GERMANY. 



868 



nan Concordat, which, In the opinion of 



ivcriimriit, \\ us Mill in force. Tin- hUhop 



ut/, llarnn \,,u Krtti-liT, one of the ni"-t 



intliicntiitl Catholic prelates of Germany, dis- 



siiaileil the Catholics I'niiu taking part in the. 



national ceK-l.ratiun of the victory of Sedan 



Oepti-mluT '-Mi; on tliis question, however, 



prelates, like the Bishop of Passau, and 



. ar ApoMoiic. of the kingdom of Saxony, 



..;','. r. nt opinion, and large numbers 



ut' prints and congregations took part in the 



patriotic solemnities. 



The Herman Government professed to see in 

 Alsace-Lorraine the beginning of a change in 

 the public sentiment relating to its separation 

 from France and reunion with Germany. The 

 consideration that a continued attitude of open 

 and fanatical hostility to the German authority 

 could not fail to injure fatally the material in- 

 terests of the province, greatly aided in the 

 formation of an altogether new party of con- 

 ciliation, whose cry is the autonomy of the 

 province. The supporters of this accept frank- 

 ly the separation from France as an accom- 

 plished fact, and direct their labors toward 

 preventing Alsace-Lorraine from being made 

 an integral part of any of the older German 

 states. In fact, they desire not to be made 

 Prussians or Bavarians, although they have 

 become Germans against their will, and claim, 

 therefore, a completely independent adminis- 

 tration as the price of full reconciliation with 

 the empire. This view is finding large ac- 

 ceptance with the more sober part of the well- 

 to-do classes, which feels the struggle against 

 the results of the late war to be hopeless. In 

 the second half of August, all the three Dis- 

 trict Councils of Alsace-Lorraine met, and, 

 without hesitation, took the oath of allegiance 

 to the German Emperor. Of the twenty-five 

 members constituting the Council of Lower 

 Alsace, the only absentee was Dr. Schneegans, 

 a barrister, who was excused on account of 

 ill-health. Herr Julius Klein, a chemist, of 

 Strasburg, and one of the leaders of the party 

 of autonomy, was elected president. The Dis- 

 trict Council of Upper Alsace met like that of 

 Lower Alsace, on August 17th, and all the 

 members but one were in their places and took 

 the oaths ; among them being the Burgomasters 

 of Muhlhausen and Colmar. At the opening 

 of the District Council of Lorraine, twenty-six 

 members were present. Twenty-four of these 

 had already taken the oaths at the last session, 

 and the oaths were subsequently administered 

 to the two others. Two members who had 

 been sworn were excused from attending. 



On July 13th a fanatical mechanic, Kull- 

 mann, attempted to assassinate Prince Bis- 

 marck in the watering-place of Kissingen. 

 The prince, who had just lifted his arm for a 

 salutation, was slightly wounded, and the 

 would-be assassin was promptly arrested. His 

 trial before the court of assizes at Wurzburg 

 was begun on October 31st. In his examina- 

 tion by the president of the tribunal, Kullmann 



admitted every thing brought against him, and 

 gave his reasons for attempting tin- rime. Ho 

 tirat thought of assassinating Prince Bismarck 

 last Easter, when at Magdeburg. He purchased 

 a pistol and went to Berlin, but watched in 

 vain for the prince. He then went to Kissinjjen, 

 but did not make the attempt on the Sunday, 

 owing to the sacredness of the day, but waited 

 till Monday. He aimed at the head of the 

 prince, having heard that he wore a coat-of- 

 mail on his breast, as in 1865. He admitted 

 the heinousness of the crime, but justified it on 

 the ground of the policy adopted by Prince 

 Bismarck toward the Church. For the de- 

 fense, two medical men were called, who both 

 expressed the opinion that the accused was of 

 weak intellect, and that hereditary influences 

 had affected his mental and moral develop- 

 ment. The counsel for the prosecution urged 

 that, as Kullmann knew the magnitude of bis 

 crime and the punishment awaiting it, he must 

 be considered a responsible agent. In reply, 

 the counsel for the defense maintained that it 

 was not Kullmann who was guilty, but the in- 

 fluences which impelled him to commit the 

 deed. His mind, excited by Ultramontane 

 teaching, was in an abnormal condition, and, 

 as he was unconscious of his acts, a verdict of 

 not guilty should be returned. The jury re- 

 turned into court with a verdict of guilty, and 

 the president sentenced the accused to fourteen 

 years' imprisonment, and at the expiration of 

 that time to deprivation of his civil rights for 

 ten years. Kullmann manifested no surprise 

 on hearing the sentence, and refused to avail 

 himself of his right of appeal. 



On October 4th Count Harry von Arnim, 

 formerly German embassador in Paris, was ar- 

 rested and conveyed to the city jail of Berlin, 

 on the charge of having abstracted documents 

 which he received in his official character as 

 German embassador in Paris. Count Arnim 

 had been recalled from Paris at the beginning of 

 May, because he had not only openly expressed 

 his dissent from the policy of Prince Bismarck, 

 but even furnished to Austrian and Belgian 

 papers articles attacking him. With regard to 

 the documents he was charged with having 

 abstracted, he claimed that they were confi- 

 dential letters, and therefore his property. 

 The trial began on December 9th, before the 

 City Court of Berlin, which sentenced the 

 count to three months' imprisonment, a deci- 

 sion from which both the state attorney and 

 Count Arnim appealed. It clearly appeared 

 from the trial that the count had hoped, in 

 concert with the Conservative and Catholic 

 opponents of Bismarck, to dislodge the latter 

 from his exalted position, and to become his 

 successor. 



MAX VON FOBCKENBECK, the new President 

 of the German Reichstag, was born at Monster, 

 on October 21, 1821. Having studied law at 

 the Universities of Giessen and Berlin, he was, 

 in 1847, appointed judge at Glogau, in Silesia. 

 In the revolutionary year of 1848 he began to 



