Political Science Of The State

CONFEDERATIONS. 203
could be constrained in the way of a military execution, to be
carried out by the federal military chief (z. e., the king of
Prussia), and could go to the length of suspending or seques-
trating the state in question and its powers of government.
The federal council (bztndesratfi) was to consist of forty-
three deputies, divided among the states of the confederation
according to the ratio observed in the plenums of the former
union : Prussia, with the states now incorporated into it; having
seventeen votes, Saxony four, Brunswick and Mecklenburg-
Schwerin two each, the rest one each. Every member cast
its votes as a unity/ and votes not represented or instructed
did not count. A majority was to decide, the president hav-
ing the casting vote. In the standing committees, of which
there were nine, two states besides the presiding one (Prussia)
were to be represented, but each state had only one vote.
The reichstag or parliament was chosen by direct and uni-
versal suffrage, one member being returned for every one
hundred thousand inhabitants, until an electoral law could be
passed. It was to continue for three years, unless dissolved
by the federal council, with the concurrence of the president;
could not be prorogued for more than thirty days, nor more*
than once without its own consent; it judged on the legality
of the elections of its members, made its own rules of order
and discipline, and decided by a simple majority, provided
a legal quorum were present. The members were irrespon-
sible for their votes and speeches, and could not be arrested
for a penal offence without the consent of the body, unless
in flagrante delictn, or the day after the act. They were to
serve without salary* On the dissolution of a diet, a new one
was required to be chosen, and to meet within a short, definite
term.
The competence of the diet, or reichstag, extended, with
the concurrence of the federal council, to all matters not in-
ternational nor political and reserved for the head of the union,
which pertained to the common welfare, as customs and im-
posts for federal objects, weights, measures, coins, paper
money, banks, patent and copy rights, commerce with non-