The illness of Prince Billow is being made an excuse
for raising the question of reform in the higher offices of the Imperial Administration. As things stand, every Imperial Department is overworked and understaffed, since the Empire has developed interests which were not contemplated at the time of its creation. Prince Billow, who was appointed primarily for his knowledge of foreign affairs, is also, as Chancellor, supreme in all Departments, with the result that a load falls on his shoulders too heavy for one man to carry, and work of great importance is congested and delayed. The aim of the reformers is to de-Prussianise Imperial administra- tion, and to prevent that absolutism of the Emperor on which the absolutism of the Chancellor depends. The best solution would probably be to separate Imperial officials wholly from Prussian administration, to have specifically Imperial Ministries, and to increase the Constitutional oversight of the Reichstag. The present preponderance of Prussia means that certain of the high officials have a dual character, and therefore double duties. The Times on Wednesday published from its corre- spondent an account of the growing impotence of the Reichstag, and the physical exhaustion of some of the heads of Departments, both of which spring from Departmental disorganisation. Clearly the Bismarckian Constitution stands in need of being brought up to date.
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