German tax-payer, who, thanks to direct and indirect imposts, pays more than ten per cent. of his income into the coffers of the State. On the other hand, a very ugly innovation has crept in with the advent of Doctor Miquel — namely, the institution of a class of men designated in popular parlance as

character and views too pronounced to work in harness with an autocrat like the late chancellor. For many decades Miquel was considered as one of the most influential men in modern Germany. In whatever post he was placed he rendered himself remarkable by the eminently practical and efficient character of his services, and his nomination" tax smellers," men whose business it to his present high post was certainly a is to spy on the actions of private citipolitical event of first-class importance. zens, and to report to the authorities at Not untruly is he regarded by the na- what rate they spend, so as thus to tion as the emperor's chosen right hand, deduce some estimate as to their probas well as the soul of the present min-able resources, an estimate it is not istry. Indeed, scarcely had William II. held they themselves will truthfully ascended the throne than Miquel was report. Such methods of government, pointed out as the coming man, and to say the least of it, are too paternal, rumor has it that the emperor said to and certainly to English ideas far too him shortly before his nomination to prying, a most impertinent interference his post of minister of finance, "You with the liberty of the subject. For are my man," and the name of "the instance, such entries have been found Emperor's Man" has stuck to him. placed against the names of persons Together with Benningsen, one of the liable to income taxes: "He drinks two leaders of the National Liberal party, glasses of wine every evening at the he veered with his party towards sup- Hôtel Golden Lion. He rides a horse; porting the protectionist fiscal policy of he often drives in cabs. He dresses Bismarck. If, notwithstanding all this, very well," and so forth and so forth. his nomination as minister was hailed Indeed, a petty spirit of espionage perwith satisfaction even by the Liberals, vades the whole system of German taxit proves how heavy was the pressure ation, and that the Germans submit to that had been hitherto exercised on the it is but another proof of their innately land in all economic questions. Men servile and timid spirit. Instances like said and felt that though Miquel might the following are by no means uncomperchance not fully express their views, mon. A doctor beginning life, and his aims at least were more enlightened with as yet a small practice, faithfully and progressive, and that in any case a returned his income to the tax commiscertain measure of free discussion and sioners. ventilation of fiscal problems would be allowed under his régime.

This was proved, when he introduced, ere he was imperial minister, the new progressive income tax into Prussia, which, though it by no means gives universal satisfaction what tax ever did? is yet regarded in its fundamental principles and methods of assessment as a great improvement on that hitherto in vogue. When he assumed his new post he openly stated that it would be his endeavor to aim at a more just distribution of imposts; but fears are beginning to be felt that this more equable distribution may result in rendering yet more heavy the burdens of the already heavily weighted

Five years later his tax was doubled. He remonstrated, saying his income had not doubled. 66 If it has not done so, it ought to have done so," was all the reply and all the redress he was able to obtain.

One of the gravest faults of Doctor Miquel, a fault, however, which he shares with a large number of his countrymen, is an inclination to be too doctrinaire. Thus he is trying to introduce a law against drunkenness, which is all very well theoretically, but practically impossible of execution, since it would place a dangerous power in the hands of tavern-keepers.

Social problems are Doctor Miquel's hobbyhorse, but he is by no means infallible either in their inception or

