PRUSSIA. 



775 



of the moneys accruing to Prussia from the sur- 

 plus of the imperial revenue, and the relation 

 of the church to the state. Article V of the 

 Jaw of July 5, 1880, provided that any priest 

 regularly appointed by the state might admin- 

 ister the sacraments and read mass in vacant 

 parishes, or in those parishes whose priests 

 were temporarily unable to attend to their 

 duties. Herr Windthorst, the leader of the 

 Catholic Center, introduced a bill early in the 

 session to extend this privilege to priests not 

 recognized by the state. The bill was consid- 

 ered on its first and second reading on January 

 26th. The Minister of Worship, Herr von Putt- 

 kammer, in the course of the debate, reminded 

 the House that the same proposition had been 

 opposed by the Government and voted down 

 by a majority of the House a half-year previ- 

 ous, and he could see no reason why the Gov- 

 ernment should change its views now. He 

 denied the assertion made by Herr Windthorst 

 that the Catholic population of Prussia was not 

 sufficiently provided with spiritual advisers. 

 The total number of parishes in Prussia was 

 4,604, with 8,800,000 parishioners, of which 

 150 parishes,with 170,000 parishioners, or three 

 per cent of the total number, were not properly 

 provided for. He desired nothing more than 

 peace, but did not think the proper way to se- 

 cure it was to be constantly attacking the laws. 

 After a spirited debate on the 27th, during which 

 Herr von Bennigsen spoke against the bill, and 

 Herren Windthorst and Reichensperger for it, 

 the bill was defeated by a vote of 254 to 115. 

 Among those voting for the bill were the mem- 

 bers of the Center, the Poles, and a few Lib- 

 erals and Progressists. Notwithstanding the 

 hostile attitude of the Government to the prop- 

 ositions of the Catholic Center, the negotiations 

 with the Vatican, which were begun in 1880, 

 continued during 1881. According to the law 

 of 1880, an administrator maybe appointed for 

 a diocese by a ministerial order, without requir- 

 ing him to subscribe the required oath, as long 

 as he performed his other duties to the state. 

 Tliis was done in the dioceses of Paderborn 

 and Osnabruck ; while Treves received a bishop 

 in the person of Dr. Korum, and Fulda in the 

 person of Dr. Kapp, of whom particularly Dr. 

 Korum had in former years made himself ob- 

 noxious to the Prussian Government. In Fulda 

 the sequestrated property of the chapter was 

 restored by the Government, while in the dis- 

 trict of Minden the Catholic priests were again 

 permitted to take part in the inspection of 

 the schools. Another concession made by the 

 Prussian Government to the Vatican was the 

 restoration of the Prussian legation to the Holy 

 See. Negotiations had been conducted for some 

 time by Kurd von Schlozer, the German Min- 

 ister in Washington, who had been sent to 

 Rome on a special mission. On November 

 30th Professor Virchow, in the German Parlia- 

 ment, asked, during the discussion of the bud- 

 get of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for in- 

 formation on the negotiations with the Vatican. 



Prince Bismarck, in reply, declared that no ne- 

 gotiations were on foot between the empire 

 and the Vatican. The Prussian Diet would 

 furnish an opportunity to give further explana- 

 tions, as Prussia, of all other states, was most 

 interested. An amount would be asked for in 

 the Prussian budget to enable the Government 

 to bring about a direct diplomatic intercourse 

 between the Vatican and Prussia. 



The discussion on the bill for the remission 

 of taxes was begun on January 28th. It showed 

 that it was barely expected that the measure 

 could be permanently carried out. The Right 

 even brought forward a financial plan of their 

 own. The Minister of Finance opposed it most 

 energetically. In the course of his speech he 

 spoke of the financial condition of the king- 

 dom, which, he declared, was improving. The 

 bill was finally passed by a vote of 243 to 106, 

 although the different groups voting for it were 

 actuated by widely different motives. In the 

 House of Lords the bill was passed by a major- 

 ity of 53, after a stormy debate, in the course 

 of which the former Minister of Finance, Camp- 

 hausen, severely criticised the present financial 

 policy of the Chancellor. Prince Bismarck, in 

 reply, held Herr Camphausen responsible for 

 the present financial crisis, and compared Prus- 

 sia, upon Herr Camphausen's retirement, to an 

 estate which had been completely exhausted. 



The debate on the first reading of the bill 

 providing for the disposal of moneys accruing 

 to Prussia from the surplus of the imperial rev- 

 enue due to the new indirect taxes was begun 

 on February 3d. In the course of the debate 

 Herr Richter, the leader of the party of Prog- 

 ress, and at present considered the ablest de- 

 bater in the German Parliament, vehemently 

 attacked Prince Bismarck's customs policy, the 

 failure of which, he said, the Chancellor was 

 trying to cover by empty promises. The offi- 

 cial reports respecting the improved condition 

 of commerce and industry were fabrications. 

 The decadence of trade was solely owing to 

 Prince Bismarck's policy. The rise in the 

 price of food and the duties on grain and pe- 

 troleum had caused the present distress, which 

 the bill was not calculated to alleviate. Prince 

 Bismarck said the bill would have to be passed 

 by the aid of a supplementary session of the 

 Diet. The object of the bill was to improve 

 German agriculture, and to protect it from the 

 effects of bad harvests in other countries. His 

 principle was to equalize the rate of direct 

 taxation, which was too high, with the rate of 

 indirect taxation, which was too low. Of the 

 direct taxes he only desired to retain for the 

 Government the income-taxes, while he was 

 willing to hand over the other taxes to the dis- 

 tricts and communes. lu this way he wished 

 to relieve those who earned their livelihood by 

 manual labor from all taxation. On the sub- 

 ject of monopolies he said: "Tobacco must 

 produce more revenue than hitherto. I must 

 have larger resources, and I consider tobacco 

 the most suitable means of obtaining them. 



