The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-04-04
Bismark's Battle with the Church-His
SuDDOrterS

A correspondent of the London Times
writes from Berlin, under date of March IA:
To recruit after his Parliamentary cam
paign, Prince Bismarck has left town for a
few days, but the echo of his resolute words
still reverberates in the country. Congratu-
latory addresses are daily pouring in by doz-
ems. Not a few come from the Catholic dis
tricts of the South, and are signed by infuen-
tial and well-to-do citizens. The Northern
addresses are nearly all from Protestant; so
stringent is the discipline lately exercised up
ON their flocks by the priests in these Prusso-
Hanoverian ATTITUDES. There can be no
doubt that the Catholics on this side the
Main are as advanced and Independent in
their views as those ON the other bank of the
old boundary river; but living in the immedi-
ate environs of the field in which the battle Is
going on, they are tightly kept in hand, and
do not choose to avow contumacious senti-
ments in the teeth of their clerical oyerseers
until they see whether the fray is serious
enough to make it worth their while to take
an active part in it. Let the ecclesiastical
army carry on the war little longer, and it
will have no more bitter opponents than the
educated classes of Rhineland, Westphalia,
and Hesse,
OF the Southern addresses the most re-
markable is that from the Liberal majority of
the Baden State Parliament, and Catholic
signatures in friendly companionship affixed to
1t. Like all others, it praises the Prince
Chancellor for placing the welfare of the Ger
man Empire upon solid basis-lberty of
conscience, science, and culture. Like most
of the more explicit documents of the kind, it
haId ont fha fNfE- 4
accomplished with the help of the whole NOR
al and intellectual armory of the nation.
Particularly interesting Northern addresses
date from Dresden and Leipsic, and in Their
enthusiastic tones exhibit as warm devo-
ton to the cauce of culture and enlightened
progress as the central districts of the eoun.
try have always been famous for. Many of
the addresses date from Austrian and nom
German towns, such as Vienna, London,
New York.
OF the replies, one deserves to be mention
ed. 1t appears that 500 years ago an ances-
tor of the present Bismarck was excommuni-
Gated by the Bishop of Halberstadt for found
ing school in the town of Stendal and re-
fnsing to place it under the direction of the
Church. Referring to this curious precedent
in his family history, the corporation of Stem
dal have now thanked the Chancellor for imi-
tating the example of his sturdy grandsire.
and in token of their gratitude beg him to ac-
cept the freedom of their burgh. In his an
swer the Prince admits that he Is butcontinu-
ing fight begun MANY centuries ago, and
now resumed underfavoraDle auspices. STEM
dial is but few leagues from his partrimonial
estate of SchOnhausen. Bremen has like
wise conferred her freedom upon the states
man of the age, and that Southern town
councils may not be outdone by their North
ern colleagues, Carlsruhe has re-baptized an
ancient street, and given it the sounding ap-
pellation of Bismarck-strasse.