In answer to a question put this day week in
the Lower House of the Prussian Diet, the Minister of Finance, Herr Camphausen, said that Prince Bismarck's assumption of the Pre- sidency had in no way altered the responsibility of each Minister, and that Ministers, as hitherto, are collectively responsible for the decisions of the Cabinet. In other words, we suppose, Prince Bismarck is not admitted to be Prime Minister in the English sense any more than before his retirement. It is not admitted that he can force any measure on the Cabinet by his own sense of its importance, without first carrying in detail the assent of a majority of his colleagues, by virtue of the laborious process which he described with so much vividness and such evident shivers of memorial horror about a year ago. We take leave, however, to doubt that Prince Bis- marck's position has really not been strengthened by his retire. ment and return. Technically, Herr Camphausen may be right, but hitherto every success of the great Minister over his col- leagues and his-Sovereign has been veiled in official mystery long after it had been known at Berlin. There was no crisis grave enough to bring Prince Bismarck back to his old post, if he had not in the meantime got his own way.
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