The San Francisco call., 1895-11-17


CLIQUE intriguing in another and the mo-
mentarily dominant :courtier influence
bargaining away above their heads in the
interest of some third course so now
Russia may mean one thing at CONSTANT
nople and quite another at Berlin. The
Muscovite future is also lottery.
Out of the grab-bag. even Cars may
draw blanks The birth of daughter
must be. weighty disappointment to
Nicholas and his friends, for his next
brotheris as good as "a dead man and the
OF the boy Michael has been seized
upon by maleontents all over the empire
as sort of rallying cry, which is in itself
as exasperating as it is meaningless. This
failure to get direct male heir means an
other wear of dynastic uncertainty. with
the increasing danger of sinister stories
getting foothold among the ignorant aud
superstitious millions of his subjects. 1t
creates a sort of awkward dilemma in
which the notion of leaning heavily Upon
Germany and restoring the old close
friendship between Berlin and st. Peters.
burg may as well as not appeal to the
young Gar. -+:..- >. .-
When William S mood is warm toward
Russia. it somehow. happens that the
Liberal orators and editors find their.
facilities for. getting into prison enor-
mously increased. Beng the most i'm.
pressionable of creatures, it seems as if
the Kaiser could not veer, be it ever. SO
little, toward the notion OF Russia s friend
ship without fancying himself already a
Gzar. This new batch of press prosecu-
tions is: stirring really serious popular cur
rents in Germany. Liebknecht is man of
seventy now; and though he. Is nominally
a socialist, his mature views would not
prevent his being Cabinet. Minister in
England, or perhaps IN America either,
! his personal character. has won national
respect, and to see him go to prison for
four months for a speech which even the
convicting magistrate said was objection
able only for the inference that some
hearers. might have drawn from 1t is too
monstrous. -. r.
Even worse is. the impending trial of
Professor Delbrueck for a remark about the
police in the Preussische Jahrbucher,
which is most dignifed historical and
political review, studiously conservative in
traditions and tone. Delbrueck-is indeed
member of the moderate conservative
party, and the nephew of the great finan-
cial minister of the same name. If he can
be convicted no editor. or writer in Ger
many is safe for a day. 1t ceases to be
plausible excuse thatthe police do all this
against the imperial wish. People are be-
ginning 10 see that it is nonsense. The
Emperor's circulation:for public sale of his
ridiculous picture of the nations of Eu-
rope being terrified by. the advance in a
lurid cloud of devastating Buddha comes
at iustthe right moment for disgusted Ger
mans to say under their breath, "Why, the
man is mad" The temptation to say this
has been strong often before; it grows now
+. toward being irresistible.
+. The continued existence of the Bourgeois
Ministry excites an amiable surprise,
which is aroused by inexplicable but
harmless phenomena. If any one got an
noyed at it 1t would disappear at once.
Knowing this, the majority in the Chamber
of Deputies holds its hand and watches
with amused interest to see what the freak
will do next. All the same this COM
plaisance may have its. far-reaching re-
suits. The ministerial bill now before the
Chamber prohibiting directors of public
companies from sitting in Parliament
seems TO be drifting along toward passage
simply because the majority is frightened
by the notion that the radicals would
make huge partisan capital out of its de-
feat. Amendments are being offered dis.
qualifying stockholders and prohibiting
barristers from acting as advisers to the
Government departments, and there is
recognizable chance that fear of popular
*disfavor may carry these, too. r.
-. 1t is thought now that Bourgeois will
encounter real crisis when the Madagas-
car treaty comes up a week hence, but ap-
parently he and his colleagues are pre-
pared to follow whatever lead the Cham ber
indicates on this as on domestic issues.
They are concerned only in having their
own way in internal matters and cheer
fully throw all else to the wolves trotting
along on both sides of their. cart. Mean
while the expectation grows that the
Senate, which is heavy anti-radicaI, will
begin soon to assert itself, and that a
struggle between the two houses will be
added to the perpiexities of the very Gu
rious situation.
The proceedings of the two Nationalist
bosses at Dublin excited much. interest
here until it was discovered that their
courage only ran to- the length of putting
Healy off the committee of the party.
This tame conclusion settles nothing,
for Healy's principal point has been that
1t was useless for him and his friends to
be on the committee when all its actions
were controlled by little group generally
without the knowledge of the committee
at all. He has simply obtained freer
hand to prosecute his fight against the
machine, and the refusal of the bosses to
allow press report of the meeting, like
their earlier refusal to allow the commit
tee to inspect the election accounts and the
disposal of the party funds, will be pow
erful weapon in his appeal to the country.
1t has been an exorbitant price to pay for
Sexton's. consent not to defeat the ma
chine, which is what the whole wretched
business amounts to. A safe Liberal seat
is about to be vacated at Montrose, and
there have been efforts to get John Morley
to take it, but it is understood that he re-
fuses on the double ground that he is not
Scotch and home ruler and wants TO stick
to his books.
There is discernible, however, a growing
notion among the radicals that he offers