It seems probable that Prince Bismarck seriously believes that he
has discovered in Insurance a cure for the social diffi- culties of Germany, and is exasperated at the contemptuous treatment which, as he conceives, it has received from Parlia- ment. He has heard that M. Gambetta is about to adopt the scheme, which is in itself a very imperfect Poor Law ; and his organ, the North-German Gazette, complains bitterly that so "grandly thought-out a scheme of reform," an "original idea of Prince Bismarck," should be first carried out in France, owing to the confidence of the French in M. Gambetta; while in Germany there will be nothing but quarrelling, and suggestions that the scheme is in opposition "to the immoral Manchester doctrine of laissez-aller." We very much doubt if M. Gambetta intends to bring forward any scheme of the kind, at least on the German plan. It would be fiercely resisted by the French employers of labour, who, owing to their power of locking out their workmen, and so making riot imminent, have immense influence with any Republican Government of France.
