Two members of the Republican "left" in the North-German Parliament,
Herr'n Liebknecht and Bebel, have been arrested and imprikoned on a charge of high-treason, and the only German paper which has questioned the right to arrest them has been dealt with by the police. It stems that Ileren Liebknecht and Bebel asserted that Alsace and Lorraine ought not to be wrenched from France, and that Germany ought to cultivate good relations with Republican France ; whilst, further, Herr Liebknecht charged the loss of Alsace and Lorraine, in the old times, on the treason of the German Princes, especially the House of Hohenzollern. For this offence, doubtless,—committed in discharge of their duties as Deputies, though the Germans put it on the Brunswick Socialist Manifesto,—these members of the German Parliament have been accused of high-treason and sent to prison, and the only newspaper which dared to take up their cause has been seized by the police. Mr. Russell, the Times' correspondent, says in his letter describing the offer of the Imperial Crown to the King of Prussia at Versailles, "If ever there was a man who won his way to an imperial throne, King William yesterday stands without a rival; for he has conquered his own subjects." Certainly, and in more senses than one. He has clearly conquered Herrn Liebknecht and Bebel, and means, we fear, to conquer a good many more of his own subjects, if occasion arises, in the same way.
Previous page
