e Prussian King.

And the Junker caste have been as selfish, as rapacious, as their
Hohenzollern overlords. Nothing could be more sordid than their
attitude in the recent campaign for financial reform. They have
shifted the burden of taxation upon the weaker shoulders of the
peasant and artisan. They have compelled von Buelow to reverse the
Liberal Free Trade policy of Caprivi, and to impose heavy corn duties,
merely to increase their own rents.

X.--PRUSSIA AS A DESPOTIC STATE.

In a military State like Prussia, which is mainly organized for war,
where war is the vital function, not only does the King hold his power
by the Divine right of the sword, but even in times of peace all
political power is concentrated into his hands: "_L'etat c'est moi!_"

In such a State a Parliamentary Government is an absurdity, and, as a
matter of fact, there is no Parliamentary Government, neither in
Prussia nor in the Empire. There is no responsible Cabinet. The
Chancellor is accountable, not to the majority of the Reichstag, but
to the Kaiser. The Germans imagine that because they have the fiction
of universal suffrage they possess the most democratic Government in
Europe. And an enthusiastic German triumphantly reminded me of the
fact at a mass meeting which I recently held in San Francisco on
behalf of the Allies. I reminded him that Bismarck himself has given
us in his "Memoirs" the Machiavellic reasons which induced him to
invent the fiction of universal suffrage. The man of blood and iron
tells us that he only adopted universal suffrage as a temporary device
to convert the German States to the Prussian policy, and as a means of
influencing the people against the federal dynasties.

The Reichstag is essentially different from a British House of
Commons. As a political body it is the most contemptible assembly in
Europe. It is a mere debating club, a convenient machine to vote the
Government taxes. And even the power of voting has been largely taken
from it. It has become part of the German constitutional practice that
the military estimates must be passed without discussion. It is only
considerable increases of the army and navy which have to be submitted
to the Reichstag, and those increases are generally voted for a number
of years. In 1887 a characteristic episode happened. Bismarck had
decided on formidable additions to the army, and he wanted those
additions voted and guaranteed for seven years. The military
"Septennat