The anti-Socialist Bill in Germany has become law, and has
been immediately applied. The President of Police has already prohibited four associations,—the " Association for the Protection of the Labouring Population of Berlin," the " Association for the Communal Affairs of the North-East District," the " Association of Tobacco-Workers," and the " German Smiths' Union ;" has suppressed the Berlin Free Press, and has prohibited the cir- culation of thirty-three non-periodical pamphlets, some of them German, and some Swiss and American. The Free Press imme- diately reappeared as the Tagespost, but was suppressed again, and it is evident that the freedom of combining and printing is at an end for Socialists in Germany. The immediate effect, we should
imagine, would be the introduction of a lithographed literature from Switzerland, circulated through the post ; and the ultimate effect, if Government is resolute, must be to weed the Socialist body of all waverers, and convert the remainder into a powerful Secret Society, in deadly antagonism to the Government. Ger- many has hitherto escaped this pest, which invariably by alarm- ing rulers produces measures of increasing repression, but it will have to bear it now. The only remaining safety-valve is Par- liament, and in Parliament the Socialist speakers will not be often heard.
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