constitution, laws, and civil administration, the external sovereignty of each being represented by the king. § 17. Real the same The union of the different States composing the union under Austrian monarchy is a real union. The hereditary sovereign. dominions of the House of Austria, the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, and other States, are all indissolubly united under the same sceptre, but with distinct fundamental laws, and other political institutions. It appears to be an intelligible distinction between such a union as that of the Austrian States, and all other unions which are merely personal under the same crowned head, that, in the case of a real union, though the separate sovereignty of each State may still subsist internally, in respect to its coördinate States and in respect to the imperial crown, yet the sovereignty of each is merged in the general sovereignty of the empire, as to their international relations with foreign powers. The political unity of the States which compose the Austrian Empire forms what the German publicists call a community of States, (Gesammtstaat); a community which reposes on historical antecedents. It is connected with the natural progress of things, in the same way as the empire was formed, by an agglomeration of various nationalities, which defended, as long as possible, their ancient constitutions, and only yielded, finally, to the overwhelming influence of superior force. (a) corporate union. § 18. In- 2. An incorporate union is such as that which subsists between Scotland and England, and between Great Britain and Ireland; forming out of the three kingdoms an empire, united under one crown and one legislature, although each may have distinct laws and a separate administration. The sovereignty, internal and external, of each original kingdom (a) [In 1849, a uniform Constitution for all the States was established, and the charter for the one and indivisible Empire of Austria proclaimed. Annual Register, 1849, p. 317. By the patent of the 31st December, 1851, the fundamental rights recognized by the Constitution of the 4th of March, 1849, were abolished, while centralization was maintained, and provision made for uniform municipal legislation. Annuaire des Deux Mondes, 1852-3, pp. 541-545.] is completely merged in the united kingdom, thus formed by their successive unions. Russia and 3. The union established by the Congress of Vienna, 19. Union between the empire of Russia and the kingdom of between Poland, is of a more anomalous character. By the final Poland. act of the congress, the duchy of Warsaw, with the exception of the provinces and districts otherwise disposed of, was reunited to the Russian Empire; and it was stipulated that it should be irrevocably connected with that empire by its constitution, to be possessed by his majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, his heirs and successors in perpetuity, with the title of King of Poland; his Majesty reserving the right to give to this State, enjoying a distinct administration, such interior extension as he should judge proper; and that the Poles, subject respectively to Russia, Austria, and Prussia, should obtain a representation and national institutions, regulated according to that mode of political existence which each government, to whom they belong, should think useful and proper to grant.1 Charter accorded by Alexander land, in In pursuance of these stipulations, the Emperor Alexander granted a constitutional charter to the kingdom the Emperor of Poland, on 15th (27th) November, 1815. By the to the kingprovisions of this charter, the kingdom of Poland was dom of Podeclared to be united to the Russian Empire by its con- 1815. stitution; the sovereign authority in Poland was to be exercised only in conformity to it; the coronation of the King of Poland was to take place in the Polish capital, where he was bound to take an oath to observe the charter. The Polish nation was to 1 "Le Duché de Varsovie, à l'exception des provinces et districts, dont il a été autrement disposé dans les articles suivans, est réuni à l'Empire de Russie. Il y sera lié irrévocablement par sa Constitution, pour étre possédé par S. M. l'Empereur de toutes les Russies, ses héritiers et ses successeurs à perpétuité. Sa Majesté Impériale se reserve de donner à cet état, jouissant d'une administration distincte, l'extension intérieure qu'elle jugera convenable. Elle prendra, avec ses autres titres celui de Czar, Roi de Pologne, conformément au protocole usité et consacré par les titres attachés à ses autres possessions. "Les Polonais, sujets respectifs de la Russie, de l'Autriche, et de la Prusse, obtiendront une représentation et des institutions nationales, réglées d'après la mode d'existence politique que chacun des Gouvernemens auxquelles ils appartiennent jugera utile et convenable de leur accorder." Art. 1. have a perpetual representation, composed of the king and the two chambers forming the Diet; in which body the legislative power was to be vested, including that of taxation. A distinct Polish national army and coinage, and distinct military orders, were to be preserved in the kingdom. Manifesto of the Emperor Nicholas, 1832. In consequence of the revolution and reconquest of Poland by Russia, a manifesto was issued by the Emperor Nicholas, on the 14th (26th) of February, 1832, by which the kingdom of Poland was declared to be perpetually united (réuni) to the