COUNT MUNSTER'S BLUNDER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 122, 27 August 1875, Page 15

COUNT MUNSTER'S BLUNDER.

The affaire Minster, as it is now called, is likely to prove serious to its chief actor, for it is currently reported that the German Emperor will recall him to Berlin in consequence of his imprudence. The facts of tho case are as follows :—: — On Wednesday, May 19th, Count Miinsfcer, the German Ambassador, was present at the annual dinner of the National Club, Whitehall Gardens, England, and in responding to the toast of his health, his excellency made a speech in which he said : " You know how Germany was divided, and that it took centuries before Germany could resuscitate and become what it is now — a Protestant empire. Gentlemen, it is the Protestant empire which the dark people atjßomo do not like. It is united Germany — it is united Italy, that they do not like. It is the fear that in countries where the national feelings grows — where morality and education grow with the national feeling — the consequences must be a national Church. Gentlemen, you see that in all countries in Europe, the same struggle is pervading them more or less. There are countries which feel themselves safe, but which I fear are not so -safe as they think. You see the free Republic of Switzerland engaged in the same struggle. I hope that struggle will bo spared to this country for some time. I think you see in Ireland what is gmng on ; I think you have not to look far to see what is propjrcring, and what will be the case in this country ? " Mr. Sullivan, and Irish member of parliament, took up the cudgels in the name of his colleagues in the house, against the insolent Minister and addressed an inquiry on the subject to Mr. Disraeli, who with his tisual shrewdness made an answer which in veiled but suggestive terms' conveyed to the foolish ambassador a sharp rebuke. The English journals are extremely outspoken in their commeiits upon tne insolence with which the ambassador of a power which seeks to repress all- criticism upon its own- actions from foreigners, offers unsolicited views upon the homo policy of the power to which he is accredited. The ' Pall Mall Gazette,' while confessing the difficulty of finding any reasonable excuse. for "an ambassador committing such a mistake at all," supposes Count Minister to be one oi' the victims of the prevailing German mania, which it thus describes : " Germany is ab present a temporary victim to that derangi j ment which c cists in a chronic form in a certain diminishing class of persons among ourselves ? We all know what to think of a,n English politician when he begins to " see Jesuits ; " it is as certaiu a symptom of the No Popery mania, as visions of imaginary objects of another kind are symptom?) of another form pf delirium. The Germans are bitten by tho anti-Papal madness ; they see the hind of the Pope and his machinations everywhei'3 ; they are amazed and shocked at the blindness of those who do not see it also, and Count Mtinstev seems to have felt that the sacred duty of

warning such unfortunate caeiirs l£gers ought to be a paramount to mere considerations of diplomatic etiquette. It is unnecessary to dwell on the dangerous a,nd disturbing effects which this hallucination of Germany is likely to exercise upon Europe. We cannot tell what aspect in the politics of a foreign people or what event abroad may furnish it with fresh food. To-day it is the threatening look of affairs in Ireland which prompts an ambassador to prepare his neighbors for the struggle. To-morrow the rumored approaches made by the King of Italy to the Pope may throw^Germany and her Ministers into still more violent agitation. Like all mental delusions, "this of Germany may at any moment assume tho homicidal shape. The prospect, we repeat, is indeed alarming. The No Popery , mania, and the No Popery cry have given us tho greatest inconvenience at various times in our own country j it is impossible to predict the 'effect upon Europe now that a whole nation seems to be possessed with the mania, and its highest officials make themselves mouthpieces of the cry." The ' Spectator' is still more frank. " The truth is,"'it saya "that Count Minister not only committed a grievous breach of official etiquette, but one which, considering the wonderful sensi- . tiveness now shown at Berlin as to the language of even a foreign bishop, was a remarkable illustration of the inability of German statesmen to criticise their own actions with the sort of severity with which they criticise everybody else's ; and it would not havo been amiss for Mr. Disraeli to have implied as much, which ho could easily have done without saying anything that was not even cordial in its spirit to the German government. A power which goes on lamenting bitterly in all keys that its policy and legislation are hampered by the criticisms of foreigners, deserves a gentle lesson on occasion of one of the strangest disregards of official reserve which Europe has lately witnessed. * * * There seems to us a want of spirit, especially on such an occasion as the present — when a regular German ambassador had undoubtedly been acting in the very way which the government of Berlin thinks so outrageous in a Belgian bishop — in the omission of the minister to assert emphatically that the reason we are not anxious about tho religious state of Ireland is just because we have put an end for ever to the system in which Count Minister wishes us to entangle otirselves once more. Fortunately for us, our English thickskinnedness is such that no " breach of international amity" is ever likely to arise from the freest expressions of a German or any other ambassador's views of the deficiencies of British legistation. But certainly at a moment when Germany cries out whenever any public man, official, semi-official, or unofficial, so much as looks over the hedge with any equivocal expressions on his face at what is going on in Germany, wo do think an English Minister might have availed himself of the occasion of this very unusual exercise of liberty of speech by a Gorman diplomatist, to convey his senso of the deep national pride which England feels in her religious freedom while Germany is wheedling or hectoring half the States of Europe into restricting it as mischievously as she has restricted it herself . We have never been admirers of Mr. Disraeli, but we confess we did look to him to hold his head somewhat higher as English Prime Minister than he does. In this case a temperate rebuke was almost called for, but certainly it was not forthcoming when the natural opportunity arose." — ' Review.'