390 



GERMANY. 



100,000,000 thalers from the treasury for the 

 operation. The number of foreign Poles ex- 

 pelled from East Prussia was about 35,000. 

 The Center party, the German Liberalists, and 

 the Poles, left the hall after the refusal to re- 

 fer to a committee the Achenbach resolution, 

 pledging the support of the Chamber to fur- 

 ther measures for the development of the 

 German population and culture in the border 

 provinces, as the rules of the House required, 

 because it involved the expenditure of money. 

 The resolution was then carried, on January 

 30, with only one dissentient voice out of 245. 

 A bill to establish secondary schools in the prov- 

 inces of West Prussia and Posen was passed on 

 April 3. Windthorst proposed, without suc- 

 cess, to have instruction on Sundays and holy 

 days forbidden in these schools. A bill to pun- 

 ish parents who neglect to send their children 

 to school in Posen and feilesia was also passed. 

 The bill to promote the German colonization 

 of West Prussia -and Posen was vigorously op- 

 posed by Catholics and Liberals, and charac- 

 terized as a measure dictated by passion, like 

 the May laws, but was passed by 214 votes to 

 120. In a Government bill dealing with ele- 

 mentary teachers in Posen and West Prussia 

 a clause transferring the burden of their main- 

 tenance from the landlords to the state was 

 stricken out. 



Repeal of the May Laws. The Pope, in a letter 

 accompanying a decoration bestowed on Prince 

 Bismarck, in return for the diplomatic courte:-y 

 shown in referring the dispute over the Caro- 

 line Islands to his decision, reminded the Chan- 

 cellor that, if all obstacles were removed, he 

 could afford powerful assistance in preserving 

 public order and the security of the state. In 

 an encyclical letter to the Prussian bishops, the 

 Pontiff regretted that new legislation had dis- 

 turbed the harmony between church and state, 

 and demanded the institution of clerical semi- 

 naries under the direction of bishops, the ad- 

 mission of Catholic missionaries to the German 

 colonies, and the recognition of the exclusive 

 right of bishops to bestow ecclesiastical offices. 



On February 15 the Prussian Government 

 brought forward in the Upper House an eccle- 

 siastical bill, which satisfied nearly all the de- 

 mands of the Curia. No scientific state exam- 

 ination is in the future to be required as a 

 condition of investiture in a spiritual office. 

 The supervision of the state over religious 

 houses and seminaries is to be only such as 

 the common law prescribes. The royal court 

 of law for ecclesiastical matters is abolished. 

 The essential features of the May laws were 

 thereby rescinded. Yet, though Rome was 

 appeased by this ignominious journey u to Ca- 

 nossa," Windthorst and his powerful following 

 were not immediately disarmed nor reconciled, 

 as they might have been by an earlier aban- 

 donment of the Culturkampf. The Chancellor 

 no longer sought the co-operation of the Cen- 

 ter, but aimed at the dissolution of the party 

 by granting all its demands, leaving Windthorst 



only the unpractical programme of hostility to 

 the state school system. He cared as little 

 about the susceptibilities of the diminished 

 National-Liberal party, but had combinations 

 in a new Reichstag in view, the formation, if 

 possible, of a Bismarck party pure and sim- 

 ple. 



The Prussian House of Lords had not before 

 been the scene of politico-ecclesiastical discus- 

 sion. The measure was the result of diplo- 

 matic negotiations with the Holy See. Bishop 

 Kopp, of Fulda, represented the Pope in the 

 deliberations, and proposed amendments that 

 were accepted, abolishing recourse to the civil 

 authorities in the case of priests who have in- 

 curred ecclesiastical disciplinary punishment, 

 and recalling the condition that the directors 

 and teachers of the episcopal seminaries that are 

 to provide a substitute for university instruction 

 must be acceptable to the Government. 



In a note dated April 2, the Vatican aban- 

 doned the position previously taken by Cardi- 

 nal Jacobini, and accepted the obligation to 

 notify the Government, not only in respect to 

 filling the cures at present vacant, but in all 

 cases, provided the Government would prom- 

 ise a further revision before long. Prince Bis- 

 marck disingenuously sought to cast the re- 

 sponsibility for the May laws entirely upon 

 the Minister of Worship and Prime Minister, 

 under whom they were enacted, declaring that 

 he had approved of them only as a political 

 weapon, and upon closer study had found that 

 the state had laid claim to functions that were 

 in many instances of little value. He had chosen 

 the way of negotiation with the Pope, who was 

 simply a Catholic, wise, moderate, and peace- 

 loving, and more a friend of Germany than the 

 Center was. The Liberals of every shade op- 

 posed the bill, which passed with the votes of 

 Catholics, Poles, and Conservatives. In the 

 House of Deputies, where the bill was passed 

 on May 10 by a vote of 260 to 108, the Center 

 and German Conservatives voted for and the 

 National Liberals, all but one, against the meas- 

 ure, while the Free Conservatives and German 

 Liberalists were divided. A later note of Car- 

 dinal Jacobini announced that the ecclesiastical 

 authorities would begin immediately to give no- 

 tice before appointing priests to the then vacant 

 parishes. Prince Bismarck said that this note 

 was not the final settlement, but only an in- 

 stallment. The Curia wished to allay the mis- 

 trust, though he entertained none so long as 

 Pope Leo XIII ruled the Church. The peace 

 that they were dealing with was not like one 

 between belligerent states, laying down fixed 

 boundaries. The forms of the law in this case 

 were only the vessel, the contents of which 

 were the temper and good- will of those on 

 whom the execution of the law depended. The 

 vessels may be filled with the milk of kindly 

 opinions, or they may be filled with cankering 

 dragon's venom. What was intended was to 

 take away the opponents' sting, and uproot 

 mistrust and passion from one's own heart. If 



