The "logic of facts" is very naturally pushing on the
Prussian Government from one form of persecution to another and more serious form in its contest with Rome, and the correspondent at Berlin telegraphed to the Times of Christmas Day this message of peace and good-will towards men;—" The Government is expected shortly to introduce a Bill authorising the Courts of law to imprison recalcitrant priests, instead of fining them, as hitherto," —an expectation on which, we suppose, Lord Russell will con- gratulate his friends at St. James's Hall on the 29th January. It is curious enough that within the last week or two a very remark- able piece of evidence has come to light, showing, what we have always contended, that though the Bavarian Catholics were vehem- ently "Particularist," and opposed to German unity, the Prussian Ultramontanes were loyal, till the Prussian Government made them otherwise. In the Prussian Diet Herr Reichensperger has declared that the Prussian Ultramontanes used all their influence to get the Bavarian Catholics to break the resolution to which the Bavarian Legislature had come to be neutral during the war of 1870. He was challenged by cries of dissent from the Liberals, and then said that his assertion was not only true, but within the knowledge of some Liberals present, and he appealed to Herr Lasker for confirmation, who, to the great astonishment of his party, is reported as replying, "Very true" (" Sehr wahr "). The letter of a correspondent printed in another column gives the exact words of the speech referred to. Herr Luker is a final authority on such a matter, and by his assertion the most import- ant statement in the Emperor's letter to the Pope is seriously discredited.
