NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE leaders of the German Centre Party have published their manifesto, which is bitterly hostile to the Military Bill. They repeat that all relics of the Culturkampf must be swept away, and especially the law which excludes the Jesuits ; but their real energy is directed against the recent proposals, which they denounce as "the continual and excessive burden- ing of the working man for the sake of the Army," and the " transformation of the State into a standing army." They repudiate the very idea of an alteration of the franchise, maintaining that "universal, direct, and secret voting" is the "hard-earned prerogative of the German people," who cling to their historical idea of a federal State. The Committee of the Centre also pronounce for financial reform, and for attention to the claims of agriculture. The manifesto is obviously the work of men alarmed lest they should lose sections of their followers, and the alarm is not groundless. The seceders, however, are not going over to the Emperor, but to the Social Democrats, alleging that their party, as previously constituted, had become far too aristocratic. Catholics, of course, cannot become Socialists in the ordinary sense ; but the term in Germany covers a variety of associations, some of which -escape the condemnation of the Church.
