represented by the Liberal party, to pronounce the word war. The miserable vacillation of 1864, which lured Denmark on to her fall, has been again the ruling spirit in the Liberal councils. dare not waits upon I would." Hence the ease with which the political trickster at the head of affairs has checkmated them. At every step he has turned upon them with his stereotyped question, "What then would you have me do?" and the moral weakness of the Liberal position has given the question an emphasis sufficient for his purpose.

THE threatened resignation of Prince Bismarck, and the leave of absence granted him for a year, show that the weaknesses of the extemporized organization of the German Empire are beginning to be felt. In times of a greater national enthusiasm and hopefulness, the worst constitution answers all the needs of a country. When rulers and people feel like one man, it makes very little difference of what shape are the channels of method into which the feeling is directed. But when there has been a little time for cooling, it is found that any sort of a system will not do-only the best, the one most in harmony with the character and the history of the people, will do. And to get that best is a slow and painful process, in which there is sure to be plenty of friction and painful collision. Germany is but entering upon her real political development, and has many lessons to learn for herself, as political lessons must be learned.

The difficulty in the present case arises from the peculiar federal structure of the government, and the conflict of the centrifugal and the centripetal forces, the latter represented by the Chancellor. As Guizot says, no form of government presents so many practical difficulties as a federal government; none calls for such clear definition of the boundaries of power, and so well established a mutual regard for rights. It must have a long tradition behind it, and a great popular enthusiasm on its side, to work evenly and well. And in this case, where local independence is the tradition of more centuries than central authority has seen years, it demands a very high and unselfish enthusiasm on the part of the people to make it work at all. That the Empire will continue its present methods of organization can hardly be expected; a century hence it will be a much more compact body, with a far better organized system of government. And the constitutions and agreements of the present,

which determine the amount of centralization now permissible, however useful for the time, will in the long run be found rather hindrances than helps to national development. Nor can a constitution of that sort be otherwise, if it be regarded.as a finality. Mutato nomine, etc.

On the other hand, the arrogant and despotic temper of the Germanized Slav, who stands next to the Emperor at the head of the nation, does not make the problem at present an easy or simple one. Prince Bismarck has shown again and again that while the instrument of realizing the great political ideas of the present, he does not share in any of them. He has, as is shown by his treatment of North Schleswig,-no respect for that principle of nationality, which is the great justification of his own reconstruction of Germany at the outbreak of the Seven Weeks War. He has no conception of government as a process of education, by which the national consciousness is evoked in a people. To him government means not education but repression—an efficient police, a good code, and a powerful army. Nor has he anything of the suaviter in modo, fortiter in re, of the great political diplomatists, by which the defects of a system are prevented from working mischief, and the way prepared for their correction. He is not conciliatory. He has no respect for any ideas which he does not share. He feels that if things were as they ought to be, he would, be in the position of a Frederick, with power to send packing any official who did not make it the chief end of his existence to know what his master wanted, and do it. He would make a first class despot, and would govern Germany as successfully as Frederick governed Prussia; and then when he died there would probably be just such another era of inanity and incapacity as followed the death of Frederick.

It seems not improbable that the longest of all the Papal reigns is nearing its close, and that the year will see another Pope upon the throne. The change is not of the slightest significance as regards the ecclesiastical and political policy of the Papal See. All the cardinals are the "creatures" of Pius IX., in the original sense of that word. Not one of those who elected him still survives. This fact of itself indicates that there is a substantial agreement among them upon all questions, and that the new Pope will, as the representative of the views of the majority, take up the mantle of his predecessor's policy. Nor is there the slight reason to sup

pose that the Catholic governments will find a pretext for interfering with the freedom of choice. The old privilege which belonged to each of them, of each declaring one candidate ineligible, has passed away with the state of things which made it reasonable. And if it did now exist, it would be of no value. Since the death of Antonelli, there is no single cardinal of such prominence as makes it worth while to effect his exclusion, and the prohibition to elect any one of half a dozen or even a dozen candidates, would present no embarrassment to the Conclave. The thirteenth man would suit them just as well as any of those thus forbidden. In fact, as the Conclave is now constituted, nothing but an addition of outsiders, such as was effected for the occasion by the Council of Constance, could have any effect upon its decision. It will elect an Italian, well advanced in years, not offensive for any peculiarities, and fully in harmony with the policy of his predecessor. He will neither give up all hope of the Royal caste of Europe and cast himself upon the people, as would a few of the bolder cardinals; nor will he make any concessions to the Royal caste such as will impair the dignity of the See or its claim to be the sole judge in all causes ecclesiastical. Non possumus will be his answer alike to Democracy and to Monarchy.

