The German Democratic Party is endeavouring to get up a
Panama Scandal of its own. Its organ, the Vorwarts, declares that Prince Bismarck employed the sequestrated income of the Guelph estates to subsidise not only the Press, which has -always been admitted, but Ministers, generals, Members of Parliament, and even Judges. The journal asserts that it possesses, or, at all events, could publish, a hundred receipts from dignitaries so paid ; and, though it does not give names, describes many of them by allusions which every one in Germany understands. Twenty-one of the vouchers are signed by Members with seats in the Prussian as well as the Imperial Diets, the largest single amount being for £3,000, given to a living Parliamentary celebrity. The statement is said to be discredited in Germany, as all receipts for money from this Fund, after being read by the Emperor, were burnt; but it is, of course, conceivable that some person employed in the burning saw an opportunity for blackmail. There seems to be no doubt that gifts for past services to men of eminence were made from this money, and may, of course, have been used to conciliate opponents. Such use was, however, authorised by
statute until the Guelph family should pledge itself to do nothing contrary to the interests of the Empire; and, so long as the presents came from the throne, they were not accounted shameful. Nor were they in England in the reign of George III., who used his Hanoverian income in much the same way, the Duke of Newcastle usually acting as intermediary. The practice has ceased here, the Secret Service money being used to buy information; but to this hour, unless Cabinets are much belied, honours are given to dissatisfied politicians to prevent their going into active opposition.
Previous page
