Two noteworthy incidents are reported to have occurred this wee k
in the German Reichstag. Ono was an official announce- ment that the Federal Council disapproved the Bill repealing the "May law," preventing the unauthorised assumption of ecclesiastical office. The Government refused explanations, and as Prussia rules the Bundesrath, this means, as Herr Windthorst admitted, that Bismarck has again broken with the Catholics. The other incident was the appear- ance of Herr von Vollmer, who, though an aristocrat, declared that the cruel anti-Socialist laws had made him a Socialist, and that his party would yet win. The Government in three months had seized 13,000 copies of Socialist periodicals, but the friends of those opinions circulated 13,000 copies a week within Berlin alone. He rejected the Chancellor's offers, as either too insig- nificant or made only to delude Socialists into reactionary paths. This speech called up Herr Pnthanmaer, who, however, had nothing to say of his own, and only read extracts showing, what nobody in the Chamber doubted, that Socialists preached 'very dangerous opinions. The rapid passing of the Bill abolish- ing the incidence of the Income-tax on the very poor—which has been accepted by all parties—would he much more useful than eloquence of this kind.
Previous page
