"In March 1897 came the general elections, to which a special interest was lent by the first appearance of the fifth class of voters. The most striking feature of the elections was the complete and final break up of the German Liberal party. … The history of the German Liberal party has been one of a continuous decline both in numbers and importance. It counted 200 members in 1873, 170 in 1879, 114 in 1885-1891, and only 77 out of a total of 425 in 1897. … Their political theories are those of moderate constitutional liberalism as understood on the Continent in the middle of the century—i. e. belief in the efficacy of parliamentary government, in commercial and industrial freedom, hostility to military bureaucracy and clericalism. … The most radical group among them, the Progressists, an offshoot of the last election, is about as radical as the ordinary English Conservative of to-day. The views of the Verfassungstreue Grossgrundbesitz are those of the English Tory of fifty years ago. {38} "Of the fractions into which the Liberal party is now divided the most important is the Deutsch Fortschrittliche, or Progressive, which split off from the main body in November 1896. Its chief object was to direct a stronger opposition on national and liberal lines to Count Badeni. Its 35 members are almost exclusively recruited from Bohemia and Moravia. They differ from the German 'Volkspartei' mainly in their refusal to accept anti-Semitism, which would be both against their liberal professions and their economic convictions as representatives of the commercial and manufacturing classes. The constitutional landowners (Verfassungstreue Grossgrundbesitz, 30 seats) represent the most conservative element of the old Liberal party. … The 12 members of the Free German Union (Freie Deutsche Vereinigung) may perhaps consider themselves the most authentic remnant of the great Liberal party—it is their chief claim to distinction. The German National or People's party (Deutsche Volkspartei, 43 seats) first made its appearance at the elections of 1885. It rejected the old idea of the Liberals that the Germans were meant, as defenders of the State, to look to State interests alone without regard to the fate of their own nationality, and took up a more strictly national as well as a more democratic attitude. It has also of late years included anti-Semitism in its programme. Its main strength lies in the Alpine provinces, where it heads the German national and Liberal opposition to the Slovenes on the one side, and the German clericals on the other. It is at present the largest of the German parties. …