The debate was continued all the next day, the
Chancellor making another speech and saying what he probably had
intended to say the day before. He related what he had achieved
at Donaueschingen; that the Emperor had issued a cabinet order
saying that the military authorities should be kept within legal
bounds, that all the guilty persons would be punished, that the
Regiment, Number Ninety-nine, had been removed from Zabern, that
the absolute law of 1820 had been abolished for Alsace-Lorraine,
and that no Chancellor should for one moment tolerate disregard
of law by any government officials, civil or military, and remain
in his position.
This second speech of the Chancellor made a better impression
and somewhat affected the more extreme members of the Reichstag,
but it came too late to prevent the passage of the vote of censure
by the remarkable majority of two hundred and ninety-three to
fifty-four. Only the Conservatives voted against it. A few days
later, when the Social Democrats demanded that the Chancellor
take the consequence of the vote of distrust and resign, the
attitude of the members of all the other parties, who had been
favourably impressed by the second speech of the Chancellor,
showed that they were not yet prepared to go the length of holding
that a vote of distrust in the Reichstag must necessarily mean
the resignation of the Chancellor.
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