VI. 1867. CHAP. reading had to take place on the third day after it had been printed and circulated. In the first reading only a debate on the general features of the bill took place, and it could not be thrown out before it had been submitted to a second reading. The bill after the first reading might be submitted to a committee, and the second reading was then postponed till the Committee had made its report. The second reading had to take place, either on the second day after the first reading, or on the second day after the report had been printed and circulated. The third reading took place on the second day after the second reading. If the Bill was passed, it was then sent to the Chancellor, and to become law it had to receive the assent of the Federal Council. Power of laws. The Reichstag could initiate laws, with two exto initiate ceptions. 1. It could not propose the admission of a South German State into the Confederation; and 2. It rested with the Chancellor, and not with the Reichstag, to take the initiative in applying the means afforded by law for settling a difficulty between the head of one of the German States and his assemblies some constitutional question. The Federal Council itself could not interfere unasked in such cases; and some States-Oldenburg, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, Saxe-Coburg Gotha, and Saxe Altenburg-had special authorities who decided these questions. But as a rule bills were originated, and are still originated in the Federal Council. And it is natural that it should be so, as they are there more carefully on prepared, and by men more cognizant of the details of the special subject with which these bills are hereafter to deal. It will be observed how carefully the way was made ready for the admission of the South German States by the clause forbidding the Federal Council or the Reichstag taking the initiative in the matter. The admittance of a South German State had to be proposed by the head of the Confederation, and required only a simple majority of the Federal Council and of the Reichstag for the acceptance of the proposal, not a two-thirds majority of the Federal Council, as was the case in other fundamental changes in the Constitution. The whole Constitution of the North German Confederation was, in fact, framed with the intention of being easily adopted by the South German States, and we shall see hereafter in what small details the present Constitution differs from the one with which we are now engaged. If a member of the Reichstag desired to put a question to the Federal Council he had to obtain the signature of thirty other members to his interpellation, which was then transmitted through the President to the Chancellor, who named a day for answering the question. No motion could be made on a question. ་ CHAP. 1867. bility of The person of every member during the session Inviolaof the Reichstag was sacred, unless he was seized the Memflagrante delicto, or on the day following the perpetration of some criminal act. If the Reichstag thought bers. CHAP. 1867. Posts and telegraphs. fit to renounce its protection over a member, the latter could be arrested. A member of the Reichstag could not be called to account by any court of justice for any opinion he might express in the Reichstag, or in the sections or committees. The Reichstag itself had power to restrain the licence of tongue by the same means employed by most other representative assemblies. After the war of 1866 the administration of the posts and telegraphs was centralized as much as possible. Prince Thurn and Taxis, who had had the administration of the posts in eighteen of the smaller States, surrendered his rights to the King of Prussia for the sum of three millions of thalers. Saxony, the two Mecklenburgs, and Brunswick were the only States in the North German Confederation which possessed the right of nominating the inferior post employés in their territories. The telegraphs were placed almost entirely in the hands of the King of Prussia. (Legislation with regard to the posts and telegraphs was within the province of the Federal Council and the Reichstag; but the administrative power was in the hands of the King of Prussia.) A law to regulate the postal system of the whole of the Confederation was passed November 2, 1867. The King of Prussia named the post office and telegraph officials, and negotiated the postal treaties with foreign Powers. The expenditure on the post office and the telegraphs was deducted from the revenues, and the surplus placed in the Federal Chest. As, how ever, the net revenues in each State were so very СНАР. VI. 1867. The railways were placed under the supervision Railways. and control of the central Power, and their management was taken out of the hands of the several States as much as possible. One system of weights and measures was established for the whole of the Confederation. The finances of the Confederation were under the Finances. control of the Federal Council and of the Reichstag, with the exception of the excise on home-manufactured sugar, brandy, salt, beer, and tobacco, as the laws respecting these could not be altered against the wish of the King of Prussia. The Budget was brought in every year, and was passed by the Reichstag and Federal Council. The Chancellor was responsible for the proper disposal of the sums voted. If any supplementary sums were required, which the Budget had not provided for, then the Parliament had to be summoned to give their sanction to this extraordinary estimate. It may be worthy of remark that. CHAP. VI. 1867. the Federal Council and the Reichstag were bound to take the organization of the Federal army into account when they voted the military estimates, and they were not permitted to refuse any vote which could in any way injure this organization. The military estimate was calculated at 225 thalers for each man, and by Article LXII. of the Constitution a sum of 67,433,400 thalers or 10,115,0107. (299,704 times 225 thalers) was obliged to be voted from July 1, 1867, to December 31, 1871. And this vote was to be continued until the peace establishment of the army was settled.1 The Confederation derived its revenues from the following sources :— 1. Those Customs dues which are set aside for Federal purposes, as well as the excise on those articles of consumption (that is on beet-sugar, salt, tobacco, beer, and brandy) which the Customs Union devoted to the Federal Chest. 2. The Aversal-Summen,' that is those sums which the parts of the Federal territory lying outside the limits of the Customs Union, have to pay to be exempted from the Customs dues. 3. The tax on exchange stamps. Each State deducts a certain percentage. 4. The revenues of the posts and telegraphs. of appeal for commercial matters. 1 In April 1874 the peace establishment was fixed at 401,659 men, for the term of seven years. |