, she was attacked by a British fleet, and thereupon she became the firmest and most persistent of the allies of Napoleon. Thus it came about that when the contest of the powers drew to an end Den- mark had the misfortune to be found upon the losing side. Sweden stood with the Allies, and the upshot was that, to compensate that nation for her loss of Finland to Russia and of Pomerania to Prussia, the Allies gave their consent, in 1812-1813, to the dismemberment by Sweden of the Danish dominion. The work was accomplished by the French marshal Bernadotte, crown prince of Sweden (by adoption) from 1 8 10, and later king (1818-1844). By the Treaty of Kiel, Janu- ary 14, 1814, Norway was ceded perforce by Denmark to Sweden, and by the Congress of Vienna, later in the year, the transfer was accorded the formal approval of the powers. The Norwegians objected and proceeded to elect as their king a Danish prince; but in the end they were compelled to submit. Denmark was unable to do more than make ineffectual protest. 609. Political Development: the Revolution of 1660. The govern- mental system with which Denmark emerged from the era of Napoleon was essentially that which had been in operation in the kingdom since the second half of the seventeenth century. Prior to a remarkable revolution which, in 1660, followed the conclusion of a costly war with Sweden, monarchy in Denmark was limited and almost uniformly weak. Through three hundred years the kings were elected by the Rigsrad, or senate, and the conditions of their tenure were such as to preclude both the independence of action and the accumulation of resources which is essential to absolutism. As early as 1282 the nobles were able to extort from the crown a haandfaestning, or charter, and almost every sovereign after that date was compelled, once at least during his reign, to make a grant of chartered privileges. To the 1 R. N. Bain, Scandinavia, a Political History of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (Cambridge, 1905), Chap. 3; P. B. Watson, The Swedish Revolution under Gus- tavus Vasa (London, 1889). THE GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK 555 Danehof, or national assembly, fell at times a goodly measure of authority, although eventually it was the Rigsrad that procured the supreme control of the state. The national assembly comprised the three estates of the nobles, the clergy, and the burgesses; * the senate was a purely aristocratic body. In 1660 there occurred a revolution in consequence of which the monarchy was rehabilitated and a governmental system which long had been notoriously disjointed and inefficient was replaced by a system which, if despotic, was at least much superior to that which theretofore had been in operation. The nobles, discredited by the calamities which their misrule had brought upon the nation, were com- pelled to give way, and the estates represented in the Danehof surren- dered, in a measure voluntarily, a considerable portion of the privileges to which they had been accustomed to lay claim. The monarchy was put once more upon an hereditary basis and its powers were materially enlarged. The intent of the aggressive sovereign of the day, Freder- ick III., was to proceed with caution, but not to stop half-way. By the promulgation of two monumental documents the road was thrown open to thoroughgoing absolutism. One of these was the "Instrument, or Pragmatic Sanction, of the King's Hereditary Right to the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway," dated January 10, 1661. The other was the Kongelov, or "King's Law," of November 14, 1665, a state paper which has been declared to have "the highly dubious honor of being the one written law in the civilized world which fearlessly carries out absolutism to its last consequences." 2 In the Kongelov it was made lese-majeste in any manner to usurp or infringe the king's absolute authority; it was asserted that the moment the sovereign ascends the throne crown and scepter are vested in him by his own right; and the sole obligation of the king was affirmed to be to maintain the indivisi- bility of the realm, to preserve the Christian faith in accordance with the Augsburg Confession, and to execute faithfully all of the provisions of the Kongelov itself. Such were the principles upon which, during upwards of two centuries thereafter, the government of the Danish kingdom was based. Absolutism was all but unrelieved; but it is only fair to add that most of the sovereigns, according to the light which they possessed, sought to govern in the interest of their subjects. 3 1 In the Swedish diet the peasantry constituted a fourth estate, but in Denmark no political power was possessed by this class. 2 Bain, Scandinavia, 266. 3 For sketches of Danish political history prior to 1814 see Bain, Scandinavia, Chaps. 2, 4, 7, 10, 15; Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generate, III., Chap. 14, IV., Chap. 15; VI., Chap. 17; VII., Chap. 23; IX., Chap. 23. An important Danish work is P. F. Barfod, Damnarks Historic, 1319-1536 (Copenhagen, 1885). 556 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE II. THE RISE or CONSTITUTIONALISM, 1814-1866 610. The Provincial Diets. Gradually after 1814 the kingdom recovered from the depression into which by its loss of territory and its staggering indebtedness it had been plunged, and with the recovery came a revived political spirit as well as a fresh economic stimulus. The sixteen years between the Treaty of Kiel and the revolutionary year 1830 were almost absolutely devoid of political agitation, but after 1830 there set in, in Denmark as in most continental countries, a liberal movement whose object was nothing less than the establish- ment of a constitutional system of government. To meet in some measure the demands which were made upon him, King Frederick VI. called into being, by decrees of 1831 and 1834, four Landtags, or diets, one in each of the provinces of the realm Schleswig, Holstein, Jutland, and the Islands. 1 The members of these assemblies, com- prising burgesses, landowners, and peasants, were to be chosen by the landed proprietors for a term of six years, and they were to meet biennially for the discussion of laws and taxes and the drawing up of petitions. A few landowners, professors, and ecclesiastics were to be appointed to membership by the crown. The function of each of the four bodies was purely consultative. 611. Royal Opposition to Reform. From the point of view of the Liberals, whose aim was the institution of a national parliamentary system, the king's concession was too meager to comprise more than a bare beginning. Throughout the remainder of the reign agitation was kept up, although at the hand of a sovereign whose fundamental political principle was the divine right of kings, little that was more substantial was to be expected. Christian VIII., who succeeded Frederick in December, 1839, brought with him to the throne a reputation for enlightened and progressive views. Further, however, than to pledge himself to certain administrative reforms the new sovereign displayed scant willingness to go. One liberal project after another was repelled, and press prosecutions and other coercive meas- ures were brought to bear to discourage propaganda. It was in this period, however, that there arose a preponderating issue whose settle- ment was destined eventually to exert a powerful influence in the estab- lishment of constitutional government in Denmark, i. e., the question of the policy to be pursued in respect to the affiliated duchies of 1 The ordinance establishing the provincial assemblies was promulgated May 28, 1831, but the assemblies did not come into existence until after the supplementary decrees of May 15, 1834. In 1843 Iceland was granted "home rule," with the right to maintain an independent legislature. THE GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK 557 Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg. 1 During the later years of the reign successive ministries grappled vainly with this problem, and the political forces of the kingdom came to be divided with unprec- edented sharpness by the conflict between the separatist tendency and the demand for immediate and complete incorporation. The king himself was brought eventually to consent to the framing of a constitution for the whole of his dominions, as a means of holding the realm together; but he died, January 20, 1848, before the task had been completed. 612. The Constitutions of 1848-1849. Within eight days the con- stitution was promulgated by the new sovereign, Frederick VII. Under its provisions there was established a parliament representative of all of the Danish dominions. Neither the Danes nor the inhabitants of the duchies, however, were satisfied, and in Holstein there broke out open rebellion. Prussia intervened in behalf of the disaffected duchies, and Great Britain and Russia in behalf of the Danish Govern- ment. The result was the triumph of the Government; but in the meantime the rescript by which the common constitution had been promulgated was withdrawn. In its place was published a decree which provided for the establishment of a bicameral national assembly (Rigsdag), of whose 152 members 38, nominated by the crown, were to form a Lands thing, or upper chamber, and the remaining 114, elected by the people, were to comprise a Folkething, or house of representa- tives. In the early summer of 1849 a constitution embodying these arrangements was drawn up; and June 5, after having been adopted by the new Rigsdag, the instrument was approved by the crown. For the moment the question of the duchies seemed insoluble, and this second constitution was extended to Jutland and the Islands only, i. e., to Denmark proper. Its adoption, however, is a landmark in Danish constitutional history. Under its terms the autocracy of the Kongelov was formally abandoned and in its place was substituted a limited monarchy in which legislative powers were to be shared by the crown with an elective diet and the executive authority was to be exercised by ministers responsible to the legislative body. As will appear, it was this constitution of June 5, 1849, that, with revision, became permanently the fundamental law of the kingdom. 2 1 Holstein and Lauenburg were German in population and were members of the German Confederation. Southern Schleswig also was inhabited by German- speaking people, though the duchy did not belong to the Confederation. Schleswig and Holstein had been joined with Denmark under a precarious form of union since the Middle Ages. Lauenburg was acquired, with the assent of the Allies, in 1814-1815 in partial compensation for the loss of Norway. 2 Bain, Scandinavia, Chap. 16; Cambridge Modem History, XI., Chap. 24 558 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 613. The Problem of the Duchies. Following prolonged inter- national conferences, there was issued, January 28, 1852, a new con- stitutional decree by which it was provided that the kingdom proper and Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg should have a common constitution for common affairs, but that each of the territories should enjoy autonomy in the management of its separate concerns. An ultra-conservative constitution which had been worked out by the Rigsdag in consultation with the Landtags of the duchies, was pro- mulgated October 2, 1855. No sooner had the instrument been put in operation, however, than stubborn opposition to its provisions arose, both from the duchies themselves and from the interested powers of Germany. November 28, 1858, the Danish Government yielded in so far as to consent to the withdrawal of the constitution from Holstein and Lauenburg. Through several years thereafter the question of the duchies overshadowed all else in Danish politics and in Danish diplomatic relations. March 30, 1863, a royal decree recog- nized the essential detachment of Holstein from the monarchy and vested the legislative power of the duchy solely in the king and the local estates. Later in the year, however, the premier Hall proposed and carried through the Rigsdag a constitution which contemplated .again the incorporation of Schleswig with the kingdom. To this instrument the Council of State, November 13, gave its assent, and, five days later, with the approval of the new sovereign, Christian IX., it became law. So far as Denmark was concerned, the solution of the question of the duchies was now at hand. In the name of Prussia and Austria, Bismarck demanded summarily that the November con- stitution be rescinded. War ensued, and by the Treaty of Vienna, October 30, 1864, Denmark, in defeat, yielded all claim to Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg. After continuing for a time a bone of con- tention between the leading German states, these territories were incorporated, subsequent to the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, in the kingdom of Prussia. Denmark, shorn of a million of population and approximately one-third of her territory, was reduced in power and area to substantially her present proportions. 1 614. The Revised Constitution of 1866. The loss of the duchies, while humiliating, cut the Gordian knot, of Danish political re- (bibliography, pp. 961-962); Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Ge"n6rale, X., Chap. 18; C. F. Allen, Histoire de Danemark depuis les temps les plus reculSs jusqu' a nos jours (Copenhagen, 1878). 1 Cambridge Modern History, XI., Chap. 16; Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Gn6rale, XI., Chap. 12; J. W. Headlam, Bismarck and the Foundation of the German Empire (New York, 1909), Chap. 8; H. Delbrtick, Der Deutsch-Danische Krieg, 1864 (Berlin, 1905). THE GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK 559 construction. July 28, 1866, the constitution of July 5, 1849, m revised form, was reissued, and this instrument continues to the present day the fundamental law of the kingdom. Its ultimate adop- tion was the achievement largely of the agricultural interests in the Rigsdag; but the king, Christian IX., though not in sympathy with the parliamentary ideal of government, gave it his cordial support. The constitution is an elaborate document, in ninety-five articles. In addition to the customary specifications relating to the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of the government, it contains a wide variety of guarantees respecting religion, freedom of speech and of the press, liberty of assemblage and of petition, and uniformity of judicial procedure, which, taken together, comprise a very sub- stantial bill of rights. 1 The method of its amendment is not materially unlike that prevailing in Holland, Belgium, and a number of other continental countries. Proposals regarding alterations or additions may be submitted at any time within either branch of the Rigsdag. In the event of the adoption of a proposal of the kind by both cham- bers, it becomes the duty of the Government, provided it favors the change, to dissolve the Rigsdag and to order a general election. If the newly chosen Rigsdag adopts the proposed amendment without change and the crown formally approves it, the modification goes forthwith into effect. 2 Constitutional amendments since 1866 have been, however, neither numerous nor important. 3 III. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 616. The King: Status and Powers. The form of the Danish gov- ernment is declared by the constitution to be that of a limited mon- archy. 4 The throne is hereditary, and the succession is regulated by a law of July 31, 1853, adopted in pursuance of the Treaty of London of 1 Arts. 80-94. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 278-280. 2 Art. 95. Ibid., L, 280. 3 The text of the Danish constitution, in English translation, is printed in Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 267-281; H. Weitemeyer, Denmark (London, 1891), 203-217; and British and Foreign State Papers, LVIII. (1867-1868), 1,223 ff- The best brief treatise on the Danish constitutional system is C. Goos and H. Han- sen, Das Staatsrecht des Konigsreichs Danemark (Freiburg, 1889), in Marquard- sen's Handbuch. A Danish edition of this work was issued at Copenhagen in 1890. The best extended commentaries are H. Matzen, Den Danske Statsforfatningsret (3d ed., Copenhagen, 1897-1901) and C. G. Hoick, Den Danske Statsforfatningsret (Copenhagen, 1869). T. H. Aschehoug, Den Nordiske Statsret (Copenhagen, 1885) is a useful study, from a comparative point of view, of the constitutional law of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. 4 Art. i. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 267. 560 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE May 8, 1852, wherein the powers bestowed the Danish succession upon Prince Christian, of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg, and the direct male descendants of his union with the Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel, niece of Christian VIII. of Denmark. 1 By the constitu- tion it is required of the king that he shall not become the ruler of any country other than Denmark without the consent of the Rigsdag, that he shall belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church (the national church of Denmark, supported by the state), and that before assuming the throne he shall give in writing before the Council of State an assur- ance, under oath, that he will maintain inviolate the constitution of the kingdom. 2 The royal civil list is fixed by law for the term of the reign. That of the present sovereign, Frederick VIII., is one million kroner annually. The powers of the king are comprehensive. Within the limitations prescribed by the constitution, he exercises "supreme authority over all the affairs of the kingdom." He appoints to all offices, dismisses from office, and transfers from one office to another. He declares war and makes peace. He concludes and terminates treaties of alliance and of commerce, on condition only that an agreement which involves a cession of territory or a change of existing international relations must receive the assent of the Rigsdag. He exercises the power of pardon and of amnesty, save that without the consent of the Folke- thing he may not relieve ministers of penalties arising from impeach- ment proceedings. He grants such licenses and exemptions from the laws as are authorized by statute. He convenes the Rigsdag hi reg- ular session annually and in extraordinary session at will, adjourns it, and dissolves either or both of the houses. He may submit to it projects for consideration or drafts of laws, and his consent is nec- essary to impart legal character to any of the measures which it enacts. He orders the publication of statutes and sees that they are executed. Finally, when the need is urgent and the Rigsdag is not in session, he may promulgate ordinances, provided, first, that they are. not con- trary to the constitution, and, second, that they are laid before the Rigsdag at its ensuing meeting. 616. The Ministry and the Parliamentary System. For the meas- ures of the government the king is not personally responsible. His powers are exercised through ministers, who are appointed and may be removed by him, and whose number and functions are left to his determination. The ministries are nine in number, as follows: For- 1 Prince Christian became, in 1863, King Christian IX. 2 One original text of this pfedge must be preserved in the archives of the crown, another in those of the Rigsdag. Art. 7. Dodd, Modem Constitutions, I., 267. THE GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK 561 eign Affairs, Interior, Justice, Finance, Commerce, Defense, Agricul- ture, Public Works, and Public Instruction and Ecclesiastical Affairs. Collectively the ministers form the Council of State, over which the king presides and in which the heir to the throne, if of age, is entitled to a seat. All laws and important public matters are apt normally to be discussed in the Council of State. There is also, however, a Council of Ministers, consisting simply of the nine heads of departments under the presidency of an additional minister designated by the crown, and to this body are referred in practice many minor subjects that call for consideration. The ministers, so the constitution affirms, are responsible for the conduct of the government. 1 The king's signature of a measure gives it legal character only if accompanied by the signature of one or more of the ministers, and ministers may be called to account by the Folke- thing, as well as by the king, for their conduct in office. There is, furthermore, a special Court of Impeachment for the trial of min- isters against whom charges are brought. On the surface, these arrangements seem to imply the existence of a parliamentary system of government, with a ministry answerable singly and collectively to the popular legislative chamber. In point of fact, however, there has been all the while much less parliamentarism in Denmark than seem- ingly is contemplated in the constitution, and it is hardly too much to say that since the adoption of the present constitution the most interminable of political controversies in the kingdom has been that centering about the question of the responsibility of ministers. Until at least within the past decade, the practice of the crown has been regularly to appoint ministers independently and to maintain them in office in disregard of, and even in defiance of, the wishes of the popular branch of the legislature. The desire of the Liberals has been to inaugurate a thoroughgoing parliamentary regime, under which the sovereign should be obligated to select his ministers from the party in control of the Folkething and the ministers, in turn, should be responsible to the Folkething, in fact as well as in theory, for all of their official acts. Throughout the prolonged period covered by the ministry of Jakob Estrup (1875-1894) the conflict upon this issue was incessant. During the whole of the period Estrup and his colleagues commanded the support of a majority in the Landsthing, but were accorded the votes of only a minority in the lower chamber. After the elections of 1884, indeed, the Government could rely upon a total of not more than nineteen votes in that chamber. 617. The Establishment of Ministerial Responsibility. Under the 1 Art. 12. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 268. 562 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE continued stress of this situation constitutionalism broke down com- pletely. The Government, finding its projects of military and naval reform persistently thwarted and its budgets rejected, stretched its prerogatives beyond all warrant of law. Provisional measures, in the form of royal ordinances, and arbitrary decisions multiplied, and budgets were adopted and carried into execution without so much as the form of parliamentary sanction. In time the forces of opposition fell into disagreement and the more moderate element was brought to the point of compromise. Between the Conservatives and the Na- tional Liberals, on the one hand, by whom the Government had been supported, and the conciliatory element of the Liberal opposition, on the other, a truce was arranged, and in 1894, for the first time in nine years, it was found possible to enact the annual finance law in regular manner. In this same year Estrup's retirement cleared the way for the appointment of a moderate Conservative ministry. Under Estrup's successors the conflict was continued, but not so vigorously as before. More and more the political center of gravity shifted to the Folkething, and when the general elections of 1901 returned to that body an overwhelming majority of Liberals, Christian IX. was at last compelled to give way and to call into being a Liberal ("Left Reform") ministry. It is too much to say that the parliamentary system is as yet completely established in Denmark. There is, however, a closer approximation to it than ever before, and there is every prospect of the ultimate and thorough triumph of the essential parliamentary prin- ciple. In 1908, and again in 1909, a ministry was virtually forced to resign by the pressure of parliamentary opposition. IV. THE RIGSDAG POLITICAL PARTIES 618. The Landsthing. The Rigsdag is composed of two chambers the Landsthing, or Senate, and the Folkething, or House of Represent- atives. The Landsthing consists of 66 members, of whom 12 are appointed by the king, seven are elected in Copenhagen, 45 are elected in the larger electoral divisions comprising rural districts and towns, one is elected in Bornholm, and one is chosen by the Lagthing of the Faroe Islands. 1 The king's appointment of members is made for life, from among active or former members of the Folkething. Elected members serve regularly eight years, one-half retiring every four years. The seven members for Copenhagen are chosen by an electoral college 1 Art. 34. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 272. The status of the Faroe Islands is that of an integral portion of the kingdom, not that of a dependency. It is analogous to the status of Algeria in the French Republic. No other outlying Danish territory is represented in the Rigsdag. THE GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK 563 composed of (i) electors chosen by all citizens who are entitled to vote for members of the Folkething, in the ratio of one elector for every 120 voters or major fraction thereof, and (2) an equal number of electors chosen by the voters who, during the preceoling year, have been assessed upon a taxable income of not less than 2,000 rix-dollars. The members elected from the rural districts and towns are chosen indirectly, after a manner analogous to that in operation in the capital. 1 The result is a very successful combination of the principles of in- direct popular election and indirect representation of property. In all cases the election of members takes place according to the prin- ciples of proportional representation. 2 Every person eligible to the Folkething is eligible to the Landsthing, provided he has resided in his electoral circle, or district, during the year preceding his election. 619. The Folkething. The Folkething is composed of deputies chosen directly by manhood suffrage for a term of three years. By the constitution it is stipulated that as nearly as practicable there shall be one member for every 16,000 inhabitants. In point of fact, the total membership of the Chamber is but 114, whereas at the ratio indicated it should be upwards of 170. Deputies are elected by secret ballot (since 1901), in single-member districts. The franchise is extended to all male citizens of good reputation who have attained the age of thirty years, except those who are in actual receipt of public charity, those who have at one time been recipients of 'public charity and have rendered no reimbursement therefor, those who are in private service and have no independent household establishment, and those who are not in control of their own property. The voter must have resided a minimum of one year in the circle in which he proposes to vote. 3 With the exception of non-householders in private service, of persons under guardianship, and of recipients of public charity, all male citizens who have completed their twenty-fifth year are qualified for election. Curiously enough, it is thus possible for a citizen to become a member of the Folkething before he is old enough to vote at a national election. Members of both chambers receive, in addition to travelling ex- 1 For details see Art. 37 of the constitution. Dodd, Modem Constitutions, I., 272. 2 It is of interest to observe that Denmark was the first nation to make use of a system of proportional representation. The principle was introduced originally as early as 1855, in the constitution promulgated in that year, and it was retained through the constitutional changes of 1863 and 1866, although its application was restricted to the election of members of the upper chamber. An account of its introduction is contained in La representation proportionnelle (Paris, 1888), pub- lished by the French Society for the Study of Proportional Representation. 3 Art. 30. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 271. 564 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE penses, regular payment for their services at the rate of ten kroner per day during the first six months of a session, and six kroner for each day thereafter. During recent years there has been no small amount of agitation in behalf of a more democratic electoral system. In April, 1908, there was enacted an important piece of legislation whereby the franchise in municipal elections was conferred upon all resident taxpayers of the age of twenty-five, men and women alike; and, beginning with the elections of 1909, women have both voted and held office regularly within the municipalities. By the legislation of 1908 the number of persons qualified to vote at local elections was practically doubled. Early in 1910 a measure was passed in the Folkething whereby the age limit for voters in parliamentary elections was reduced from thirty to twenty-five years and the suffrage was conferred upon women and upon persons engaged in service. This measure did not become law, but in the Folkething elected May 20 of the same year Premier Berntsen introduced a new bill of essentially the same nature. The question of proportional representation was deferred, the bill providing for (i) the reduction of the voting age to twenty-five; (2) the increase of the number of deputies to 132; and (3) the extension of the suffrage in national elections to women, together with eligibility for seats in both of the legislative chambers. This measure likewise failed; but at the opening of Parliament in October, 1912, fresh pro- posals upon the subject were introduced. 620. The Rigsdag: Sessions and Powers. The Rigsdag is required to meet in regular session on the first Monday in October of every year. Each house determines the validity of the election of its mem- bers; each makes its own regulations concerning its order of business and the maintenance of discipline; each elects its own president, vice- presidents, and other officers. Each has the right to propose bills, each may present addresses to the king, and the consent of each is necessary to the enactment of any law. By provision of the constitu- tion the annual budget must be laid on the table of the Folkething at the beginning of each regular session, and no tax may be imposed, altered, or abolished save by law. Each house is required to appoint two salaried auditors whose business it is to examine the yearly public accounts and to determine whether there have been either unre- corded revenues or unauthorized expenditures. For the adjustment of conflicts between the two chambers there is provided a method where- by there may be constituted a joint conference committee similar to that employed under like circumstances in the American Congress. 1 1 Art. 53. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 274. THE GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK 565 Sessions are public, and a majority of the membership constitutes a quorum. With the consent of the house to which he belongs, any member may propose subjects for consideration and may request explanations from the Government concerning them. Ministers are entitled to appear and to speak in either chamber as often as they may desire, provided they do not otherwise infringe upon the order of business. By reason of the uncertain status of ministerial responsi- bility the right of interpellation means as yet but little in practice. The minister may or may not reply to inquiries, and in any case he is not obliged by unfavorable opinion or an adverse vote to retire. 621. Political Parties: the Ministry of Estrup, 1876-1894. Prior to 1848 the preponderating public issues of Denmark were concerned chiefly with the introduction in the kingdom of a constitutional type of government. Between 1848 and 1864, they related all but exclusively to the status of the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg. During the closing quarter of the past century they centered princi- pally hi the titanic conflict which a growing and indomitable majority in the Folkething, representing a no less determined majority of the nation, waged with King Christian IX. and his advisers in behalf of the enforcement of constitutional limitations upon the crown and of ministerial responsibility to the national legislative body. The prolonged struggle between the Government and the parlia- mentary majority had its beginning in 1872, when the various radical groups in the Folkething, drawing together under the designation of the United Left, rejected a proposed budget and passed a vote of want of confidence in the Conservative Government. The avowed purpose of the disaffected elements was to force the ministry of Hol- stein of Holsteinborg to retire, to compel the sovereign to select his ministers from the parliamentary majority, and to enforce the prin- ciple of ministerial responsibility to the lower legislative chamber. Supported by the king and the Landsthing, however, the ministry refused to resign. June n, 1875, there was called to the premiership an able and aggressive statesman, Jakob Estrup, who through the next nineteen years continuously maintained the Government's posi- tion against the most desperate of parliamentary assaults. During the whole of this period Estrup commanded the support of the Landsthing, but was opposed by large majorities in the Folkething and throughout the country. The struggle raged principally upon questions of finance. Estrup, who retained for himself the portfolio of finance, was bent upon the strengthening of Danish armaments, and over the protest of the Folkething huge budgets were put into effect again and again by sim- ple ordinance of the crown. From 1882 onwards ordinary legislation $66 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE was at a standstill, and during nine years after 1885 there was not one legal grant of supplies. The constitution was reduced well nigh to waste paper. 622. Later Conservative Governments: the Triumph of the Left. In 1886 the Radicals, despairing of overthrowing the Estrup govern- ment by obstruction, resorted for the first time to negotiation. Not until April i, 1894, however, was the parliamentary majority able to agree with the Government and the Landsthing upon a budget which, by being made retroactive, legalized the irregular fiscal expedients of the past two decades. In August of the same year Estrup was suc- ceeded in the premiership by Reedtz-Thott who, although a Conserva- tive, and hence a supporter of the Government's position, was more favorable to conciliation than had been his predecessor. The struggle, however, was by no means ended. The elections of 1895 and of 1898 resulted in decisive victories for the Liberals and Radicals, and in the Chamber the Government was confronted by an overwhelming majority comprising a Moderate Left, a Reform or Radical Left, and a group of Social Democrats. Even in the Landsthing the Government's hold was growing less substantial. Reedtz-Thott, none the less, clung to office until December, 1899, and after his retirement there followed two more Conservative ministries those of Horring (December, 1899, to April, 1900) and of Sehested (April, 1900, to July, 1901). On July 1 6, 1901, occurred the most notable political event in a half- century of Danish history. Confronted by a majority of 106 to 8 in the Folkething, besieged by widespread popular opinion, and possess- ing no longer a dependable majority in the Landsthing, the aged Chris- tian IX. gave way, with such grace as he could muster, and summoned to the premiership Professor Deuntzer, by whom was constituted a pure Left Reform ministry. At the partial elections of September 19, 1902, the Conservatives lost absolutely their majority in the upper chamber, while in the Folkething party strength was so redistributed that, while the Conservatives retained their eight seats, the Social Democrats acquired fourteen and the Left Reform party seventy-seven. The elections of June 16, 1903, wrought but insignificant changes of status. 623. The Christensen Ministry (1905-1908) and the Elections of 1906. As was to be expected of a party whose role had been regularly one of mere opposition, the Left Reform, after gaining office, developed a certain amount of internal discord. In January, 1905, the Deunt- zer ministry broke up and a more homogeneous and moderate cabinet was organized under the Left Reform leader Christensen. This min- istry contrived to retain office until October, 1908. At the elections THE GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK 567 of May 29, 1906, the Government took its stand upon manhood suf- frage in parliamentary elections, equal suffrage in municipal elections (in accordance with the principle of proportional representation) for all taxpayers, and the reform of both the administrative and judicial systems. Its bitterest opponents were its former allies, the Radical Left (which had split off from the Left Reform party after the forma- tion of the Christensen ministry) and the Social Democrats, though neither of these parties put forward a programme which was in any meas- ure specific. After an unusually spirited contest the Government was found to have lost three seats, the Social Democrats to have gained eight, the Radical Left to have lost four, and the Conservatives to have gained two. The resulting grouping in the Folkething was as follows: Left Reform (Ministerialists), 55; Moderate Left, 9; Radical Left, 9; Social Democrats, 24; Conservatives, 13; Independents, 3; member for Faroe Islands, i. At the partial renewal of the Lands thing in September, 1906, the Government lost five seats, and with them the majority which, aided by the Moderate Left and the Free Con- servatives, 1 it had been able since 1901 to control. The consequence of its losses was that the Christensen ministry drew appreciably toward the Conservative elements of the Rigsdag, as against the Radicals and Socialists. 