expressed as to the result of their deliberation. At eight o'clock the text of the questions put to the Court was circulated in the Press Gallery. It appeared from this document that the Court had introduced a fourth question by splitting up the paragraph of Article 210, and it was concluded that the condemnation to death might be avoided, and that degradation alone would be, in all probability, the sentence pronounced. The crowd, which took the most varied views, at times, however, believed there would be a sentence of death-a probability which was not received with dissatisfaction. At half-past eight o'clock a captain of the guard informed the public that the utmost silence must be kept during the reading of the sentence. A short time afterwards the words were called out, 'Le Conseil! Debout!' The gendarmerie shouldered arms, and there was the deepest silence throughout the hall. The Council then entered. At this moment the appearance of the audience-hall was truly striking.

"The Duc d'Aumale, in a clear and energetic voice, spoke as follows:-'In the name of the French people, the Council of War, &c., delivers the following judgment:-François Achille Bazaine, Marshal of France, is he guilty, firstly, of having capitulated before the enemy in the open field?-Unanimously, Yes. Secondly, had this capitulation the effect of making those under his command lay down their arms?-Unanimously, Yes. Thirdly, is he guilty of having negotiated with the enemy before having done everything prescribed by duty and honour?-Unanimously, Yes. Fourthly, is he guilty of having surrendered a fortified place, the protection of which had been entrusted to him?-Unanimously, Yes. In consequence of this, Marshal Bazaine is condemned to the penalty of death, with military degradation, and ceases to belong to the Legion of Honour, and, besides, is condemned to pay the expense of the trial as regards the State. The Council orders that the sentence shall be read to the Marshal in the prison, in presence of the assembled guard under arms.' A mournful silence succeeded these words, and the sitting then closed. The crowd left silently by the different passages. Outside the night was dark, and the avenues of the Trianon were only occasionally lighted up by the lamps of carriages driving towards the railway station."

But the actual doom was less terrible than it seemed. At the same time that the sentence was pronounced, the judges agreed unanimously that a recommendation for mercy should be addressed to Marshal MacMahon; and, in consequence of their appeal, the punishment was commuted into one of twenty years' seclusion. The military degradation inflicted on the culprit was also allowed to be divested of the humiliating ceremonies ordinarily attending it. The Isle St. Marguerite, where the Man in the Iron Mask had of yore expiated his mysterious crime, was assigned as Bazaine's prison-house. Public opinion agreed pretty unanimously, both in France and out of France, that the issue of the trial was a just one. Had Thiers remained in power, indeed, the trial itself

would probably never have taken place. He would have found reasons for postponing it until the accused could have been restored, unmarked, to freedom; being convinced that minute inquiry into the disasters of the war could produce no public advantage sufficient to compensate for the exposure of national scandals. The Government of Marshal MacMahon, however, had decided otherwise.

Some surprise had been caused by the abstention of M. Thiers from all part in parliamentary debate since the date of his retirement from power. His pronounced adhesion to the general politics of the Opposition had tended to unite and strengthen the parties of which it was composed; but he had not come forward as a leader or supporter, by the eloquence of his tongue, in any of the fights which had taken place within the walls of the Assembly. Just before Christmas, however, when the members of the Committee of M. Calmon, the successful candidate in the Seine et Oise, waited upon the ex-President to exchange congratulations with him on the result of the election there, M. Thiers expressed his pleasure in the choice they had made of "one of his most active colleagues and devoted friends, who, under both those designations, had been made the object of the peculiar hostility of the reactionary party;" while at the same time he took the opportunity of expressing anew his own views upon the future prospects of the Republic and its "infallible triumph" in the end. The Republic, he said, was certain to overcome, by the force of "public opinion," all the futile resistance made to it; and it was thought that, by the outspoken way in which the veteran statesman declared himself on this occasion, he was meditating fresh displays ere long of his partisan and oratorical vigour on the battle-field where his triumphs had so often been won.

CHAPTER III.

GERMANY.

