Chapter XII: (p. 245)

THE CONSTITUTION OF PRUSSIA-THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY

I. THE GERMAN STATES AND THEIR GOVERNMENTS

*261. Variations of Type.*--Within the bounds of Germany to-day there are twenty-five states and one Imperial territory with certain attributes of statehood, Alsace-Lorraine. During the larger portion of the nineteenth century each of these states (and of the several which no longer exist) was possessed of substantial sovereignty, and each maintained its own arrangements, respecting governmental forms and procedure. Under the leadership of Prussia, as has been pointed out, the loose Confederation of 1815 was transformed, during the years 1866-1871, into an Imperial union, federal but yet vigorous and indestructible, and to the constituted authorities of this Empire was intrusted an enormous aggregate of governmental powers. The powers conferred were, however, not wholly abstracted from the original prerogatives of the individual states. In a very appreciable measure they were powers, rather, of a supplementary character, by virtue of which the newly created central government was enabled to do, on a broadly national scale, what, in the lack of any such central government, there would have been neither means of doing, nor occasion for doing, at all. Only at certain points, as, for example, in respect to the levying of customs duties and of taxes, was the original independence of the individual state seriously impaired by the terms of the new arrangement.

The consequence is that, speaking broadly, each of the German states maintains to this day a government which is essentially complete within itself. No one of these governments covers quite all of the ground which falls within the range of jurisdiction of a sovereign state; each is cut into at various points by the superior authority of the Empire; but each is sufficiently ample to be capable of continuing to run, were all of the other governments of Germany instantly to be blotted out.[357] Of the twenty-five state governments, three--those of the free cities of Bremen, Hamburg, and Lübeck--are aristocratic (p. 246) republics; all the others are monarchies. Among the monarchies there are four kingdoms: Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg; six grand-duchies: Baden, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg, and Saxe-Weimar; five duchies: Anhalt, Brunswick, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and Saxe-Meiningen; and seven principalities: Lippe, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen, Schaumburg-Lippe, Reuss Älterer Linie, Reuss Jüngerer Linie, and Waldeck-Pyrmont.

[Footnote 357: The best survey in English of the
governments of the German states is that in Lowell,
Governments and Parties, I., Chap. 6. Fuller and
more recent is G. Combes de Lestrade, Les
monarchies de l'empire allemand (Paris, 1904). The
most elaborate treatment of the subject is to be
found in an excellent series of studies edited by
H. von Marquardsen and M. von Seydel under the
title Handbuch des Oeffentlichen Rechts der
Gegenwart in Monographien (Freiburg and Tübingen,
1883-1909). A new series of monographs, comprising
substantially a revision of this collection, is at
present in course of publication by J. C. B. Mohr
at Tübingen. The texts of the various constitutions
are printed in F. Stoerk, Handbuch der deutschen
Verfassungen (Leipzig, 1884).]

*262. The Preponderance of Prussia.*--From whatever angle one approaches German public affairs, the fact that stands out with greatest distinctness is the preponderant position occupied by the kingdom of Prussia. How it was that Prussia became the virtual creator of the Empire, and how it is that Prussia so dominates the Imperial government that that government and the Prussian are at times all but inextricable, has already been pointed out.[358] Wholly apart from the sheer physical fact that 134,616 square miles of Germany's 208,780, and 40,163,333 people of the Empire's 64,903,423, are Prussian, the very conditions under which the Imperial organization of the present day came into being predetermined that Prussia and things Prussian should enjoy unfailing pre-eminence in all that pertains to German government and politics. Both because they are extended immediately over a country almost two-thirds as large as France, and because of their peculiar relation to the political system of the Empire, the institutions of Prussia call for somewhat detailed consideration.

[Footnote 358: See pp. 200-201, 207.]

