Prussia has sustained her first severe defeat in the arrangement
of Imperial affairs. A Court of Appeal is to be created for the whole of Germany, and Prince Bismarck proposed in the Federal Council that it should be located in Berlin. He was, however, defeated, and Leipsic fixed upon in preference. There was an expec- tation that the Reichstag would disagree, and insist upon Berlin, but the Liberals were under the impression that the atmosphere of Leipsic would be more favourable to just decisions in political trials than that of the capital, while the Ultramontanes remembered that the Saxon Royal Family are Catholics. The motion, there- fore, to change the residence of the Court was lost by a vote of 213 to 142,—a majority of 71. The vote is the more remarkable, because though Leipsic was named in the Government Bill, Prince Bismarck would not have been greatly displeased by a defeat upon the clause.
