The usual . reactions and heartburnings which always follow reluctant sacrifices
are becoming visible among the smaller States of Germany. It is said that at Dresden the Saxon Court is notoriously orgauising a movement against German unity, and ta Bavaria, whose King, Louis, pointedly refrained from personally receiving either the Emperor of Germany or the Crown Prince when they lately passed through his dominions, the Ministry which supported Von Bismarck's policy (headed by Von Lutz since
the Prime Minister's death) has tendered its resignation, and holds office only till another can be got to succeed it. The Premiership has been offered to Herr von Gasser, an Ultra- montane, but by no means a popular one, and not even sup- ported by most of the genuinely Romanist organs, and conse- quently Herr von Gasser finds it very difficult to form a Ministry, and at least as yet has not succeeded. That King Louis should dislike, now that he realises more fully, his great loss of authority and influence, and chafe to find that he has become a mere lieutenant of the German Emperor's, is not strange ; and still less is it strange that the South-German Catholics, irritated as they are by the anti-Catholic policy of Prussia, should catch at any hope, however faint, of thwarting her rulers. But all this must end in smoke, even if it be not true, as is now rumoured, that the King of Bavaria has again changed his plans, and en- trusted to Herr Pfretzschner, a Nationalist and Liberal, the duty of forming a new Cabinet. Bavaria, once in the grasp of Germany, would not easily be released, even if she loathed the bondage. And as far as the Bavarian people is concerned, there is every sign that their love for German unity is waxing rather than waning.