II. THE RISE OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN PRUSSIA

*263. Regeneration in the Napoleonic Period.*--By reason of the vacillating policies of her sovereign, Frederick William III., the successive defeats of her armies at Jena, Auerstädt, and elsewhere, and the loss, by the treaty of Tilsit in 1807, of half of her territory, Prussia realized from the first decade of the Napoleonic period little save humiliation and disaster. Through the years 1807-1815, however, her lot was wonderfully improved. Upon the failure of the Russian expedition of Napoleon in 1812, Frederick William (p. 247) shook off his apprehensions and allied himself openly with the sovereigns of Russia and Austria. The people rose _en masse_, and in the titanic struggle which ensued Prussia played a part scarcely second in importance to that of any other power. At the end she was rewarded, through the agency of the Congress of Vienna, by being assigned the northern portion of Saxony, Swedish Pomerania, her old possessions west of the Elbe, the duchies of Berg and Julich, and a number of other districts in Westphalia and on the Rhine. Her area in 1815 was 108,000 square miles, as compared with 122,000 at the beginning of 1806; but her loss of territory was more than compensated by the substitution that had been made of German lands for Slavic.[359] The homogeneity of her population was thereby increased, her essentially Germanic character emphasized, and her capacity for German leadership enhanced.

[Footnote 359: L. A. Himly, Histoire de la
formation territoriale des états de l'Europe
centrale, 2 vols. (Paris, 1876), I., 93-110.]

It was not merely in respect to territory and population that the Prussia of 1815 was different from the Prussia of a decade earlier. Consequent upon the humiliating disasters of 1806 there set in a moral regeneration by which there was wrought one of the speediest and one of the most thoroughgoing national transformations recorded in history. In 1807 Frederick William's statesmanlike minister Stein accomplished the abolition of serfdom and of all legal distinctions which separated the various classes of society.[360] In 1808 he reformed the municipalities and gave them important powers of self-government. By a series of sweeping measures he reconstructed the ministerial departments, the governments of the provinces, and the local administrative machinery, with the result of creating an executive system which has required but little modification to the present day. In numerous directions, especially in relation to economic conditions, the work of Stein was continued by that of the succeeding minister, Prince Hardenberg. By Scharnhorst and Gneisenau the military régime was overhauled and a body of spiritless soldiery kept in order by fear was converted into "a union of all the moral and physical energies of the nation." By Wilhelm von Humboldt the modern Prussian school system was created; while by Fichte, Arndt, and a galaxy of other writers there was imparted a stimulus by which the patriotism and aspiration of the Prussian people were raised to (p. 248) an unprecedented pitch.[361]

[Footnote 360: It is to be observed that while
Stein was officially the author of this reform, the
substance of the changes introduced had been agreed
upon by the king and his advisers before Stein's
accession to office (October 4, 1807). The Edict of
Emancipation was promulgated October 9, 1807. It
made the abolition of serfdom final and absolute on
and after October 8, 1810.]

[Footnote 361: E. Meier, Reform der
Verwaltungsorganisation unter Stein und Hardenberg
(Leipzig, 1881); J. R. Seeley, Life and Times of
Stein, 3 vols. (Boston, 1879), Pt. III., Chaps.
3-4, Pt. V., Chaps. 1-3.]

*264. Obstacles to the Establishment of a Constitution.*--Such an epoch of regeneration could not fail to be a favorable period for the growth of liberal principles of government. In June, 1814, and again in May, 1815, King Frederick William promised, through the medium of a cabinet order, to give consideration to the question of the establishment of a constitution in which provision should be made not merely for the estates of the provinces but also for a national diet. After the Congress of Vienna the task of framing such a constitution was actually taken in hand. But the time was not ripe. Liberalism had gained headway as yet among only the professional classes, while the highly influential body of ultra-conservative landholders were unalterably opposed. Between the eastern provinces, still essentially feudal in spirit, and the western ones, visibly affected by French revolutionary ideas, there was, furthermore, meager community of interest. So keen was the particularistic spirit that not infrequently the various provinces of the kingdom were referred to in contemporary documents as "nations." Among these provinces some retained the system of estates which had prevailed throughout Germany since the Middle Ages, but in some of those which had fallen under the control of Napoleon the estates had been abolished, and in others they were in abeyance. In a few they had never existed. Votes were taken in the assemblages of the estates by orders, not by individuals, and the function of the bodies rarely extended beyond the approving of projects of taxation. Within the provinces there existed no sub-structure of popular institutions capable of being made the basis of a national parliamentary system.

