The Times correspondent in Berlin, a very acute observer, points
to the successes of the Socialists in the country con- stituencies as the most ominous fact of the German elections. The latest telegrams as to the second ballots in Germany show that the Socialist party will number nearly eighty. They have not won many seats in purely rural constituencies, but they have attacked many with a large measure of success, and have penetrated even into Mecklenburg, an unbroken Tory stronghold. The Conservative writer of a letter quoted by the correspondent says that in his district most respectable classes voted for the Socialist candidates, including many reservists, and even peasant freeholders, though the latter are usually devoted to Agrarian doctrines. In Saxony, we may add, the Socialists appear to have carried, or to be likely to carry, the
whole kingdom,—a very curious fact when the social influences there are considered. It is clear that the new and rigorous arrangements for preserving the secrecy of the ballot have told in favour of the Socialists ; but the change in agricultural opinion is not easily explicable. The peasants have probably been assured, as was promised some years ago, that the nationalisation of the land is no longer part of the practical Socialist programme.
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