NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 207, 6 February 1875, Page 4

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

AFFAIRS ON THE CONTINENT.

The trial of Count Arnim began on Wednesday before Herr Reich, Director of the City Tribunal at Berlin. The first business before the court was to decide whether the proceedings should be public, and it was determined that they should be, but that certain documents to be produced should be kept secret; The indictment (which is very long) was read by the Public Prosecutor— Dr Tessendorf. Count Arnim is charged, as an official at the German Embassy in Paris from 1872 to 1874, with having by one and the same act—(A.) Purposely made away with documents officially entrusted to him. (B.) Illegally appropriated things (the documents under head A) which he had received in his official capacity—offences against clauses 348, 350, and 73 of the Penal Code. The indictment states that the Count's successor, Piince Hohenlohe, soon after assuming office, found that a large number of documents which were of great importance for the policy of the German Empire in connccticm with Its relation, to foreign powers, wfre missing from the archives of the Embassy. These documents are classified under three heads. The first class embraces those which, upon the Count's own confession, were abstracted, but afterwards restored at the, demand of the Foreign Office; the second class, those documents which the prisoner acknowledges having taken, but, regarding them as his own, refuses to restore; and the third class those of the whereabouts of which the Count professes to be ignorant. The indictment states that the documents in question were partly communications (rescripts) from the Foreign Office to the diplomatic representatives in foreign countries and partly reports from the diplomatic representatives abroad to the Foreign Office. The communications, the original drafts of which are in the possession of the authorities, are all entered in the official journal of the Foreign Office, and are provided with the current number,' and the number of the page of the journal is marked upon them. If some of the documents are inscribed with the words "confidential," "secret," "personal," " for your own information," their official character is thereby in no way affected. Autograph letters of the Imperial Chancellor are not in question. Among the papers which the Count retains as his private property, is one in which he is called upon to explain a conversation he had at Nancy with respect to M. Thiers's Government. Another is a despatch in which he is admon • ished for not having sent a report of the pastoral letters of the French bishops, by which Germany was aggrieved. Other despatches also relate to French affairs. The competence of the court, which was objected to by the accused, was affirmed, and the trial began, the accused pleading not guilty. The accused admitted the disciplinary power of the Foreign Office over ambassadors, but maintained that that power had lapsed through his being placed on the retired list. The regulations with regard to the diplomatic service were then read by order of the court, and witnesses were examined. The first was Privy Councillor Konig, who deposed that in his opinion an envoy, on being recalled, must either hand over the archives to his successor in office, or, in case of doubt, place them directly at the disposal of the Foreign Office. In reply to a question suggested by the counsel for the defence the witness said the despatches referring to removal of an ambassador from office appeared to him to be the property of the person removed. Herr Roland was then called, and gave evidence with regard to the registration of despatches at the Embassy. He admitted the possibility of some reports arriving unnumbered by the authorities who sent them and not being registered by the authorities who received them. The trial was then adjourned till Thursday. The correspondent of the Daily News says that the court was densely crowded, and about fifty newspaper correspondents were present from various countries. The court was unable to accommodate a hundredth part of those who were anxious to obtain admittance. Count Arnim walked composedly into theprisoners' box, and showed but little emotion throughout the proceedings except towards the close of the day. There was a stormy " scene" in the German Parliament on Friday, the 4th instant. The subject of debate was the estimates for the Committees of the Federal Council. .The Bavarian Clerical deputy, Dr Joerg, vehe-