624. Ministerial Instability, 1908-1912. October n, 1908, largely by reason of the scandal in which it was involved by the embezzlements of the minister of the interior Alberti, the ministry of Christensen was replaced by a cabinet formed by Neergaard. It in turn retired, July 31, 1909, defeated upon bills to which it was committed for the strength- ening of the national fortifications. The Holstein-Ledreborg ministry which succeeded was able to secure the passage of the bills, but, Octo- ber 22, 1909, it was forced out on a vote of want of confidence. At the election of May 25, 1909, in which the military bills comprised the principal issue, the Left Reform government had continued to lose ground, while the Radicals (though not the Social Democrats) and the Conservatives had gained. October 28, 1909, a new ministry was formed by the Radical leader Zahle. In the Folkething the Radicals possessed 20 seats only, but with the aid of the Social Democrats, pos- sessing 24, they hoped to be able to attain some measure of success. The hope proved vain. April 18, 1910, the Folkething was dissolved, and there followed another spirited campaign in which the military question was preponderant. The Radical government, with its Social- ist allies, went before the country on a platform which proposed the 1 A group which, after the formation of the Deuntzer ministry, split off from the Conservatives in the upper chamber. 568 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE repeal of the defense measures passed during the previous year. But at the elections of May 20 both Radicals and Social Democrats ob- tained precisely the respective number of seats which they had before possessed, while 69 deputies were returned by the groups which were favorable to the execution of the contested measures. July i, the Zahle ministry resigned and was succeeded by a cabinet formed by Klaus Berntsen, leader of the Moderate Left. The new ministry, although drawn exclusively from the Left, was well received by the Conservatives, who pledged it their continued support against the Radical-Socialist coalition. 1 V. THE JUDICIARY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 626. General Principles: the Courts. In the Danish constitution there are laid down a number of general principles with respect to the judicial branch of the government, but the organization of the courts is left almost entirely to be regulated by law. It is stipulated that judges, who are appointed by the crown, may not be dismissed except in consequence of judicial sentence, nor transferred against their wishes from one tribunal to another, unless in the event of a reorganization of the courts; 2 that they shall exercise their functions strictly in com- pliance with law; that in criminal cases and cases involving political offenses trial shall be by jury; that in the administration of justice there shall be, so far as practicable, publicity and oral procedure; and that it shall be within the competence of the courts to decide all questions relative to the extent of the powers of the public officials. The tribunals that have been established by law comprise, beginning at the bottom, the magistracies of the herreds, or hundreds, and the justiceships of the towns; a superior court (Overret), with nine judges, at Viborg, and another, with twenty judges, at Copenhagen; and a Supreme Court (Hojesteret), with a chief justice, twelve associate judges, and eleven special judges, at Copenhagen. Of hundred magistrates (herredsfogder) and town justices (byfogder) there are, in all, 126. Appeal in both civil and criminal cases lies from them to the superior courts, and thence to the supreme tribunal. There is, in addition, a Court of Impeachment (Rigsret), composed of the members of the Supreme 1 The salient facts relating to the political history of Denmark since 1870 may be gleaned from the successive volumes of the Annual Register. Works of importance dealing with the subject include N. Neergaard, Danmarks Riges Historic siden 1852 (Copenhagen, 1909); H. Holm, Forligets forste Rigsdagssamling 1894-1895 (Copenhagen, 1895), and Kampen om Ministeriet Reedtz-Thott (Copenhagen, 1897); H. Barfod, Hans Majestaet Kong Christian IX. (Copenhagen, 1888); and A. Thorsoe, Kong Christian den Niende (Copenhagen, 1905). 2 At the age of sixty-five they may be retired on full salary. THE GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK 569 Court, together with an equal number of members of the Landsthing elected by that body as judges for a term of four years. The principal function of this tribunal is the trial of charges brought against minis- ters by the king or by the Folkething. 1 626. The Administration of Justice Act, 1908. In May, 1908, a long-standing demand of the more progressive jurists was met in part by the passage of an elaborate Administration of Justice bill, whereby there was carried further than previously the separation of the general administrative system of the kingdom from the administration of justice. Not until the enactment of this measure were the constitutional guar- antees of jury trial, publicity of judicial proceedings, and the inde- pendence of the judiciary put effectively in force. Curiously enough, the drafting and advocacy of the bill fell principally to a minister, Alberti, who was on the point of being proved one of the most deliberate criminals of the generation. The measure, which comprised 1,015 clauses, introduced no modification in the existing hierarchy of tri- bunals, but it readjusted in detail the functions of the several courts and denned more specifically the procedure to be employed in the trial of various kinds of cases. One provision which it contains is that a jury shall consist of twelve men, that any person who is eligible for election to the Folkething is eligible for selection as a juryman, and that jury service is obligatory. On the ground that it fell short of fulfilling the essential pledges of the constitution, the Radical and Socialist members of the Rigsdag vigorously opposed the measure. 2 627. Local Government. For administrative purposes the king- dom is divided into 18 Amter, or counties. In each is an Amtmand, or governor, who is appointed by the crown, and an Amtsrad, or council, composed of members elected indirectly within the county. The counties are divided into hundreds, which exist principally for judicial purposes, and the hundreds are divided into some 1,100 parishes. In each town is a burgomaster, who is appointed by the crown, and who governs with or without the assistance of aldermen. Copenhagen, however, has an administrative system peculiar to itself. Its burgo- master, elected by the town council, is merely confirmed by the crown. 1 Arts. 68-74. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, I., 276-277. 2 The bill was carried in the Folkething by a vote of 57 to 42; in the Landsthing by a vote of 38 to 5. CHAPTER XXXI THE SWEDISH-NORWEGIAN UNION AND THE GOVERNMENT OF NORWAY I. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT TO 1814 628. Sweden in Earlier Modern Times. During the centuries which intervened between the establishment of national independence under the leadership of Gustavus Vasa in 1523 and the end of the Napoleonic era, the political system of the kingdom of Sweden oscil- lated in a remarkable manner between absolutism and liberalism. The establishment of a national parliamentary assembly antedated the period of union with Denmark (1397-1523) ; for it was in 1359 that King Magnus, embarrassed by the unmanageableness of the nobility and obliged to fall back upon the support of the middle classes, sum- moned representatives of the towns to appear before the king along with the nobles and clergy, and thus constituted the first Swedish Riksdag. By an ordinance of Gustavus Adolphus in 1617, what had been a turbulent and ill-organized body was transformed into a well- ordered national assembly of four estates the nobles, the clergy, the burghers, and the peasants each of which met and deliberated regu- larly apart from the others. There was likewise a Rigsrad, or senate, which comprised originally a grand council representative of the semi- feudal landed aristocracy, but which by the seventeenth century had come to be essentially a bureaucracy occupying the chief offices of state at the pleasure of the crown. Under Gustavus Adolphus and his earlier successors, especially Charles XI. (1660-1697), however, the government took on the character of at least a semi-absolutism. The Rigsdag retained the right to be consulted upon important foreign and legislative questions, but the power of initiative was ex- ercised by the sovereign alone. The Riksdag of 1680 admitted that the king was responsible for his acts only to God, and that between him and his people no intermediary was needed; and in 1682 the same body recognized as vested in the crown the right freely to interpret and amend the law. 1 1 Bain, Scandinavia, Chaps. 8, n; Cambridge Modern History, IV. Chaps. 5, 20; Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generate, III., Chap. 14; IV.; Chap. 15. 570 THE SWEDISH-NORWEGIAN UNION NORWAY 571 629. Weakness of the Monarchy in the Eighteenth Century. A new chapter in Swedish constitutional history was inaugurated by the calamities incident to the turbulent reign of the Mad King of the North, Charles XII. (1697-1718), and the Great Northern War, brought to a culmination by the cession to Russia in the Peace of Nystad, August 30, 1721, of all the Baltic provinces which Sweden had possessed. Early in the reign of Frederick I. (1720-1751), chiefly by laws of 1720-1723, the government was converted into one of the most limited of monarchies in Europe. The sovereign was reduced, indeed, to a mere puppet, his principal function being that of presiding over the deliberations of the Rigsrad. Virtually all power was vested in the Riksdag. A secret committee representative of the four estates prepared all measures, controlled foreign relations, and appointed all ministers, and laws of every kind were enacted by the affirmative vote of three of the four orders. The constitutional system, while nominally monarchical, became essentially republican. In operation, however, it was hopelessly cumbersome, and throughout half a century the political activities of the kingdom comprised little more than a wearisome struggle of rival factions. 1 Under Gustavus III. (1771-1792), nephew of Frederick the Great of Prussia, the pendulum swung back again distinctly toward absolu- tism. The Riksdag, according to its custom, sought at the opening of the reign to impose upon the new sovereign a renunciatory corona- tion oath. Gustavus, however, raised objection, and the contest be- came so keen that the king resolved upon a coup d'etat whereby to accomplish a restoration of the pristine independence and vigor of the royal office. The plan was laid with care and was executed with com- plete success. August 20, 1772, there was forced upon the estates, al- most at the bayonet's point, a constitution which had been contrived specifically to transform the weak and disjointed quasi-republic into a compact monarchy. The monarchy was to be limited, it is true, but the framework of the state was so reconstructed that the balance of power was certain to incline toward the crown. Without the approval of the Riksdag no law might be enacted and no tax levied; but the es- tates might be summoned and dismissed freely by the king, and in him was vested exclusively the power of legislative initiative. Under this instrument the government of Gustavus III., and in even a larger meas- ure that of Gustavus IV. (i 792-1809)^ was pronouncedly autocratic. 1 Bain, Scandinavia, Chaps. 12-13; Cambridge Modem History, V., Chaps.iS-ig; Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Gene'rale, VI., Chap. 17. 2 Gustavus IV., being a minor at his accession, did not assume control of the government until November i, 1796. 572 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 630. Sweden in the Napoleonic Period. Sweden is one of the many European nations which in the course of the Napoleonic period ac- quired a new constitutional system, but one of the few in which the fundamentals of the system at that time established have been main- tained continuously to the present day. Sweden was drawn into the Napoleonic wars at an early stage of their progress. December 3, 1804, Gustavus IV. cast in his fortunes on the side of the foes of France, and although in 1806-1807 Napoleon sought to detach him from the Allies, all effort in that direction failed. The position of Gustavus, however, was undermined in his own country by his failure to defend Finland on the occasion of the Russian invasion of 1808, and March 29, 1809, yielding to popular pressure, and hoping to save the crown for his son, he abdicated. By the Riksdag the royal title, with- held from the young Prince Gustavus, was bestowed upon the eldest brother of Gustavus III., who, under the name of Charles XIII., was proclaimed June 5. On the same day the Riksdag ratified formally an elaborate regerings-formen, or fundamental law, which, amended from time to time, has been preserved to the present day as the con- stitution of the kingdom. 1 631. Constitutional Development of Norway to 1814. During more than four centuries, from the Union of Kalmar, in 1397, to the Treaty of Kiel, January 14, 1814, Norway was continuously subordi- nated more or less completely to Denmark. The political history and constitutional development of the nation, therefore, had little oppor- tunity to move in normal channels. Prior to the Union the royal power was considerable, and at times virtually absolute, although an ever present obstacle to the consolidation of the monarchy was the independent spirit of the nobility. By the fourteenth century, how- ever, the old landed aristocracy, decimated by civil war and impover- ished by the loss of the fur trade to Russia, had been so weakened that it no longer endangered in any degree the royal supremacy. From the end of the thirteenth century we hear of a pdliment, or parliament, which was summoned occasionally at the pleasure of the king. But at no time had this gathering assumed the character of an established national legislative body. From the point of view of political status the history of Norway under the Union falls into four fairly clearly marked periods. The first, extending from 1397 to the accession of Christian I. in 1450, culminated in an unsuccessful attempt on the part of the Norwegians to throw off the Danish yoke. The second, extending from 1450 to the 1 See p. 589. Bain, Scandinavia, Chap. 14; Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Ge"n- 6rale, VII., Chap. 23; VIII., Chap. 23. THE SWEDISH-NORWEGIAN UNION NORWAY 573 recognition of Frederick I. as king in Norway in 1524, was marked by a still closer union between the two kingdoms. The third, beginning with the accession of Frederick and closing with the Danish revolution of 1660, was a period in which, largely in consequence of the Protestant Revolt, Norway was reduced virtually to the level of a subjugated province. The fourth, inaugurated by the rehabilitation of the monarchy in Denmark in 1660, witnessed the raising of Norway from the status of subjection to the rank of a sovereign, hereditary kingdom on a footing of approximate equality with Denmark. The period closed with a widespread revival of the nationalist spirit, one of the first fruits of which was the obtaining, in 1807, of an administrative system separate from that of Denmark and, in 1811, of the privilege of founding at Christiania a national university. 1 n. THE SWEDISH-NORWEGIAN UNION, 1814-1905 632. Bernadotte and the Treaty of Kiel. As has been pointed out, the kingdom of Sweden acquired independence of Denmark near the end of the first quarter of the sixteenth century. The liberation of Norway was delayed until the era of Napoleon, and when it came it meant, not the independence which the Norwegians craved, but forced affiliation with their more numerous and more powerful neigh- bors on the east. The succession of events by which the new arrange- ment was brought about was engineered principally by Napoleon's ex-marshal Bernadotte. May 28, 1810, Prince Charles Augustus of Augustenburg, whom the Riksdag had selected as heir to the infirm and childless Charles XIII., died, and after a notable contest, Berna- dotte was agreed upon unanimously by the four estates (August 21) as the new heir. November 5 the adventuresome Frenchman re- ceived the homage of the estates and was adopted by the king as crown prince under the name of Charles John. 2 By reason of the infirmity of the sovereign, Bernadotte acquired almost at once virtual control of the government. From the outset he believed it to be impossible for Sweden to recover Finland; but he believed no less that she might recoup herself, with the assent of the powers, by the acquisition of the Danish dominion of Norway. In March and April, 1813, Great Britain and Russia were brought to the point of giving the desired assent, and by the Treaty of Kiel, January 14, 1814, the king of Den- 1 Bain, Scandinavia, Chaps. 4, 5, 7, 10, 15; H. H. Boyesen, A History of Norway from the Earliest Times (2d ed., London, 1000). 2 Upon the death of Charles XIII., February 5, 1818, the "prince" succeeded to the throne under the name of Charles XIV. He reigned until 1844. 574 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE mark, under pressure applied by the Allies, made the desired sur- render. 1 633. The Movement for Norwegian Independence: the Constitu- tion of 1814. In Norway there was small disposition to accept the new arrangement. Instead there was set up the theory that when the Danish sovereign renounced his claim to the throne of his northern dominion the Norwegian state legally reverted forthwith to its former condition of independence. Upon this assumption 112 representatives of the nation, of whom 82 were opposed to union with Sweden, met at the Eidsvold iron-works near Christiania, and drew up a liberal constitution modelled principally on the French instrument of 1791, under which was established a national Storthing, or parliament. May 17, furthermore, Prince Christian Frederick, the Danish gov- ernor of the country, was elected king of Norway. From the Swedish point of view these sovereign acts were absolutely invalid, and upon Norway's rejection of mediation by the powers Bernadotte invaded the country at the head of a Swedish army. In a short, sharp cam- paign the Norwegians were hopelessly beaten, 2 and the upshot was that Christian Frederick was forced to abdicate (October 7, 1814), the Storthing was compelled to give its assent to the union with Sweden (October 20), the Eidsvold constitution was revised (November 4) to bring it into accord with the conditions of the union, and the Stor- thing went through the formality of electing Charles XIII. king of Norway and of recognizing Bernadotte as heir to the throne. Fifty of the one hundred ten articles of the Eidsvold constitution were re- tained unaltered; the remainder were revised or omitted. Amended upon a number of subsequent occasions, this constitution of Novem- ber 4, 1814, has continued in operation to the present day as the Grundlov, or fundamental law, of the Norwegian state. No constitu- tion was ever born of a more interesting contest for national dignity and independence. 634. Nature of the Union. The union of the two states was of a purely personal character; that is to say, it was a union solely through the crown. Each of the kingdoms maintained its own constitution, its own ministry, its own legislature, its own laws, its own financial system, its own courts, its own army and navy. The legal basis of the affiliation was the Riksakt, or Act of Union, of August, 1815, an ultimate agreement between the two states which in Norway was 1 C. Schefer, Bernadotte roi (Paris, 1899); L. Pingaud, Bernadotte, Napoleon, et les Bourbons (Paris, 1901); G. R. Lagerhjelm, Napoleon och Carl Johan, 1813 (Stockholm, 1891). 2 G. Bjorlin, Der Krieg in Norwegen, 1814 (Stuttgart, 1895). THE SWEDISH-NORWEGIAN UNION NORWAY 575 formally adopted by the Storthing as a part of the Norwegian fun- damental law, but which in Sweden was regarded as a treaty, and hence was never incorporated by the Rigsdag within the constitution. In each of the states the functions and status of the crown were reg- ulated by constitutional provisions; and the character of the royal power was by no means the same in the two. In Sweden, for example, the king possessed independent legislative power and his veto was absolute; in Norway he possessed no such independent prerogative and his veto was only suspensive. There was a common ministry of war and another of foreign affairs; beyond this the functions of a com- mon administration were vested in a complicated system of joint councils of state. Matters of common concern lying outside the jurisdiction of the crown were regulated by concurrent resolutions or laws passed by the Riksdag and the Storthing independently. But in all matters of internal legislation and administration the two king- doms were as separate as if no legal relations had been established be- tween them. There was not even a common citizenship. 636. Causes of Friction. From the outset the union was menaced by perennial friction. Differences between the two kingdoms in respect to language, manners, and economic concerns were pro- nounced; differences of social and political ideas were still more con- siderable; differences in governmental theories and institutions were seemingly irreconcilable. In Sweden the tone of the political system, until far in the nineteenth century, was distinctly autocratic, and that of the social system aristocratic; in Norway the principle that pre- ponderated was rather that of democracy. Between the two states there was disagreement upon even the fundamental question of the nature of the union. The Swedish contention was that at the Peace of Kiel Norway was ceded to Sweden by Denmark and that the mere fact that, following the unsuccessful attempt of the Norwegians to establish their independence, Sweden had chosen to grant the affiliated kingdom a separate statehood and local autonomy did not contravene Norway's essentially subordinate position within the union. The Norwegians, on the other hand, maintained that, in the last analysis, they comprised an independent nation and that their union with Sweden rested solely upon their own sovereign decision in 1814 to accept Charles XIII. as king; from which the inference was that Norway should be dealt with as in every respect co-ordinate with Sweden. The conflicts which sprang from these differences of concep- tion were frequent and serious. There was no disguising the fact that the administration of the joint affairs of the kingdoms was conducted from a point of view that was essentially Swedish, and the history of 576 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the union throughout the period of its existence is largely a story of the struggle on the part of the Norwegians, through the medium of the Storthing, to attain in practice the fully co-ordinate position which they believed to be rightfully theirs. Again and again amendments to the constitution in the interest of the royal power were submitted by successive sovereigns, only to be rejected by the Storthing. In 1860 the Swedish estates insisted upon a revision of the Act of Union which should include the establishment of a common parliament for the two countries, in which, in approximate accordance with popu- lation, there would be twice as many Swedish members as Norwegian. The Storthing, naturally enough, rejected the proposition. In 1869 the Storthing fortified its position by adopting a resolution in accord- ance with which its sessions, theretofore triennial, were made annual, and in 1871 the first annual Storthing rejected an elaborate modifica- tion of the Act of Union, to which the Conservative ministry of Stang had been induced to lend its support, whereby the supremacy of Sweden would have been recognized explicitly and the bonds of the union would have been tightened correspondingly. Two years later the new sovereign, Oscar II. (1872-1907), gave reluctant assent to a measure by which the office of viceroy in Norway was abolished. Thereafter the head of the government at Christiania was the presi- dent of the ministry, or premier; and, following a prolonged contest, in the early eighties there was forced upon the crown the principle of ministerial responsibility (in Norway). 636. The Question of the Consular Service. The rock upon which the union foundered eventually, however, was Norway's participation in the management of diplomatic and consular affairs. The subject was one which had been left in 1814 without adequate provision, and throughout the century it gave rise to repeated difficulties. In 1885, and again in 1891, there was an attempt to solve the problem, but upon each occasion the only result was a deadlock, the Storthing in- sisting upon, and the Swedish authorities denying, Norway's right, as an independent kingdom, to participate equally with Sweden in the conduct of the foreign relations of the two states. In 1892 the Stor- thing resolved upon the establishment of an independent Norwegian consular service; but to this the king would not assent. Norwegian trading and maritime interests had come to be such that, in the opinion of the commercial and other influential classes of the kingdom, sep- arateness of consular administration was indispensable, and upon the success of this reform was made to hinge eventually the perpetuity of the union itself. Throughout several years the deadlock continued. At the Norwegian elections of 1894 and 1897 the Liberals were over- THE SWEDISH-NORWEGIAN UNION NORWAY 577 whelmingly successful, and it was made increasingly apparent that the Norwegian people were veering strongly toward unrestricted na- tional independence. July 28, 1902, a lengthy report was submitted by a Swedish-Norwegian Consular Commission, constituted upon Swedish initiative earlier in the year, in which the practicability of two entirely separate consular systems was asserted, and, March 24, 1903, an official communique announced the conclusion of an agreement between representatives of the two countries under which there were to be worked out two essentially identical codes of law for the govern- ment of the two systems. Upon the nature of these codes, however, there arose serious disagreement, and when, in 1904, the Bostrdm ministry of Sweden submitted as an absolute condition that any Norwegian consul might be removed from office by the Swedish for- eign minister, the entire project was brought to naught. 637. The Norwegian Declaration of Independence: the Separa- tion. March i, 1905, the Norwegian ministry presided over by Hagerup resigned and was replaced by a ministry made up by Chris- tian Michelsen, which included representatives of both the Liberal and Conservative parties. May 23 the Storthing, by unanimous vote, passed a new bill for the establishment of Norwegian consulships. The king, four days later, vetoed the measure; whereupon the Michel- sen government resigned. The king refused to accept the resignation; the ministers refused to reconsider it. June 7 Michelsen and his col- leagues placed their resignation in the hands of the Storthing, and that body, impelled at last to cut the Gordian knot, adopted by unanimous vote a resolution to the effect (i) that, the king having admitted his inability to form a Government, the constitutional powers of the crown had become inoperative, and (2) that Oscar II. having ceased to act as king of Norway, the union with Sweden was to be regarded as ipso facto dissolved. By another unanimous vote the ministerial group was authorized to exercise temporarily the pre- rogatives hitherto vested in the sovereign. On the part of certain elements in Sweden there was a disposition to resist Norwegian independence, and for a time there was prospect of war. The mass of the people, however, cared but little for the maintenance of the union. The prevailing national sentiment was expressed with aptness by the king himself when he affirmed that " a union to which both parties do not give their free and willing consent will be of no real advantage to either." June 20 the Riksdag was convened in extraordinary session to take under advisement the situation. Dreading war, this body eventually decided to sanction negotiations looking toward a separation, provided, however, that the 578 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Norwegian people, either through the agency of a newly elected Stor- thing or directly by referendum, should avow explicitly their desire for independence. During a recess of the Riksdag a Norwegian pleb- iscite was taken, August 13, with the result that 368,211 votes were cast in favor of the separation and but 184 against it. Two weeks later eight commissioners representing the two states met at Karlstad, in Sweden, and negotiated a treaty, signed September 23, wherein the terms of the separation were specifically fixed. This instrument, approved by the Storthing October 9 and by the reassembled Riksdag October 16, provided for the establishment of a neutral, unfortified zone on the common frontier south of the parallel 61 and stipulated that all differences between the two nations which should prove im- possible of adjustment by direct negotiation should be referred to the permanent court of arbitration at the Hague, provided such differ- ences should not involve the independence, integrity, or vital interests of either nation. October 27 King Oscar formally relinquished the Norwegian crown. III. THE NORWEGIAN CONSTITUTION CROWN AND MINISTRY 638. The Revised Fundamental Law. In Norway there was wide- spread sentiment in favor of the establishment of a republic. The continuance of monarchy was regarded, however, as the course which might be expected to meet with most general approval throughout Europe, and in a spirit of concilation the Storthing tendered to King Oscar an offer to elect as sovereign a member of the Swedish royal family. The offer was rejected; whereupon the Storthing selected as a candidate Prince Charles, second son of the then Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, the late King Frederick VIII. November 1 2 and 13, 1905, the Norwegian people, by a vote of 259,563 to 69,264, ratified the Storthing's choice, the advocates of a republic record- ing some 33,000 votes. The new sovereign was crowned at Trondh- jem June 22, 1906. By assuming the title of Haakon VII. he pur- posely emphasized the essential continuity of the present Norwegian monarchy with that of mediaeval times. 1 1 Haakon VI. reigned 1343-1380, shortly before the Union of Kalmar. For brief accounts of the relations of Sweden and Norway under the union see Bain, Scan- dinavia, Chap. 17; Cambridge Modern History, XI., Chap. 24, XII., Chap, n; Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire G6nerale, X., Chap. 18; XI., Chap. 12; XII., Chap. 7. The best general treatise is A. Aall and G. Nikol, Die Norwegische-schwedische Union, ihr Bestehen und ihre Losung (Breslau, 1912). From the Norwegian point of view the subject is well treated in F. Nansen, Norge og Foreningen med Sverige (Christiania, 1905), in translation, Norway and the Union with Sweden (London, THE SWEDISH-NORWEGIAN UNION NORWAY 579 The fundamental law of Norway to-day is the Eidsvold constitution of April, 1814, revised, November 4 following, to comport with the conditions of the union with Sweden. The original instrument was not only democratic in tone, but doctrinaire. With little in the nature of native institutions upon which to build, the framers laid hold of features of the French, English, American, and other foreign systems, in the effort to transplant to Norwegian soil a body of political forms and usages calculated to produce a high order of popular government. No inconsiderable portion of these forms and usages survived the re- vision enforced by the failure to achieve national independence. Of this portion, however, several proved impracticable, and constitutional amendments after 1814 were numerous. Upon the establishment of independence in 1905 the fundamental law was modified further by the elimination from it of all reference to the former Swedish affiliation. The constitution to-day comprises one hundred twelve articles, of which forty-six deal with the executive branch of the government, thirty-seven with citizenship and the legislative power, six with the judiciary, and twenty-three with matters of a miscellaneous character. The process of amendment is appreciably more difficult than that by which changes may be introduced in the Swedish instrument. 1 Pro- posed amendments may be presented in the Storthing only during the first regular session following a national election, and they may be adopted only at a regular session following the ensuing election, and by a two-thirds vote. It is required, furthermore, that such amend- ments "shall never contravene the principles of the constitution, but shall relate only to such modifications in particular provisions as will not change the spirit of the instrument." 2 1905); from the Swedish, in K. Nordlung, Den svensk-norska krisen (Upsala and Stockholm, 1905), in translation, The Swedish-Norwegian Union Crisis, A History with Documents (Stockholm, 1905). Worthy of mention are R. Pillons, L'Union scandinave (Paris, 1899); A. Mohn, La Suede et la Evolution norvegienne (Geneva and Paris, 1906); and Jordan, La separation de la Suede et de la Norwege (Paris, 1906). A useful survey is P. Woultrin, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, Jan. 15 and March 15, 1906. 1 See p. 589. *Art. 112. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 143. An English version of the Norwegian constitution is printed in Dodd, ibid., II., 123-143, and in H. L. Braek- stad, The Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway (London, 1905). The standard treatise on the Norwegian system of government is T. H. Aschehoug, Norges Nuvaerende Statsforfatning (2d ed., Christiania, 1891-1893); but a more available work is an earlier one by the same author, Das Staatsrecht der vereinigten Konig- reiche Schweden und Norwegen (Freiburg, 1886), in Marquardsen's Handbuch. The most recent and, on the whole the most useful, treatise is B. Morgenstierne, Das Staatsrecht des Konigreichs Norwegen (Tubingen, 1911). 580 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 639. The Crown and the Council. The government of Norway, like that of Sweden and of Denmark, is in form a limited hereditary monarchy. The popular element in it is both legally and actually more considerable than in the constitutional system of either of the sister Scandinavian states; none the less, the principle of monarchy is firmly entrenched, and, as has been pointed out, not even the overturn of 1905 endangered it seriously. The constitution contains provisions respecting the succession to the throne, the conduct of affairs during a minority, and the establishment of a regency, which need not be recounted here, but which are designed to meet every possible con- tingency. In the event of the absolute default of a legal successor the Storthing is empowered to elect. Supreme executive authority is vested in the king, who must be an adherent of the Lutheran Church, and who at his accession is re- quired to take oath in the presence of the Storthing to govern in con- formity with the constitution and laws. Associated with the king is a Council of State, upon which, since the king may be neither censured nor impeached, devolves responsibility for virtually all executive acts. The Council consists of a minister of state, or premier, and at least seven other members. All are appointed by the crown, and all must be Norwegian citizens not less than thirty years of age and adherents of the established Lutheran faith. The king may apportion the busi- ness of state among the councillors as he desires. There are at present, in addition to the ministry of state, eight ministerial portfolios, i. e., Foreign Affairs, Justice, Worship and Instruction, Agriculture, Labor, Finance, Defense, and Commerce, Navigation and Industry. All ministers are regularly members of the Storthing, though by the con- stitution the crown is authorized for special reasons to add to the Council members who possess no legislative seats. The heir to the throne, if eighteen years of age, is entitled to a seat in the Council, but without vote or responsibility. 640. The Exercise of Executive Powers. Most of the powers which are possessed by the king may be exercised by him only in conjunction with the Council. Like the fundamental law of Sweden, that of Nor- way stipulates that, while it shall be the duty of every member of the Council to express his opinion freely, and of the king to give ear to all such opinions, it "shall remain with the king to decide according to his own judgment." 1 None the less, the acts of the crown are, as a rule, those not only, legally, of the king in council but, actually, of the king and council. With the exception of military commands, all orders issued by the king must be countersigned by the minister of state, and 1 Art. 30. