The German Constitution

[p. 600]

|600| estates of the realm. The Palatinate, which had no estates of the realm, passed over without resistance to the Catholic party, and the struggle of the Palatines with their Catholic princes over religious grievances has continued down to the present day; in Württemberg and Hesse, countries in which the separation through e[states of the realm] had already taken place, the religion of the country was asserted with regard to its relation to the German Empire; this relation thus no longer remained personal, the person of the prince, and indeed the most personal thing of religion, has become indifferent, and he appears purely as representative. – This occasion of becoming attentive to this distinction was then extended from religion to other differences; namely, different countries that came under one prince have different votes, so the unity of the person of the ruler does not come into consideration, but only his quality as representative. Of a consideration which this representation has by its kind, namely to unite in itself a power capable of resisting the state, there is otherwise talk.

8.

C. The feudal constitution has been destroyed in Germany by the independence of the vassals from the liege lord. The principle of the feudal constitution, that descent from a princely, comital, noble stock [gives] right to lordship over land and people, has been largely abolished by the introduction of primogeniture in the princely houses, and one of its most important consequences, the harmlessness of the vassals to the whole, has been lost; in its place has come greater power of the countries insofar as it is connected with the person of the prince, but at the same time leaves their importance not so much to his character and his individuality as raises it above the general state power.

Through the independence of the power of an estate from the whole of the state and the relation of the estates to one another as states, the condition of Germany in the relation of the estates against one another has in principle reverted to the condition before the Public Peace; in that condition the estates could act as sovereigns against one another, make war on one another, make alliances with one another, yet over all there still ruled a superior power, which now

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