Herr Windthorst, the head of the Ultramontano party in Berlin,
has proposed, in a meeting of all the Gorman.Parlia- rnenta,ry groups, to request Prince Bismarck to induce the Governments of Europe so to alter their laws that any person accused of assassination shall be surrendered to his own country ; that any attempt at assassination shall be punished, 4 even if the attempt did not amount to a commencement of crime," and that any public incitement to assassination shall be penal. The proposal was accepted by all the groups, and will, it is stated, be carried by a large majority. As far as we know, the law in this country concedes all that Herr Wind- thorst proposes, full evidence being produced, with the ex- ception of the suggestion we have italicised. If that is accu- rately given, combined Europe could hardly extort such an alteration of the law. It would involve punishment for inten- tion—that is, for a mental purpose, about which there could be no evidence,—and amount, in fact, to a law of the suspect. It is quite natural that Germany should be deeply moved by the recent crime, but the way to prevent its repetition is not to set justice at defiance.
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