son of the chancellor. The evidence brought to light much corruption in high places; and the trial may prove to be only the opening scene of an exciting drama in the German official world.

The trouble arose from an erroneous report of the Russian czar's reply to Emperor William's speech at Breslau on September 5. Two versions were published, in one of which the czar was represented as saying: "I assure you, sire, that I am animated by the same traditional sentiments as my late father." What he really said, however, instead of the words italicised, was Your Majesty.' The erroneous report was calculated to prolong Russo-German hostility; and an investigation into the source of the incorrect report was ordered. Two journalists, Baron von Lützow and Herr Leckert published an article to the effect that the corrected version was inspired by Count von Eulenberg, under English influence, with the view of spoiling relations between Germany and Russia. The libel was increased by representing that Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, foreign minister, had supplied the information in order to damage certain of his ministerial colleagues. Both the baron and the count took up the matter; Lützow and Leckert, with the other editors mentioned, were brought to trial; and it was sought to prove that they were merely the tools of the head commissioner of secret police, Herr von Tausch, who hired them to furnish "interesting information." Lützow made a full confession, and Herr von Tausch, having flatly sworn to statements which were as flatly contradicted by other witnesses, was arrested for perjury. Everybody is on the tiptoe of curiosity as to what revelations will come out at Von Tausch's trial, and whether he in his turn is but a puppet whose strings are pulled by some much higher personage. Lützow and Leckert have sentences of eighteen months' imprisonment; Berger, one of one month's; and Plötz and Föllmar have been fined.

The case is really a contest between the secret police and the foreign office, and has created a bad impression regarding the relations of the official bureaus and the so-called "inspired" newspapers.

Miscellaneous.-When the matter of the Bismarck "revelations" (p. 835) came up in the Reichstag, November 18, the chancellor and foreign minister maintained the attitude of reserve which had marked the semi-official utterance of the government in the Imperial Gazette, declining to make public state secrets. Said the chancellor:

"The late revelations in the Hamburger Nachrichten have not disturbed our relations with our allies. We continue to trust each other in the highest degree.'

During the year ended June 30, 1896, 16,834 ships paying toll passed through the Kiel canal.

Of these, 14,957 were German; 184 British; 812 Danish; 381 Dutch; 81 French; 84 Russian; 60 Norwegian; 336 Swedish; and none American.

Vol. 6.-60.

FRANCE.

Parliamentary Proceedings.-On November 10 the chamber of deputies, by a vote of 273 to 254, decided, despite the opposition of the government, to discuss on November 16 the mode of electing senators. The government's defeat had no serious consequences, though two days later the radical groups in the chamber made an effort to overthrow the Méline ministry. The ground of attack on the 12th was the action of the government in permitting parish priests and curates, though they are state officials, to hold congresses, while such right is denied to certain other state officials, viz: university professors and school teachers. Levi Mirman, radical socialist, made the attack on the government. The minister of public instruction and worship, M. Rambaud, in reply, announced his purpose of introducing a measure in the chamber authorizing teachers to form a mutual aid society and to hold congresses under certain conditions. Deputy Mirman having charged that in the clerical congresses at Rheims priests had preached a crusade against the government,' M. Darlan, minister of justice, asserted that only one priest, in one of the congresses, had used such language as had been charged; and that the offender had since been censured and his stipend stopped. The prime minister himself, M. Méline, took part in the debate. He repudiated the charge that he encouraged the clerical propaganda, but added that he could not make war on religion. M. Poincarré's motion expressing confidence in the government was then adopted by a vote of 324 to 225. M. Mirman proposed to add a clause to Poincarre's motion, but the chamber refused assent, 302 nays, 176 yeas.

66

The naval budget was passed by the chamber December 16. While it was under consideration Admiral Besnard, minister of marine, said that the government would soon submit plans for the construction of defensive works at Brest and at Cherbourg. The naval budget voted amounted to 100,000,000 francs over and above the ordinary expenditure of the department.

M. Lockroy, former minister of marine, calls for speedy attention to three weak points of the French navy.

He declares, 1st., that the boilers of most of the ships are defective, constructed on a faulty system in 1890; 2d., that the condition of the battleships for coast defense and also of the torpedo boats is inadequate; 3d., that because of recent improvements in projectiles with extraordinarily high bursting charges, the present protective armor has become obsolete.

A report by M. de Kerjégu shows that as a naval power France is inferior not only to Great Britain but also to the Triple Alliance as far as the Mediterranean is concerned. In the North Sea the German naval forces are far more than a match for the northern fleet of France. But some comfort is derivable from the rapid growth of Russia's naval power.

Duke of Orleans Married.-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, pretender to the kingship of France, and the Archduchess Marié Dorothé Amélie of Austria, whose betrothal was announced in July (p. 683), were married in the beginning of November at Vienna. The couple will fix their permanent residence in England.

The bride, a daughter of the Archduke Joseph, is twenty-nine years of age, two years older than her husband. She has spent most of her life on her father's estate, Alcsuth, in Hungary, there leading "a most domestic and rural existence." She is very highly educated, is an excellent linguist, a brilliant pianist, and a good painter.

