2. On naval, affairs.

3. On duties and taxes.

4. On commerce and trade.

5. On railroads, post offices, and telegraphs.

6. On the judiciary.

7. On accounts.

In each of these committees there shall be representatives of at least four states of the confederation, beside the presiding officer, and each state shall be entitled to only one vote in the same.

In the committee on the army and fortifications Bavaria shall have a perminent seat; the remaining members of it, as well as the members of the committee on naval affairs, shall be appointed by the Emperor; the members of the other committees shall be elected by the federal council. These committees shall be newly formed at each session of the federal council, i. e., each year, when the retiring members shall again be eligible.

Besides, there shall be appointed in the federal council a committee on foreign affairs, over which Bavaria shall preside, to be composed of the plenipotentiaries of the Kingdoms of Bavaria, Saxony, and Würtemberg, and of two plenipotentiaries of the other states of the Empire, who shall be elected annually by the federal council. Clerks shall be placed at the disposal of the committees to perform the necessary work appertaining thereto.

ARTICLE 9. Each member of the federal council shall have the right to appear in the diet, and shall be heard there at any time when he shall so request, to represent the views of his government, even when the same shall not have been adopted by the majority of the council. Nobody shall be at the same time a member of the federal council and of the diet.

ARTICLE 10. The Emperor shall afford the customary diplomatic protection to the members of the federal council.

IV.-PRESIDIUM.

ARTICLE 11. The King of Prussia shall be the president of the confederation, and shall have the title of German Emperor. The Emperor shall represent the empire among nations, declare war, and conclude peace in the name of the same, enter into alliances and other conventions with foreign countries, accredit embassadors, and receive them. For a declaration of war in the name of the empire, the consent of the federal council shall be required, except in case of an attack upon the territory of the confederation or its coasts.

So far as treaties with foreign countries refer to matters which, according to article 4, are to be regulated by the legislature of the empire, the consent of the federal council shall be required for their ratification, and the approval of the diet shall be necessary to render them valid.

ARTICLE 12. The Emperor shall have the right to convene the federal council and the diet, and to open, adjourn, and close them.

ARTICLE 13. The convocation of the federal council and the diet shall take place annually, and the federal council may be called together for the preparation of business without the diet; the latter, however, shall not be convoked without the federal council.

ARTICLE 14. The convocation of the federal council shall take place as soon as demanded by one-third of its members.

ARTICLE 15. The chancellor of the empire, who shall be appointed by the Emperor, shall preside in the federal council, and supervise the conduct of its business.

The chancellor of the empire shall have the right to delegate the power to represent him to any member of the federal council.

ARTICLE 16. The necessary bills shall be laid before the diet in the name of the Emperor, in accordance with the resolutions of the federal council, and they shall be represented in the diet by members of the federal council or by special commissioners appointed by said council.

ARTICLE 17. To the Emperor shall belong the right to prepare and publish the laws of the empire. The laws and regulations of the Emperor shall be published in the name of the empire, and require for their validity the signature of the chancellor of the empire, who thereby becomes responsible for their execution.

ARTICLE 18. The Emperor shall appoint the officers of the empire, require them to take the oath of allegiance, and dismiss them when necessary.

Officials appointed to an office of the empire from one of the states of the confederation shall enjoy the same rights to which they were entitled in their native states by their official position, provided no other legislative provision shall have been made previously to their entrance into the service of the empire.

ARTICLE 19. If states of the confederation shall not fulfill their constitutional duties,

proceedings may be instituted against them by military execution. This execution shall be ordered by the federal council, and enforced by the Emperor.

V.-DIET.

ARTICLE 20. The members of the diet shall be elected by universal suffrage, and by direct secret ballot.

Until regulated by law, which is reserved by section 5 of the election law of May 31, 1869, (Bundesgesetzblatt, 1869, section 145,) 48 delegates shall be elected in Bavaria, 17 in Würtemberg, 14 in Baden, 6 in Hesse, south of the river Main, and the total number of delegates shall be 382.

ARTICLE 21. Officials shall not require a leave of absence in order to enter the diet. When a member of the diet accepts a salaried office of the empire, or a salaried office in one of the states of the confederation, or accepts any office of the empire, or of a state, with which a high rank or salary is connected, he shall forfeit his seat and vote in the diet, but may recover his place in the same by a new election. ARTICLE 22. The proceedings of the diet shall be public.

Truthful reports of the proceedings of the public sessions of the diet shall subject those making them to no responsibility.

ARTICLE 23. The diet shall have the right to propose laws within the jurisdiction of the empire, and to refer petitions addressed to it to the federal council or the chancellor of the empire.

ARTICLE 24. Each legislative period of the diet shall last three years. The diet may be dissolved by a resolution of the federal council, with the consent of the Emperor.

