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Updated: June 15, 2025
On the fourth of January the German Ambassador in London had declared that his Government, "after carefully examining the matter" of the seizure of the Bundesrath, and considering the judicial aspects of the case, was "of the opinion that proceedings before a Prize Court were not justified."
The chancellor is responsible to the Emperor alone, by whom he is nominated, and not to the representatives of the people. The federal council, or Bundesrath, or upper chamber of the empire, consists of delegates appointed by and representing the rulers of the various states. There are 58 members.
The legislative body of the empire consists of two Houses the Upper, called the Bundesrath, representing the several component States in different proportions according to their relative importance; the lower, the Reichstag, elected by the voters in 397 electoral districts, which are distributed amongst the constituent States in unequal numbers, regard being had to the population and circumstances of each State.
The constitution of it left to each state the management of its domestic affairs. To the imperial government, with the Federal Council or Bundesrath, the Reichstag, and the emperor were relegated the affairs of common interest. The president of the Council was the imperial chancellor: Bismarck was appointed to that office. The Reichstag was composed of deputies chosen by general suffrage.
This view of the case, he declared, was based on the consideration that "proceedings before a Prize Court are only justified where the presence of contraband of war is proved, and that, whatever may have been on board the Bundesrath, there could have been no contraband of war, since, according to recognized principles of international law, there cannot be contraband of war in trade between neutral ports."
And, basing his argument upon this authority, he insisted that his Government could not admit that there was sufficient reason for ordering the release of the Bundesrath "without examination by the Prize Court as to whether she was carrying contraband of war belonging to, or destined for, the South African Republic."
He is commander-in-chief of the army and of the navy; foreign affairs are in his hands, and in the federal council, or Bundesrath, he exercises a mighty influence due to Prussia's preponderating influence and voting power. There is no cabinet, just as there is no cabinet in Great Britain, that modern institution being merely a legislative fiction down to this day.
All members of the Bundesrath, as well as the chancellor, may speak in the Reichstag. Nor the chancellor, nor any other executive officer, is responsible to the Reichstag, nor can be removed by its vote, and the ministers of the Emperor are seldom or never chosen from this body. This Reichstag is really only nominally a portion of the governing body.
Admiral Harris reported on December 31 that the Bundesrath had changed the position of her cargo on being chased, a fact which was considered suspicious; that a partial search had revealed sugar consigned to a firm at Delagoa Bay, and railway sleepers and small trucks consigned to the same place.
Since the three cases which attracted most attention, the Bundesrath, the Herzog, and the General, with a few unimportant exceptions as to details, were similar in regard to the points of law involved, the facts in the remaining cases will be outlined.
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