The Federal States of the German Empire up to the close of the last century were three hundred and sixty; many of these were only free cities or extremely small duchies or principalities.  There was a German emperor and a German Diet.  The latter met always at Frankfort.  The emperor might be of any family or of any religion.  His successor was elected during his lifetime, to be ready in case of accident, and was called King of the Romans.  The emperor was at first chosen by the princes at large, but in process of time the choice was made over to nine princes, called electors.  After 1438, all emperors of Germany were of the house of Hapsburg, the royal family of Austria.  This was not law, but custom.  In the days of Napoleon I. the old German Empire was broken up.  The title of Emperor of Germany was discontinued, though he who would have borne it still held an imperial title as Emperor of Austria.  The small German princes were mediatized; that is, pensioned, and reduced from sovereign princes to the condition of mere nobles.  In place of three hundred and sixty States there remained thirty-six States, composing the German Confederation.  A new German Federal Constitution was formed; the States agreed to defend one another, to do nothing to injure one another, and to abstain from making war upon one another.  There were practically seventeen votes in the Diet, some of the larger States having several, and many of the smaller States uniting in the possession of one.

This Constitution also was swept away in 1866, after the brilliant campaign of Sadowa.

The great desire of patriotic Germans was to consolidate Germany,—­to make her strong; and while Prussia, assisted by all the North German States and by Bavaria, Baden, Wuertemberg, and Darmstadt, was fighting France, a new Federal, Constitution was formed.

The king of Prussia was chosen German emperor, and the imperial crown was to be hereditary in his family.  There is a Diet, or Federal Congress, composed of two Houses, the Upper House being limited to sovereign princes or their representatives, the other, called the Reichstag, being really the governing power of the nation.  Each State is entitled also to its own legislature.

In the Reichstag, Prussia has nearly two thirds of the votes; and its power is much greater than that of our Congress at Washington.  The emperor can veto its decisions only when they affect changes in the constitution.  The Diet can dethrone any emperor if he is considered incapable of governing, or supposed to be dangerous to the Fatherland.

Practically the power of Prussia seems boundless in the federation; she enforces her military system on all Germany, and the smaller States submit to her, for the sake of strength and unity.

On Jan. 18, 1871, a deputation of fifty members of the Reichstag came to the king of Prussia’s headquarters at Versailles to implore him to accept the imperial crown of Germany.  The world’s attention was engrossed by the campaign which was then drawing to a close, and the offering of the imperial crown to the Prussian sovereign formed only a dramatic episode in the history of the war.  Fortunately, as the deputies passed Paris, shivering in their furs, while transported in carriages of all descriptions, the Parisians made no sortie to intercept them, and they reached Versailles in safety.