schools; but the Socialists allowed themselves to be influenced by the advances of the Ministry, and at the Congress of Modena, in the middle of October, the "Reformists" led by Signor Turati, and the groups who adhered to Signor Bissolati, secured the adoption of resolutions favourable to Signor Giolitti's policy. The Vatican was embarrassed; Cardinal Vannutelli delivered an allocution. which was all but warlike; the Osservatore Romano published an ambiguous paragraph, stating that the Pope was remaining neutral, and that Catholics should merely regard the expedition as a purely political matter. It was from her partners in the Triple Alliance that Italy was to experience the most marked disapproval of her course. Germany was greatly embarrassed between her Italian ally and her Ottoman protégé; the semi-official Prussian Press showed its disapproval in language of scant courtesy. Austria went even farther; Turkish torpedo-destroyers having been sunk by Italian warships off Prevesa (Sept. 29), the Austrian Foreign Office gave the Italian Government a distinct intimation that warlike operations on the eastern coast of the Adriatic must be forbidden. Plans of action in the Ægean were likewise dropped as soon as they were formed. Italy was obliged to restrict her military operations to the province of Tripoli and, in a secondary degree, to the Red Sea. In Africa, so long as her task was only the occupation of the ports, her naval superiority assured her an easy success. The brilliantly successful capture of Benghazi by General Ameglio (Oct. 20) was followed a few days later by the fall of Derna. But the Turks were rallying in the interior of the country, and the Arabs, after some vacillation, declared against the invaders. A preconcerted Arab rising in the suburbs of Tripoli (Oct. 23) was accompanied by hideous cruelties towards captured Italian soldiers; its suppression was marked by savage reprisals and a wholesale slaughter which, when fully reported by the special correspondents and confirmed by photographs, intensified the bitterness felt among foreign nations against the Italian aggressors (p. 361). The Italian Official Gazette published (Nov. 5) a decree declaring the province of Tripoli annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, and General Caneva formally read the text of this decree in presence of the troops and the people; but in reality the advance of the invaders into the interior was kept in check by the obstinate resistance of the Turks, backed by native aid. The Porte formally protested against the declaration, and sent officers into the country either over the land frontiers or by sea, the blockade of the coast being necessarily inadequate. Soon the Turks in their turn took the offensive, and kept continually harassing the Italians in their lines. Public opinion in Italy became excited, and demanded naval action against the Turkish ports of the Egean. At the end of November preparations were made to attack the Dardanelles, or, at any rate, to blockade its entrance. This, however, Russia declared categorically that she would not permit. The occupation.

of Tadura, some twelve miles from Tripoli (Dec. 13), was an inadequate makeweight for this check. In spite of her political difficulties and her financial straits, Turkey was clearly still a Power to be reckoned with. At the end of the year Italy became nervous, and inclined to treat her allies and also her Latin sister as responsible for the obstacles to her success in the war. The question of the renewal of the Triple Alliance was discussed with some acerbity in the periodical Press. The occupation of the oasis of Djaneh in the hinterland of Ghadamès by French Meharists (a camel corps: Nov. 27) was treated as almost an unfriendly act. France and England were charged every day with favouring traffic in contraband of war; and the Italian Admiralty was urged to increase the efficiency and vigilance of its torpedoboats and gun vessels in striving to intercept the reinforcements destined for Africa. Yet such a course would involve the risk of irritation to commercial interests of the highest importance and to unimpeachable sentiments of national dignity by resort to petty legal trickeries and by offensive exhibitions of excessive zeal.

CHAPTER II.

GERMANY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

I. GERMANY.

THE most important events of the year in Germany were the establishment of a Constitution for Alsace-Lorraine, the extension. of Imperial sickness insurance to labourers in the country as well as in the towns, and the agreement of the German Government to a French protectorate of Morocco after a prolonged crisis (pp. 182, 258). The Constitution had been promised in the past year (A. R., 1910, p. 311), but the Government scheme had to be considerably modified to procure its acceptance by the Reichstag.

The Government Bill, which had been unanimously adopted by the Federal Council at the end of the previous year, described the fundamental principle of the new Constitution as "the grant to the Reichsland of greater independence without altering the historic position of Alsace-Lorraine in the Empire." The Emperor was to continue to be "the hereditary representative of the whole body of Federal States," and as such would continue to exercise the functions of government in Alsace-Lorraine. The office of Statthalter or Governor was to remain unaltered, but the Statthalter's appointment by the Emperor was to be countersigned, as an act of Imperial authority, by the Imperial Chancellor. Once appointed, the Statthalter, as the Emperor's responsible representative, would countersign all acts of the Emperor, in the exercise of his sovereign powers as Landesherr. In all matters which do

not thus constitute direct exercise of the Emperor's powers the Statthalter can be "represented" by the Secretary of State for Alsace-Lorraine. The so-called "autonomy" consisted in the provision that laws for Alsace-Lorraine are henceforward to proceed only from the Emperor, with consent of the two-Chambered Diet, instead of being, as hitherto, initiated by the Federal Council and passed by the Reichstag, or simply decreed by the Emperor with the agreement of the Federal Council and the Provincial Committee. Under the Bill Alsace-Lorraine was granted no place in Imperial legislation and government. It was to continue to send to the Federal Council representatives who might speak for Alsace-Lorraine, but could not vote. To grant Alsace-Lorraine the three votes in the Federal Council which the population statistics justify would, in the opinion of the Government, raise all the difficulties of redistribution of power among the States of the Empire.