ARTICLE 25. In the case of a dissolution of the diet, new elections shall take place within a period of 60 days, and the diet shall reassemble within a period of 90 days after the dissolution.

ARTICLE 26. Unless by consent of the diet, an adjournment of that body shall not exceed the period of 30 days, and shall not be repeated during the same session, without such consent.

ARTICLE 27. The diet shall examine into the legality of the election of its members and decide thereon. It shall regulate the mode of transacting business, and its own discipline, by establishing rules therefor, and elect its president, vice-presidents, and secretaries.

ARTICLE 28. The diet shall pass laws by absolute majority. To render the passage of laws valid, the presence of the majority of the legal number of members shall be required.

When passing laws which do not affect the whole empire, according to the provisions of this constitution, the votes of only those members shall be counted who shall have been elected in those states of the confederation which the laws to be passed shall affect.

ARTICLE 29. The members of the diet shall be the representatives of the entire people, and shall not be subject to orders and instructions from their constituents.

ARTICLE 30. No member of the diet shall at any time suffer legal prosecution on account of his vote, or on account of utterances made while in the performance of his functions, or be held responsible outside of the diet for his actions.

ARTICLE 31. Without the consent of the diet, none of its members shall be tried or punished, during the session, for any offense committed, except when arrested in the act of committing the offense, or in the course of the following day.

The same rule shall apply in the case of arrests for debt.

At the request of the diet, all legal proceedings instituted against one of its members, and likewise imprisonment, shall be suspended during its session.

ARTICLE 32. The members of the diet shall not be allowed to draw any salary, or be compensated as such.

VI.-CUSTOMS AND COMMERCE.

ARTICLE 33. Germany shall form a customs and commercial union, having a common frontier for the collection of duties. Such territories as cannot, by reason of their situation, be suitably embraced within the said frontier, shall be excluded. It shall be lawful to introduce all articles of commerce of a state of the confederation into any other state of the confederation, without paying any duty thereon, except so far as such articles are subject to taxation therein.

ARTICLE 34. The Hanseatic towns, Bremen and Hamburg, shall remain free ports outside of the common boundary of the customs union, retaining for that purpose a district of their own, or of the surrounding territory, until they shall request to be admitted into the said union.

ARTICLE 35. The empire shall have the exclusive power to legislate concerning everything relating to the customs, the taxation of salt and tobacco manufactured or

raised in the territory of the confederation; concerning the taxation of manufactured brandy and beer, and of sugar and sirup prepared from beets or other domestic productions. It shall have exclusive power to legislate concerning the mutual protection of taxes upon articles of consumption levied in the several states of the empire; against embezzlement; as well as concerning the measures which are required, in granting exemption from the payment of duties, for the security of the common customs frontier. In Bavaria, Würtemberg, and Baden, the matter of imposing duties on domestic brandy and beer is reserved for the legislature of each country. The states of the confederation shall, however, endeavor to bring about uniform legislation regarding the taxation of these articles.

ARTICLE 36. The imposing of duties and excises on articles of consumption, and the collection of the same, (article 35,) is left to each state of the confederation within its own territory, so far as this has been done by each state heretofore.

The Emperor shall have the supervision of the institution of legal proceedings by officials of the empire, whom he shall designate as adjuncts to the custom or excise offices, and boards of directors of the several states, after hearing the committee of the Confederate Council on customs and revenues.

Notices given by these officials as to defects in the execution of the laws of the empire (article 35) shall be submitted to the confederate council for action.

ARTICLE 37. In taking action upon the rules and regulations for the execution of the laws of the empire, (article 35,) the vote of the presiding officer shall decide, whenever he shall pronounce for upholding the existing rule or regulation.

ARTICLE 38. The amounts accruing from customs and other revenues designated in article 35 of the latter, so far as they are subject to legislation by the diet, shall go to the treasury of the empire.

This amount is made up of the total receipts from the customs and other revenues, after deducting therefrom

1. Tax compensations and reductions in conformity with existing laws or regula tions.

2. Reimbursements for taxes unduly imposed.

3. The costs for collection and administration, viz:

a. In the department of customs, the costs which are required for the protection and collection of customs on the frontiers and in the frontier districts.

b. In the department of the duty on salt, the costs which are used for the pay of the officers charged with collecting and controlling these duties in the salt mines.

c. In the department of duties on beet-sugar and tobacco, the compensation which is to be allowed, according to the resolutions of the confederate council, to the several state governments for the costs of the collection of these duties.

d. Fifteen per cent. of the total receipts in the departments of the other duties. The territories situated outside of the common customs frontier shall contribute to the expenses of the empire by paying an aversum, (a sum of acquittance.)

