was short and sharp.
Its outcome was the crushing defeat of Austria, and in the treaty of
Prague (August 23, 1866) the proud Hapsburg monarchy was compelled to
assent to a reconstitution of the German federation in which Austria
should have no part. A number of lesser states which had supported
Austria--Hanover, Nassau, Hesse-Cassel, and Frankfort--were forthwith
incorporated by Prussia, by decree of September 20, 1866,[280] and
among the group of surviving powers the preponderance of Prussia was
more than ever indisputable. Realizing, however, that the states of
the south--Bavaria, Baden, Wuerttemberg, and Hesse-Darmstadt--were not
as yet ready to be incorporated under a centralized administration,
Prussia contented herself for the moment with setting up a North
German _Bund_, comprising the states to the north of the river Main,
twenty-two in all. February 24, 1867, there was brought together in
Berlin a constitutional diet, representing all of the affiliated
states and elected by manhood suffrage and secret ballot. A
constitution, drafted previously by a committee of plenipotentiaries,
was debated from March 9 to April 16 and was adopted by a vote of 230
to 53. After having been ratified by the legislative bodies of the
various states, the instrument was put in operation, July 1. The
principal organs of government for which it made provision were three
in number: (1) the _Praesidium_, or President, of the Confederation,
the dignity being hereditary and vested in the king of Prussia; (2)
the _Bundesrath_, or Federal Council, representing the various
governments; and (3) the _Bundestag_, or Diet, composed of deputies
elected directly by manhood suffrage. For all practical purposes (p. 201)
the German Empire, under the hegemony of Prussia, was a reality.

[Footnote 280: The disputed districts of
Schleswig-Holstein were annexed at the same time.]

*210. Establishment of the Empire, 1871.*--For the time being the states
to the south of the Main were left to their own devices, though the
constitution of the _Bund_ was shaped purposely to permit, and even to
encourage, the accession of new members. Very soon these southern
states entered the new customs union of 1867, maintained by the
northern states, and ere long they were concluding with Prussia
treaties of both offensive and defensive alliance. The patriotic
fervor engendered by the war with France in 1870-1871 sufficed to
comp