Whatever decision may be come to on the language ques-
tion in $otith Africa, it will never be enforced by such methods as those alleged to be carried out in Prussian Poland. According to a letter from the Cracow corre- spondent of the Daily Mail which appears in last Saturday's issue, Polish children are frequently flogged by Prussian schoolmasters for refusing to learn the Catechism and say their prayers in German. As a result of a general chastise- ment of the pupils at Wreschen, something like a riot broke out, protesting relatives were arrested, one mother was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment, others for periods varying from one month to two years, and " all were condemned to be put in chains." So far we have seen no official explanation or defence of what, on the face of it, may fairly be called "methods of bararbism." On the contrary, the Mail's account is confirmed by the Viennese correspondent of the Times, who describes the exaspera- tion of the Austrian Poles at the sentences inflicted at Wreschen, and the enthusiastic response of the Polish Members of the Reichsrath to the appeal drawn up by Sien- kiewicz, the famous Polish novelist, and published by the leading Austro-Polish newspaper, inviting subscriptions to a relief fund for the families of the condemned. Anti-Prussian demonstrations have taken place at Cracow, and it looks as if a wave of indignation were going to sweep over the Slavonic populations of the Austrian Empire, and even as if the position of Austria towards the Triple Alliance might be affected.