Bavaria, Würtemberg, and Baden shall not share in the revenues from duties on liquors and beer, which go into the treasury of the empire, nor in the corresponding portion of the aforesaid aversum.

ARTICLE 39. The quarterly statements to be regularly made by the revenue officers of the federal states at the end of every quarter, and the final settlements (to be made at the end of the year, and after the closing of the account-books) of the receipts from customs, which have become due in the course of the quarter, or during the fiscal year, and the revenues of the treasury of the empire, according to article 38, shall be arranged by the boards of directors of the federal states, after a previous examination in general summaries in which every duty is to be shown separately; these summaries shall be transmitted to the federal committee on accounts.

The latter provisionally fixes, every three months, taking as a basis these summaries, the amount due to the treasury of the empire from the treasury of each state, and it shall inform the federal council and the federal States of this act; furthermore, it shall submit to the federal council, annually, the final statement of these amounts, with its remarks. The federal council shall act upon the fixing of these amounts. ARTICLE 40. The terms of the customs-union treaty of July 8, 1867, remain in force, so far as they have not been altered by the provisions of this constitution, and as long as they are not altered in the manner designated in articles 7 and 78.

VII-RAILWAYS.

ARTICLE 41. Railways, which are considered necessary for the defense of Germany or for purposes of general commerce, may be built for the account of the Empire by a law of the Empire, even in opposition to the will of those members of the confedera tion through whose territory the railroads run, without detracting from the rights of the sovereign of that country; or private persons may be charged with their construction and receive rights of expropriation. Every existing railway company is bound to permit new railroad lines to be connected with it, at the expense of these latter.

All laws granting existing railway companies the right of injunction against the building of parallel or competition lines are hereby abolished throughout the empire, without detriment to rights already acquired. Such right of injunction can henceforth not be granted in concessions to be given hereafter.

ARTICLE 42. The governments of the federal states bind themselves, in the interest of general commerce, to have the German railways managed as a uniform net-work, and for this purpose to have the lines constructed and equipped according to a uniform system.

ARTICLE 43. Accordingly, as soon as possible, uniform arrangements as to management, shall be made, and especially shall uniform regulations be instituted for the police of the railroads. The Empire shall take care that the administrative officers of the railway lines keep the roads always in such a condition as is required. for public security, and that they be equipped with the necessary rolling stock.

ARTICLE 44. Railway companies are bound to establish such passenger trains of suitable velocity as may be required for ordinary travel, and for the establishment of harmonizing schedules of travel; also, to make provision for such freight trains as may be necessary for commercial purposes, and to establish, without extra remuneration, offices for the direct forwarding of passengers and freight trains, to be transferred, when necessary, from one road to another.

ARTICLE 45. The Empire shall have control over the tariff of fares. The same shall endeavor to cause

1. Uniform regulations to be speedily introduced on all German railway lines.

2. The tariff to be reduced and made uniform as far as possible, and particularly to cause a reduction of the tariff for the transport of coal, coke, wood, minerals, stone, salt, crude iron, manure, and similar articles, for long distances, as demanded by the interests of agriculture and industry, and to introduce a one-penny tariff as soon as practicable.

ARTICLE 46. In case of distress, especially in case of an extraordinary rise in the price of provisions, it shall be the duty of the railway companies to adopt temporarily a low special tariff, to be fixed by the Emperor, on motion of the competent committee, for the forwarding of grain, flour, vegetables, and potatoes. This tariff shall, however, not be less than the lowest rate for raw produce existing on the said line.

The foregoing provisions, and those of articles 42 to 45, shall not apply to Bavaria. The imperial government has, however, the power, also with regard to Bavaria, to establish, by way of legislation, uniform rules for the construction and equipment of such railways as may be of importance for the defense of the country.

ARTICLE 47. The managers of all railways shall be required to obey, without hesitation, requisitions made by the authorities of the empire for the use of their roads for the defense of Germany. Particularly shall the military and all material of war be forwarded at uniform reduced rates.

VIII.-MAILS AND TELEGRAPHS.

ARTICLE 48. The mails and telegraphs shall be organized and managed as state institutions throughout the German Empire. The legislation of the empire in regard to postal and telegraphic affairs, provided for in article 4, does not extend to those matters whose regulation is left to the managerial arrangement, according to the principles which have controlled the North German administration of mails and telegraphs. ARTICLE 49. The receipts of mails and telegraphs are a joint affair throughout the Empire. The expenses shall be paid from the general receipts. The surplus goes into the treasury of the Empire. (Section 12.)

ARTICLE 50. The Emperor has the supreme supervision of the administration of mails and telegraphs. The authorities appointed by him are in duty bound and authorized to see that uniformity be established and maintained in the organization of the administration and in the transaction of business, as also in regard to the qualifications of employés.