Notwithstanding these deterring circumstances, it is not improbable that some sort of constitution might have been established but for the excesses of the more zealous Liberals, culminating in the murder of the dramatist Kotzebue in 1819, whereby the king was thrown into an attitude, first of apprehension, and finally of uncompromising reaction. By assuming joint responsibility for the Carlsbad Decrees of October 17, 1819, he surrendered completely to the régime of "stability" which all the while had been urged upon him by Metternich. June 11, 1821, he summoned a commission to organize a system of provincial estates;[362] but at the same time the project of a national constitution and a national diet was definitely abandoned. Under (p. 249) repression Prussian liberalism languished, and throughout the remainder of the reign, i.e., to 1840, the issue of constitutionalism was not frequently raised. In Prussia, as in Austria, the widespread revolutionary demonstrations of 1830 elicited little response.

[Footnote 362: The system was created by royal
patent June 5, 1823.]

*265. The Diet of 1847.*--Upon the accession of Frederick William IV., son of Frederick William III., in 1840, the hopes of the Liberals were revived. The new sovereign was believed to be a man of advanced ideas. To a degree he was such, as was manifested by his speedy reversal of his father's narrow ecclesiastical policy, and by other enlightened acts. But time demonstrated that his liberalism was not without certain very definite limits. February 13, 1847, he went so far as to summon a Vereinigter Landtag, or "united diet," of Prussia, comprising all members of the existing eight provincial assemblies, and organized in two chambers--a house of lords and a house containing the three estates of the knights, burghers, and peasants. But the issue was unhappy. As Metternich had predicted, the meeting of the Diet but afforded opportunity for a forceful reassertion of constitutional aspirations, and the assemblage refused to sanction loans upon which the sovereign was bent until its representative character should have been more completely recognized. The king, on his part, declared he would never allow "to come between Almighty God in heaven and this land a blotted parchment, to rule us with paragraphs, and to replace the ancient, sacred bond of loyalty." The deadlock was absolute, and, June 26, the Diet was dissolved.

*266. The Revolution of 1848.*--The dawn of constitutionalism was, however, near. The fundamental law under which Prussia still is governed was a product--one of the few which endured--of the widespread revolutionary movement of 1848. Upon the arrival in Berlin of the news of the overthrow of Louis Philippe (February 24) at Paris and of the fall of Metternich (May 13) at Vienna, the Prussian Liberals renewed with vigor their clamor for the establishment in Prussia of a government of a constitutional type. The demand was closely related to, yet was essentially distinct from, the contemporary project for the inauguration of a new constitutional German Empire. As was proved by the vagaries of the Frankfort Parliament (May, 1848, to June, 1849), conditions were not yet ripe for the creation of a closely-knit empire;[363] and one of the reasons why this was true was that a necessary step toward that culmination was only now about to be taken, i.e., the introduction of constitutional government in the important kingdom of Prussia. Apprehensive lest (p. 250) the scenes of violence reported from Paris should be re-enacted in his own capital, Frederick William acquiesced in the demands of his subjects in so far as to issue letters patent, May 13, 1848, convoking a national assembly[364] for the consideration of a proposed constitution. Every male citizen over twenty-five years of age was given the right to participate in the choice of electors, by whom in turn were chosen the members of this assembly. May 22, 1848, the assembly met in Berlin and entered upon consideration of the sketch of a fundamental law which the king laid before it. The meeting was attended by disorders in the city, and the more radical deputies further inflamed public feeling by persisting in the discussion of the abolition of the nobility, and of a variety of other more or less impracticable and revolutionary projects. The king took offense because the assembly presumed to exercise constituent functions independently and, after compelling a removal of the sittings to the neighboring city of Brandenburg, he in disgust dissolved the body, December 5, and promulgated of his own right the constitutional charter which he had drawn.

