(members of the "United Church," or union of Lutheran and Calvinist into one body, erected by the State under Frederick William IV.), 2,905,250 Lutherans, 465,120 Reformed (not acknowledging the Union, but existing within the lines of the State Church). Then come the Protestants, who will have neither Union nor State Church, and these are Lutheran Separatists, 40,630; Reformed Separatists, 35,080. Of Roman Catholics (including Old Catholics) are 8,625,840; Greek Catholics, 1,450; German and Christian Catholics (separatists from the Roman Church) 4,800. There are 339,790 Jews, and then follow Moravians, 3,710; Irvingites, 2,620; Baptists, 12,210; Mennonites, 14,650; "Anglicans, Methodists, and members of various Protestant sects" (thus grouped in the report), 2,080; free congregations and Dissenters, 17,880; various, 4,674. The broad facts (it was stated) to be deduced from this list are these :-64.64 per cent. of the population return themselves as members of the Protestant State Church, and 51.54 per cent. of these belong to the United Protestant Church; 33:51 per cent. are Roman (and Old) Catholics, and 1.32 only are Jews. So 99 per cent. of the Prussian people are members of these three bodies, and only per cent. can be reckoned as Dissenters.

The autumn manoeuvres, which began on September 3, at Düsseldorf (see the preceding description of the "Kaiser week"), were brought to a close on September 25, at Darmstadt. These manœuvres included a succession of parades, exercises, festivals, and receptions, in which the Emperor was the central figure. His visit to Rhineland, in 1877, called forth a comparison between the aspect of things upon that occasion, and thirty years ago. "Then," said a correspondent of a London paper, "when as Prince of Prussia he drove through the streets of Cologne, he was greeted with sullen faces, and hardly the appearance of outward respect; now, loyalty and attachment hailed with enthusiasm the German Emperor. Then, on the plain about Muggensturm, he overwhelmed in blood the Baden insurrectionists; last Saturday, on the same field, he directed, as head of the re-united Fatherland, the troops of Baden. The newspapers have not failed to contrast in this way the present with the past, and to point a moral for the benefit of the German family."

The second session of the thirteenth legislative period of the Prussian Diet (Landtag) was opened, October 21, by Herr Camphausen, the Finance Minister, who read the Speech from the Throne, which made no reference to foreign affairs. It said that the year's session would be devoted chiefly to organic reforms. As regarded finance, Prussia's pecuniary contributions towards the Imperial Exchequer had much increased during the year 1877; and necessary public works would probably consume a larger amount than could be collected. For these reasons recourse must be had to extraordinary measures, and a Bill authorising a loan would be submitted to the House.

[1877. On the whole the speech was not encouraging to Prussian ratepayers, who were already heavily taxed.

The budget was submitted to the Lower House on October 23, when the Minister, Camphausen, further expounded the financial position. He stated that the budget for 1876 showed a surplus of 22,179,780 marks, and upon the first quarter of 1877 (which forms an extra budget period, as the financial year is in future to commence in April instead of January) there was a small surplus, but in the year 1877-8 many sources of State revenue had decreased; still, as expenses had been kept down, the year would balance itself. For the coming year, 1878-9, the outlook was more serious, owing to the demand of the Imperial Exchequer for a larger contribution (viz., sixteen and a quarter millions), which sprang from the everincreasing military expenditure of the Empire; while a great extension of public works was necessary for the national benefit, and also to give employment to the hands out of work. This statement was received by the House with a rather "ominous silence."

Although the Speech from the Throne referred to organic or administrative reforms, nothing definite was proposed, and the National Liberals, already disappointed at the delay in the reform of the internal administration, were disappointed at the meagre promises of the Royal Speech; and this disappointment was not lessened by the fact that neither the President (Prince Bismarck) nor the Minister of the Interior (Count Eulenburg) appeared in Parliament. It should be borne in mind by the English reader that in Prussia the question of municipal reform is urgent, for the towns in that country are under a system of government which came into existence under very different political circumstanceswhen the Crown was everything and the people nothing. The Minister of the Interior, after promising reform, had taken leave of absence, and, like the Premier (Prince Bismarck), remained in retirement, and was only in Parliament by proxy. Thus the question of Ministerial responsibility had become associated with the other question of the day-municipal reform.