GERMANY.-Ministerial Crisis-Bismarck's Explanation-Ecclesiastical Laws-Debates in Prussian Diet-Imperial Diet-Suppression of some Religious Orders-Protest of Bishops at Fulda-Resistance to Ecclesiastical Laws Archbishop LedochowskiAlsace and Lorraine-Press Bill-Royal Visits-Treaty with Persia-Column of Victory-Old Catholics-Bishop Reinkens-Congress at Constance and at Dortmund -Correspondence between the Pope and the Emperor-Elections to Prussian DietBismarck resumes Prussian Premiership-Civil Registration Bill-Refractory Prelates Pope's Encyclical-Press Legislation-Financial Statement- Death of King of Saxony and of Queen Dowager of Prussia.

AUSTRO-HUNGARY.-Reform Bill-Events in Imperial Family-Great ExhibitionFinancial Panic-Royal Visitors-New Reichsrath-Emperor's Speech-Infallibilism in Hungary-Ministerial Crisis in Hungary-Buda-Pesth-Emperor's Jubilee.

THE Prussian Ministerial crisis that had occurred in December, 1872, continued to occupy attention at the beginning of the new

year, and called forth a multitude of conjectures and comments. The retirement of Prince Bismarck from the Presidentship of the Council of Ministers was announced as a victory of the reactionary party, by those whose sympathies went with that party, while some ventured to assert that the Prince was in reality dissatisfied with the victory which the Liberals had gained over the Aristocrats in the recent matter of the Districts Organization Bill. That his retirement implied no break in the favour of his Sovereign was testified by a most grateful letter addressed to him by the Emperor himself on New Year's Day, accompanied by the Order of the Black Eagle set in diamonds.

On the 25th and 26th of January, Prince Bismarck gave his own explanation of the transaction, in two speeches before the Chamber of Deputies. He was very earnest in denying that there had been dissensions in the Prussian Ministry. The changes which had taken place, his own retirement from the Presidency of the Ministry, and the appointment of Marshal Von Roon in his place, were, he said, altogether such as he had desired and approved. It was only the pressure upon himself of labours and responsibilities which were too great for him to bear that had led him to seek relief from the Emperor. His successor was the friend of his earliest years, in whom he had always had the most perfect confidence-such confidence as he had in very few. It had been at his earnest request, supported by the King's command, that Marshal Von Roon had withdrawn his resignation. Consequently he regarded the existing Ministry as a continuation of his own. He himself would support it with all his strength, and he asked the Chamber to confide in it as when he was the President. In regard to alleged differences of opinion within the Government, Prince Bismarck, while admitting that there had been such, and that he could not always carry out his purposes so speedily as he desired, yet declared that in the case of all questions which had excited discussion he had always found himself on the side of the majority. There was no foundation, then, for the rumours circulated by political gossips and the press as to his having been the victim of a Court intrigue. He considered himself, as a member of the Ministry, still responsible for its policy. He then proceeded to remark that in his opinion it was desirable that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in the Prussian Government should be transformed from a purely Prussian to an Imperial Ministry. "There must," he said, "be some connecting link between the Ministries of Prussia and of the Empire at large, some office in the former which could be held by a functionary without any ties of Particularism." Now the Ministry for Foreign Affairs could be made such an office. He therefore desired that that Ministry should be henceforth regarded, not as one devoted to a specially Prussian policy, but as the machinery by which Prussia might be brought into direct contact and relations with the Empire, and also with the individual States of the Empire before deciding on any common course. He spoke of the question of filling up the Ministry from the majority in the Chambers. "In order

to do that," he said, "we must have a constant majority. But where does such a majority exist among us in Prussia? It had been easy enough in England as long as there were only two parties, the Whigs and the Tories: now, even in England, it was no longer practicable, for there were at least five political fractions which had to be settled with. In Prussia, the Ministry must always bear a royal, governmental character. The King was considered to be of no party; he might, if so disposed, join his action to that of whichever party might be prevalent in the Chamber; but as yet Prussia was not in a condition to bear the strain of a perfect Parliamentary Government." The Prince's speech (the two might be considered as one) made a great impression, and was received with applause.