There was a demonstration of royalist enthusiasm at Paris on the day of the marriage-high mass at the Madeleine, bread tickets distributed to the poor, portraits of the royal pair given away to the crowds outside the church. The royalist gilded youth posted portraits of the pretender on public buildings, statues, fountains, etc. At a banquet in the evening the president of the "Royalist Youth" thus expressed his confidence in the return of monarchism:

"We have no doubt that France will recall the prince; but if by chance France should not speak, let the prince be daring and we shall be all of us ready.'

Miscellaneous.-André Theuriet and Albert Vandal were elected members of the French Academy, December 10. Emile Zola was a candidate for the two vacant fauteuils; but the votes cast were Theuriet 18, Zola 4; Vandal 20, Zola 2.

Émile Arton, implicated in the Panama canal scandals of 1892 (Vol. 5, p. 943), whose sentence to six years' imprisonment had been quashed by the court of appeal, was tried again at the Versailles assizes for not obeying the court's order to refund money embezzled from the Canal Company. On conviction he was condemned to eight years' imprisonment.

ITALY.

The wedding of the crown prince of Italy and Princess Hélène of Montenegro, whose betrothal was announced in August (p. 684), took place in Rome on October 24. The civil function was first performed at the Quirinal

palace by the Marquis di Rudini, prime minister, acting in his capacity as crown notary, in the presence of the king and queen of Italy, all the Italian and Montenegrin princes and princesses, the ministers and state dignitaries, and other high personages. The religious ceremony was afterwards celebrated by Monsignor Piscicolli at the church. of Santa Maria degli Angeli (St. Mary of the Angels). A necessary preliminary to the marriage was the formal renunciation by the princess of her native faith, the Orthodox Greek, and her reception into the Roman Catholic Church. This occurred October 21, in the church of St. Nicholas at Bari.

The Italian people displayed much enthusiasm over the wedding. In the evening all public buildings in Rome, the embassies, and many private houses were brilliantly illuminated. A banquet was given at the Quirinal. The festivities ended on October 27 with a great review in honor of the Prince of Montenegro.

On December 18 a bill granting an annual allowance to the crown prince of 1,000,000 francs was carried through the chamber, but only after a stormy scene in which many of the deputies came to blows owing to the attempt of the president to suppress further speaking on the part of Signor Costa, socialist, who denounced all such grants and even went so far as to declare the monarchy a useless and dangerous institution.

On the night of October 23 the famous brigand Tiburzi was shot to death by police in the woods at Capalbio, near Orbetello, after twenty-four years' fruitless attempts to capture him.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

New

The Hungarian diet was dissolved October 5. elections were held, beginning the last week in October, which resulted in a return of the liberal party under Baron Banffy to power with an increased majority over the clerical and anti-Semite opposition.

The figures for all the districts, with seven second ballots to be cast, are as follows: Liberals 282, national party 37, Kossuthists 48, Ugronists 7, Christian people's party 20, while 10 members are of no particular party. The liberals made a net gain of about sixty-five

seats.

There were riotous disturbances in some localities; but on the whole the elections passed off quietly. The attempt of Count Zichy, leader of the Christian people's party, to work up a demand for repeal of the new laws establishing civil marriage and religious equality, failed, as did also the nationalist crusade of Count Apponyi and the efforts of the Kossuthists to organize hostility to Austria.

The chief question at issue related to a proposal to abrogate the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867 fixing the share which Austria and Hungary have heretofore respectively borne of the expense of maintaining the dual empire. Up to the present, it is said, Hungary has paid only thirty-five per cent, the remainder being paid by Austria. It is now proposed to increase Hungary's proportion; and it is altogether likely that while Hungary will not accept undue charges, she will willingly consent to assume her full share of the financial burden without which she could hardly expect to have a full share of political power.

But, while the liberals have won in Hungary, they have been overwhelmingly defeated in lower Austria, which includes the region about the capital, Vienna. There the clerical party have carried everything, securing the election of almost all the anti-Semitic and Christian socialist candidates.

This indicates a somewhat serious political condition within the empire-one which may hereafter issue in extensive changes of imperial policy. A predominance of clerical influence in the Austrian wing of the empire would probably affect the relations of Austria to the other powers, for the clericals are extremely bitter against the alliance with Italy as countenancing if not favoring the position taken by the Italian government toward the Vatican.

RUSSIA.

Following his tour of the European courts, the czar has inaugurated an important change in the administration of the affairs of the empire, by assuming personal and direct control of the internal and external policies of Russia. This change, sometimes spoken of as a coup d'état, is really a movement for reform in what is known as the Russian "system." Under that system, the Russian government, though nominally an autocracy, was in fact an extreme bureaucracy, the real rulers-those whose wills were the really effective power in management of affairs-being the mass of subordinate functionaries in church and state by whom the czar was surrounded. Indeed, so complete was the isolation of the czar owing to this army of bureaucrats and the maze of red tape which they so diligently spun, that his majesty was often kept from knowing the real condition of his realm and people. By the step now taken, the powers of these officials are materially reduced, and the way is paved for a reform of the abuses of bureaucracy for which Russia has long been notorious. The future alone can reveal the full significance of the change.

A scheme of currency reform drafted by M. de Witte, finance minister, which was to have been laid before the council of state this fall, and which would have involved the introduction of a new gold coinage on completion of