The Grand Duke of Oldenburg, in the address from the throne at the opening of the Landtag, declared that reforms were contemplated giving the people increased power to decide all important questions of state. The Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar accepted the resignation of his whole ministry and announced that a new ministry would be formed from among the members of the Diet. The Diet at Darmstadt unanimously adopted measures providing for a parliamentary form of government in Hesse.
But while these concessions were being made at home, _Schrecklichkeit_ continued to rule unhampered on the sea. The _Leinster_, a passenger boat plying between Kingston and Holyhead, was torpedoed by a submarine, and 480 of her 687 passengers were lost. The wave of indignation in enemy countries following this act was reflected at home in an uneasy feeling that the new Chancellor could as little curb militarism as could his predecessors. Ludendorff, too, had regained his lost nerve. He told Prince Max that the military situation was better than he had believed when he recommended that an armistice be requested. Minister of War General Scheuch had promised to send six hundred thousand new troops to the front.
The Chancellor's position was also rendered more difficult at this time by an agitation for a _levée en masse_ begun by some fire-eating Germans of the old school. The possibility of a military dictatorship was discussed, and an appeal was made to "the spirit of 1813." The natural result was to increase the prevailing hostility to everybody in authority, whether he had been connected with the former governments or not.
The Independent Socialists and their Spartacan brethren grew bolder. Dr. Oskar Cohn, who had made a speech in the Reichstag four months earlier, denouncing the war as "a Hohenzollern family affair," now openly declared in the same assembly that the Kaiser must go.
"The question can no longer be evaded," he said. "Shall it be war with the Hohenzollerns or peace without the Hohenzollerns? World-revolution will follow on world-imperialism and world-militarism, and we shall overcome them. We extend our hands to our friends beyond the frontiers in this struggle."
Liebknecht, released from prison on October 20th by a general amnesty, celebrated his release by attacking the Kaiser and the government that released him. On October 27th, he addressed a half dozen Independent Socialist meetings, and called for a revolution of the proletariat and the overthrow of the capitalists and _bourgeoisie_ of all lands. He closed each speech with cries of "Down with the Hohenzollerns!" and "Long live the Socialist Republic!" Nothing could more clearly demonstrate the helplessness of the government than the fact that Liebknecht was neither compelled to stop talking nor arrested. There were outbreaks of rioting in Berlin on the same day, but they were largely due to the unwise and provocatory measures of the police, who to the last preserved a steadfast loyalty to the government and to that grim sense of duty that had marked the Prussian _Beamter_ in former days.