New-York tribune., 1878-10-04

was deemed necessary to get possession
of n jewei-casket winch Count Won Hatzfeldt
had given to one of his mistresses; and
Government official invaded her room and
carried it away The Countesss lawyer was
prosecuted for instlgating this robbery, and
after he had defended himself with mastery
skill, devoted eight years of his life to his
clients interests, pleading her cause before
thirty six tribunals, and carrying 1T to sue
cessful issue. This young advocate WAS
LassaIle, tie father of German Socialism.
He kept his origin in the background,
but like Karl Marx, of the lnter-
national, he was of Hebrew parentage. He
called himself the champion of the working
men in the Rhineland, but he loved pleasure
like a Sybarite He dressed like dandy and
lived like an epicure his rooms were hung
with tapestry and filed with luxurious furnl-
ture; and every night he smoked hasheesh with
his friends and discoursed OF poetry and
philosophy; for, rs he once boasted, he
was armed with the whole culture OF his
century. The Countess, whose name was
not free from reproach, gave INN
a substantial annuity. and until the
day of his death, in a duel with Count Racko-
witz, over love affair, she was bis evil genius.
He had conceived the idea OF organizing In
Germany fourth estate in opposition to the
middle aud upper classes. He wrote hundreds
of political tracts and made addresses IN
every Prussian town and everywhere he told
his followers that 1t was idle to save money,
that tile law of wages was tyTannical, and that
they could not be emancipated save by state
help. This was the man whose acquaintance
Prince Bismarck does not disclaim One
thing is certain: the Prince and the Agi-
tator were once political allies 1t was then
that the fourth estate was armed with the
ballot IL was then that one of the Princes
henchmen threatened the Liberals with the
tramp of the wordngmen's battaliOns. 1t was
then thlt Lassalle urged his followers to resist
the Liberals and to support the Government,
on the ground that universal suffrage was
their first goal, and that when they secured
that, all things would be possible. 1t
was from that year, save during the
interval of the FTancO-German War, that So
cialism made rapid strides, until at last the
ideas of Lassalle were east aside and the
principles Of Marx and Liebknecht were
avowed So it has come to pass that the fac
tion with which Prince Bismarck once CO.
quetted is now a revolutionary party made up
of enemies of the State.
The plain truth is that the German Chan
celor believes in imperialism rather than de-
mocracy. He has been a Kings man from
first to last. He welded together the Ger
man States, but. unlike CavOur, he had
no sympathy with popular liberty. The
man who declared III 1S47 that the
sovereign ruled by the grace of God, lived TO
introduce universal suffrage; but he never re-
garded it as a triumph of democracy. Ger
many was put and kept in the saddle, where
he thought she would ride well enough. He
has used one political force against another
and has kept the mechanism of the Gov
ernmcnt in his own hands. He accepted
universal suffrage. as he now says, with re-
luctance, "as a Frankfort tradition" and he
is not surprised to find that it has not worked
we'll. Work well it will not and cannot, il
democracy degenerates into Socialism.