execution. That the career reserved to This speech on the part of Prince his talents, which are eminent, notwith- Carolath-Schönaich aroused admiration standing that they have also their shady or consternation according to the views side, has not yet reached its apogee, of his listeners, and made so marked an about this all seem agreed. At one impression outside as well as inside of time it was whispered that Caprivi Parliamentary circles that it actually would retire in his favor. This is not was taken as the basis of a novel by likely; but what is probable and pos- a member of the Conservative party, sible is that the project often talked O. Elster, under the title of "A Reichsabout, of giving the chancellor of the tag Speech." The protagonist is obviempire an assistant in the shape of a ously the prince, though his traits of vice-chancellor, may be realized in his character are idealized and surrounded person. As things stand in Germany by poetic glamour. Perchance the reaand have stood for the past thirty years son why this speech excited such a and more, it is not possible that the sensation, apart from the fact that it ship of the State should be conducted was spoken from the Conservative by men quite free from reactionary prej-benches, may be sought in the circumudices, but Doctor Miquel is certainly a stance that it gave expression to what more liberal-minded man than has for every fair-minded and humane person many years held a portfolio in the land. in Germany had long felt. It is this But as Wilhelm von Humboldt acutely ideal striving in the aims of Social remarked: "A Liberal may be a min- Democrats which renders the personister, but on that account he is not ality of its chiefs more interesting from necessarily a Liberal minister." a purely human point of view than is usually the case with men of leading in politics. It is difficult to suppose that it is merely the promises of golden gains they hold out to the people which account for the really devoted enthusiasm displayed by their followers. It is rather because they uphold the banner of freedom, a goal they believe can best be attained by pursuing their own special methods. In the masses, of which this large and ever-increasing party is chiefly composed, there also resides, however, a considerable portion of what may be defined as the exact opposite of idealism, much that offends the finer taste of the upper ten thousand as coarse and despicable.

The party of whom people outside Germany hear most, and will no doubt hear even more, are the Social Democrats. On the day, January 25, 1890, when the exceptional legislation against this party was repealed measures that had been unwise and purely aggressive, strengthening rather than weakening the party which they desired to annihilate, a fact Bismarck would not or could not apprehend, but which the fresher intelligence of the young emperor apprehended instantly on his accession to the throne - an unprecedented event occurred in the German Reichstag. A deputy not only of the Conservative party, but an hereditary member of the Upper House, spoke not only in favor of the repeal of those exceptional laws in a perfectly liberal spirit, but actually went so far as to point out that amid the ranks of the Social Democrats was to be found a large portion of idealism; idealism, it is true, that had gone astray and mistaken its aims, but none the less a high and noble quality of which nowadays the world boasts too little, and he ended his impassioned speech with the words, "Let us restore to the people their idealism."

So, for example, even Herr Liebknecht, one of the chief Social Democrat leaders, was recently made to feel the species of tyranny that would result if the views of the Social Democrats were to be carried out in all their rigor. It would seem that Herr Liebknecht is devoted to music, and, together with his family, frequented some instrumental concerts held in the fashionable Philharmonic Hall of Berlin, a hall that the Social Democratic party had declared to be under the bann of boycott because some meeting antagonistic to their fac

tion had been held in its walls. The young Social Democrats passed a vote of censure on the music-lover, and the old Social Democrats defended him in vain.

subvert all existing conditions, and then build up a new heaven and a new earth on the ruins. Not only the more philosophical and logical Herr von Vollmar, but even the famous agitator Liebknecht, have repeatedly of late warned their followers that such radical aspirations are the more to be condemned as at the present moment the young emperor's friendly attitude towards all questions concerning the working classes makes him a valuable ally to their party,. and one from whose endeavors they can at least hope for some alleviation of their grievances. But is it to be expected that that great body of persons who behold in the working man's agitations a means towards a total and sudden revolution in their social and material existence, will comprehend and obey

This strange incident brings us by a natural sequence to speak of the split that has recently taken place in the ranks of the German Social Democrats, dividing them into Young and Old. That such a split should occur after the repeal of the Social Democratic laws had been foreseen by calm and cynical observers, for it is a melancholy fact that parties hold together well so long as they are persecuted, but quarrel among themselves as soon as liberty to act is accorded to them by the authorities. That the leaders of the party did not expect this split is proved by a speech made a few weeks before by Liebknecht, the tactics of these more experienced who, alluding to these anticipations formed by their enemies, added that such falling off from the compact ranks could not occur, that their foes knew them badly, that what held them together was not the iron bondage of the exceptional laws, but their programme and their common enemy, whose face was unchanged. His language, full of poetry, of deep feeling, of persuasive earnestness, was one of that nature which gives even to error a sympathetic character, even if we cannot follow its revolutionary ideas, which are based on a misconception of man's psychology, which requires that he should have an incentive to work, and demands the attrition of competitive labor. The programme of the German Social Demo- Let us now examine more in detail crats, if logically carried into effect, the men who still take the foremost would, it is urged, result in the extinc-place in the ranks of the party, nottion of all personal freedom. This view withstanding the schism. First of all was set forth in an amusing story writ- must be named the two always together, ten by Eugen Richter, called " After the namely Bebel and Liebknecht. Social Democratic Victory," of which no fewer than seventy thousand copies August Bebel, born in 1840 at Cowere sold in Germany in less than a fort-logne, was a humble turner, who as night. The divergence of opinion be- apprentice travelled through the greater tween the Young and the Old Social part of Austria and south Germany, Democrats consists chiefly in the fact thus enlarging his mental horizon. Cuthat the younger party are far more rev-riously enough, he was until 1866 an olutionary in their aims, while the older active opponent of Social Democratic desire to improve on things as they ideas, which he propagated just as acstand.

