NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Daily News of yesterday contains a curious telegraphic rumour of a reaction against Prince Bismarck and his policy in Berlin. The double administrative struggle there, first, against the Liberals, who (quite rightly) do not want to grant a standing army of 400,000 men for an indefinite period, and next, against the Ultramontanes, who don't want to see their priests and bishops fined, imprisoned, exiled, and deprived of their nationality simply for accepting the very doctrines Romanists have accepted any day for centuries back, seems to be too much for a Cabinet weakened by the illness of its chief. Accordingly, the rumour is that a proposal is under discussion to gain over the Ultramontanes for the support of the Army Bill in the Reichstag, by throwing overboard the ecclesiastical policy of the Government. For this purpose, Prince Bismarck's resignation • on the score of illness would be accepted, he would be replaced by Field Marshal Manteuffel, and the Army Bill would be carried intact by the votes of the Ultramontanes. We do not give much credit to the rumour. It is quite true that the Liberals are in a very unpleasant dilemma between their wish to act as a Liberal party should act, in relation to the Army Bill, and their wish to act as a Liberal party should not act in relation to ecclesiasti- cal policy. They cannot succeed in both lines. But the Emperor will hardly desert Prince Bismarck ;—it would be a policy exces- sively dangerous to the unity of the Empire ; —and, on the whole, we anticipate the virtual collapse of the resistance to the Army Bill. The Reichstag does not like being ridden so hard by its master, but it will probably not rebel openly, so long as he is using it to ride down the Roman Church.
