Prince Bismarck and his Policy. 



107 



disputes which have recently taken place between the 

 Prussian government and the archbishop of Cologne have 

 at last been terminated by the forcible removal of the 

 prelate from his post to the fortress of Minden in West- 

 phalia." 



The principal points in dispute were : 1. Education. 2. 

 Mixed marriages. 3. The publication of the papal bulls. 



In a despatch [92], dated the 2d of February, 1839, in 

 speaking of the conduct of the Prussian government in 

 its intercourse with the papal see and its proceedings 

 towards the Catholic prelates," Mr. Wheaton said : 



This question still continues to be a constant source 

 of uneasiness and debility to Prussia. 



*' The Austrian government is more successful in manag- 

 ing the clergy in its dominions. Measures which on the 

 part of a Protestant sovereign are regarded as proofs of 

 the spirit of proselytism and persecution, may be, and in 

 fact are, accepted with docility when proceeding from the 

 house of Austria. This fact tends to confirm the suspicion 

 indulged by many persons here, that the religious dissen- 

 sions in Prussia have been, if not fomented, at least re- 

 garded with no unfavorable eye by Prince Metternich, 

 who seeks to weaken the increasing influence in Germany 

 obtained by Prussia through the commercial union, by 

 opposing moral to material interests, and engaging Prussia, 

 which, ever since the thirty years' war, has continued to be 

 the representative of the Protestant party in Germany, 

 in an embarrassing conflict with a religious faction, from 

 which Austria has not only nothing to fear, but upon 

 whom she might count as her natural ally in a strugglefor 

 political influence and power." 



In 1850, a new fundamental or constitutional law was 

 enacted, that the ecclesiastical organizations named in the 

 law, among which was the Roman Catholic church, should 

 have the right of managing their own affairs. This law 



