PRUSSIA. 



661 



The Prussian Diet, which had been opened 

 on October 22, 1872, reassembled after a brief 

 adjournment on January 7th. By far the most 

 important subject which came before it was 

 the draft of four new laws regulating the re- 

 lation of the state government to the state 

 churches, and in particular to the Roman 

 Catholic Ohnrch. They were presented by 

 the Minister of Public Worship, Dr. Falk, on 

 January 9th, and the discussion on them began 

 on January 15th. They provide that all clergy- 

 men of the state churches shall have passed 

 through a regular course of instruction at the 

 German gymnasia and universities and abolish 

 the so-called seminaria puerorum, in which 

 boys from an early age are receiving a kind of 

 monastic education for the priesthood. They 

 aim at protecting the lower clergy from arbi- 

 trary measures on the part of the higher, and 

 define the function of the new " Royal Court 

 for Ecclesiastical Affairs," which is in future to 

 act as a court of appeal from the decision of 

 acclesiastical superiors. They also abolish 

 the legal provisions which heretofore rendered 

 the secession from one of the state churches 

 imst difficult. The Catholic bishops of Prussia 

 :in 1 the members of the Catholic party in the 

 Diet declared that an attempt to enforce these 

 laws would bring on a contest between church 

 and state. The Evangelical Oberkirchenrath 

 (Supreme Ecclesiastical Council) also declared 

 its dissatisfaction with the laws, which it be- 

 lieved would injure the Evangelical Church 

 no less than the Catholic. In the Herren- 

 h.i'n, a number of the most prominent con- 

 servative Protestant statesmen, as the former 

 Oberprasident Kleist-Ketzow, and the former 

 prime-minister, Manteuffel, violently opposed 

 the Government ; but Bismarck and the min- 

 istry remained unmoved. As some of the pro- 

 visions of the new laws were at variance with 

 the Prussian Constitution, two articles of the 

 litter (article 15 and article 18) bad first to be 

 -red. The Chamber of Deputies adopted 

 the change of these articles as proposed by the 

 Government, by a vote of 245 against 110, and 

 on March 17th, by a similar majority the draft 

 of the four laws. The bulk of the minority 

 c m-iisted of the members of the Catholic party 

 who were joined in their opposition by a few 

 ultra-conservative Protestants, the Poles, and 

 the socialists. The Ilerrenhaus, whose stub- 

 born opposition has been broken since the 

 Government clearly indicated in 1872 that it 

 would not be hindered in its reformatory policy 

 by a factions opposition of the aristocracy, and 

 that it would know how to overcome it by 

 constitutional means, adopted on March 13th, 

 the proposed change of the Constitution by a 

 vote of 93 against 63, and subsequently the en- 

 tire law. 



The most important events in this session of 

 the Diet, next to the discussion and the vote 

 on the Ohnrch law, were the explanations 

 given by Bismarck on the ministerial crisis, 

 and the great speech of Deputy Lasker on the 



corruption in the administration of railroads. 

 Bismarck declared that the chief reason for his 

 resignation as prime-minister was the fact that 

 he was overburdened with work ; he admitted, 

 however, that the opposition of some of his 

 colleagues to his policy had likewise had an 

 influence upon him, and he freely explained 

 his views of the position of a prime-minister 

 in his relations to the remainder of the 

 ministry and the majority of the Diet. The 

 speecli of Deputy Lasker, which was made on 

 February 7th, accused several high officers of 

 the state, especially Counselor Wagner, for 

 many years one of the leaders of the ultra-Con- 

 servative party, of being guilty of corrupt 

 practices in obtaining the charters of new rail- 

 roads. Prior to the speech of Lasker a letter 

 from the President of the Ministry to the Presi- 

 dent of the Chamber of Deputies had attempt- 

 ed a defense of Wagner against the charges 

 brought against him ; but the facts adduced 

 by Lasker were so overwhelming that the Gov- 

 ernment deemed it best to take the initiative 

 in the matter, and to appoint a committee of 

 investigation, two of the members of which 

 were elected by the Chamber. 



The exhibit of the Prussian finances, which 

 was laid before Chamber of Deputies by the 

 Minister of Finance on February 20th, was 

 received by the entire Chamber with great 

 satisfaction. The year 1872 shows a surplus 

 of 20,000,000 thalers, 14,000,000 of which 

 would be used for reducing the public debt. 



During the discussion of the budget of the 

 Ministry of Public Worship, several deputies of 

 the Liberal party opposed the appropriation 

 of any money for the support of the Supreme 

 Ecclesiastical Council, which they denounce as a 

 hierarchical institution, the abolition of which 

 they demanded ; the majority of the Chamber, 

 however, supported, the Government. An ap- 

 propriation of $25,000 for carrying through 

 the synodal constitution of the Evangelical 

 State Church was readily granted by the Lib- 

 erals, who have long demanded the introduc- 

 tion of self-government for the Evangelical 

 Church ; only the Radical party, which fears an 

 entire separation between church and state, 

 voted against it. 



The Catholic bishops of Prussia held a 

 general meeting at Fnlda, in order to define in 

 a joint pastoral letter their position with re- 

 gard to the now Church laws. The laws were 

 represented by them as being at variance, in 

 essential points, with the directly-ordained 

 Constitution and the freedom of the Church, 

 and, as threatening the Church with a greater 

 danger than any to which it had been exposed 

 since the days of Constantine. 



The investigations which had taken place 

 in consequence of the speech and motion of 

 Dr. Lasker caused the resignation of the Min- 

 ister of Commerce, Count Itzenplitz, as they 

 left no doubt as to his incompetency for the 

 position. His place in the ministry was filled 

 by the appointment of Dr. Achenbach, a 