The Upper House of the new Diet was to consist of thirty-six members, one half of them being appointed ex officio, or as the nominees of public bodies, the other half nominated by the Emperor on the advice of the Federal Council. The seven ex officio members were to be the Roman Catholic Bishops of Strassburg and of Metz, the Presidents of the controlling bodies of the two branches of the Evangelical Church, the President of the highest provincial court, a Professor of the University of Strassburg, and a representative of the Jewish faith. Four of the representative members were to be elected by the Municipal Councils of Strassburg, Metz, Colmar, and Mulhausen, three by Chambers of Commerce, three by the Agricultural Council, and one by the Strassburg Handwerkskammer, or League of Guilds. The provision that the eighteen nominated members are to be nominated by the Emperor "upon the advice of the Federal Council" was described as a recognition of the fact that the Emperor exercises his sovereign functions "in the name of the Empire and of the States united in it." In all cases membership of the Upper House was to expire in five years or upon a dissolution of the Upper House. All the members must reside in Alsace-Lorraine and be not less than thirty years of age.

The Lower House of the Diet was to consist of sixty members, which, according to the latest census, was one member for every 30,250 inhabitants. Constituencies were to contain not less than 25,000 and not more than 35,000 inhabitants. Some of the customary objections to second ballots were avoided by the provision that where the candidate at the head of the poll does not obtain an absolute majority there shall be a fresh election one week later, and that the candidate who obtains most votes at this second election shall be declared elected. Another innovation was the provision that election appeals are to be decided, not (as elsewhere in Germany) by the Diet itself, but by the highest provincial court of administration.

The franchise was to be "universal," with secret ballot and direct voting. The general qualification was to be three years' residence; for owners of real property the qualification was to be one year's residence on their property; and there were to be further qualifications without regard to period of residence for persons conducting an established business or a farm, holding a public office, exercising the profession of the law, or fulfilling educational or ecclesiastical duties. There was also to be plural voting according to age-two votes for electors over thirty-five and three votes for electors over forty-five years of age.

As

The Socialists in various towns of Alsace-Lorraine held demonstrations in January to protest against the Constitution as reactionary, but these were not forbidden by the police, and there was no disturbance of order. The debate on the Constitution and Franchise Bills began in the Reichstag on January 26. Herr Delbrück, the Minister of the Interior, referring to the objections which had been made to the Bills, said that to make the office of Statthalter an appointment for life would be quite impracticable and intolerable from the point of view of the interests of the Empire. It would shut the Emperor out altogether and also all influence of the Empire in the affairs of Alsace and Lorraine. Bismarck had said, they did not require a Court in the Reichsland, but they needed a representative of the Emperor with the capacity, the right, and the determination to intervene in all branches of the Administration and to hold the government of the country in firm hands. Even more radical than a life appointment would be the grant of autonomy, and those who promoted this idea must be aiming not at conciliation but at separation. It had also been proposed to give Alsace-Lorraine representation in the Federal Council. As things stood the result must be to strengthen Prussia and to disturb equilibrium, The further suggestion that the Reichsland should have a right to vote in the Federal Council on its own affairs and on "internal economic affairs of the Empire was impracticable because of the impossibility of definition. The Federal Governments had gone a long way, and the acceptance of their proposals would be economically and politically beneficent both for Alsace-Lorraine and for the Empire. They must continue to pursue the policy inaugurated by Bismarck forty years ago, the policy of Imperial union in the interest of the part and of the whole.

The representatives of the Centre, the Radicals, and the Socialists protested strongly against the exclusion of Alsace-Lorraine from the Federal Council, and the Bill was read a first time and sent to a select Committee after a remarkable speech from the Chancellor, in which he said that the course of German history and the German tendency towards particularism, united with a suicidal criticism which rejoiced in painting German conditions as black as possible before foreign countries, had not strengthened

either the German's original power of assimilation or foreign leanings towards Germany. In Alsace-Lorraine the difficulties were exceptional, because the country had lost its connection with. Germany just during the period of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which was decisive for development in politics, in civilisation, and in industry. Little wonder that the process of conciliation had been slow. They must not desist because of its slowness, but must try harder than ever to apply the magnetic power of German political civilising and-what were nowadays preponderant --economic forces. He was inclined himself to think their long waiting not responsible for much of what was so unsatisfactory. On the other hand, the interval had taught them that a policy of surrender and conciliation was useless against the forces which agitated perpetually in the Press and in associations and meetings against the union with Germany. It was the most simple duty to make these forces feel the hand of the law. He appreciated the view that, since voting in the Federal Council and full autonomy were withheld, they conceded too little, but he would most earnestly urge the Reichstag not to pursue a policy of all or nothing, as "it would lead only to nothing." The development of institutions "must come from within and not be imposed from without." The Upper Chamber "must be a bulwark assuring beyond all doubt a German policy in the Reichsland.”

The Committee met on February 8, and on the following day passed, by large majorities, a vital amendment of the Constitution Bill proposed by the Centre party, declaring Alsace-Lorraine to be a Federal State with three votes in the Federal Council. This decision was referred by the Government to the Federal Council. Meanwhile the Committee proceeded to consider the Bill, the various parties showing a great divergence of opinion on the various clauses. The clause in the Bill as to plural voting was rejected by a large majority, and on May 11 the whole Bill was rejected by the Committee, on the ground that the Centre had defeated a motion proposed by the National Liberals (who formed the Chauvinist element in the Committee) establishing German as the official language for administrative and educational purposes, with certain exceptions in French-speaking districts. After much negotiation with the members of the Government, however, the Committee decided to proceed with the Bill notwithstanding its adverse vote, and on the second reading in the Reichstag the Chancellor announced that the proposal of the Centre to give Alsace-Lorraine three votes in the Federal Council would be accepted. He would not accept the responsibility for continuing the policy of doing nothing. Nor would he be moved by the argument that he was taking the Bill at the hands of the Socialists. Just as he could not prevent the Conservatives from following their convictions and Prussian sentiments, so he could not prevent the Socialists from voting for the measure, or withdraw the Bill because