The German Government has announced officially its deter- mination to
dissolve, if defeated upon the Army Bills; but there is still a faint possibility that they may be passed. A Member of the Centre or Catholic Party, Major Huene, has proposed a compromise, under which the Reichstag will grant 73,000 men instead of the 85,000 demanded, and will raise the neces- sary supplies gradually in three years, instead of adding at once to the beer and spirit duties. This has been accepted by the Chancellor in the Emperor's name; and on Wednesday Count Caprivi made a speech which, though it reasserted the logical necessity for the Bills, was highly conciliatory in tone, especially towards the Members for Alsace-Lorraine who intend to vote, and who were told that one great object of the Bills was to prevent their province from being the cockpit of the next campaign. The allied Governments, he assured the House, were fully aware of the dangers involved in a dissolu- tion in the excited state of public opinion, but they deemed them small compared with the dangers of leaving Germany insufficiently defended. Count Caprivi, moreover, paid a warm compliment to his predecessor, declaring, according to the ad- mirable Times report, that Prince Bismarck was a diplomatist such as the world does not see twice in the same century, and that" nations cannot reckon upon an uninterrupted devolution of genius." The Government, it is stated, is within twenty votes of victory; but the result still depends upon rather obscure struggles within the body of the Centre Party, which is afraid, above all things, of not voting together.