[Footnote 363: See p. 198.]

[Footnote 364: Known technically as Versammlung zur
Vereinbarung der preussischen Verfassung.]

*267. Formation of the Constitution.*--At an earlier date it had been promised that the constitution to be established should be "agreed upon with an assembly of the nation's representatives freely chosen and invested with full powers;" but it had been suggested to the king that the way out of the existing difficulty lay in issuing a constitutional instrument independently and subsequently allowing the Landtag first elected under it to submit it to a legislative revision, and this was the course of procedure which was adopted.[365] Elections were held and, February 26, 1849, the chambers were assembled. Having recognized formally the instrument of December 5, 1848, as the law of the land, the two bodies addressed themselves forthwith to the task of revising it. The result was disagreement and, in the end, the dissolution of the lower house. The constitution of 1848 had been accompanied by an electoral law establishing voting by secret ballot and conferring upon all male citizens equal suffrage. Upon the dissolution of 1849 there was promulgated by the king a thoroughgoing modification of this democratic measure, whereby voting by ballot was abolished and parliamentary electors were divided into three classes whose voting power was determined by property qualifications or by (p. 251) official and professional status. In other words, there was introduced that peculiar three-class system which was already not unknown in the Prussian municipalities, and which, in both national and city elections, persists throughout the kingdom to the present day. In the elections which were held in the summer of 1849 in accordance with this system the democrats refused to participate. The upshot was that the new chambers, convened August 7, 1849, proved tractable enough, and by them the text of the constitution, after being discussed and revised article by article, was at last accorded formal approval. On the last day of January, 1850, the instrument was duly promulgated at Charlottenburg.[366] By Austria, Russia, and other reactionary powers persistent effort was made during the ensuing decade to influence the king to rescind the concession which he had made. He refused, however, to do so, and, with certain modifications, the constitution of 1850 remains the fundamental law of the Prussian kingdom to-day.[367]

[Footnote 365: The confusion of constitutional and
ordinary statutory law inherent in this arrangement
has influenced profoundly the thought of German
jurists.]

[Footnote 366: On the establishment of
constitutionalism in Prussia see (in addition to
works mentioned on p. 201) P. Matter, La Prusse et
la révolution de 1848, in _Revue Historique_,
Sept.-Oct., 1902; P. Devinat, Le mouvement
constitutionnel en Prusse de 1840 à 1847, ibid.,
Sept.-Oct. and Nov.-Dec., 1911; Klaczko,
L'agitation allemande et la Prusse, in _Revue des
Deux Mondes_, Dec., 1862, and Jan., 1863; C.
Bornhak, Preussische Staats-und Rechtsgeschichte
(Berlin, 1903); H. von Petersdorff, König Friedrich
Wilhelm IV. (Stuttgart, 1900); and H. G. Prutz,
Preussische Geschichte, 4 vols. to 1888 (Stuttgart,
1900-1902). For full bibliography see Cambridge
Modern History, XI., 893-898.]

[Footnote 367: As is true in governmental systems
generally, by no means all of the essential
features of the working constitution are to be
found in the formal documents, much less in the
written constitution alone. In Prussia ordinances,
legislative acts, and administrative procedure,
dating from both before and after 1850, have to be
taken into account continually if one would
understand the constitutional order in its
entirety.]