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 128. THE SWEDISH-NORWEGIAN UNION NORWAY 581 ministers may be impeached at any time by the Odelsthing before the Rigsret, or Court of Impeachment; so that, in effect, there is a close approach to the parliamentary system of ministerial responsibility. Under these conditions, the crown appoints all civil, ecclesiastical, and military officials; removes higher officials (including the ministers) without previous judicial sentence; pardons offenders after conviction; regulates religious services, assemblies, and meetings; issues and re- peals regulations concerning commerce, customs, industry, and public order; and enforces the laws of the realm. The king is commander-in- chief of the land and naval forces, though these forces may not be increased or diminished, or placed at the service of a foreign sovereign or state, without the consent of the Storthing. And the king has the power to mobilize troops, to commence war and conclude peace, to enter into and to withdraw from alliances, and to send and to receive ambassadors. 1 IV. THE STORTHING POLITICAL PARTIES 641. Electoral System: the Franchise. Among the legislatures of Europe that of Norway is unique. In structure it represents a curious cross between the principles of unicameral and bicameral organization. It comprises essentially a single body, which, however, for purely legislative purposes is divided into two chambers, or sections, the Lagthing and the Odelsthing. This division is made subsequent to the election of the members, so that representatives are chosen simply to the Storthing as a whole. The elections take place every third year. There are forty-one urban, and eighty-two rural, districts, and every district returns one member a total of 123. Formerly the franchise rested, as in Sweden, upon a property qualifi- cation; but by a series of suffrage reforms within the past decade and a half it has been brought about that in respect to electoral privileges Norway is to-day the most democratic of European countries. In 1898 the Liberal government of Steen procured the enactment of a measure which long had occupied a leading place in the programme of the radical elements. By it the parliamentary franchise was conferred upon all male citizens of a minimum age of twenty-five years who have resided at least five years in Norway and who have suffered no judicial impairment of civil rights. The effect was to double at a stroke the national electorate. In 1901 the same Government carried an impor- tant bill by which the suffrage in municipal elections was conferred upon male citizens without restriction (save that of age), upon all unmarried 1 Arts. 16, 17, 20-26. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 125-127. 582 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE women twenty-five years of age who pay taxes on an annual income of not less than 300 kronor, and upon all married women of similar age whose husbands are taxed in equivalent amounts. During ensuing years there was widespread agitation in behalf of the parliamentary franchise for women, and the Liberal party made this one of the prin- cipal items in its programme. June 14, 1907, by a vote of 73 to 48, the Storthing rejected a proposal that women be given the parliamen- tary franchise on the same terms as men, but by the decisive majority of 96 to 25 it conferred the privilege upon all women who were in pos- session of the municipal franchise under the law of 1901. The rapidity with which woman's suffrage sentiment had developed is indicated by the fact that as late as 1898 a proposal looking toward the including of women in the parliamentary electorate had received in the Storthing a total of but 33 votes. By the legislation of 1907 Norway became the first of European nations to confer upon women, under any conditions, the privilege of voting for members of the national legislative body and of sitting as members of that body. At the elections of 1909, the first in which women participated, no revolutionizing effects were ob- served. The electorate, however, was increased by approximately 300,000, which was somewhat over half of the kingdom's total female population of the requisite age. 1 April 30, 1910, the Constitutional Committee of the Storthing, by a majority of four to three, recommend- ed that parliamentary suffrage be extended to women on equal terms with men, i. e., without reference to tax-paying qualifications. The recommendation was rejected, but during the next month the Odels- thing voted, 71 to 10, and the Lagthing, 24 to 7, to apply the principle of it in municipal elections. Thus the municipal electorate was en- larged by approximately 200,000, and the way was prepared, as many believe, for the adoption eventually of the Committee's original recom- mendation. Prior to an amendment of May 25, 1905, parliamentary elections were indirect. In the urban districts one elector was chosen for every fifty voters, and in the rural districts, one for every one hun- dred. Now, however, elections are direct. Each petty political unit having a municipal government of its own comprises a voting precinct. If at the first ballot no candidate in the district receives a majority of all the votes cast, a second ballot is taken, when a simple plurality is decisive. A noteworthy feature of the system is the fact that voters who on account of illness, military service, or other valid reason, are unable to appear at the polls are permitted to transmit their votes in writing to the proper election officials. 1 At the election of 1909 the total number of parliamentary electors was 785,358. The number of votes recorded, however, was but 487,193. THE SWEDISH-NORWEGIAN UNION NORWAY 583 642. Qualifications, Sessions, and Organization. No one may be chosen a member of the Storthing unless he or she is thirty years of age, a resident of the kingdom of ten years' standing, and a qualified voter in the election district in which he or she is chosen; but a former mem- ber of the Council of State, if otherwise qualified, may be elected to represent any district. 1 Under recent legislation every member of the Storthing receives a salary of three thousand kroner a year, in addition to travelling expenses. The Storthing meets in regular session annually, without regard to summons by the crown. The constitution fixed origin- ally as the date of convening the first week-day after October 10 of each year; but, May 28, 1907, the Storthing adopted an amendment whereby, beginning with 1908, the meeting time was changed to the first week- day after January 10. For sufficient reasons, an extraordinary session may be convoked by the king at any time. The length of sessions is indeterminate, except that an extraordinary session may be adjourned by the crown at will, and no session, extraordinary or regular, may be prolonged beyond two months without the king's consent. At its first regular session following a general election the Storthing divides itself into two chambers. A fourth of the membership is designated to con- stitute the Lagthing, the remaining three-fourths comprise the Odels- thing; and the division thus effected holds until the succeeding election. Each chamber elects its own president, secretary, and other officers/ Sessions are public, and business may not be transacted unless at least two-thirds of the members are present. 643. Powers and Procedure of the Storthing. The powers of the Storthing, as enumerated in the constitution, include the enactment and the repeal of laws; the levying of taxes, imposts, and duties; the appropriating and the borrowing of money; the regulating of the cur- rency; the examining of treaties concluded with foreign powers; the inspection of the records of the Council of State; the making of provi- sion for the auditing of the national accounts; and regulation of the naturalization of foreigners. 2 All bills are required to be presented first in the Odelsthing, by one of the members of the body, or by the Government, through a councillor of state. Only in the event that a measure passes the Odelsthing is it presented at all in the Lagthing, for the sole function of the smaller chamber is to act as a check upon the larger one. The Lagthing may either approve or reject a bill which the Odelsthing submits, but may not amend it. A measure rejected is returned, with reasons for the rejection. Three courses are then open to the Odelsthing: to drop the measure, to submit it in amended form, 1 Arts. 59-64. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 134-135. * Art. 75. Ibid., II., 136. 584 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE or to resubmit it unchanged. When a bill from the Odelsthing has been twice presented to the Lagthing, and has been a second time rejected, the two chambers are convened in joint session, and in this consolidated body proposals are carried by a two-thirds vote. All questions pertaining to the revision of the constitution are required to be voted upon in this manner. 644. The Veto Power. A bill passed by the Storthing is laid forth- with before the king. If he approves it, the measure becomes law. If he does not approve it, he returns it to the Odelsthing with a state- ment of his reasons for disapproval. A measure which has been vetoed may not again be submitted to the king by the same Storthing. The royal veto, however, is not absolute. "If," says the constitution, "a measure has been passed without change by three regular Storthings convened after three separate successive elections, and separated from each other by at least two intervening regular sessions, without any conflicting action having in the meantime been taken in any session between its first and last passage, and is then presented to the king with the request that his majesty will not refuse his approval to a measure which the Storthing, after the most mature deliberation, con- siders beneficial, such measure shall become law even though the king fails to approve it. . . ."* In the days of the Swedish union the pre- cise conditions under which the royal veto might be exercised were the subject of interminable controversy. In respect to' ordinary legisla- tion the stipulations of the constitution were plain enough, but in respect to measures which in essence comprised constitutional amendments the silence of that instrument afforded room for wide differences of opinion. An especially notable conflict was that which took place in the early eighties respecting a proposal to admit the Norwegian ministers to the Storthing with the privilege of participation in the deliberations of that body. The measure was passed by overwhelm- ing majorities by three Storthings after three successive general elec- tions, and in accordance with the constitution, under the Norwegian interpretation, it ought thereupon to have been recognized as law. The king, however, not only refused to approve the bill, but asserted firmly that his right to exercise an absolute veto in constitutional questions was "above all doubt"; and when the Storthing pronounced the measure law without the royal sanction, both crown and Swedish ministry avowed that by them it would not be recognized as valid. In the end (in 1884) the Storthing won, but the issue was revived upon numerous occasions. Under the independent monarchy of 1905 there has been no difficulty of the sort; nor, in view of the eminently pop- 1 Art. 79. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 137-138. THE SWEDISH-NORWEGIAN UNION NORWAY 585 ular aspect of kingship in Norway to-day, is such difficulty likely to arise. 645. Political Parties: Liberals and Conservatives. Prior to the accession of Oscar II., in 1872, the preponderating fact in the political development of the kingdom was the gradual growth of parliamentary power on the part of the representatives of the peasantry. Between 1814 and 1830 the business of the Storthing was conducted almost wholly by members of the upper and official classes, but during the decade 1830-1840 the peasantry rose to the position of a highly in- fluential class in the public affairs of the nation. The first of the so- called "peasant Storthings" was that of 1833. In it the peasant representatives numbered forty-five, upwards of half of the body. Under the leadership of Ole Ueland, who was a member of every Storthing between 1833 and 1869, the peasant party made its par- amount issue, as a rule, the reduction of taxation and the practice of economy in the national finances. After 1870 the intensification of the Swedish-Norwegian question led to the drawing afresh of party lines, and until the separation of 1905, the new grouping continued fairly stable. By the amalgamation of the peasant party, led by Jaabaek, and the so-called "lawyers" party, led by Johan Sverdrup, there came into being in the seventies a great Liberal party (the Venstre, or Left) whose fundamental pur- pose was to safeguard the liberties of Norway as against Swedish aggression. Until 1884 this party of nationalism was obliged to con- tent itself with the role of opposition. Governmental control was lodged as yet in the Conservatives, whose attitude toward Sweden was distinctly conciliatory. In 1880 the Conservative leader, Freder- ick Stang, resigned the premiership, but his successor was another Conservative, Selmer. At the elections of 1882 the Liberals obtained no fewer than 82 of the 114 seats in the Storthing. Still the Conserva- tives refused to yield. In the meantime the Odelsthing had brought the entire ministry to impeachment before the Rigsret for having advised the king to interpose his veto to the measure giving ministers seats in Parliament. Early in 1883 Selmer and seven of his colleagues were sentenced to forfeiture of their offices, and the remaining three were fined. March n, 1884, the king announced his purpose to abide by the decision of the court, distasteful to him as it was, and the Selmer cabinet was requested to resign. An attempt to prolong yet further the tenure of the Conservatives failed completely, and, June 23, 1884, the king sent for Sverdrup and authorized the forma- tion of the first Liberal ministry in Norwegian history. The principal achievement of the new government was the final enactment of the 586 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE long-contested measure according parliamentary seats to ministers. To this project the king at last gave his consent. 646. The Ministerial Succession to 1905. The Sverdrup ministry endured almost exactly four years. In 1887 the party supporting it split upon a question of ecclesiastical policy, and at the elections of 1888 the Conservatives obtained fifty-one seats, while of the sixty- three Liberals returned not more than twenty-six were really in sym- pathy with Sverdrup. July 12, 1889, Sverdrup and his colleagues re- signed. Then followed a rapid succession of ministries, practically every one of which met its fate, sooner or later, upon some question pertaining to the Swedish union: (i) that of Emil Stang 1 (Conserva- tive), July 12, 1889, to March 5, 1891; (2) that of Johannes Steen (Liberal), which lasted until April, 1893; (3) a second Stang min- istry, to February, 1895; and (4) the coalition ministry of Professor Hagerup, to February, 1898. At the elections of 1897 the Liberals won a signal victory, carrying seventy-nine of the one hundred four- teen seats, and in February of the next year there was established a second Steen ministry, under whose direction, as has appeared, there was carried the law introducing manhood suffrage. Steen re- tired in April, 1902, and another Liberal government, that of Blehr, held office until October, 1903. At the elections of 1903 the Conserva- tives and Moderates obtained sixty-three seats, the Liberals fifty, and the Socialists four. A second Hagerup ministry filled the period be- tween October 23, 1903, and March i, 1905, and upon its retirement there was constituted, under circumstances which involved tempo- rarily the all but complete annihilation of party lines, a coalition ministry under Christian Michelsen, at whose hands was brought about immediately the separation from Sweden and the constitutional readjustments of 1905. 647. Party History Since the Separation. Following the sub- sidence of the excitement attending the separation the party align- ments of earlier days tended rapidly to reappear. The old issues, however, had been disposed of, and in then* place sprang up new ones, largely social and economic in character. At the elections of 1906 the subjects to which the Liberals gave most prominence were female suffrage, old age pensions, and sickness and unemployment insurance. The Michelsen government, which was essentially Conservative, issued a moderate reform programme and, alleging that former party lines were obsolete, called upon the citizens of all classes for support. The elections were notable chiefly by reason of the fact that the Social Democrats increased their quota in the Storthing to eleven. Despite 1 Son of the earlier premier, Frederick Stang. THE SWEDISH-NORWEGIAN UNION NORWAY 587 attacks of the more radical Left, the Michelsen cabinet stood firm until October 28, 1907, when the premier, by reason of ill health, was obliged to retire. Lo viand, the minister of foreign affairs, succeeded; but, March 14, 1908, on a vote of want of confidence, his ministry was overthrown. A new cabinet was made up thereupon by the Liberal leader, Gunnar Knudsen. At the elections of 1909 the first in which women participated this Liberal government lost the slender majority which it had possessed, and January 27, 1910, it resigned. Prior to the elections there were in the Storthing fifty-nine Liberals, fifty-four Conservatives and Moderates, and ten Social Democrats. Afterwards there were sixty-three Conservatives and Moderates, forty-seven Liberals, eleven Social Democrats, and two Independents. The popular vote of the Social Democrats was much in excess of that at any former election, but it was so distributed that the party realized from it but a single additional legislative seat. Upon the resignation of Knudsen the premiership was offered to Michelsen, whose health, however, precluded his accepting it. February i , 1910, a Conservative- Moderate ministry was made up by Konow. February 19, 1912, it was succeeded by another ministry of the same type, under the premiership of the former president of the Storthing, Bratlie. At the elections of November 12, 1912, the Government lost heavily to the Liberals and to the Social Democrats. The socialist quota now numbers twenty- three. 1 V. THE JUDICIARY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 648. The Courts. For the administration of civil justice the king- dom of Norway is divided into 105 districts eighty rural and twenty- five urban hi each of which there is a court of first instance composed of two justices chosen by the people. There are three higher tribunals, each with a chief justice and two associates. At the top stands the Hoiesteret, or Supreme Court, consisting of a chief justice and six asso- ciates. The decisions of the Supreme Court may be neither appealed nor reviewed. For the trial of criminal cases, as regulated by law of July i, 1887, there exist two types of tribunals: (i) the Lagmands- ret, consisting of a president and ten jurors and (2) the Meddomsret, consisting of a judge and two non-professional assistants chosen for each case. There are in the kingdom four Lagdommer, or jury dis- tricts, each divided into circuits corresponding, as a rule, to the coun- ties. The jury courts take cognizance of the more serious cases. 1 A brief account of Norwegian political parties to 1900 will be found in Lavisse. et Rambaud, Histoire Ge'ne'rale, XII., 266-274; to 1906, in Cambridge Modern History, XII., 280-290. For additional references see pp. 578-579. 588 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE "No one," the constitution stipulates, "shall be tried except in ac- cordance with law or punished except by virtue of a judicial sentence; and examination by means of torture is forbidden." 1 The members of the Lagthing, together with those of the Supreme Court, comprise the Rigsret, or Court of Impeachment. This tribunal tries, without appeal, cases involving charges of misconduct in office brought by the Odelsthing against members of the Council of State, the Supreme Court, or the Storthing. 2 649. Local Government. For purposes of administration the king- dom is divided into twenty regions the cities of Christiania and Bergen and eighteen Amter, or counties. At the head of each is an Amtmand, or prefect, who is appointed by the crown. The principal local unit is the Herred, or commune, of which there are upwards of seven hundred, mostly rural parishes. As a rule, the government of the commune is vested in a body of twelve to forty-eight representa- tives and a Formaend, or council, elected by and from the representa- tives and comprising one-fourth of their number. Every third year the representatives choose from among the members of the council a chairman and a deputy chairman; and, under the presidency of the Amtmand, the chairmen of the rural communes within each county meet yearly as an Amtsthing, or county diet, and adopt the budget of the county. Since the municipal electoral law of 1910 members of the communal councils are chosen on a basis of universal suffrage for both men and women. 1 Art. 96. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 141. 2 Arts. 86-87. Ibid., II., 139. CHAPTER XXXII THE GOVERNMENT OF SWEDEN I. THE CONSTITUTION THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 650. The Fundamental Laws. The constitution of the kingdom of Sweden is one of the most elaborate instruments of its kind in existence. It comprises a group of fundamental laws of which the most com- prehensive is the regerings-formen of June 6, 1809, in 114 articles. 1 Closely related are (i) the law of royal succession of September 26, 1810; (2) the law of July 16, 1812, on the liberty of the press; and (3) the law of June 26, 1866, providing for a reorganization of the legisla- tive chambers. The organs and powers of government are denned in much detail, but there is nothing equivalent to the bill of rights which finds a place in most European constitutions. The process of amend- ment is easy and minor amendments have been frequent. Amend- ments may originate with either the crown or the legislative houses, and any amendment which receives the assent of the crown is de- clared to be adopted if, after having been proposed or approved by one Riksdag, it is sanctioned by the succeeding one. Through the re- election of the lower chamber, which must intervene between the two stages, the people have some opportunity to participate in the amend- ing process. 2 1 See p. 572. 2 Arts. 81-82. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 240. In 1908 the ex-premier Staaf proposed that when the two chambers should disagree upon questions con- cerning the constitution and general laws resort should be had to a popular referen- dum; but the suggestion was negatived by the upper house unanimously and by the lower by a vote of 115 to 78. The text of the Swedish constitution, together with the supplementary fundamental laws of the kingdom, is contained in W. Upp- strom, Sveriges Grundlager och konstitutionela stadgar jemte kommunallagarne samt Norges Grundlov (6th ed., Stockholm, 1903). An English version is printed in Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 210-251, and a French one in Dareste, Con- stitutions Modernes (3d ed.), II., 46-114. The best brief treatise upon Swedish constitutional history is P. Fahlbeck, La constitution su&loise et le parlementarisme moderne (Paris, 1905). The best description of the Swedish government as it was a quarter of a century ago is T. H. Aschehoug, Das Staatsrecht der vereinigten konigreiche Schweden und Norwegen (Freiburg, 1886), in Marquardsen's Hand- buch. The principal treatise in Swedish is C. Naumann, Sveriges statsforfatnings- ratt (2d ed., Stockholm, 1879-1884). 589 590 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 651. The Crown and the Ministry. At the head of the state stands the king. The monarchy is hereditary, and the crown is transmitted in the male line in the order of primogeniture. It is required that the king shall belong invariably to the Lutheran Church and that at his accession he shall take an oath to maintain scrupulously the laws of the land. With the king is associated a Statsrad, or Council of State, appointed by the crown "from among capable, experienced, honest persons of good reputation, who are Swedes by birth, and who belong to the pure evangelical faith." 1 By constitutional requirement the Council is composed of eleven members, one of whom is designated by the king as minister of state and president of the council, or premier. Of the eleven eight are heads of the departments, respectively, of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Land Defense, Naval Defense, Home Affairs, Finance, Agriculture, and Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs. The president and two other members are ministers without portfolio. 652. The Exercise of Executive Powers. The powers of the Swed- ish executive are large. A few are exercised by the crown alone; some by the crown in conjunction with a small specified number of minis- ters; the majority by the crown and entire ministry conjointly. The king acts independently as the commander-in-chief of the land and naval forces of the kingdom. He may conclude treaties and alliances with foreign powers, after having consulted the minister of state, the minister of foreign affairs, and one other member of the Council. But if he wishes to declare war or to conclude peace he must convene in special session the full membership of the Council and must require of each member separately his opinion. "The king may then," it is stipulated, " make and execute such a decision as he considers for the best interests of the country." 2 In other words, in such a matter the king is obliged to consult, but not necessarily to be guided by, his ministerial advisers. In general, it may be affirmed that this is the principle which under- lies the organization of the Swedish executive. After having been prepared by one or more of the ministers, projects are considered by the king in council; but the right of ultimate decision rests with the king. It is thus that appointments to all national offices are made, titles of nobility are conferred, ordinances are promulgated, texts of new laws are framed, and questions of peace and war are determined. Nominally, the ministers are responsible to the Riksdag for all acts of the Government. But the constitution plainly states that after matters have been discussed in the Council "the king alone shall have 1 Art. 4. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 220. 2 Art. 13. Ibid., 223. THE GOVERNMENT OF SWEDEN 591 the power to decide." 1 If the king's decision is palpably contrary to the constitution or the general laws, the ministers are authorized to enter protest. But that is all that they may do. The ministers have seats in the Riksdag, where they participate in debate and, in the name of the crown, initiate legislation. But their responsibility lies so much more directly to the king than to the legislature that what is commonly understood as the parliamentary system can hardly be said to exist in the kingdom. II. THE RIKSDAG: ELECTORAL SYSTEM 663. Establishment of the Bicameral System, 1866. Until past the middle of the nineteenth century the Swedish Riksdag, or diet, comprised still an assemblage of the four estates of the realm the nobles, the clergy, the burghers, and the peasants. Throughout several decades a preponderating political question was that of sub- stituting for this essentially mediaeval arrangement a modern bicam- eral legislative system. In 1840 the Riksdag itself insisted upon a change, but the king, Charles XIV., refused to give his assent. Dur- ing the reign of Oscar I. (1844-1859) several proposals were forth- coming, but none met with acceptance. It was left to Charles XV. (1859-1872), in collaboration with his able minister of justice, Baron Louis Gerhard de Geer, to effect the much-needed reform. In Janu- ary, 1863, the Government submitted to the Estates a measure whereby there was to be constituted a Riksdag of two chambers an upper one, which should be essentially an aristocratic senate, and a lower, whose members should be elected triennially by the people. In 1865 all of the four estates acted favorably upon the bill and, January 22, 1866, the measure was promulgated by the crown as an integral part of the fundamental law of the kingdom. September i, 1866, there were held the first national elections under the new system. Since 1866 the upper chamber has represented principally the old estates of the nobles and clergy, and the lower has comprised the com- bined representatives of the townsmen and peasants. The one has been conservative, and even aristocratic; the other, essentially dem- ocratic. But the reform has contributed greatly to the breaking up of the ancient rigidity of the Swedish constitution and has opened the way for a parliamentary leadership on the part of the commons which was impossible so long as each of four orders was in possession of an equal voice and vote in legislative business. 664. The Upper Chamber. The membership of both houses of the Riksdag is wholly elective, that of the upper indirectly, and that of 1 Art. 9. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 221. 592 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE the lower directly, by the people. The upper house consists of 150 members chosen by ballot, after the principle of proportional represen- tation, for a term of six years by the twenty-five Landsthings, or pro- vincial representative assemblies, and by the corporations of five of the larger towns Stockholm, Goteborg, Malmo, Norrkoping, and Ga'fle. These electoral bodies are arranged in six groups, in one of which an election takes place in September of every year. The fran- chise arrangements under which they are themselves chosen are still determined principally with reference to property or income, but they are no longer so undemocratic as they were prior to the electoral re- form of 1909, and whereas the elections were previously indirect, they are now direct. No person may be elected to the upper chamber who is not of Swedish birth, who has not attained his thirty-fifth year, and who during three years prior to his election has not owned taxable property valued at 50,000 kroner or paid taxes on an annual income of at least 3,000 kroner. 1 A member who at any time loses these qualifications forthwith forfeits his seat. Members formerly received no compensation, but under the reform measure of 1909 they, as like- wise members of the lower chamber, are accorded a salary of 1,200 kroner for each session of four months, and, in the event of an extra session, 10 kroner a day, in addition to travelling expenses. 655. The Lower Chamber. As constituted by law of 1894, modified by the reform act of 1909, the lower chamber consists of 230 members chosen under a system of proportional representation in fifty-six electoral districts, each of which returns from three to seven deputies. The number of members to be chosen in each of the districts is de- termined triennially, immediately preceding the balloting. Prior to the franchise law of 1909 the suffrage was confined, through property qualifications, within very narrow bounds. The electorate comprised native Swedes twenty-five years of age or over who were qualified as municipal voters and who possessed real property to the taxed value of 1,000 kroner, or who paid taxes on an annual income of at least 800 kroner, or who possessed a leasehold interest for at least five years of a taxable value of 6,000 kroner. In 1902 it was demonstrated by statistics that of the entire male population of the kingdom over twenty-one years of age not more than thirty-four per cent could meet these qualifications. 656. Beginnings of the Movement for Electoral Reform. As early as 1895 insistent demand began to be made in many quarters for an extension of the franchise, and in the Riksdag of 1896 Premier Bos- trom introduced a moderate measure looking toward that end and in- 1 These amounts were substituted in 1909 for 80,000 and 4,000 respectively. THE GOVERNMENT OF SWEDEN 593 volving the introduction of proportional representation. The bilL however, was defeated. Agitation was continued, and in 1900 the Liberals made electoral reform the principal item of their programme. In 1901 there was passed a sweeping measure for the reorganization of the army whereby were increased both the term of military service and the taxes by which the military establishment was supported. Ar- gument to the effect that such an augmentation of public burdens ought to be accompanied by an extension of public privileges was not lost upon the members of the Conservative Government, and at the open- ing of the Riksdag of 1902 the Speech from the Throne assigned first place in the legislative calendar to a Suffrage Extension bill. March 1 2 the measure was laid before the chambers. The provisions of the bill were, in brief, (i) that every male citizen, already possessed of the municipal franchise, who had completed his twenty-fifth year and was not in arrears in respect to taxes or military service, should be entitled to vote for a member of the lower national chamber; and (2) that every voter who was married, or had been married, or had completed his fortieth year, should be entitled to two votes. By reason of its plural voting features the measure was not well received, even though the plural vote was not made in any way dependent upon property. It was opposed by the Liberals and the Social Democrats, and members even of the Conservative Government which had introduced it with- held from it their support. Amidst unusual public perturbation the Liberals drew up a counter-proposal, which was introduced in the lower chamber April 16. It contemplated not simply one vote for all male citizens twenty-five years of age who possessed the municipal franchise, but also a sweeping extension of the municipal franchise itself. The upshot was the adoption by the Riksdag of a proposal to the effect that the Government, after conducting a thorough investi- gation of the entire subject, should submit, in 1904, a new measure based upon universal suffrage from the age of twenty-five. 657. The Conservative Proposal of 1904. The issue was post- poned, but agitation, especially on the part of the Social Democrats, was redoubled. February 9, 1904, the Government laid before the /ower chamber a new suffrage bill embodying the recommendations of a commission appointed some months previously to conduct the investigation which had been ordered. The principal provisions of the measure were (i) that every male municipal taxpayer who had at- tained his twenty-fifth year, and was not deficient in respect to his fiscal or military obligations, should be entitled to one vote for a member of the Chamber; and (2) that the 230 legislative seats should be distributed among thirty-three electoral districts, and should be 594 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE filled by deputies chosen according to the principle of proportional representation. The introduction of this measure became the signal for the appearance of a multitude of projects dealing with the subject, most of which discarded proportional representation but imposed still fewer restrictions upon the franchise. In the upper house the Govern- ment's proposal, modified somewhat to meet the demands of the agrarian interests, was passed by a vote of 93 to 50; but in the lower chamber the substance of it was rejected by the narrow margin of 116 to 108. In view of the continued support of the upper house and the meager- ness of the opposition majority in the lower, the Government, at the opening of the Riksdag of 1905, submitted afresh its suffrage bill without material modification. Again there was a deluge of counter- proposals, the most important of which was that introduced March 1 8 by Karl Staaff, in behalf of the Liberals, to the effect that every citizen in good standing of the age of twenty-four should be entitled to one vote, and that the Chamber should consist of 165 rural and 65 urban members, chosen in single-member constituencies. May 3 and 4 the Government's bill was carried in the upper house by a vote of 93 to 50, but lost in the lower by a vote of 114 to 109. Upon Staaff 's project the lower house was almost equally divided. 668. The Proposal of the Staaff Government, 1906. Upon the resignation of the Lundeberg cabinet, October 28, 1905, following the Norwegian separation, a Liberal ministry was made up by Staaff, and when, January 15, 1906, the Riksdag reassembled in regular session the new Government was ready to push to a conclusion the electoral controversy. February 24 Premier Staaff introduced an elaborate measure comprising an amplification of that which had been brought forward by him a year earlier. By stipulating that at the age of twenty-four every man of good character should have one vote the scheme proposed enormously to enlarge the quota of enfranchised citizens, and by apportioning representatives among the town and country districts in the ratio of 65 to 165 it promised to reduce mate- rially the existing over-representation of the towns. It excluded from the franchise bankrupts, persons under guardianship, and defaulters in respect to military service; it required for election at the first ballot, though not at the second, an absolute majority; it stipulated that a rearrangement of constituencies, in accordance with population, should be made every nine years by the king. It gave no place to the principle of proportional representation which had appeared in the proposals of the Conservative ministries of 1904 and 1905; and while favorable mention was made of female suffrage, the authors of the THE GOVERNMENT OF SWEDEN 595 measure avowed the opinion that the injection of that issue at the present moment would endanger the entire reform programme. Amidst renewed public demonstrations the usual flood of counter- projects, several stipulating female suffrage, made its appearance. The upper chamber, dominated by the Conservatives, held out for proportional representation, and, May 14, it negatived the Staaff proposal by a vote of 125 to 18. The day following the bill was passed in the lower chamber by a majority of 134 to 94, and a little later proportional representation was rejected by 130 votes to 98. 