The Clericals in Catholic countries seem much disposed to make
an alliance with the Socialists, receiving their support in return for certain concessions to Collectivism, which is not, of course, in itself condemned by the Catholic faith. The complete victory of the Clericals in Belgium was based upon a pact of this sort, and now the same manceuvre has succeeded in Bavaria. The Clericals have won over the Socialists, and at the elections completed on Sunday the Clericals won eighty-three seats, or an absolute majority of the Chamber, which contains one hundred and fifty-nine Members. The Liberals have lost twenty-two seats, and now return only forty-five Members, while the party which is Conserva- tive but not clerical has only four representatives. The returns will greatly interest the German Emperor, who knows quite well that the Catholics of the South love neither him nor his house, and who acutely dreads an alliance between the Social Democrats and the Centre party. Fortu- nately for him, such an alliance is very difficult to arrange, a German Socialist being usually not only Secularist, but anti- clerical to fanaticism. Still, no Catholic ever forgets that the rules of the Monastic Orders are purely Socialist, and the present rulers of the Church have shown a distinct tendency to swerve the great corporation they guide in the direction of democracy. If ever property is really in danger in Europe, it will be from men who accept poverty as a rule of divine ordination.
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