rtion, he ascribed to Monsignor Meglia, at the
time nuncio at Munich, the words, "Our only hope is in the revolution." As
the chancellor uttered this odious calumny, he suddenly took ill. He
became pale, stammered, and had recourse, four or five times, to a glass
of water, which was beside him, in order to recover his spirits and find
the words which he should use. The whole parliament was struck with this
incident. The Abbe Majunke, editor of the Catholic journal _Germania_,
was, however, the only one who spoke of it publicly. Such an offence
against the omnipotent chancellor could not, of course, be overlooked. M.
Majunke was summoned to the police office, and thence consigned to prison,
notwithstanding his inviolability as deputy, and the protestations of the
_Reichstag_ (parliament). What a grand conception Chancellor Bismarck must
have had of constitutional government!

The great success of William I. in the Franco-Prussian war appears to have
so elated that monarch that he considered there was nothing which he might
not successfully undertake. He had annexed to Prussia some of the lesser
States of Germany, and made a German Empire. The Church in Germany enjoyed
many privileges and immunities under his predecessors, who, for the most
part, were, like himself, Protestants. Whether it was that he desired to
show himself a better Protestant than his ancestors, or that he could not
emancipate himself from the control of the minister who had so long
guided, with singular success, the destinies of the empire, as well as his
own career, or that he believed it to be a political necessity to act
according to the views and carry out the principles of the German and
European "Liberals"--the party of revolution and unbelief--he resolved to
oppose no impediment to his chancellor and the liberal majority of
parliament in their endeavors to destroy the Catholic Church in Germany,
unless it chose to become as a mere department of the State, acting and
speaking in the name of the State, receiving its appointments from the
State, as well as the funds requisite for the support of its ministers,
accepting all its orders and instructions, even in the most spiritual
things, from the State; in fine, looking to the State as the sole source
of all its authority, honor, power and influence. There was nothing like
the German Empire. It had conquered in gigantic wars with two Powers that
were considered the greatest in continental Europe. It ha