The German Emperor has discerned that the Catholic Church can.
give him material assistance in his fight with Socialism, and he is eagerly sweeping away the last relics of the Culturkampf. He has caused a Bill to be introduced into the Prussian Diet restoring to the Bishops the whole of the sum, 2800,000, left unpaid while the fight went on,—a conces- sion the more remarkable because the Government expressly denies that the claim of the Church is based on strict legality, The distribution of the money is to be left to the discretion of the Bishops. It is believed also that some of the demands of the Church as regards elementary education will be complied with, though it is more difficult to carry any concession of this kind than a mere grant of money, which even to those who took it away seems only restitution. The policy of the Eraperor lends strength to a rumour, which has been often repeated, that his grandfather exceedingly disliked the May Laws, holding that it was not for the Crown in any State to show itself positively hostile to the religion of any of its subjects. Nobody, we think, has ever quite explained why Prince Bis- marck made that blunder, which not only irritated every third German, but cost him for years the ascendency he might easily have preserved in Parliament.
Previous page
