On the last day of the year 1866 he formed a new Ministry. The soul of this was the celebrated statesman, Prince Chlodwig von Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, who in his younger days had been in the Prussian service, and who already in 1849 had raised his voice for a German confederation under the leadership of Prussia. By family tradition, by education, and political sympathies he was an out-and-out adherent of the policy of that country; and he was an enthusiastic admirer of Bismarck. With the exception of Ludwig himself, nearly the whole of the royal house strongly opposed the Premier and his views. At the head of the court opposition was the old ex-King, Ludwig I. To this party were united, moreover, almost the whole of the nobility, and a preponderating majority of the Catholic clergy. The nobility mistrusted Hohenlohe not only for his Bismarckian foreign policy, but also, and this perhaps chiefly and primarily, on account of his liberal views. The Catholic clergy hated him because he showed the will and the ability to maintain the ascendancy of the state in ecclesiastical questions, and combated the arrogant claims of the Catholic prelates. Among a large majority of the population in general he was also unpopular. The working classes looked upon him as the "Prussian" and hatred of Prussia was during those years extended and intense within the Bavarian people. [17] In August, 1867, Hohenlohe announced formally in the Landtag that an alliance of war had been concluded with Prussia. The declaration aroused violent embitterment. One of the deputies, Dr Ruland, fulminated against the "links of slavery" with which the Prince desired to forge Bavaria fast to the aforesaid country. When another speaker mentioned the "brotherly hand" held out by Prussia, Ruland pulled out a shell, which he had picked up from the field of battle in 1866, and had kept: "See here," he shouted, "here is the brotherly hand which Prussia holds out to us!" Great as was the irritation he had excited, Hohenlohe went calmly on with his preparations to enable Bavaria to take part in the Bismarckian scheme for the future. In the foremost rank of these was the reorganisation of the Bavarian army, which had shown itself during the war of 1866 to be on a very inefficient footing. One of his first and most important works of legislation was also a new modern system of conscription, after the Prussian model. Immediately after this he placed before the Chamber a Bill by which it was intended to make the schools independent of the Church. As Prime Minister of the largest Catholic state in Germany he, moreover, regarded it as his duty to step forward when Pius IX. announced his intention of declaring the Infallibility of the Pope.