NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MHE German elections, in defiance of the predictions of all observers in Germany and elsewhere, have resulted in a severe check to the Social Democrats. The Clericals have emerged from the first ballot stronger than ever, having secured eighty-nine seats outright, as against eighty-eight in 1903. They are engaged in thirty-one second ballots, where they may win ten or twelve more seats. The Social Democrats have won outright twenty-nine seats, as against fifty-six at the last Election, and are engaged in ninety-two second ballots, where it is not likely they will recover much strength. They have lost outright twenty-one seats, and have gained one, at Miilhansen, in Alsace. They retain their strength unimpaired in Berlin and Hamburg, but they have lost heavily in cities like Konigsberg, Breslau, and Magdeburg, and in Saxony, their old stronghold, they have suffered a complete debacle. Of the other parties, the Poles have secured eighteen seats, the Conservatives forty-one, the Free Conservatives ten, the National Liberals twenty, the Radicals nine, the Anti-Semites eight, the Alsatians nine, and other minor parties four. The Social Democrats claim that their vote has increased throughout the Empire by a hundred and fifty-two thousand, which, in view of the general growth of population since 1903, is trifling, and means a very real set- back. Some of the best known of their leaders have suffered defeat, such as Herr Bernstein, who lost his seat at Breslau to a Radical. The victors have been either National Liberals, Radicals, or Conservatives, no that between Socialists and Imperialists there has been a clear issue.