*268. Nature of the Constitution.*--The constitution of Prussia is modelled upon that of Belgium. Provisions relating to the powers of the crown, the competence of the chambers, and the functions of the ministers are reproduced almost literally from the older instrument. None the less, the two rest upon widely differing bases. The Belgian fundamental law begins with the assertion that "all powers emanate from the nation." That of Prussia voices no such sentiment, and the governmental system for which it provides has as its cornerstone the thoroughgoing supremacy of the crown.[368] The Liberals of the mid-century period were by no means satisfied with it; and, sixty years after, it stands out among the great constitutional documents of the European world so conspicuous by reason of its disregard of fundamental democratic principle as to justify completely the (p. 252) charges of anachronism which reformers in Prussia and elsewhere are in these days bringing against it. It provides for the responsibility of ministers, without stipulating a means whereby that responsibility may be enforced. There is maintained under it one of the most antiquated and undemocratic electoral systems in Europe. And, as is pointed out by Lowell, even where, on paper, it appears to be liberal, it is sometimes much less so than its text would lead one to suppose. It contains, for example, a bill of rights, which alone comprises no fewer than forty of the one hundred eleven permanent articles of the instrument.[369] In it are guaranteed the personal liberty of the subject, the security of property, the inviolability of personal correspondence, immunity from domiciliary visitation, freedom of the press, toleration of religious sects, liberty of migration, and the right of association and public meeting. But there is an almost total lack of machinery by which effect can be given to some of the most important provisions relating to these subjects. Some guarantees of what would seem the most fundamental rights, as those of public assemblage and of liberty of teaching, are reduced in practice to empty phrases.[370]

[Footnote 368: Dupriez, Les Ministres, I., 350.]

[Footnote 369: Arts. 3-42. Robinson, Constitution
of the Kingdom of Prussia, 27-34.]

[Footnote 370: Lowell, Governments and Parties, I.,
286.]

The process of constitutional amendment in Prussia is easy. With the approval of the king, an amendment may at any time be adopted by a simple majority of the two legislative chambers, with the special requirement only that an amendment, unlike a statute, must be voted upon twice, with an interval of three weeks between the two votes. During the first ten years of its existence the constitution was amended no fewer than ten times. Of later amendments there have been six, but none more recent than that of May 27, 1888. The Prussian system of amendment by simple legislative process was incorporated, in 1867, in the fundamental law of the North German Confederation (except that in the Bundesrath a two-thirds vote was required); and in 1871 it was perpetuated in the constitution of the Empire.[371]

[Footnote 371: There is an annotated English
version of the Prussian constitution, edited by J.
H. Robinson, in the _Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science_, Supplement,
Sept., 1894. The original text will be found in F.
Stoerk, Handbuch der deutschen Verfassungen
(Leipzig, 1884), 44-63; also, with elaborate notes,
in A. Arndt, Die Verfassungs-Urkunde für den
preussischen Staat nebst Erganzungs-und
Ausführungs-Gesetzen, mit Einleitung, Kommentar und
Sachregister (Berlin, 1889). The principal
treatises on the Prussian constitutional system are
H. Schulze, Das preussisches Staatsrecht, auf
Grundlage des deutschen Staatsrechtes (Leipzig,
1872-1874); ibid., Das Staatsrecht des Königreichs
Preussen, in Marquardsen's Handbuch (Freiburg,
1884); L. von Rönne, Das Staatsrecht der
preussischen Monarchie (Leipzig, 1881-1884); and H.
de Grais, Handbuch der Verfassung und Verwaltung in
Preussen und dem deutschen Reiche (11th ed.,
Berlin, 1896). A good brief account is that in A.
Lebon, Études sur l'Allemagne politique, Chap. 4.]

III. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY (p. 253)

*269. Status of the Crown.*--At the head of the state stands the king, in whom is vested the executive, and a considerable share in the legislative, power. The crown is hereditary in the male line of the house of Hohenzollern, following the principle of primogeniture. An heir to the throne is regarded as attaining his majority on the completion of his eighteenth year. It has been pointed out that the German Emperor, as such, has no civil list. He has no need of one, for the reason that in the capacity of king of Prussia he is entitled to one of the largest civil lists known to European governments. Since the increase provided for by law of February 20, 1889, the "Krondotations Rente," as it appears in the annual Prussian budget, aggregates 15,719,296 marks; besides which the king enjoys the revenues from a vast amount of private property, comprising castles, forests, and estates in various parts of the realm. There are also certain special funds the income from which is available for the needs of the royal family.

