Prince Bismarck sustained his first defeat in the new German
Parliament on Wednesday. The Liberalists, Centre, and Social Democrats united, and carried the second reading of a Bill for the payment of Members by 180 votes to 99. The Chancellor had resisted this Bill strenuously, with arguments quoted else- where ; and though argumentative, and even good-humoured at first, grew excited with the prospect of defeat, and thundered out a tirade about the Monarchy, and its worthlessness if Parliaments could dictate opinions to the Monarch, or compel him to change his Ministers. He promised to veto the Bill, and wants, apparently, a "free Monarch in a free Parliament," which is not a working kind of Government. It does excellently well, so long as there is what Carlyle called "melodious agree- ment" of opinion ; but when there is not, one or the other comes to misfortune. Usually it is the King; but we admit the throne in Germany is built on a rock—the conviction of all Germans that if their military system is relaxed they will be conquered by a union of Slays and Frenchmen. With their military system they can only hope to persuade their monarch, and just now he is not persuadable.
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