THE SKALETON BENEATH THE SURFACE OF GERMAN SOCIETY.

Press, Volume XXX, Issue 4098, 14 September 1878, Page 6

THE SKALETON BENEATH THE SURFACE OF GERMAN SOCIETY.

fWtaia fte " Mowing: Post"! still critical condition of the Emperor «£ e*rn»ny is * powerful reminder of the terrible skeleton latent beneath the surface of eenoan society, end likely, for some years to come, to prove itself a constant source of mWmmd trouble. There is no concealing the fact any longer that Sodalism of a very la£ type is becoming a power in the empire, •xeeeialiy in Prussia. It has been growing tommy years, bat till lately has not crept down to the lower masses of the people. It 2>aa pervaded" aSeuiiTernfiM, It lias been ■irong fn the Parliament, it has given the tone to literature, it has worked its way into theology, and modified several national habite end institutions, but it has not tainted the *nnj nor corrupted popular patnotum till ■now. It has worked toward* crime without iwooming actually criminal, and has propomaded principle which, till the attempt iponthe Emperor'slife, did not bear their ■proptr fruit. But that atrocious assassination tyMlleri attention to the source from which it cprang and to the antecedents that have led up to ifc. Toe empire hae now become alarmingly conscious that the body politic has been inoculated with a viroa that is destroying all the fine qualities of the people, and bursting out into «n activity which, if not promptly end powerfully suppressed, will bring back jome of the worst types of political disturbance* that Europe has yet seen. Making every allowance far exaggerated ieara, it cannot be denied that there has been creeping over a large part of the German -population a disposition to disavow that sense rf responsibility which lies at the root of all ■oriel duty. No greater disaster could overtab s> people. Its first result is a sullen diexegsxdof the sanctity of law, from which it is only one step to the repudiation of all superior authority, and, by eonseqnence, the ©pining of the floodgates of social and TKititirftJ confusion. In that confusion patziotuin, the tame defence of nations, dies out and disappears to be replaced by selfishness. fH» true idea of s> commonwealth is lost, pmirim rales instead of reason, selfishness takes the place of public spirit; separate incLtrideals or classes grasp what, for the soamsnt, seems best to subserve their private interests, and they pursue these in perfect ignorance of those economic laws and tendearies which, rightly noted and acted upon, axe the the surest pledges of pnUic prosperity svad private happiness. All this had been seen over and over again amid the revolutions that hswe agonised Europe, and was last illustrated on a terrible scale by the Communists of Fans. In the presence of this moral poison the eiexnests of political disintegration gather a deadly strength, perilling the administration of justice; destroying the very principle of of loyalty ; impelling rashness; stimulating for impossible measures; lowering the public tone and conscience; disinclining xoen to join the army or to submit to the inevitable burdens of taxation; and thoroughly undermining all that is noble and generous in favour of what is mean, dastardly, and selfish. That » spirit of this character is at this moment let loose among the German people been only too well illustrated. Its fruits cunply motives for inquiry into its more immediate eadseS. Th e existence of good cause ±or alarm will most wocure the immediate adoption of repressive meaiiu?*- and the further development of the mischief may "for a time be stayed. The German Government ought to be equal to this. But it is of. far more consequence to destroy the deadly -plant at the root and to get rid of the very causes of it. But what are they ? That is tiai great question of the day for German statesmen. It m not for us to fully answer the tjußstton which every one most ask, and tie answer to which can only be given, in all its' details, by those intimately connected with ■Q the ramifications of German social life. It is a> question for Germans more than for Englishmen. Bat there are some considerations «o near the surface as to require no deep digging, and to these—as affording a lesson to England—we may ask attention. Xatbe first place, the influence, from whatever scarce it arises, is one that acts upon the motives of the people. It touches their moral instincts; it eate into their character. It is fair, then, to ask whether there may not be (nymfttijjng in the training of the German mind that leads to the conclusion that has now been aurrred at by certainly a large proportion of the people. In fact, is there anything in the system and principles of German education t3mt is likely to bear such ill fruit as has JaieJy been made manifest ? It is quite worth wbSe to asi bow much of responsibility to a lugber power is taught in German shools. Has not the practical elimination of the Christian religion from the gymnasia of Germany, and from all its elementary schools, doae much to-dwarf that sense of responeiwhich comes from the persuasion that there is a Divine law for the guidance of the lives of men ? The Socialism that is now corxnptsng that great people is precisely the outcome that might be expected from pareJy secular education. The schools of Germany have been held up as models. "We have been told till we are sick of it that Pro*sxa& schools put English schools to shame, and that we are at least a generation behind them. But if a tree is known by its fruit, the balance of advantage is probably on this side of the sea. We have crime, and ignorance, and misery enough, God knows, but the ethics of our schools all tend to their abolition. Wβ bare not yet entirely dissevered tie Christian faith from the training of children, and we attribute much of the love of the institutions of their country which pervades the great mass of Englishmen to 'the manner in which they have been taught to fear God as the first step towards honoring the Queen. The truth eeema to be that the Nationalism that has so long prevailed in the German universities and in* German literature Ins travelled down into the elementary schools, and i» now bearing its appropriate {rust amongst tie working classes. Unbelief is becoming universal, and with it the sanctities of "political and social life are uptet and Che national conscience is depraved. In the presence of these facts there are, we think, some serious lessons for the promoters of exdnsivgly secular schools in this country.