NEWS OF THE WEEK.
COUNT VON BOLOW, to facilitate the passage of the Tariff Bill, has turned a characteristic somersault. In spite of his explicit declaration in the Reichstag little more than a month ago on the subject of the increase of the Grain-duties, be has, after prolonged private confer. ences, come to an arrangement with the bulk of the Agrarian majority to raise' the duty on barley for brewing pur- poses 10 marks a ton above the scale proposed in the Govern- ment scheme. The comments of the German Press—even of the Conservative Press—make it clear that this sudden capitulation has seriously affected the Chancellor's political prestige. The new understanding also provoked a stormy scene in the Reichstag on Thursday, the intention of 'the majority to force the passage of the Tariff scheme, with its 946 itenis, en bloc being met- with violent and unprecedented protests from the. Left against this arbitrary interpretation of the rules of procedure: The episode, which is not yet closed, has several morals, the most obvious being that lightning changes, though entertaining on the stage, are dangerous in an Imperial Chancellor. To have to eat one's words six weeks after uttering them is a trial which few statesmen can survive.
