10 APRIL 1880, Page 3

Prince Bismarck has been resigning. This time he is dis-

-contented with the Constitution of Germany, which he himself prepared. Under that Constitution, Prussia possesses only seventeen votes and Alsace-Lorraine one, and Prince Bismarck, therefore, directly controls only eighteen votes, against forty-one belonging to the minor States. As a rule, be is supported by a majority ; but sometimes Members vote independently, and -on Saturday they gave a shocking vote. They actually rejected a Bill for imposing an Imperial tax on post-office remittances, er rather, on the revenue derived from them. Prince Bismarck .could not be expected to bear that—and he had a headache besides, reported in the newspapers—and accordingly he resigned, and the Constitution is to be remodelled so that he should not be defeated again. It reads almost comic, but we presume -the truth is that the Federal Council has been getting out of hand over a variety of small questions, that Prince Bismarck sees mutiny in the distance, and that he is determined to .crush it at once. The event does not matter to foreigners, as the resignation is only a comedy ; but no kind of .constitutional life can live under such dictation. Be it observed, the Chancellor does not plead that his Upper House is fighting his Lower House, but only that his Upper House is fighting him. That is flat blasphemy.