Ministerial explanation being desired, a deputy, Dr. Virchow, placed an interpellation on the Order of the Day, in which he affirmed that the limited reforms mentioned in the Speech from the Throne were contrary to former promises of the Government, and to the resolutions passed by the House, and this, it stated, as well as the absence of the two Ministers, was injurious to the acknowledged necessity of further legislation, and to the constitutional responsibility of Ministers to Parliament. Dr. Windthorst, in still plainer terms, moved an amendment, that the Government be requested to introduce a Bill respecting the fixed organisation of the Ministry and the responsibility of the various Ministers.

This elicited from the Ministers Friedenthal and Camphausen ministerial statements. The former denied that Count Eulenburg's leave of absence checked in any way the activity of the Cabinet; for his portfolio was taken, ad interim, by the speaker, who was

fully responsible during the Count's absence for the administration of the department. There had been no change of policy, and the Ministry was still resolved to carry out the reform of internal administration. Herr Camphausen stated that the whole Cabinet took the responsibility of Count Eulenburg's leave, and for himself he would promise that the course of administrative reform should not be stopped so long as he was in the Ministry. Dr. Von Sybel stated that, three weeks ago, Prince Bismarck had informed him. that he intended to push forward the extension of the administrative reform into all the provinces of the Monarchy.

On October 27, there was an interesting and animated debate in the Lower House of the Prussian Diet, and the discussion on the administrative reform Bills was brought to an end. Herr Windthorst, late Hanoverian Minister, and a distinguished leader of the Ultramontanes (who, from the Ultramontane and Hanoverian point of view, would naturally dislike Prince Bismarck), made a determined attack upon the Cabinet. It was clear, he said, from the ambiguous phraseology used by Ministers, that the great work of administrative reform was virtually at an end. The fact was, Prince Bismarck had put a stop to administrative reform, and his colleagues, being mere servants of the Sovereign Premier, had bowed to his decision.

Vice-President Camphausen, in "a witty and telling speech," said the Times' report, "endeavoured to refute the arguments used by the preceding speaker. It was absurd," he said, "to attempt to represent Prince Bismarck as omnipotent. Parliament held the purse-strings, and Prince Bismarck was simply dependent upon votes of supply."

Herr Lasker, leader of the left wing of the Moderate Liberals, "had no hesitation in declaring all attacks on Prince Bismarck to be tantamount to attacks upon the nation. He admitted, however, that the apparent determination of the Cabinet to exclude municipal and village government from the range and scope of administrative reform was not in harmony with previous announcements and with what his political friends regarded as a necessary complement of the Bills enacted. His party would watch the course pursued by the Government and be guided by circumstances. Government had no right to count on the continued support of the Moderate Liberals unless a straightforward and Liberal course was held."

After a debate that lasted five hours, the motion brought forward by the Progress party relative to the Government neglect of administrative reforms was negatived. The motion of the Centre, regarding the Ministerial Organisation Bill, and the Bill relating to Ministerial responsibility, was rejected by 217 against 132 votes; and so in a House where (as the Times remarked) "the majority of the members were distinctly pledged to principles of reform and parliamentary government, such unsubstantial concessions secured a decided majority."

The Loan Bill, authorising the Government to borrow within five years the sum of 126,745,000 marks, for the prosecution of public works, was subsequently brought forward. This sum (amounting to more than 6,250,000l. sterling) is to be applied as follows:-Regulation and improvement of waterways, 10,000,000; new canals, 17,500,000; seaports improvement, 13,000,000; bridges and officials' dwellings, 7,000,000; the Berlin Polytechnic School, 8,250,000; buildings required by the reorganisation of justice, 23,000,000; Universities, schools, and seminaries, 22,000,000; art buildings, 3,500,000, &c.