mently attacked the policy of the Imperial Chancellor, remarking that through Russia holding aloof Prince Bismark had made a fiasco in the question of intervention in Sp.vin. Prince Bismarck, in his reply, said there had never been any intention of intervening in Spain. When the murder of Capt. Schmidt occurred he said to himself that such a thing would not have happened to a British, French, or American subject. He remembered the humiliations imposed upon Germans in former times, and he considered that the period had arrived for Germany to avenge such attacks. Prince Bismarck added:—"The only way of helping Spain was to recognise the elements in the country which were disposed to restore public order. This Germany did in conjunction with most of the European powers. Russia was less affected by Spanish affairs. Germany had to respect the decision of Russia, as she respects every opinion of a foreign power, and especially the opinion of a power with which she has lived for a century in intimate friendship. If the previous speaker's darts are directed against that friendship, they will miss their aim. We tower above such missiles. The fiasco which lam said to have made I can quietly bear. The preceding speaker also alluded to the attempt on my life at Kissingen and called Kullmann a madman. He was not a madman. You don't want to have anything in common with Kullmann. That I comprehend; but heelings tightly to your coat tails. I asked him, ' Why did you wish to kill me who had done nothing to you?' He replied, 'On account of the Church laws, and because you have insulted my fraction.' I asked, ' Which is your fraction?' and he answered, 'The Centre Fraction.' [Cheers and great tumult.J You may thrust Kullmann away. He nevertheless belongs to you. [lmmense cheering on the Right and Left, and cries of < Fie! fie!' (' PfuV) from the Centre." The President declared the exclamations of the Centre to be unparliamentary,and Prince Bismarck added, " I have no right to censure such exclamations as have been uttered by a member on the Second Centre Bench, but the expression ' Pfui' is an expression of disgust and contempt. I am myself not a stranger to these feelings, but I am too polite to express them." These remarks are said to have caused further uproar, which was renewed subsequently when Dr Lasker, the Liberal leader, referring to the French sympathies of the Ultramontane leaders, accused them of being traitors to their country. For these remarks Dr Lasker was called to order, and the proceedings of the House then went on quietly to the end of the sitting. On Saturday Prince Bismarck defended the policy adopted by the Government in suppressing the post of German Ambassador at the Vatican. He said that previously he had given expression to conciliatory sentiments upon the subject. These he must now withdraw, to prevent it being supposed that Ihe Government was anxious to make peace with Rome on any terms. Prince Bismarck continued:—

The Pope being a purely religious chief there was no occasion to keep a permanent political representative at his Court. Things, indeed, might have been left in statu quo had not the present Pope, a true member of the Church Militant, thought fit to revive the ancient struggles of the Papacy with the Temporal Power, and more especially with the German Empire. The spirit animating the Papacy in this campaign was too well known to require comment ; still, he would tell the House a stoiy which had been long kept secret, but which, after all that had happened, had better be made public. In 1869, when the Wurtemberg Government had occasion to complain of the action of the Papacy, the Wurtemberg envoy at Munich was instiucted to make representations ; and in a conversation which passed between the envoy and the Nuncio, the latter said the Roman Church was free only in America, and perhaps England and Belgium. In all other countries the Roman Church had to look to revolution as the sole means of securing her rightful position. This, then, was the view of the priestly diplpmatist stationed at Munich* in 1869, and formerly representing the Vatican at Paris. Well, the revolution so ardently desired by the Vatican did not come to pass, but we had the war in 1870 instead. Gentlemen, lam in possession of conclusive evidence proving that the war of 1870 was the combined work of Rome and France ; that the Oecumenical Council was cut short on account of the war; and that very different votes would have been taken by the Council had the French been victorious. I know from the very best sources that the Emperor Napoleon was dragged into the war very much against his will by the Jesuitical influences rampant at his Court; that he strove hard to resist those influences ; that in the eleventh hour he determined to maintain peace : that he stuck to this determination for half an hour, and that he was ultimately overpowered by persons representing Rome. The Polish and Ultramontane members of the German Parliament have given notice of a motion, proposing that the House should require the Government of Prussia to observe its treaty obligations and assurances with respect to its Polish subjects, to whom the free use of their native tongue and the unhindered preservation of their own nationality is guaranteed. Recent measures, banishing the Polish language to a great degree from the schoolrooms and law courts, are considered to contravene these obligations and promises. Dr Bissing, who has hitherto been the leader of the Ultramontanes in the Grand Duchy of Baden, and represented them in Parliament, has, it is stated, publicly declared his inability any longer to support a party which does not scruple to imperil.peace and break the laws merely to vindicate comparatively insignificant doctrines. Herr von Nordenflyght, the Governor of Silesia, and an ultra-Conservative, has been suddenly dismissed for not enforcing the ecclesiastical laws with sufficient, stringency.