466 THE FALL OF THE GERMAN REPUBLIC

satisfaction when he saw in Protestant Germany a cabinet con-
siderably "blacker" than any hitherto known. On the Centrum,
too, the cleverness of Papen's combination had the desired effect.
Outside the ranks of the Left no one, except a few clear thinkers
—not all of them Jews—could bring himself to believe that this
could be a cabinet of adventure; it was a "national," not to say
a Nationalist, cabinet and it would be ipso facto a cabinet of order.
In token of that faith all the prices rose on the Berlin Bourse;
they would have staggered into fantastic panic at a Natiotial
Socialist cabinet.

There was a pleasant air too about the moderateness of foreign
comment. The distrust of Hitler was widespread; the foreigners
had been more critically studious of his writings than his own
countrymen; some of Germany's immediate neighbours took
precautions. But a glance at the list of "barons/' the sight of
the name of Hugenberg, reassured everyone but the diehard anti-
Germans and the Liberals and Socialists. Conservatism generally—
and how many non-official conservatives are of the true conser-
vative temper—reflected that a little discipline would do Germany
no hami5 that the responsible elements were in control, and that
the great popular demagogue—the bogeyman of upholders of the
peace settlement—had submitted to be tamed and guided. There
had been no excitement. Everything had been done by con-
stitutional methods-, and after a certain ominous hesitancy German
stocks showed firmness and a tendency to rise,

The country had hardly time to digest the fact that it was at
last faced with a presidial cabinet of the united "national front"
ere it was faced with yet another general election; the first act
of the new government was to Have the Reichstag dissolved. There
was not the slightest pretence made that the election was going
to be anything but a dirty one. The government was out for a
majority and it was determined to get it by fair means or foul
It began quite arbitrarily by revising the electoral laws so as to
prevent small parties putting up candidates; three and a half
million votes which might be going a-begging was a temptation
which could not be resisted. The reform itself, if not precisely
in that form5 was long overdue; the democratic politicians had