PRINCE BISMARCK AND THE KULTURKAM.PF.
PRINCE BISMARCK is anxious to bring the Kultur- kampf to an end, but he is more anxious still to bring it to an end in his own way. Unfortunately, his way appears to be no one else's way. The German Parliament has lately shown that it, too, has something to say about the Kultur-
kampf. A motion of Herr Windthorst's has been carried by
a large majority, and in this majority were included many Liberals. But this agreement proves nothing as to the accept-
ance by the Prussian Legislature of the quite different mea- sure introduced by the Government. Herr Windthorst only deals with one of the outworks of the Falk Laws, and he deals with it by unconditional repeal. Prince Bismarck pro- poses to deal with the Falk Laws generally, and he deals with them only by suspension. The law which Herr Windthorst has persuaded the German Parliament to repeal is one punishing with banishment any ecclesiastic who goes on performing the duties of an office of which he has been deprived by the State. This law has not, it appears, been put in force for some time, and its repeal would no more end the Kulturkampf than the passing of Lord Beauchamp's Bill for the release of clergymen imprisoned for contempt of Lord Penzance's monitions would have ended the war against Ritualism in this country. The disused power of banishing refractory priests is valued by nobody. The Catholics dislike it, because it arms the Government with a weapon which, though of late it has been suffered to grow rusty, may again be furbished up to their disadvantage. The Liberals dislike it, because it is uselessly harsh, and if carried out, would multiply ecclesiastical martyrs to no purpose. The two parties are further agreed as to the way in which this obnoxious law should be dealt with. As nobody wishes to put it into exe- cution, nobody wishes to keep it in the Statute-book. Why should the Government continue to possess a power which it is not expedient that it should employ ?
This is not at all the method in which Prince Bismarck reasons. According to his theory, the Government cannot have too many powers. It need not make use of them all, it may never even contemplate using some of them—but it is just as well that it should possess them. The knowledge that it can use them, if it likes, gives the Administration a pleasant sense of elasticity. It is upon this theory that the Bill now before the Prussian Parliament has been framed. Prince Bismarck has no notion of selling his old guns. His idea is to hang them up on the wall, with no definite intention, perhaps, of ever taking them down again ; but still retaining the feel- ing that there they are, if they should ever be wanted. The Bill repeals none of the Falk Laws, but it leaves the execution of them to the discretion of the Government. Bishops may still be deprived of their sees by the temporal Courts, but the King, if he chooses, may put them again in possession of them. The educational conditions imposed upon candi- dates for ordination are retained in their full extent, but the King may dispense with them at his pleasure. Appeals against the decision of local officials in ecclesiastical cases are to be heard, not by the Ecclesiastical Court, which can only carry out the law as it is, but by the Minister of Public Worship, who
may make the law what he thinks it convenient that it should be. The Clergy must still inform the Civil Authorities of their nomination to an ecclesiastical post, but the Government is empowered to excuse them from fulfilling this obligation. This is Prince Bismarck's idea of a compromise between the Church and the Prussian Government. The Government are to retain their present powers of annoying the Clergy, but as they no longer want to annoy them, they are to be formally excused from making any use of these powers.
This is hardly a Bill which is likely to commend itself either to Catholics or to Liberals. It consecrates a principle which,. for different reasons, is equally distasteful to both parties. The Catholics might have put up with such a measure five years ago. At that time, the issue of the Kulturkampf was still doubtful. The Catholics were suffering great practical incon- veniences under the Falk Laws, and a proposal to give the Government power to relieve them from these inconveniences would have had corresponding temptations for them. Now the Kulturkampf seems to be very near its end, and if the Catholics refuse the concessions offered to them, they are very likely to get others that will prove more acceptable. Prince Bismarck is weary of the Kulturkampf, and when a man of his temper finds that he cannot get rest in one way, he may safely be left to invent a different way. If, on the other hand, they accept Prince Bismarck's terms, they place themselves absolutely at his mercy. If they refuse to do any- thing which he wishes them to do, and if to his imperious temper the occasion seems one of sufficient importance to justify the in- fliction of punishment., the Falk Laws may at once be revived. All that Prince Bismarck has to do is to cancel any prohibition by which the execution of them is impeded. The moment that is done, all the existing disabilities revive. There is no need a any appeal to Parliament, no opportunity for arranging com- binations to delay or defeat legislation. Prince Bismarck will be free to do exactly as he likes. He may be lenient or severe, at his pleasure. A party which believes in itself, and is con- fident that a complete victory is within its reach, is not likely to put up with so very one-sided a bargain as this.
To the Liberals, the Bill is even more distasteful than it is to the Catholics. The Catholics dislike it, because it does not give them sufficient guarantees for the continuance of the liber- ties which it proposes to restore to them. The Liberals dis- like it, because the guarantee which it does give the Catholics is essentially arbitrary and autocratic, and because the moment which has been chosen for the production of this guarantee makes its faults all the more conspicuous. It would be hard to conceive a more exacting demand than this Bill makes upon the Prussian Opposition. The Falk Laws are among the most important that the Prussian Parliament has ever passed. Whether they are regarded as vindicating the Civil power against the encroachments of an arrogant Church, or as sub- jecting moral and spiritual independence to the will of • a dominant State, they are equally serious in their character and purpose. They may be good or bad, but they must be one or the other. Either they assert rights that can never be safely surrendered, or they attack liberties that can never be safely left undefended. If the Prussian Government is of opinion either that it was a mistake to pass them in the first instance, or that they are at best in the nature of an experiment which has failed, or which it is not necessary to try any further, these are excellent reasons for repealing them. If the Prussian Government is of opinion that they have answered their purpose hitherto, and if they are strictly and consistently carried out, the Church will gradually be brought to yield entire submission to them, these are excellent reasons for maintaining them. But neither of these theories constitutes any reason whatever for keeping them in force, and at the same time leaving it to the discre- tion of the Minister whether to enforce them. Prince Bismarck's Bill proposes to do for the Prussian Catholic Clergy what the sup- pression of the Habeas Corpus Act does for disaffected Irishmen. It places them at the mercy of the Government. Not a single provision of the Falk Laws is repealed by the Bill. The only difference is that the Clergy are privately assured that so long as they behave well, they will not be made to do things they greatly dislike ; or be deprived, or imprisoned, or banished. if they refuse to do them. From the Liberal point of view, til'a kind of compromise savours too much of the spirit which prompted the recent Royal declaration. 'You shall have ample liberty,'--this is the burden of Prince Bismarck's ad- dresses, whether to the Catholic Church or to the Prussian people, 'provided that you are willing to accept it as a favour, and not as a right, as something that I may give without
creating a precedent, and take back again without establishing a grievance.' The time has passed when either Catholics or Liberals are likely to be tempted by this transparent offer.
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