669. A Compromise Bill Adopted, 1907. Upon the Conservative Government of Lindman which succeeded devolved the task of framing a measure upon which the two chambers could unite. A new bill made its appearance February 2, 1907. Its essential provisions were (i) that the members of the lower chamber should be elected by man- hood suffrage (with the limitations specified in the Liberal programme of 1906) and proportional representation; (2) that the number of electoral districts should be fixed at fifty-six, each to return from three to seven members; (3) that members of the upper chamber should be elected by the provincial Landsthings and the municipal councils for six years instead of nine as hitherto, and by proportional repre- sentation; and (4) that the municipal suffrage, which forms the basis of the elections to the Landsthing, should be democratized in such a manner that, whereas previously a wealthy elector might cast a max- imum of 100 votes in the towns and 5,000 in the rural districts, 1 hence- forth the maximum of votes which might be cast by any one elector should be forty. By the Liberals and Social Democrats this measure was denounced as inadequate, although on all sides it was admitted that the changes introduced by it were so sweeping as to amount to a positive revision of the constitution. The spokesmen of the Liberal Union reintroduced the Staaff bill of 1906, and the Social Democrats brought forward a new measure which accorded a prominent place to female suffrage. February 8 the two chambers elected a joint com- mittee to investigate and report upon the Government's project. Various amendments were added to the bill, e. g., one whereby mem- bers of the upper chamber henceforth should receive an emolument for their services, and eventually, May 14, the measure was brought to a vote. Despite the apprehensions of the Government, it was car- ried. In the lower house the vote was 128 to 98; in the upper, no to 29. 1 Under the prevailing system, each elector in the towns had one vote for every 100 kroner income, subject to a limit of 100 votes; each one in the country had ten votes for every 100 kroner income, subject to a limit of 5,000 votes. 596 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 660. Final Enactment, 1909: Woman's Suffrage. The measure comprised a series of constitutional amendments, and, in accordance with the requirements in such cases, it remained in abeyance until a newly elected Riksdag (chosen in 1908 and assembled in 1909) should have had an opportunity to take action upon it. In the Riksdag of 1908 ex-Premier Staaff introduced a measure granting female suffrage in parliamentary elections and extending it in municipal elections. But both chambers negatived this and every other proposal offered upon the subject, preferring to support the Government in its purpose to keep the issue of woman's suffrage in the background until the reforms of 1907 should have been carried to completion. Early in the session of 1909 the "preliminary resolution" of 1907 was given the final approval of the chambers. The Liberals, being now interested prin- cipally in the woman's suffrage propaganda, did not combat the meas- ure, so that the majorities for its adoption were overwhelming. The enactment of this piece of legislation constitutes a landmark in Swedish political history. Through upwards of a decade the question of franchise reform had overshadowed all other public issues and had distracted attention from various pressing problems of state. De- nounced still by the extremists of both radical and conservative groups, the new law was hailed by the mass of the nation with the most evident satisfaction. 1 The question of woman's suffrage remains. At the elections of 1908 the Liberal party emulated the Social Democrats in the incorporation of this project in its programme, and, April 21, 1909, the Constitutional Committee of the Riksdag recommended the adoption of a measure whereby women should be accorded the parliamentary suffrage and eligibility to sit as members of either cham- ber. In May, 1911, the essentials of this recommendation were ac- cepted by the lower chamber by a vote of 120 to 92, but by the upper they were rejected overwhelmingly. At the opening of the Riksdag of 1912 the Speech from the Throne announced the purpose of the Gov- ernment to introduce a measure for the enfranchisement of women, and 1 In the main, the scheme of proportional representation adopted in Sweden is similar to that in operation in Belgium (see pp. 542-545). Electors are expected to write at the head of their ballot papers the name or motto of their party. The papers bearing the same name or emblem are then grouped together, the numbers in each group are ascertained, and the seats available are allotted to these groups in accordance with the d'Hondt rule, irrespective of the number of votes obtained by individual candidates. The candidate receiving the largest number of votes is declared elected. The papers on which his name appears are then marked down to the value of one-half, the relative position of the remaining candidates is ascertained afresh, and the highest of these is declared elected, and so on. Unlike the Belgian system, the Swedish plan provides for the allotment of but a single seat at a time. Humphreys, Proportional Representation, 296-313. THE GOVERNMENT OF SWEDEN 597 during the session the promise was redeemed by the bringing forward of a bill in accordance with whose terms every Swede, without distinction of sex, over twenty-four years of age and free from legal disabilities, may vote for members of the lower chamber. III. THE RIKSDAG IN OPERATION POLITICAL PARTIES 661. Organization and Procedure. By the Riksdag law of 1866 the king is required to summon the chambers annually and empowered to convene extraordinary sessions as occasion may demand. It is within the competence of the king in council to dissolve either or both of the chambers, but in such an event a general election must be or- dered forthwith, and the new Riksdag is required to be assembled within three months after the dissolution. 1 The president and vice- presidents of both houses are named by the crown; otherwise the cham- bers are permitted to choose their officials and to manage their affairs independently. It is specifically forbidden that either house, or any committee, shall deliberate upon or decide any question in the presence of the sovereign. The powers of the Riksdag cover the full range of civil and criminal legislation; but no measure may become law without the assent of the crown. In other words, the veto which the king pos- sesses is absolute. At the same time, the king is forbidden, save with the consent of the Riksdag, to impose any tax, to contract any loan, to dispose of crown property, to alienate any portion of the kingdom, to change the arms or flag of the realm, to modify the standard or weight of the coinage, or to introduce any alteration in the national constitution. Measures may be proposed, not only by the Government, but by mem- bers of either house. The relations between the two houses are pecul- iarly close. At each regular session there are constituted certain joint committees whose function is the preparation and preliminary con- sideration of business for the attention of both chambers. Most im- portant among these committees is that on laws, which, in the language of the constitution, "elaborates projects submitted to it by the houses for the improvement of the civil, criminal, municipal, and ecclesiasti- cal laws." 2 Other such committees are those on the constitution, on finance, on appropriations, and on the national bank. 662. Powers. The stipulations of the constitution which relate to finance are precise. "The ancient right of the Swedish people to tax themselves," it is affirmed, "shall be exercised by the Riksdag alone." 3 1 Art. 109. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 249. 'Art. 53. Ibid., II., 234. 3 Art. 57. Ibid., 234. 5Q8 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE The king is required at each regular session to lay before the Riksdag a statement of the financial condition of the country in all of its as- pects, both income and expenses, assets and debts. It is made the duty of the Riksdag to vote such supplies as the treasury manifestly needs and to prescribe specifically the objects for which the separate items of appropriation may be employed; also to vote two separate amounts of adequate size to be used by the king in emergency only, in the one instance in the event of war, in the other, when "absolutely necessary for the defense of the country, or for other important and urgent pur- poses." Finally, the Riksdag is authorized and required to exercise a super- visory vigilance in relation to the several branches of the governmental system. One of the functions of the Constitutional Committee is that of inspecting the records of the Council of State to determine whether there has been any violation of the constitution or of the general laws; and in the event of positive findings the Committee may institute proceedings before the Riksratt, or Court of Impeachment. At every regular session the Riksdag is required to appoint a solicitor-general, ranking equally with the attorney-general of the crown, with authority to attend the sessions of any of the courts of the kingdom, to examine all judicial records, to present to the Riksdag a full report upon the administration of justice throughout the nation, and, if necessary, to bring charges of impeachment against judicial officers. Every third year the Riksdag appoints a special commission to determine whether all of the members of the Supreme Court "deserve to be retained in their important offices." Every third year, too, a commission of six is constituted which, under the presidency of the solicitor-general, overhauls the arrangements respecting the liberty of the press. 1 663. Political Parties: Military and Tariff Questions. In Sweden, as in European countries generally, the party alignment which lies at the root of contemporary politics is that of Conservatives and Lib- erals. Much of the time, however, within the past half-century party demarcations have been vague and shifting, being determined largely in successive periods by the rise and disappearance of various prepon- derating public issues. The first great question upon which party affiliations were shaped after the accession of Oscar II. in 1872 was that of national defense. The army and navy were recognized at that time to be hopelessly antiquated, and the successive Conservative ministries of the seventies were resolved upon greatly increased expenditures in the interest of military and naval rehabilitation. Against this programme was set squarely that of rigid economy, 1 Arts. 96-100. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 244-245. THE GOVERNMENT OF SWEDEN 599 urged by the strongly organized Landtmannapartiet, or Agricultural party, representing the interests of the landed proprietors, large and small, of the kingdom. The Landtmannapartiet was founded in 1867, immediately following the reconstitution of the Riksdag under the law of 1866, and through several decades it comprised the dominating element in the lower chamber, in addition to possessing at times no inconsiderable amount of influence in the upper one. Throughout the period covered by the Conservative ministry of Baron de Geer (1875-1880) and the Agricultural party's government under Arvid Posse (1880-1883) there was an all but unbroken deadlock between the upper chamber, dominated by the partisans of military expenditure, and the lower, dominated equally by the advocates of tax-reduction. It was not until 1885 that a ministry under Themptander succeeded in procuring the enactment of a compromise measure increasing the obligation of military service but remitting thirty per cent of the land taxes. By this legislation the military and tax issues were put in the way of eventual adjustment. Already there had arisen a new issue, upon which party lines were chiefly to be drawn during the later eighties and earlier nineties. This was the question of the tariff. The continued distress of the agrarian interests after 1880, arising in part from the competition of foreign foodstuffs, suggested to the landed interests of Sweden that the nation would do well to follow in the path already entered upon by Germany. The consequence was the rise of a powerful protectionist party, op- posed by a free trade party with which were identified especially the merchant classes. In 1886 the agrarians procured a majority in the lower chamber, and by 1888 they were in control of both branches. The free trade Themptander ministry was thereupon replaced by the protectionist ministry of Bildt, under which, in 1888, there were intro- duced protective duties on cereals, and later, in 1891-1892, on manu- factured commodities. Step by step, the customs policy developed by Sweden during the middle of the century was reversed completely. 664. Politics Since 1891. July 10, 1891, the Conservative Erik Gustaf Bostrom, became premier, and thereafter, save for a brief interval covered by the von Otter ministry (September, 1900, to July, 1902) this able representative of the dominant agrarian interests continued uninterruptedly at the helm until the Norwegian crisis in the spring of 1905. With the elimination, however, of the tariff issue from the field of active politics, Premier Bostrom adopted an attitude on public questions which, on the whole, was essentially independent. In the later nineties there arose two problems, neither entirely new, which were destined long to occupy the attention of the Government 6oo GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE almost to the exclusion of all things else. One of these was the re- adjustment with Norway. The other was the question of electoral reform. The one affected considerably the fate of ministries, but did not alter appreciably the alignment of parties; the other became the issue upon which party activity largely turned through a number of years. All parties from the outset professed to favor electoral reform, but upon the nature and extent of such reform there was the widest difference of sentiment and policy. During the course of the contest upon this issue the Liberal party tended to become distinctly more radical than it had been in the nineties; and it is worthy of note that the rise of the Social Democrats to parliamentary importance falls almost entirely within the period covered by the electoral controversy. The first Social Democratic member of the Riksdag was elected in 1896. From 1906 to 1911 the Conservative ministry of Lindman, supported largely by the landholding elements of both chambers, maintained steadily its position. At the elections of 1908 the Liberals realized some gains, and at those of 1911 both they and the Social Democrats cut deeply into the Conservative majority. When, in September, 1911, it appeared that the Liberals had procured 102 seats in the lower chamber, the Social Democrats 64, and the Conservatives but 64, the Lindman government promptly resigned and a new ministry was made up by the Liberal leader and ex-premier Staaff. The invitation which was extended the Social Democrats to partici- pate in the forming of the ministry was declined. In October the upper chamber was dissolved, for the first time in Swedish history, and at the elections which were concluded November 30 the Liberals and Social Democrats realized another distinct advance. Before the elections the chamber contained 116 Conservatives, 30 Liberals, and 4 Social Democrats; following them the quotas were, respectively, 87, 51, and I2. 1 IV. THE JUDICIARY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 666. The Courts. In theory the judicial power in Sweden, being lodged ultimately in the crown, is indistinguishable from the execu- tive; in practice, however, it is essentially independent. The constitu- tion regulates with some minuteness the character of the principal tribunal, the Hogsta Domstolen, or Supreme Court, but leaves the or- ganization of the inferior courts to be determined by the king and the Riksdag. The Supreme Court consists of eighteen "councillors of justice" appointed by the crown from among men of experience, 1 V. Pinot, Le parlementarisme su6dois, in Revue Politique et Parlementaire, Sept. 10, 1912. THE GOVERNMENT OF SWEDEN 60 1 honesty, and known legal learning. The functions of the court are largely appellate, but it is worthy of note that in the event that a request is made of the king by the lower courts, or by officials, respect- ing the proper interpretation of a law, the Supreme Court is authorized to furnish such interpretation, provided the subject is a proper one for the consideration of the courts. Cases of lesser importance may be heard and decided in the Supreme Court by five, or even four, mem- bers, when all are in agreement. In more important cases at least seven judges must participate. When the king desires he may be present, and when present he possesses two votes in all cases heard and decided. When the question is one of legal interpretation he is entitled to two votes, whether or not he actually attends the pro- ceedings. All decisions are rendered in the name of the king. The inferior tribunals comprise 212 district courts, or courts of first in- stance, and three higher courts of appeal (hof ratter), situated at Stockholm, Jonkb'ping, and Kristianstad. In the 91 urban districts the court consists of the burgomaster and at least two aldermen; in the 121 rural districts, of a judge and twelve elected and unpaid peasant proprietors serving as jurymen. No person occupying judicial office may be removed save after trial and judgment. 666. Local Government. The kingdom is divided into twenty- five administrative provinces or counties (l&n}. 1 The principal execu- tive official in each is a landshofding, or prefect, who is appointed by the crown and assisted by a varying number of bailiffs and sub-officials. Each province has a Landsthing, or assembly, which meets for a few days annually, in September, under the presidency of a member desig- nated by the crown. All members are elected directly by the voters of the towns and rural districts, in accordance with the principle of proportional representation, and under a body of franchise regulations which, while much liberalized in 1909, still is based essentially upon property-holding. The function of the Landsthing is the enactment of provincial legislation and the general supervision of provincial affairs. In a few of the larger towns Stockholm, Goteborg, Malmo, Norr- kb'ping, and Gaffe these functions are vested in a separate municipal council. The conditions under which purely local affairs are admin- istered are regulated by the communal laws of March 21, 1862. Each rural parish and each town comprises a self-governing commune. Each has an assembly, composed of all taxpayers, which passes ordinances, elects minor officials, and decides petty questions of purely communal concern. 1 One of these comprises simply the city of Stockholm. PART IX. THE IBERIAN STATES CHAPTER XXXIII THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN I. THE BEGINNINGS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM 667. The Napoleonic Regime and the National Resistance. It was the fortune of the kingdom of Spain, as it was that of the several Italian states, to be made tributary to the dominion of Napoleon; and in Spain, as in Italy, the first phase of the growth of constitutional government fell within the period covered by the Corsican's ascend- ancy. Starting with the purpose of punishing Portugal for her re- fusal to break with Great Britain, Napoleon, during the years 1807- 1808, worked out gradually an Iberian policy which comprehended not only the subversion of the independent Portuguese monarchy but also the reduction of Spain to the status of a subject kingdom. In pursuance of this programme French troops began, in February, 1808, the occupation of Spanish strongholds, including the capital. The aged Bourbon king, Charles IV., was induced to renounce his throne and the crown prince Ferdinand his claim to the succession, and, June 6, Joseph Bonaparte, since 1806 king of Naples, was designated sovereign. An assembly of ninety-one pliant Spanish notables, con- vened at Bayonne in the guise of a junta, was influenced both to "petition" the Emperor for Joseph's appointment and to ratify the projet of a Napoleonic constitution. Napoleon's seizure of the crown of Spain was an act of sheer violence, and from the outset Joseph was considered by his subjects a simple usurper. The establishment of the new regime at Madrid became the signal for a national uprising which not only compelled the Emperor seriously to modify his immediate plans and to lead in person a cam- paign of conquest, but contributed in the end to the collapse of the en- tire Napoleonic fabric. Upon the restoration of some degree of order there followed the introduction of a number of reforms the sweeping away of the last vestiges of feudalism, the abolition of the tribunal of the Inquisition, the reduction of the number of monasteries and con- 603 604 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE vents by a third, and the repeal of all internal customs. But the position occupied by the alien sovereign was never other than pre- carious. At no time did he secure control over the whole of the coun- try, and during the successive stages of the Peninsular War of 1807 1814 his mastery of the situation diminished gradually to the vanishing point. At the outset the principal directing agencies of the opposition were the irregularly organized local juntas which sprang up in the various provinces, but before the end of 1808 there was constituted a central junta of thirty-four members, and in September, 1810, there was convened at Cadiz a general Cortes not three estates, as tradition demanded, but a single assembly of indirectly elected deputies of the people. 668. The Constitution of 1812. Professing allegiance to the captive Ferdinand, the Cortes of 1810 addressed itself first of all to the prosecu- tion of the war and the maintenance of the national independence, but after a year it proceeded to draw up a constitution for a liberalized Bourbon monarchy. Save the fundamental decree upon which rested nominally the government of Joseph Bonaparte, this constitution, promulgated March 19, 1812, was the first such instrument in Spanish history. It was, of course, the first to emanate from Spanish sources. Permeating it throughout were the radical principles of the French constitution of 1791. It asserted unreservedly the sovereignty of the people and proclaimed as inviolable the principle of equality before the law. Executive authority it intrusted to the king, but the mon- arch was left so scant a measure of independence that not only might he never prorogue or dissolve the Cortes, but not even might he marry or set foot outside the kingdom without express permission. For the actual exercise of the executive functions there were created seven departments, or ministries, each presided over by a responsible official. The fundamental powers of state were conferred upon a Cortes of one chamber, whose members were to be elected for a term of two years by indirect manhood suffrage. Various features of the French constitution which experience had shown to be ill-advised were re- produced blindly enough, among them the ineligibility of members of the legislative body for re-election and the disqualification of ministers to sit as members. The government of the towns was intrusted to the inhabitants; that of the provinces, to a governor appointed by the cen- tral authorities and an assembly of deputies popularly chosen for a term of four years. As the starting point of Spanish constitutional development the fundamental law of 1812 is of genuine interest. It is not to be imagined, however, that the instrument reflects with any degree of accuracy the political sentiment and ideals of the mass THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN 605 of the Spanish people. On the contrary, it was the work of a slender democratic minority, and it was never even submitted to the nation for ratification. It was a product of revolution, and at no time was there opportunity for its framers to put it completely into operation. 1 669. The Restoration and the Reign of Ferdinand VII. Upon the fall of Napoleon the legitimate sovereign, under the name of Ferdi- nand VII., was established forthwith upon the Spanish throne. At one time he had professed a purpose to perpetuate the new constitution, but even before his return to Madrid he pronounced both the constitution and the various decrees of the Cortes "null and of no effect," and when the Cortes undertook to press its claims to recognition it found itself powerless. In the restoration of absolutism the king was supported not only by the army, the nobility, and the Church, but also by the mass of the people. For constitutional government there was plainly little demand, and if Ferdinand had been possessed of even the most ordinary qualities of character and statesmanship, he might probably have ruled successfully in a perfectly despotic manner throughout the remainder of his life. As it was, the reaction was accompanied by such glaring excesses that the spirit of revolution was kept alive, and scarcely a twelvemonth passed in the course of which there were not menacing uprisings. In January, 1820, a revolt of unusual seriousness began in a mutiny at Cadiz on the part of the soldiers who were being gathered for service in America. The revolt spread and, to save himself, the king revived the constitution of 1812 and pledged himself to a scrupulous observance of its stipulations. The movement, however, was doomed to prompt and seemingly complete failure. The liberals were disunited, and the two years during which the king was virtually a prisoner in their hands comprised a period of sheer anarchy. The powers of the Holy Alliance, moreover, in congress at Verona (1822), adopted a pro- gramme of intervention, in execution of which, in April, 1823, the French government sent an army across the Pyrenees under the command of the Duke of Angouleme. A six months' campaign, cuhninating in the cap- ture of Cadiz, whither the Cortes had carried the king, served effectively to crush the revolution and to reinstate the sovereign completely in the 1 For brief accounts of the Napoleonic regime in Spain see Cambridge Modern History, IX., Chap, n (bibliography, pp. 851-853); Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Ge"nerale, IX., Chap. 6; A. Fournier, Life of Napoleon the First, 2 vols., (new ed. New York, 1911), II., Chaps. 14-15; J. H. Rose, Life of Napoleon I. (London, 1002), Chap. 28; M. A. S. Hume, Modern Spain, 1788-1898 (London, 1899), Chaps. 2-4; and H. B. Clarke, Modern Spain, 1815-1898 (Cambridge, 1906), Chap. i. Of the numerous histories of the Peninsular War the most celebrated is W. Napier, History of the War in the Peninsula and the South of France, 1807-1814, 10 vols. (London, 1828). 606 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE position which he had occupied prior to 1820. Then followed a fresh period of repression, in the course of which the constitution of 1812 was again set aside, and throughout the remaining decade of the reign the government of the kingdom was both despotic and utterly unprogres- II. POLITICAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1833-1876 670. Maria Christina and the Estatuto Real of 1834. Ferdinand VII. died September 29, 1833, leaving no son. Regularly since the establish- ment of the Bourbon dynasty the succession in Spain had been governed by the principle of the Salic Law, imported originally from France. But, to the end that the inheritance might fall to a daughter rather than to his brother, Don Carlos, Ferdinand had promulgated, in 1830, a Prag- matic Sanction whereby the Salic principle was set aside. Don Carlos and his supporters refused absolutely to admit the validity of this act, but Ferdinand was succeeded by his three-year-old daughter, Isabella, and the government was placed in the hands of the queen-mother, Maria Christina of Naples, as regent. 2 Her administration of affairs lasted un- til 1840. From the constitutional point of view the period was important solely because, under stress of circumstances, the regent was driven to adopt a distinctly liberal policy, and, in time, to promulgate a new con- stitutional instrument. Don Carlos, supported by the nobility, the clergy, and other reactionary elements, kept up a guerilla war by which the tenure of the " Christines " was endangered continuously. The re- gent was herself a thoroughgoing absolutist, but her sole hope lay in the 1 On the period covered by Ferdinand's reign see Cambridge Modern History, X., Chap. 7 (bibliography, pp. 808-811); Lavisse et Rambaud, Mistoire Generate, X., Chap. 6; Clarke, Modern Spain, Chaps. 2-4, and Hume, Modern Spain, 1788- 1898, Chaps. 5-6. Extended works which touch upon the constitutional aspects of the period include: H. Gmelin, Studien zur Spanischen Verfassungsgeschichte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart, 1905); G. Diercks, Geschichte Spaniens (Berlin, 1895); A. Borrego, Historia de las Cortes de Espafia durante el siglo XIX. (Madrid, 1885); and M. Calvo y Martin, Regimem parlamentario de Espana en el siglo XIX. (Madrid, 1883). A valuable essay is P. Bancada, El sentido social de la revolucion de 1820, in Revista Contempordnea (August, 1903). 2 In the mediaeval states of Spain there was no discrimination against female succession. The Spanish Salic Law was enacted by a decree of Philip V. in 1713, at the close of the War of the Spanish Succession. Its original object was to prevent the union of the crowns of France and Spain. In view of the change which had come in the international situation, Charles IV., supported by the Cortes, in 1789 abrogated the act of 1713 and re-established the law of Siete Partidas which per- mitted the succession of women. This measure was recorded in the archives, but was not published at the time; so that what Ferdinand VII. did was simply to publish, May 19, 1830, at the instigation of the Queen, this pragmatica, or law, of 1789. The birth of Isabella occurred the following October 10. THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN 607 support of the liberals, and to retain that it was necessary for her to make large concessions. The upshot was that in April, 1834, she issued a royal statute (Estatuto Real), whereby there was established a new type of Cortes, comprising two chambers instead of one. The upper house, or Estamento de Proceres, was essentially a senate; the lower, or Esta- mento de Procuradores, was a chamber of deputies. Members of the Procuradores were to be elected by taxpayers for a term of three years. Upon the Cortes was conferred power of taxation and of legislation; but the Government alone might propose laws, and the Cortes, like its ancient predecessor, was allowed no initiative save that of petitioning the Government to submit measures upon particular subjects. A minimum of one legislative session annually was stipulated; but the sovereign was left free otherwise to convoke and to dissolve the chambers at will. Ministers were recognized to be responsible solely to the crown. 671. The Constitution of 1837. Toward the establishment of constitutional government the Statute of 1834 marked some, albeit small, advance. The Moderados, or moderate liberals, were disposed to accept it as the largest concession that, for the present, could be expected. But the Progressistas, or progressives, insisted upon a re- vival of the more democratic constitution of 1812, and in 1836 the regent was compelled by a widespread military revolt to sign a decree pledging the Government to this policy. A constituent Cortes was convoked and the outcome was the promulgation of the constitution of June 17, 1837, based upon the instrument of 1812, but in respect to liberalism standing midway between that instrument and the Statute of 1834. Like the constitution of 1812, that of 1837 affirmed the sovereignty of the nation and the responsibility of ministers to the legislative body. On the other hand, the Cortes was to consist, as under the Statute, of two houses, a Senate and a Congress. The mem- bers of the one were to be appointed for life by the crown; those of the other were to be elected by the people for three years. In a number of respects the instrument of 1837 resembled the recently adopted constitution of Belgium, even as the Statute of 1834 had resembled the French Charter of 1814. In the words of a Spanish historian, the document of 1837 had the two-fold importance of "assuring the con- stitutional principle, which thenceforth was never denied, and of ending the sentiment of idolatry for the constitution of i8i2. nl 672. The Constitution of 1846. October 12, 1840, the regent Maria Christina was forced by the intensity of civil discord to abdicate and to withdraw to France. Her successor was General Espartero, leader of the Progressistas and the first of a long line of military men to 1 R. Altamira, in Cambridge Modern History, X., 238. 608 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE whom it has fallen at various times to direct the governmental affairs of the Spanish nation. November 8, 1843, the princess Isabella although yet but thirteen years old, was declared of age and, under the name of Isabella II., was proclaimed sovereign. Her reign, cover- ing the ensuing twenty years, comprised distinctly an era of stagnation and veiled absolutism. Nominally the constitution of 1837 continued in operation until 1845. At that time it was replaced by a revised and less liberal instrument, drawn up by the Moderados with the assistance of an ordinary Cortes. The duration of the Cortes was extended from three to four years, severer restrictions upon the press were established, supervision of the local authorities was still further centralized, and the requirement that the sovereign might not marry without the con- sent of the Cortez was rescinded. In the course of a revolutionary movement in 1854 there was convoked a constituent Cortes, dominated by Moderates and Progressives. The constitution which this body framed, comprising essentially a revival of the instrument of 1837, was never, however, put in operation. In the end, by a royal decree of 1856, the constitution of 1845 was amended and re-established. Save for some illiberal amendments of I857, 1 which were repealed in 1864, this instrument of 1845 continued in operation until 1868. Through- out the period, however, constitutionalism was hardly more than a fiction. 2 673. The Constitution of 1869: King Amadeo. By a revolt which began in September, 1868, the queen was compelled to flee from the country, and, eventually, June 25, 1869, to abdicate. A provisional government effected arrangements for the election of a Cortes by manhood suffrage, and this Cortes, convened at the capital, Feb- ruary n, 1869, addressed itself first of all to the task of drafting a new national constitution. A considerable number of members advocated the establishment of a republic; but for so radical an innovation there \vas clearly no general demand, and in the end the proposition was rejected by a vote of 214 to 71. June i a constitution was adopted \vhich, however, marked a large advance in the direction of liberalism. It contained substantial guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, liberty of religion, and the right of petition and of public assembly, and in unequivocal terms the sovereignty of the people was 1 One established conditions under which senatorial seats might be made heredi- tary. 2 Cambridge Modern History, X., Chap. 7; XI., Chap. 20; Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire GSnerale, X., Chap. 6; XI., Chap. 9; Hume, Modern Spain, Chaps. 7-12; Clarke, Modern Spain, Chaps. 