Prince Bismarck's star is not in the ascendant. On Sunday
the Select Committee on the Accident Insurance Bill, which was specially recommended by the Emperor in his recent Message, struck out the clause granting a State subvention, and has thus destroyed the scheme without rejecting it. On Monday, Herr Richter proposed that the Budget for 1884-1885, instead of being passed as Prince Bismarck proposed, should be referred to a select committee, which will understand quite well that its mis- sion is delay, and will not even report on this side of Christmas. And finally, on Tuesday, the Reichstag rejected, by a vote of 177 to 150, the Bill for an increase in the import duties on timber. The latter defeat was the more striking, because the Centre voted with the Government, and because the Progressists, to their great delight, were able to argue that the Bill would be oppressive to the poor, who would have to pay higher prices for their wood. Prince Bismarck is said to be furious at this opposition, but does not threaten either to resign or to dissolve. He thinks he can get along quite comfortably for the present, even if his Bills are thrown out. The Reichs- tag can only affect him by refusing the supplies, and we have stated elsewhere the reasons for believing that the majority will do nothing extreme. They cannot touch the Army, they are afraid to make Prince Bismarck resign while French affairs are unsettled, and they are unwilling to begin a contest with an Emperor of eighty-six, to whom the German Parliament owes its own existence.
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