Generally the number of Ministers is variable. Instead of having a fixed number of departments corresponding to a rational distribution of affairs, there are created or abolished Ministries according to the needs that have to be met to satisfy the demands of this or that political group. The Scheidemann Ministry had a Minister of Finance. But the Bauer, Hermann Müller, and the Fehrenbach Ministries had, in addition to a Minister of Finance, also a Minister of the Treasury. On the other hand, there was in the Scheidemann Cabinet a Minister of Economy, Wissel, and a Minister of Food Supply, Robert Schmidt. These two Ministers kept their portfolios in Bauer’s Cabinet formed in June, 1919. Then dissensions arising between Wissel and the other members of the Cabinet, Wissel resigned. But he was not replaced and the two Cabinet posts were made one. They were again made two, however, and provided with distinct titles in the Cabinets of Hermann Müller and Fehrenbach. A similar situation exists in the case of Ministers without portfolio, whose number, when there are any, is variable. Sometimes in spite of all possible negotiations and combinations the various groups necessary for a coalition commanding a majority cannot arrive at an agreement. As a government must nevertheless be finally constituted, this or that group, which has refused to enter into the combination, promises nevertheless either its support or its neutrality to those who have had the imprudence to participate in the Cabinet. When the Fehrenbach Cabinet was constituted it could only count on the vote of the groups represented in it and, therefore, commanded only 200 votes in an Assembly of 466 members. But the Social Democrats promised not to overthrow the Ministry until the new elections. The consequence of this is that a Cabinet so placed is really not its own master, and this one had to yield to a certain degree to the injunctions of the Social Democrats. But on the other hand the latter, although they had refused to enter the combination, were indirectly responsible for the acts of the Ministry so long as they tolerated them in power. When the necessary agreements are concluded, the Ministry appears before the Reichstag. It reads its declaration and programme and a grand political discussion commences. But the programme having been in advance submitted to the groups, sometimes even corrected and redrawn at inter-group meetings, the Ministry is sure of a majority and the discourses are only manifestos by which each party explains why it is for or against the Ministry. * * * * *