Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1011

 CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT (355

accomplishing his eighteenth year. The crown is hereditary in the male line, according to primogeniture. In the exercise of the government, the king is assisted by a council of ministers, ap- pointed by royal decree. The legislative authority the king shares with a representative assembly, the Landtag, composed of two Chambers, the first called the ' Herrenhaus, ' or House of Lords, and the second the ' Abgeordnetenhaus,' or Chamber of Deputies. The assent of the king and both Chambers is requisite for all laws. Financial projects and estimates must first be submitted to the Abgeordnetenhaus, and be either accepted or rejected en bloc by the Herrenhaus. The right of proposing laws is vested in the Government and in each of the Chambers.

The Herrenhaus, according to the original draft of the Constitution, was to consist of adult princes of the royal family, and of the heads of Prussian houses deriving directly from the former Empire, as Avell as of those heads of families that, by royal ordinance, should be appointed to seats and votes in the Chamber, according to the rights of primogeniture and lineal descent. Besides these hereditary members, there were to be ninety deputies directly elected by electoral districts, consisting of a num- ber of electors who pay the highest taxes to the State ; and, in addition, other thirty members elected by the members of the municipal councils of large towns. This original composition of the ' House of Lords ' was greatly modified by the royal decree of Oct. 12, 1854, which brought into life the Herrenhaus in its present form. It is composed of, first, the princes of the royal family who are of age, including the scions of the formerly sovereign families of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen ; secondly, the chiefs of the mediatised princely houses, recognised by the Congress of Vienna, to the number of sixteen in Pnissia ; thirdly, the heads of the territorial nobility formed by the king, and numbering some fifty members ; fourthly, a number of life-peers, chosen by the king from among the rich landowners, great manufacturers, and ' national celebrities ' ; fifthly, eight titled noblemen elected in the eight older provinces of Prussia by the resident landowners of all degrees ; sixthly, the representatives of the universities, the heads of ' chapters,' and the burgomasters of towns with above fifty thousand inha])itants ; and seventhly, an unlimited number of members nominated by the king for life, or for a more or less restricted period.

The Abgeordnetenhaus consists of 433 members — 352 for the old kingdom, 80 added in 1867 to represent the newly-annexed provinces, and 1 in 1876 for Lauenburg ; the proportion to the population is now (1895) 1 to every 73,569. Every Pmssian who has attained his twenty-fifth year, and is rpialified to vote for the municipal elections of his place of domicile, is eligible to vote as indirect elector. Persons who are entitled to vote for municipal elections in several parishes can only exercise the right of indirect elector, or * Urwiihler,' in one. One direct elector, or ' Wahlmann,' is elected from every complete number of 250 souls. The indirect electors are divided into three classes, according to the respective amount of direct taxes paid by each ; arranged in such manner that each category pays one-tliird of the whole amount of direct taxes levied on the whole. The first category consist of all electors who pay the highest taxes to the amount of one-third of the whole ; the second, of those who pay the next highest amount down to the limits of the second third ; the third of all tlie lowest taxed, who, together, complete