Prince Billow, repenting apparently his manifesto to General von Liebert,
delivered at a private meeting of the German " intellectuals " last Saturday , a revised statement of his creed. ;His speech was remarkable for, its profession of lofty Constitutionalism. The Emperor jealously respected the Constitution of the Empire, and absolutism was far from his thoughts. What had happened was very simple. The Centre and the Socialists combined bad attempted to interfere with executive matters, for which the Government were wholly responsible so long as they were in office. By a snatch vote they had defeated. a great Imperial policy. He had therefore taken the only true democratic course of Dissolution and appeal to the nation, who, he believed, were sound Imperialists to the core. He concluded with an . attack upon Social Democracy, to which he denied any principles of constructive reform, and a panegyric of the colonies as the "touchstone of national activity." • Prince Billow, makes a very ingenious defence of his action, but his ,parallel does not hold. His appeal to the electors is not the appeal of a genuine popular Government to its supporters. , The Government ia not responsible to the Reichstag in the sense in which we use the word, and if the verdict goes against it at the polls, its resignation need not therefore follow.'
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