Meanwhile the contest with Rome, embittered by the Pope's Christmas Allocution, was prosecuted with zeal. On January 7th the Catholic members of the Centre party interpellated Government on account of the prohibition to publish the Allocution, which had been addressed to the Prussian newspapers. The Home Minister asserted that no law had been transgressed in the matter, and that the proceedings had originated with the Foreign Office, in order to establish the fact judicially that the Papal Allocution contained calumnies which would render the authors amenable to law if they came within its jurisdiction. A protracted discussion ensued, but no resolution was passed by the House.

On the 9th the Cultus Minister, Dr. Falk, brought before the House the new Ecclesiastical Laws, and introduced them with a brilliant speech.

These very important Bills were to apply to both the State-recognized religions-to the Protestant or Evangelical equally with the Catholic Church. Their objects may be briefly designated as, first, to protect the freedom of individual persons; second, to insure the training of a German national in contradistinction from an Ultramontane clergy; and, lastly, to guard the rights and independence of the clergy themselves as against their ecclesiastical superiors. The Bill designed to secure the first of these objects aimed at bringing to an end various anomalies which interfered with the exercise of individual freedom in relation to the Churches. For example-under existing circumstances, any one who should leave the Church with which he had been connected might still be compelled to pay for the support of the worship he had ceased to approve of. This and other checks upon the freedom of individual action were to be removed; not that this measure had any special bearing upon the Old Catholics-it applied to other sectarian changes equally. The next measure, that for regulating the education and training of the clergy, involved a plain and very serious restriction of the rights of religious communities to manage their own affairs, and would necessitate an alteration of no slight nature in the State Constitution. By the 15th Article of the Constitution of the 30th of January, 1850, it had been declared that "the Evangelical

and Catholic Churches, together with every other religious society, regulate and administer their own affairs in an independent manner; they are the guardians of the institutions, funds, and foundations destined for their worship or to purposes of charity." That is to say, the Churches were left free to govern themselves. Accordingly they had hitherto, to a large extent, educated their own clergy. In the case of the Catholics, special seminaries had been instituted for the education of those destined for the priesthood from their youth upwards. All institutions of the kind now in existence were by the proposed law to be placed under rigorous State inspection, while it was forbidden to open any new ones. The State thus intended to take into its own hands the direct supervision of the education of the clergy. Candidates for the priesthood would be required to attend the State gymnasia and universities, so that a portion at least of their training might be received among the laity. Before they could enter the clerical ranks they must pass certain State examinations to test their efficiency. These examinations would be in philosophy, history, German literature, and the classical languages. The State also claimed a right of supervision over clerical appointments, and limited by stringent conditions the right of dismissal on the part of ecclesiastical superiors of the clergy. In order to prevent the abuse of the powers of the ecclesiastical superiors, fines ranging from 200 to 1000 thalers were to be imposed upon making appointments which might be unconditionally revoked. It was expected that thus the priests would in course of time be delivered from the state of dependence upon and subservience to the bishops in which they now stood. It was desired to substitute a national or German for a foreign or Ultramontane clergy. The danger of the formation of a separate priestly caste was to be obviated by compulsory intermingling of the clergy in the course of their training with their German lay fellow-subjects. Another Bill dealt with the powers of ecclesiastical discipline. Rigorous State supervision was to be maintained over the Demeritenanstalten, namely, the establishments to which it would still be lawful to send the Roman clergy in the way of discipline. All penalties inconsistent with civil rights, such as corporal punishment, the loss of liberty, or excessive fines, were to be made illegal. A power of appeal to the State against ecclesiastical sentences was provided for, but the State might intervene without being asked to do so, and it reserved to itself the power of dismissing ecclesiastics from their offices if their retention of them should be deemed inconsistent with public safety and order. A supreme Royal Court was to be instituted to take cognizance of such matters, to sit at Berlin, and to be composed of eleven members, of whom at least five and the President, or a majority, were to be judges holding office permanently (Etatsmässigangestellte Richter). All matters of controversy connected with the relations of Church and State would stand within the jurisdiction of this Court.

The discussion of the first law, on the education of the clergy,