The elections for the North-German Reichstag are to take - place
to-day, except in Alsace-Lorraine, and the Roman Catholics are hoping for something hie a majority against Prince Bismarck and his policy. That, -however, is in all probability the hope of over-sanguine men. There is no really large province of North Germany which is heartily Roman Catholic except Bavaria, and the proportion of Catholics in the whole Empire- is, we believe, not more than about thirteen to forty,—say, perhaps, a little more or a little less than a third of the whole. Nor does there seem to be any sufficient help for the Roman Catholics, among Hanoverian or other Particularists, or among the Lutherans, some of whose ministers are in prison under the new ecclesiastical laws,—sufficient help, we mean, to raise this minority into equality. But unquestionably, the mode of election being direct universal suffrage, the Opposition will obtain a much larger number of adherents than it has in the Prussian Diet, and it is possible that Prince Bismarck may be sufficiently alarmed at the result, to seek about for some new stroke of policy by which he may overcome the incipient political revolt against his influence. On the whole, however, with the Emperor in delicate health, and France determined to undergo any humiliation rather than fight again as long as she is certain to be beaten, we do not think that even a very large minority for the Opposition would induce Prince Bismarck to try any sensational policy just at present.
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