The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. TUESDAY, 18th MARCH, 1890.

Southland Times, Issue 1148, 18 March 1890, Page 2

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. TUESDAY, 18th MARCH, 1890.

The German elections are not creating so much interest and excitement in the European public as tbe recent French elections. They are however keenly watched both by the Germans themselves and by outsiders, and they certainly deserve to be carefully considered in relation to their possible or probable bearing on the future of European politics. It is not likely that they will have much immediate effect, even although a decided anti-Government Reichstag should be returned. The nation has indeed tbe right to choose its representatives, but the representatives can scarcely be said to have the power of directing or controlling the policy of the Government. Tbe Germans, notwithstanding their philosophy and their military ardour, still live under what to all intents and purposes is a tyranny. They have a political constitution in which the forms of liberty exist, but the will of the Emperor is really supreme, and not far from absolute. This has been demonstrated again and again within the last few yeais. Whenever the Parliament comes into collision with the Government, the hitter fincta ways and means of having its own way, if it thinks it worth while to exert its authority. The patience of the great German people is indeed marvellous. This fact, it will at once be seen, renders the present Socialist successes of comparatively little importance. Not that l best successes are devoid of significance; what we mean is that the Socialist membprs of the Reichstag, who will now be much more numerous than they ever were before, will "be powerless to carry any kind of socialistic legislation. Whether their sucee* ses will deter Prince Bismarck from introducing his contemplated anti -socialist measures, or whether he will be only stimulated to try and crush what he considers tbe natural enemies of government, remains to be seen. A recent utterance of the Kmperor would seem to lead to the conclusion that the Government mean to do what they think will be for the good of the people, and that they will with a firm haad put down any attempt to frustrate tbeir designs. AhHolutibm has 'seldom in these latter days spoken in Huch undisguised terms, lut it there is \ no likelihood of an immediate change in J the Government policy owing to the elections, there can be no doubt that i they are deeply significant. For yearn j Bismarck has been doing his best to repress if notto exterminate the Medalists, and they are now more active and more numerous than ever. Coercive legislation may seem to have a certain : effect for a time, but the result shows ! that the agitation still goes on, though more secretly, in order the more certainly to compass its end. It is difficult to destroy the love of liberty in an intelligent people like the Germans, and if they do not obtain it in a legitimate way a certain section of them are sure to scheme and plot for it by all sorts of underhand means. Britons, long used to constitutional government, and profoundly convinced of its inestimable value, particularly in the way of removing political intrigue or conspiracy, cannot understand why a man like Bismarck should persist in his preference for despotic methods. His countrymen are an eminently trustworthy people ; they are not given to faction, and if they have any characteristic calculated to throw doubt on their fitness for liberty it is their very | docility. But the most docile people may be goaded into in-übordinat^on, and a more independent spirit is beginning to make itselt felt amongst the Germans, as the present victories of the Socialists übow ; only it is moving them to a certain extent in tbe wrong direction. Tbe j

socialism of the Germans is simply the dark shadow cast by despotism. Let reality be given to the forms of tbe constitution, and the spectre which troubles the waking dreams of Prince Bismarck would disappear. The Government will to all appearance be in a hopeless minority in the new Reichstag, the clerical party, that othor troubler of the Chancellor's dreams, having also greatly increaped its numbers. Happily for the Government, the clericals bave an in tenae hatred of the Socialists, who a"P, in their eyes, the risible symbol of the anti-Christian '-evolution. The two parties will thus seldom it ever be found combining for a common object. But the clerical party will of itself be able to I give the Government a good de»l of trouble, and it is not at all impossible that Bismarck, if ho continues to administer the Empire, might be tempted to try some kind of renewal of tbe Falk laws. In this he would probably be assisted by the Liberals, who are for the most part strongly anti-clerical. But it is of little use trying to forecast the course of events with such an incongruous assortment of parties. It needs however no prophetic gift to say that the Government will need to have their wit 9 about them if they mean to carry on in anything like a constitutional manner. There is no danger of a revolution, but there will be constant danger of a deadlock serious enough to c«use, in the circumstances we hnve just mentioned, a practical suspension of the constitution There is no hope of Bismarck establishing the government of tb<' empire on a soundly and permanently popular basis. At one time it wa« almost expected that he would attempt something of the kind. But his later experiences seem to have confirmed his natural tendency towards autocracy ; not to Bay that it is questionable whether the young Emperor would assent to such a project even although the Chancellor wished to put it in execution, Bnt sooner or 1 »ter evnn the patient German nation will rise in their might, and either demand or seize their liberty. Their present condition — a nation of freemen despotically ruled, paradoxical as it sounds — is a glaring anachronism, nnd cannot in the nature of things last much longer.