The present Pope has been a sore trial to those Protestants, who would fain identify the Bishop of Rome with the Antichrist. A kindly, good-hearted, obstinate old gentleman, full of mystical piety, yet witty; not strong enough to play the part of a Hildebrand, but too strong to act like Pius VII.; liberal in politics by instinct, but frightened into conservatism by his advisers, he has often done things that have weakened the position of the Papacy, while anxious to strengthen it. The two great dogmatic definitions of his reign, those of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, and the Infallibility of the Pope speaking ex cathedra, have been rather hindrances than helps to the advance of the Church. He has been, even in smaller matters, a passionate theologian, condemning opinion after opinion where they came in contact with the scholastic theology, such as the view of Froschammer that the soul is mediately created, that of Oischinger that the unity in the Trinity is personal, and that of Guenther that the dualism of Cartesius is the true Christian philosophy, while pantheistic elements are found in earlier Catholic philosophers and theologians.

PRESIDENT HAYES may still be congratulated on the success of his administration. It is true that his Southern policy is a hazardous one, and that there are signs of a revolt against it in the ranks of the Republican party. But it is equally true that this President has managed to put himself just where the President of the United States ought to be, at the head of the great body of moderate and reasonable men in both parties, with a full consciousness of the fact that he is not the representative of any party, but of the nation. He is making a bold experiment; he is trusting much to the good sense and the right feeling of the white people of the South. But the three-fourths of the American people clearly desire that that experiment be made; they share in Mr. Hayes's hope that the colored people can be best protected in their rights by wiping the color line out of politics, and that the South can be most thoroughly incorporated into the nation by obliterating the sectional line. The experiment may fail, but-as the old Scotch dominie. said when the old miser asked whether it would improve his chances in the next world if he left a large sum to the kirk-"it is worth trying." And if it fails, the failure is not irretrievable.

THE South Carolina difficulty disposed of itself on the withdrawal of the national troops, with a promptness which showed how completely Mr. Hampton commanded the support of the elements of political and social power in that State. Mr. Chamberlain retired from the field with no dishonor. He was a good governor, so far as any man could be, who had only the worst sort of support, and only his election two years ago made the recent election of Mr. Hampton possible, by dividing the vote of the colored Republicans.

In Louisiana the duplex government presented a more perplexing puzzle to the President's Commissioners, but the gradual secession of individual members of the Legislature which recognizes Gov. Packard, to that which recognizes Gov. Nichols, made a decision in favor of the Democratic Executive a simple matter. In this case, as in that of South Carolina, the theory of the omnipotence of the numerical majority receives a practical refutation. In any system of government minorities rule; men tell by weight much more than by count. The party which unites money, culture and social standing in support of a political principle, can easily make head-way against numbers. It has only one opponent

that it need fear-the party of moral enthusiasm, before whose advance neither money, culture, nor social standing, can make any effectual stand. But the Republican party of the South never had any inspiration of this sort; it fell before a force superior to itself, though not of the highest sort.

THE high degree of satisfaction expressed by Southern organs and leaders with President Hayes's policy has set some of the Republicans to speculating as to the possibility of organizing the next House of Representatives by the election of Mr. Garfield or Mr. Foster to the Speakership. We are glad to believe that there is no likelihood of any secession of Southern members to the Republican party. It would be a dear-bought victory, which would be obtained by wholesale political immorality of that sort. Whatever the Southern Congressmen may do at the next election, they have no choice but to act with the Democratic party in all such questions as the Speakership, unless the person presented for their suffrage is so objectionable on other grounds that they cannot in conscience vote for him. To bolt the decision of a caucus is right and proper, when the caucus abuses its power. To act in complete independence of it is equally proper, if that purpose has been announced before election. But to cast off party obligations, after having assumed them in becoming the party's candidate, is just as bad as any other breach of trust.

We hope that the Southern members will do their utmost to make the path of the new administration an easy one; that they will, both in committees and in the House, hold the balance of power in their own hand, put a check on all merely partizan steps of policy. But to break up the Democratic party, without giving their constituencies an opportunity to say whether or not they approve of that step, would be an abuse of the power entrusted to them.

We do look for a dissolution and reconstruction of both our parties, and that at no distant day. But a general election is the proper and the only proper opportunity to effect it. For the present, we hope to see Hon. Samuel J. Randall in the Speaker's chair in the House of Representatives, when it meets next month.

NEW YORK has had a larger experience in city charters than any other municipality in the world, and is now about to try yet an