On Saturday last the loyal German workmen in England tried
to hold a meeting in Cooper's Hall, Commercial Road, E., to disavow and condemn the violence of those Socialists of Germany who have recently originated the attempts on the life of the Emperor. Their Committee of Management had secured and paid for the use of the hall, but when the evening came, the loyal Germans found themselves quite outnumbered by the opposite party, who crowded out the loyalists, elected a chairman of their own, and passed resolutions condemning indeed the attempts to assassinate the Emperor, but condemning still more sharply the reactionary measures of the German Government. In the scuffle which ensued, a severe wound appears to have been given by one of the loyal Germans to one of the Socialists who .ousted them from the hall they had engaged, — so that the only act of criminal violence was committed by one of the loyal party, in the irritation, no doubt, of finding themselves displaced in their own hired place of meeting. Still it would seem that among the German artisans in London,--who are very skilful and very well instructed,—the Democratic Socialists far out- number the adherents of the Constitution, and regard even with bitterness, not to say ferocity, those whom they call "Bismarck's tools." Is it, then, impossible in Germany to be opposed to Socialistic dreams, and in favour of improving the historic Con- stitution, without being one of "Bismarck's tools ?" We should have thought that it is the violent Socialists themselves who are really "Bismarck's tools," and indeed much the most effective of his tools.
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