Littell's Living Age/Volume 115/Issue 1489/Constitution of Mecklenburg

The consolidation of Germany into an empire leaves little room for the maintenance of such feudal claims as the petty Princes had maintained over their subjects. Of these the Duke of Mecklenburg was the most noted example. In his duchy the rulers until very recently asserted, in theory at least, their indefeasible right to the use of a stick over refractory subjects of the lower orders, a claim which it was the special business of the Berlin comic papers, while Berlin was the capital of Prussia only, to hold up to ridicule, using it as one of the best arguments for the general reform of the Fatherland which permitted such vagaries to its princelings. Times have changed since Kladderadatsch and his fellows combated the use of this paternal punishment of their neighbours, and Mecklenburg has now a Constitution of its own. This, however, gives so little satisfaction that the cry for reform has been for some time plainly audible, and has forced itself on the ducal ears. A project has just been submitted to those interested, including the town council of Rostock, the most important part of the duchy, which, on hearing it read last week at their meeting, pronounced absolutely for its rejection, on the very sufficient ground that under it the Prince would still retain the absolute and unchecked power of taxation. Moreover, it perpetuates the existing incorporations of the orders of nobility and peasantry, but adds for legislative purposes thirty-two nominees representing the ducal domains — another proposal which raises keen opposition. The project has been accepted, it is officially stated, by the Ritterschaft, but not as yet by the representatives of the peasantry, before whom it had been laid by a ducal commission. On the whole it would seem that the principle of no taxation without representation is making its way steadily into the most backward parts of Germany under the direct influence of the new Imperial institutions.