The great debate in the Prussian Parliament on the Falk
Laws ended on Saturday in a reference of the Bill to a Select Commit- tee of twenty-one. This proposal was carried by a junction of the Right, the Centre, and the Poles, and they also have a majority of fourteen to seven on the Committee. This is considered equivalent to the rejection of the Bill, as the Committee will deprive it of all its strongest clauses. Already it has thrown out, by a majority of thirteen to eight, Clause 1, which invests Government with discretionary power to accept candidates for the ministry who have not passed through the regular Univer- sity course. The Committee does not bind the House, but to defeat the majority the Chancellor must detach either the Catholics, who, it is stated in Rome, cannot on religions grounds accept the Bill, or the Conservatives, who hitherto have shown no symptoms of giving way.
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