on a firm foundation, Prince Bismarck engaged his master in a conflict with the Catholic Church, considering the lately promulgated doctrine of papal infallibility a menace to the state, and the attitude of the clericals in the Reichstag an obstacle to the amalgamation of the various elements composing the Empire. When the era of the Kulturkampf was ended, and the force of Separatist resistance had spent itself, the republican and socialistic ideas that were an important element in the revolutionary movement of 1848 asserted themselves in the Social-Democratic agitation. A desperado named Hödel, inflamed with revolutionary passion and desire for notoriety, fired at the Emperor as he was passing along the avenue Unter den Linden, on May 11, 1878. The ministry presented a bill to suppress the Socialist movement, which the Reichstag rejected by a majority of nearly 200 votes. Dr. Nobiling, an educated Socialist, moved by the same impulses that actuated Hödel's attempt, fired with buckshot at the Emperor in his carriage on June 2, and wounded him severely. The Reichstag was at once dissolved, and a new one passed Prince Bismarck's anti-Socialist bill. The law expired in 1881, and has been repeatedly renewed and strengthened. The Social-Democratic party, by the unsparing use of repressive powers, was disorganized, but not destroyed. At length the Emperor and his Chancellor turned to constructive legislation, in order to promote contentment and avert the danger of revolution, devising a scheme of social reform that is intended to make the lot of the laboring-inan easier and to secure him against want. The military system has been developed and extended on the lines approved by Wilhelm I. The creation of the Prussian army he considered the chief task of his life. His foreign policy was shaped so as to retain the acquisitions of the French war, and, to guard against a combined attack from France and Russia, a military alliance was entered into with Austria-Hungary and Italy.

The Emperor Wilhelm was a soldier in all his habits. He slept on a hard couch, ate simple food, drank sparingly of wine, and used no tobacco. He was pious and orthodox in his religious faith.

WILHELM II, Emperor of Germany, born in Berlin, Jan. 27, 1859. He is the eldest son of Frederich III of Prussia, the second Emperor of Germany, and of his wife Victoria, the Princess Royal of England. He early developed a liking for military affairs, and was encouraged in such tastes by his grandfather, learning many details of tactics, drill, and discipline before he could read. He imbibed also the old Emperor's monarchical ideas of government and his dislike for popular representative government. His earliest teacher was an English governess. He was sent to Bonn to study political science, jurisprudence, and mathematics, and in 1882, by his grandfather's directions, was placed with Dr. Aschenbusch,

president of the province of Brandenburg, to learn the practical details and the administrative routine of the civil service. He also had instruction from Prince Bismarck, whom he visited once a fortnight. In military matters he became as proficient as his grandfather. Prince Wilhelm (whose full name is Friedrich Wilhelm Victor Albrecht), married the Princess Augusta Victoria, daughter of Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, on Feb. 27, 1881. The family consists of five sons, of whom the eldest, the Crown-Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst, was born on May 6, 1882. For portraits of the Emperor Wilhelm II and the Crown-Prince, see the "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1887, page 321.

WISCONSIN. State Government.-The following were the State officers during the year: Governor, Jeremiah M. Rusk, Republican; Lieutenant-Governor, George W. Ryland; Secretary of State, Ernst G. Timme; Treasurer, Henry B. Harshaw; Attorney-General, Charles E. Estabrook; Superintendent of Public Schools, Jesse B. Thayer; Insurance Commissioner, Philip Cheek; Railroad Commissioner, Atley Peterson; Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court, Orsamus Cole; Associate Justices, William P. Lyon, David Taylor, John B. Cassoday, and Harlow S. Orton.

Finances. On Oct. 1, 1886, the balance in the treasury aggregated $736,720.24; the total receipts for the succeeding biennial period were $5,469,996.10, and the disbursements $5,447,072.82, leaving a balance in the treasury on Sept. 30, 1888, of $750,702.44. Of this balance, there was in the general fund $304,139.09 and in the school fund $151,241.85. The receipts of the general fund for the fiscal year 1886-87 were $1,805,122.76; and the disbursements $2,171,201.79; for the year 1887-'88 the receipts were $2,284,513.26, and the disbursements $2,099,984.99. The receipts from the State tax for the former year were $902,484.88; for the latter year, $996,504.41. The tax on railroads yielded in the former year $763,994.56; in the latter, $1,068,632.96. The State debt on September 30 amounted to $2,251,000, all of which is held by State funds.

Statistics.-The assessed valuation for 1888 is as follows: Personal property, $125,922,683; city and village lots, $152,545,964; other real estate, $302,996,102; total, $581,264,749. There were assessed 404,036 horses, 1.236,452 cattle, 723,639 sheep and lambs, and 540,231 swine.

Education. The whole number of persons enrolled between the ages of four and twenty years, June 30, 1888, was 567.702, and of this number only 265,477 were reported as attending the public schools. The following amounts were paid by the State for educational purposes in 1888: Support of university, $218,856.71; normal schools, $99,229.58; common and high schools, $3,509,786.75.

In 1885 the Legislature passed an act giving ing to women the right of suffrage in municipal elections, on all matters relating to schools.