on May 25, 1869, concluded a new military convention with Prussia, which established an entire uniformity between the armies of Baden and Prussia. The North German Reichstag expressed a decided opinion in favor of restricting the right of particular states and enlarging the functions of the central authorities. The first six months of the year 1870 were unusually quiet, and it was the common opinion that great changes in the relation of the four South German states to the North German confederation were not likely to be made for a long time to come, when suddenly the action of France precipitated the final solution of the German question. The Spanish crown having been offered to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, and rejected, the emperor Napoleon demanded the guarantee of Prussia against its acceptance at any time thereafter by any prince of its house. This being scornfully refused, war was at once declared by France (July 19, 1870), and, after a brilliant series of victories for the Germans and almost uninterrupted defeats for the French, was in effect concluded by the preliminary peace of Versailles, Feb. 26, 1871. (See France.) In this war all the states both of North and South Germany, except Austria, participated; and in view of the common danger through which all had passed, and the common victory which all had won, the governments and the people of South Germany now waived any further opposition to a consolidation of all the German states under the leadership of Prussia. On Nov. 15, 1870, a treaty was concluded between the North German confederation, Baden, and Hesse concerning the establishment of the German confederation (Deutscher Bund); on Nov. 23 the entrance of Bavaria into the confederation was regulated by treaty; on Nov. 25, that of Würtemberg. Bavaria asked and received important concessions, which to many unionists appeared to be going too far in favor of particularism; but the treaty was unanimously ratified by the federal council of the North German confederation, and by the Reichstag by 195 against 32 votes. On Dec. 3 the king of Bavaria invited the king of Prussia to restore the dignity of German emperor; most of the other governments gave their assent to the proposition before Dec. 8. In the name of the federal council the federal chancellor on Dec. 9 moved in the Reichstag, and the motion was adopted on the following day, that the German confederation assume the name German empire, and the king of Prussia, as president of the confederation, the title emperor of Germany. On Jan. 18, 1871, the restoration of the imperial dignity was solemnly proclaimed by the king of Prussia at Versailles; on March 21 the first German Reichstag assembled at Berlin, and was opened by the emperor in person. On April 14 this Reichstag ratified the constitution of the German empire, with but three dissenting votes; and on May 4 the constitution went into operation. By the peace of Versailles Germany recovered the province of Alsace and the German-speaking district of Lorraine. The definitive peace was concluded at Frankfort on May 10, and on June 9 the new Reichsland of Alsace-Lorraine was proclaimed as incorporated with Germany. The majority of the Reichstag, in full harmony with the imperial government and the majority of the federal council, was intent upon consolidating the new empire by centralizing the legislation and extending the functions of the central authorities. As two German states, the grand duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, were still without a constitutional government, the Reichstag on Nov. 8 adopted the resolution of the deputy Büsing that every German state must in future have a constitutional form of government. On Nov. 15, on motion of Lasker, it was resolved to embrace the whole of the civil law within the sphere of the imperial legislation. Of the political parties which opposed the advancing consolidation of the empire, by far the most powerful was the Catholic, or the centre, as it was called from the central seats which its representatives occupied in the Reichstag. On the opening of the first session of the Reichstag, in March, 1871, they moved an amendment to the address by which the Reichstag was to reply to the speech from the throne, asking for the protection of the temporal power of the pope. On this question the other parties united against them almost unanimously, and the address moved by the majority of the Reichstag was adopted by 243 votes against 63, the minority consisting of the Catholic party and a few socialists. The conflict between them and the imperial government became more intense in 1872. One expression in a speech which the pope had made on June 25 was regarded by the majority of Germans as a direct wish for the overthrow of the empire, and intensified the sore feelings which had been produced by the pope's rejection of the cardinal prince Hohenlohe, whom the German government wished to appoint as minister at the papal court. As it was a common opinion that the religious excitement prevailing in the Catholic districts of Germany was largely due to the influence of the Jesuits, the Reichstag and federal council adopted in June a law which provided for the suppression of all the houses of the Jesuits and of affiliated orders. This law, which toward the close of the year 1872 was gradually executed, did not define which other religious orders were comprised within its terms; but the Redemptorists, Lazarists, ladies of the Sacred Heart, and a few others shared at once the fate of the Jesuits. The bishops of Germany assembled in November in a general conference at Fulda, and bitterly complained of this persecution; and the pope, in an allocution made in December, in terms still more severe, denounced the impudence of the anti-Catholic legislation, to which
