Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-04-01
THE GERMAN EMPIRE

The prestige of military success is Of
ten made to cover the designs of despot-
ism, and the pagesntry of Empire is cal
culsted to amuss the unthinking. The
Imperial colors of Germany-blsck, sill
yer, red and gold-the new coats of
arms, and the numberless other medieval
paraphernalis, are going to cost some
body enormous sums; and it is the people
who usually foot all bills. A Berlin cor
respondent of the New York Herald
writes, March 8, that 'the freedom of the
press is in a most pitiful condition and
confessions of all journals which dare
to have in the least an independent opin-
ion are the order of the day" The Lib
ersl opposition are lsboring for divorce
of Church and State, but the
Minister of Public instruction
points triumphantly TO article 10 of
the constitution which says "The affairs
of the Evangelical Church are regulated
and administered by the King in person"
which seems to make William something
of Lutheran Pope.
There is an old law which prescribes
that no subaltern shall marry without the
King's..consent, and this is given only on
a legal certificate vouching that the
betrothed pair have, outside of the officers
pay, an abundant annual income So late
as Jan. %, 1871, the Emperor enforces
this law in a decree dsted at Versailles,
aunulling all such marriages without his
consent in the immense armies modified
since last July. If the unfortunate de-
linquents have persisted in battle, their
children are illegitimate. This ukase is
particularly hard on Catholic subjects
whose Church recognizes no human pow
er of divorce, and no priest will admit
the invalidity of the previous marriage by
repeating the ceremony.
A recent decree of the Royal COnsistory
p7escribes that the names of all converts
TO Judaism shall be published in full, ''for
the believers of the Jewish faith say they
sre still the sworn enemies of Christiani-
IT," This suggests recent case of a
Jewish mother whose child was, with the
consent Of its Christian father, reared in
the Mosaic faith. The ceremony of cir
cumcision had been performed, when
the court issued a mandate ordering the
mother to have her son baptized within
four weeks. The circumstances of the
mother and the efforts of the sheriff to
kidnsp the disputed child, gave the mat
ter such notorietY as TO attract the atten-
ton of the Lower Chamber which unsni-
mOusly voted the repeal of the old law
under which the sherif was proceeding.
But the Upper Chamber has interpOsed its
veto, and has decided that ''lhe fancy for
modern ideas must not deprive the child
of its right to Christianity, and no law
can free the Christian father from the
Christian duty of afr ording his child the
sacrament oil baptism"
We mention these incidents in no carp
ing mood, for we are ourselves suffering
inst now the evils of Government made
unnsturslly strong by the prestige of
military success. Peace is to be well
coined as a boon in itself and as sffording
a chance for redressing wrongs. But the
Empire is not the end Of effort; there is
much work yet for intelligent and free
dom loving Germany. Nor are we con-
WINGED that the change to imperial do
ninion will facilitate the work of politi'
cal Improvement