The Emperor shall have the power to make general administrative regulations, and also exclusively to regulate the relations which are to exist between the post and telegraph offices of Germany and those of other countries.

It shall be the duty of all officers of the post-office and telegraph department to obey imperial orders. This obligation shall be included in their oath of office. The appointment of superior officers (such as directors, counselors, and superintendents,) as they shall be required for the administration of the mails and telegraphs, in the various districts; also the appointment of officers of the posts and telegraphs, (such as inspectors or comptrollers,) acting for the aforesaid authorities in the several districts, in the capacity of supervisors, shall be made by the Emperor for the whole territory of the German Empire, and these officers shall take the oath of fealty to him as a part of their oath of office. The governments of the several states shall be informed in due time, by means of imperial confirmation and official publication, of the aforementioned appointments, so far as they may relate to their territories.

Other officers required by the department of mails and telegraphs, as also all officers to be employed at the various stations, and for technical purposes, and hence officiating at the actual centers of communication, &c., shall be appointed by the respective governments of the states.

Where there is no independent administration or inland mails or telegraphs, the terms of the various treaties are to be enforced.

ARTICLE 51. In assigning the surplus of the post-office department to the treasury of the Empire for general purposes, (article 49,) the following proceeding is to be observed in consideration of the difference which has heretofore existed in the clear receipts of the post-office departments of the several territories, for the purpose of securing a suitable equalization during the period of transition below named.

Of the post-office surplus, which accumulated in the several mail districts during the five years from 1861 to 1865, an average yearly surplus shall be computed, and the share which every separate mail district has had in the surplus resulting therefrom for the whole territory of the Empire shall be fixed upon by a percentage.

In accordance with the proportion thus made, the several states shall be credited on the account of their other contributions to the expenses of the empire with their quota accruing from the postal surplus in the Empire, for a period of eight years subsequent to their entrance into the post-office department of the empire.

At the end of the said eight years this distinction shall cease, and any surplus in the post-office department shall go, without division, into the treasury of the empire, according to the principle enunciated in article 49.

Of the quota of the post-office department surplus resulting during the aforementioned period of eight years in favor of the Hanseatic towns, one-half shall every year be placed at the disposal of the Emperor, for the purpose of providing for the establishment of uniform post-offices in the Hanseatic towns.

ARTICLE 52. The stipulations of the foregoing articles 48 to 51 do not apply to Bavaria and Wurtemberg. In their stead the following stipulution shall be valid for these two states of the confederation.

The Empire alone is authorized to legislate upon the privileges of the post-office and telegraph departments, on the legal position of both institutions toward the public, upon the franking privilege and rates of postage, and upon the establishment of rates for telegraphic correspondence into Hanseatic towns. Exclusive, however, of managerial arrangements, and the fixing of tariffs for internal communication within Bavaria and Wurtemberg.

In the same manner the Empire shall regulate postal and telegraphic communica tion with foreign countries, excepting the immediate communication of Bavaria and Wurtemberg with their neighboring states, not belonging to the Empire, in regard to which regulation the stipulations in articles 49 of the postal treaty of November 23, 1867, remains in force.

Bavaria and Wurtemburg shall not share in the postal and telegraphic receipts which belong to the treasury of the Empire.

IX.-MARINE AND NAVIGATION.

ARTICLE 53. The navy of the empire is a united one, under the supreme command of the Emperor. The Emperor is charged with its organization and arrangement, and he shall appoint the officers and officials of the navy, and in his name these and the seamen are to be sworn in.

The harbor of Kiel and the harbor of the Iade are imperial war harbors.

The expenditures required for the establishment and maintenance of the navy and the institutions connected therewith shall be defrayed from the treasury of the Empire. All sea-faring men of the Empire, including machinists and hands employed in shipbuilding, are exempt from service in the army, but obliged to serve in the imperial

navy.

The apportionment of men to supply the wants of the navy shall be made according to the actual sea-faring population, and the quota furnished in accordance herewith by each state shall be credited to the army account.

ARTICLE 54. The merchant vessels of all states of the confederation shall form a united commercial marine.

The Empire shall determine the process for ascertaining the tonnage of sea-going vessels, shall regulate the issuing of tonnage-certificates and sea-letters, and shall fix the conditions to which a permit for commanding a sea-going vessel shall be subject. The merchant vessels of all the states of the confederation shall be admitted on an equal footing to the harbors, and to all natural and artificial water-courses of the several states of the confederation, and shall receive the same usage therein.

The duties which shall be collected from sea-going vessels, or levied upon their freights, for the use of naval institutions in the harbors, shall not exceed the amount required for the maintenance and ordinary repair of these institutions.

On all natural water-courses, duties are only to be levied for the use of special estab