*270. Powers.*--The powers of the crown are very comprehensive.[372] It is perhaps not too much to say that they exceed those exercised by any other European sovereign. The king is head of the army and of the church, and in him are vested, directly or indirectly, all functions of an executive and administrative character. All appointments to offices of state are made by him immediately or under his authority. The upper legislative chamber is recruited almost exclusively by royal nomination. And all measures, before they become law, require the king's assent; though, by reason of the sovereign's absolute control of the upper chamber, no measure of which he disapproves can ever be enacted by that body, so that there is never an occasion for the exercise of the formal veto. To employ the language of a celebrated German jurist, the king possesses "the whole and undivided power of the state in all its plenitude. It would, therefore, be contrary to the nature of the monarchical constitutional law of Germany to enumerate all individual powers of the king.... His sovereign right embraces, on the contrary, all branches of the government. Everything which is decided or carried out in the state takes place in the name of the king. He is the personified power of the state."[373] (p. 254) Except in so far as the competence of the sovereign is expressly limited or regulated by the constitution, it is to be regarded as absolute.

[Footnote 372: They are enumerated in articles
45-52 of the constitution. Robinson, Constitution
of the Kingdom of Prussia, 36-37.]

[Footnote 373: Schulze, Preussisches Staatsrecht,
I., 158.]

*271. The Ministry: Composition and Status.*--The organization of the executive--the creation of ministerial portfolios, the appointment of ministers, and the delimitation of departmental functions--rests absolutely with the king, save, of course, for the necessity of procuring from the Landtag the requisite appropriations. Beginning in the days of Stein with five, the number of ministries was gradually increased until since 1878 there have been nine, as follows: Foreign Affairs;[374] the Interior; Ecclesiastical, Educational, and Sanitary Affairs; Commerce and Industry; Finance; War; Justice; Public Works; and Agriculture, Public Domains, and Forests. Each ministry rests upon an essentially independent basis and there has been little attempt to reduce the group to the uniformity or symmetry of organization that characterizes the ministries of France, Italy, and other continental monarchies. Departmental heads, as well as subordinates, are appointed with reference solely to their administrative efficiency, not, as in parliamentary governments, in consideration of their politics or of their status in the existing political situation. They need not be, and usually are not, members of either of the legislative chambers.

[Footnote 374: The Minister of Foreign Affairs is
at the same time the Minister-President of Prussia
and the Chancellor of the Empire. On the functions
of the various ministries see Dupriez, Les
Ministres, I., 448-462.]

For it is essential to observe that in Prussia ministers are responsible only to the sovereign, which means that the parliamentary system, in the proper sense, does not exist. The constitution, it is true, prescribes that every act of the king shall be countersigned by a minister, who thereby assumes responsibility for it.[375] But there is no machinery whereby this nominal responsibility can be made, in practice, to mean anything. Ministers do not retire by reason of an adverse vote in the Landtag; and, although upon vote of either legislative chamber, they may be prosecuted for treason, bribery, or violation of the constitution, no penalties are prescribed in the event of conviction, so that the provision is of no practical effect.[376] Every minister possesses the right to appear on the (p. 255) floor of either chamber, and to be heard at any time when no member of the house is actually speaking. In the exercise of this privilege the minister is the immediate spokesman of the crown, a fact which is apt to be apparent from the tenor of his utterances.

[Footnote 375: Art. 44.]

[Footnote 376: Art. 61. Robinson, Constitution of
the Kingdom of Prussia, 40. In the words of a
German jurist, "the anomaly continues to exist in
Prussia of ministerial responsibility solemnly
enunciated in the constitution, the character of
the responsibility, the accuser and the court
specified, and at the same time a complete lack of
any legal means by which the representatives of the
people can protect even the constitution itself
against the most flagrant violations and the most
dangerous attacks." Schulze, Preussisches
Staatsrecht, II., 694.]