elders? The judicious have certainly all cause to be grateful for the better social laws that have already been attained, thanks to their leader's energy and to the emperor's sympathy; but the mass demand so much, their expectations have been strained so high, that palliatives and progressive measures will not content them. In any case, it is impossible, whether we be sympathetic or antipathetic, to deny the enormous influence that the Social Democratic ideas exert upon the life of the modern State, and their leaders, Bebel, Liebknecht, Vollmar, and Singer, must be defined as statesmen in the sense that their influence upon legislation is an undeniable fact.

The Young wish first of all to tively after his conversion, so that in

1869 he was condemned to prison for cured for himself, the other passed

divulging opinions judged dangerous to through the prescribed university curthe weal of the State. In 1872 he was riculum. Both possess the faculty of again committed to prison, this time appealing to the masses and the lower on the charge of high treason, a terri- middle class, from which the Social ble sounding charge, but which in Ger- Democrats are chiefly recruited, and many may mean nothing more, as this because they combine in a curious indeed in the case of Bebel it meant no way a certain burgher practical good more, than that he had used frank ex- sense united to an ideal internationalism pressions with regard to royalty such as that greatly attracts the people, giving would pass unobserved in England any a species of poetic flavor and high aspiday. But in Germany, to speak even rations to their aims. Both are excelslightingly of the reigning sovereign, |lent men of business, careful to preserve or, until a short time ago, of Bismarck, their gains, and impressed with the was to draw down on the speaker severe truth of the proverb that "Every punishment quite disproportionate to mickle makes a muckle." It is an the offence. On his release he was elected to the Reichstag with an overwhelming majority, and has sat there ever since. He is known even outside of Germany by his writings, most of which have been translated into En

glish. "Our Aims," ""Christianity and Socialism," and “Women in the Past, Present, and Future," are the most important.

His colleague and brother in the faith, Wilhelm Liebknecht, was born at Giessen in 1826, and is by profession a journalist. Involved in the revolutionary uprisings of 1848, and condemned to death, he fled to Switzerland and England, in which countries he lived a long time, learning in them true constitutional methods of government, and a wider conception of the word liberty, than his country could or can afford. Returning to Germany without permission, he was duly imprisoned. When finally released, a seat was at once found for him in the Reichstag by his admirers. In company with Bebel he was in 1872 condemned to a seclusion of two years in the fortress of Hubertsburg. As editor, pamphleteer, and author, as well as lecturer and stump orator, he works incessantly for the cause he has at heart. The origin and mental development of these two men, the Dioscuri of the Social Democratic party, has been curiously diverse; the one has sprung entirely from the people, the other from the middle classes; the one never enjoyed an education but that he pro

amusing and characteristic trait that the discontented faction of the Social Democratic party reproach the two leaders among other things with living in houses at a rental of five to six hundred thalers, while others again reproach the former turner that he is now comparatively well off, thanks to his savings and extended means of earning. When they were both in prison Liebknecht stood to Bebel in the position of a friendly mentor. It was he who incited Bebel to study, giving him the benefit of his own academical learning and linguistic facility, so that not only Liebknecht, but Bebel the turner can address the delegates from France, England, and America in their own tongues.

