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Show OUR EUROPEAN LETTER. (FROM OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT) - The manifesto of the Emperor, which will spoil what little respect some liberal minded men had left for the Iron Chancellor, has been received with unmitigated disgust by numerous Liberal newspapers all over the Continent, and they had, of course, the honors of ???. There is little hope left now with ??? lovers of progress and [unreadable line], and a strong and powerfully organized reaction will throw off the mask at once. Whether the foolish ??? of such an obsolete state or [unreadable line] civilized nations will long enjoy their triumph, is a question which the providence of nations will settle in the negative as usual. Whoever, in our time, can be both bold and thoughtless enough to disregard the political rights of man must come to grief, and Prince Bismark's non-admirers could never have wished to see him more ??? commit himself than he did by countersigning his King's declarations. His name is doomed to the execration of the German Democracy, and this will be water on the mill for others. The text of the rescript shows that the Emperor not only proposes to check encroachments on the royal and imperial prerogative, but to make the Crown more active than it has ever been, since the granting of the Constitution, in working out its own policy of administration and securing the assent of the electors to government measures. Government officials are distinctly untitled; that they must support the royal policy at elections as well as in the Chambers; that their oaths require the duty; and that the Emperor will thankfully recognize its performance. The several parties in the Reichstag are now debating the question how to treat the Royal manifesto, which, as is announced, is to be brought officially to their knowledge. The importance of this death-blow to Consitutionalism is not underrated, but people are very much in the dark as to its results. Some imagine that the Reichstag will be done away with, or that the next step may be the substitution of a new electoral system instead of universal suffrage. It would be easy enough to accept this notion if one saw any possibility of a Bismarckian majority resulting from a new electoral system, but the middle classes are all opposed to Absolutism, and now the laboring class has abandoned the Chancellor. In a remarkable speech yesterday he made allusion to certain corporative associations which are to be founded, and from which, good is to come to the people. What these organizations are to be is yet a mystery; perhaps they are intended to form the electoral bodies for a new kind of Parliament, which the Prince may think will give a better reception to his State Socialism than he can expect in the existing or any similarly-elected Reichstag. By a brother correspondent of the International Press Agency at Geneva, I am confirmed in my predictions that the European emigration to the United States is taking a more and more official character and organization. Little Switzerland is taking energetic steps in that direction. A committee of forty National and State Councillors has been formed for the purpose of establishing a Colonization Society for Swiss Emigrants, with or without Government aid. A 20,000? 30,000? fr. [franc] subscription is called for to start with, the capital to be made up in shares. To this committee, the following plan has been submitted from the ancient cantons: The Swiss Shareholders Society for Emigration aims at the acquisition of a convenient tract of land in the United States. It takes the preparatory steps for making such land available for purposes of cultivation, directs the laying out of roads, streets, and railroads and lets or sells the land in lots to Swiss emigrants. The Confederacy is to assume the supervision of the Society and to take an active part in the selection and purchase of the territory in question, with a view to keep up as closely as possible the colony with the mother country, and to facilitate the interchange of products between them. Journalism in the city is constantly on the increase and gradually assuming colossal proportions. From and after the first of January, be there will [there will be] published in the Prussian capital no less than 478 papers and periodicals, of which number 43 are of an official, 66? 86? of a political, 143 cultivate the arts and sciences, 150 subserves the interests of trade, industry and agriculture, 21 are of a religious nature, and 55? 35? devoted to miscellaneous purposes. --- AUGUST. Berlin, Germany, Jan. 30th, 1882. |