The members of the Bundesrath are appointed by the Federal Governments:  they are sixty-two in number, and now include those from the Reichstand of Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine)[74]

[Footnote 74:  Up to 1874 the government of Alsace-Lorraine was vested solely in the Emperor and Chancellor.  In 1874 the conquered lands returned deputies to the Reichstag.  In October 1879 they gained local representative institutions, but under the strict control of the Governor, Marshal von Manteuffel.  This control has since been relaxed, the present administration being quasi-constitutional.]

The Prussian Government nominates seventeen members; Bavaria six; Saxony and Wuertemburg and Alsace-Lorraine four each; and so on.  The Bundesrath is presided over by the Imperial Chancellor.  At the beginning of each yearly session it appoints eleven standing committees to deal with the following matters:  (1) Army and fortifications; (2) the Navy; (3) tariff, excise, and taxes; (4) commerce and trade; (5) railways, posts and telegraphs; (6) civil and criminal law; (7) financial accounts; (8) foreign affairs; (9) Alsace-Lorraine; (10) the Imperial Constitution; (11) Standing Orders.  Each committee is presided over by a chairman.  In each committee at least four States of the Empire must be represented, and each State is entitled only to one vote.  To this rule there are two modifications in the case of the committees on the army and on foreign affairs.  In the former of these Bavaria has a permanent seat, while the Emperor appoints the other three members from as many States:  in the latter case, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Wuertemberg only are represented.  The Bundesrath takes action on the measures to be proposed to the Reichstag and the resolutions passed by that body; it also supervises the execution of laws, and may point out any defects in the laws or in their execution.

The members of the Reichstag, or Diet, are elected by universal (more properly manhood) suffrage and by direct secret ballot, in proportion to the population of the several States[75].  On the average, each of the 397 members represents rather more than 100,000 of the population.  The proceedings of the Reichstag are public; it has the right (concurrently with those wielded by the Emperor and the Bundesrath) to propose laws for the Empire.  It sits for three years, but may be dissolved by a resolution of the Bundesrath, with the consent of the Emperor.  Deputies may not be bound by orders and instructions issued by their constituents.  They are not paid.

[Footnote 75:  Bismarck said in a speech to the Reichstag, on September 16, 1878:  “I accepted universal suffrage, but with repugnance, as a Frankfurt tradition.”]