of Germany, Baden, between 1850 and 1866, was a consistent
supporter of Austria; and in the war of 1866 her contingents, under Prince
William, had two sharp engagements with the Prussian army of the Main. Two
days before the affair of Werbach (24th of July), however, the second
chamber had petitioned the grand-duke to end the war and enter into an
offensive and defensive alliance with Prussia. The grand-duke had from the
first been opposed to the war with Prussia, but had been forced to yield
owing to popular resentment at the policy of Prussia in the
Schleswig-Holstein question (_q.v._). The ministry, now at one, resigned;
Baden announced her withdrawal from the German confederation; and on the
17th of August a treaty of peace and alliance was signed with Prussia. The
adhesion of Baden to the North German confederation was prevented by
Bismarck himself, who had no wish to give Napoleon III. so good an excuse
for intervention; but it was the opposition of Baden to the formation of a
South German confederation that made the ultimate union inevitable. The
troops of Baden took a conspicuous share in the war of 1870; and it was the
grand-duke of Baden, who, in the historic assembly of the German princes at
Versailles, was the first to hail the king of Prussia as German emperor.

The internal politics of Baden, both before and after 1870, centre in the
main round the question of religion. The signing on the 28th of June 1859
of a concordat with the Holy See, by which education was placed under the
oversight of the clergy and the establishment of religious orders was
facilitated, led to a constitutional struggle, which ended in 1863 with the
victory of Liberal principles, the communes being made responsible for
education, though the priests were admitted to a share in the management.
The quarrel between Liberalism and Clericalism was, however, not ended. In
1867, on the accession to the premiership of Julius von Jolly (1823-1891),
several constitutional changes in a Liberal direction were made;
responsibility of ministers, freedom of the press, compulsory education. In
the same year (6th of September) a law was passed to compel all candidates
for the priesthood to pass the government examinations. The archbishop of
Freiburg resisted, and, on his death in April 1868, the see was left
vacant, In 1869 the introduction of civil marriage did not tend to allay
the strife, which reached its climax after the proclamation of the dogma o