THE COLLAPSE OF GERMAN PARLIAMENTARISM.
WE must almost apologise for returning to a subject which to many of our readers must seem tiresome, but this collapse of German Parliamentarism in the face of the Reactionaries is really a most serious matter. Par- liamentary life in Germany has never been deeply rooted in any State but Baden, has never inspired the bureau- cracies with respect, has never on any great question been able to secure obedience from the Executives. And now it seems likely to receive another great blow, which will transfer much of its remaining vigour to the throne, and the advisers who stand around it. Count von Billow, mortally weary of the endless discussions, anxious to com- mence negotiations with the neighbouring Powers with a Tariff in his hands, and perhaps moved by a fear that total failure would imply his own political extinction, has surrendered to the Agrarians. In the teeth of his own recorded resolves, he has granted a 10 per cent, increase in the duty on barley, and with it has induced a majority con- sisting of the Agrarians and some smaller groups to consent not only to pass his Tariff with its nine hundred and forty- six items, but to pass it en bloc without discussion. Indeed, that has been the condition of the arrangement. All Liberal newspapers in Germany are, of course, enraged, many which are regarded by the Government as "well disposed" mutter discontent, and a sitting in the grave Reichstag has for the first time been suspended by reason of the disorderliness caused by the rage of the minority ; but there appears to be no doubt that the Bill—a financial Bill, remember—will be passed without discussion. It is declared, it is true, as a last argument, to be " unconstitu- tional " ; but politicians shake their heads when they are told that there is anything which Parliament and the Sovereign together cannot do, or that an Emergency Bill when accepted by both, say during an invasion, might be utterly illegal. The law will be passed unless the Govern- ment shrinks ; and when passed, it will be executed by the officials under immediate peril of proceedings which would not be confined to mere dismissal.
Even in this country the Closure of a whole Bill of this kind would be a high-handed proceeding, though it would not, if accepted by a majority, be unconstitutional; but its passing in such circumstances would not impair the status of Parliament. For in this country the House of Commons has reserved means of self-defence far stronger than any "right of debate" could furnish. It can "stop the supplies " ; or if that device is obsolete because of the anarchy it would produce, it can in a night dismiss the Ministry which has offended. It is of no use to pass Bills if the method of passing produces a vote of "No confidence." Neither power belongs to the German Reichstag. It can pass no Act which the Sovereigns cannot veto ; if it abolishes a tax, the tax will be levied till the consent of the Emperor, or of the Bundesrath which represents the allied thrones, is given ; if it dismisses a Ministry, and the Emperor retains the Ministers, they are retained. When, therefore, the Government insists that a Bill shall pass without discussion, and the Reichstag, urging no plea of paramount necessity, submits, it practi- cally votes itself a nullity, for no power of any kind is left In its hands. It becomes a mere machine for recording the decisions of a Government which it has not appointed and, cannot overthrow-. The power it abandons, moreover, does not pass to any Cabinet, or other body really chosen by indirect election, but directly to the Emperor, who can if he pleases dismiss any Minister by fiat, and who has so dismissed many Ministers. It is the Caesar dealing with a Senate, instead of true representative government of any sort, which henceforward will be visible in Germany.
But, say the German Liberals, "we have one great re- source left. The electors will be offended and will send up a more independent or unmanageable Parliament." But will they.? There is the precise point at which our fear for Parliaments, including even the Parliament of our own country, comes in. There can be no doubt that although the Agrarians and National Liberals are the executive agents in this high-handed proceeding, the cause which has supplied them with the daring and the numbers to carry it out is the disgust with which the paralysis of Parliament has inspired all lookers-on, and that paralysis has been produced by the action of the Socialists and wilder Radicals of the House. Their Puck- like little trickeries in the way of using the forms of procedure, of useless and repetitive speeches, of everlasting divisions, of evading the formation of a quorum, have waterlogged the ship, till it rolls from side to side in the sight of all men, a ponderous but powerless machine. What was the use of the Reichstag if it could do nothing but babble ? Men are very patient with accustomed things, but deep in the hearts of men, and especially of all Teutons, lies the ancient exhortation, "Do good or do evil, but do somewhat," that you may be seen to be alive. Ministers, Deputies, reporters, newspaper editors, positively sickened of the meaningless debates, and longed for some deus ez machind to sweep away the impassable though cobwebby obstacles, until when a path was cut for them they were ready to rush down it without con- sidering whither it led or whose rights were injured by the cutting. What is the ground for thinking that the electors will be less pleased by their intel- lectual escape ? They also saw that the ship could not move, they also were worn out with the tediousness of needless debates ; why should not they also be glad because at last, by a sudden intervention from above, there is an end of them ? Did our own Speaker Brand lose one vote because he dammed up the stream of Parliamentary oratory and compelled the House of Commons to act instead of chattering? The popular mind in all countries hates ineffectives, and men who arrest without instructing Parliament are ineffectives. Even in Great Britain they lower the repute of the machine ; and in Germany, where the people are always watching the most silent and effective bureaucracy in the world, where the Emperor is so strong and so competent that his words are acts, and where Parliamentary institutions are still young, they make those institutions appear contemptible. In England reactionary opinion always seems to have in it an element of futility ; but on the Continent the Reactionaries constantly include the ablest functionaries, the highest clergy, the most trusted of the bourgeoisie and landlords. Where is the poor elector to obtain light unless, indeed, from his repre- sentatives, who, as he clearly perceives, can effect nothing except call perpetual halts for consultation as to the proper road, consultations which end in moving nowhere ?
We verily believe that on the Continent Kings, soldiers, and Reactionaries are everywhere gaining power through the slow dying away of confidence among the people in their representative bodies, a dying produced entirely by their want of ability to move. They are longing for Senates which will debate with gravity at reasonable length, and then act; and they find nothing but "talking shops " crowded with a mob which often cannot keep order, which always seem. filled with the very spirit of faction, and which extremists have learned to paralyse by insuperable delays. Legisla- tion is like a Spanish civil trial, in which final judgment is hardly expected before the next generation. The people weary of it all, and when they have not, like ourselves, the experience of ages in dealing with Parliaments, they gradually come round to the belief that there is more to be hoped from any form of Royal or bureaucratic authority than from any Chamber, however representative. Those who believe in free institutions, as we ourselves do, will have to note this temper of mind most seriously, and to see if, even by radical changes, procedure cannot be so amended that the majority can once more act within reasonable time. It is not of much avail that food is good and cheap if, from the breakdown in distribution, nobody gets fed.
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