quired no validity until they should have been
approved by the Empire through its agents, the Bundesrath and the
Kaiser. In the second place, the method of legislation which has been
mentioned did not occupy the field alone. With insignificant
exceptions, any measure which might be enacted in the fashion
described might be enacted in either of two other ways, in neither of
which did the inhabitants of the territory have any appreciable
influence. A measure might take the form of a simple decree of (p. 284)
the Kaiser with the consent of the Bundesrath and Reichstag; or, in
the case of an ordinance having the provisory force of law, it might
be promulgated by the Kaiser with the consent of the Bundesrath alone.
The fact that in practice the Territorial Committee ordinarily did
participate in the legislative process was largely offset by the
exceeding cumbersomeness and indirectness of the system. The normal
procedure in the making of a law for the territory involved at least
eight steps; (1) the _projet_ was drawn up by the Statthalter; (2) it
was approved by the Council of State at Strassburg; (3) it was
transmitted, through the Imperial Chancellor, to the Kaiser; (4) if he
approved, it was sent to Strassburg to receive the Statthalter's
countersignature; (5) it was laid before the Bundesrath, the members
of which, being but delegates, ascertained from their respective
sovereigns how they should vote; (6) if all had gone well, the
Territorial Committee, at Strassburg, passed the measure through the
usual three readings; (7) it was returned to the Bundesrath again to
be approved; and (8) it was promulgated by the Emperor--provided he
did not see fit to veto and withhold it, as he had an entire right to
do. Even if such roundabout law-making were to be considered in itself
satisfactory there remained the disquieting condition that the
Territorial Committee rested on no basis more substantial than a body
of Imperial decrees capable at any time of being altered, or even
revoked. Not merely was it altogether lacking in the independence of
action enjoyed by the diets of the federated states; its very
existence was precarious.

*308. The Movement for Autonomy.*--Throughout a prolonged period there
was in the territory insistent demand for the grant of a more
independent status, to involve the eventual placing of Alsace-Lorraine
on a footing of constitutional equality with Saxony, Bavaria, and the
other confederated states