In the autumn the Emperor made his annual shooting excursion to Silesia. He "usually arrives with the invited guests the evening before the battue, and proceeds to the hunting castle of Königswusterhausen, where, after supper, during which the finest horn music from Berlin is always played, the whole company assembles as a 'smoking-college,' in the same hall in which it was held at the time of Frederick William I. This hall, in the second story of the castle, is decorated with stags' horns and stuffed boars' heads, being trophies of animals killed by the Emperor William. It contains the same peculiar chairs and the long oaken table which were in use there 170 years ago. There the merry company relate amusing hunting stories, drink beer out of old earthenware mugs, and smoke Turkish tobacco out of long Dutch clay pipes till a late hour, just as it was in the days of Frederick William I." The present Emperor is, however, not a regular smoker.

By the death of Field-Marshal Count Wrangel, on November 1, in the ninety-fourth year of his age, Prussia lost its oldest soldier. He began his military career at the age of thirteen in a Prussian regiment of Dragoons. In ten years' time he was a Major, and had won the Order of Merit. He took part in the battle of Leipsic, and was decorated with the Iron Cross, first class. In 1839 he was a General in command of an army corps. For his success in the war with Denmark, in which he conducted the first campaign, he was made Governor of Berlin and Commander-in-Chief of the troops on the home province. In 1848 he quelled the democratic meetings in Berlin, and in the same year attained to the highest military rank of Field-Marshal. His last military service was in 1864, when he commanded at the beginning of the second Danish campaign, and was created a Count. In the campaign of 1866 (although present) he held no command. He was then eighty-two, and since that time "he had been one of the genuine sights of the capital, and by the gamins of Berlin he was known and accosted as Papa Wrangel.' It is said that the doctors had the greatest difficulty at last in persuading the old hero to keep his bed; he persisted in lying on a sofa in full uniform, saying that a soldier must always hold himself in readiness to wait on his Sovereign, should he be summoned by him. Prussia's soldiers are tough men ; on the 26th ult. Count Moltke celebrated his seventy-seventh birthday."

Count Wrangel's funeral was a national tribute; and though he was interred at Settin, the place of his birth, the chief ceremonial was in Berlin. A military escort attended the body to the railway station. "The Emperor followed on foot a portion of the way, and the Crown Prince and Prince Frederick Charles walked the whole way. The actual participation of the Emperor in the procession was a very unusual mark of respect, for the Court etiquette is that the reigning Sovereign shall only follow the body of his predecessor, or of a widowed Queen."

General Baron von Cannstein, another Prussian veteran, died on November 12. He did not enter the army till after the conflict with Napoleon; but he was in the Danish campaign of 1864, during which the Cannstein brigade won fame at the storming of Düppel. In the war with Austria, General Cannstein commanded a division at München-grätz and König-grätz. Subsequently he became Governor of Magdeburg; but during the French war he was Governor of Berlin.

On November 7 the question of internal administration was again debated in the Lower House of the Prussian Diet, and a nearly unanimous vote was given against the Government on the motion-"The House of Deputies resolves, the Government be requested to lay before the Landtag a draft of a Rural Communities, Districts, and Provinces Regulation Act for the Rhine Province and Westphalia." Another motion, setting forth that" the internal reforms already in force in the six older provinces required further revision," was rejected.

Towards the end of November Parliamentary dullness was relieved by a debate in the Prussian Diet, on the budget of the Ministry of Worship and Education. When the first item of the budget of the Cultus department-viz. a payment of 36,000 marks to the Minister-was brought forward, the clerical champion, Reichensperger, reiterated his complaints against the many laws, and demanded the removal of Dr. Falk. Dr. Petri, the Old Catholic deputy for Wiesbaden, followed by such a powerful and earnestly-delivered philippic against the Vaticanist party, that the House became greatly excited, and the orator concluded amidst a storm of cheers, congratulations, and hisses. During the continuation of the Worship and Education debate, the Ultramontanes protested against the violation of the Catholic conscience; and one Liberal member exclaimed "Gentlemen of the Centrum, you are the puppets of Rome;" which was answered by the retort, " And you Liberals, are but the puppets of Prince Bismarck."

66

In the discussion on education it was asserted that "the curriculum of German education in the public schools was far too hard for the strength and health of the youths who had to undergo it," and that " of the pupils on the three highest forms in the Gymnasia (classical schools) about twenty per cent. left school with weak eyesight."

Towards the close of the year Germany was once more threatened