Prince Bismarck has kept his bargain with the Pope, by
in- troducing a Bill abolishing all the more serious of the anti- Catholic Falk Laws. They were moat of them, he said, useless. The law, for instance, which sent young priests to the univer- sities instead of the seminaries did no good, for the bitterest enemies of the Government came from the universities. As for compelling the Papacy to submit the names of priests intended for high ecclesiastical office, what was the profit of that ? The priests whom Government believed in most, when made Bishops, behaved quite differently,—a remark made by a King a good many centuries ago about Thomas h Becket. As for the authority of Bishops, Pope and State alike had most to fear from the lower priesthood, who were always preaching sub- versive doctrines. The Prince repeated that he had not gone to Cauossa, but that he must have peace with Rome, for the Centre constantly allied itself with all the elements hostile to the Empire. If peace did not come, it would, he said, be quite possible to reenact the Falk Laws. They will not be re-enacted, nevertheless. The Chancellor has learned wisdom in his straggle with spiritual power, and he will not be able to unlearn it, for all his cynicism. He is mortal, like the rest of mankind, and like them, begins to know a little just before he is going.
