PRINCE BISMARCK AND PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT
THE German Parliament has been prorogued till the 30th of November, and for that time, at all events, Prince Bismarck will be spared the annoyance of seeing a machine in operation which he honestly believes to be exceedingly mischievous. Probably, too, he hopes that the discovery that affairs go on much the same without a Parliament as with one—that the Legislature can meet to do nothing, and then separate to do nothing, and yet no harm come of it—may open the eyes of the German people to their own great good- fortune. Where would other countries be if Parliament were sent to bed like a naughty child, whenever it offends those who rule over it ? They would not know to whom to look in the interval. They have their Ministers, it is true ; but those Ministers are themselves dependent on Parliament. How can a man protect his country, when he has not the strength to protect himself? He must be something more than the mere creature of a momentary majority, before he will command the confidence of those whom he rules. It is only to Prince Bis- marck that a whole nation can say, in the words of the hymn,—
"Sufficient is thine arm alone,
And our defence is sure."
Perhaps by next winter the German Parliament will have become wiser, and even if it has not, a dissolution will be six months nearer. Prince Bismarck may not, perhaps, believe that the next General Election will give him a majority—but he seems to have no doubt that some future election will; his distrust of Parliamentary Government is so complete, that he cannot believe but that it will in time be shared by the people. There is such a thing as German common-sense, and this is tantamount, he thinks, to saying that Germans will not always be Liberals. When they cease to be Liberals, the first error they will unlearn will be the error of thinking that fools know better than wise men how fools ought to be governed.
The process by which Prince Bismarck arrives at his belief that some day or other the German people will share his dis- like of Parliaments may be something like this. They will come by degrees to see how the break-up of a Legislature into several groups gives a single faction the power of doing incal- culable mischief. Of course, if the whole nation were gifted with common-sense, and at the same time agreed with Prince Bismarck, there would be no need to dispense with Parliament. It would see things as Prince Bismarck sees them, and the measures he proposed to pass would be the measures that Parliament would wish to pass. But, in order to bring about this happy state of things, it is not enough that the greater part of the nation be gifted with common-sense. The presence of a badly-disposed minority is as the little leaven which leaveneth the whole lump. The temptation it offers to the formation of party coalitions is too great to be resisted. The infection spreads from the Legislature to the constituencies, and the people, who in their hearts trust and wish to support the Minister, are too often found to condone the action of their representatives in voting against him. When the German nation comes to see this, it will seek to be saved from itself,— saved, that is, from the weak, yet irrepressible desire to quarrel with the guidance which in its heart it knows to be best for it. "So long," the Germans will say, "as we have to go through the form of sending Representatives to Berlin, we cannot help feeling a foolish pleasure when they make themselves important, and try to show that even the Chancellor himself is not be- -yond their control. Yet all the time we trust the Chancellor a great deal more than we trust them, and we should be more sure that all was going on as we wish, if his action were altogether , unfettered." If Prince Bismarck were as great in domestic legislation as he is in the management of foreign affairs, this reasoning of his might for a time be justified by the event. It is conceivable, at all events, that a Minister holding the exceptional position which Prince Bismarck holds, and framing his measures in accordance with the beat econo- mical and 'financial- opinion, might appeal successfully from Parliament to the people. He might convince them that what
he wants to do is what is really best for the country, and that this can be more surely obtained by allowing him to govern for a time without a Parliament, than by com- pelling him to pilot his measures through the rocks and quick- sands of legislation. But Prince Bismarck labours under the disadvantage of having, as regards his home policy, very few
followers. The best economical and financial opinion of Germany is altogether opposed to the measures he has most at
heart. It does not believe in the creation of monopolies as a means of raising revenue, nor in making the workman depend- ent on the State as a means of suppressing Socialism. The good education of his countrymen makes against the Chancel- lor. They know too well that these projects are only revivals of similar projects that have been tried and found wanting, and they do not wish to see Germany given over to a policy which in their judgment is nothing better than economical charlatanry.
The chance, therefore, that next November will see either a more submissive Parliament than the present, or the sus- pension, with the consent of the German people, of Parlia- mentary government for some time to come, is exceedingly small. But if this end is not attained, Prince Bismarck can hardly fail to be a loser by his last move. If the Deputies return in the same temper as that in which they left Berlin, it will be more difficult than ever to keep the peace between them. A modern statesman who wishes to be independent of Parlia- ment, has only two ways by which he can compass his desire. He must either manage Parliament, or he must persuade his countrymen to let him govern without Parliament. If he
can do neither of these things—if Parliament, when it is in session, insists on having its own way, and if the nation does not fancy the proposal to do without it—
the situation is hopeless. One man is arrayed against many, and in the end the many are sure to get the better of the one ; and this, if matters are left to take their course, is what will happen in Germany. Parliament, and the electors whom Par- liament represents, will grow more and more indignant at the scant courtesy shown to them ; and when in this mood, they will not be inclined to show any more favour to Prince Bis- marck's proposals than they have already thought them to merit. It is hard to believe that so far-seeing a statesman as Prince Bismarck can be blind to such obvious consequences as these, or that he can have made up his mind to break, not with this Parliament only, but with all Parliaments, unless he has in view some contingency which he thinks will give a new direction to popular feeling.
It is this last possibility that makes Prince Bismarck's present policy a matter of European, and not merely of German, interest. If he is really of opinion that events are approaching which will make Germans feel that they are safe, so long, and only so long, as he has the uncontrolled disposal of the national strength, his present policy may, from his own point of view, be a wise one. If in the course of the summer Germany should find war imminent, her people may conceivably come to regret that they did not allow Prince Bismarck to raise the funds that will be wanted to meet it, in whatever way he thought best. The money would then have been coining in during the months which the Deputies and Prince Bismarck have spent in profitless isolation. Germany will remember the hints lately given by the Chancellor of troubles which he foresaw, and which, if his countrymen had only placed confidence in him, they might have foreseen also, —and the effect of this recollection will be to bring her in sorrow to Prince Bismarck's feet. It cannot be denied that this possibility constitutes a positive danger to Europe. Pre- visions such as those here attributed to Prince Bismarck have a trick of verifying themselves. If the Chancellor is of opinion that Germany is not sufficiently secure against attack, and that she can only be made secure by an outlay which even he shrinks from proposing to Parliament, there is one expedient by which he can make this outlay appear the most natural thing in the world. He has only to involve Germany in a war, to receive at the hands of his countrymen the fullest and most absolute permission to deal as he thinks best with their lives and fortunes, and that is a great temptation for a man of Prince Bismarck's temperament to be exposed to, though he may be wise enough to resist it.
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