The trial of Herr Leckert and Baron von Liitzow for
libel has produced a great scandal in Berlin. The real prosecutor is Baron von Marschall, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and his allegation is that Herr von Tansch, Chief Commissary of the secret police, used his influence with the Press to get articles published disagreeable to the Emperor, which articles the secret police then insinuated in their reports to his Majesty were inspired by the Foreign Office. The object, it is affirmed, was to discredit the Foreign Minister, who, in the opinion of the police, had "usurped" a position rightfully belonging to the Bismarcks, father or son. It was proved by the confession of one of the accused that an intrigue of this kind was at the bottom of the conflicting state- ments as to the Czar's speech when recently toasting William II. at Breslau, and by the evidence of the editor of the Berliner Tageblatt, that he had inserted a disagreeable paragraph, which von Tausch attributed to an agent of the Foreign Office, at von Tausch's own instigation. The Commissary denied this hotly, and the Court at once ordered his arrest and trial for perjury. We have given our view of the case elsewhere, which is, in brief, that the Emperor is entirely guiltless of disloyalty to his Ministers, and that he has been taken in by the secret police instigated by unknown persons working in the interest of the Bismarekian party. The Emperor announces in the Imperial Gazette that as far back as October 7th be ordered the most thorough investigation of the "machinations directed against highly placed personages."
