laced at any
time. The purely federal character of the Bundesrath is further
emphasized by two principal facts. The members speak and act and vote
regularly, not at their own discretion, but under the specific
instructions of the governing authorities by whom they are accredited.
Only rarely do their instructions allow to them any considerable
measure of independence. Strictly, the Bundesrath is not a
deliberative assembly at all; though, unlike the former Diet, it is
something more than a meeting of ambassadors of the states. In the
second place, the votes cast are the votes, not of the individual
members, but of the states, and they are cast in indivisible blocks by
the delegations of the states, regardless of the number of members in
attendance. Thus, Bavaria is entitled to six votes. Whatever the
individual opinions of the six Bavarian delegates, the six Bavarian
votes are cast solidly upon any question that may arise. It is not
even necessary that six delegates actually participate in the
decision. A single delegate may cast the entire quota of votes to
which his state is entitled. The twenty votes controlled by Prussia
are therefore cast invariably in a block, from which it follows that
Prussia usually preponderates in the chamber. On several occasions the
smaller states have been able to combine in sufficient numbers to
defeat a project upon which Prussia was bent, but such a proceeding is
distinctly exceptional.

[Footnote 318: Art. 10. Dodd, Modern Constitutions,
I., 330.]

*230. Sessions and Procedure.*--The Bundesrath may be convened by the
Emperor, which in effect means by the Chancellor, at any time. The
constitution stipulates that there shall be at least one session a
year, and, furthermore, that it shall be obligatory upon the Emperor
to convene the body whenever a meeting is demanded by one-third of the
total number of votes. The Bundesrath may be called together "for the
preparation of business" without the Reichstag; but the Reichstag may
not be convened without the Bundesrath.[319] The presiding officer at
all sessions is the Chancellor, or some other member of the body by
him designated as a substitute. It is within the competence of each
member of the confederation, i.e., each state, to propose measures
and to introduce motions. The phraseology of the constitution debars
the Emperor, as Emperor, from introducing proposals. As king of
Prussia, however, he may