IN WALES.

From Belgravia.

ONE almost fancies the old coaching days revived! We have rattled noisily over stony ways, crawled lazily up the steep mountain road and lingered by wayside inns without thought of speed or hurry, till nineteenth-century civilization looks like a dream. And how refreshing is the absence of the sound and bustle it brings, how musical in contrast the note of the guard's bugle. the crack of the long whip, and the ringing hoofs of our gallant four-horse team!

We are enjoying one of those delightful holidays which are within the reach of the British citizen whose tastes, or

means, do not suggest a trip to the well- everything that is lovely in nature," trodden tourist-paths of the Continent; says the guide-book. Guide-books have and we are fain to vaunt the wisdom of a wonderful knack of romancing and our "choice" (as our insular pride pre- idealizing-they can even overstep the fers in all cases to designate it), for our limits of veracity with a wonderful lines have fallen this year in beautiful facility and sang-froid — but in this case Wales in very pleasant places indeed we are fain to endorse the statement, —and with such a holiday resort at for finer scenery of the gentle and rohand what need, we exclaim, to seek mantic kind could not be found than at the wider horizons abroad, with the Bettws. The origin of the name, apparattendant discomfort of foreign travel? ently unpronounceably Welsh, though There may be just a touch of the fox easy to the initiated - "Bettoos-ucand the grapes there, to be sure! Still, Koed," is disputed; according to the fact is beyond dispute that this some it means "the house of prayer in island of ours is very beautiful, nor are the wood," according to others "the its limits so narrow, for if we can com- dale in the wood." Both classes of pare inland Wales to any other spot we philologists, however, agree about the have visited, it is not from abroad we wood, and wood there is in rich luxurifetch the companion picture, but from ance; it forms indeed the chief beauty the Scottish Highlands, of which we are of the place, and makes it a sylvan constantly reminded in the principality. Paradise. We spoke of the revival of the merry coaching-days. We can thoroughly enjoy that in Wales, where even to-day, in spite of the advancement of railway enterprise, many lovely spots are accessible only by the more old-fashioned means of locomotion. We have left the train at Bettws-y-Coed, about fifteen miles inland from Llandudno Junction, and finding coaches at the station ready to start westward, over tracks where no rail is, for Llanberis, the terminus of the line from Carnarvon in the west, we decide to make the tour, which will carry us through the famous Pass of Llanberis. Seats are speedily secured on the top of the cumbrous vehicle, We do not feel we have left Bettws there is a mustering of wraps and finally till we have descended to visit lunch-baskets, field-glasses and guide- the Swallow Waterfall, two and a quarbooks blessed boon to the tourist ter miles above the village, one of the everywhere, and trademark of the fraternity the inevitable bustle attendant on a start; driver and guard have swung themselves into position aloft, a cheerful crack of the whip, and we are off! We draw up immediately, how- We might be in the Perthshire Highever, before the Royal Oak for final lands here! The road winds by hill orders, and we are glad of the short and wood, by graceful birches and delay here, for from our point of vantage we can take in Bettws-y-Coed at a glance, and we have heard much of its loveliness, and are glad to carry away just such a picture of the spot. "At Bettws we are enjoying the foretaste of

Hills of picturesque outline guard the little spot on every side with the fond tenderness of age; grey gabled cottages form the long village street, and nestle close to the hillside, peeping out at unexpected corners from a bower of green; such a bridge as artists delight in crosses the river in the middle of the village, and it is no commonplace river either, but a brown, foaming mountaintorrent, dashing over huge rocks where tall fir-trees grow in mid-stream. Human life flows on more tranquilly here than in the garish outside world; and the very hotels are picturesque, though ubiquitous !

finest falls in this land of foaming cataracts - in miniature, of course. Once seated again on our lofty perch, we are en route for Capel Curig, and free to enjoy a very lovely stretch of scenery.

bracken and purple heather, with here and there a dash of brighter color from the early-ripening mountain-ash; solemn mountain-peaks rise to view beyond, and all is soft and beautiful in the grey light of a sunless afternoon. Nor