5-11; Mariano, La Regencia de D. Baldomero Espartero (Madrid, 1870); J. Perez de Guzman, Las Cortes y los Gobiernos del reinado de Da Isabel II., in La Espana Moderna, 1903. THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN 609 affirmed afresh. A Cortes of two houses was provided for, the mem- bers of the Senate to be chosen indirectly by the people through electoral colleges and the provincial assemblies, those of the Congress to be elected by manhood suffrage, the only qualification for voting being the attainment of the a.ge of twenty-five years and possession of ordinary civil rights. Pending the selection of a sovereign, a regency was established under Marshal Serrano. Among the several dignitaries who were considered Alfonso (son of the deposed Isabella) the Duke of Montpensier, Ferdinand of Savoy (brother of King Victor Emmanuel of Italy), King Luiz of Portugal, Ferdinand of Saxony, Leopold of Hohenzollern- Sigmaringen, and Prince Amadeo, duke of Aosta, second son of Victor Emmanuel favor settled eventually upon the last named, who was elected November 19, 1870, by a vote of 191 to 120. At the end of 1870 the new sovereign arrived in Spain, and February 2, 1871, he took oath to uphold the recently established constitution. From the outset, however, his position was one of extreme difficulty. He was opposed by those who desired a republic, by the Carlists, by the ad- herents of the former crown prince Alfonso, and by the clergy; and as a foreigner he was regarded with indifference, if not antipathy, by patriotic Spaniards generally. February 10, 1873, wearied by the turbulence in which he was engulfed, 'he resigned his powers into the hands of the Cortes, and by that body his abdication was forthwith accepted. It is a sufficient commentary upon the political character of the reign to observe that within the twenty-four months which it covered there were no fewer than six ministerial crises and three general elections. 674. The Republic (1873-1876) : Monarchy Restored. The break- down of the elective monarchy, following thus closely the overthrow of absolutism, cleared the way for the triumph of the republicans. The monarchist parties, confronted suddenly by an unanticipated situation, were able to agree upon no plan of action, and the upshot was that, by a vote of 258 to 32, the Cortes declared for a republic and decreed that the drafting of a republican constitution should be undertaken by a specially elected convention. Although it was true, as Castelar asserted, that the monarchy had perished from natural causes, that the republic was the inevitable product of existing cir- cumstance, and that the transition from the one to the other was effected without bloodshed, it was apparent from the outset that republicanism had not, after all, struck root deeply. A constitution was drawn up, but it was at no time really put into operation. The supporters of the new regime were far from agreed as to the kind of 6io GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE republic, federal or centralized, that should be established; l the re- publican leaders were mutually jealous and prone to profitless theoriz- ing; the nation was lacking in the experience which is a prerequisite of self-government. 2 At home the republic was opposed by the monarchists of the various groups, by the clergy, and by the extreme particularists, and abroad it won the recognition of not one nation save the United States. The presidency of Figueras lasted four months ; that of Pi y Margall, six weeks; that of Salmeron, a similar period; that of Castelar, about four months (September 7, 1873, to January 3, 1874). Castelar, however, was rather a dictator than a president, and so was his Conservative successor Serrano. By the beginning of 1874 it was admitted universally that the only escape from the anoma- lous situation in which the nation found itself lay in a restoration of the legitimist monarchy, in the person of Don Alfonso, son of Isabella II. The collapse of the republic was as swift and as noiseless as had been its establishment. The principal agency in it was the army, which, in December, 1874, declared definitely for Alfonso, after he had pledged himself to a grant of amnesty and the maintenance of con- stitutional government. December 31 a regency ministry under the presidency of Canovas was announced, and the new reign began with the landing of the young sovereign at Barcelona, January 10, 1875. Between the premature and ineffective republicanism of the past year, on the one hand, and the absolutism of a Carlist government, on the other, the constitutional monarchy of Alfonso XII. seemed a logical, and to the mass of the Spanish people, an eminently satisfac- tory, compromise. 3 1 Castelar favored a consolidated and radical republic; Serrano, a consolidated and conservative republic; Pi y Margall, a federal republic, on the pattern of the United States; Pavia, a republic which should be predominantly military. 2 In this connection may be mentioned a remark of General Prim, one of the leading spirits in the provisional government of 1868. When asked why at that time he did not establish a republic his reply was: "It would have been a republic without republicans." There was no less a dearth of real republicans in 1873-1874. 3 On the revolutionary and republican periods see Cambridge Modern History XI., Chap. 20 (bibliography, pp. 945-949); Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generale, XII., Chap. 9; Hume, Modern Spain, Chap. 10; V. Cherbuliez, L'Espagne politique, 1868-1873 (Paris, 1874); W. Lauser, Geschichte Spaniens von dem Sturz Isabellas, 1868-1875 (Leipzig, 1877); E. H. Strobel,The Spanish Revolution, 1868-1875 (Lon- don, 1898); E. Rodriguez Solis, Historia del partido republicano espanol (Madrid, 1893); p i y Margall, Amadeo de Saboya (Madrid, 1884); H. R. Whitehouse, Ama- deus, King of Spain (New York, 1897). A significant work is E. Castelar, Historia del movimiento republicano en Europa (Madrid, 1873-1874). Special works dealing with the restoration include A. Houghton, Les origines de la restauration des Bourbons en Espagne (Paris, 1890); Diez de Tejada, Historia de la restauraciou (Madrid, 1879). THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN 6ll III. THE PRESENT CONSTITUTION 676. The Constitution Adopted. The year following the re- establishment of the monarchy was consumed largely in the suppres- sion of the Carlists and the reorganization of the government. During this period Canovas, at the head of a strong Conservative and Clerical ministry, ruled virtually as a dictator, and sooner or later most vestiges of the republic were swept away, while the nation was won over solidly to the new order. At the election of the first Cortes of the Restoration, January 22, 1876, the principle of manhood suffrage was continued in operation, though so docile did the electorate prove that Canovas was able to secure, in both chambers, a heavy majority which was ready to vote at the Government's behest a franchise system of a much less liberal type. The first important task of this Cortes was the consideration and adoption of a new national constitution. As to the sort of constitution most desirable there was, as ever, wide dif- ference of opinion. The Conservatives favored a revival of the in- strument of 1845. The Liberals much preferred a restoration of that of 1869. A commission of thirty-nine, designated May 20, 1875, by a junta convened by Canovas, had evolved with some difficulty an instrument which combined various features of both of these earlier documents, and by the Cortes of 1876 this proposed constitution was at length accorded definite, though by no means unanimous, assent (June 30). This instrument was put forthwith into operation, and it has remained to this day, substantially without alteration, the funda- mental law of Spain. Based essentially upon the constitution of 1845, it none the less exhibits at many points the influence of the liberal principles which underlay the instrument of 1869. 676. Contents: Guarantees of Individual Liberty. In scope the constitution is comprehensive. Its text falls into thirteen "titles" and eighty-nine articles. Like the constitution of Italy, it contains no provision for its own amendment; but in Spain, as also in Italy, the distinction between constituent and legislative powers is not sharply drawn and a simple act of the legislative body is in practice adequate to modify the working constitution of the kingdom. Among the thirteen titles one of the most elaborate is that in which are defined the rights and privileges of Spanish subjects and of aliens resident in Spain. 1 Among rights specifically guaranteed are those of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, peaceful assemblage, the formation of associations, petition, unrestrained choice of professions, and eligibil- 1 No. i. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 199-203. 612 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE ity to public offices and employments, " according to merit and capac- ity." Immunities guaranteed include exemption from arrest, "except in the cases and in the manner prescribed by law " ; exemption from imprisonment, except upon order of a competent judicial official; freedom from molestation on account of religious opinions, provided due respect for " Christian morality " be shown; 1 and exemption from search of papers and effects and from confiscation of property, save by authority legally competent. It is forbidden that either the military or the civil authorities shall impose any penalty other than such as shall have been established previously by law. Certain guarantees, i. e., those respecting arrest, imprisonment, search, freedom of domicile, freedom of speech and press, assemblage, and associations, may, under provision of the constitution, be suspended throughout the kingdom or in any portion thereof, but only when demanded by the security of the state, and then only temporarily and by means of a specific law. In no case may any other guarantee which is named in the con- stitution be withdrawn, even temporarily. When the Cortes is not in session the Government may suspend, through the medium of a royal decree, any one of the guarantees which the Cortes itself is authorized to suspend, but at the earliest opportunity such a decree must be sub- mitted to the Cortes for ratification. It need hardly be pointed out that the opportunity for the evasion of constitutionalism which is created by this power of suspension is enormous, and anyone at all familiar with the history of public affairs in Spain would be able to cite numerous occasions upon which, upon pretexts more or less plausible, the guarantees of the fundamental law have been set at naught. 2 1 By Article n Roman Catholicism is declared to be the religion of the state. "The nation," it is stipulated further, "binds itself to maintain this religion and its ministers." Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 201. 2 An official text of the constitution of 1876 is published by the Spanish Govern- ment under the title Constituci6n politica de la monarchia Espanola y leyes com- plementarias (4th ed., Madrid, 1901). The texts of all of the Spanish constitutions of the nineteenth century are printed in the first volume of Muro y Martinez, Con- stituciones de Espafia y de las demas naciones de Europa, con la historia general de Espafia (Madrid, 1881); also in the first volume Constituciones y reglamentos (Madrid, 1906) of a collection projected by the Spanish Government under the title of Publicaciones Parlamentarias. English versions of the instrument of 1876 appear in British and Foreign State Papers, LXVII. (1875-1876), 118 ff., and Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 199-216. An excellent brief treatise on Spanish constitutional development is H. Gmelin, Studien zur spanischen Verfassungsge- schichte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart, 1905); on Spanish constitu- tional law, M. Torres Campos, Das Staatsrecht des Konigreichs Spanien (Freiburg, 1889), in Marquardsen's Handbuch; on Spanish administrative law, V. Santamaria de Paredes, Curso de derecho administrativo (sth ed., Madrid, 1898); and on the THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN 613 IV. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY 677. The Rules of Succession. Executive power in the kingdom is vested solely in the crown, although in practice it devolves to a large degree upon the council of ministers. Kingship is hereditary, and in regulation of the succession the constitution lays down the general principle that an elder line shall always be preferred to younger ones; in the same line, the nearer degree of kinship to the more remote; in the same degree of kinship, the male to the female; in the same sex, the older to the younger person. By the original constitution Al- fonso XII. was declared to be the legitimate sovereign, and provision was made that if the line of legitimate descendants of Alfonso should be extinguished, his sisters should succeed in the established order; then his aunt (the sister of his mother Isabella II.) and her legitimate descendants; and, finally, the descendants of his uncles, the brothers of Ferdinand VII. 1 It will be recalled that the Pragmatic Sanction of 1830 abolished in Spain the Salic principle and restored the ancient right of females to inherit. Spam is, indeed, one of the few European states in which this right exists. At the same time, as has been pointed out, when the degree of kinship is identical, preference is accorded the male. Thus it came about that the present sovereign, Alfonso XIII., the posthumous son of Alfonso XII., took precedence over his two sisters, both of whom were older than he, and the elder of whom, Maria de las Mercedes, actually was queen from the death of her father, November 25, 1885, until the birth of her brother, May 17, i886. 2 678. Regencies. Any member of the royal family who may be incapable of governing, or who by his conduct may have forfeited his claim to the good- will of the nation, may be excluded from the succes- comparative aspects of Spanish institutions, R. de Oloriz, La Constituci6n espanola comparada con las de Inglaterra, Estados-Unidos, Francia y Alemania (Valencia, 1904). More extended works of importance include V. Santamaria de Paredes, Curso de derecho politico (6th ed., Madrid, 1898), and A. Posada, Tratado de derecho administrative (Madrid, 1897-1898). A monumental collection of laws re- lating to Spanish administrative affairs is M. Martinez Alcubilla, Diccionario de la administraci6n Espanola, Peninsular y Ultramarina ($th ed., 1892-1894), to which is added annually an appendix containing texts of the most recent laws and decrees. Special treatises of importance are M. M. Calvo, Regimen parlamentario en Espana (Madrid, 1883); J. Costa, Oligarquia y Caciquismo como la forma actual del Gobierno en Espana (Madrid, 1903); and Y. Guytot, ' Involution politique et sociale de PEspagne (Paris, 1899). Mention may be made of R. Fraoso, Las con- stituciones de Espana, in Remsta de Espana, June-July, 1880. 1 Arts. 59-61. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 211. 2 She was, however, but a child five years of age. 6i4 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE sion by law. Disputes concerning rights or facts involved in the suc- cession are to be adjusted by law, and in event that all of the family lines mentioned in the constitution should be extinguished it would become the duty of the Cortes to make such disposal of the crown as might be adjudged "most suitable to the nation." 1 Both the sovereign and the heir presumptive are forbidden to marry any person who by law is excluded from the succession. They are, indeed, for- bidden to contract a marriage at all until after the Cortes shall have examined and approved the stipulations involved. The age of major- ity of the sovereign is fixed at sixteen years. When the king is a minor, his father or his mother, or, in default of a living parent, the relative who stands next in the order of succession, is constituted regent, provided always that such person be a Spaniard at least twenty years of age and not by law excluded from the succession. Should there be no one upon whom the regency may lawfully devolve, it is the duty of the Cortes to appoint a regency of one, three, or five persons. If, at any time, in the judgment of the Cortes, the sovereign becomes incapacitated to rule, a regency is required to be vested in the crown prince, provided he be sixteen years of age. In default of a qualified crown prince the regency devolves upon the queen; and in default of both son and queen, upon a person determined in accordance with the rules already mentioned. 679. Powers of the Crown. The powers of the crown are of the sort common among continental monarchies. By the constitution they are thrown into two groups, i. e., those which may be exercised freely and independently and those which may be exercised only upon the authorization of a special law. Enumeration of the first group begins with the sweeping statement that "the power of executing the laws is vested in the king, and his authority extends to everything which conduces to the preservation of public order at home and the security of the state abroad, in conformity with the constitution and the laws. " 2 Powers specifically named include the approval and promulgation of the laws; the issuing of decrees, regulations, and instructions designed to facilitate the execution of the laws; the appointment and dismissal of ministers and of civil officials generally; command of the army and navy and direction of the land and naval forces; the declaration of war and the conclusion of peace; 3 the conduct of diplomatic and com- mercial relations with foreign states; the pardoning of offenders; the 1 Art. 62. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, IL, 212. 2 Art. 50. Ibid., IL, 210. 3 It is required that subsequent to a declaration of war or the conclusion of peace the king shall submit to the Cortes a report accompanied by pertinent documents. THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN 615 control of the coinage; and the conferring of honors and distinctions of every kind. Of powers which the sovereign may exercise only in pursuance of authority specially conferred by law there are five, as follows: alienation, cession, or exchange of any portion of Spanish territory; incorporation of new territory; admission of foreign troops into the kingdom; ratification of all treaties which are binding individ- ually upon Spaniards, and of treaties of offensive alliance which stip- ulate the payment of subsidies to any foreign power, or which relate especially to commerce; and abdication of the crown in favor of the heir-presumptive. 680. The Ministry: Organization and Functions. In Spain, as in constitutional states generally, the powers appertaining to the ex- ecutive are exercised in the main by the ministers. Concerning the ministry the constitution has little to say. It, in truth, assumes, rather than makes specific provision for, the ministry's existence. It confers upon the crown the power freely to appoint and to dismiss ministers; it stipulates that ministers may be senators or deputies and may participate in the proceedings of both legislative chambers, but may vote only in the chambers to which they belong; and, most important of all, it enjoins that ministers shall be responsible, and that no order of the king may be executed unless countersigned by a minister, who thereby assumes personal responsibility for it. This principle of ministerial responsibility, which found its first expression in Spain in the constitution of 1812, is enforced nowadays suffi- ciently, at least, to ensure the nation, through the Cortes, some actual control over the policies and measures of the executive. Of ministries there are at present nine, as follows: Foreign Affairs; Justice; Finance; War; Marine; Interior; Public Instruction and Fine Arts; Commerce; and Public Works. At the head of the ministerial council is a presi- dent, or premier, who, under royal approval, selects his colleagues, but ordinarily assumes himself no portfolio. It is the function of the ministers not only to serve as the heads of executive departments and to explain and defend in the legislative chambers the acts of the gov- ernment, but, in their collective capacity, to formulate measures for presentation to the Cortes and, especially, to submit every year for examination and discussion a general budget, accompanied by a scheme of taxation or other proposed means of meeting prospective expenditures. In each chamber there is reserved for the ministers of the crown a front bench to the right of the presiding official. The practice of interpellation exists, although ministries rarely retire by reason of a vote of censure arising therefrom. But any minister may be impeached by the Congress before the Senate. In Spain, as in 616 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE France and Italy, the parliamentary system is nominally in operation; but, as in the countries mentioned, the multiplicity and instability of party groups render the workings of the system totally different from what they are in Great Britain. Ministries are invariably composite rather than homogeneous in political complexion, with the conse- quence that they are unable to present a solid front or long to retain their hold upon the nation's confidence. V. THE CORTES 681. The Senate: Composition. The legislative powers of the king- dom are vested in "the Cortes, together with the king." The Cortes consists of two co-ordinate chambers, the Senate and the Congress of Deputies. In the composition of the Senate the prescriptive, appointive, and elective principles are curiously intertwined, the chamber containing one group of men who are members in their own right, another who are appointed by the crown and sit for life, and a third who are elected by the corporations of the state and by the large taxpayers. In number the first two categories jointly may not exceed 180; the third is fixed definitely at that figure. In point of fact the life senators nominated by the crown number 100, while the quota of prescriptive members varies considerably. This last-mentioned group comprises grown sons of the sovereign and of the heir-presumptive; the admirals of the navy and the captains-general of the army; the patriarch of the Indies and the arch- bishops; the presidents of the Council of State, the Supreme Court, the Court of Accounts, and the Supreme Councils of War and Marine, after two years of service; and grandees of Spain 1 in their own right, who are not subjects of another power and who have a proved yearly income of 60,000 pesetas ($12,000) derived from real property of their own, or from rights legally equivalent to real property. 2 682. Appointment and Election of Senators. Appointment of sena- tors by the crown is made by special decree, in which must be stated the grounds upon which each appointment is based. In the selection of appointees the sovereign is not entirely free, but since the constitution designates no fewer than twelve classes from which appointments may be made, the range of choice is large. Among the categories enumerated are the presidents of the legislative chambers; deputies who have been members of as many as three congresses, or who have served during as many as eight sessions; ministers of the crown; bishops; grandees; lieu- 1 The rank of grandee (grande) is a dignity conferred by the sovereign, either for life or as an hereditary honor. 2 Art. 21. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 204. THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN 617 tenant-generals of the army and vice-admirals of the navy, of two years' standing; ambassadors, after two years of active service, and ministers plenipotentiary, after four years; presidents and directors of the half- dozen royal academies, and persons who in point of seniority belong within the first half of the list of members of these respective bodies; head professors in the universities, who have held this rank and have performed the duties pertaining to it through a period of four years; and a variety of other administrative, judicial, and professional function- aries. Persons belonging to any one of these groups, however, are el- igible for appointment only in the event that they enjoy an annual in- come of 7,500 pesetas ($1,500), derived from property of their own or from salaries of permanent employments, or from pensions or retirement allowances. In addition to the classes mentioned persons are eligible who for two years have possessed an annual income of 20,000 pesetas, or who have paid into the public treasury a direct tax of 4,000 pesetas, provided that in addition they possess titles of nobility, or have been members of the Cortes, provincial deputies, or mayors in capitals of provinces or in towns of more than 20,000 inhabitants. Appointments are made regularly for life. The conditions under which the quota of 180 elected senators are chosen were defined by a statute of February 8, 1877. One senator is chosen by the clergy in each of the nine archbishoprics; one by each of the six royal academies; one by each of the ten universities; five by the economic societies; and the remaining 150 by electoral colleges in the sev- eral provinces. The electoral college is composed of members of the provincial deputations and of representatives chosen from among the municipal councillors and largest taxpayers of the towns and municipal districts. But no one may become a senator by election who would be ineligible, under the conditions above mentioned, to be appointed to a seat by the crown. And it is required in all cases that to become a sen- ator one must be a Spaniard, must have attained the age of thirty-five, must have the free management of his property, and must not have been subjected to criminal proceedings, nor have been deprived of the exercise of his political rights. The term of elected senators is ten years. One- half of the number is renewed every five years; but upon a dissolution of the elected portion of the chamber by the crown, the quota is renewed integrally. 1 683. The Congress of Deputies: Composition and Election. The lower legislative chamber is composed of deputies chosen directly by the inhabitants of the several electoral districts into which the kingdom is divided. From the adoption of the present constitution until 1890 the 1 Arts. 20-26. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 203-206. 6i8 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE franchise was restricted severely by property qualifications. A reform bill which became law June 29, 1890, however, re-established in effect the scheme of manhood suffrage which had been in operation during the revolutionary epoch 1869-1875. Under the provisions of a law of August 8, 1907, by which the electoral system was further regulated, the franchise is conferred upon all male Spaniards who have attained the age of twenty-five, who have resided in their electoral district not less than two years, and who have not been deprived judicially of their civil rights. 1 Except, indeed, in the case of certain judicial officials and of persons more than seventy years of age, the exercise of the voting privilege is, as in Belgium and in some of the Austrian provinces, compulsory. The constitution requires that there shall be at least one deputy for every 50,000 inhabitants. The total membership of the Congress is at present 406. In the majority of districts but a single deputy is chosen, but in twenty-eight of the larger ones two or more are elected by scrutin de liste, with provision for the representation of minor- ities. In districts in which two or three deputies are to be chosen, each elector votes for one fewer than the number to be elected; in districts where from four to seven are to be chosen, the elector votes for two fewer than the total number; and where the aggregate number is eight to ten, or more than ten, he votes for three or four fewer, respectively. Any Spaniard who is qualified for the exercise of the suffrage is eligible for election, and for indefinite re-election, as a deputy, save that no member of the clergy may be chosen. The term of membership is five years, though by reason of not infrequent dissolutions the period of service is actually briefer. As is true also of senators, deputies receive no pay for their services. 2 684. Sessions and Status of the Chambers. The Cortes, consisting thus of the Senate and the Congress of Deputies, is required by the constitution to be convened by the crown in regular session at least once each year. Extraordinary sessions may be held, and upon the death or incapacitation of the sovereign the chambers must be assem- bled forthwith. To the crown belongs the power not only to convene, but also to suspend and to terminate the sessions, and to dissolve, simultaneously or separately, the Congress and the elective portion of the Senate. In the event, however, of a dissolution, the sovereign is obliged to convene the newly constituted Cortes within the space 1 There is the customary regulation that soldiers and sailors in active service may not vote. 2 J. Vila Serra, Manual de elecciones de Diputados a Cortes (Valencia, 1907); J. Lon y Albareda, Nueva ley electoral de 8 de Agosto de 1907, comentada (Madrid, 1907); M. Vivanco y L. San Martin, La reforma electoral (Madrid, 1907). THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN 619 of three months. Except when it devolves upon the Senate to exercise its purely judicial functions, neither of the chambers may be assembled without the other. In no case may the two chambers sit as a single assembly, or deliberate in the presence of the sovereign. Each body is authorized to judge the qualifications of its members and to frame and adopt its own rules of procedure. The Senate elects its secretaries, but its president and vice-president are designated, for each session, and from the senators themselves, by the crown. The Congress, on the other hand, elects from its membership all of its own officials. Sessions of both chambers are public, though "when secrecy is nec- essary" the doors may be closed. A majority of the members con- stitutes a quorum, and measures are passed by a majority vote. No senator or deputy may be held to account by legal process for any opinion uttered or for any vote cast within the chamber to which he belongs; and, save when taken in the commission of an offense, a member is entitled to all of the safeguards against arrest and judicial proceedings which are extended customarily to members of legislative bodies in constitutional states. 1 685. Functions and Powers of the Cortes. The function of the Cortes is primarily legislative. Each chamber shares with the crown the right to initiate measures, and no proposal can become law until it has received the sanction of the two houses. Rejection of a bill by either chamber, or by the crown, precludes the possibility of a re- appearance of the project during the continuance of the session. Meas- ures relating to taxation and to the public credit must be presented, in the first instance, in the Congress of Deputies, and it is made the specific obligation of the Government every year to lay before that body for examination and approval a budget of revenues and ex- penditures. Only upon authority of law may the Government alienate property belonging to the state, or borrow money on the public credit. Under Spanish constitutional theory the Cortes is the agent of the sovereign nation. It is authorized, therefore, not only to discharge the usual functions of legislation but also to do three other things of fundamental importance. In the first place, it receives from the sovereign, from the heir-apparent, and from the regent or regency of the kingdom, the oath of fidelity to the constitution and the laws. In the second place, under provisions contained within the constitution, 1 It is to be observed that these guarantees are not quite absolute. During the crisis of 1904 the Maura government required the Congress to suspend the legis- lative immunity of no fewer than 140 members, and for the first time since 1834 deputies were handed over to the courts to be tried for offenses of a purely political character. 620 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE it elects the regent or regency and appoints a guardian for a minor sovereign. Finally, to maintain the responsibility of ministers to the lower chamber, and, through it, to the nation, the Congress is author- ized to impeach, and the Senate to try, at any time any member of the Government. 1 VI. POLITICAL PARTIES 686. Party Groups After 1869. Since the dawn of constitutionalism political life in Spain has comprised much of the time a sheer game between the "ins" and the "outs", in which issues have counted for little and the schemings of the caciques, or professional wire-pullers and bosses, have counted for well-nigh everything. For the exercise of independent popular judgment upon fundamental political ques- tions aptitude has been meager and opportunity rare. Political par- ties there have been, and still are, and certain of them have exhibited distinct power of survival. Yet it must be observed that even the stablest of them are essentially the creatures of the political leaders and that at no time have they exhibited the broadly national rootage of political parties in other states of western Europe. Party cleavages in Spain had their beginning early in the nineteenth century, but for the origins of the groups which share in an important manner nowadays in the politics of the kingdom it is not necessary to return to a period more remote than that of the revolution of 1868. Subsequent to the expulsion of Queen Isabella at least four groups were thrown into more or less sharp relief. One was the Carlists, supporters of the claims of Don Carlos and, in respect to political principle, avowed absolutists. A second comprised the Republicans, led by Castelar, whose demand for the establishment of a republic, rejected in 1869, carried the day upon the breakdown of the Amadeo monarchy four years later. Between the Carlists, on the one hand, and the Republicans, on the other, stood the mass of the political leaders, and, so far as may be judged, of the nation also. All were agreed upon the general principle of constitutional monarchy. But upon the precise nature of the government which had been established and of the public policy which ought to be pursued there was, and could be, little agreement. The consequence was a sharp-cut cleavage, by which there were set off in opposition to each other two large parties, the 1 Arts. 32-47. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 207-209. On the Cortes may be consulted, in addition to the constitutional treatises mentioned on pp. 612-613, A. Borrego, Historia de las Cortes de Espano durante el siglo XIX. (Madrid, 1885), and A. Pons y Umbert, Organizaci6n y funcionamento de las Cortes segun las con- stituciones espanolas y reglamentacion de dicho cuerpo colegislador (Madrid, 1906). THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN 621 Conservatives and the Liberals; and, save for the brief ascendancy of the Republicans in 1873-1874, it is these two parties which have shared between them the government of the kingdom from the estab- lishment of the limited monarchy in 1869 to the present day. Both of these leading parties have been pledged continuously to maintain the constitution and all of the popular privileges freedom of speech, liberty of the press, safety of property, the right of establishing asso- ciations, and the like guaranteed by that instrument. Upon the methods by which these things shall be maintained the parties orig- inally divided and still are disagreed. Fundamentally, the policy of the Liberals is to commit the guardianship of public privileges to the courts of justice, while that of the Conservatives is to retain it rather in the hands of the ministerial and administrative authorities. In the normal course of development the Liberal party has tended to draw to itself those liberal elements generally which are satisfied to rely upon legal means for the realization of their purposes, e. g., the free- traders, the labor forces, and many of the socialists. Similarly the Conservative party has attracted a considerable proportion of the reactionaries, especially the Ultramontanes, by whom special stress is placed upon the maintenance of peace with the Vatican, and many representatives of the old Moderate party which was swept out of existence by the overturn of 1868. 