New-York tribune., 1900-10-28
GERMANY;S NEW PILOT.
SOME NOTES CONCERNING PRINCE
HOHENLOHES SUCCESSOR, AND LIKE
WISE ABOUT THE OFFICE OF I'M
PERIAL CHANCELLOR.
SOME NOTES
PERIAL CHANCELLOR.


cession to the office of Chancellor of the Ger
man Empire by the announcement of the con-
cluson of an alliance between his country and
Great Britain. the main object of which is the
maintenance of the freedom of China, and in
particular of the rivers and the littoral of that
empire to the trade and commerce Of the en-
tire world and to every legitimate form Of
nomic activity The new Chancellors an
nouncement is all the more welcome since the
Count has until lately been regarded being
strongly prejudiced in favor Of Russia, and
against the two great English speaking Powers
His utterances in the Reichstag regarding the
seizure Of the German mail steamer by a Brit
ish cruiser near Deagoa Bay in the early stages
of the South African still ranke in many
an English breast, owing to the arrogance and
aggressiveness of their tenor, while the
friendly tone Of the public warning which he ad-
dressed to the United States about the same
time on the subject of the commercial relations
and tariff differences between this country and
Germany Will doubtless be fresh in many an
American mind. Under the circumstances, the
treaty comes in the form of an agreeable sur
prise, the more so as it increases the prospects
of peace, if not in the Orient at any rate among
the civilized Powers of the Occident
So little is known here concerning the pre-
negatives and the duties of Chancellor of the
German Empire that it may be well to take the
present opportunity of furnishing some informa-
tion about the matter, well as a brief pen
sketch of the extraordinary and romantic career
of the still youthful statesman who after sur
mounting obstacles sufficient to wreck the future
of a less gifted diplomat has attained the high
es: place within the reach of any German sub
ject when barely fifty years old.
THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Although Germany is a constitutional empire
Theoretically iS Iad b,- tba
ercisin6 their will through a legislative ma
jority yet the Chancellor of the Empire who
is the chief executive, is in sense of the word
the nominee or the instrument of that Parlia-
mentary majority. He receives his appointment
direct from the Emperor without any regard
whatever for the wishes of Parliament and is in
every respect the representative of the Crown
father than of the Rechstag or of the people
According to the terms of the constitution, the
German Empire, which consists of a confedera-
ton Of German sovereign States, is managed by
q Federal Council at Berlin, consisting of peni-
potentiaries representing each of the States of
the confederation. To this Federal Council are
intrusted-but only nominaliy-the most ex-
tenslVe powers that it is possible to conceive
powers that completely nullify those of the
1telchstag For no measure can be submitted to
the latter nor any Parliamentary decision
become law. without the consent of the Council
Whlcn likewise determines all questions of COM
msrce and trade, of justice of revenue etc
FIty-eight votes form the total voting power
of the Federal Council OF these twenty belong
to Prussia, Bavaria having only six Saxonv
and Wurtemberg four each Baden and Hesse
three, while the smaller States have one each
The consequence of this is that Prussia is al
ways able to command an overwhelming ma
1ority in the Federal Council. interstate ieal-
ouses as well as the dread entertained by the
smaller States of her resentment, standing in
the way Of any combination against her 1t
does not by any means follow that because there
are ffty-eight votes in the Federal Council there
are ffty-eight penipotentiaries. On the con-
trary, the actual number of members of the
Federal Council is very small. the six votes of
which Bavaria disposes being cast by its single
representative at Berlin, the Count of Ierchen =
field, while the four of Wdrtemberg and of
Berlin, Baron Varnbuler and Count Hohenthal
Some of the smaller States club together and
have only representative between them in
the Federal Council at Berlin. All these pleni-
potentiares represent not the Paraments but
the Cabinets of their respective States and the
Cabinets, as in the of Prussia are not re-
quired to have the confidence of their respective
Legislatures, but merely of their monarchs-
that is to say the Federal Council at Berlin is
composed virtually Of the representatives of the
views and wishes Of the various soVereigns of
the confederation known the German Empire.
nIILr Il AtSEF'S pERSONAT TIVE,