The Polish Expropriation Bill has been considerably amended by the
Special Committee of the Prussian Upper Chamber. The Berlin correspondent of the Times says that the amendments provide for exemption from expropriation in the case of lands owned by religious and charitable bodies, lands subject to entail, if the entail has existed more than ten years, and lands which have been held by the present owner for more than ten years. If these changes are ratified by the Upper House, the Bill will have to be sent back to the repre- sentative Chamber, where it is thought they would be sub- stantially accepted. The National Liberals, who belie their title as much as ever, are relieved to find that the Upper House accepts the principle of expropriation at all, although it has been warned that expropriation is a policy which will recoil on the heads of the land-owning class in Prussia. The National Liberals now hope that the amendments will be modified in the Lower House. We trust that they will not, even if the Bill passes in any form; though the amendments certainly make the Bill an appreciably milder instrument of oppression. We notice that Germans in Prussian Poland are petitioning against the measure, as they fear that they will suffer commercially by the strained situation.
