ck allied with the Centre to bring about
the adoption of his newly-framed policy of protection and of the
famous Frankenstein clause relative to the matricular contributions of
the states.[343] The National Liberals, left in the lurch, broke up,
and in 1881 the remnant of the party was able to obtain only
forty-five seats. After the elections of that year the Centre
commanded in the Reichstag a plurality of forty. The upshot was that,
in the effort to procure the dependable support of the Centre, the
Government gradually abandoned the Kulturkampf, and for a time the
Centre virtually succeeded to the position occupied prior to 1878 by
the National Liberals. The elections of 1887, however, again changed
the situation. The Centre retained a plurality of some twenty seats,
but the Conservatives, Free Conservatives, and National Liberals
formed a coalition and between them obtained a total of 220 seats and,
accordingly, the control of the Reichstag. Thereupon the Conservatives
became the Government's principal reliance and the Centre dropped for
a time into a position of neutrality. At the elections of 1890 the
coalition, which in truth had been built up by the Government on the
basis of a cartel, or agreement, suffered heavy losses. Of 397 seats
it carried only 130,[344] while the Centre alone procured 116.
Coincident with the overturn came the dismissal of Bismarck and the
elevation to the chancellorship of General von Caprivi. Throughout his
years of office (1890-1894) Caprivi was able to rely habitually upon
the support of no single party or group of parties, and for the
enactment of its measures the Government was obliged to seek (p. 234)
assistance now in one quarter and now in another, according as
circumstances dictated.

[Footnote 343: This measure provided that each year
all proceeds from the Imperial customs and tobacco
tax in excess of 130,000,000 marks should be
distributed among the several states in proportion
to their population. Its author was Frankenstein, a
leader of the Centre.]

[Footnote 344: Conservatives 65, Free Conservatives
24, National Liberals 41.]

*249. The Agrarian Movement and the Rise of the Bloc.*--Two or three
developments of the period stand out with some distinctness. One was
the break-up, apparently for all time, of the Fortschr