it comprises the federal organs
and functions possessed by the individual states as well.[290]

[Footnote 290: Laband, Das Staatsrecht des
deutschen Reiches, Sec. 7-10; Lebon, Etudes sur
l'Allemagne politique, 93-104.]

*216. The States: the Prussian Hegemony.*--Legally, the union of the
German states is indestructible. The Imperial government is vested
with no power to expel a state, to unite it with another state, to
divide it, or in any way to alter its status in the federation. On the
other hand, no state possesses a right to secede, or to modify its
powers or obligations within the Empire. If a state violates its
obligations or refuses to be bound by the authority of the Empire, the
federal army, on decision of the Bundesrath, may be mobilized by the
Emperor against it.[291]

[Footnote 291: Art. 19. Dodd, Modern Constitutions,
I., 332.]

Among the states, however, there is a glaring lack of equality of
status and privilege. When the Empire was formed the component states
differed widely in area, population, and traditional rights, and there
was no attempt to reduce them to a footing that should be absolutely
uniform. Prussia, besides comprising the moving spirit in the new
affiliation, contained a population considerably in excess of that of
the other twenty-four states combined. The consequence was that
Prussia became inevitably the preponderating power in the Empire. The
king of Prussia is _ex-officio_ German Emperor; the Prussian votes in
the Bundesrath can defeat any proposed amendment of the constitution,
and likewise any measure looking toward a change in the army, the
navy, or the taxes; and Prussia controls the chairmanship of all
standing committees in the Bundesrath.[292]

[Footnote 292: A. Lebon, La constitution allemande
et l'hegemonie prussienne, in _Annales de l'Ecole
Libre des Sciences Politiques_, Jan., 1887.]

*217. Military Arrangements.*--Other privileges Prussia possesses (p. 208)
by virtue, not of the constitution, but of agreements with her sister
states. The most important of these relates to the army. By the
constitution it was provided at the outset that the armed forces of
the Empire should be organized into a single establishment, to be
governed by Imperial law and to be under the supreme command of the
Emperor.[293] In respect to