There has been a kind of scandal within the German
Empire. Prince Bismarck's eightieth birthday falls on April 1st, and the Emperor, the German Princes, all Austrian Germans, and a majority of Germans at home wished to pay him special honour. The Emperor promised him a State visit, and wished the Reichstag to forward to the Prince an address of congratulation. This was accordingly proposed on Saturday by the President, but to his disgust and that of most Germans, the Reichstag refused. The Catholics, the Radicals, the Poles, and the Particularists united in oppo- sition, and the address was defeated by 163 votes to 146. Herr von Leventzow, the President, immediately resigned, the Emperor telegraphed to the Prince his indignation at the vote, and the Prince acknowledged a message " which trans- formed the unfriendly action of my old enemies into a source of pleasure and satisfaction for me." Four hundred members of the Prussian and other German Parliaments never- theless waited on Prince Bismarck on Saturday, and heard from him a speech in which he commended Parliamentary discussion of foreign affairs, but maintained that the Govern- ments of the Empire "did not run side by side." That was a fiction, as all were within the Empire, and could not leave it or stand apart like Norway and Sweden. There must be no Prussian policy, but an Imperial German policy.
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