21 SEPTEMBER 1872, Page 2

None know better than Prince Bismarck how to make the

weak things of the world not confound,' but confirm the mighty_ Mr. Arthur Kinnaird, M.P., speaking for the (Protestant) Arch- bishop of Armagh and a handful of other politicians of that stamp, presented the German Chancellor last week with an address of con- gratulation on his campaign against the Roman Catholics of Ger- many, his Bill for the suppression of the Jesuits, and so forth. Prince- Bismarck, of course, received the address most graciously, and in• his letter of reply, remarked that " the value of this address is. enhanced by the fact that it comes from a country which Europe- has learnt to esteem during the last two centuries as the bulwark of political and religious freedom." This is much the same as it would be for Mr. Greeley to say, in reply to an address (suppose), from the whites of North Carolina expressing confidence in him as a ruler, that the value of the address was enhanced by its. coming from a country in which a very large proportion of the- population consists of emancipate(' negroes. If Mr. Kinnaird's party had had their way, we may safely say we should not have- had much religious freedom in Great Britain. Prince Bismarck knew this, in all probability, perfectly well. But who else in- Germany would know that Prince Bismarck, in incidentally sug- gesting that the party of Mr. Arthur Kinnaird is typical of British policy in relation to religion, was using the pin to- symbolise the pin-cushion ?