*272. The Ministry: Organization and Workings.*--The Prussian ministry exhibits little solidarity. There is a "president of the council of ministers," who is invariably the Minister for Foreign Affairs and at the same time the Chancellor of the Empire, but his functions are by no means those of the corresponding dignitary in France and Italy. Over his colleagues he possesses, as president, no substantial authority whatsoever.[377] In the lack of responsibility to the Landtag, there is no occasion for an attempt to hold the ministry solidly together in the support of a single, consistent programme. The ministers are severally controlled by, and responsible to, the crown, and the views or policies of one need not at all be those of another. At the same time, of course, in the interest of efficiency it is desirable that there shall be a certain amount of unity and of concerted action. To attain this there was established by Count Hardenberg a Staats-Ministerium, or Ministry of State, which occupies in the Prussian executive system a position somewhat similar to that occupied in the French by the Council of Ministers.[378] The Ministry of State is composed of the nine ministerial heads, together with the Imperial secretaries of state for the Interior, Foreign Affairs, and the Navy. It holds meetings at least as frequently as once a week for the discussion of matters of common administrative interest, the drafting of laws or of constitutional amendments, the supervision of local administration, and, in emergencies, the promulgation of ordinances which have the force of law until the ensuing session of the Landtag. There are certain acts, as the proclaiming of a state of siege, which may be performed only with the sanction of this body. The fact remains, none the less, that, normally, the work of the several departments is carried on independently and that the ministry exhibits less cohesion than any other in a state of Prussia's size and importance. It is to be observed that there is likewise a Staatsrath, or Council of State (dating originally from 1604 and revived in (p. 256) 1817), composed of princes, high officials of state, ministers, judges, and other persons of influence designated by the crown. It may be consulted on legislative proposals, disputes as to the spheres of the various ministries, and other important matters. In barrenness of function, however, as in structure, it bears a close resemblance to-day to the British Privy Council.[379]

[Footnote 377: The office of Chancellor was
discontinued with the death of Hardenberg and that
of Minister-President substituted. The Chancellor
possessed substantial authority over his
colleagues. Since 1871, the Minister-President has
been a Chancellor, but of the Empire, not of
Prussia.]

[Footnote 378: The Staats-Ministerium was called
into being, to replace the old Council of State, by
an ordinance of October 27, 1810. Its functions
were further elaborated in cabinet orders of June
3, 1814, and November 3, 1817. The constitution of
1850 preserved it and assigned it some new duties.]

[Footnote 379: On the organization and functions of
the Prussian ministry see Dupriez, Les Ministres,
I., 345-462; von Seydel, Preussisches Staatsrecht,
91-104; von Rönne, Das Staatsrecht der preussischen
Monarchie, 4th ed., III.; Schulze, Das preussische
Staatsrecht, II.]

*273. Subsidiary Executive Bodies.*--Two other executive organs possess considerable importance. These are the Oberrechnungskammer, or Supreme Chamber of Accounts, and the Volkswirthschaftsrath, or Economic Council. The Oberrechnungskammer has existed continuously since 1714. Its function is the oversight and revision of the finances of the departments, the administration of the state debt, and the acquisition and disposal of state property. Its president is appointed by the crown, on nomination of the Staats-Ministerium. Its remaining members are designated by the crown on nomination of its own president, countersigned by the president of the Staats-Ministerium. All enjoy the tenure and the immunities of judges, and the body collectively is responsible, not to the Ministry of State, but to the crown immediately. In status and function it resembles somewhat closely the French Cour des Comptes. The same group of men, with additional members appointed by the Bundesrath, serves as the Chamber of Accounts of the Empire. The Volkswirthschaftsrath consists of seventy-five members named by the king for a term of five years. Its business is to give preliminary consideration to measures vitally affecting large economic interests, to determine what should be Prussia's position in the Bundesrath upon these measures, and to recommend to the crown definite courses of action regarding them. Its function is purely consultative.