Prospects are not improving in Germany. On Wednesday Herr Bebel,
the Social Democrat, made a most able though lengthy speech in the Reichstag. in which he defended the loyalty of his party to the Empire. The Government, he said, when the hour came for spending the last. man and the last shilling, would find the Social Democrats standing shoulder to shoulder by thew. They were de-
voted to the unity of the Empire, though they thought the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine a political mistake, which had made Russia arbiter of Europe. This was an immense concession made to the Government upon a cardinal point, but the Government would not accept it, and Herr Bebel was answered by the War Minister, General Brousart von Schellendorf, in an injudicious speech in which he stated that as regarded the Social Democrats the army would do its duty ; and that if the police were not strong enough the army would be brought into play,—and " this would be no child's play." As the Social Democrats repudiate insurrection, and are unarmed, the only effect of threats like this is to convince them that they are regarded as outlaws ; and that, as Herr Bebel indeed said, submission would be unmanly.
