GERMAN EVENTS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 268, 21 June 1878, Page 19

GERMAN EVENTS.

(From the German Contributor of the Liverpool Catlwlie Times.) It has been universally remarked that the religious persecution in Prussia, or, as the German Liberals call it, the application of the May Laws, has for some time past considerably decreased in severity, and that in thoroughly Catholic districts the persecuting spirit of State officials seems to be dying out altogether. The fact is undeniable, and most welcome too; but those good people are mistaken who attribute it to better convictions gained since by the ruling powers in Prussia. Because Prince Bismarck may in truth repent ever having meddled with Church matters, it does not follow that he is also prepared to condemn his policy before the whole world. His reputation his claim to the character of a great man, is dearer to him than the interests of his country. Were he now suddenly to stop the legalized persecution, he would acknowledge his wroug-doing, and what would be worse in his estimation, his want of clear-sightedness. But even if he were willing, he could not allow the May Laws to fall into gradual disuse ; the infidel majority in Parliament, for whose special gratification the scheme of destroying the Catholic Church in Germany was devised, would never — at least, not under the present circumstances — give their consent to such a retrograde move. The observed relaxation in the persecution cannot, therefore, be traced to any wish' on the part of Prince Bismarck to do justice to the German Catholics. The only reasonable explanation one can find for it, is his anxiety to recover their sympathies, to secure their obedience and help for the tune when tho fatherland will have to wage another glorious war. Depend upon it, the relaxation of hostility of the Prussian Government against its Catholic subjects will turn out to have no other cause than that of expediency. The only reward German Catholics received for their gallant conduct in the French war was a cruel persecution, and their only chance of being relieved of that persecution will be their willingness to fight again for their enemies, and' as gallantly as then. And they are sure to do it. The So3ial Democrats give him a great deal of trouble and may before long prove very formidable enemies. They possess already 6i newspapers, with more than 200,000 regular subscribers, and" the persecution to which they arc being subjected only tends to swell their numbers. Last week, the editor of the Berlin leading organ, the Frale Presse, was suddenly arrested and conveyed to prison. He is the fifth editor of that paper who has to go to prison for Bismarck offences. Besides Most and Lossan, who write for it, have lately been condemned, the former to 3, the latter to i months', and Grottkan is doing his sentence to i) months' incarceration. Undaunted by this persecution, the 15 Socialist Members of Parliament bring in bill after bill for what they call the amelioration of the working classes, whilst a well-organised army of stump orators boast of making wholesale conversions to the Social Democratic cause in every part of 'the country. Last week they got up a public anti-social and antiChristian demonstration in Berlin. More than 10,000 workmen accompanied one of their partisans to the grave, at which Messrs. Most and Fritzche, both members of the Reichstag, and the wellknown Socialist, Mrs. Stageniann, delivered sensational antiChristian speeches.