GERMANY.

Constitution.

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THE ancient Germanic Empire has become, since the year 1815, a confederacy of sovereign and independent states. The Act of Constitution was signed by all the members of the confederacy at the Congress of Vienna, June 8, 1815, and consists of twenty Articles. cording to the first Article, the object of the Confederation is, 'the preservation of the internal and external security of Germany, and the independence and inviolability of the various German States.' All the members of the German Confederation-Deutsche Bund -shall have equal rights and privileges, according to the second Article; but the participation in the general administration is limited by a number of other enactments in the following paragraphs. The organ and representative of the Confederation is the Diet of Plenipotentiaries, which is permanent, and assembles in the free city of Frankfort-on-the-Maine. The executive and administrative government of the Diet is constituted in two forms:-1st, As a General Assembly, or plenum, in which every member of the Confederation has, at least, one vote, and the great powers have several; and 2nd, The Ordinary Assembly, or Committee of Confederation, in which seventeen votes are divided between the thirty-four members, giving one vote to each of the larger States, and the rest to the smaller States combined. When fundamental laws are to be made or changed, when measures are to be taken that relate to the Federal Act itself, when changes of organic institutions, or other arrangements of general tinerest are to be adopted, when war or peace is to be made, or when a new member is to be admitted, the Diet becomes a plenum. In all other cases, the Ordinary Assembly, or Committee of Confederation, is competent to act both as legislature and executive.

As settled by the Treaty of Vienna, Germany was divided into thirty-nine sovereign States, or portions of States; but the number is now reduced to thirty-four. The five missing members are-1st. The Saxon princedom of Gotha, which became extinct in 1826, by the decease of the last Herzog, whose territories were divided by compact among his collateral relatives, the princes of Coburg and Meiningen; 2nd. The Duchy of Anhalt-Cöthen, which, in 1847, became annexed to Anhalt-Dessau; 3rd and 4th. The Principalities of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen,

CONSTITUTION.

of

in consequence

both which States were united to Prussia in 1849, the simultaneous abdication of the two reigning princes in tavour of their kinsman the King of Prussia, head of the House of Hohenzollern; and 5th. The duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg, the reigning house of which became extinct with Duke Alexander, who died August 19, 1863, leaving the succession to the last remaining princes of Anhalt, formerly called of Anhalt-Dessau.

The following are the members of the Confederation as now constituted, with their votes in the General Assembly, their votes in Committee of Confederation, and their place or rank in the Diet. By the Fifth Article of the Act of Confederation of June 8, 1815, Austria enjoys the permanent right of presiding in the Diet.

Votes in Votes in
General Committee of
Assembly Confederation

Place in the Diet

The Committee of Confederation, consisting of the ambassadors of the thirty-four States, is sitting in permanence at Frankfort-onthe-Maine; but of late has exercised very little political influence. An attempt to reconstitute the Confederation on a more liberal basis, made by the Emperor of Austria, and laid before a congress of German sovereigns which met at Frankfort in August, 1863, led to no results, owing chiefly to the opposition of Prussia. To give the Diet a more representative form, a plan has been laid before the Committee for creating a Lower House of Parliament at the side of the now existing Upper Chamber. According to this plan, Austria shall send thirty deputies, divided among the Assemblies of her German provinces; Prussia thirty, and Bavaria ten, to be chosen among the members of their Chambers; Saxony, Hanover, and Würtemberg, each six; Baden, five: Electoral Hesse and GrandDucal Hesse, each four; Holstein, Luxemburg, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, Nassau, and Weimar, each two; Meiningen, Coburg-Gotha, Altenburg, Oldenburg, the two Anhalts, the two Schwartzburgs, Waldeck, Lippe, Lichtenstein, Frankfort, Bremen, and Hamburg, each one-in all 128 popular delegates.

Army.

In the Act of the Congress of Vienna of June 1815, the contribution of the various States to the army of the Germanic Confederation was fixed at one per cent. of the population, that is, the population possessed at that particular period, without taking into account a further increase or decrease of numbers. One-seventh of this army was to consist of cavalry; and ten pieces of artillery, with a proportionate number of men, were to be furnished with every 1,000 soldiers. On this basis, the army of the Confederation consisted of 301,637 men, rank and file. Various changes were introduced into this military organisation subsequently; and by a vote of the Diet of March 10, 1853, the total strength of the army was increased one-sixth per cent. The actual strength of the army of the Confederation now consists of 391,634 infantry, 60,758 cavalry, and 50,680 artillery, divided into ten corps d'armée, and a number of troops of

Under the sole command of the Diet, and garrisoned by Federal troops, are five German fortresses, namely, Mayence, Luxemburg, Landau, Rastadt, and Ulm. The strongest and most important of these fortresses, Mayence, is garrisoned by Austrians and Prussians, in equal moities; Luxemburg, by Prussians chiefly; Landau, by Bavarian troops; Rastatt, by troops of Baden, Austria, and Prussia; and Ulm, by troops of Würtemberg, Bavaria, and Austria.

The military governors of Landau, Luxemburg, Bastadt, and Ulm, are respectively a Bavarian, a Prussian, a Badense, and a Wurtembergian general; while the governorship of Mayence is occupied in turns by an Austrian and a Prussian general, for the term of five years. From the end of October, 1854, to the end of October, 1859, the governor of Mayence was Prince William of Prussia, the now reigning King. He was succeeded by the Austrian Field-Marshal Prince Windischgratz, who died in March, 1862, and was succeeded by Archduke William, for the period until the end of October, 1864. Since 1848 there has been also a Federal garrison in Frankfort, composed of Austrians, Prussians, Bavarians, and the Frankfort battalion of line.

Population.

The last general census of the States of the Confederation took place Dec. 3, 1861. In two states, however, Holstein-Lauenburg and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the most recent enumeration is of the year 1860. The following table contains the area, in English square miles, and number of inhabitants of the thirty-four States, according to these last official returns, compared with the census of 1853.