Liebknecht, released from prison on October 20th by a general amnesty, celebrated his release by attacking the Kaiser and the government that released him. On October 27th, he addressed a half dozen Independent Socialist meetings, and called for a revolution of the proletariat and the overthrow of the capitalists and _bourgeoisie_ of all lands. He closed each speech with cries of "Down with the Hohenzollerns!" and "Long live the Socialist Republic!" Nothing could more clearly demonstrate the helplessness of the government than the fact that Liebknecht was neither compelled to stop talking nor arrested. There were outbreaks of rioting in Berlin on the same day, but they were largely due to the unwise and provocatory measures of the police, who to the last preserved a steadfast loyalty to the government and to that grim sense of duty that had marked the Prussian _Beamter_ in former days. The Reichstag passed on last reading the measures sent from the Federal Council to put into effect the Kaiser's recommendations of September 30th. Their most important provision was one placing the military command under control of the civil government, which had been demanded by the Majority Socialists as one of their conditions for participation in the government. The Kaiser sent to the Imperial Chancellor on October 28th the following decree: "I send your Grand Ducal Highness in the enclosure the measures for the alteration of the Imperial Constitution and of the laws concerning the representative powers of the Chancellor, of March 17, 1878, for immediate promulgation. It is my wish, in connection with this step, which is so full of meaning for the German people, to give expression to the feelings that move me. Prepared by a number of acts of the government, a new order of things now becomes effective, transferring fundamental rights from the person of the Kaiser to the people. Thus there is closed a period which will endure in honor in the eyes of future generations. "Despite all struggles between inherited powers and forces striving to raise themselves, this period discloses itself unforgettably in the wonderful accomplishments of the war. In the fearful storms of the four years of the war, however, old formulae have been shattered, not to leave ruins, but rather to give way to new forms of life. In view of the accomplishments of this period, the German people can demand that no right shall be withheld from them which insures a free and happy future. The measures proposed by the allied governments[21] and now accepted by the Reichstag owe their existence to this conviction. [21] Here meaning merely the German federal states.