A GERMAN SATIRIST ON ENGLAND.
LTO THE EDITOR Or TRU " SPROTATOIL'I
Sin,—The Bavarian satirist A. 0. Weber probably reflects the opinion of many of the middle classes in Germany generally, and especially of those who do not belong to Prussia. He is particularly hard upon the statesmen of his country and upon the Junker class. But what is of more immediate interest for us is his view of the Socialist move- merit in Germany. He has no real sympathy with the vague aspirations of the Socialists to form a new society, but ho is probably voicing the feelings of many of his countrymen when he pronounces the Socialists to be the only party in Germany who persistently urge the necessity of constitutional reform in their own country. It is this feeling which has so startlingly increased the Socialistic vote in the late German elections, and it is well that English Socialists should note the fact that the German Socialists, Herr Bebel at their bead, are as good Germans in feeling as any other party; nor would they
sympathize with the spokesmen of the Socialistic party in England who would relegate patriotism to the scrap heap of discarded virtues. The German papers describe the new satirist as a mixture of Heine and Busch. His verse is nothing but prose cast into very clever rhyme. Some extracts may prove of interest at the present moment, particularly his references to our own oountry. His verse bears translation into prose better than most verse, owing to the very simple language in which it is couched. If it were written in English verse it would probably seem like doggerel, from the difficulty of reproducing the double rhymes, which are far more possible in German than in English.
"Whoever looks at our beloved Fatherland from any point of view cannot do better than look elsewhere: progress backwards' is the most striking object. We limp haltingly behind Russia: and our people look on contentedly. Our people of thinkers ! Scandalous indeed! Minors we remain of our own free will ; bowed to earth—nay, unmanned—we, a people unsurpassed in industry, are ruled like a pack of negroes. In South Germany alone has conscience any play : the North dances like marionettes as the wires are pulled: Prussianized even to the • Piokelhaube' (peaked helmet); men transformed to lackeys. . . . Such a nation to aspire to world-power which lets itself be led like a child! Pray learn to rule yourselves first, and to keep your backbone stiff : show that you are masters, not servants ; that you are masters of your own fate, and pray look to it that your Kaiser chooses his officials after the will of his people. Take England as your model, where every one loves his King, and yet grants the King what is the King's by right, and the people what is the people's. Who does this in the German Empire P Surely the Socialist mainly at the present day ; the other parties merely play tricks with what is, rightly speaking, the heritage of the people. And hence it comes that the middle class—the pick of the country—has lost all confidence in other parties, and on election day he is at his wits' end. Who minds the interests of the middle classes!' The Nationalists, the Centre, the so-called Liberal, the grand personage with helmet and eagle P . . . The Socialists, and they alone, have a backbone, they never sway here and there ; they go straight to the point, and thus they win ever more day by day the sympathy of the free man. It is from their ranks that it may be the party of the middle classes will take form, when the best men of this party have shaken themselves free from Herr Bebel. Not but that we all owe him deep gratitude as a man of honour, wit, and pluck. Many will honour his memory too late, when he is in the grave. . . . The sea! the sea 1 gives us food for reflection over yonder, far from our view, there lies the only world-power, England, which unites strength with intelli- gence. There live free, strong men, not merely spiritless lackeys; they are ahead of us some fifty years in greatness, freedom, and culture. Where England rules, progress rules too ; where Germany rules, we mostly go backwards; I don't mean in our capacity for beer, but for intelligence. . . . Many Germans think that the world is destined to be ours. We must tear it from England's clutches, for she is rotten and effete. So we build in hurry and haste a menacingly huge fleet, and scare thereby foreign countries : all foreigners think that if Germany can only break up Old England, that break-up will be the grave of freedom and progress. Old England has not many friends : the strong man commonly stands alone—still no nation in the world would exchange England's position in the world for that of Germany. That was clearly shown in Algeciras—they loft us there in the lurch—sad, but true I . . . Of course nobody in Old England thinks that we are building our fleet to attack Switzerland! No wonder that no one trusts us I . . . We must await a Jena this time on the sea, for England does not parley, but acts. England will simply attack us, and that with right and justice : for our demeanour is but a menace: whoever arms him- self for the fray wishes one!"
These short extracts may serve to show the feeling towards our country of many thinking Germans.—I am, Sir, &o., Z.
[Herr Weber deserves the respect of all reasonable people for his insight and common sense. It is, however, a great pity that lie should be possessed with the notion that Britain
may suddenly attack Germany. We can assure him that he is utterly wrong. There is literally no ono here who advocates such action. The whole thing is a pure delusion.—En. Spec- tator.]
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