The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-11-07

ton Of q specie currency has, either necessarily
or through bad management, caused some n
nancial ifnculties. But there Ia, perhaps, too
great o disposition among some Germans who
feel pinched at present to think that 1t was the
war and the milliards that made them poor;
OF course q nation which loses two hundred
thousand men in q short war, and permanently
takes away huDdreds of thousands of nen from
industrial occupations to ma ke soldiers Of them
what has happened In Germany has been going
on all over Europe. Exactly the same COM
plaints of the impossibility of making two
ends meet are heard ut Vienna, and the Aus
TRANS, of all people, have in recent days been
safest from having their arrangements inter
fered with by the influx of the spoils OF con-
quest. All that can be said is that, whether
from causes special to Germany or from causes
operating through Europe, many Germans with
small fixed inoomes-and there are very many
Germans with very small fixed incomes-are
more serious matter is the deterioration Of the
national character which is generally recog-
nized as observable. Very great allowance
indeed, ought to be made for people WHOM
found itself raised to greatness 80 very quickly;
and some of the imperfections OF Germans
which strike critics now are not SO much new
as brought newly into prominence by Ghe ma
tional success, just as many of the faults OF the
French are now non-exstent to the eyes of
those who sympathfze with France in her mis-
fortunes. Still the testimonies of many accor
dant observers cannot be wholly at ianlt, ana
there is general concurrence of opinion that
since the war there has been not only great
increase of arrogance and of what is expressed
in French by chauviRisn, but general lowering
of the tone of feeling, a coarser way OF regard
ing and treating women, more of brutality and
cynicism in the search for material enjoyment
Certainly, if literature is to be taken as q test
the creative intellect of Germany may be said
to be fast asleep. Fertile and exhaustive as
ever in research, the German mind is now
creating nothing of the slightest value, with
the one exception, perhaps, of the operas Of
Wagner. In one respect the deterioration of
Germany is indisputable, and can be distinctly
traced to the war and to the influence of Prus-
STA. All freedom and life have been stamped
out of the press, and the tyranny of espionage
has been pushed to an extreme which ID almost
incredible to Englishmen. Everybody in Ger
many is occupied in Watching everybody.
Everything is thought worthy of being noted,
booked and transcribed. Servants furnish the
police with journals of the lives of their en-
ployers, aud the condolences of q dinner table
are passed on by those who win confidence by
smiles and bows. Naturally most of the infor-
nation thus collected is wholly useless. The
entire population cannot be taken up and i'm
prisoned by itself But the tyranny of the
system makes itself felt, and corruption goes
necessarily with tyranny. The friends of Ger
| many those who know and admire the many
great qualities of the nation, and have q due
| sense OF the debt of Europe to the German in.
| tellect, may hope that the present state OF
| things will pass away, and that Germans, when
their political safety is secured, will listen to
the voices of liberty and self-respect. But, as
things are new, there are many things in Ger
many which the truest friends of Germany
will be most ready to depiore.