suffrage for Alsace-Lorraine. When the bill was being debated, there was a revival in Conservative circles of the old demand for the incorporation of Alsace-Lorraine with Prussia. The Chancellor met this demand by pointing out that the avowed ob- ject of Bismarck's policy was to give the people of Alsace-Lorraine a country of their own, as nearly as possible on an equal footing with the other German states and under the protection of the whole Empire. The constitution came into force on Sept. i 1911. The first and only elections to a German Parliament of the Reichsland took place on Oct. 22 1911 and resulted in a Clerical majority. There were, nevertheless, in the sequel repeated inci- dents in Alsace-Lorraine, some of them in the Parliament itself. A good deal of excitement was caused in Nov. 1913 by the so- called Zabern affair, when young Lt. von Forstner who after- wards fell in the war employed a local term of abuse, " Wackes," to characterize the Alsatians. The consequence was that German officers were insulted by the population, and, as the civil authorities did not interfere, the regimental commander governing the garrison, Colonel von Reuter, had arrests made on his own responsibility. This incident made a very bad impression among the anti-militarist parties in the Reichstag, and led to excited debates, which were followed on April 1914 by the resignation of the Statthalter, Count Wedel. This had been preceded on Jan. 29 by the retirement of the Secretary of State of the Reichsland, Zorn von Bulach, and also of two under- secretaries. The Prussian Minister of the Interior, von Dall- witz, was appointed Statthalter. It is noteworthy that in the course of the Reichstag debates on this subject a vote of no con- fidence in the Chancellor was passed for the first time in German parliamentary history. The official view of parliamentary responsibility, which was strongly held by the Emperor, pre- vented the vote from having any further consequences.
On June 18 1911 the German nation celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the foundation of the Empire. In the course of the same year the despatch of the gunboat " Panther " to Agadir caused a highly strained European situation, attended by the greatest excitement in Germany. The so-called " gesle of 'Agadir " was at first joyfully greeted by the whole of the parties of the Right, and more particularly by the Pan-German members, as a sign that Germany was determined to assert her position in the world. When, however, the Government appeared to be abandoning German interests in Morocco in exchange for com- pensations in the French Congo, the Secretary of State, Kiderlen- Wachter, and the minister responsible for the conduct of German policy, the Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg, were subjected -to very violent attacks, with which even some of the deputies of the Left associated themselves. In the midst of this excitement the speeches of Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Asquith in England were regarded as wounding to Germany. When the details of the Franco-German Morocco-Congo Convention, signed on Nov. 4 1911, were published, they had a calming effect upon public sentiment. Only the Pan-German newspapers continued to speak of the " disgrace " of Agadir. The Secretary of State in the Colonial Office, von Lindequist, resigned because he could not approve of the agreement. He was succeeded by Dr. Solf, who had been governor of Samoa. There was a debate in the Reichstag, lasting several days, upon the Morocco negotiations, and the Imperial Chancellor took up an attitude of vigorous opposition to the ideas of the Conservative leader, von Heyde- brand. A great sensation was caused by the action of the Crown Prince, who appeared in uniform in the Court Gallery and de- monstratively applauded von Heydebrand. This incident led to further parliamentary discussion. In one of the speeches which the Chancellor delivered, he declared that Bismarck's principle never to wage a "preventive" war had continued to guide the Government in the Morocco 'crisis. For himself he had to bear the responsibility, and it was his duty so to conduct affairs that any war which was avoidable and was not necessitated by Germany's honour should be avoided. In another speech Bethmann Hollweg expressed his regret that von Heydebrand had used language with regard to German relations with Great Britain such as might be useful at an election meeting but was
not customary in a Parliament alive to its responsibility. With these proceedings the legislative period of the Reichstag which had been elected in 1907 closed.
On Jan. 12 1912, the new Reichstag elections took place, and resulted, as had been expected, in showing that the " black and blue bloc " (Conservatives and Catholic Centre) no longer com- manded an effective majority. Although most of the by-elections in the previous year had revealed a strong movement toward the Left, the extent of the success 'of the Social Democrats proved extraordinary. They were sent back to the Reichstag with no deputies, which made them the strongest party in the ' House. The " black and blue b/oc " lost 45 seats. This change in the parliamentary situation did not, under the German polit- ical system of those days, entail a reconstruction of the Govern- ment; its effects, however, were manifested at the election of the president and the vice-presidents of the Reichstag. These, according to parliamentary custom, had to be elected twice over. At the first election the veteran Socialist leader, Bebel, only missed being elected president by n votes, while for the first time in German political history a Socialist, Scheidemann, was elected vice-president. At the second election the Progressist (bourgeois Democrat) Kampf was elected president, while Schei- demann was defeated by the National Liberal, Dr. Paasche. The times were not ripe for placing Social Democrats in positions which entailed personal relations with the Court. The new Reichstag the Reichstag which lasted throughout the war and proved to be the last under the old Imperial regime was ulti- mately swept away together with the Bismarckian constitution by the revolution of Nov. 1918.
In Bavaria, the second largest German Federal state, elec- tions had almost simultaneously taken place for the Diet. Their result was signalized by the appointment of the leader of the Catholic Centre in the Empire, Baron von Hertling (who after- wards became Imperial Chancellor), to the presidency of the Bavarian Ministry. An ordinance issued by this Government, permitting certain limited activities in Bavaria to the Jesuits, who had been expelled from Germany since 1872, led to much discussion, which was also taken up in the Reichstag. In conse- quence of the decision of the Federal Council, Bavaria with- drew this Jesuit ordinance in Nov. 1912. New army and navy bills, providing for the establishment of two new army corps at Allenstein and Saarbrucken and contemplating the comple- tion of the third squadron of battleships for the fighting line, involved measures for meeting fresh expenditure, in connexion with which the Secretary of State of the Imperial Treasury, Wermuth, resigned. He was succeeded by the under-secretary Kuhn, and was elected a few months afterwards to the office of chief burgomaster of Berlin. As a presage of what was after- wards to take place it may be noted here that there was already a Social Democratic majority in the Diet of the smallest of the federated states, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt.
On Dec. 12 1912, the Prince Regent Leopold of Bavaria died at the age of 92. He had governed in place of the incurably insane King Otto since 1886. He was succeeded as regent by his son Prince Louis (Lud wig), and in the following year (1913) the Hertling Ministry introduced an amendment to the consti- tution providing that if the king was unable, owing to bodily or mental infirmity, to exercise his office, and if, after a period of 10 years, there was no prospect of his recovery, the regent should declare the throne vacant. The Bavarian Diet agreed on Oct. 30 1913 to this alteration of the constitution, and the regent assumed the Bavarian crown as King Louis (Ludwig) III. In another state of the confederation, Brunswick, the regency which had lasted for many years was also terminated in 1913. The legitimate heir was the Duke of Cumberland, son of the King George of Hanover who had been deposed in consequence of the events of 1866. The Duke of Cumberland had expressly refused in 1884 to renounce his right to succession to the throne of Hanover. By decisions of the Federal Council in 1885 and 1907 he was accordingly debarred from taking up the succession to the ducal throne of Brunswick. It was only the marriage of his sole surviving son, Prince Ernest Augustus, with the daughter
