EDITOR'S TABLE. 



677 



the Darwinians for the sake of effect. 

 Yet he appears to have spoken as if by 

 instruction, for it seems the determined 

 plan of the Imperial Government not 

 to allow that measure of freedom in 

 speech which has become the estab- 

 lished policy in other leading coun- 

 tries. 



Constitutional government in Prus- 

 sia, however, is but a recent thing, 

 having sprung up within a generation ; 

 while the new German Empire was 

 constituted by the treaties made at 

 Vei-sailles in January, 1871, during the 

 Franco-German war. Taking into ac- 

 count, therefore, the previous disci- 

 pline of the people, and the coercive 

 military character of German state 

 policy, too much in the way of liber- 

 ality is certainly not to be expected in 

 a short time. But it is nevertheless 

 interesting and instructive to see how 

 things hang together, and how one 

 thing involves and leads to another in 

 a thoroughly arbitrary form of govern- 

 ment. 



Tlie German Empire, made up by 

 the recent amalgamation of twenty-six 

 states, and containing about 43,000,000 

 people, sustains an army on a peace- 

 footing of 1,283,791 soldiers, with 31,- 

 843 officers and upward of 300,000 

 horses. Military service is compulsory, 

 and the army is sustained by conscrip- 

 tion. The strengthening of the mea- 

 sures by which the military system is 

 maintained is illustrated by the follow- 

 ing paragraph which recently appeared 

 in the newspapers : " Sixty young men 

 having quitted the district of Thaun, 

 Alsace, to avoid conscription, they have 

 been sentenced, by default, to 1,200 

 marks fine, or 200 days imprisonment, 

 and to the seizure of their property to 

 that amount." 



That the maintenance of such a 

 vast army in time of peace by grinding 

 taxation, and for purposes of despotic 

 violence, should have engendered a pro- 

 found spirit of revolt against the insti- 

 tutions and social order of the country, 

 is not surprising. Socialism is but the 



correlative of a rampant imperialism — 

 the shadow of Bismarck. Did the Chan- 

 cellor expect that people with their 

 eyes open would not observe, and in 

 this age that they would not think and 

 comment upon what they saw ? At 

 any rate, he resolved to stifle all ex- 

 pressions of Socialistic doctrine in the 

 German Empire, and this he is no 

 doubt at present quite able to do. The 

 effects of the Socialist law are thus 

 represented by a writer in Berlin : 

 "The Prussian and German police in 

 general is an admirable piece of ma- 

 chinery. It is almost as thorough and 

 effective as the German army. It has 

 never done its work better than in 

 hunting down the Socialists. Up to De- 

 cember 22d, 144 clubs, 44 newspapers, 

 and 157 books and pamphlets had been 

 suppressed." The slaughter, or " pig- 

 sticking," as the Chancellor is said to 

 have grimly styled the game, has gone 

 on briskly since that time ; and the 

 columns of the " Eeichsanzeiger " give 

 no sign that the authorities are becom- 

 ing weary or merciful. The chief So- 

 cialist leaders have been turned out of 

 Berlin, and it is difficult for them to 

 find in Germany rest for the soles of 

 their feet. Some are in prison. A few 

 have emigrated in despair to America. 

 In a few weeks perhaps no trace of the 

 Socialist agitation will be discernible 

 on the face of German society. But 

 will the danger be gone when it is put 

 out of sight? The Chancellor can not 

 draw a cordon round the Fatherland 

 and exclude the poisonous literature 

 printed in London, Brussels, Verviers, 

 or Geneva, The malady will not be 

 cured because it is driven into the sys- 

 tem. The seductiveness of Socialist 

 opinions will not be a whit less than it 

 is because the Government appears to 

 dread them, and to have no confidence 

 in the weapons of reason against the 

 wild ideas that have taken hold of mul- 

 titudes. 



Believing in no half-way policy, 

 Bismarck has cow pushed his tactics a 

 step further ; the gagging of the people 