687. Liberals and Conservatives : Canovas and Sagasta. The first public act of Alfonso XII., following his proclamation as king, De- cember 29, 1874, was to call to his side in the capacity of premier Canovas del Castillo, by whom was formed a strong Conservative ministry. Consequent upon the convocation of the Cortes of 1876 and the adoption of the new constitution of that year, the various groups of Liberals were drawn into a fairly compact opposition party, supporting the Alfonsist dynasty and the new constitutional regime, but proposing to labor, by peaceful means, for the restoration of as many as possible of the more liberal features of the constitution of 1869. It is of interest to observe that the party, in its earlier years, was encouraged by Canovas, on the theory that there would be pro- vided by it a natural and harmless outlet for inevitable ebullitions of the liberal spirit. Under the able leadership of Sagasta the develop- ment of the party was rapid, and in 1881 Canovas determined to give the country a taste of Liberal rule. Following a collusive " defeat" the premier retired, whereupon Sagasta was designated premier and a Liberal ministry was established which held office somewhat more than two years. By the Republicans and other radical forces the ministry of Sagasta was harassed unsparingly, just as had been that 622 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of Canovas, and the actual working policies of the two differed in scarcely any particular. Within the Liberal ranks, indeed, a " dynastic Left" became so troublesome that Sagasta, after two years, yielded office to the leader of the disaffected elements, Posada Herrera. The only effect of the experiment was to demonstrate that between the Conservatives led by Canovas and the Liberals led by Sagasta there was no room for a third party. In 1885 Canovas returned to power, but for only a brief interval, for upon the establishment of the regency of Queen Christina, follow- ing the death of Alfonso XII., November 25, 1885, Sagasta was called upon to form the first of a series of ministries over which he presided continuously through the ensuing five years. In the memorable Pact of El Pardo it had been agreed between the Liberal and Con- servative leaders that each would assist the other in the defense of the dynasty and of the constitution, and although Sagasta had avowed the intention of reintroducing certain principles of the constitution of 1869 he was pledged to proceed in a cautious manner and a concilia- tory spirit. The elections of 1884 yielded a substantial Conservative majority in both chambers of the Cortes. None the less the Con- servatives accorded the Liberal government their support, until by the elections of 1886 the Liberals themselves acquired control of the two houses. Throughout three years Castelar and the more moderate Republicans co-operated actively with the Government in the re- introduction of jury trial, the revival of liberty of the press, and a number of other liberal measures; but the Government was annoyed continually by attacks and intrigues participated in by both the less conciliatory Republicans and the Carlists. The crowning achievement of the Sagasta ministry was the carrying through of the manhood suffrage act of June 29, 1890. Within a month after the promulgation of the suffrage law the regent gave Sagasta to understand that the time had arrived for a change of leaders. The Canovas ministry which was thereupon established endured two and a half years, and was given distinction principally by its introduction, in 1892, of the thoroughgoing protectionist regime which prevails in Spain to-day. The Conservatives falling into discord, Canovas resigned, December 8, 1892; and at the elections of the following year the Conservatives carried only one hundred seats in the Chamber. During the period from December, 1892, to March, 1895, Sagasta was again at the helm. 688. The American War and Ministerial Changes, 1895-1902. Between 1895 and 1901 there was a rapid succession of ministries, virtually all of which were both made and unmade by situations aris- THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN 623 ing from the war in Cuba and the subsequent contest with the United States. In the hope of averting American intervention a new Canovas government, established in 1895, brought forward a measure for the introduction of home rule in Cuba, but while the bill was pending, Canovas was assassinated, August 9, 1897, and the proposition failed. The new Conservative cabinet of General Azcarraga soon retired, and although the Sagasta government which succeeded recalled General Weyler from Cuba and inaugurated a policy of conciliation, the situa- tion had got beyond control and war with the United States ensued. By the succession of Spanish defeats the popularity of the Liberal regime was strained to the breaking point, and at the close of the war Sagasta's ministry gave place to a ministry formed by the new Con- servative leader Silvela. The elections of April 16, 1899, yielded the Silvelists a majority and the ministry, reconstituted September 28 of the same year, retained power until March 6, 1901. At that date the Liberals gained the upper hand once more; and, with two brief in- tervals, Sagasta remained in office until December 3, 1902. Within scarcely more than a month after his final retirement, the great Liberal leader passed away. 689. Parties Since the Death of Sagasta. A second Silvela minis- try, established December 6, 1902, brought the Conservatives again into power. This ministry, which lasted but a few months, was fol- lowed successively by four other Conservative governments, as follows: that of Villa verde, May, 1903, to December, 1903; that of Antonio Maura y Montanes, December, 1903, to December, 1904; the sec- ond of General Azcarraga, December, 1904, to January, 1905; and the second of Villa verde, from January, 1905, to June, 1905. Of these the most virile was that of Maura, a former Liberal, whose spirit of conciliation and progressiveness entitled him to be considered one of the few real statesmen of Spain in the present generation. Following the death of Sagasta the Liberals passed through a period of demoralization, but under the leadership of Montero Rios they gradually recovered, and in June, 1905, the government of Villaverde was succeeded by one presided over by Rios. At the elections of September 10, 1905, the Ministerialists secured 227 seats and the Conservatives of all groups but 126 (the remainder being scattered); but discord arose and, November 29 following, the cabinet of Rios resigned. Upon the great ecclesiastical questions of the day civil marriage, the law of associations, and the secularization of education both parties, but especially the Liberals, were disrupted completely, and during the period of but little more than a year between the re- tirement of Rios and the return to power of Maura, January 24, 1907, 624 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE no fewer than five ministries sought successively to grapple with the situation. Under Maura a measure of stability was restored. The premier, although a Catholic, was moderately anti-clerical. His principal purpose was to maintain order and to elevate the plane of politics by a reform of the local government. At the elections of April 21, 1907, the Conservatives won a victory so decisive that in the Congress they secured a majority of 88 seats over all other groups combined. 1 The fall of the Maura ministry, October 21, 1909, came in consequence largely of the Moroccan crisis, but more immediately by reason of embarrassment incident to the execution of the anarchist- philosopher Sehor Ferrer. The Liberal ministry of Moret, constituted October 22, 1909, lacked substantial parliamentary support and was short-lived. February 9, 1910, there was established under Canalejas, leader of the democratic group, a cabinet representative of various Liberal and Radical elements and made up almost wholly of men new to ministerial office. 2 690. The Elections of 1910. The first important act of Canalejas was to persuade the sovereign, as Moret had vainly sought to do, to dissolve the Cortes, to the end that the Liberal ministry might appeal to the country. The elections were held May 10. They were of peculiar interest by reason of the fact that now for the first time there was put into operation an electoral measure of the recent Maura gov- ernment whereby it is required that every candidate for a seat in the lower chamber shall be placed in nomination by two ex-senators, two ex-deputies, or three members of the general council of the province. This regulation had been opposed by the Republicans and by the radical elements generally on the ground that it put in the hands of the Government power virtually to dictate candidacies in many electoral districts, and the results seemed fairly to sustain the charge. May i, in accordance with a provision of the law, 120 deputies upwards of one-third of the total number to be chosen were declared elected, by reason of having no competitors. Of these 70 were Liberals, 39 were Conservatives, and the remainder belonged to minor groups. In the districts in which there were contests the Government also won decisively a few days later, as it did likewise in the senatorial elections of May 15. The results of the elections, as officially reported, may be tabulated as follows: 1 The exact distribution of seats was as follows: Conservatives, 256; Liberals, 66; Solidarists, 53; Republicans, 32; Democrats, 9; Independents, 8. 2 November 12, 1912, Premier Canalejas was assassinated. He was succeeded by the president of the Congress of Deputies, Alvaro de Romanones, under whom the Liberal ministry was continued in office. THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN 625 SENATE c< DJ Liberals )NGRESS i OF EPUTIES 2 2O Elected 'ndirectly by the people, i May 15 92 Elected by the corpora- ions, etc., May 15 ii Total elected Dissenting Liberals. Conservatives IO7 3 7 3 42 Republicans 4.O 2 i 4~ Carlists 4 o 4 Regionalists 8 A i port of the Charter in its new and liberalized form. 698. Party Rivalries: the Rotativos. In the constitutional history of the kingdom the reign of Pedro V. (1853-1861) possesses slight importance. There was less civil strife than during the preceding generation, but ministries took office in rapid succession and little improvement was realized in practical political conditions. The period covered by the more extended reign of Luiz I. (1861-1889) was of the same character, save that its later years were given some dis- tinction by certain developments in the party situation. The death of the old Chartist leader Saldanha in 1876 was followed, indeed, by the appearance of a political alignment that was essentially new. Already the Regeneradores, representing the Chartist-Septembrist 1 So called from the coup tftlat of September, 1836, mentioned shortly. 2 E. Bavoux, Costa Cabral; notes historiques sur sa carrieTe et son ministfre (Paris, 1846). 632 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE coalition of 1852, had disintegrated, and in 1877 the more radical elements of the defunct party, known at first as the Historic Left, were reorganized under the name of the Progressistas, or Progressives. The new conservative elements, on the other hand, carried on the traditions and preserved the name of the original Regeneradores. In the Cortes the Progressistas assumed the position of a Constitutional Left and the surviving Regeneradores that of a Conservative Right. Both were monarchical and both were attached to the existing consti- tution, differing only in respect to the amendments which they would have preferred to introduce in that instrument. Of remaining parties two were of importance, i. e., the Miguelists, representing still the interests of absolutism, and the Republicans, who first acquired definite party organization in 1881. Between 1877 and 1910 the Regeneradores and the Progressistas shared in rotation the spoils of office with such regularity that the two acquired popularly the nickname of the rotatiws. Both were domi- nated by professional politicians whose skill in manipulating popular elections was equalled only by then" greed for the spoils of victory. Successful operation of a parliamentary system presupposes at least a fairly healthy public opinion. But in Portugal, upwards of four-fifths of whose inhabitants are illiterate, 1 there has been no such favoring condition, and the opportunity for the demagogue and the cacique has been correspondingly tempting. Parties have been regularly mere cliques and party politics only factional strife. Throughout the period corruption was abundant and such public feeling as existed was stifled systematically. Elections were supervised in every detail by the provincial governors; agents of the Government were em- ployed to instruct the people in their choice of representatives; and the voters did habitually precisely what they were told to do. No one ever expected an election to show results adverse to the Government. Especially unscrupulous was the manner in which the preponderating parties obstructed systematically the election of Republican and Independent deputies. As late as 1906 but one Republican was re- turned to the Cortes, although it was a matter of common knowledge that in many constituencies the party commanded a clear majority. 699. The Dictatorship of Franco, 1906-1908. From June, 1900, to October, 1904, the Regeneradores were in power, with Ribeiro as premier. During this period two national elections, in 1900 and in 1904, yielded the controlling party substantial majorities. From October, 1904, the Progressive ministry of Luciano de Castro occupied the field, but in the spring of 1906 there took place a series of minis- 1 By official calculation, 78.6 per cent in 1900. THE GOVERNMENT OF PORTUGAL 633 terial crises in the course of which Robeiro returned for a brief interval to power. The election of April 26, 1906, gave the Regeneradores 113 seats, the Progressistas 30, and the Republicans i. The ministerial changes by which this election was accompanied prepared the way for the establishment of the regime known in recent Portuguese history as the dictadura, or dictatorship. The new premier, Joao Franco, was one of the abler and more conscientious men in public life. Originally a Regenerator, as early as 1901 he had led a secession from the party, and in 1903 he had organized definitely a third party, the Liberal Regenerators, whose avowed end was the establishment in Portugal of true parliamentarism. In 1906 a " Liberal Concentration'* was effected between Franco's followers and the Progressistas, led by Castro, and the outcome was the calling, May 19, 1906, of Franco to the premiership. That office he assumed with the determination to introduce and to carry through an elaborate programme of sorely needed fiscal and administrative reforms. If possible, his methods were to be entirely constitutional; if not, as nearly so as might prove practicable. The Cortes elected April 26 met June 6 and, being found unpromising, was dissolved. During the campaign which followed the Regenerador party, to which Franco nominally belonged, split, the Franquistas, or supporters of the premier, taking the name of New Regenerators. The returns yielded by the election of August 12 were: New Regenerators, 73 seats; Progressives, 43; Old Regenerators, 23; Republicans, 4; with scattering seats distributed among other groups. The sitting of the Cortes which began September 29, 1906, was one of the stormiest on record. In May, 1907, when the Government seemed on the point of collapse and it was supposed that Franco would resign, the indomitable premier effected a coup d'ttat whereby the ministry was reconstituted, the Cortes was dissolved, and several important bills which were pending were proclaimed to have acquired the force of law. During the ensuing twelvemonth the government was that of a benevolent but uncompromising dictatorship. Sup- ported by the king, the army, and a considerable body of partisans, Franco succeeded in carrying through the major portion of his reform programme. But he was opposed by the Republicans, by the pro- fessional politicians of the older parties, and by the entire hierarchy of administrative and judicial officials who shrank from impending investigation. His task was enhanced tremendously by the growing unpopularity of King Carlos, and in defense of the sovereign it was found necessary to deprive the House of Peers of its judicial functions, to replace the district and municipal councils by commissions named by the crown, and, in short, to suspend virtually all remaining vestiges 634 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of popular government, as well as the various guarantees of individual liberty. 700. Restoration of Normal Conditions. February i, 1908, when the situation bordered on revolution, King Carlos and the crown prince Louis Philippe were assassinated and the dictatorship of Franco was brought abruptly to an end. The king's second son, who suc- ceeded under the title of Manoel II., called together an extraordinary junta of ministers and party leaders, at whose instigation the im- perious premier resigned and withdrew from the country; whereupon, under the premiership of Admiral Ferreira do Amaral, there was formed a coalition ministry, representative of all of the monarchist parties. The administrative commissions created by Franco were dissolved; the civil list, concerning which there had been grave con- troversy, was reduced; the House of Peers was reconstituted; the elec- tion of a new Cortes was ordered; and parliamentary institutions, suspended for a year, were revived. The various reforms, on the other hand, for which the dictator had been responsible were brought likewise to an end. The election of April 5, attended by grave dis- orders, yielded the Government a decisive majority and, April 29, the new sovereign formally opened the first Cortes of his reign and took oath to support the constitution. In the Chamber the old balance between the Regeneradores and the Progressistas reappeared. Of the former there were 61; of the latter, 59. The Republicans had 7 seats; a group of "Nationalists," 3; the Independents, i; and the "Amaral- ists," detached supporters of the ministry, 17. Before the end of the year the Government lost its majority, and December 24 a new coalition cabinet was made up by Campos Henriques, a former minister of justice. 1 II. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE KINGDOM 701. The Constitution. Before speaking of the revolution of 1910, in consequence of which the monarchy was overthrown and the present republic was established, it is desirable that brief allusion be made to the governmental system of the earlier regime. The fundamental law 1 On the political history of Portugal since the establishment of constitutionalism see Cambridge Modern History, XI., Chap. 20, XII., Chap. 10; and Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire Generate, XL, Chap. 9, XII., Chap. 9. A serviceable general work is J. P. Oliveira Martins, Historia de Portugal (4th ed., Lisbon, 1901). An older and more detailed treatise is H. Schaefer, Geschichte von Portugal (2d ed., Hamburg, 1874), and a useful survey is R. de Vezeley, Le Portugal politique (Paris, 1890). For a good brief survey of Portuguese party politics see A. Marvaud, La crise en Portugal et les Elections d'avril 1908, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, July, 1908. THE GOVERNMENT OF PORTUGAL 635 in operation in 1910 was the Carta Constitutional of 1826, remodelled and liberalized by numerous amendments. The revision accom- plished by the Additional Act of 1852 has been mentioned. An amend- ment of July 24, 1885, provided for the gradual extinction of the right of hereditary peers to sit in the upper house and for the representation, in the Deputies, of minorities; while three amendments of importance during the reign of Carlos I. (1889-1908) were: (i) that of March 28, 1895, whereby the number of deputies was reduced from 180 to 120 and the qualifications requisite for the exercise of the suffrage were overhauled; (2) that of September 25 of the same year whereby the elective portion of the House of Peers was abolished; and (3) that of August 8, 1901, by which the conditions of election to the House of Deputies were revised. In its final form the constitution was an instrument of unusual length, comprising eight "titles" and 145 arti- cles, some of which were very comprehensive. 1 702. The Crown and the Ministry. Provision was made for the exercise of four distinct categories of powers, i. e., executive, modera- tive, legislative, and judicial. Of these the first two were lodged in the sovereign, the third in the sovereign and Cortes conjointly, and the fourth in tribunals established under provision of the constitution. The crown was vested permanently in the descendants of Dona Maria II., of the House of Braganza, and, in default thereof, in the nearest collateral line. The succession was regulated on the principle of primogeniture, with preference to the male line, and during a sover- eign's minority the regency devolved upon the nearest relative, accord- ing to the order of succession, who had attained the age of twenty-five. Associated with the sovereign was a ministry and a council of state. The ministry consisted of a premier, usually without portfolio, and a variable number of heads of departments (in 1910, seven), 2 and it was a principle of the constitution that, the crown being legally irresponsi- ble, no executive act might be adjudged valid unless signed by one or more of the members of the ministerial group. For all of their acts the ministers were responsible nominally to the Cortes, although in point 1 The text of the constitution was published by the state under the title of Carta Constitucional da Monarchia Portugueza . . . e Diplomas Correlatives (Lisbon, 1890). An annotated translation is in Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 145-179- An excellent treatise is J. J. Tavares de Medeiros, Das Staatsrecht des Konigs- reichs Portugal (Freiburg, 1892), in Marquardsen's Handbuch. Important Portu- guese works include L. P. Coimbre, Estudios sobre a Carta Constitucional de 1814 e Acto Addicional de 1852 (Lisbon, 1878-1880), and Coelho da Rocha, Ensaio sobre a Historia do Governo e da Legislacao de Portugal. 2 Foreign Affairs, Interior, Finance, Justice and Worship, Wa?, Marine and Colonies, and Public Works. 636 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE of fact the turbulent state of politics rendered such responsibility nearly impossible to enforce. The council of state was a body com- posed of the crown prince (when of the age of eighteen) and of twelve men appointed by the king for life, usually from present or past minis- ters. It was required that the council be consulted in all affairs of weight and in general measures of public administration, especially those relating to the declaration of war, the conclusion of peace, and the conduct of diplomatic negotiations. 1 Aside from participation in legislation, the powers of the crown (exercised at least nominally through the intermediary of the ministers and councillors) were, as has been said, of two categories, executive and moderative. The powers of an executive character were of the usual sort, i. e., the appointment of civil, military, and ecclesiastical officials; the conduct of foreign relations; the promulgation of the laws, and of decrees, instructions, and regulations requisite to the proper execution of the laws; the ordering, not less frequently than quad- rennially, of an election of a new Cortes; and the supervision, in con- formity with the constitution, of "all things which bear upon the internal and external security of the state." 2 Among modern con- stitutions those of Portugal and Brazil are unique in the distinction drawn between powers that are executive and powers that are " mod- erative." Under the head of moderative powers the Portuguese con- stitution vested in the crown the nomination of peers, the convening of the Cortes in extraordinary session, approval of the measures of the Cortes to the end that they might acquire the force of law, the pro- roguing and adjourning of the Cortes and the dissolving of the House of Deputies, the appointing and dismissing of ministers, the granting of amnesties, and the remitting or reducing of penalties imposed upon offenders by judicial sentence. The theory was that these were powers which the sovereign exercised in the capacity of mediator between the several organs of the governmental system, and by the constitution it was declared that this moderative power was the keystone of the entire political organization. The distinction, however, while from a certain point of view logical enough, does not appear to have possessed much practical importance. 703. The Cortes. Powers of a legislative character were vested in the sovereign conjointly with a parliament of two chambers, the Camara dos Pares, or House of Peers, and the Camara dos Deputados, or House of Deputies. Collectively, the two houses were known as the Cortes Feraes, or, more briefly, the Cortes. Until 1885 the House of *Arts. 107-112. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 168-169. 'Arts. 75-77. Ibid., II., 162-164. THE GOVERNMENT OF PORTUGAL 637 Peers consisted of members of two classes, those who sat by hereditary right and those who were nominated by the crown for life. By the constitutional amendment of July 24, 1885, hereditary peerages were put in the way of gradual abolition and it was stipulated that when they should have been extinguished the chamber should be composed of princes of the royal blood, the archbishops and bishops of Portugal proper, 100 members appointed by the king for life, and 50 members elected every new parliament by the lower chamber. By amendment of September 25, 1895, however, the 50 elective peerages were abolished and the number of royal appointees was reduced to 90. In 1910, therefore, the chamber was made up of (i) princes of the royal blood who had attained the age of twenty-five; (2) surviving peers whose hereditary right antedated 1885, together with their immediate suc- cessors; (3) the Patriarch of Lisbon and the archbishops and bishops of the continental territory of the kingdom; and (4) the 90 life peers nominated by the crown. In the nomination of peers the crown was restricted only by the requirement that members must have attained the age of forty and must be able to meet a considerable property qualification. The House of Deputies, as regulated by the law of August 8, 1901, was composed of 155 members, of whom 148 represented the 26 electoral circles of Portugal, the Azores, and Madeira, 1 and 7 repre- sented the colonies. By amendment of 1885 provision was made for the representation of minorities, and of the 155 members in 1910, 35 sat as minority representatives. This result was attained through an arrangement whereby in circles which elected more than one deputy each elector voted for one or two fewer than the number of seats to be filled. Deputies were chosen by direct election, and in the choice all male citizens twenty-one years of age were entitled to participate, provided they paid taxes aggregating 500 reis (about 56 cents) an- nually or were able to read and write. Convicts, beggars, bankrupts, domestic servants, workingmen permanently employed by the state, and soldiers and sailors below the rank of commissioned officer were disqualified. In point of fact, the prevalence of poverty and of illit- eracy operated to confine the franchise within very narrow limits. Peers, naturalized aliens, persons not qualified to vote, and certain employees of the state were ineligible for election, and deputies were required to possess an income of not less than 400 milreis ($425) annually, or to be graduates of a professional, secondary, or higher school. After 1892 no deputies, save those representing the colonies, were paid salaries. 1 The Azores and Madeira are regarded as integral parts of the nation. 638 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE Sessions of the Cortes were required to be opened by the crown on the second day of January of each year. According to the amendment of July 24, 1885, a regular session lasted three months and each Cortes, unless sooner dissolved, lasted three years. The president and vice- president of the House of Peers were appointed by the crown; like- wise the corresponding officials of the House of Deputies, from a list of five nominees presented by that body. Each chamber was author- ized to choose its own secretaries, to pass upon the qualifications of its members, and to frame its rules of procedure. Except at times when the welfare of the state demanded secrecy, sessions were required to be public. To the lower chamber was committed the initiative in all matters pertaining to taxation, the recruiting of troops, the investiga- tion of the administrative offices, and the consideration of propositions submitted by the executive. Upon it, likewise, was conferred exclusive power to impeach ministers and councillors of state. The right to initiate measures in general was vested in each of the two houses, as well as in the Government. Ministers were privileged to attend legisla- tive sessions and to participate in debate. It was required that the sovereign should give or refuse his approval of every measure within a month after it should have been presented to him. 1 704. The Judiciary and Local Government. The judicial hierarchy consisted of 193 courts of first instance, one in each of an equal number of comarcas, or districts; three courts of appeal, sitting at Lisbon, Oporto, and Ponta Delgada (in the Azores) ; and a Supreme Court at Lisbon. Judges were appointed by the crown, and were irremovable save in consequence of judicial sentence. In the trial of criminal cases the English jury system was in vogue, although it operated but indifferently. The functions of the Supreme Court were those of hearing appeals from the inferior tribunals, trying cases involving judges of the appellate courts and members of the diplomatic corps, and deciding conflicts of jurisdiction. 2 Early in the nineteenth century continental Portugal was divided for administrative purposes into six provinces, delimited in a large measure in accordance with the physical configuration of the country. In 1836 the province ceased to be an administrative unit and, after a period of readjustment, there was established by law of March 18.. 1842, an administrative hierarchy which in its more important aspects has survived to the present day. Under that measure the realm was divided into 21 districts (17 continental and 4 insular), 292 concelhos, or communes (263 continental and 29 insular), and 3,960 /regMOtffer, or 1 Arts. 45-62. Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 156-159. 2 Arts. 118-131. Ibid., II., 169-171. THE GOVERNMENT OF PORTUGAL 639 parishes (3,788 continental and 172 insular). Until 1910 the govern- ment of the district was vested in a commission consisting of two mem- bers appointed by the central authorities and three elected triennially by delegates from the communal councils. Of the two centrally appointed members, one, the governor, presided over the commission; the other was an administrative auditor. Among the functions of the commission was that of sitting as an administrative court. The com- mune was governed by a mayor, appointed by the central authorities on nomination of the governor of the district, and a council of five to fifteen members elected on a single ticket by the communal voters. The council was presided over, not by the mayor, but by one of its own members. The governing agencies of the parish were an elected council (junta de parochia), presided over by the parish priest, and the regidor, named by the district governor to represent the interests of the central government. Throughout the entire system the preponderat- ing fact was the thoroughgoing centralization which, through the governors, mayors, and regadores, the authorities at Lisbon were able to maintain. III. THE REVOLUTION OF 1910 706. Political Unsettlement, 1908-1910. The period of two and a half years which elapsed between the accession of Manoel II., in February, 1908, and his deposition, in October, 1910, was one of con- tinued political stress. The sovereign was youthful, inexperienced, and lacking in political training. His advisers were divided in their counsels and impelled largely by selfish motives, and in the teeth of rapidly spreading republican and socialist propaganda the old dynastic parties kept up unremittingly their unseemly recriminations. In February, 1909, the king called into consultation the leaders of the various monarchist groups and sought to impress upon them the necessity of co-operation, and when the Cortes was convened, March i, the Speech from the Throne announced optimistically a programme of constructive legislation, embracing, among other things, the enact- ment of more liberal press laws, a reform of primary education, and a readjustment of taxation. Within the Cortes, however, it was found impossible to carry any one of the measures proposed and, March 29, the Henriquez ministry, after only three months in office, resigned. During the remainder of the year three successive ministries were set up: that of General Sebastiano Telles, which lasted only from April n until May 4; that of Wencelao de Lima, extending from May 4 to December 21; and that of Beirao, which continued from December 21 to early June of the following year. The De Lima cabinet was formed 640 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE from elements which stood largely outside the swirl of party politics, but the Republican and Regenerador opposition was so intense that nothing could be accomplished by it. The Beirao government by which it was succeeded was composed entirely of Progressives. The Speech from the Throne at the convening of the Cortes, January 2, 1910, ignored completely the grim realities of the political situation. Ostensibly to afford the Beirao ministry an opportunity to formulate a programme, the session was adjourned until March 3, at which time the members reassembled, only to be sent back again to their homes until June i. At the second reassembling the ministry was opposed with such virulence that it at once retired and, after some delay, the Regeneradors came into power under Teixeira de Sousa. The Cortes was dissolved and a national election, accompanied by grave disorders, was held, August 28. At the election the Regeneradors obtained 80 seats, the Progressives 43, the Republicans 14 (twice as many as they had ever obtained before), and the Independents 2. 1 The new Cortes assembled September 23; but two days later it was adjourned until December 12, and, in point of fact, it never sat again. 706. Overthrow of the Monarchy. During many months a plot had been ripening in Republican circles looking toward the deposition of the king, the overthrow of the monarchy, and the proclamation of a republic. By reason of the confusion and repression which pre- vailed perennially in Portuguese politics, the actual strength, numer- ically and otherwise, of republicanism in the kingdom in 1910 cannot be known. But it is sufficiently clear that the propaganda of the past thirty years had borne much fruit and that among the artisan, tra'der, and small burgher classes, and especially in the ranks of the army and the navy, the enemies of the monarchy had come to be numerous and influential. The leaders of the republican movement represented, on the whole, the best educated and most progressive elements of the country largely lawyers, physicians, journalists and other men of the professions and of business. In the later summer of 1910 various intimations of a far-reaching revolutionary plot were received by the Government and the date (September 14) which was at one time fixed for the insurrection proved an impracticable one because the au- thorities became aware of the project and subverted the republican plans by ordering the warships on that day to quit the Tagus. Within official circles it was generally assumed that the revolutionists, balked once, would return to the project. The crash came, however, at a 1 Ten of the fourteen Republican deputies were elected in Lisbon. The popular vote in that city was: Republicans, 15,104; Monarchists of all parties, 9,108. In 1908 the numbers were 13,074 and 10,982 respectively. THE GOVERNMENT OF PORTUGAL 641 moment when the Government was entirely off its guard, and its effects were unexpectedly summary. The immediate incident by which it was precipitated was the assassination in Lisbon, October 3, of a distinguished Republican member of the Cortes, Dr. Miguel Bom- barda. Whether justly or not, the assassination was interpreted by the populace as a political crime, and to the disaffected elements of the army and navy the occasion seemed ripe for the execution of the con- templated coup. October 4 open revolt broke out among the national troops, and during the ensuing forty-eight hours a handful of soldiers and sailors, aided by armed civilians, acquired the mastery of the capital, put the king to flight, won over the country to their cause, and proclaimed the establishment of a republican form of government. The revolutionists were organized, the royalists were not, and the defeat of the latter was complete. It was also substantially bloodless. King Manoel, and the queen-mother Amelia, contriving an escape from the royal palace, made their way to Eraceira, and thence to Gibraltar. Subsequently they were conveyed to England. 707. Measures of the Provisional Government. Meanwhile, October 5, there was established at Lisbon a provisional government composed of nine ministers and presided over by the scholar and literatteur, Theophile Braga. The members of this government were drawn principally from the group of Republican deputies representing the Lisbon constituencies. A few had held high office under the mon- archy, but most of them, including Braga, were men of little or no experience in administrative work. The flight of the king and the collapse of the monarchist cause cleared the way for a speedy estab- lishment of the new order, and without awaiting a formal remodelling of the constitution, the Braga government proceeded to carry into execution a number of features of the Republican programme. Oc- tober 7 it promised amnesty to political and press exiles, the revocation of various illiberal press and judicial laws, the suppression of summary magisterial powers, and a long list of other administrative and judicial reforms. October 18 it abolished the monarchy and proscribed forever the royal house of Braganza. On the same day it abolished likewise the Council of State and the House of Peers, together with all hered- itary titles and privileges. In the course of further measures of reform relating to public finance, agriculture, education, religion, and social welfare, it issued a new electoral law and effected arrangements for the convening of a national assembly to which should be committed the task of framing a republican constitution. The electoral decree of March 15, 1911, conferred the franchise upon all Portuguese citizens of the age of twenty-one who under the monarchy were entitled to its 642 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE exercise, and upon all, in addition, who were able to read and write, barring soldiers, bankrupts, and ex-convicts. The two cities, Lisbon, and Oporto, were created electoral districts in each of which eight members were to be chosen by scrutin de liste after the Belgian, or d'Hondt, plan of proportional representation, and the remainder of the country (including the colonies) was divided into districts in each of which four members were to be chosen, also with provision for the representation of minorities. 