ed States House of Representatives has
433 members, or 1 for every 212,000 inhabitants; England, 670 members,
or 1 for every 62,000; France, 584, or 1 for every 67,000; Italy, 508,
or 1 for every 64,000; Austria, 516, or 1 for every 51,000.

Despite the fact that the Conservative and the Catholic parties have
much in common, and are the parties of the Right and Centre: these
names are given the political parties in the Reichstag according to
their grouping on the right, centre, and left of the house, looking
from the tribune or speaker's platform, from which all set speeches
are delivered, they are often at odds among themselves, and Bismarck
and Buelow brought about tactical differences among them for their own
purposes. Their programme may be summed up as "As you were," which is
not inspiring either as an incentive or as a command.

The Liberal parties are the National liberale; Fortschrittspartei, or
Progressives; and the Freisinnige Volkspartei, or Liberal Democratic
party.

The National Liberal party was strongest during the days when
Prussia's efforts were directed mainly toward a federation and a
strengthening of the bonds which hold the states together; "unter dem
Donner der Kanonen von Koeniggratz ist der nationalliberale Gedanke
geboren." Loyalty to emperor and empire, country above party, a fleet
competent to protect the country and its overseas interests, are
watchwords of the party. The party is protectionist, and in matters of
school and church administration in accord with the Free
Conservatives.

The Liberal Democratic party demands electoral reform, no duties on
foodstuffs, and imperial insurance laws for the workingmen.

The Fortschrittspartei finds its intellectual beginnings, in the
condensing of the hazy clouds of revolution in 1848, in the persons of
Wilhelm von Humboldt and Freiherr von Stein. Politically, the party
came into being in 1861, and Waldeck, von Hoverbeck, and Virchow are
familiar names to students of German political history; later Eugen
Richter was the leader of the party in the Reichstag. This party is
still for free-trade, in opposition to military and bureaucratic
government, favorable to parliamentary government. Of the grouping and
regrouping of these parties; of their divisions for and against
Bismarck's policies; of their splits on the questions of free-trade
and protection; of their leanings now to the right, now to the left;
of their differences over details of taxatio