Russian Empire, and to form an integral part thereof; the coronation of the emperors of Russia and kings of Poland hereafter to take place at Moscow, by one and the same act; the Diet to be abolished, and the army of the empire and of the kingdom to form one army, without distinction of Russian or Polish troops; Poland to be separately administered by a Governor General and Council of Administration, appointed by the emperor, and to preserve its civil and criminal code, subject to alteration and revision by laws and ordinances prepared in the Polish Council of State, and subsequently examined and confirmed in the Section of the Council of State of the Russian Empire, called The Section for the Affairs of Poland; consultative Provincial States to be established in the different Polish provinces, to deliberate upon such affairs concerning the general interest of the kingdom of Poland as might be submitted to their consideration; the Assemblies of the Nobles, Communal Assemblies, and Council of the Waiwodes to be continued as formerly. Great Britain and France protested against this measure of the Russian government, as an infraction of the spirit if not of the letter of the treaties of Vienna.1 20. Federal union. 4. Sovereign States permanently united together by a federal compact, either form a system of confederated States, (properly so called,) or a supreme federal government, which has been sometimes called a compositive State. (a) I Wheaton's History of the Law of Nations, p. 434. 2 These two species of federal compacts are very appropriately expressed in the German language, by the respective terms of Staatenbund and Bundesstaat. (a) [The Confederation of 1778 and the existing Constitution of the United States, are examples of the two classes of cases referred to in the text.] federated its own In the first case, the several States are connected 21. Contogether by a compact, which does not essentially differ States, each from an ordinary treaty of equal alliance. Consequently retaining the internal sovereignty of each member of the union sovereignty. remains unimpaired; the resolutions of the federal body being enforced, not as laws directly binding on the private individual subjects, but through the agency of each separate government, adopting them, and giving them the force of law within its own jurisdiction. Hence it follows, that each confederated individual State, and the federal body for the affairs of common interest, may become, each in its appropriate sphere, the object of distinct diplomatic relations with other nations. ral govern In the second case, the federal government created by 22. Suthe act of union is sovereign and supreme, within the preme fedesphere of the powers granted to it by that act; and the ment or compositive government acts not only upon the States which are State. members of the confederation, but directly on the citizens. The sovereignty, both internal and external, of each several State is impaired by the powers thus granted to the federal government, and the limitations thus imposed on the several State governments. The compositive State, which results from this league, is alone a sovereign power. manic Con Germany, as it has been constituted under the name § 23. Gerof the Germanic Confederation, presents the example federation. of a system of sovereign States, united by an equal and permanent Confederation. All the sovereign princes and free cities of Germany, including the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia, in respect to their possessions which formerly belonged to the Germanic Empire, the King of Denmark for the duchy of Holstein, and the King of the Netherlands for the grand duchy of Luxembourg, are united in a perpetual league, under the name of the Germanic Confederation, established by the Federal Act of 1815, and completed and developed by several subsequent decrees. The object of this union is declared to be the preservation of the external and internal security of Germany, the independence and inviolability of the confederated States. All the members of the confederation, as such, are entitled to equal rights. New States may be admitted into the union by the unanimous consent of the members.1 The affairs of the union are confided to a Federative Diet, which sits at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, in which the respective States are represented by their ministers, and are entitled to the following votes, in what is called the Ordinary Assembly of the Diet: : Austria Prussia Bavaria Saxony Hanover Wurtemburg Baden Electoral Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse Denmark (for Holstein) The Netherlands (for Luxemburg) The Grand Ducal and Ducal Houses of Saxony Brunswick and Nassau Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Strelitz Oldenburg, Anhalt, and Schwartzburg Hohenzollern, Lichtenstein, Reuss, Schaumburg, Lippe, Waldeck, and Hesse Homburg The Free Cities of Lubeck, Frankfort, Bremen, and Hamburg Total Votes. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Austria presides in the Diet, but each State has a right to propose any measure for deliberation. The Diet is formed into what is called a General Assembly, (Plenum,) for the decision of certain specific questions. The votes in pleno are distributed as follows: 1 Acte final du Congrès de Vienne, art. 53, 54, 55. Deutsche Bundes acte, vom 8 Juni, 1815, art. 1. Wiener Schluss-Acte, vom 15 Mai, 1820, art. 1, 6. |