708. The Constitution Framed and the Government Organized. The elections to the Constituent Assembly took place May 28, 1911. There were no monarchist candidates and, there having been neither time nor occasion for the appearance of serious differences among the Republicans, the event was attended by little excitement and by no disorder. In many districts the candidates approved by the Provi- sional Government were unopposed. The Assembly was convened June 19. By unanimous vote of its 192 members the decree by which the monarchy had been abolished and the Braganza dynasty banished was enacted into law, whereupon the body addressed itself to the framing of a budget and the adoption of organic laws relating to the nature and manner of exercise of the political powers of the republic. A draft of the constitution, framed by the Republican leaders, was read to the delegates July 3, and August 18 it was voted, amid general acclamations, almost without modification. The presidential election was fixed for August 23. Of the two principal candidates, Dr. Manoel Arriaga represented the more moderate wing of the Republican element, Dr. Machado Santos (the provisional president) the more radical. Dr. Arriaga was elected by a vote of 121 to 86. August 24 the Assem- bly terminated its proceedings and the new constitution was put in operation. The first cabinet, presided over by Joao Chagas, was announced at the beginning of September. It was at this point that France, Spain, and a number of other European powers for the first time recognized officially the republic's existence. The difficulties encountered by the new regime royalist invasions, outbreaks of disaffection, strikes, lack of funds were numerous. Not the least serious was the inevitable rise of differences among the Republicans themselves. During the autumn of 1911 the Moderates split into two rival groups, and the more important of them, led by Dr. Almeida, definitely withdrew its support from the Government. The result was a ministerial crisis, and November 7 the Chagas cabinet resigned. The new "ministry of concentration" formed by the radical Vascon- cellos was composed of eight members divided almost equally between the Moderates and the Democrats. In more recent days the lines of THE GOVERNMENT OF PORTUGAL 643 party cleavage have tended to be accentuated and the stability, if not the existence, of the republic to be increasingly menaced. In June, 1912, a new ministry was constituted under Leite, in which all of the groups in the lower chamber were represented. There is reason to apprehend that, in the event of the survival of the republic, the out- come will be at best but the resuscitation, under other names and forms, of the long-endured rotativist regime. IV. THE CONSTITUTION OF 1911 709. Constitutional Guarantees: Amendment. Aside from five articles of a temporary nature, the constitution of 1911 is arranged in eighty- two articles, grouped in seven "titles" or divisions. The two divisions of principal length are those which relate to the rights and liberties of the individual and the organs and exercise of sovereign power. The guarantees extended the individual comprise a bill of rights hardly paralleled in comprehensiveness among the constitu- tions of European nations. To Portuguese citizens and to aliens res- ident in the country are pledged full liberty of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, liberty of association, inviolability of domicile and of property, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, privacy of correspondence, and freedom of employment and of trade save only when restriction is required for the public good. Law is declared to be uniform for all and no public privilege may be enjoyed by reason of birth or title. No one may be required to pay a tax which has not been levied by the legislative chambers or by an administrative authority specifically qualified by law, and, save in case of enumerated offenses of serious import, no one may be imprisoned except upon accusation according to the forms of law. No one may be compelled to perform an act, or to refrain from the performance of an act, except by warrant of law. The constitution is subject to amendment under regulations of a somewhat curious character. Revision of the fundamental law may be undertaken normally by Congress at the end of every decennial period, the Congress whose mandate coincides with the period of revision being endowed automatically with constituent powers and the process of revision differing hi no respect from that of ordinary legisla- tion. At the end of a five-year period from the date of promulgation, however, amendment may be undertaken, providing two-thirds of the members of the chambers sitting jointly vote favorably. Under all circumstances amendments must be specific rather than general, and in no case may an amendment be received or debated which has for its object the abolition of the republican form of government. 644 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE 710. The President and the Ministry. Sovereignty is lodged in the nation, and the organs of the sovereign will are the independent but supposedly harmonious executive, legislative, and judicial authorities. The powers of the executive are exercised by the President and the ministers. The President is chosen by the two houses of Congress assembled in joint session sixty days prior to the expiration of the presidential term. Voting is by secret ballot and a two-thirds majority is required for election, although in default of such a majority choice is made on the third ballot by simple plurality between the two can- didates receiving the largest number of votes. If the office falls vacant unexpectedly the chambers choose in the same manner a president to complete the unexpired term. The term is four years, and after re- tiring from office an ex-president may not be re-elected for a full term prior to the lapse of four more years. Only native Portuguese citizens at least thirty-five years of age are eligible. Without the permission of Congress the President may not absent himself from the national territory, and he may be removed from office by the vote of two-thirds of the members of the chambers sitting jointly. The duties of the President are, among other things, to negotiate treaties and to repre- sent the nation in its external relations generally, to appoint and dis- miss the ministers and public officials, to summon the Congress in extraordinary session, to promulgate the laws of Congress, together -with the instructions and regulations necessary for their enforcement, and to remit and commute penalties. If two-thirds of the members of the chambers so request, projected treaties of alliance must be laid before Congress, and the appointment and suspension of public officials may be effected only on proposal of the ministers. Every act of the President must be countersigned by at least one minister, and every minister is responsible politically and legally for all acts which he countersigns or executes. One member of the ministerial group, designated by the President, exercises the functions of premier. Min- isters may be members of Congress, and in any case they are privileged to appear in the chambers to defend their acts. Among offenses for which ministers may be held to account in the ordinary tribunals the constitution specifies all acts which tend to subvert the independence of the nation, the inviolability of the constitution and of the republican form of government, the political and legal rights of the individual, the internal peace of the country, or the probity of administrative procedure. The penalty imposed for guilt in respect to any of these offenses is removal from office and disqualification to hold office there- after. 1 1 Provisions relating to the executive are contained in Arts. 36-55. THE GOVERNMENT OF PORTUGAL 645 711. Congress. The exercise of legislative power is vested exclusively in Congress. There are two houses, the Council of Municipalities, or senate, and the National Council, or chamber of deputies. The mem- bers of both are chosen by direct vote of the people. Senators are elected for six years, one-half of the body retiring triennially. Each district returns three members, but to assure the representation of minorities electors are permitted to vote for but two. Members of the Chamber of Deputies are chosen for three years. Senators must be at least thirty-five years of age and deputies twenty-five. Congress is required to meet in regular session each year on the second day of December. The period of a session is four months, and a prorogation or an adjournment may be ordered only by the chambers themselves. Extraordinary sessions may be convoked by one-fourth of the members or by the President. Each chamber is authorized to judge the qualifications of its members, to choose its president and other officers, and to fix its rules of procedure. The presiding official at joint sessions is the elder of the two presidents. Members are accorded the usual privileges of speech and immunities from judicial process, and they are guaranteed compensation at rates to be regulated by law. The functions and powers of the chambers are enumerated in much detail. Most important among them is the enactment, interpretation, suspension, and abrogation of all laws of the republic. Still more com- prehensive is the power to supervise the operation of the constitution and of the laws and "to promote the general welfare of the nation." More specifically, the chambers are authorized to levy taxes, vote ex- penditures, contract loans, provide for the national defense, create public offices, fix salaries, regulate tariffs, coin money, establish stand- ards of weights and measures, emit bills of credit, organize the judiciary, control the administration of national property, approve regulations devised for the enforcement of the laws, and elect the President of the republic. To the Chamber of Deputies is accorded the right to initiate all measures relating to taxes, the organization of the forces on land and on sea, the revision of the constitution, the prorogation or adjournment of legislative sessions, the discussion of proposals made by the President, and the bringing of actions against members of the executive depart- ment. Initiative in respect to all other matters may be taken by any member of either branch of Congress or by the President of the repub- lic. A measure which is adopted by a majority vote in each of the two houses is transmitted to the President to be promulgated as law. The President possesses not a shred of veto power. He is required to promul- gate within fifteen days any measure duly enacted; if he fails to do so, the measure takes effect none the less. When the chambers fall into disagree- 646 GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE ment regarding proposed changes in a bill, or when one chamber rejects a bill outright, the subject is debated and a decision is reached in joint ses- sion. 712. The Judiciary and Local Government. The organs of judicial administration comprise courts of first instance, courts of appeal, and a supreme tribunal sitting at the capital. Judges are appointed for life, but may be removed from office in accordance with procedure to be established by law. The employment of the jury is optional with the parties in civil cases but obligatory in all criminal cases of serious import. With respect to local government the constitution goes no further than to lay down certain general principles and to enjoin that the actual working arrangements be regulated by subsequent legislation. Among the principles enumerated are the immunity of the local authorities from intervention on the part of the central executive power, the revision of the acts of the public officials in administrative tribunals, the fiscal independence of the local governmental units, and, finally, the employ- ment for local purposes of both proportional representation and the referendum. 1 1 A French translation of the Portuguese constitution of 1911 will be found in Revue du Droit Public, Oct.-Dec., 1911. Various aspects of the revolution of 1910 and of subsequent developments are discussed in E. J. Dillon, Republican Portugal, in Contemporary Review, Nov., 1910; R. Recouly, La re"publique en Portugal, in Revue Politique et Parlementaire, Nov. 10, 1910; W. Archer, The Portuguese Re- public, in Fortnightly Review, Feb., 1911; and A. Marvaud, Les debuts de la r6- publique portugaise, in Annales des Sciences Politiques, March-April and May- June, 1911. The subject is covered briefly in V. de B. Cunha, Eight Centuries of Portuguese Monarchy (London, 1911), and A. Marvaud, Le Portugal et ses colonies; 6tude politique et 6conomique (Paris, 1912). INDEX Abgeordnetenhaus. See Prussia and Austria Administration, development in Great Britain, 176-179; present system, 180-191; development of Prussian system, 265-273; in France under Old Regime, 341-342; during Revolu- tionary and Napoleonic era, 342-343; present system, 345-351; in Italy, 383-385; in Austria, 485-488; in Hungary, 506-507; in Holland, 532- 533; in Belgium, 55-5Si; in Den- mark, 569; in Norway, 588; in Swe- den, 601; in Spain, 627-628; in Portu- gal, 638-639, 646 Alsace-Lorraine, original organization, 282; the Landesausschuss, 283; move- ment for autonomy, 284; bill of 1910, 285; present governmental system, 286-287 Ausgleich. See Austria-Hungary Austria: Abgeordnetenhaus, composition, 466; electoral system to 1873, 466-467; Taaffe bill of 1893, 467-468; electoral law of 1896, 468; electoral law of 1907, 469-471; electoral qualifications and procedure, 471-472; sessions and procedure, 472-473; powers, 473~474 Administration, of province, 485- 487; of commune, 487-488 Amendment, of constitution, 461 Ausgleich, established, 458-459; and political parties, 475-476; nature, 509 Babenbergs, 442 Badeni, electoral bill, 468; ministry, 479 Beck, carries electoral reform, 460- 470 Bienerth, ministry, 482 Bohemia, language question in, 480 Charles V., 443 6 47 Austria : Continued Christian Socialist Party, 483 Citiaens, rights of, 462 Civil list, 464 Commune, organization, 487-488 Constitution, promulgated in 1848, 454; abrogated, 455; experiments of 1860-1861, 456-457; texts, 460; style of government, 460-461; amendment, 461 Courts, ordinary, 483-484; adminis- trative, 484-485 Crown. See Emperor Diet, provision for in constitution of 1848, 454 Diploma of 1860, 456 Elections, original system, 466; law of 1873,467; Taaffe bill of 1893, 467- 468; law of 1896, 468; law of 1907, 469-471; qualifications and proce- dure, 471-472; of 1901, 481; of 1907, 481-482; of 1911, 482-483 Emperor, status, 463; powers, 464; relation with ministries, 464 Franchise, law of 1873, 467; Taaffe bill of 1893, 467-468; law of 1896, 468; law of 1907, 469-471; present system, 471-472 Francis I., proclaimed emperor of Austria, 445 Francis Joseph I., accession, 455; constitutional projects, 456-457; and Compromise of 1867, 459; encourages electoral reform, 469 Gautsch, promises electoral reform, 469; ministries, 480-481 German Liberal Party, rise, 476; rule, 476-477; in the opposition, 477-478; return to power, 478-479 Germans, in Empire, 475 Hapsburgs, 442 Herrenhaus, composition, 465; or- 648 INDEX Austria : Continued ganization and powers, 466; sessions and procedure, 472-473 House of Lords. See Herrenhaus House of Representatives. See A bgeordnetenhaus Hungary, establishment of power in, 443; encroachment in, 449-450; sup- pression of revolution in, 455-456; constitutional experiments with, 457- 458; Ausgleich established, 458-459 Italians, in Empire, 475 Joseph IL, reforms, \\/( Judiciary. See Courts Karlowitz, Peace of, 443, 448 Korber, ministry, 480-481 Landesausschuss, 485 Landtag, of province, 485-487 Maria Theresa, development of autocracy under, \*\\ Mettemich, policies, 450-451; com- bats liberalism, 452; fall, 453 Ministry, composition, 464; respon- sibility, 464-465 Parliament, composition, 465-466; electoral system, 466-472; sessions and procedure, 472-473; powers, 473-474 Parliamentarism, nature of, 464-465; nadir of, 480-481 Parties, centralism and federalism, 475-476; rule of German Liberals, 476-477; during Taaffe ministry, 477-478; return of German Liberals to power, 478-479; and parliamen- tary deadlock, 480-481; and elections of 1907 and 1911, 481-483 Patent of 1861, 457 Plural Vote, under law of 1896, 468 Pragmatic Sanction, promulgated, 499 Province, executive officials, 485; Landtag, 485-487 Race, political significance of, 470, 474-475, 479-480 Reichsgericht, 484 Reichsrath. See Herrenhaus and A bgeordnetenhaus Revolution, of 1848, constitution- alism established, 454; reaction, 455- 456 Austria : Continued Russia, intervenes in Austria, 455 Slavs, in Empire, 475 Social Democratic Party, demands for electoral reform, 469-470; victory in 1911, 483 Succession, rules of, 449, 463 -Taaffe, electoral bill of 1893, 467- 468; ministry, 477-478 Universal Suffrage Law, adoption, 469-470; racial and geographical distribution of seats, 470; electoral qualifications and procedure, 471-472 Vienna, Congress of, r61e of Austria in, 450 Vorsteher, 487 Austria-Hungary (see also Austria and Hungary) : Ausgleich, established, 458-459; na- ture, 509 Bosnia, annexation, 514; constitu- tion, 515; governmental system, 515- 516; electoral arrangements, 516 Contributions. See Finances. Delegations, composition and ses- sions, 513; powers, 5I3-SI4 Emperor, status, 510 Finance, ministry of, 511; arrange- ments concerning, 512 Foreign Affairs, ministry of, 510 Herzegovina, annexation, 514; con- stitution, 515; government and elec- toral system, 515-516 King. See Emperor Ministry, of foreign affairs, 510; of war, 511; of finance, 511 War, ministry of, 511 Baden, granted a constitution, 197; special privileges, 208; governmental system, 279 Bavaria, made a kingdom, 194; granted a constitution, 197; special privileges, 208; governmental system, 275-276 Belgium: Administration, organization of prov- ince, 550-551; organization of com- mune, 551 Amendment, process, 535 Arrondissement, electoral unit, 543- 545; judicial unit, 549 INDEX 649 Belgium : Continued Austrian Netherlands, annexed to France, 517-518; incorporated in United Netherlands, 519 Catholic Party, and electoral reform, 540-541; and proportional represen- tation, 542-543 ; and elections of 1906- 1910, 545-546; triumph in 1912, 546- 547 Commune, organization, 551 Conservative Party, and electoral reform, 540-541 Constitution, of 1815, 519-520; of 1831 promulgated, 534; democratic character, 534-535; amendment, 535 Council, of province, 550 Court of Cassation, 549 Courts, organization and functions, 549-550 Crown, status and privileges, 536; relation with ministry, 536-537; powers, 537-538 Elections, earlier arrangements, 539- 540; law of 1893, 540-541; franchise to-day, 541-542; adoption of propor- tional representation, 543-545; of 1906-1910, 545-546; of 1912, 546- 547 -Franchise, prior to 1893, 539-540; law of 1893, 540~54i; system to-day, 541-542; demand for further reform, 547-548 Holland, separation from, 520-521 House of Representatives, composi- tion, 539; earlier electoral arrange- ments, 539-540; electoral law of 1893, 540-541; franchise to-day, 541-542; organization and procedure, 548-549 Independence, declared, 520; recog- nized, 521 Jury, use of, 550 Leopold I., crowned king, 521 Liberal Party, and electoral reform, 540-541; favors proportional repre- sentation, 543; opposition to plural vote, 547 Ministry, composition, 536; respon- sibility, 536-537 Parliament, composition and elec- tion of senators, 538-539; composition of House of Representatives, 539; Belgium : Continued electoral system, 539-542; propor- tional representation, 543-545; or- ganization and procedure of cham- bers, 548-549 Parliamentarism, 536-537 Plural Vote, 541-542; opposition of Liberals and Socialists, 547-548; in province, 551 Proportional Representation, adopt- ed, 543; operation, 543*545 Province, organization, 550-551 Revolution of 1830, 520-521 Senate, composition and election, 538; qualifications, 539; organization, and procedure, 548-549 Socialists, lead movement for elec- toral reform, 540-541; favor propor- tional representation, 543; opposition to plural vote, 547-548 Bismark, Otto von, and establishment of German Empire, 199-201; attitude toward socialism; 231, reform of Prussian local government, 266-267 Bosnia. See Austria-Hungary Bundesrath. See Germany and Switzer- land Cabinet. See England Canton, of France, 343, 348; of Switzer- land, 409-422 Chamber of Deputies. See France, Italy, Hungary Civil List, in Great Britain, 51-52; of king of Prussia, 253; of king of Italy, 368 Committees, in English Parliament, 123-137; in Bundesrath, 220; V Reichstag, 226; in Prussian Landtag 264; in French Parliament, 325-327 Commune, in Prussia, 272-273; antiq- uity hi France, 348; organization, 344- 351 ; in Italy, 385 ; in Switzerland, 422; in Austria, 487-488; in Holland, 533; in Belgium, 551; in Norway, 588; in Spain, 627; in Portugal, 638-639 Congress. See Portugal Congress of Deputies. See Spain Constitution, development of English, 2-41; nature of English, 41-47; of German Confederation of 1815, 194- INDEX 196; of German Empire, 202-204; of Prussia, 250-252; succession in France from 1791, 290-300; of Third Repub- lic, 304-306; succession in Italy, 354- 361; of Italy to-day, 360-367; of Switzerland, 410-416, 431-432; of Austria, 456-461; of Hungary, 446- 448, 489-490; of Holland, 5*9-523; of Belgium, 534-535; of Denmark, 5S7-SS9; of Norway, 574, 578-579; of Sweden, 589; succession in Spain, 604-608; of Spain to-day, 611-612; of Portuguese republic, 642-643 Cortes. See Spain and Portugal County, English, 171-184 Courts, in England, 171-175; hi Ger- many, 243-244; in France, 337~34i; in Italy, 381-383; in Austria, 483- 485; in Holland, 531-532; in Bel- gium, 549-550; in Denmark, 568-569; in Norway, 587-588; in Spain, 626- 627; in Portugal, 638, 646 Croatia, government, 507-508 Crown, in Great Britain, 48-59; in German Empire, 210-214; in Prussia, 252; in Italy, 368-370; in Austria, 463-464; in Hungary, 491 ; in Holland, 523-525; in Denmark, 554-561; in Norway, 578-585; in Sweden, 570- 571; 590-591, in Spain, 613-615; in Portugal, 635-636 Delegations. See Austria-Hungary Denmark: Administration, 569 Christensen, ministry, 566-567 Christian VIII., and reform, 556-567 Christian IX., yields to parliamen- tary principle, 562 Conservative Party, resists parlia- mentary principle, 560-562; domi- nance, 565-566 Constitution, of 1848, 557; of 1849 promulgated, 557; revised in 1866, 558-559; process of amendment, 559 Courts, general principles, 568; or- ganization, 568-569; act of 1908, 569 Crown, development, 554-555; op- position to reform, 556; status, 559; powers, 560; relations with ministry, 560-561 Denmark : Continued Diet, of provinces, 556 Elections, present system, 563; pro- jected reform, 564; of 1906, 567; of 1910, 567-568 Estrup, ministry, 561-562, 565-566 Franchise, present system, 563; movement for reform, 564 Frederick VI., creates diets, 556 Folkething, composition, 563; elec- tions, 563-564; sessions and powers, 564-565 Hojesteret, 568 Holstein, 558 Judiciary. See Courts Kalmar, union of, 553 Kiel, treaty of, 554 King. See Crown Kongelov, 555, 557 Landsthing, composition, 562; qual- ifications, 563; sessions and powers, 564-565 Lauenburg, 558 Liberal Party, pressure for parlia- mentary system, 560-562; advent to power, 566 Malmo, treaty of, 553 Ministry, composition, 560-561; re- sponsibility, 561-562; of Estrup, 561- 562, 565-566; recent instability, 567- 568 Norway, united with, 553; separated from, 554 Parliament. See Rigsdag Parliamentarism, 560-562 Parties, rise, 565; during Estrup's ministry, 565-566; advent of Liberals to power, 566; since 1903, 566-568 Proportional Representation, in elec- tion of senators, 563 Radical Party, 567-568 Revolution, of 1660, 554-555 Rigsdag, composition, 562-563; elec- toral system, 563-564; sessions and power, 564-565 Rigsrad, 554 Schleswig, 558 Social Democratic Party, 567-568 Elections, of British House of Com- mons, 92-96; of Reichstag, 224-225; INDEX 651 of Prussian Abgeordnetenhaus, 258- 263; under Revolutionary and Napo- leonic constitutions, 293-294; present system in France, 318-322; in Italy, 376-378, 400-402; in Switzerland, 423, 426-428, 435-437; in Austria, 466-483; in Holland, 526-530; in Belgium, 539~547; in Denmark, 563- 568; in Norway, 581-582, 587; in Sweden, 592-596, 600; in Spain, 617- 618; 624-625; in Portugal, 633-642 England: Act of Settlement (1701), 49 Administration. See Local Govern- ment Admiralty Board, 62 Asquith, H., resolutions for reform of Lords, 108 Attainder, 130 Bill of Rights, 32 Borough, in fifteenth century, 23; franchise before 1832, 79; franchise extended in 1832 and 1867, 82-84; redistribution of parliamentary seats, 85 ; organization before 1 83 2 , 1 7 7-1 78 ; reform by Municipal Corporations Act, 178; kinds, 187; authorities, 188; council and its functions, 189 Budget, preparation, 136 Cabinet, origins, 37-38; relations with Privy Council, 60; relations with ministry, 61; composition, 64; size, 65; selection of premier, 66; selection of other members, 67-68; political solidarity, 69; responsibility, 70; proceedings, 71-73; central position, 74 Campbell-Bannerman, Liberal lead- er, 154; premier, 157 Chamberlain, Joseph, and the Lib- eral Unionists, 151; tariff reform pro- gramme, 155 Chancery, Court of, 17, 174 Charles I., parliaments of, 28 Charles II., restoration, 31; rise of cabinet, 37 Chartists, 82-83 Civil List, 51-52 Committees, kinds, 123; of whole, 123; select and sessional, 124; stand- ing, 124-125; procedure on public England : Continued bills, 133-134; on money bills, 135- 136; on private bills, 137 Common Law, 167-168 Common Pleas, Court of, 17, 174 Commonwealth, 29 Commune Concilium, 7 Conservative Party, origin of name, 147; mid-century ministries, 148-150; Salisbury ministries, 151-153; defeat in 1906, 157; signification of nomen- clature, 162; present-day issues, 163; composition, 164 Constitution, Anglo-Saxon founda- tions, 2-5; influenced by Norman Conquest, 6-8; in the Tudor period, 18-26; in the Stuart period, 26-33; elements of stability and change, 34; development since seventeenth cen- tury, 34-41; elusiveness, 41; law and conventions, 42-43; flexibility and amendment, 44-47 Conventions, in English constitu- tion, 43 Corn Laws, repeal, 147 Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act, 95-96 County, franchise before 1832, 79; franchise broadened in 1832, 82; franchise liberalized in 1867 and 1884, 84; court of, 171; organization before 1832, 176-177; reform by Local Government Act of 1888, 180; pres- ent administrative organization, 183; council and its functions, 183-184 Court of Appeals, 174 Courts, beginnings of great tribunals, 17; county, 171; justices of the peace, 171-172; High Court, 173; Court of Appeals, 174; House of Lords, 130; Judicial Committee of Privy Council, 175 Cromwell, Oliver, 29-30 Crown, in Anglo-Saxon times, 3; effects of Norman Conquest en, 6; independence under the Tudors, 21; character under early Stuarts, 26; abolished in 1640, 30; restoration, 30; regulated by Bill of Rights, 32-33; decreased powers since seventeenth century, 35; theoretical position. 48-, 652 INDEX England : Continued rules of succession, 49; regencies, 50; privileges, 50-52; the prerogative, 52; executive powers, 53-55; legislative powers, 55; veto, 56; relations with ministry, 56-57; actual service, 58; reasons for survival, 59 Disraeli, Benjamin, prime minister, 150 District, rural, 184; urban, 186 District and Parish Councils Act of 1894, 180 Edward I., and rise of Parliament, 12-13 Edward II., statute concerning Par- liament, 15 Elections, writs, 92; time regulations, 92-93; polling, 93; the campaign, 94; expenditures, 95-96 Elizabeth, strong government, 21; development of Parliament under, 24-25 Equity, rules of, 169 Exchequer, Court of, 17, 62, 174 Franchise, hi fifteenth century, 23; in early nineteenth century, 79; ex- tended by Reform Act of 1832, 82; demands of the Chartists, 82-83; modified in 1867, 83-84; liberalized in 1884, 84-85; the system to-day, 86-88; question of the plural vote, 89-90; Franchise Bill of 1912, 90; woman's suffrage, 91 Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, 118 George III., attempted revival of royal power, 35 Gladstone, William E., leadership of Liberals, 148; first ministry, 149; second and third ministries, 151; fourth ministry, 152 Great Council, 7 Henry I., charter, 7 Henry II., judicial measures, 8 Henry III., and beginnings of Parlia- ment, 12 Henry VHL, strong government, 19 High Court of Justice, 173-174 House of Commons, origins, 13; composition in 1485, 23; changes in Tudor period, 24; Apology of 1604, England : Continued 27; ascendancy over House of Lords, 36; present composition, 77; undem- ocratic character at opening of nineteenth century, 77-79; electoral corruption, 80; early demands for re- form, 80; Reform Act of 1832, 81-82; Chartist agitation, 82-83; Represent- ation of the People Act of 1867, 83- 84; Representation of the People Act of 1884, 84-85; Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, 85; franchise and franchise questions to-day, 86-02; electoral procedure and regulations, 92-96; sessions, 117; opening cere- monies, 117-118; meeting place de- scribed, 118-120; hours of sittings, 120; officers, 121 ; Speaker, 121-123; quorum, 123; committees, 123-125; privileges, 126; payment of members, 127; procedure on public bills, 133- 134; on money bills, 135-136; on private bills, 137-138; provisional orders, 138; rules, 139-141; closure, 139; the guillotine, 140; votes and divisions, 140-141 House of Lords, origins, 13, 47; com- position in 1485, 22-23; changes in Tudor period, 24; abolished in 1640, 29; restored in 1660, 31; loss of prior- ity to House of Commons, 36, 102; composition, 97-101; qualifications of members, 101 ; number of members, 101; question of reform, 102-103; early reform proposals, 103-104; con- flicts with the Liberals, 104; powers relating to money bills, 106; rejection of Finance Bill of 1909, 107; Liberal project of reform, 108; Unionist proposals, 109; adoption of Parlia- ment Act of 1911, iio-m; effects of the Act, 112-114; sessions, 117; open- ing ceremonies, 117-118; sittings and attendance, 125; officers, 125-126; privileges, 127; judicial functions, 130-132; procedure, 141-142 Humble Petition and Advice, 30 Hundred, 4 Impeachment, 130 Independent Labor Party, 165 Instrument of Government, ag INDEX 653 England : Continued Ireland, union of 1801, 40-41; allot- ment of parliamentary seats, 85; over-representation, 89; representa- tive peers, 98-99; question of Home Rule, 150-152 James I., conception of monarchy, 26; parliaments of, 28 James II., overthrown, 32 John, signs Magna Carta, 9; holds council at Oxford, 12 Jury, use of, 171, 172 Justice of the Peace, functions, 171- 172 King. See Crown King's Bench, Court of, 17, 174 Labor Party, 165-167 Lansdowne Reconstruction Bill, 100 Law, origins, 167; form, 168-169 Legislation, powers acquired by Parliament, 14-15 Liberal Party, conflict with House of Lords, 104; and reform, 147; re- generation under Gladstone, 148-149; and Home Rule, 150; secession of Unionists, 151; rehabilitation, 156; electoral triumph in 1906, 157; man- date and performance, 158-159; con- flict with House of Lords, 159; triumph in elections of 1910, 160; carry Parliament Act of 1911, no, 1 60; signification of nomenclature, 162; present-day issues, 163; composi- tion, 164 Liberal Unionists, origins, 151 Local Government Act of 1888, 180 Local Government Board, 180, 182 Local Government, periods in his- tory, 176; before 1835, 176-178; mid- century confusion of areas, 179; re- lations with central government, 181-182; organization of administra- tive county, 183-184; the rural dis- trict, 184; rural and urban parish, 185; urban district, 186; boroughs and cities, 187-189; London, 190- 191 London, government, 190-191 Lord High Chancellor, 63 Lord Lieutenant, 172 Lords of Appeal, 09 England : Continued Magna Carta, character and im- portance, 9 Ministry, appointment, 57, 66-69; relation with Privy Council and Cabinet, 60-61; Treasury, 62; Ad- miralty Board, 62; Lord High Chan- cellorship, 63; the secretaries of state, 63-64; the administrative boards, 64; responsibility, 70, 128-130; proceed- ings, 71-73 Money Bills, the Lords and, 106; Liberal proposals concerning, 108; disposition under Parliament Act of 1911, 112; procedure upon, 135-136 Montfort, Simon de, parliaments of 1264 and 1265, 12 Municipal Corporation Act, 178 Newcastle Programme, 152 Parish, rural and urban, 185 Parliament, origins, n; Simon de Montfort's leadership, 12; Model Parliament, 12-13; bicameral prin- ciple established, 13; fiscal and legis- lative powers, 14; development of legislative process, 15; composition in 1485, 23; growth under Tudors, 24; in Stuart period, 28-29; experiments during Commonwealth and Protec- torate, 29-30; restoration in 1660, 31; constituent powers, 45; relations with crown, 55; undemocratic character in early nineteenth century, 77-80; Reform Act of 1832, 81-82; Repre- sentation of the People Act of 1867, 83-84; Representation of the People Act of 1884, 84-85; Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, 85; franchise and franchise questions to-day, 86-92; electoral procedure and regulations, 92-96; composition of Lords, 97-101; question of Lords reform, 102-109; the Parliament Act of 1911, 110-114; sessions, 117; how opened, 117-118; meeting place and sittings, 118-120; officers and committees of Commons, 121-125; organization of Lords, 125- 126; privileges of members, 126-127; function of criticism, 128-130; judi- cial functions, 130-132; procedure on public bills, 133-134; on money bills, 654 INDEX England : Continued 135-136; on private bills, 137-138; rules of Commons, 139-141; proce- dure in Lords, 141-142 Parliament Act, origins, 106-110; adoption, iio-iu; provisions, 112- 113; significance, 113-115 Parliamentarism, and parties, 143 Parties, beginnings, 38-39; relation to parliamentary government, 143; Tory ascendancy from 1783 to 1830, 145-146; Liberals and reform, 147; mid-century regeneration, 148-150; rise of Liberal Unionists, 151; Con- servative ascendancy, 154-155; Lib- eral revival, 156-157; present signif- icance of party names, 162; current issues, 163-165; labor and politics, 165-166 Plural Vote, 89-90 Poor Law, 178 Premier, selection, 66; choice of colleagues, 67; leadership, 72-73 Prince of Wales, 49 Private Legislation, 137-138 Privy Council, origins, 17; under the Tudors, 19; under Charles II., 37; relations with ministry and cabinet, 60; Judicial Committee as a court, 175 Protectorate, 29-30 Provisional Orders, 138 Poyning's Law, 40 Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, 85-86 Referendum, Unionist proposal of, 109 Reform Act of 1832, 81-82 Regency, 50 Representation, beginnings of, u Representation of the People Act, of 1867, 83-84; of 1884, 84-85 Rosebery, Lord, proposals for re- form of Lords, 105, 108 Salisbury, Marquis of, first ministry, 157; second ministry, 152; third and fourth ministries, 153 Scotland, union of 1707, 39-40; al- lotment of parliamentary seats, 85; representative peers, 98-99 Shire, 5 Shire-moot, 5 England : Continued Society for Constitutional Informa- tion, 81 Speaker, of House of Commons, history and functions, 121-123; P w ~ ers, 139 Star Chamber, Court of, 20 Stuarts, absolutism, 26; overthrow, 29; restored, 30; finally expelled, 32 Supreme Court of Judicature, 173- i7S Tariff Reform, rise and effects of issue, 155-156 Taxation, powers acquired by Par- liament, 14, 22 Toleration Act, 33 Tory Party, rise, 39; ascendancy from 1783 to 1830, 145-146 Township, 4 Treasury, 62 Tudors, popularity, 18; relations with Parliament, 21 Unionists, position in Lords, 102-106 Westminster Palace, 116 Whig Party, rise, 39 William I., governmental policies, 6-7 William III., accession, 32 Witenagemot, 4 Woman's Suffrage, 91-92 Folketking. See Denmark France: Adjoint, 350 Administration, under Old Regime, 341-342; overhauled in 1780-1791, 342; revival of centralization, 343; under Second Empire, 344; changes under Third Republic, 345; the de- partment, 346-347; the arrondisse- ment, 347; the canton, 348; the com- mune, 348-351 Amendment, of constitution, 307, 327-328 Appeal, courts of, 338 Arrondissement, electoral unit, 318; created, 343; organization, 347 Assize, courts of, 338 Associations, law of, 331 Ballottage, 319 Bloc, rise, 331; present condition, 332 INDEX 655 France : Continued Bonaparte, Napoleon, and constitu- tion of the Year VIII., 293-295; organization of local administration, 343 Bonapartists, policies in 1871-1875, 303-304 Bordeaux, National Assembly meets at, 302 Briand, A., programme of electoral reform, 322; ministry, 332 Bureaus, in Parliament, 325-327 Canton, created, 342; made a judi- cial unit, 343; present character, 348 Cassation, Court of, 338-339 Catholic Party, rise, 338 Chamber of Deputies, composition, 317; term and qualifications, 318; electoral process, 319; proposed elec- toral reform, 310-320; the Briand programme, 322; reform bill of 1912, 323-324; sessions, 325; officers, 325; bureaus and committees, 326; proce- dure, 326; powers and functions, 327- 329; party strength in, 332 Church, legislation concerning, 331 Clemeneeau, ministry, 331-332 Code Civil, 335-336 Code Napoleon, 335-336 Code of Civil Procedure, 336 Code of Commerce, 336 Code of Criminal Instruction, 336 Combes, ministry, 