Privilege dies hard on the Continent. It appears that even
in Austria, which is more gently governed than Germany, the members of the Imperial House are protected against " offensive " criticism by a statute which punishes it with five years' imprisonment. The law is not worked severely, but on the 24th inst. Dr. Pernersdorfer, a Social Democrat, asked for its repeal on the ground that the heir to the Throne had stepped out of his seclusion to deliver a furiously Illtramontane speech. The Premier, however, peremptorily rejected the demand, declaring that the Government would never repeal a law of great antiquity essential to the protection of the Monarchical idea. The Clericals, the Conservatives, and the Anti - Semites all voted against the proposal of urgency, and Dr. Pernersdorfer obtained only forty votes. The Times correspondent in Vienna declares, however, that the Clerical question rapidly increases in importance, the Clericals being greatly encouraged by the recent speech, and hoping to get rid of constitutionalism altogether. As we have argued elsewhere, crusades of that kind usually fail in our time, but there can be no doubt that in all Catholic countries the struggle between Liberalism and the Church is growing warm. The difficulty is to gain an insight into the real opinion of the silent masses.
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