5 DECEMBER 1896, Page 18

Nothing can surpass the adroitness of many special corre- spondents,

but to say what you want to say in a capital where you might be imprisoned for saying it, and yet to give no offence, is a task that might puzzle Henri Rochefort. It is puzzling the German correspondents of the London dailies. What they want to say is, we imagine, that the evidence of Baron von Marschall in the Leckert trial, Berlin, reveals the existence of strong friction between a Palace clique and the Ministry. The clique keep a secret police, which watches Ministers as well as everybody else, and even, it would seem, presumes to interrogate the Chancellor himself. That sounds like a tale of Constantinople rather than of Berlin, but every well.informed German acknowledges and deplores that persons who are not "responsible " are constantly consulted by the Emperor, and that in particular" a military Cabinet" of which the State knows nothing has great influence in guiding his decisions. That will always be the case where the Sovereign commands and where there is no Vizier whom he fears; the specialty in Berlin is that able Ministers like Baron von Marschall chafe under the system.