331 Commission du Suffrage Universel, 321, 323 Committees, in Parliament, 325-327 Commune, suppressed, 303; con- tinuity of, 342; place in Napoleonic system, 343; council made elective, 344; under Second Empire, 344~345J legislation concerning in 1884, 345; present character, 348; number and size, 348; council, 348-349; mayor and assistants, 349-350; importance, 350-351 Concentration, policy of, 330 Concordat, abrogated, 331 Conseil de prefecture, 346 Conservative Party, after 1848, 329; in control of Senate after 1876, 330; changed character, 333 France : Continued Constitution, of 1791, 290-291; of the Year I., 291-292; of the Year III., 292-293; of the Year VIII., 293-295; Constitutional Charter of 1814, 295- 297; of Second Republic, 297-298; of Second Empire, 299-300; of Third Republic, 304-306; process of amend- ment, 305, 327-328 Constitutional Charter, 295-297 Convention, 292 Corps Ugislatif, under constitution of 1791, 291; under constitution of the Year VIII., 294 Council, of department, made elec- tive, 344; present character, 346-347 Council, of arrondissement, 347 Council, of commune, made elective, 344; organization and functions, 348- 349 Council of Elders, in constitution of the Year III., 292-293 Council of Five Hundred, in consti- tution of the Year III., 292-293 Council of State, composition and functions, 340 Courts, of justice of the peace, 337; of first instance, 337; of appeal and of assize, 338; of Cassation, 33^-339; appointment and tenure of judges, 339; administrative, 339-340; Coun- cil of State, 340; of Conflicts, 341 Department, created, 342; organized by Napoleon, 343; council made elec- tive, 344; under Second Empire, 344- 345; the office of prefect, 346; the council, 346-347 Elections, under constitution of the Year VIII., 293-294; under Consti- tutional Charter of 1814, 296; arron- dissement as unit, 318; conduct, 319; ballottage, 319; question of reform, 319-322; the Briand programme, 322; of 1906, 331; of 1910, 332; reform bill of 1912, 323-324 Electoral Reform. See Elections Empire, Napoleonic, 295; Second French, 299-300 Extreme Left, in Chamber of Depu- ties, 332 First Instance, courts of, 337 656 INDEX France '.Continued Franchise, under Napoleonic system, 294; under Constitutional Charter of 1814, 296-297; present regulations, 3i7 Frankfort, Peace of, 302 Gtneralite, 342 Great Western Line, purchase of, 332 Impeachment, 309 Intendant, 342 Interpellation, 314 Jaures, socialist leader, 334 Journal Ojficiel, 326 Judges, appointment and tenure, 339 Judiciary. See Court Juge de paix, 337 Law, codification, 335-336; charac- ter, 336-337; administrative, 339 Left, in Chamber of Deputies, 332 Legislation, President's part in, 309- 310; processes, 326-327; powers, 328- 329 f Legitimists, policies in 1871-1875, 303-305 MacMahon, Marshall, president, 304 Mayor, functions, 347~35o Millerand, fitienne, socialist member of ministry, 334 Ministry, place in governmental sys- tem, 311; composition, 312; responsi- bility, 312-313; frequency of changes, 313; interpellation, 314 Multiple Candidature Act, 318 Napoleon III., proclaimed emperor, 299 National Assembly, of 1871-1875, 302-303; of Third Republic, election of President, 309, 328; amendment of constitution, 327-328 Orleanists, policies in 1871-1875, 303-304 Pacification, policy of, 330 Parliament, establishment of bi- cameral system, 315; original form of Senate, 315-316; composition and election to-day, 316-317; composition of Chamber of Deputies, 317-318; question of electoral reform, 319-324; sessions, 325; officers, 325; commit- tees, 326; procedure, 326; powers and functions, 327-329 France : Continued Parliamentarism, 313 Parties, multiplicity, 312-313; de- velopment after 1848, 329; situation after 1876, 330; rise of Radicals, 330; the bloc, 331; rise of Socialists, 330- 33i, 333-334; elections of 1906, 331; elections of 1910, 332; changes since 1871, 333 Penal Code, 336 Prefect, creation in 1800, 343; ap- pointment and functions, 346 Premier, position and powers, 312 President, title created, 303; occu- pants of the office, 308; election, 308, 328; term, 309; qualifications, 309; salary and privileges, 309; powers, 309-311; relation with ministers, 311-312 Procedure, in Senate and Chamber of Deputies, 326-327 Procureur, 327 Progressive Party, rise, 331 Proportional Representation, move- ment for establishment of, 320-324 Province, abolished, 342 Prussia, war with, 301 Radical Party, rise, 330; ascendancy, 33i Rallies, 330 Republic, Second, 297-298; Third established, 302-304 Republican Party, in 1848, 329; con- trol of Chamber of Deputies after 1876, 33 Right, in Chamber of Deputies, 332; present character, 333 Rivet Law, 302 Rouvier, ministry, 331 Sarrien, ministry, 331 Scrutin d'arrondissement, established in 1820, 296; re-established in 1889, 318; proposed change from, 319-320 Scrutin de liste, established in 1817, 296; election of senators by, 316; ad- vantages of, 319-320; proposals to re- establish, 320-324 Senate, original form, 315-316; com- position and election to-day, 316-317; sessions, 325; officers, 325; bureaus and committees, 325-326; procedure, INDEX 6S7 France : Continued 326; powers and functions, 327- 329 Sieys, electoral project, 294 Socialist Party, rise, 330; gains, 331; in Chamber of Deputies, 332; growth and present character, 333-334 Thiers, Louis Adolph, made Chief of the Executive Power, 302; made President of the French Republic, 303; retirement, 303 Trade-unions, and socialism, 333-334 - Tribunal des Conflits, 341 Veto, 310 Waldeck-Rousseau, ministry, 331 Franchise, in Great Britain, in early nineteenth century, 79-81 ; extension, 81-85; present system, 85-88; ques- tions concerning, 88-91; in German Empire, 224-225; in Prussia, 258-260; development in France, 294-297; in France to-day, 317; in Italy, 376-378; in Switzerland, 426; in Austria, 467- 472; in Holland, 526-528; in Belgium, 539-548; in Denmark, 563-564; in Norway, 581-582; in Sweden, 592- 597; in Spain, 617-618; in Portugal, 637, 641 Germany (see also Prussia and Austria) : Abgeordnetenhaus, of Wiirttemberg, 278 Abtheilungen, in German Reichstag, 226; in Prussian Landtag, 264 Agrarian Party, 234 Alsace-Lorraine, original organiza- tion, 282; the Landesausschuss, 283; movement for autonomy, 284; bill of 1910, 285; present governmental sys- tem, 286-287 Amendment, of Imperial constitu- tion, 209 Amtsgericht, 243 Antisemitic Party, 232 Army, 208 Austria, war with Prussia, 200 Baden, granted a constitution, 197; special privileges, 208; governmental system, 279 Bavaria, made a kingdom, 194; granted a constitution, 197; special Germany : Continued privileges, 208; governmental system, 275-276 Bebel, August, president of German Social Democratic party, 240 Bernstein, Edward, and the "re- visionist" socialists, 239 Bismarck, Otto von, minister-presi- dent of Prussia, 199; plan for reorgan- ization of German Confederation, 200; establishment of North German Bund, 200; creation of the German Empire, 201; and socialism, 231; dis- missed, 233; and Prussian local gov- ernment, 266-267 Bloc, 234 Bremen, governmental system, 281 Billow, Count von, chancellor, 234; and political parties, 236; on elec- toral reform in Prussia, 261 Bund. See Confederation of 1815 and North German Confederation Bundeskanzleramt, 216 Bundesrath, composition, 217; legal character, 218; sessions and proce- dure, 219; committees, 220; powers and functions, 221-222 Caprivi, General von, chancellor, 233 Carlsbad Decrees, 248 Centre Party, rise, 230; pivotal posi- tion, 235; present position, 236-240 Chancellor, appointment, 213; legal position, 214; functions and powers, 215-217 Civil List, of king of Prussia, 253 Confederation of 1815, formation, 195; character, 195-197; terminated, 200 Committees, in German Bundes- rath, 220; in Reichstag, 226; in Prus- sian Landtag, 364 Conservative Party, rise, 229; vary- ing fortunes, 233-234; present posi- tion, 236-240 Constitution, of Confederation of 1815, 194-196; grants in various states, 197; grant in Prussia, 199; of the Empire, 202-204; process of amendment, 209; of Prussia, 250-252 Courts, regulated by Law of Judicial 658 INDEX Germany : Continued Organization, 243; inferior tribunals, 243; Reichsgericht, 244 Crown. See Emperor Elections, of members of Reichstag, 224-225 Emperor, title, 210; legal position and privileges, 211; powers, 211-213; relations with Chancellor, 214 Empire, established, 201; constitu- tion, 202-203; nature, 203-207 Erfurt Programme, 239 Frankfort, seat of Diet, 195; parlia- ment of 1848, 198; the Fiirstentag, 199 Gneist, Rudolph von, writings on government, 266 Gotha, congress at, 231 Guelf Party, 232 Hamburg, governmental system, 280-281 Hanoverian Party, 232 Hardenberg, Count von, establishes a ministry of state, 255 Holy Roman Empire, terminated, iQ3 Kulttirkampf, 230 Landgericht, 243 Landtag, of Bavaria, 275-276 Law, character, 241-242 Legislation, powers, 221, 227-228; methods, 219-220, 226-227 Liibeck, governmental system, 281 Metternich, Count, at Congress of Vienna, 195 Ministry, organization, 213-215 Napoleon I., changes wrought in Ger- many, 193-194 National Liberal Party, rise, 229; preponderance, 230; break-up, 233 North German Confederation, for- mation, 200; converted into Empire, 201 Oberlandesgericht, 243 Parliamentarism, absence in German Empire, 213; absence in Prussia, 254 Parties, rise, 229; older alignments, 229~23o;more recent alignments, 230- 232; minor parties, 232-233; rise of the bloc, 234; recent developments, 236-240 Polish Party, 232 Germany : Continued Privileges, of members of Reichstag, 225 Proportional Representation, in Wiirttemberg, 278 Prussia, in Confederation of 1815, 194-195; voting power in the Diet, 195-196; Bismarck's ministry, 199; war with Austria, 200; leadership of North German Bund, 200; creation of German Empire, 201; pre-emin- ence and special privileges, 207-217; position in Bundesrath, 218-219; re- generation in Napoleonic period, 246 248; repression of liberalism, 248; diet of 1847, 249; revolution of 1848, 249-250; formation of constitution, 250 Reichsgericht, 244 Reichsgesetzblatty 215 Reichsland. See Alsace-Lorraine. Reichstag, composition, 223; elec- toral system, 224; franchise, 225; priv- ileges of members, 225; sessions and officers, 226; committees, 226; con- duct of business, 227; powers and franchise, 227-228 Revolution of 1848, in Germany, 198-199; in Prussia, 249-250 Saxony, made a kingdom, 194; granted a constitution, 197; govern- mental system, 276-278 Social Democratic Party, rise, 231; growth, 232; triumph in 1912, 236- 238; present programme and char- acter, 239-240; strength in Prussia, 260-261 Sonderrechte, 208 Standeversammlung, of Saxony, 277 Statthalter, of Alsace-Lorraine, 286 Versailles, William I. proclaimed emperor at, 193 Vienna, Congress of, arrangements in Germany, 194 Vorporlament, of 1848, 198 William I., proclaimed German Em- peror, 193 Wiirttemberg, made a kingdom, 194; granted a constitution, 197; special privileges, 208; governmental sys- tem, 278-279 INDEX 659 Germany : Continued Zollverein, rise, 197 Great Britain. See England Hamburg, governmental system, 280- 281 Herrenhaus. See Prussia and Austria Herzegovina. See Austria-Hungary Holland: Administration, organization of prov- ince, 532-533; organization of com- mune, 533 Amendment, process, 523 Assembly, of province, 532 Batavian Republic, established, 518 Belgium, revolution in, 520; inde- pendence of, 521 Commune, organization, 533 Conservative Party, 529-530 Constitution, granted by William L, 519; revision, 521-522; present char- acter, 523; process of amendment, 523 Council, of commune, 533 Council of State, 524 Courts, 531-532 Crown, status and privileges, 523- 524; powers, 525 Elections, movement for reform, 526; law of 1896, 527; pending ques- tions, 527-528; of 1903, 529-530; of 1909, 530 France, Holland annexed to, 518 Franchise, movement for liberaliz- ing, 526; law of 1896, 527; pending questions, 527-528 High Court, 531 Judiciary, principles, 531; courts, 531-532 Liberal Party, 529-530 Ministry, composition, 524; powers, 525 Napoleon, relations with the Nether- lands, 517-518 Parliament. See States-General Parties, rise, 529; present alignment, 520; elections of 1909, 530 Province, organization, 532-533 States-General, composition of the houses, 526; electoral system, 527-528; organization and powers, 528-529; political complexion, 530 Holland : Continued Socialists, 529-53 Vienna, Congress of, arrangements respecting the Netherlands, 518 William I., king of the Netherlands, 518-519; grants constitution, 519- 520; resists Belgian independence, 520-521; abdicates, 521 Woman's suffrage, 527-528 Holy Roman Empire, terminated, 193 House of Commons. See England House of Lords. See England House of Representatives. See Bel- gium Hungary: Administration, 506-507 Andrssy, introduces electoral re- form bill, 495 Andrew II., promulgates Golden Bull, 446-447, 489 Arpdds, dynasty of, 447 Ausgleich, established, 458-459; and Hungarian political parties, 500 Austria, establishment of control, 443; encroachment by, 449-450; sup- presses revolution of 1848, 455-456; constitutional experiments, 457-468; Ausgleich established, 458-459 Banffy, ministry, 502 Banus, of Croatia-Slavonia, 508 Chamber of Deputies, composition, 493; electoral system, 493-494; move- ment for electoral reform, 495-496; electoral procedure, 497-498; organ- ization, 498; powers, 499-500 Constitution, foundations, 446-447; development, 447-448; March Laws, 453-454, 489; character, 490 County, origins, 506; organization, 507 Courts, 505-506 Croatia, government, 507-508 Crown. See King Deak, Francis, builds up Liberal party, 452; voices demands of Hun- gary, 457; retirement, 501 Elections, present franchise, 493- 494; movement for reform, 495; re- form bill of 1908; 495-497; procedure, 497-498; of 1905, 503 Franchise, present system, 493-494; 66o INDEX Hungary : Continued electoral reform bill of 1908, 495- 497 Golden Bull, promulgated, 446-447, 489 Hedervdry, ministry, 504-505 Independence, proclaimed in 1849, 455 m Judiciary. See Courts King, status, 491 Law, 505 Liberal Party, origins, 452, 501-502; demands in 1860-1861, 457; ascend- ancy, 501, 502 Magyars, settlement in Europe, 445; policies in 1848, 454; number and domination of, 494 March Laws, promulgated, 453 Metternich, repressive policy, 452 Ministry, composition and status, 491-492 Mohdcs, battle of, 448 Parliament, composition, 492-493; electoral system, 493-497; organiza- tion and procedure, 497-498; powers 499-500; obstructionism in, 502-505 Parliamentarism, 498 Parties, and question of Ausgleieh, 500; rise of Liberals, 500-501; era of parliamentary obstructionism, 502- 505 Pragmatic Sanction, promulgated, 449 Revolution, of 1848, 453~455 Settlement, 445 Slavonia, government, 507-508 Stephen I., receives crown from Pope, 446 Table of Magnates, composition, 492-493; privileges, 493; organization and procedure, 498; powers, 499-500 Tisza, Istvan, ministry, 503 Tisza, Kalman, ministry, 501-502 Turks, invasions of, 448 Wekerle, ministry, 504 Initiative, in Switzerland, 421, 432-434 Interpellation, in Prussian Landtag, 265; in French Chamber of Deputies, 314; in Italian Chamber of Deputies, 380 Ireland, union of 1801, 40-41; allot- ment of parliamentary seats, 85; over-representation, 89; representa- tive peers, 98-99; question of Home Rule, 150-152 Italy: Administration, patterned on French, 363; nature and organization of province, 384; nature and organiza- tion of commune, 385 Austria, influence in Italy in eight- eenth century, 353; position after jSiS, 358; helps suppress revolution of 1848, 361; Piedmontese-French alliance against, 362; loss of Venetia, 364 Ballottaggio, 378 Bissolati, political influence, 397 Bonaparte, Napoleon, and the Cis- alpine Republic, 354; overthrows Genoese oligarchy, 354; wins at Marengo, 355; supervises revision of Italian constitutions, 355-356; crowned king of Italy, 356; annexes Rome to France, 357; prophecy of Italian unification, 359 Campo Formio, treaty of, 354 Cassation, courts of, 382 Catholics, political activities, 400- 402 Cavour, Count, policies, 362 Chamber of Deputies, composition, 375; franchise law of 1882, 376; fran- chise to-day, 376-377; electoral pro- cedure, 378; qualifications and priv- ileges of members, 378-379; organ- ization, 379-380; procedure, 380-381 Charles Albert L, becomes king of Piedmont, 360; grants constitution hi 1848, 360-361 ; abdicates, 361 Circondaro, 383 Cisalpine Republic, 353-354 Code Napoleon, established in Italy, 357 Committees, of Parliament, 380 Commune, nature and organization, 385 Conservative Party, origins, 391; lack of normal development, 398 Constitution, of Cispadane Republic, 354; of Transpadane Republic, 354; INDEX 66 1 Italy: Continued of Ligurian Republic, 355; of Roman Republic, 355; of Parthenopaean Republic, 355; revisions in 1802- I 8o3, 355-356; of Napoleonic king- dom of Naples, 357; proclaimed in Naples in 1820, 359; proclaimed in Naples in 1848, 360-361; granted in Piedmont in 1848, 360-361; character of Statute, 365-367 Council, of province, 384; of com- mune, 385 Courts, patterned upon the French, 381; ordinary tribunals, 381-382; courts of cassation, 382; administra- tive courts, 382-383 Crispi, ministries, 393, 394-395 Crown, status, 368; civil list, 368; powers and functions, 368-369; rela- tion with ministers, 370 Depretis, ministries, 392-393 Elections, development of laws re- garding, 376; franchise, 376-378; procedure, 378; Catholic participa- tion in, 400-402; of 1909, 402-403 Extreme Left, influence, 395; groups of, 398 France, relations with Italy during Napoleonic period, 354~357; allied with Piedmont, 362; receives Savoy and Nice, 363; withdrawal of troops from Rome, 364 Franchise, prior to 1882, 375; law of 1882, 376; present regulations, 376- 377; electoral reform, 377 Fortis, ministry, 396 Garibaldi, conquest of Sicily, 363 Genoa, government remodelled, 354 Giolitti, ministries, 394, 396-398 Giunta, of province, 384; of com- mune, 385 Judiciary. See Courts Italian Republic, 356 Interpellation, 380 Left, origins, 391 ; dominance, 392- 394; prospects of harmony, 398 Liberal Party, in control, 395 Ligurian Republic, established, 354; annexed to France, 356 Lombardy, Austria's position in, 353, 358; annexed to Piedmont, 363 Italy : Continued LuneVille, treaty of, 355 Luzzatti, ministry, 396 Mandamento, 381 Milan, Transpadane Republic in- augurated at, 354; Napoleon crowned at, 356 Ministry, composition, 369; organ- ization and functions, 370-371; or- dinances, 371-372 Naples, invaded by French, 355; Murat king of, 357; revolution of 1820, 359; revolution of 1848, 360- 361 ; annexed to kingdom of Italy, 363 Napoleon. See Bonaparte Nice, ceded to France, 363 Non Expedit, purpose and effect, 400-401 ; partial relaxation, 401-402 Novara, battle of, 361 Ordinances, 371 Papacy, and revolution of 1848, 360- 361; losses of territory to Piedmont, 362-363; and of temporal dominion, 387; Law of Papal Guarantees promulgated, 388; prerogatives, 388- 389; relations with state, 389; opposi- tion to existing system, 390; the Non Expedit, 400-402 Papal Guarantees, Law of, promul- gated, 388; contents and character, 388-389; papal attitude toward, 390 Parliament, of united kingdom of Italy, 364; composition, 372-373; legislative weakness of Senate, 373; proposed reform of Senate, 373-374; composition of Chamber of Deputies, 375; franchise, 376-377; electoral procedure, 378; qualifications and privileges of members, 378-379; or- ganization, 379-380; procedure, 380- 38i Parties, rise of, 391 ; rule of Radicals, 392-394; era of composite ministries, 395-398; lack of real conservatives, 398-399; groups of Extreme Left, 398; rise of socialism, 399-400; ef~ fects of the Non Expedit, 401-402 j elections of 1909, 402-403 Parthenopaean Republic, 355 Piedmont, incorporated with France, 355; recovery in 1815, 358; revolu- 662 INDEX Italy: Continued tion of 1821, 360; revolution of 1848, 360; obtains constitution, 361; ac- cession of Victor Emmanuel IL, 361; ascendancy of, 362; annexations of 1859-1860, 362 Pius IX., reforms, 360; and revolu- tion of 1848, 360-361; loss of tem- poral dominion, 387; rejects Law of Guarantees, 390 Plombieres, agreement of, 362 Prefect, 384 Premier, appointment, 369-370 Pressburg, treaty of, 356 Province, nature and organization, 384 Radical Party, origins, 391; domi- nance, 392-394 Republican Party, weakness, 399 Revolution, of 1820-1821, 359; of 1848, 360 Right, origins, 391 ; loss of power, 392; coalition with Left, 393 Risorgimento, 353 Roman Republic, 355 Rome, republic established in 1798, 355; annexed to France, 357; annexed to kingdom of Italy, 364; becomes capital of kingdom, 364 Rudini, ministries, 394-395 Sardinia, kingdom of. See Pied- mont Savoy, ceded to France, 363 Scrutinio di lista, established in 1882, 376 Senate, composition, 372-373; legis- lative weakness, 373; proposed re- form, 373-374; privileges and powers, 375; organization, 379; procedure, 380-381 Sindaco, of commune, 385 Socialist Party, rise and character, 399-400 Sonnino, ministries, 396-397 Statuto, granted, 360; character, 365, 366-367; amendment, 365-366 Transpadane Republic, 354 Treaties, 369 Turin, kingdom of Italy proclaimed at, 364 Uffici, 380 Italy : Continued Venice, ceded to Austria, 354; an- nexed to kingdom of Italy, 364 Vienna, Congress of, settlement of Italian affairs, 358 Victor Emmanuel II., accession as king of Piedmont, 361; building of Italian unity, 362-364 Zanardelli, ministry, 396 Landsthing. See Denmark Landtag. See Prussia Law, of England, 167-169; of Ger- many, 241-242; of France, 335~339; of Switzerland, 439; of Hungary, 505 London, government, 190-191 Magna Carta, importance and charac- ter, 9 Ministry, organization and status in Great Britain, 57-70; proceedings, 71-73; in German Empire, 213-215; in Prussia, 254-256; in France, 311- 314; in Italy, 369-372; in Austria, 464-465; in Hungary, 491-492; in Holland, 524-525; in Belgium, 536- 537; in Denmark, 560-568; in Nor- way, 580-581; in Sweden, 590-591; in Spain, 615-616; in Portugal, 635- 636; 644 Netherlands. See Holland Non Expedit, nature and effects, 400- 402 Norway: Administration, organization, 588 Amtsthing, 588 Bernadotte, and union with Sweden, 554, 573-574 Commune, organization, 588 Conservative Party, 585-586 Constitution, of Eidsvold, 574; pres- ent form, 578; amendment, 579 Consular Service, question of, 576- 577 County, organization, 588 Courts, organization, 587-588 Crown, restoration of independence, 578; status, 580; powers, 580-581; question of veto, 584-585 INDEX 663 Norway: Continued Denmark, united with, 553, 572-573; separated from, 554 Eidsvold, constitution of, 574 Elections, method, 581; franchise, 581-582; of 1909 and 1912, 587 Formaend, 588 Franchise, development, 581-582; present system, 582 Haakon VII., crowned king, 578 Hoiesteret, 587 Independence, movement for in 1813-1814, 574; achieved, 577~578 Judiciary. See Courts Kalmar, union of, 553 Karlstad, convention of, 578 - Kiel, treaty of, 554, 573, 575 Liberal Party, growth, 585-586 Lagthing. See Storthing Michelsen, ministry, 577 Ministry, composition, 580; func- tions, 580-581 Oddsthing. See Storthing Parliament. See Storthing Parliamentarism, 581 - Parties, history to 1905, 585-586; status since 1905, 586-587 Riksakt, of 1815, 574-575 Social Democratic Party, 587 Steen, carries electoral reform, 581 Storthing, composition, 581; electoral system, 581-582; sessions and organ- ization, 582; powers and procedure, 583-584 Sverdrup, organizes first Liberal ministry, 585 Sweden, union with established, 574; nature of union, 574-575; friction with, 575-576; question of consular service, 576-577; separation from, 577-578 Union. See Sweden Veto, power of, 584-585 Woman's Suffrage, status, 582 Papacy. See Italy Parliament. See England, France, Italy, Austria, etc. Parliamentarism, in Great Britain, 143; in German Empire, 213; in Prussia, 254; in Austria, 464-465, 480-481; in Hungary, 498; in Belgium, 536-537; in Denmark, 560-562; in Norway, 581; in Sweden, 591 Parties, rise in England, 38-39; history in England, 143-166; in Germany, 229-240; in France, 329-333; in Italy, 391-402; in Switzerland, 434- 437; in Austria, 475-483; in Hungary, 500-505; in Holland, 529-530; in Denmark, 565-568; in Norway, 585- 587; in Sweden, 592-600; in Spain, 620-625; in Portugal, 631-633, 639- 642 Plural vote, in England, 88-90; in Austria, 468; in Belgium, 550-551 Portugal: Administration, organization under monarchy, 638-639; under republic, 646 Arriaga, Manoel, elected president, 642 Bonaparte, Napoleon, subjugation by, 629 Braga, Theophile, leader of provi- sional government, 641 Braganza, house of, proscribed, 641- 642 Brazil, relation with, 629 Chagas, Joao, ministry, 642 Charter, of 1826, 630; revised, 631 Chartist Party, 630-631 Commune, organization, 638-639 Congress, composition and powers, 645-646 Constitution, of 1826, 630; revision of 1852, 631; character under mon- archy, 634-635; of republic framed, 642-643; nature, 643; amendment, 643 Cortes, extinct at opening of nine- teenth century, 629; revival, 630-631 ; party strength under monarchy, 633- 634; renewed in 1908, 634; composi- tion under monarchy, 636-638 Council of Municipalities, composi- tion and powers, 645-646 Courts, under monarchy, 638; under republic, 646 Crown, status prior to 1910, 635-636 Dictadura, of France, 633-634 District, organization, 638-639 664 INDEX Portugal : Continued Elections, of 1906, 633; system prior to 1910, 637; of 1910, 640; provision for in decree of 1911, 641-642 Franchise, under monarchy, 637; under decree of 1911, 642 Franco, dictatorship, 633-634 House of Deputies, under monarchy, 636-637 House of Peers, under monarchy, 636-637 Judiciary. See Courts Liberal Concentration, of 1906, 633 Manoel II., overthrow, 641 Miguel, assumption of crown, 630 Ministry, status prior to 1910, 635- 636; under the republic, 644 National Council, composition and powers, 645-646 Parties, rivalries, 631-632; dictator- ship of Franco, 633-634; elections of 1906, 633; and revolution of 1910, 639-642 Pedro IV., contest with Miguelists, 630 Pombal, reforms, 629 President, status and powers, 644 Progressive Party, 631-634 Regenerador Party, 631-634 Revolution, of 1910, origins, 639; character and results, 640-641 Rotatiws, 632-633 Septembrist Party, 631 Thomar, Count of, ministry, 631 President, of France, 303-312; of Switzerland, 422-424; of Portugal, 644 Proportional Representation, in Wtir- temberg, 278; movement for in France, 320-324; in Switzerland, 419, 433; in Belgium, 543~54S; in Den- mark, 563 Province, in Prussia, 268-270; in Italy, 384; in Austria, 485-487; in Holland, 532-533; in Belgium, 550-551; in Spain, 627 Prussia (see also Germany and Aus- tria) : Abgeordnetenhaus, composition, 258; electoral system 258-260; question Prussia '.Continued of electoral reform, 260-263; session and powers, 263-264 AUheilungen, in Landtag, 264 Administration, reform measures of Stein and Hardenberg, 265; reforms of Bismarck, 266; general principles, 267; the province and its government, 268-270; the government district, 270-271; the circle, 271-272; the commune, 272-273 Amendment, of constitution, 252 Amtsgerichte, 243 Austria, war with, 200 Bezirksausschuss, 270 Charlottenburg, constitution promul- gated at, 251 Circle. See Kreis Civil List, 253 Committees, in Landtag, 264 Commune, organization, 272- 273 Constitution, obstacles to establish- ment, 248; promulgated, 250; nature, 251; amendment, 252 Crown, status and power, 252 Diet, of 1847, 249 Elections, present system, 258-260; question of reform, 260-263 Franchise, 258-260 Frederick William III., and consti- tutionalism, 248-250 Hardenberg, reform measures, 247- 265 Herrenhaus, original provisions of constitution concerning, 257; law of 1853, 257; composition to-day, 257- 258 Interpellation, in Landtag, 265 Judiciary, 243-244 Kreis, organization, 271 Kreisausschuss, 271 Kreistag, 271 Landeshauptmann, 270 Landgerichte, 243 Landrath, 271 Landtag, composition, 257-258; elec- toral system, 258-260; electoral re- form, 260-263; sessions, 263; powers, 264 Ministry, composition, 254; organ- INDEX 665 Prussia : Continued ization and workings, 255-256; sub- sidiary executive bodies, 256 Napoleon, and Prussia, 246-247 Oberlandesgerichie, 243 OberprOsident, 269 Oberrechnungskammer, 256 Regierungsbezirk, organization, 270- 271 Regierungsprdsident, 270 Revolution, of 1848, 249-250 Schulze, 272 Social Democratic Party, 260-261 Stadtrath, 273 Stein, reform measures, 247, 265; and Prussian local government, 265 Parliamentarism, absence of, 254 Province, origins and number, 268- 269; organs of central administration, 269; organs of self-government, 269- 270 Provinziallandtag, 270 Provinzialrath, 269 Volkswirthschaftsrath, 256 Referendum, Unionist proposal in Great Britain, 109; in Swiss cantons, 419-420; in Swiss federal govern- ment, 430-432 Reichsrath. See Austria Republicanism, in France, 297-298, 302-304, 329-330; in Italy, 399 Rigsdag. See Denmark Riksdag. See Sweden Saxony, made a kingdom, 194; granted a constitution, 197; governmental system, 276-278 Scotland, union of 1707, 30-40; allot- ment of parliamentary seats, 85; representative peers, 98-99 Senate. See France, Italy, Belgium, Spain Social Democrats, in German Empire, 231-240; in Prussia, 260-261; in France, 33-334; in Italy, 399~4oo; in Switzerland, 434-436; in Austria, 469-470, 483; in Holland, 529-530; in Belgium, 540-548; in Norway, 587; in Sweden, 593-595, 600; in Spain, 625 Spain: Administration, organization, 627- 628; principles, 628 Alfonso XII., accession, 610 Amendment, of constitution, 611 Ayuntamiento, of commune, 628 Bonaparte, Napoleon, conquest by, 603-604 Cadiz, Cortes convoked at, 604 Canovas del Castillo, ministries, 621- 622 Carlists, 606, 609, 620 Commune, organization, 627 Congress of Deputies, composition and election, 617-618; sessions and organization, 618-619; powers, 619- 620 Conservative Party, character, 621, 625; governments of, 621-623 Constitution, of 1812 drawn up, 604; rescinded by Frederick VII., 605; of 1834, 607; of 1837, 607; of 1845, 607- 608; of 1869, 608; of 1876, 611; char- acter and contents to-day, 611-612 Cortes, convened in 1810, 604; drafts constitution of 1812, 604; under con- stitution of 1812, 604; under consti- tution of 1834, 607; under constitu- tion of 1837, 607; under constitution of 1845, 608; under constitution of 1869, 608-609; establishes republic, 609; re-establishes monarchy, 610; adopts constitution of 1876, 611; composition to-day, 616-618; sessions and organization, 618-619; powers, 619-620; strength of parties, 624-625 Council, of province, 627; of com- mune, 628 Courts, organization, 626-627 Crown, rules of succession, 613; re- gencies, 613-614; powers, 614-615 Elections, of senators, 617; of deputies, 618; of 1907 and 1910, 624- 625 Espartero, regent, 607 Estatuto Real, of 1834, 607 Isabella II., accession, 606; declared of age, 608; abdicates, 608 Ferdinand VII., reign, 605-607 France, intervention, 605 Franchise, present system, 618 666 INDEX Spain : Continued Governor, of province, 627 Judiciary. See Courts King. See Crown Law, 626 Liberal Party, character, 621, 625; governments of, 621-623 Maria Christina, regency, 606-607; abdicates, 607 Maura, ministries, 623-624 Ministry, composition, 615; func- tions, 615-616 Parliament. See Cortes Parties, beginnings, 620; character of Liberals and Conservatives, 621- 622; since 1903, 623-624; elections of 1910, 624-625; republicans and so- cialists, 625 Pragmatic Sanction, of 1830, 606 Province, organization, 627 Regency, 613-614 Republic, established, 609; abolished, 610 Republican Party, rise, 620; present character, 625 Revolution, of 1820, 605 Sagasta, ministries, 621-623 Salic Law, rescinded, 606 Scrutin de liste, in election of dep- uties, 618 Senate, composition, 616; appoint- ment and election, 616-617; sessions and organization, 618-619 Serrano, regent, 609 Socialist Party, character of, 625 Succession, rules of, 613 Supreme Court, 626-627 States-General. See Holland Storthing. See Norway Sweden: Administration, organization, 601 Agricultural Party. See Landt- mannapartiet Amendment, process, 589 Bernadotte, and union with Norway, 554, 573-574 Conservative Party, and electoral reform, 592-596; long tenure of power, 599-600 Consular Service, question of, 576- 577 Sweden : Continued Constitution, character, 572, 589; amendment, 589 Constitutional Committee, 598 County, organization, 601 Courts, organization, 600-601 Crown, early status, 570-571; pres- ent basis, 590; relations with minis- try, 590-591 Elections, present system, 592; movement for reform, 592-596; of 1908 and 1911, 600 Franchise, present regulations, 592; rise of movement for reform, 592-593; Conservative proposal of 1904, 593- 594; Staaff project of 1906, 594~595; law of 1907-1909, 595-596; question of women's suffrage, 596; bill of 1912, 596-597 Gustavus III., rehabilitation of monarchy, 571 Gustavus IV., abdicates, 572 Hogsta Domstolen, organization and functions, 600-601 Independence, established, 570 Judiciary. See Courts Karlstad, convention of, 578 Kiel, treaty of, 554, 573, 575 Landsthing, of county, 601 Landtmannapartiet, growth, 599 Liberal Party, and electoral reform, 592-596; gains, 600 Lindman, project for electoral re- form, 595 Ministry, composition, 590; powers, 590-591 Norway, union with, 573-574; na- ture of union, 574-575; friction with, 575-576; question of consular service, 576-577; separation of, 577~578 Parliament. See Riksdag Parliamentarism, 591 Parties, and electoral reform, 592- 596; military and tariff questions, 598-599; history since 1891, 599- 600 Regerings-formen, of 1809, promul- gated, 572 Riksakt, of 1815, 574-575 Riksdag, original character, 591; reorganization in 1866, 591 ; composi- INDEX 667 Sweden : Continued tion of chambers, 591-595; electoral system, 582; movement for electoral reform, 592-596; organization and procedure, 597; powers, 597-598 Social Democratic Party, and elec- toral reform, 593-595; gains, 600 Staaff, project for electoral reform, 594 Statsrad. See Ministry Supreme Court. See Hogsta Dom- stolen Union. See Norway Women's Suffrage, movement for, 596-597 Switzerland: Act of Mediation, 407 Bezirksammann, 422 Bezirksrath, 422 Bonaparte, Napoleon, promulgates Act of Mediation, 407 Bundesgericht, nature and functions, 437-438 Bundesrath. See Federal Council Canton, constitutions liberalized, 409; sovereignty, 412; federal control, 412-413; powers exercised concur- rently with Confederation, 414-415; variation of constitutions, 416; the Landesgemeinde, 417-418; the Greater Council, 418-419; use of referendum, 419-420; use of initiative, 421; the executive Council of State, 421; local administration, 422; the judiciary, 422 Centralism, triumph in 1848, 410; as a political issue, 434 Clerical Party, character, 434-435 Commune, 422 Confederation, origins, 405; com- position in later eighteenth century, 406; erected into Helvetic Republic, 406; remodelled in 1803, 407; re- organized in 1815, 408; constitution of 1848 and 1874, 410; nature, 411- 412; control of cantons by, 412.; powers vested exclusively in, 413- 414; powers denied, 414-415; general aspects, 415 Constitution, of Helvetic Republic, 406-407; remodelled in 1803, 407; of Switzerland '.Continued 1815, 408; of cantons liberalized, 409; of 1848, 410; revision of 1874, 410; nature of government established by, 411-416; amendment, 431-432 Council of State, executive agency in cantons, 421 Council of the States, composition, 427; compared with Senate of United States, 427-428; powers, 428-429; procedure, 429-430 Courts, of the cantons, 422; absence of administrative tribunals, 425- 426; the Bundesgericht, 437~438; Civil Code, 439 Diet, of Confederation in 1803-1815, 407; after 1815, 408 Elections, of Federal Council, 423; of National Council, 426; of Council of the States, 428; party conditions, 435-437 Federal Assembly, relations with Federal Council, 424-425; composi- tion, 426; powers, 428-429; procedure, 429-430 Federal Court. See Bundesgericht Federalism, triumph of in 1803, 407; in 1815, 408; survival in present con- stitutional system, 411; as a political issue, 434 Federal Pact, 408 Franchise, 426 Gemeindeversammlung, 422 Greater Council, of the canton, 418- 419 Helvetic Republic, creation and character, 406-407 Initiative, employment in cantons, 421; in the federal government, 432- 434 Judiciary. See Courts Landammann, 421-422 Landesgemeinde, 417-418 Law, 439 Left. See Radical Party Libesal Party, character, 435 National Council, composition, 426; organization, 427; powers, 428-429; procedure, 429-430 Parties, prolonged ascendancy of Radicals, 434; alignments to-day, 668 INDEX Switzerland : Continued Switzerland : Continued 434-435 5 stability of groups, 435~436 ; Sonderbund, 409 inactivity, 436-437 Vienna, Congress of, disposition of President, election and functions, Swiss affairs, 408 422-424 Proportional Representation, 419, 433 Table of Magnates. See Hungary Radical Party, prolonged ascend- ancy, 434; present character, 434-436 Woman's Suffrage, in Great Britain, Referendum, origins, 419; operation 91-92; in Holland, 527-528; in Nor- in cantons, 410-420; optional form in way, 582; in Sweden, 596-597 federal government, 430-431; obliga- Wflrttemberg, made a kingdom, 194; tory form, 431-432 granted a constitution, 197; special Right. See Clerical Party privileges, 208; governmental system, Socialist Party, rise, 434-436 278-279 Printed in the United States of America HP HE following pages contain advertisements of books by the same author or on kindred subjects Social Progress in Contemporary Europe By FREDERIC AUSTIN OGG, PH.D., Associate Professor of History, Simmons College Cloth, i2mo, $1.50; postpaid $1.63 "The term 'social' has been interpreted by Professor Ogg to comprise anything which bears upon the status and opportunity of the average man. 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