The different sections of the Opposition in the Reichstag have
determined on their course. They will grant the Military Bill as it stands, but limit its duration to three years. Prince Bismarck will not accept this, on the ground that if the Reich- stag claims such a right, it might claim to vote the Army
annually, and thus make it a Parliamentary instead of an Imperial force. He would never, he said, consent to such a
plan, but dissolve at once. He will, it is believed, carry out this threat, raise the extra soldiers at once by decree, borrow the money from the Prussian Treasury—the Prussian Parliament, he says, being on his side—and demand a Bill of Indemnity from the Reichstag. He calculates that, the Culturkampf being over, he is sure of a majority. If he does not get his indemnity, nothing will happen, for there is a clause in the German Constitution justifying the Emperor in calling out "all " Germans capable of bearing arms, and the German Parliament cannot prevent the Prussian one from lending money. Prince Bismarck will therefore go on, and his new levies will be drilled in the fortresses until some great event either shows that he was right and Germany in extreme danger, or breaks his authority. It is a repetition of the old struggle in Prussia about the Army, and may end like it ; but history does not often repeat itself. One reason given for his obstinacy by Prince Bismarck was a curious one. He said he should live three years, but not seven,—a foreboding which, if he really enter- tains it, may hurry him into violent action.
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