The new Minister of Public Worship at Berlin, Herr van
Puttkammer, has been blazoning abroad, greatly to the scandal of the German Liberals, that his conception of the true ecclesiastical policy is as different as possible from his prede- cessor's, Dr. Falk. This is not wise. To proclaim a change of policy to the world is often to make it less easy, hardly ever to make it more so. And assuredly that must be true of a Minister in Herr von Puttkammer's position at the preseut time. The more he offends the Liberals by anticipation, and the more he leads the Roman Catholics to expect, the less easy will it be either to defeat the former, or to satisfy the latter. A flourish of trumpets may sometimes be wise when great, or even showy, things have been. effected ; hardly ever, when they are yet to do.
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